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The Utility of Boredom: Baseball Essays
Par Andrew Forbes. 2016
Spitball literary essays on the off-kilter joys, sorrows and wonder of North America’s national pastime. A collection of essays for…
ardent seamheads and casual baseball fans alike, The Utility of Boredom is a book about finding respite and comfort in the order, traditions, and rituals of baseball. It’s a sport that shows us what a human being might be capable of, with extreme dedication—whether we’re eating hot dogs in the stands, waiting out a rain delay in our living rooms, or practising the lost art of catching a stray radio signal from an out-of-market broadcast. From learning about America through ball-diamond visits to the most famous triple play that never happened on Canadian soil, Forbes invites us to witness the adult conversing with the O-Pee-Chee baseball cards of his youth. Tender, insightful, and with the slow heartbreak familiar to anyone who’s cheered on a losing team, The Utility of Boredom tells us a thing or two about the sport, and how a seemingly trivial game might help us make sense of our messy lives.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.Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir
Par Lamya H. 2023
A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in this &“raw…
and relatable memoir that challenges societal norms and expectations&” (Linah Mohammad, NPR).&“A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart.&”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of UntamedAN AUDACIOUS BOOK CLUB PICK • WINNER: The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, the Stonewall Book Award, the Israel Fishman Nonfiction AwardA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Autostraddle, Book Riot, BookPage, Harper&’s Bazaar, Electric Lit, She ReadsWhen fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can&’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don&’t matter, and it&’s easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: When Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam, uninterested in men, be . . . like Lamya? From that moment on, Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark, begins to build a life of her own—ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant. This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya&’s childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one&’s own life.50 Years, 50 Moments: The Most Unforgettable Plays in Super Bowl History
Par Jerry Rice, Randy O. Williams. 2015
“In compiling the facts and details for this book, Randy and I have had the pleasure of hearing stories from…
players, coaches, executives, and broadcasters, spanning six decades of great football. I learned more than I ever thought I would about the game I love.”—Jerry RiceAs a three-time Super Bowl winner and Super Bowl MVP, Jerry Rice has firsthand knowledge of what it takes to win championships. In this celebration of the biggest game in professional sports, Rice counts down the fifty greatest moments from the grand, fifty-year history of the Super Bowl.Through scores of first-person accounts from the players and coaches themselves, readers get new and intimate perspectives on unforgettable plays such as James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, Butch Johnson’s diving touchdown catch for the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XII, Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway’s “helicopter” dive in Super Bowl XXXII, and how the author himself served as a decoy on the game-winning touchdown that would cement the San Francisco 49ers as the team of the 1980s.Together with coauthor and veteran sportswriter Randy O. Williams, Rice also recounts the improbable moments when role players rose to heroic heights: When the Green Bay Packers’ Max McGee came off the bench to catch the first touchdown in Super Bowl history; when a special teams player who almost didn’t make the Super Bowl roster helped the New Orleans Saints change the tide of Super Bowl XLIV, and when a New England defensive back with one career start made a game-saving interception at the goal line in the final minute of Super Bowl XLIX.50 Years, 50 Moments presents an intimate chronicle of the plays and players that won championships, forged dynasties, and changed the history of the NFL itself.Liberation: Diaries: 1970–1983
Par Christopher Isherwood. 2012
"A slip of a wild boy: with quick silver eyes," as Virginia Woolf saw him in the 1930s, Christopher Isherwood…
journeyed and changed with his century, until, by the 1980s, he was celebrated as the finest prose writer in English and the grand old man of gay liberation. In this final volume of his diaries, the capstone of a million-word masterwork, Isherwood greets advancing age with poignant humor and an unquenchable appetite for the new; even aches, illnesses, and diminishing powers are clues to a predicament still unfathomed. The mainstays of his mature contentment—his Hindu guru, Swami Prabhavananda, and his long-term companion, Don Bachardy—draw from him an unexpected high tide of joy and love.Around his private religious and domestic routines orbit gifted friends both anonymous and infamous. Bachardy's burgeoning career pulled Isherwood into the 1970s art scenes in Los Angeles, New York, and London, where we meet Rauschenberg, Ruscha, and Warhol (serving fetid meat for lunch), as well as Hockney (adored) and Kitaj. Collaborating with Bachardy on scripts for the prizewinning Frankenstein and the Broadway fiasco A Meeting by the River, Isherwood extended his ties in Hollywood and in the theater world. John Huston, Merchant and Ivory, John Travolta, David Bowie, John Voight, Armistead Maupin, Elton John, and Joan Didion each take a turn through Isherwood's densely populated human comedy, sketched with both ruthlessness and benevolence against the background of the Vietnam War, the energy crisis, and the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan White Houses.In Kathleen and Frank, his first book of this period, Isherwood unearthed the family demons that haunted his fugitive youth. When contemporaries began to die, he responded in Christopher and His Kind and My Guru and His Disciple with startling fresh truths about shared experiences. These are the most concrete and the most mysterious of his diaries, candidly revealing the fear of death that crowded in past Isherwood's fame, and showing how his lifelong immersion in the day-to-day lifted him, paradoxically, toward transcendence.When the United States officially entered World War I in 1917, it was woefully underprepared for chemical warfare, in which…
the British, French, and Germans had been engaged since 1915. In response, the U.S. Army created an entirely new branch: the Chemical Warfare Service. The army turned to trained chemists and engineers to lead the charge—and called on an array of others, including baseball players, to fill out the ranks.The Gas and Flame Men is the first full account of Major League ballplayers who served in the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. Four players, two club executives, and a manager served in the small and hastily formed branch, six of them as gas officers. Remarkably, five of the seven—Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, Ty Cobb, George Sisler, and Eppa &“Jeptha&” Rixey—are now enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. The son of a sixth Hall of Famer, player and manager Ned Hanlon, was a young officer killed in action in France with the First Gas Regiment. Prominent chemical soldiers also included veteran Major League catcher and future manager George &“Gabby&” Street and Boston Braves president and former Harvard football coach Percy D. Haughton.The Gas and Flame Men explores how these famous baseball men, along with an eclectic mix of polo players, collegiate baseball and football stars, professors, architects, and prominent social figures all came together in the Chemical Warfare Service. Jim Leeke examines their service and its long-term effects on their physical and mental health—and on Major League Baseball and the world of sports. The Gas and Flame Men also addresses historical inaccuracies and misperceptions surrounding Christy Mathewson&’s early death from tuberculosis in 1925, long attributed to wartime gas exposure.The Little Guide to Freddie Mercury: The show must go on (The little Book Of... Ser.)
Par Orange Hippo. 2023
A charismatic performer and frontman to Queen, Freddie Mercury is regarded as one of the greatest rock singers in music…
history.Bursting with all the famed wit, wisdom and wisecracks that made the late, great showman's larger-than-life career so compelling, this tiny tome is home to all of Freddie's most famous, infamous, and funniest flights of spoken fancy. From controversial interview quotes to candid life philosophies, through his legendary performance at Live Aid in 1985 to his final days as a solo artist, everything he ever said (almost) is here."A lot of people slammed 'Bohemian Rhapsody', but who can you compare that to? Name one group that's done an operatic single." Freddie, on 'Bohemian Rhapsody', interview with Circus magazine, March 1977."I think Queen songs are pure escapism, like going to see a good film – after that, people can go away, and go back to their problems." Freddie, on the magic of his band's songs, interview with Melody Maker, May 1981.Rebel Girls Celebrate Pride: 25 Tales of Self-Love and Community (Rebel Girls Minis)
Par Rebel Girls, Elena Favilli. 2023
TRUE STORIES OF PRIDE AND POWER!This collection features 25 inspiring tales of proud members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Read about…
how these women, girls, and nonbinary people broke down barriers, honored their identities, and lived authentically no matter what anyone else said.Find your voice with Janelle Monae. Play for equality with Billie Jean King. Protect your community with Marcia P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. And organize joyful celebrations with Dr. Lady Phyll and Molly Pinta.With a foreword by Elena Favilli, this book pairs inspiring, easy-to-read text with colorful full-page portraits created by female and nonbinary artists from all around the world. Plus, scannable codes let you listen to longer stories on the Rebel Girls app!Work, Fight, or Play Ball: How Bethlehem Steel Helped Baseball's Stars Avoid World War I
Par William Ecenbarger. 2024
In 1918, Bethlehem Steel started the world’s greatest industrial baseball league. Appealing to Major League Baseball players looking to avoid…
service in the Great War, teams employed “ringers” like Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, and Shoeless Joe Jackson in what became scornfully known as “safe shelter” leagues. In Work, Fight, or Play Ball, William Ecenbarger fondly recounts this little-known story of how dozens of athletes faced professional conflicts and a difficult choice in light of public perceptions and war propaganda. Some players used the steel mill and shipyard leagues to avoid wartime military duty, irking Major League owners, who saw their rosters dwindling. Bethlehem Steel President Charles Schwab (no relation to the financier) saw the league as a means to stave off employee and union organizing. Most fans loudly criticized the ballplayers, but nevertheless showed up to watch the action on the diamond. Ecenbarger traces the 1918 Steel League’s season and compares the fates of the players who defected to industry or continued to play stateside with the travails of the Major Leaguers, such as Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, who served during the war. Work, Fight, or Play Ball reveals the home field advantage brought on by the war, which allowed companies to profit from Major League players.Safe & Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair
Par Mercury Stardust. 2023
#1 New York Times BestsellerDon&’t panic—Mercury Stardust, AKA The Trans Handy Ma&’am is here to help!For too many people, the…
simple act of contacting a plumber or repair person can feel like a game of chance. As a transwoman and a professional maintenance technician, Mercury Stardust has discovered (the hard way) that we live in a world with much to fear. If you've ever felt panicked about opening your home to strangers in order to fix a maintenance issue, this book is for you.Renting a home can be a complex process—from finding a safe and affordable space, to hiring help for moving in and out, and of course, managing any repairs that come up during your stay. You deserve to feel empowered to take matters into your own hands—and it&’s not as hard as you might think. In this book, Mercury will show you how to tackle the projects that need improvement in your home—from how to properly fix a clog in your bathroom sink and safely hang things on your walls to patching small and medium drywall holes.Safe and Sound includes:Guidance for over 50 simple home maintenance projects, such as replacing your showerhead and troubleshooting a faulty garbage disposal.Chapters covering basic and handy repairs for your plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and safety needs. Advice tailored to renters to minimize permanent changes.Helpful illustrations and QR code links to videos to help you on your journey.Remember—a little bit of knowledge can go a long way toward making you feel more safe and in control of your own life.“A heartrending memoir meets an empowering self-help guide” in this account of coming to terms with food, body image, and…
sexuality (Joshua Rosenthal, founder and director of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition).In this riveting, intimate book, Marissa LaRocca relates her own struggle living, for a time, in two closets: one to hide her eating disorder and one to hide her sexuality and very identity. As she unravels the emotional layers of her battle, she reveals the skills she learned that led her to find herself—and to eventually emerge as an outspoken advocate for gay rights and women’s health issues. She shares the hard-won wisdom she gained during her journey, to help you:Identify the root causes, symptoms, and triggers associated with an eating disorderAcknowledge the “life issues” that are being masked by “food issues” or other addictionsDisempower compulsive behaviors like binging, purging, and obsessing about calories and exerciseHeal your relationship with food through healing your relationship with yourselfEscape the victim role, become empowered, and take responsibility for your own happinessConnect with your life’s purpose and authentic self, transforming your weaknesses into strengthsFree your mind through tuning in to the body and witnessing emotionsImprove your body image and self-esteem by aligning your lifestyle with your true values and desires, and with what is realisticEffectively communicate your needs with confidenceEstablish guilt-free lifestyle boundaries to reduce anxiety and maximize vitalityEnhance peace of mind by developing a reliable support systemEliminate the need to be perfect by practicing forgiveness and compassion toward yourselfWe Make It Better: The LGBTQ Community and Their Positive Contributions to Society
Par Eric Rosswood, Kathleen Archambeau. 2018
&“For all LGBTQ teens and young adults, this book will help inspire and empower you to become your best selves.&”…
—Dustin Lance Black, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Milk LGBT history is as old as history itself. We Make It Better profiles people, places, and events that show just how awesome and inspiring the LGBT community is. They have served their country, served in office, pushed for the protection of human rights, and impacted all fields of study, sport, art and industry. We Make It Better offers biographies of some of the most famous thinkers and changers in history from Bayard Rustin, Alan Turing, Dr. Sally Ride, and Oscar Wilde to present-day innovators and world-changers such as Billie Jean King, Jason Collins, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Cook, the Wachowski sisters, Sir Ian McKellen and more. But more than a &“who&’s who&” of LGBT history, We Make It Better is also a vibrant chronicle of the events in history in which the LGBT community came together to fight for equality and to save lives. Learn how they united during the HIV/AIDs crisis, fought for marriage equality, protested discrimination, and pushed for progressive change throughout the years. Places and cultures important to the LGBT community are also proudly profiled in this enlightening mix of biographies, history, and memorable quotes.Includes photosFinding America in a Minor League Ballpark: A Season Hosting for the Durham Bulls
Par Harris Cooper. 2024
Over forty million people attend minor league baseball games each season. Who are they? Why do they come? Let&’s find…
out! Noted social scientist Harris Cooper took a job as a Seating Bowl Host for the most famous minor league baseball team, the Durham Bulls. As a host, he helped fans find seats and other stadium amenities, made sure everyone was safe, took pictures, and chased kids from the aisles. He got to talk with a wide-ranging assortment of people, from regular attendees to those at their very first baseball game, from retired judges to middle school students. Minor league baseball games draw a broader array of Americans than any sport. The fleeting moments spent talking baseball with the fan sitting next to you or with a ballpark employee disguise the remarkable variety of people who call themselves &“baseball fans.&” Dr. Cooper brings these people to life. In addition, the book presents a brief history of minor league baseball, the Bulls, and the city of Durham, so typical of small American cities. It profiles the ballplayers, focusing not on their on-field statistics but on who they are and where they come from. The book also profiles twelve baseball movies, all of which focus on baseball not played in the major leagues. Throughout the book, Dr. Cooper draws on his knowledge of social science to extract from his experiences a description of the inhabitants and goings-on at a ballpark. It illuminates not just baseball writ large, but also provides a compelling portrait of Americans as a people and their shared love of our national pastime.Creating the National Pastime: Baseball Transforms Itself, 1903-1953
Par G. Edward White. 1996
At a time when many baseball fans wish for the game to return to a purer past, G. Edward White…
shows how seemingly irrational business decisions, inspired in part by the self-interest of the owners but also by their nostalgia for the game, transformed baseball into the national pastime. Not simply a professional sport, baseball has been treated as a focus of childhood rituals and an emblem of American individuality and fair play throughout much of the twentieth century. It started out, however, as a marginal urban sport associated with drinking and gambling. White describes its progression to an almost mythic status as an idyllic game, popular among people of all ages and classes. He then recounts the owner's efforts, often supported by the legal system, to preserve this image. Baseball grew up in the midst of urban industrialization during the Progressive Era, and the emerging steel and concrete baseball parks encapsulated feelings of neighborliness and associations with the rural leisure of bygone times. According to White, these nostalgic themes, together with personal financial concerns, guided owners toward practices that in retrospect appear unfair to players and detrimental to the progress of the game. Reserve clauses, blacklisting, and limiting franchise territories, for example, were meant to keep a consistent roster of players on a team, build fan loyalty, and maintain the game's local flavor. These practices also violated anti-trust laws and significantly restricted the economic power of the players. Owners vigorously fought against innovations, ranging from the night games and radio broadcasts to the inclusion of African-American players. Nonetheless, the image of baseball as a spirited civic endeavor persisted, even in the face of outright corruption, as witnessed in the courts' leniency toward the participants in the Black Sox scandal of 1919. White's story of baseball is intertwined with changes in technology and business in America and with changing attitudes toward race and ethnicity. The time is fast approaching, he concludes, when we must consider whether baseball is still regarded as the national pastime and whether protecting its image is worth the effort.Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War
Par George B. Kirsch. 2003
During the Civil War, Americans from homefront to battlefront played baseball as never before. While soldiers slaughtered each other over…
the country's fate, players and fans struggled over the form of the national pastime. George Kirsch gives us a color commentary of the growth and transformation of baseball during the Civil War. He shows that the game was a vital part of the lives of many a soldier and civilian--and that baseball's popularity had everything to do with surging American nationalism. By 1860, baseball was poised to emerge as the American sport. Clubs in northeastern and a few southern cities played various forms of the game. Newspapers published statistics, and governing bodies set rules. But the Civil War years proved crucial in securing the game's place in the American heart. Soldiers with bats in their rucksacks spread baseball to training camps, war prisons, and even front lines. As nationalist fervor heightened, baseball became patriotic. Fans honored it with the title of national pastime. War metaphors were commonplace in sports reporting, and charity games were scheduled. Decades later, Union general Abner Doubleday would be credited (wrongly) with baseball's invention. The Civil War period also saw key developments in the sport itself, including the spread of the New York-style of play, the advent of revised pitching rules, and the growth of commercialism. Kirsch recounts vivid stories of great players and describes soldiers playing ball to relieve boredom. He introduces entrepreneurs who preached the gospel of baseball, boosted female attendance, and found new ways to make money. We witness bitterly contested championships that enthralled whole cities. We watch African Americans embracing baseball despite official exclusion. And we see legends spring from the pens of early sportswriters. Rich with anecdotes and surprising facts, this narrative of baseball's coming-of-age reveals the remarkable extent to which America's national pastime is bound up with the country's defining event.Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir
Par Curtis Chin. 2023
An American Library Association Stonewall Honor BookMost Anticipated This Fall in TIME, San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, Goodreads, Lamba…
Literary Review, Kirkus Reviews, and PinkNewsThis &“vivid, moving, funny, and heartfelt&” memoir tells the story of Curtis Chin&’s time growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in 1980&’s Detroit (Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers). Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung&’s Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone—from the city&’s first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples—could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here was where, beneath a bright-red awning and surrounded by his multigenerational family, filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city&’s spiraling misfortunes; and where—between helpings of almond boneless chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some of his own, less-savory culinary concoctions—he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself. Served up by the cofounder of the Asian American Writers&’ Workshop and structured around the very menu that graced the tables of Chung&’s, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is both a memoir and an invitation: to step inside one boy&’s childhood oasis, scoot into a vinyl booth, and grow up with him—and perhaps even share something off the secret menu.The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns
Par Peter Golenbock. 2000
No metropolis in America has more pure baseball spirit than St. Louis, Missouri. It's a love affair that began in…
1874, when a band of local boosters raised $20,000 to start a professional ball club, and the honeymoon still isn't over. Now Peter Golenbock, the bestselling author and master of baseball oral history, has written another remarkable saga enriched by extensive and incomparable remembrances from the scores of players, managers, and executives who lived it.These pages capture the voices of Branch Rickey on George Sisler. Rogers Hornsby and his creation of the farm system. Hornsby on Grover Cleveland Alexander -- and Alexander on Hornsby. Dizzy Dean on -- who else? -- Dizzy Dean. And so many others including "The Man" himself, Stan Musial; Eldon Auker, Ellis Clary, Denny Galehouse, and Don Gutteridge on the 1940s Browns; Brooks Lawrence, the second man to cross the Cardinals' color line; Jim Bronsnan, the first man to break the players' "code of silence"; Tommy Herr, Darrell Porter, and Joe McGrane on Whitey Herzog's Cardinals; and Cardinal owner Bill DeWitt, Jr., on the team today.The Red Widow: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind it All
Par Sarah Horowitz. 2022
"An unforgettable portrait of a woman who became one of the most notorious figures of her day and whose scandalous…
story sheds fascinating light not only on her own tumultuous time but ours as well." — Harold Schechter, author of Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Guinness, Butcher of MenSex, corruption, and power: the rise and fall of the Red Widow of ParisParis, 1889: Margeurite Steinheil is a woman with ambition. But having been born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage to a failed artist twenty years her senior, she knows her options are limited.Determined to fashion herself into a new woman, Meg orchestrates a scandalous plan with her most powerful resource: her body. Amid the dazzling glamor, art, and romance of bourgeois Paris, she takes elite men as her lovers, charming her way into the good graces of the rich and powerful. Her ambitions, though, go far beyond becoming the most desirable woman in Paris; at her core, she is a woman determined to conquer French high society. But the game she plays is a perilous one: navigating misogynistic double-standards, public scrutiny, and political intrigue, she is soon vaulted into infamy in the most dangerous way possible.A real-life femme fatale, Meg influences government positions and resorts to blackmail—and maybe even poisoning—to get her way. Leaving a trail of death and disaster in her wake, she earns the name the "Red Widow" for mysteriously surviving a home invasion that leaves both her husband and mother dead. With the police baffled and the public enraged, Meg breaks every rule in the bourgeois handbook and becomes the most notorious woman in Paris.An unforgettable true account of sex, scandal, and murder, The Red Widow is the story of a woman determined to rise—at any cost.The ABC's of LGBT+: (gender Identity Book For Teens, Teen And Young Adult Lgbt Issues)
Par Ashley Mardell. 2016
The YouTube star presents a personal, approachable, and informative guide for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of gender and sexual…
identity. The ABCs of LGBT+ is essential reading for questioning teens, teachers or parents looking for advice, or anyone who wants to learn how to talk about gender and sexual identity. In this volume, popular vlogger Ash Mardell, who embraces all pronouns, answers your questions about the post-binary world of the twenty-first century. With in-depth definitions, personal anecdotes, helpful infographics, resources, and more, Mardell lets readers know that it really does get better when we are empowered by information and understanding. In Mardell&’s own words, "This book is also for allies and LGBT+ people simply looking to pack in some extra knowledge . . . a critical part of acceptance. Learning about new identities broadens our understanding of humanity, heightens our empathy, and allows us different, valuable perspectives.&” Topics covered include: · LGBT and LGBTQIA+ · Gender identity · Sexual identity · Teens in a binary world · The LGBT family and moreSipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw: Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever
Par Eddie Ndopu. 2023
Apple's Best Books of August 2023 A memoir penned with one good finger, Ndopu writes about being profoundly disabled and profoundly…
successful. Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn&’t live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music, lip syncing the latest hits, and watching The Bold and the Beautiful for the haute couture, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought after speaker, travelling the world to address audiences about disability justice. Ndopu was ecstatic when he was later accepted on a full scholarship into one of the world's most prestigious schools, Oxford University. But he soon learns that it's not just the medical community he must thwart— it's the educational one too. In Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw, we follow Ndopu, sporting his oversized, bejewelled sunglasses, as he scales the mountain of success, only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect waiting for him on the other side. Like every other student, Ndopu tries to keep up appearances—dashing to and from his public policy lectures before meeting for cocktails with his squad, all while campaigning to become student body president. Privately, however, Ndopu faces obstacles that are all too familiar to people with disabilities, yet remain unnoticed by most people. With the revolving door of care aides, hefty bills, and a lack of support from the university, Ndopu feels alienated by his environment. As he soars professionally, sipping champagne with world leaders, he continues to feel the loneliness and pressure of being the only one in the room. Determined to carve out his place in the world, he must challenge bias at the highest echelons of power and prestige. But as the pressure mounts, Ndopu must find his stride or collapse under the crushing weight of ableism. Written with his one good finger, this evocative, searing, and vulnerable prose will leave you spellbound by Ndopu&’s remarkable journey to reach beyond ableism, reminding us of our own capacity for resilience.