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Regimens of the Mind
by Sorana CorneanuIn Regimens of the Mind, Sorana Corneanu proposes a new approach to the epistemological and methodological doctrines of the leading experimental philosophers of seventeenth-century England, an approach that considers their often overlooked moral, psychological, and theological elements. Corneanu focuses on the views about the pursuit of knowledge in the writings of Robert Boyle and John Locke, as well as in those of several of their influences, including Francis Bacon and the early Royal Society virtuosi. She argues that their experimental programs of inquiry fulfill the role of regimens for curing, ordering, and educating the mind toward an ethical purpose, an idea she tracks back to the ancient tradition of cultura animi. Corneanu traces this idea through its early modern revival and illustrates how it organizes the experimental philosophers' reflections on the discipline of judgment, the study of nature, and the study of Scripture. It is through this lens, the author suggests, that the core features of the early modern English experimental philosophy--including its defense of experience, its epistemic modesty, its communal nature, and its pursuit of "objectivity"--are best understood.
Relative Strangers: Italian Protestants in the Catholic World
by Frank CiceroItalian Protestants? Few people seem to have heard of them, but the author's mother's immigrant Italian family was Protestant while his father's were Catholic immigrants from Sicily. Relative Strangers describes the author's search for the religious roots of his parents' families in northern Italy and Sicily. He traces the history of the Waldensians, the Protestant sect which began in Lyon, France in the 12th century, often suffering persecution, but surviving to this day both in Europe and America.
Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention
by Charlotte GrayThe popular image of Alexander Graham Bell is that of an elderly American patriarch, memorable only for his paunch, his Santa Claus beard, and the invention of the telephone. In this magisterial reassessment based on thorough new research, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Gray reveals Bell’s wide-ranging passion for invention and delves into the private life that supported his genius. The child of a speech therapist and a deaf mother, and possessed of superbly acute hearing, Bell developed an early interest in sound. His understanding of how sound waves might relate to electrical waves enabled him to invent the "talking telegraph” be- fore his rivals, even as he undertook a tempestuous courtship of the woman who would become his wife and mainstay. In an intensely competitive age, Bell seemed to shun fame and fortune. Yet many of his innovations--electric heating, using light to transmit sound, electronic mail, composting toilets, the artificial lung--were far ahead of their time. His pioneering ideas about sound, flight, genetics, and even the engineering of complex structures such as stadium roofs still resonate today. This is an essential portrait of an American giant whose innovations revolutionized the modern world.
Reluctant Hero: A 9/11 Survivor Speaks Out About That Unthinkable Day, What He's Learned, How He's Struggled, and What No One Should Ever Forget
by Michael Benfante Dave HollanderOn Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Michael Benfante went to work, just like he had day after day, at his office on eighty-first floor in the World Trade Center North Tower. Moments after the first plane struck, just twelve floors above him, Benfante organized his terrified employees, getting them out the office and moving down the stairwells. On his way down, he and another co-worker encountered a woman in a wheelchair on the sixty-eighth floor. Benfante, the woman and Benfante's co-worker then embarked on a ninety-six-minute odyssey of escape--the two men carrying the woman down sixty-eight flights of stairs out of the North Tower and into an ambulance that rushed her to safety just minutes before the tower imploded. A CBS video camera caught Benfante just as he got out the building, and almost immediately, the national media came calling. Benfante sat on the couch with Oprah Winfrey, where she hailed him as a hero. Almost one year to the day after 9/11, Benfante got married and the woman in the wheelchair sat in the front row. That's the storybook ending. But in the aftermath of 9/11, Benfante began a journey fraught with wrenching personal challenges of critical emotional and psychological depth in Reluctant Hero. Benfante shares the trappings of his public heroism, the loneliness of his private anguish, and the hope he finds for himself and for us. Because all of us--whether we were in the towers, in New York City, or someplace else--we are all 9/11 survivors.
A Reluctant Hero: The Life of Captain Robert Ryder VC
by Richard HoptonThis is the first biography of Captain Robert Ryder V.C., Royal Navy (1908-1986), one of the greatest naval heroes of the Second World War. Ryder led the audacious raid on St Nazaire in March 1942 which completely destroyed the ports dry dock, depriving the Germans mighty pocket battleships of its use for the remainder of the war. The raid was one of the most brilliantly-executed combined operations of the war, much of the credit for which must go to Ryders outstanding planning and courageous leadership. He received one of five Victoria Crosses awarded for the operation.Although Ryders name will be forever linked with the raid on St Nazaire, the rest of his war service was no less distinguished. Torpedoed in a Q ship in 1940 he was rescued after clinging to a piece of wreckage for four days. After St Nazaire, he was heavily involved in the planning of combined operations and took part in the ill-fated raid on Dieppe. On D Day he lead a naval assault party in the first wave of the invasion. For the rest of the war Ryder commanded a destroyer on the Arctic convoys.Ryders naval career before the war was, as The Times put it on his death, unorthodox. In 1933-34 he, as captain, and four other young naval officers sailed the Tal-Mo-Shan, a 54 food ketch, from Hong Kong to England via the Panama Canal in a voyage lasting exactly a year, an outstanding achievement. Recently there has been press speculation that the voyage was a cover for naval espionage in Japanese waters. The Tal-Mo-Shan herself has now acquired international celebrity as a result of her sail-on part in the Abba film Mamma Mia. Between 1934 and 1937 Ryder served in the Antarctic as captain of the Penola, the base ship of the British Graham Lane Expedition. His formidable navigation and seamanship was largely responsible for the Penola, which was ill-adapted to polar conditions, surviving her ordeal intact. Ryder also took part in some of the earliest ocean yacht races, including the second Fastnet race in 1926.
Reluctant Pioneer: How I Survived Five Years in the Canadian Bush
by Thomas Osborne Roy MacgregorThomas Osborne delivers a gripping account of 1870s Ontario pioneer life. The view 16-year-old Thomas Osborne first had of Muskoka was at night, trudging alone with his even younger brother along unmarked primitive roads to find their luckless father who, in 1875, had decided to make a new start for his beleaguered family on some "free land" in the bush east of the pioneer village of Huntsville, Ontario. The miracle is that Thomas lived to tell the tale.For the next five years Thomas endured starvation, falling through the ice and freezing, accidents with axes and boats, and narrow escapes from wolves and bears. Many years later, after returning to the United States, Osborne wrote down all his adventures in a graphic memoir that has become, in the words of author and journalist Roy MacGregor, "an undiscovered Canadian classic."Reluctant Pioneer provides a brooding sense of adventure and un- sentimental realism to deliver a powerful account of pioneer life where tragedies arrive as naturally as rain and where humour resides in irony.
Remembering Marshall Field's (Images of America)
by Leslie GoddardFor more than 150 years, Marshall Field's reigned as Chicago's leading department store, celebrated for its exceptional service, spectacular window displays, and fashionable merchandise. Few shoppers recalled its origins as a small dry goods business opened in 1852 by a New York Quaker named Potter Palmer. That store, eventually renamed Marshall Field and Company, weathered economic downturns, spectacular fires, and fierce competition to become a world-class retailer and merchandise powerhouse. Marshall Field sent buyers to Europe for the latest fashions, insisted on courteous service, and immortalized the phrase "give the lady what she wants." The store prided itself on its dazzling Tiffany mosaic dome, Walnut Room restaurant, bronze clocks, and a string of firsts including the first bridal registry and first book signing.
Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words
by Kate WhouleyFrom the author of the much-loved memoirCottage for Sale, Must Be Movedcomes an engaging and inspiring account of a daughter who must face her mother’s premature decline. InRemembering the Music,Forgetting the Words,Kate Whouleystrips away the romantic veneer of mother-daughter love to bare the toothed and tough reality of caring for a parent who is slowly losing her mind. Yet, this is not a dark or dour look at the demon of Alzheimer’s. Whouley shares the trying, the tender, and the sometimes hilarious moments in meeting the challenge also known as Mom. As her mother, Anne, falls into forgetting, Kate remembers for her. In Anne we meet a strong-minded, accidental feminist with a weakness for unreliable men. The first woman to apply for-and win-a department-head position in her school system, Anne was an innovative educator who poured her passion into her work. House-proud too, she made certain her Hummel figurines were dusted and arranged just so. But as her memory falters, so does her housekeeping. Surrounded by stacks of dirty dishes, piles of laundry, and months of unopened mail, Anne needs Kate’s help-but she doesn’t want to relinquish her hard-won independence any more than she wants to give up smoking. Time and time again, Kate must balance Anne’s often nonsensical demands with what she believes are the best decisions for her mother’s comfort and safety. This is familiar territory for anyone who has had to help a loved one in decline, but Kate finds new and different ways to approach her mother and her forgetting. Shuddering under the weight of accumulating bills and her mother’s frustrating, circular arguments, Kate realizes she must push past difficult family history to find compassion, empathy, and good humor. When the memories, the names, and then the words begin to fade, it is the music that matters most to Kate’s mother. Holding hands after a concert, a flute case slung over Kate’s shoulder, and a shared joke between them, their relationship is healed-even in the face of a dreaded and deadly diagnosis. “Memory,” Kate Whouley writes, “is overrated. ”
Reminiscences of Captain Gronow, formerly of the Grenadier Guards: and M.P. for Stafford: being Anecdotes of the Camp, the Court and the Clubs at the close of the last war with France (Reminiscences of Captain Gronow, formerly of the Grenadier Guards #1)
by Captain Rees Howell GronowThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. Captain Gronow, joined the Grenadier guards as a young subaltern in 1812, having completed his studies at Eton and was widely know in England and the Continent thereafter as a raconteur and a fine pistol shot. His "Reminiscences" span four volumes in their original edition, an edited version was produced around the turn of the 19th century, having varied titles but following a stream of collected anecdotes set in distinct eras. These memoirs have achieved a high degree of fame and are justly accorded much historical respect, especially in those incidents where Gronow was personally present to record the words and deeds of those around him. Although admitted to the highest society, Gronow is far from being a snob and his works bear the stamp of a high degree of moral probity, they could not be described as the handiwork of a gossip. The first volume concentrates, as the title suggests, around Gronow's experiences between 1812 and 1816, initially his experiences were military; He fought under the Duke of Wellington in the last two years of the Peninsular war being present at the battle of the Nivelle. His memories of the 1815 campaign and the culminating battle of Waterloo are widely known and quoted, they are vivid, accurate and of especial interest. After the fall of Napoleon, Gronow recounts his adventures and encounters in society in London and Paris, in the clubs, soirées, the opera and the field of honour, tales of "six bottlemen" and duels abound, tales of fortunes won and lost at rouge et noir. The great and the good of the period appear in thumb sketches and anecdotes; men such as The Duke of Wellington, Blucher, Beau Brumell, Romeo Coates, General Ornano, Lord Byron, Lord Canning, Shelley, Kangaroo Cook, the Duke of York all feature. "Reading Gronow is like drinking champagne - effervescent and mildly addictive" Author - Captain Rees Howell Gronow - (1794-1865), Text taken, whole and complete, from the second edition published in 1866, London, Smith, Elder and Company. All four of the original illustrations are included. Original - 246 pages. Linked TOC
Reminiscences Of My Military Life From 1795 To 1818
by Lt.-Colonel Charles Steevens Nathaniel SteevensThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. Having survived a posting to the disease ridden West Indies, the young ensign Steevens returned to Europe for further service with the XXth Regiment of Foot of the British Army, known as the "Old and Bold". After some desultory fighting in the campaign in Holland, during which he was wounded and taken prisoner, Steevens had the good fortune to be exchanged for a Dutch officer and went back to active service. His adventures continued in Egypt and Sicily to Maida, where he was engaged with his regiment at the battle of the same name (1806). Posted to the Peninsular, Steevens was in the light company of his battalion which fought in the company of the 95th Rifles at Vimiero (1808), despite suffering from a severe illness. His command of the light company of his regiment in the 1809 campaign under Sir John Moore would be very trying for him as the army retreated to fight a rearguard action at the battle of Corunna. As part of the military policy of the British government an expedition to Holland was again sent whilst Napoleon was elsewhere engaged, Steevens had the misfortune to be one of its members, suffered depredations on the "Fever" island of Walcheren. Steevens would then be sent to the Peninsular once again to take part in the later part of the 1812 campaign doing some hard marching, until the battle of Vittoria in 1813, the debris and looting after which he gives a graphic description of. Present at the battle of Sauroren, and the siege of San Sebastian, he passes some touching anecdotes of some of his comrades who were not as lucky as he in avoiding harm during these hard-fought actions. After participating in further engagements that sent the French finally out of Spain, the later years of his soldiering were on garrison duty in Ireland. "Lieut.-Colonel Steevens received a gold medal for the actions on the Pyrenees (July 28th to August 2nd, 1813); and also the silver war medal, with seven clasps, for Egypt, Maida, Vimiera, Corunna, Vittoria, Nivelle, Nive." A thoughtful memoir of a widely-respected soldier who saw much action during the Napoleonic Wars. Text taken, whole and complete, from the 1878 edition, published in Winchester by Warren & Son. Original - 124 pages Author - Charles Steevens - (1777-1861) Editor - Nathaniel Steevens-(1843-1892) Linked TOC. -the TOC includes the summary notes of each chapter.
Repeat Prescription
by Michael SparrowDr Sparrow is back, coping with more bizarre, macabre and hilarious situations. Following his successful debut with Country Doctor: Hilarious True Stories from a Country Practice, Dr Sparrow once more guides us through the daily rounds of the weird and wonderful in his practice on the Devon/Cornwall border. What would you do if faced with the unsuccessful resuscitation of the wrong patient, being held at gunpoint as a suspected terrorist or confronting a blind man who refuses to stop driving? And what about the little old lady who presents you with a supermarket bag stuffed with £20 notes? Add to this jets crashing on the runway, fleeting glimpses of the Royal Genitalia and the haunting tale of the suicidal stranger and an abducted child - and you will start to have some idea of the unpredictable life of Dr Sparrow.
Representation and Black Womanhood
by Natasha Gordon-ChipembereSarah Baartman's iconic status as the "Hottentot Venus" - as "victimized" African woman, "Mother" of the new South Africa, and ancestral spirit to countless women of the African Diaspora - has led to an outpouring of essays, biographies, films, interviews, art installations, and centers, comprising a virtual archive that seeks to find some meaning in her persona. Yet even those with the best intentions, fighting to give Baartman agency, a voice, a personhood, continue to service the general narratives of European documentation of her life without asking "What if we looked at Baartman through another lens?" This collection is the first of its kind to offer a space for international scholars, cultural activists, and visual artists to examine the legacy of Baartman's life anew, specifically finding an alternative Africanist rendering of a person whose life has left a profound impact on the ways in which Black women are displayed and represented the world over.
Representations of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Culture
by Alessandra Petrina Laura TosiThe volume explores Elizabeth I's impact on English and European culture during her life and after her death, through her own writing as well as through contemporary and later writers. The contributors are codicologists, historians and literary critics, offering a varied reading of the Queen and of her cultural inheritance.
Rescue 194
by P.O. Aircrewman Jay O'Donnell QGM Humphrey Price'The sky had gone: in its place was a wall of water, white horses on the top, readying itself to fall on me.'What kind of man throws himself out of a helicopter in a storm?Or dangles by a thread over mountainous waves?Or strikes a panicking sailor to save his life?Aircrewman Jay O'Donnell, a former Royal Navy Search and Rescue diver, has seen - and lived - it all. Scrambled at a moment's notice, in all weathers - but usually the worst - he and the crew of Sea King Rescue 194 have braved some of the most frightening storms ever to lash the UK.In this gripping account, O'Donnell describes the mix of bravery and terror that comes with every call. He explains the rigours of training; tells of grisly tasks like fishing bodies out the sea; conveys the horror of being winched 80 feet in a storm while clutching a squirming baby, or being dragged through freezing waters on a loose line.Culminating in the astonishing, hair-raising rescue of 26 crew from the MSC Napoli disaster in Cornwall, January 2007 - where O'Donnell was decorated for his courage and refusal to give up in appalling conditions - Rescue 194 is an unforgettable tribute to the Royal Navy's search and rescue crews.
Rescuing Regina: The Battle to Save a Friend from Deportation and Death
by Helen Prejean Josephe FlynnA decade after fleeing the Congo for the United States, having endured rape, imprisonment, and torture in her homeland, Regina Bakala found herself locked in a U.S. prison facing deportation to almost certain death. This harrowing true story of an asylum seeker and young mother of two tells how her husband, a feisty nun, a pit bull lawyer, and a group of volunteers set aside political differences to galvanize a movement to save Regina. Their struggle reveals the vast underbelly of injustice in America's harsh detention and deportation system and frighteningly arbitrary asylum process. The book uncovers the very real dangers faced by asylum seekers in the United States, not only from the country they left behind, but also from the country they thought would keep them safe.
Retreat and Rearguard, 1914: The BEF's Actions From Mons to the Marne
by Jerry MurlandThe British action at Mons on 23 August 1914 was the catalyst for what became a full blown retreat over 200 blood drenched miles. This book examines eighteen of the desperate rearguard actions that occurred during the twelve days of this near rout. While those at Le Cateau and Nery are well chronicled, others such as cavalry actions at Morsain and Taillefontaine, the Connaught Rangers at Le Grand Fayt and 13 Brigades fight at Crepy-en-Valois are virtually unknown even to expert historians. We learn how in the chaos and confusion that inevitably reigned units of Gunners and other supporting arms found themselves in the front line.The work of the Royal Engineers responsible for blowing bridges over rivers and canals behind the retreating troops comes in for particular attention and praise. Likewise that of the RAMC. No less than 16 VCs were won during this historic Retreat, showing that even in the darkest hours individuals and units performed with gallantry, resourcefulness and great forbearance.The book comes alive with first hand accounts, letters, diaries, official unit records, much of which has never been published before.
Return of the Raider: A Doolittle Raider's Story of War & Forgiveness
by Mr. Donald M. Goldstein Ms. Carol Aiko DixionJacob DeShazer, a farm boy from Oregon, joined the army Air Corps at age 27. He had always wanted to be a pilot, but when he did not qualify, an opportunity opened to become a bombardier. By luck of the draw, Jacob found himself as one of the 80 men participating in the famous Doolittle Raid over Japan shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.During the raid, Jacob and his fellow crewmen bailed out over China and were taken captive by the Japanese as prisoners of war for more than three years. In that Japanese POW camp, every day facing torture and death, Jacob&’s path changed when his request for a Bible was fulfilled. Jacob came back to the Christian faith in which he was raised, and made a vow to God in his prison cell that if he survived he would return to Japan, not as a warrior but as a missionary.The Jacob DeShazer story is not only about the bravery of a soldier during war, but also about how powerful love and forgiveness can be when given to the enemy.
Revisiting "Our Forest Home": The Immigrant Letters of Frances Stewart
by Jodi Lee AokiFrances Stewart arrived in Upper Canada from Ireland in 1822 with her husband, three children, and two servants. The family settled in Douro Township on the bank of the Otonabee River in 1823. Spanning three-quarters of a century, her letters represent the immigrant experience of one of the first pioneer women in the Peterborough, Ontario, area. Included are transcripts of the extant collection. They chronicle the three stages of Francess life: the years of her childhood in Ireland to her departure for North America; her voyage across the Atlantic and her life in Upper Canada to the time of her husbands death in 1847; and the period of widowhood until her death in 1872. The chapter summaries, annotations, and key passages extracted from letters written by others further the story of Francess nineteenth-century immigrant life. Advance Praise for Revisiting Our Forest Home Presenting the perspective of a cultivated immigrant who refrained from publication, Frances Stewarts articulate letters to her family and friends nicely complement the narratives of her Peterborough neighbours, Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. Jodi Aokis intelligent approach to the editorial complexities of the Stewart archive has given us a reliable and welcome volume that makes an important contribution to our understanding of womens lives on the Upper-Canadian frontier. Carole Gerson, University Professor, English Department, Simon Fraser University Revisiting Our Forest Home is a welcome addition to the scholarly record of nineteenth-century writing and letters by immigrant gentlewomen to Upper Canada. To have this well-edited and thoughtful record of Stewarts struggles available is a boon to scholars, old and new. With precision and tenderness, Jodi Aoki brings forward these important and culturally revealing letters. In her hands, the original Our Forest Home, initially a project meant only for family members, becomes a valuable and much fuller record of social and family life in early Ontario. Michael Peterman, Professor Emeritus, Trent University, FRSC
Revival 2.0: How the Obama White House Is Making Its Political Comeback
by Richard WolffeRevival 2.0 tells the dramatic inside story of how President Obama and his team have regained their footing and learned to fight for their political survival.Bestselling Obama biographer Richard Wolffe (author of Renegade and Revival) follows President Barack Obama and his inner circle (including Valerie Jarrett, David Plouffe, Hillary Clinton, David Axelrod, and Robert Gibbs), from the Democratic defeat in the 2010 midterm election through their suprising resurgence over the last six months. Drawing on key sources within the West Wing, Revival 2.0 reveals:· The story behind the personnel shake-ups and reorganization of the administration--from the departure of Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs to the arrival of new figures the likes of Bill Daley and Jay Carney.· How the White House effectively pushed through their agenda (including the START treaty and repeal of "don't ask, don't tell") with a lame-duck Congress, and positioned itself well in dealing with the new Republican-controlled House over the looming budget battles and a defense of their health care plan.· The internal debate between Survivalists and Revivalists over the response to the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.· The campaign strategy for the 2012 election as told directly by Obama's top campaign team--David Axelrod and David Plouffe in particular.· Key insights into the killing of Osama bin Laden, how it's the crowning achievement of Obama's political turnaround, and solidifies his stature as commander-in-chief in the war on terror.An up-to-minute guide on how an administration attempts to navigate dangerous political waters, Revival 2.0 is a must-read to understanding how Obama has grown into his role as a president and has found a way to lead effectively.
Revolt!: How to Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs
by Dick Morris Eileen McgannNow that the Republicans have taken the House, How can they use their majority to reverse Obama's Socialist agenda? Revolt! lays out a game plan for success. Morris and McGann explain how to use the debt limit and budget fights to force Obama to accept Republican policies while, at the same time, undermining his chances of victory in 2012. Obamacare? Morris and McGann explain how to block the IRS enforcement of the requirement that everyone buy health insurance and how to stop the Medicare cuts and rationing. Crippling Talk Radio and Taking Over the Internet? They explain how to prevent the FCC from blocking free speech in America. Cap and Trade? They offer a blueprint for how to cut off EPA funding to stop it from imposing carbon taxes and regulation. Unless we read their plan and act to implement it, Obama will raise taxes, end the mortgage interest and charitable deduction, raise Social Security taxes, and add trillions more to the federal deficit in the process. Conservatives need to fight back-and Morris and McGann explain how to do it. Revolt! is their most important book yet. The GOP won the elections of 2010. Revolt! explains how to translate this avalanche of votes into power and action in Washington. Their plea: Don't surrender. Don't compromise. Don't give in. Just push ahead and win! Revolt! is the next step. Morris and McGann's Outrage, Fleeced, Catastrophe, and 2010: Take Back America laid out the problem, predicted Obama's polices and their results, and articulated a plan for victory in 2010. Now Revolt! explains how to use this new power to defeat Obama.
Reynolds Remembers: 20 Years with the Sacramento Kings
by Jerry ReynoldsJerry Reynolds is an icon as the man behind the Sacramento Kings. As we are taken through his career, he captures the ups, downs, and evolution of the team he has been a part of from the very beginning.
Riccardo Muti: An Autobiography - First the Music, Then the Words
by Riccardo Muti"A vivid portrait of life at the top of a podium heap...[a] fascinating memoir - a must-read for all who would gain insights into what makes a dedicated and complicated man of music tick."--Chicago Tribune. From a small town in the south of Italy to the pinnacle of the classical music world, Riccardo Muti has enthralled audiences across the globe as conductor of the world's most prestigious orchestras and opera houses. Now, after fifty years on the podium, he reflects on an extraordinary career, working with the great artists of his generation. Here, for the first time, he shares the personal anecdotes and revelations of a remarkable life in music.
Rick: The Rick Hansen Story
by Dennis FoonFifteen-year-old Rick Hansen is confident, outgoing, and the star of his high-school basketball team. He has his whole life planned out, until a tragic accident severs his spinal cord, leaving him in a wheelchair. Rick's accident forces him to adapt his positivity to deal with his new life, while helping to strengthen the relationship with his guilt-stricken best friend. Refusing to be put at a disadvantage, Rick conquers the challenges presented to him with a smile and changes the definition of what it means to be disabled. Based on the true story of the man who inspired millions with his Man In Motion World Tour, Rick is a triumphant play that showcases the importance of optimism and perseverance, encouraging audiences to make their own paths to change the world.
Rick Hansen: Man in Motion
by Jim Taylor Rick HansenIn 1973, Rick Hansen was a carefree teenager hitchhiking home from a fishing trip, a kid who lived and breathed sports. But after the truck he was riding in went out of control and crashed, Hansen was left a paraplegic.<P><P> For some people that could have been the end. For Rick Hansen it was the beginning of a story that is at once sad and funny, heartbreaking and inspirational.Hansen takes you from the first painful days and frightening nights in hospital, through the gritty process of rehabilitation, to his return to competition as a world champion of wheelchair sports. It is the story of the Man in Motion tour-Rick Hansen's incredible 24,901.55-mile wheelchair journey through 34 countries around the world. It is also the love story of Hansen and his wife, Amanda, a physiotherapist whom Hansen calls his "lifeline." And it is a success story-Rick Hansen has raised millions of dollars for spinal cord research, rehabilitation and wheelchair sports as well as raised awareness about the disabled.
A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle
by Raja ShehadehThe quest for his great-uncle Najib Nassar, an Ottoman journalist - the details of his life, and the route of his great escape from occupied Palestine - consumed award-winning writer Raja Shehadeh for two years. As he traces Najib's footsteps, he discovers that today it would be impossible to flee the cage that Palestine has become. "A Rift in Time" is a family memoir written in luminescent prose, but it is also a reflection on how Palestine - in particular the disputed Jordan Rift Valley - has been transformed. Most of Palestine's history and that of its people is buried deep in the ground: whole villages have disappeared and names have been erased from the map. Yet by seeing the bigger picture of the landscape and the unending struggle for freedom as Shehadeh does, it is still possible to look towards a better future, free from Israeli or Ottoman oppression.