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The Wonders: The Extraordinary Circus Performers Who Transformed The Victorian Age
by John WoolfA radical new history that rediscovers the remarkable freak performers whose talents and charisma helped define an era. On March 23, 1844, General Tom Thumb, just 25 inches tall, entered the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace and bowed low to Queen Victoria. On both sides of the Atlantic, this meeting marked a tipping point in the nineteenth century, and the age of the freak was born. Bewitching all levels of society, it was a world of curiosities and astonishing spectacle—of dwarfs, giants, bearded ladies, Siamese twins, and swaggering showmen. But the real stories—human dramas that so often eclipsed the fantasy presented on the stage—of the performing men, women and children, have been forgotten or marginalized in the histories of the very people who exploited them. In this richly evocative account, John Woolf uses a wealth of recently discovered material to bring to life the sometimes tragic, sometimes triumphant, always extraordinary stories of people who used their (dis)abilities and difference to become some of the first international celebrities. Through their lives we discover afresh some of the great transformations of the age: the birth of show business, of celebrity, of advertising, and of “alternative facts” while also exploring the tensions between the power of fame, the impact of exploitation, and our fascination with “otherness.”
The Wonders We Seek: Thirty Incredible Muslims Who Helped Shape the World
by Saadia Faruqi Aneesa MumtazIn this biographical collection, with stunning portraits and illustrations by Saffa Khan, authors Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz highlight some of the talented Muslim physicians, musicians, athletes, poets, and more who helped make the world we know today. A brilliant surgeon heals patients in the first millennium.A female king rules the Indian subcontinent.A poet pours his joy and grief into the world’s best-selling verses.An iconic leader fights for civil rights.And many, many more. Throughout history—from the golden age of the empires of Arabia, Iraq, Persia, and India, up to modern day—Muslims have shaped our world in essential ways, with achievements in music, medicine, politics, human rights, literature, sports, technology, and more. Give this book to readers who are excited to learn about the great figures and thinkers in history!The authors introduce their book with a personal letter to the reader, setting out their motivations and hopes for the stories they are telling. The backmatter includes a glossary and bibliography for readers’ further research and learning.
Wondrous Beauty
by Carol BerkinFrom the award-winning historian and author of Revolutionary Mothers ("Incisive, thoughtful, spiced with vivid anecdotes. Don't miss it."--Thomas Fleming) and Civil War Wives ("Utterly fresh . . . Sensitive, poignant, thoroughly fascinating."--Jay Winik), here is the remarkable life of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, renowned as the most beautiful woman of nineteenth-century Baltimore, whose marriage in 1803 to Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, became inextricably bound to the diplomatic and political histories of the United States, France, and England. In Wondrous Beauty, Carol Berkin tells the story of this audacious, outsized life. We see how the news of the union infuriated Napoleon and resulted in his banning the thenpregnant Betsy Bonaparte from disembarking in any European port, offering his brother the threat of remaining married to that "American girl" and forfeiting all wealth and power--or renouncing her, marrying a woman of Napoleon's choice, and reaping the benefits. Jérôme ended the marriage posthaste and was made king of Westphalia; Betsy fled to England, gave birth to her son and only child, Jérôme's namesake, and was embraced by the English press, who boasted that their nation had opened its arms to the cruelly abandoned young wife. Berkin writes that this naïve, headstrong American girl returned to Baltimore a wiser, independent woman, refusing to seek social redemption or a return to obscurity through a quiet marriage to a member of Baltimore's merchant class. Instead she was courted by many, indifferent to all, and initiated a dangerous game of politics--a battle for a pension from Napoleon--which she won: her pension from the French government arrived each month until Napoleon's exile. Using Betsy Bonaparte's extensive letters, the author makes clear that the "belle of Baltimore" disdained America's obsession with moneymaking, its growing ethos of democracy, and its rigid gender roles that confined women to the parlor and the nursery; that she sought instead a European society where women created salons devoted to intellectual life--where she was embraced by many who took into their confidence, such as Madame de Staël, Madame Récamier, the aging Marquise de Villette (goddaughter of Voltaire), among others--and where aristocracy, based on birth and breeding rather than commerce, dominated society. Wondrous Beauty is a riveting portrait of a woman torn between two worlds, unable to find peace in either--one a provincial, convention-bound new America; the other a sophisticated, extravagant Old World Europe that embraced freedoms, a Europe ultimately swallowed up by decadence and idleness. A stunning revelation of an extraordinary age.From the Hardcover edition.
The Wongs of Beloit, Wisconsin
by Beatrice McKenzieThrough family interviews, original photographs, and national records, Beatrice Loftus McKenzie traces the many lives of a resilient multigenerational family whose experiences parallel the complicated relationship between America and China in the twentieth century. In the early 1900s, Charles Wong moved from Guangdong Province to the United States and opened the Nan King Lo Restaurant in Beloit, Wisconsin. Soon after, his wife Yee Shee joined him to build the "Chop House" into a local institution and start a family. When the Great Depression hit, the Wongs shared what they had with their neighbors. In 1938, Charles's tragic murder left Yee Shee to raise their seven children—ages one through fourteen—on her own. Rather than return to family property in Hong Kong, she and her children stayed in Beloit, buoyed by the friendships they had forged during the worst parts of the 1930s. The Wongs thrived in Beloit despite facing racism and classism, embracing wartime opportunities, education, love, and careers within the U. S. McKenzie's collaboration with descendent Mary Wong Palmer reveals a poignant story of Chinese immigrant life in the Upper Midwest that adds a much-needed Wisconsin perspective to existing literature by and about Asian Americans.
Won't Back Down: Teams, Dreams, and Family
by Kim Mulkey Peter MayThe only person ever to win a Division 1 national championship as a player (twice), as an assistant coach, and as a head coach.
Won't You Come Home, Billy Bob Bailey?
by Lewis GrizzardLewis Grizzard is known as a humorist, but he takes the important things of life very seriously. Thing is, not everybody takes the time and care to recognize what's really important... like cooking good grits or cooking grits GOOD, and keeping your Willie Nelson album off the window ledge where the sun will warp it, and that Harold's Barbecue isn't closing and isn't about to serve beer because Harold's mama wouldn't allow it. Other books by Lewis Grizzard are available in this library.
The Wood Life: A Not so Helpful How-To Guide on Surviving Cricket, Life and Everything in Between
by Mark WoodFrom one-of-a-kind England cricketer Mark Wood comes a one-of-a-kind self-help book. The kind no one knew they needed, until now.Need to know how to propel a cricket ball at unimaginable speeds? How to give the perfect speech at a wedding? What to feed an imaginary horse? The best way to celebrate an Ashes win? The worst way to watch a World Cup final chase? Planning the perfect date? What to do when you come across a dead body in the middle of Ashington? Answers to all these vital questions are here, and more. Full of laugh-out-loud anecdotes, The Wood Life is a hilarious guide to life by one of English cricket's most beloved characters.
Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane
by Kirsten W. LarsonThis riveting nonfiction picture book biography explores both the failures and successes of self-taught engineer Emma Lilian Todd as she tackles one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane.Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring--she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. Illustrator Tracy Subisak's art brings to life author Kirsten W. Larson's story of this little-known but important engineer.
Woodbine Red Leader: A P-51 Mustang Ace in the Mediterranean Theater
by George LovingA COMBAT ACE'S ACCOUNT OF PILOTING THE GREATEST SINGLE-SEAT FIGHTER IN WORLD WAR II. World War II marked the end of an era; fighter pilots still flew by the seat of their pants, and George Loving recaptures the exhilarating world of aerial combat in all its stark terror and fiery glory. His first fighter was the famed Spitfire, hero of the Battle of Britain. By 1943, however, it was obsolescent and did not match up well against the first-line German Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. Yet Loving survived 101 combat missions flying the Spitfire. In the spring of 1944, Loving's 31st Fighter Group started flying P-51 Mustangs and was transferred to the new Fifteenth Air Force to escort heavy-bomber formations on long-range strategic strikes across southern Europe, including southeastern Germany. In the flak-filled skies over Ploesti, Vienna, Bucharest, Munich, and Stuttgart, where a number of the war's fiercest air battles took place, Lieutenant Loving flew head-to-head against some of the Luftwaffe's top fighter aces. By the time George Loving completed his 151st, and final, combat mission on August 21, 1944, he had risen from a lowly second lieutenant and untested wingman to captain, group leader, and Mustang ace. Loving's gripping account captures the savage action he experienced in all its intensity.
Woodbrook
by David Thomson[From the back cover:] "Woodbrook is a rare house that gives its name to a small, rural area in Ireland, not far from the old port of Sligo. It has been owned since the seventeenth century by the Anglo-Irish Kirkwoods. In 1932 David Thomson, aged eighteen, went there as a tutor. He stayed for ten years. This memoir, acknowledged as a masterpiece, grew out of two great loves - for Woodbrook and for Phoebe, his pupil. In it he builds up a delicately lyrical picture of a gentle pre-war society, of Irish history and troubled Anglo-Irish relations, and of a delightful family. Above all, his story reverberates with the enchantment of falling in love and with the desolation of bereavement."
The Woodchipper Murder
by Arthur HerzogEven though the Newtown, Connecticut, police listed Helle Crafts's disappearance as a routine missing-person case, Keith Mayo, a private investigator, knew the Danish-born mother of three hadn't skipped town nine days before Thanksgiving. He had been concerned for Helle's safety a month earlier when he had provided his client, an attractive thirty-nine-year-old Pan Am flight attendant, conclusive evidence of her husband's extramarital activities. An Eastern Airlines pilot and part-time policeman, Richard stood by his story that Helle had flown abroad on November 19 to visit her suddenly stricken mother. Richard was caught up in a succession of lies. A friend telephoned Denmark to learn that Helle's mother was healthy and unaware of Helle's whereabouts. More disturbing was the news, reported by the Craftses' baby-sitter, that a dark stain "the size of a grapefruit" had been noticed on the master bedroom rug soon after Helle's disappearance; now rug was gone. Mayo seized upon a single clue, and when it led to a remote landfill from which he unearthed a stained rug, he had the evidence necessary to bring the state police into the case. In the style of a brilliant detective novel, Arthur Herzog skillfully re-creates the hour-by-hour circumstantial details that inform this grisly true-crime narrative.
Wooden: A Coach's Life
by Seth DavisA provocative and revelatory new biography of the legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, by one of America's top college basketball writers No college basketball coach has ever dominated the sport like John Wooden. His UCLA teams reached unprecedented heights in the 1960s and '70s capped by a run of ten NCAA championships in twelve seasons and an eighty-eight-game winning streak, records that stand to this day. Wooden also became a renowned motivational speaker and writer, revered for his "Pyramid of Success. " Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports has written the definitive biography of Wooden, an unflinching portrait that draws on archival research and more than two hundred interviews with players, opponents, coaches, and even Wooden himself. Davis shows how hard Wooden strove for success, from his All-American playing days at Purdue through his early years as a high school and college coach to the glory days at UCLA, only to discover that reaching new heights brought new burdens and frustrations. Davis also reveals how at the pinnacle of his career Wooden found himself on questionable ground with alumni, referees, assistants, and even some of his players. His was a life not only of lessons taught, but also of lessons learned. Woven into the story as well are the players who powered Wooden's championship teams - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Walt Hazzard, and others - many of whom speak frankly about their coach. The portrait that emerges from Davis's remarkable biography is of a man in full, whose life story still resonates today.
Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard
by Michael RuhlmanThere are fewer than 10,000 wooden boats in America, but the circulation of WoodenBoat magazine exceeds 180,000. What is it about these boats that has captured the popular imagination? With his "lively blend of reportage [and] reflection" (Los Angeles Times), Michael Ruhlman sets off for a renowned boatyard in Martha's Vineyard to follow the construction of two boats-Rebecca, a 60-foot modern pleasure schooner, and Elisa Lee, a 32-foot powerboat. Filled with exquisite details and stories of the sea, this exciting exploration of a nearly forgotten craft and the colorful personalities involved will enthrall wooden boat owners as well as craftspeople of every stripe, nature enthusiasts, and fans of compelling nonfiction.
Woodland Mounds in West Virginia (American Heritage)
by Darla SpencerThe first Europeans to arrive in the Ohio Valley were intrigued and puzzled by the many conical earthen mounds they encountered there. They created wild theories about who the mysterious "Moundbuilders" might be. It was not until the 1880s that Smithsonian Institution investigations revealed that the Moundbuilders were the ancestors of living Native Americans. More than four hundred mounds have been recorded in West Virginia, including the Grave Creek Mound in Marshall County, the largest conical mound in North America. Join archaeologist Darla Spencer and learn about the Grave Creek Mound and fifteen additional Adena mounds from the fascinating Woodland period in West Virginia.
Woodlawn
by Bobby Bowden Mark Schlabach Todd GereldsThis riveting true story of courage, strength, and football at the height of racial tension in Birmingham, Alabama, inspired the motion picture Woodlawn, and tells the story of Coach Tandy Gerelds, his running back Tony Nathan, and a high school football game that healed a city. Woodlawn is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jon Voight, Nic Bishop, and C. Thomas Howell.In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach, Tandy Gerelds, was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School--one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. The team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win--until he saw Tony Nathan run. But Tony was African American and Coach Gerelds knew that putting him in as running back would be like drawing a target on his own back and the back of his soon-to-be star player. But Coach Gerelds saw something in Tony, and he knew that his decision to let him play was about more than football. It was about doing what was right for the school...and the city. And soon, the only place in the city where blacks and whites got along was on Coach Gerelds's football team. With the help of a new school chaplain, Tony learned to look beyond himself and realized that there was more at stake than winning a game. In 1974, Coach Gerelds's interracial team made Alabama history drawing 42,000 fans into the stadium to watch them play. It was this game that triggered the unity and support of the Woodlawn High School Colonels and that finally allowed a city to heal and taught its citizens how to love.
Woodrow on the Bench: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog
by Jenna Blum“When I say Jenna Blum’s upcoming Woodrow on the Bench wrecked me and that I’m now sobbing eating all the chocolate, I mean it in the best way possible.”—Jodi Picoult "Jenna Blum's wonderful moving memoir, is a “girl and her dog” story for the ages!”—Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the RainThe New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Those Who Save Us pays tribute to her beloved black Lab, Woodrow, in this beautiful memoir that recalls the last six months of his life and the ways in which he taught her to live. “For anyone who’s ever loved an old dog.”Since she adopted him as a puppy fifteen years earlier, Jenna Blum and Woodrow have been inseparable. Known to many as “the George Clooney of dogs” for his good looks and charm, Woodrow and his “Mommoo” are fixtures in their Boston neighborhood. But Woodrow is aging. As he begins to fail, the true nature of his extraordinary relationship with Jenna is revealed. Jenna may be the dog parent, but it is Woodrow, with his amazing personality and trusting nature, who has much to teach her. A divorcée who has experienced her share of sadness and loss, Jenna discovers, over the months she spends caring for her ailing dog, what it is to be present in the moment, and what it truly means to love.Aided by an amazing group of friends and buoyed by the support of strangers, Jenna and Woodrow navigate these precious final days together with kindness, humor, and grace. Their unforgettable love story will reaffirm your belief in kindness, break your heart, and leave your spirit soaring.
Woodrow Wilson
by Louis AuchinclossWoodrow Wilson sheds new light on Wilson's upbringing and career, from the grim determination that enabled him to overcome dyslexia to the skillful dance of isolationism and intervention in World War I to the intransigence that--despite his most cherished vision--caused the Senate's rejection of the League of Nations. Here, from the dynamic figure whose ringing speeches hypnotized vast crowds to the gentle voice reading poetry aloud and the comic star of family skits and charades to the rising academic and president of Princeton who made the giant leap into politics are all the triumphs and final tragic irony of this flawed apostle of world peace. Our twenty-eighth president was, says Louis Auchincloss, "the greatest idealist who ever occupied the White House." And who better than Auchincloss, with his penchant for quirky personalities and fascination with fin-de-sicle society, to explore this complex persona?
Woodrow Wilson: Twenty-eighth President of the United States
by David R. CollinsPresents a biography of the statesman who grew up in the South during the Civil War and served as President of Princeton University, Governor of New Jersey, and President of the United States during World War I.
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
by John Milton Cooper Jr.In the first major biography of America's 28th president in nearly two decades, one of America's foremost presidential scholars gives readers a vigorous, lasting record of Wilson's life and achievements.
Woodrow Wilson (United States Presidents Series)
by Anne SchraffWoodrow Wilson was president of the U.S. from 1912 to 1920. Although under his administration, the U.S. entered WW I, Wilson's great hope was for world peace. This biography covers his role as one of the founders of the League of Nations that was intended to bring an end to war, and Wilson's tragic failure to win ratification of the League of Nations from the U.S. Congress. A professor of law who published scholarly books, he served as president of Princeton University and Governor of New Jersey before his election to the presidency. His devotion to family life is portrayed, and the important political role of his second wife following his stroke is touched upon.
The Woods: A Year on Protection Island
by Amber Mcmillan"The Woods is the cure-all to Perfect Island Getaway nostalgia. It's a story of everyday domestic survival, peopled by both loveable eccentrics and possibly murdersome cranks, foregrounding the little-known history of violence on Protection Island. Amber McMillan's writing balances an eye for the unusual and resiliently beautiful with a sympathy for the frailties common to all her islanders." --Kevin Chong, author of Baroque-a-Nova, Neil Young Nation and Beauty Plus Pity*The Woods: A Year on Protection Island is a book of non-fiction stories that probes and witnesses the unique and sometimes unsettling atmosphere of small town-island life in the Georgia Strait. The measure of one's success here doesn't rely on status or income, but on the skillful handling of neighbours, the resourcefulness for survival, and the adaptation to both the rigorous outdoors of the Pacific Northwest and equally challenging human community of need, trade, and negotiated civility.These are stories of the people and families who sought refuge here, for different reasons and with different outcomes: Keith, a cross-dressing retired sea captain who can't overcome the death of his wife; Steve, the contractor who escapes his deaf wife and the silence of his domestic life by perfecting his physical property, using only the loudest of electric chainsaws and lawnmowers from morning until dusk; Cris, the seventy-six-year-old library curator who has recently discovered scotch whiskey and sex again after twenty-five years; and of various other transplants making their way through the murky terrain of living on an island.Like no other community on Earth, this small place is packed with secret corners, eerie histories and a whispering darkness. This is the complicated convergence of human capacities: from homicides (both in the same house, unrelated and years apart) to some of the greatest gestures of generosity, social reform and equality. This is the place of the close-up encounter of who we are stripped of distractions and escapist entertainment; who we are in the woods.
Woodsong
by Gary PaulsenGary Paulsen has had a life as exciting as fiction!Gary Paulsen, three-time Newbery Honor author, is no stranger to adventure. He has flown off the back of a dogsled and down a frozen waterfall to near disaster, and waited for a giant bear to seal his fate with one slap of a claw. He has led a team of sled dogs toward the Alaskan Mountain Range in an Iditarod -- the grueling, 1,180-mile dogsled race -- hallucinating from lack of sleep, but he determined to finish. Here, in vivid detail, Paulsen recounts several of the remarkable experiences that shaped his life and inspired his award-winning writing.
Woodswoman
by Anne LabastilleA charming memoir in which the author tells about building her own log cabin, surviving harsh winters, living affably with nature, and thoroughly enjoying and beautifully describing this part of her life.
Woodswoman II: Beyond Black Bear Lake
by Anne LaBastilleAnne LaBastille found peace and solitude in the log cabin she built for herself at Black Bear Lake. But as the years passed, the outside world intruded in various ways: curious fans, after reading her best-selling book Woodswoman, tracked her down; land developers arrived; there was air and noise pollution and the damages of acid rain. Woodswoman II is the story of the author's decision to retreat farther, a half-mile behind her main cabin, and build a tiny cabin―fashioned after the one in Thoreau's Walden―in which she could write and contemplate. In this book (originally published under the title Beyond Black Bear Lake) she writes movingly of her life with two German shepherds as companions, of a sustaining relationship with a man as independent as herself, and her renewed bond with nature.
Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate
by Alicia ShepardHow the reporters fared after their big story.