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Beryl: The Making of a Disability Activist
Par Dustin Galer. 2023
The story of a mid-century working-class housewife whose extraordinary physical transformation empowered her to become a dynamic social activist who…
fueled a movement to create a more inclusive future for people with disabilities.Kid Olympians: True Tales of Childhood from Champions and Game Changers (Kid Legends #9)
Par Robin Stevenson. 2024
Triumphant, relatable, and totally true biographies tell the childhood stories of a diverse group of international athletes who have captured…
the world’s attention at the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, like Simone Biles, Jesse Owens, Naomi Osaka, Tatyana McFadden, and 12 other incredible olympians.Athletes throughout history have dreamed of competing in the Olympics—and some were kids themselves when those dreams and plans began! In Kid Olympians: Summer, discover the childhood stories of legends such as: Usain Bolt, who used to skip practices to go to the arcade and play video games.Serena Williams, who sometimes hit her tennis ball over the fence on purpose!Tatyana McFadden, who had to fight to be allowed on her school’s track teamFeaturing kid-friendly text and full-color illustrations, you’ll be inspired to dream bigger, faster, and higher than ever before! The diverse and inspiring group also includes Michael Phelps, Yusra Mardini, Dick Fosbury, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Gertrude Ederle, Nadia Comaneci, Ellie Simmonds, Tommie Smith, Wilma Rudolph, and Megan Rapinoe.The Road Years: A Memoir, Continued . . .
Par Rick Mercer. 2023
THE INSTANT #1 BESTSELLERRick Mercer is back—again!—with the eagerly awaited sequel to his bestselling memoirAt the end of his memoir…
Talking to Canadians, Rick Mercer was poised to make the biggest leap yet in his extraordinary career. Having overcome a serious lack of promise as a schoolboy and risen through the showbiz ranks—as an aspiring actor, star of a surprisingly successful one-man show about the Meech Lake Accord, co-founder of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, creator and star of the dark-comedy sitcom Made in Canada—he was about to tackle his biggest opportunity yet. The Road Years picks up the story at that exciting point, with the greenlighting of what would become Rick Mercer Report. Plans for the show, of course, included political satire and Rick’s patented rants. But Rick and his partner, Gerald Lunz, were also determined to do something that comedy tends to avoid as too challenging: they would emphasize the positive. Rick would travel from coast to coast to coast in search of everything that’s best about Canada, especially its people. He found a lot to celebrate, naturally, and was rewarded with a huge audience and a run of 15 seasons. The Road Years tells the inside story of that stupendous success. A time when Rick was heading to another town—or military base, sports centre, national park—to try dogsledding, chainsaw carving, and bear tagging; hang from a harness (a lot); ride the “Train of Death;” plus countless other joyous and/or reckless assignments. Added to the mix were encounters with the country’s great. Every living prime minister. Rock and roll royalty from Rush to Randy Bachman. Olympians and Paralympians. A skinny-dipping Bob Rae. And Jann Arden, of course, who gets a chapter to herself. Along the way he even found the time to visit several countries in Africa and co-found and champion the charity Spread the Net, which has gone on to protect the lives of millions. Join the celebration, and revive a wealth of happy memories, with what is Rick Mercer’s funniest, most fascinating book yet.Pride and Persistence: Stories of Queer Activism (Do You Know My Name? #4)
Par Mary Fairhurst Breen. 2023
The activists between these pages have stood up for the queer community, whether on their own behalf or in support…
of people they love. Some made a difference by confronting injustice; others dared to be fully themselves.See It, Dream It, Do It: How 25 people just like you found their dream jobs
Par Colleen Nelson, Kathie MacIsaac. 2023
From award-winning author Colleen Nelson, and literacy advocate Kathie MacIsaac, twenty-five profiles present a plethora of jobs, and people, making…
it easier than ever for young people to see their dreams and to live their dreams!Beryl: The Making of a Disability Activist
Par Dustin Galer. 2023
The story of a mid-century working-class housewife whose extraordinary physical transformation empowered her to become a dynamic social activist who…
fueled a movement to create a more inclusive future for people with disabilities.Coinciding with its 50th anniversary, this intriguing and impeccably researched book is the first ever exploration of the movie that…
has earned an annual spot in the AFI&’s Top 10 movie romances and a place in the hearts of millions of moviegoers, revealing the full story behind the controversies, challenges, rivalries and romance surrounding The Way We Were. It&’s one of the greatest movie romances of all time. Fifty years on, the chemistry between Barbra Streisand as Jewish working-class firebrand Katie Morosky and Robert Redford as all-American golden boy Hubbell Gardiner remains potent. Yet the friction and controversy surrounding The Way We Were were so enormous, the movie was nearly never made at all. Impeccably researched and eye-opening, The Way They Were reveals the full story behind the challenges, rivalries and real-life romance surrounding the movie. Even the iconic casting was fraught. Screenwriter Arthur Laurents wrote the role of Katie with Streisand in mind, but finding Hubbell was another matter. Redford was reluctant to play what he perceived as the &“Ken doll&” to Streisand&’s lead, and demanded his role be beefed up, with ten writers—among them Francis Ford Coppola—called in to rework the script. The first preview was disastrous. Several scenes were cut, angering Streisand and Laurents, yet the edits worked. The new version was a resounding success, and its appeal endures, earning it a regular spot in the AFI&’s annual Top 10 movie romances. The Way They Were also explores the deep, surprising love story that inspired the screenplay—the relationship between Laurents, a Jewish Brooklyn-born college leftist, and his longtime partner, Tom Hatcher. Drawing on a vast trove of Laurents&’s unpublished writings, as well as interviews with Streisand, Redford, and other key players, this is the definitive account of a film that changed the rules of moviemaking and has defined romance ever since. Robert Hofler is the lead theater critic for TheWrap, and in 2020, he received the award for Best Theater Reviews from the Los Angeles Press Club. Previously, he has been an editor at several magazines and newspapers, including Life and Variety. He lives in New York City.Bruce Springsteen: An Illustrated Biography
Par Meredith Ochs. 1204
A biography of the Boss from the streets of Freehold to rock stardom to the Broadway stage, loaded with performance…
and candid photos.Through story, images, and memorabilia, Bruce Springsteen: An Illustrated Biography chronicles the life of The Boss—one of America’s favorite rock stars and one of the biggest-selling artists in history. Springsteen’s monolithic music career spans over a half-century, from 1968 to the present, and has included dozens of tours and awards including twenty Grammys. Incredibly, his stage presence, star power, and musicianship is as strong as ever as he consistently sells out live performances. This book showcases his life both on and off the stage.This edition includes a new chapter covering Springsteen on BroadwayCandies from Heaven
Par Gil Hovav. 2022
“Uncle Aron’s compliments, which hadn’t changed since the days of the Bible, didn’t sound so great. One time, he told…
my mother that she was ‘awesome like an army with flags.’ Another time, he informed her that ‘your nose is like the tower of Lebanon." Meet the village it took to raise Gil Hovav – colorful aunts and uncles hailing from one of the most respected lineages in the Jewish world (Hovav is the great-grandson of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the reviver of the Hebrew language). This book includes twenty-two funny and heart-warming stories awash with love and longing for the people who raised one skinny and cross-eyed Jerusalemite boy to love poor-man’s food, to love proper Hebrew and, most importantly, to love people. The nostalgic writing is dished up with more than twenty delicious family recipes with the seal of approval from Gil Hovav, the man who has played a major role in the remaking of Israeli cuisine and the transformation of Israel from a country of basic traditional foods into a “gourmet nation”. Readers get to chuckle at Hovav’s amusing recollections and salivate over his family recipes for sweet sour chorba tomato soup and his Aunt Levana’s eggplant and feta bourekas. If you’ve ever wondered how to make hilbeh or slow-cooked eggs (or if you’re simply itching to expand your culinary repertoire), this book is for you. As wholesome and warming as a homecooked meal, Candies from Heaven will appeal to anyone who treasures good food and relationships built on love. Dig in, dear readers, pleasure is served.Summer of Hamn: Hollowpointlessness Aiding Mass Nihilism
Par Chuck D. 2023
The tragedy of gun violence is depicted in annotated illustrations that illuminate a society gone hamn; from legendary hip-hop artist…
Chuck D (Public Enemy, Prophets of Rage, etc.) "With his latest work of graphic nonfiction, Chuck D uses his art and hip-hop rhymes to show how the US has been held hostage by gun violence and a growing sense of hopelessness . . . A focused, fresh, urgent text filled with pictures worth 1,000 words and rhymes worth thousands more." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review IN SUMMER OF HAMN, legendary hip-hop artist Chuck D takes on gun violence with rhythmic, inventive writing and passionately raw art. He has long spoken out against gun violence, including how it intersects with rap and hip-hop culture. Summer of Hamn is the bound journal Chuck D carried with him in the summer of 2022—a summer marked by a particularly high rate of gun death. In these pages, victims are memorialized, politicians are skewered, and vehement pleas to eradicate gun violence are made. Jaw-dropping statistics (40% of all personal guns in the world are owned by US citizens; there are 100 million more guns in the US than there are citizens) intersect with poetic reflections ("Another mall shooting seems normalized in Columbus / Raining outside in Ohio / Raining inside folks panic / Inside hearing shots bust"), all written in Chuck's hand over vibrant, utterly original, neoexpressionist ink and watercolor art. This book is the follow-up to STEWdio the debut trilogy on Chuck D's Enemy Books imprint, in which he invented a new medium—the "naphic grovel"—a bound journal brimming with his observations and reflections of current events in both art and prose. Summer of Hamn is the second release on the imprint.Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself
Par Crystal Hefner. 2024
A JANUARY 2024 APPLE BOOKS STAFF PICK AND AUDIBLE EDITORS SELECT A raw and unflinching look at the objectification and…
misogyny of the Playboy mansion, a woman&’s stolen young adulthood and her journey to self-acceptance, and a rare look inside Hugh Hefner&’s final days. At just twenty-one years old, Crystal Harris&’ life changed forever when she attended a party at the notorious Playboy mansion. Picked out of the crowd by Hugh Hefner, she became one of his infamous &“girlfriends,&” attending glamorous Hollywood parties and traveling the world. Yet this seemingly alluring lifestyle had a dark side. Hef controlled his girlfriends with strict rules regarding everything from their hair and makeup to their curfews, and Crystal was forced to compete with other women for her spot in the highly hierarchal system. Living at the mansion, she felt more like a fixture than a resident. She quickly rose to the top, but being Hef&’s number one girlfriend came at the cost of Crystal&’s identity outside her role in the Playboy universe. Her fate seemed sealed when Hef surprised her with a marriage proposal she could not imagine refusing. But as Crystal Hefner, she grew increasingly restless to understand who she truly was away from what she saw as Playboy&’s toxic culture. In ONLY SAY GOOD THINGS, Crystal offers a vulnerable and clear-eyed look at how her experience with Hugh Hefner catalyzed her transformative journey from someone who prized external validation over all else to a person who finally recognizes her true worth. This candid memoir provides a fascinating look behind the scenes at a powerful cultural icon and brand, and an equally empowering perspective on hard-won lessons about who we allow to determine our value.Muse: Cicely Tyson and Me: A Relationship Forged in Fashion
Par B Michael. 2002
“Friendship, love and a beautiful sense of togetherness sew together this gem of a book. B Michael...presents to us a…
portrait of a woman who was a rare gift to fashion and culture.” —EDWARD ENNINFUL, OBE, Editor-in-Chief, British Vogue & European Editorial Director, VogueA poignant and glorious photographic memoir that pays homage to the lifelong friendship between the legendary Cicely Tyson and acclaimed fashion designer B Michael, who worked with her to make her gorgeous through her last bow.What greater act of friendship is there than making someone dear look and feel their most beautiful and powerful? That was the priceless gift acclaimed designer B Michael gave to one of Hollywood’s greatest actresses, Cicely Tyson over the course of their close, decades-long relationship. In this glorious four-color visual memoir packed with stunning photographs, many never before seen, B Michael recalls the bond they shared and what it was like to dress the Queen of Hollywood for all the extraordinary events of her life.In 2005, B was summoned to create a suitable wardrobe for Ms. Tyson for a high-octane weekend hosted by Oprah Winfrey. That first successful interaction led to a nearly twenty-year-long personal and professional collaboration that defined the Hollywood star’s personal aesthetic and showcased her impeccable personality and style. B was with Ms. Tyson for the most glamorous times—the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, White House functions, glittering galas, high-profile funerals—as well as the tenderest days. Their circle included a who’s who of Black celebrities, including Sidney Poitier, Barack Obama, Common, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Lenny Kravitz, Viola Davis, Oprah, Tyler Perry, Valerie Simpson, Phylicia Rashad, and many more, most of whom are featured in personal and paparazzi photographs in these pages.Throughout their time together, B and Cicely enjoyed shocking the fashionistas, shattering inane rules limiting what a woman of a certain age should wear, devoted themselves to changing the world for the better through philanthropic efforts, laughed, cried, and inspired and celebrated each other’s excellence. In this stunning book featuring studio photos, candids from the author’s personal collection, and paparazzi shots, B shares every aspect of their time together—from the drama of a good sleeve to how to be the best friend possible to those we love.Whether you’re a fan of pop culture, couture, Hollywood, B, or Cicely Tyson, Muse is a reminder that we all have the power to be showstoppers in our own lives.Includes written contributions from Lenny Kravitz, Bridget Foley, Susan Fales Hill, and Valerie Simpson.My Fighting Family: Borders and Bloodlines and the Battles That Made Us
Par Morgan Campbell. 2024
The debut memoir from award-winning journalist Morgan Campbell: an incredible history of a family&’s battles across generations, a hilarious and…
emotional coming-of-age story, and a powerful reckoning with what it means to be Black in Canada—particularly when you have strong American roots.Morgan Campbell comes from &“a fighting family,&” a connection and clash that reaches back to the south side of Chicago in the 1930s. His father&’s and mother&’s families were both part of the Great Migration from the U.S. rural south to the industrial north, but a history of perceived slights and social-class differences solidified a great feud that only intensified over the course of the century after the families came together in marriage and split up across the border.Morgan&’s maternal grandfather, Claude Jones—a legendary grudge-holder, as well was an accomplished musician, peer of Oscar Peterson, and fixture of the Chicago jazz scene—was recruited to play some shows in Toronto, fell in love with the city, and eventually settled in Canada in the mid-1960s, paving the way for Morgan&’s parents to join him amid the tumult of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. Morgan&’s paternal grandmother, Granny Mary, however, remained stateside, a distance her schemes and resentments would only grow to fill. That fighting spirit wasn&’t limited to the family&’s own squabbles, though—it animated the way every generation moved through the world. From battling back as a group against white supremacist newcomers who violently resisted Black neighbours, to Morgan&’s pre-teen mother burnishing her own legend by cold-cocking some racist loudmouth bullies, the lesson was clear: sometimes words weren&’t enough.In Canada, the Campbells started a family of their own, but the tensions between in-laws never ceased, even as divorce and disease threatened the very foundations of the life they&’d built. Bearing witness to all of this was young Morgan, an aspiring writer, budding star athlete, and slow-jam scholar, whose deep American roots landed him an outsider status that led to its own schoolyard scraps and exposed the profound gap between Canada&’s utopian multicultural reputation and the very different reality. Having grown up bouncing between these disparate identities and nationalities, real or imagined—Black and Canadian, Canadian and American, Campbell and Jones—My Fighting Family is a witty, wise, rich, and soulful illumination of the journey to find clarity in all that conflict.Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir
Par George Clinton. 2014
**ONE OF THE BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ROLLING STONE**The captivating memoir from &“the emperor of intergalactic funk&”…
(NPR) and most influential pop artists of our time—known for over forty R&B hit singles—George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic.George Clinton began his musical career in New Jersey, where his obsession with doo-wop and R&B led to a barbershop quartet—literally, as Clinton and his friends also styled hair in the local shop—the way kids often got their musical start in the &’50s. But how many kids like that ended up playing to tens of thousands of rabid fans alongside a diaper-clad guitarist? How many of them commissioned a spaceship and landed it onstage during concerts? How many put their stamp on four decades of pop music, from the mind-expanding sixties to the hip-hop-dominated nineties and beyond? One of them. That&’s how many. How George Clinton got from barbershop quartet to funk music megastar is a story for the ages. As a high school student, George traveled to New York City, where he absorbed all the trends in pop music, from traditional rhythm and blues to Motown, the Beatles, the Stones, and psychedelic rock, not to mention the formative funk of James Brown and Sly Stone. By the dawn of the seventies, he had emerged as the leader of a wildly creative musical movement composed mainly of two bands—Parliament and Funkadelic. And by the bicentennial, Clinton and his P-Funk empire were dominating the soul charts as well as the pop charts. He was an artistic visionary, visual icon, merry prankster, absurdist philosopher, and savvy businessmen, all rolled into one. He was like no one else in pop music, before or since. Written with wit, humor, and candor, this memoir provides tremendous insight into America&’s music industry as forever changed by Clinton&’s massive talent. This is a story of a beloved global icon who dedicated himself to spreading the gospel of funk music.Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah
Par Kathy Iandoli. 2021
In a definitive and &“excellent homage to a star who left this planet too soon&” (Questlove), the life, career, tragic…
death, and evolution of Aaliyah into a music legend are explored—now updated with new material featuring in-depth research and exclusive interviews.By twenty-two years old, Aaliyah had already accomplished a staggering amount: hit records, acclaimed acting roles, and fame that was just about to cross over into superstardom. Like her song, she was already &“more than a woman&” but her shocking death in a plane crash prevented her from fully growing into one. Now, two decades later, the full story of Aaliyah&’s life and cultural impact is finally and lovingly revealed. Baby Girl features never-before-told stories, including studio anecdotes, personal tales, and eyewitness accounts on the events leading up to her untimely passing. Her enduring influence on today&’s artists—such as Rihanna, Drake, Normani, and many more—is also celebrated, providing Aaliyah&’s discography a cultural critique that is long overdue. &“There&’s no better way to pay your respect to R&B&’s true angel than to lose yourself in the pages&” (Kim Osorio, journalist and author of Straight from the Source) of this &“dazzling biography&” (Publishers Weekly) that is as unforgettable as its subject. This book was written without the participation of Aaliyah&’s family/estate.Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D'
Par Michael Cecchi-Azzolina. 2022
A front-of-the-house Kitchen Confidential from a career maître d’hotel who manned the front of the room in New York City's…
hottest and most in-demand restaurants. From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen—or just to gawk—at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world.Besides dropping us back into a vanished time, Your Table Is Ready takes us places we’d never be able to get into on our own: Raoul's in Soho with its louche club vibe; Buzzy O’Keefe’s casually elegant River Café (the only outer-borough establishment desirable enough to be included in this roster), from Keith McNally’s Minetta Tavern to Nolita’s Le Coucou, possibly the most beautiful room in New York City in 2018, with its French Country Auberge-meets-winery look and the most exquisite and enormous stands of flowers, changed every three days.From his early career serving theater stars like Tennessee Williams and Dustin Hoffman at La Rousse right through to the last pre-pandemic-shutdown full houses at Le Coucou, Cecchi-Azzolina has seen it all. In Your Table Is Ready, he breaks down how restaurants really run (and don’t), and how the economics work for owners and overworked staff alike. The professionals who gravitate to the business are a special, tougher breed, practiced in dealing with the demanding patrons and with each other, in a very distinctive ecosystem that’s somewhere between a George Orwell “down and out in….” dungeon and a sleek showman’s smoke-and-mirrors palace.Your Table Is Ready is a rollicking, raunchy, revelatory memoir.On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union
Par Daisy Pitkin. 2022
&“Riveting and intimate. It is hard to imagine a more humanizing portrait of the American labor movement. A remarkable debut.&” …
—Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River On the Line takes readers inside a bold five-year campaign to bring a union to the dangerous industrial laundry factories of Phoenix, Arizona. Workers here wash hospital, hotel, and restaurant linens and face harsh conditions: routine exposure to biohazardous waste, injuries from surgical tools left in hospital sheets, and burns from overheated machinery. Broken U.S. labor law makes it nearly impossible for them to fight back. The drive to unionize is led by two women: author Daisy Pitkin, a young labor organizer, who addresses this exhilarating narrative to Alma Gomez García, a second-shift immigrant worker, who risks her livelihood to join the struggle and convinces her fellow workers to take a stand. Forged in the flames of a grueling legal battle and the company&’s vicious anti-union crusade, including the retaliatory firing of Alma, the relationships that grow between Daisy, Alma, and the rest of the factory workers show how a union, at its best, can reach beyond the workplace and form a solidarity so powerful that it can transcend friendship and transform communities. But when political strife divides the union, and her friendship with Alma along with it, Daisy must reflect on her own position of privilege and the complicated nature of union hierarchies and top-down organizing. Daisy Pitkin looks back to uncover the forgotten roles immigrant women have played in the U.S. labor movement and points the way forward. As we experience one of the largest labor upheavals in decades, On the Line shows how difficult it is to bring about social change, and why we can&’t afford to stop trying.Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks
Par Crystal Wilkinson. 2024
A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from…
the former poet laureate of Kentucky.&“With Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, Crystal Wilkinson cements herself as one of the most dynamic book makers in our generation and a literary giant. Utter genius tastes like this.&”—Kiese Laymon, author of the Carnegie Medal-winning HeavyPeople are always surprised that Black people reside in the hills of Appalachia. Those not surprised that we were there, are surprised that we stayed.Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother&’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.An expert cook, Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor—delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Granny Christine&’s Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits, brought to vivid life through stunning photography. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.As the keeper of her family&’s stories and treasured dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century.A Terribly Serious Adventure: Philosophy and War at Oxford, 1900-1960
Par Nikhil Krishnan. 2023
&“Teeming with Oxford characters [and] lively storytelling . . . [recasts] the history of philosophy at Oxford in the mid-twentieth…
century by conveying not only what made it influential in its time but also what might make it vital in ours.&”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors&’ Choice)&“Ordinary Language can hardly convey how much I loved this book.&”—Tom Stoppard, Times Literary Supplement (&“Books of the Year 2023&”)A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEARWhat are the limits of language? How can philosophy be brought closer to everyday life? What is a good human being? These were among the questions that philosophers wrestled with in mid-twentieth-century Britain, a period shadowed by war and the rise of fascism. In response to these events, thinkers such as Philippa Foot (originator of the famous trolley problem), Isaiah Berlin, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Gilbert Ryle, and J. L. Austin aspired to a new level of watchfulness and self-awareness about language as a way of keeping philosophy true to everyday experience.A Terribly Serious Adventure traces the friendships and the rivalries, the shared preoccupations and the passionate disagreements of some of Oxford&’s most innovative thinkers. Far from being stuck in their ivory towers, the Oxford philosophers lived. They were codebreakers, diplomats, and soldiers in both World Wars, and they often drew on their real-world experience in creating their greatest works, masterpieces of British modernism original in both thought and style. Steeped in the dramatic history of the twentieth century, A Terribly Serious Adventure is an eye-opening look inside the rooms that changed how we think about our world. Shedding light on the lives and intellectual achievements of a large and spirited cast of characters, Cambridge academic Nikhil Krishnan shows us how much we can still learn from the Oxford philosophers. In our fractious, post-truth world, their acute sense of responsibility for their words, their passionate desire to get the little things right, stands as an inspiring example.Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents
Par Minal Hajratwala. 2006
The PEN Award–winning chronicle of the Indian diaspora told through the stories of the author&’s own family. In this &“rich,…
entertaining and illuminating story,&” Minal Hajratwala mixes history, memoir, and reportage to explore the collisions of choice and history that led her family to emigrate from India (San Francisco Chronicle). &“Meticulously researched and evocatively written&” (The Washington Post), Leaving India looks for answers to the eternal questions that faced not only Hajratwala&’s own Indian family but all immigrants, everywhere: Where did we come from? Why did we leave? What did we give up and gain in the process? Beginning with her great-grandfather Motiram&’s original flight from British-occupied India to Fiji, where he rose from tailor to department store mogul, Hajratwala follows her ancestors across the twentieth-century to explain how they came to be spread across five continents and nine countries. As she delves into the relationship between personal choice and the great historical forces—British colonialism, apartheid, Gandhi&’s salt march, and American immigration policy—that helped shape her family&’s experiences, Hajratwala brings to light for the very first time the story of the Indian diaspora. A luminous narrative from &“a fine daughter of the continent, bringing insight, intelligence and compassion to the lives and sojourns of her far-flung kin,&” Leaving India offers a deeply intimate look at what it means to call more than one part of the world home (Alice Walker).