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Janet, My Mother, and Me: A Memoir of Growing Up With Janet Flanner and Natalia Danesi Murray
by Williamson MurrayJanet, My Mother, and Me is a charming, captivating memoir about a boy growing up in a household of two extraordinary women. William Murray was devoted to his mother, Natalia Danesi Murray, and to his mother's longtime lover, writer Janet Flanner. Even as a teenager, he accepted their unconventional relationship. His portrait of the two most important people in his life is unforgettable. Janet Flanner was already celebrated as the author of a new style of personal journalism for her "Letter from Paris" in The New Yorker when she met the Italian-born Natalia Murray on Fire Island, New York, in 1940. Their encounter, writes William Murray, was a "coup de foudre, a thunderbolt that instantly sent them rushing into each other's arms and forever altered their lives, as well as mine." Murray was already growing up in two cultures on different continents, in New York and Rome, when his mother's life changed so dramatically. He quickly accepted Flanner and the unusual household in which he found himself. (Natalia's mother, Mammina Ester, also lived with them in New York.) His memories of the women and of his own boyhood and adolescence are touching and often hilarious. Janet, My Mother, and Me offers a look at the world in which gay professional women moved in the decades before such relationships became more open and accepted. Murray's mother was a publishing executive and a broadcaster, and Murray, who originally hoped to become an opera singer and trained for that profession, eventually moved into the professions of both his mother and Flanner, becoming a novelist and then for many years an editor and writer at The New Yorker. This is an exuberant, warm, and often poignant memoir with a memorable cast of characters. Beguiling and unusual, it will remain vivid in readers' minds for years to come.
Family Values: Two Moms and their Son
by Phyllis BurkeA beautifully written memoir of the author's fight to legally co-parent her lesbian lover's child--an inspiring story of love, liberation, and family values. Set against the background of the San Francisco lesbian-gay civil rights struggle, Burke's uplifting portrait of her nontraditional family will deeply touch readers.
My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
by Margaret A. Hogan C. James Taylor(from Forward: J. Ellis)My two favorite Sceanes of John and Abigail Adams come from their retirement years at Quincy. In the first John is out in the fields working alongside his hired hands, swinging the scythe as he murmurs curses under his breath against Tom Paine and Alexander Hamilton. Abigail is duly recording his murmurings, seconding his denunciations, noting that Thomas Jefferson should also be added to the rogues' gallery. In the second scene, Abigail has descended to the basement of the Quincy house to shell peas. John accompanies her, bringing along a copy of Descartes to read to her while she prepares dinner. It is the combination of pungency and intimacy embodied in these two Sceanes that gives the correspondence between John and Abigail such enduring significance, though a few other factors contribute to the ultimate impact. They happened to be living through the most tumultuous and consequential chapter in America's birth as a nation, when the core values were declared and the abiding institutions created. They happened to be centrally involved in these declarations and creations. They happened to preserve about 1,160 letters between them, recording their thoughts and feelings with uncommon candor. (Martha Washington destroyed all but three of the letters she and George exchanged.) And both of them happened to be, each in their own distinctive ways, prose stylists of equally uncommon felicity. If you want to understand how the American republic was improvised on the run, this is a seminal source. If you want to understand how a husband and wife can sustain their love over a lifetime of struggle and
Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World (Revised and Enlarged Edition)
by David S. LandesMore than a decade after the publication of his dazzling book on the cultural, technological, and manufacturing aspects of measuring time and making clocks, David Landes has significantly expanded Revolution in Time. In a new preface and scores of updated passages, he explores new findings about medieval and early-modern time keeping, as well as contemporary hi-tech uses of the watch as mini-computer, cellular phone, and even radio receiver or television screen. While commenting on the latest research, Landes never loses his focus on the historical meaning of time and its many perceptions and uses, questions that go beyond history, that involve philosophers and possibly, theologians and literary folk as well.
Matters of Principle: An Insider's Account of America's Rejection of Robert Bork's Nomination to the Supreme Court
by Mark GitensteinDetails the rejection of Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court and the fight to protect unenumerated rights.
The Danish Girl: A Novel
by David EbershoffAuthor's Note: This is a work of fiction loosely inspired by the case of Einar Wegener and his wife. I wrote the novel in order to explore the intimate space that defined their unusual marriage, and that space could only come to life through conjecture and speculation and the running of imagination. Some important facts about Einar's actual transformation lie in these pages, but the story, as recounted here with its details of place and time and language and interior life, is an invention of my imagination. In early 1931 when the news broke that a man had changed his gender, newspapers around the world ran accounts of Einar Wegener's remarkable life. (It is interesting to note that Lili Elbe herself leaked the story to the press, and wrote some stories about herself, including her own obituary, under a pseudonym.) Many of those articles were helpful in writing this novel, especially those in Politiken and other Danish newspapers. Another indispensable source was Lili Elbe's diaries and correspondence, which Niels Hoyer edited and published as Man Into Woman. Those journal entries and letters provided critical factual details of Einar's evolution, especially regarding Lili's first visit to Wegener's studio, Einar's mysterious bleeding and physical decline, and his journey to and stay at the Dresden Municipal Women's Clinic. The passages in my book that deal with these incidents are especially indebted to Hoyer's assemblage of Lili Elbe's original words. Nonetheless, I have changed so many elements of Einar Wegener's story that the characters in these pages are entirely fictional. The reader should not look to this novel for very many biographical details of Einar Wegener's life, and no other character in the novel has any relation to an actual person, living or dead.
Keeping Watch: A History Of American Time
by Michael O'MalleyA history of the transition from natural to mechanical sources for time, Keeping Watch explores the invention of Standard Time Zones and daylight saving as well as the mass production of watches and clocks.
Run / Ride
by Kip CrosbyMotorcycles are a common theme in this novel of a group of young people dealing with many difficulties.
Listen for the Fig Tree
by Sharon Bell MathisA sixteen-year-old girl's first celebration of Kwanza gives her a sense of the past as well as strength to deal with her troubled mother and her own blindness.
Skateboard Scramble
by Barbara DouglassAlthough she loves skateboarding, Jody is uneasy when her father insists that she participate in a skateboard competition, especially as she would be competing against her best friend.
Play Ball, McGill!
by Amelia WaldenWhen things begin to go wrong at home and in her social life, the star pitcher of the high school softball team feels her game being affected also. Ginger McGill's senior year becomes a mix of emotions with her love for softball, her baseball star brother, rebuilding hot rods and a new boy in town.
The Bears' House
by Marilyn SachsFirst published in 1971. Everyone in Miss Thompsons fourth grade class loves The Bears’ House—Fran Ellen Smith most of all. When Fran Ellen goes into The Bears’ House, she can forget about how awful things are at home. At the end of the term Miss Thompson is giving the house away to someone in the class. Fran Ellen knows it won’t be her. How is she going to get along without a place to hide?
Veronica Ganz
by Marilyn SachsFirst published in 1968. One of the most famous bullies in children's books, Veronica Ganz has never met her match. She has systematically beaten up everybody in all of the classes, and has never been challenged until ... until little Peter Wedemeyer moves into the neighborhood. Taunting, teasing and always one step ahead of her mighty fists, Veronica must find a way to teach him who is boss.
The Girl with the Silver Eyes
by Willo Davis RobertsKatie Welker is used to being alone. She would much rather read a book than deal with other people. Other people don't have silver eyes and other people can't make things happen just by thinking about them! Sometimes Katie even enjoys playing tricks on people, but trouble arises when someone doesn't find her funny.
Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music
by Greg MilnerIN 1915, THOMAS EDISON PROCLAIMED THAT HE COULD RECORD A LIVE PERFORMANCE and reproduce it perfectly, shocking audiences who found themselves unable to tell whether what they were hearing was an Edison Diamond Disc or a flesh-and-blood musician. Today, the equation is reversed. Whereas Edison proposed that a real performance could be rebuilt with absolute perfection, Pro Tools and digital samplers now allow musicians and engineers to create the illusion of performances that never were. In between a century of sonic exploration into the balance between the real and the represented! Tracing the contours of this history,-Greg Milner fakes us through the major breakthroughs and glorious failures in the art and science of recording. An American soldier monitoring Nazi radio transmissions stumbles onto the open yet revolutionary secret of magnetic tape, Japanese and Dutch researchers build a first-generation digital audio format and watch as their "compact disc” is marketed by the music industry as the second coming of Edison yet derided as heretical by analog loyalists. The music world becomes addicted to volume in the nineties and fights a self-defeating "loudness war" to get its fix. From Les Paul to Phil Spector to King Tubby, from vinyl to pirated CDs to iPods, Milner pulls apart musical history to answer a crucial question: Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records? The answers he uncovers will change the very way we think about music.
Final Gifts: Understanding The Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying
by Patricia Kelley Maggie CallananThe authors provide a compassionate and readable book to help both those who are dying and those who are providing care for them. The authors (hospice workers) gently address common stages experienced by those who are terminally ill. A highly useful book.
Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People
by Joan RoughgardenA celebration of the enormous diversity of genders and sexuality found in animals and among human cultures. Roughgarden explores how and why this range of bodies and behaviors evolved and exposes how biology, medicine, anthropology and Christianity have obstructed the recognition and acceptance of this diversity.
The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal
by Tom Mcbride Ron NiefSnapshots of the U. S. 's last nine generations--from the creators of the Mindset List media sensation Just as high school graduates in 1957 couldn't imagine life without zippers, those of 2009 can't imagine having to enter phone booths and deposit coins in order to call someone from the street corner. Every August, the Mindset List highlights the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of that year's incoming college class. Now this fascinating book extends the Mindset List approach to dramatize what it was like to grow up for every American generation since 1880, showcasing the remarkable changes in what Americans have considered "normal" about the world around them. Expands Tom McBride and Ron Nief's popular annual Mindset Lists to explore the mindset of nine generations of Americans, from 1880 to the future high school graduates of 2030 Offers a novel and absorbing way to understand the frame of reference of Americans through history, whether it's the high school grads of 1918, who viewed riding an elevator as a thrill second only to roller coasters, or those of 2009, who have always thought of "friend" as an active verb Puts a human face on the evolution of historical changes related to technology, the struggle for rights and equality, the calamities of war and depression, and other areas The annual Mindset List garners extensive media attention, including on Today, The Early Show, the NBC Nightly News, CNN, and Fox as well as in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, and hundreds of international publications Whatever your own generational mindset, this book will give you an entertaining and important new tool for understanding the unique perspective and experience of Americans over more than a hundred and fifty years.
Signed, Sealed, and Delivered: The Soulful Journey of Stevie Wonder
by Mark RibowskyFor the first time, Signed, Sealed, and Delivered takes an in-depth look at Stevie Wonder's life and his evolution from kid-soul pop star into a mature artist whose music helped lay the groundwork for the evolution of hip hop and rap.
The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications
by Paul StarrAmerica's leading role in today's information revolution may seem simply to reflect its position as the world's dominant economy and most powerful state. But by the early nineteenth century, when the United States was neither a world power nor a primary center of scientific discovery, it was already a leader in communications-in postal service and newspaper publishing, then in development of the telegraph and telephone networks, later in the whole repertoire of mass communications.<P><P> In this wide-ranging social history of American media, from the first printing press to the early days of radio, Paul Starr shows that the creation of modern communications was as much the result of political choices as of technological invention. His original historical analysis reveals how the decisions that led to a state-run post office and private monopolies on the telegraph and telephone systems affected a developing society. He illuminates contemporary controversies over freedom of information by exploring such crucial formative issues as freedom of the press, intellectual property, privacy, public access to information, and the shaping of specific technologies and institutions. America's critical choices in these areas, Starr argues, affect the long-run path of development in a society and have had wide social, economic, and even military ramifications. The Creation of the Media not only tells the history of the media in a new way; it puts America and its global influence into a new perspective.
Men On Men 6: Best New Gay Fiction
by David BergmanSensual masseurs and seductive lawnboys. Italian sons and Trinidadian husbands. Pumped-up porn stars and diced-up drag queens. Elderly widowers who fall in love and create scandal. Generation Xers who envy the dying disco generation in Provincetown. Straight sons who comfort the partners of their gay fathers.<P> Since its inception over a decade ago, the Men on Men series has consistently offered gay male writers a forum to liberate and legitimize gay fiction as some of the freshest, most original, and incisive writing in America today. Now, in Men on Men 6 ,twenty writers-well-known names and exciting new voices of uncommon skill and urgency-present powerful stories that turn in new directions with a tremendous diversity of style, subject matter, and cultural identity. From wry or romantic "boy-meets-boy" stories to profound reflections on love, death, and family, this extraordinary collection of today's best new gay fiction transcends any narrowly defined genre and showcases the literature of men loving men-work that is superb by any critical measure.
The Year The Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America
by Jules WitcoverThe tumultuous events of 1968 burden America to this day. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, campus riots, and the election of Richard Nixon led to disappointment, division, and self-doubt that bred distrust of the nation's leaders and institutions. For millions of Americans, the dream that we would at last face up with compassion to our most basic problems at home and abroad was shattered in 1968, and the groundwork was laid for the cynical social and political climate that exists today.
California Dreamin': The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas
by Michelle PhillipsIt's all here--the years of poverty, struggle, and obscurity... the fateful first meeting with record producer Lou Adler... the incredible burst of work and creativity that led to their first smash album... the band's meteoric rise to stardom ("Monday, Monday" sold 160,000 copies the first day it was released)... the wildly decadent life-style that embraced LSD and free love... the burnout, the arguments, and the final bitterness and breakup of the band.
You Are The Rain
by R. R. KnudsonIn a hurricane, two seemingly incompatible girls become separated from the rest of the group on a boating trip through the everglades.
Marv
by Marilyn SachsMarv Green has a garden where no flowers grow. Lots of other things grow there though—a set of revolving doors that lead nowhere, a roofless dog palace without a dog, an igloo made of bricks—to name just a few. Marv’s problem is that he likes to build. And when he isn’t building, he’s dreaming about building. His teachers consider him hopelessly stupid, and his brilliant, older sister, Frances, whom he admires more than anybody else in the world, calls him a “failure.” “Everything you do is a useless, ugly mess,” says Frances. “Can’t you make something that will benefit somebody?” And Marv tries. Over and over again Marv tries—and fails. Exasperating, hopeless, funny and endearing, here is Marv—part dreamer, part nuisance, part fool, and perhaps, although you may be the only one who thinks so, part genius.