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The dancer's promise
Par Olivia Horrox. 2024
'Oh my gosh! What a beautifully written story!... I totally loved it... I literally could not stop reading... This is…
a must if you like historical fiction!!' Reader review 5 stars 'A beautifully written and evocative story of love and loss, of family and redemption, that swept me away.' Rachel Burton, author of The Last Party at Silverton Hall When their father loses the family fortune, and their mother locks herself away, sisters Grace and Clementine are left to raise themselves in a grand London house that is slowly falling apart around them. Each of them is determined to one day restore their fortunes and their family name and make a promise to do just that. Clementine dreams of being a star on stage, a celebrated ballerina who will tour the world, earning fame and fortune. She is adamant she won't put her fate into a man's hands but take charge of it herself. Grace, in contrast, sees security in a good marriage. Their eligible new American neighbour, with wealth, charm and looks, seems like the perfect match. But when Clementine falls unexpectedly in love, it throws both sisters' lives into turmoil and forces each of them to ask if they are prepared to break their promise for a chance at true love... A beautifully imagined historical novel about the bond between sisters and a changing world. Perfect for fans of Tracy Rees, Lucinda Riley and Kate Morton. Readers love The Dancer's Promise : ' Brilliant ... I loved the characters Grace and Clementine a true story of sisterly love and support in such difficult times... Truly memorable read ... touching and inspiring' Reader review 5 stars ' What a treat! With its mystery element thrown in to enhance the plot, I found the time sped by and I was lost in another time and place ' Reader review 5 starsA Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War
Par Anna Reid. 2023
The first comprehensive history of the failed Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War, a decisive turning point in the…
relationship between Russia and the West Overlapping with and overshadowed by the First World War, the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War was one of the most ambitious military ventures of the twentieth century. Launched in the summer of 1918, it drew in 180,000 troops from fifteen different countries in theaters ranging from the Caspian Sea to the Arctic, and from Poland to the Pacific. Though little remembered today, its consequences stoked global political turmoil for decades to come. In A Nasty Little War, top Russia historian Anna Reid offers a sweeping and deeply researched account of the conflict. Initially launched to prevent Germany from exploiting the power vacuum in Eastern Europe left by the Russian Revolution, the Intervention morphed into a bid to destroy the Bolsheviks on the battlefield. But Allied armaments, supplies, and loans could not prevent Russia&’s anti-Bolshevik armies from collapsing, and the Allies were forced to retreat in defeat. The humiliation sapped British imperial swagger, chastened American idealism, and stoked militarism and nationalism in France and Germany. Combining immersive storytelling with deep research, A Nasty Little War reveals how the Allied Intervention reshaped the West&’s relations with Russia, and set a pattern for other interventions to come.We Shall All Be Changed: How Facing Death with Loved Ones Transforms Us
Par Whitney K. Pipkin. 2024
Death teaches us how to live.When Whitney K. Pipkin&’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she wasn&’t ready. How could…
she be? She searched for resources that could help her walk through this heavy yet sacred time in her life. But she struggled to find the guidance she longed for in a season of anticipatory grief.We Shall All Be Changed is a companion for those experiencing the lonely season of suffering and death. In this book, Whitney reaches across the pages to hold the hand of the caregiver. Walking through death with a loved one can be incredibly isolating and unsettling. This book reminds us that we can experience God&’s very presence in life&’s dark and deep valleys. As Whitney draws from her own experience, she sheds light and hope. She shows that we are not alone. And she reveals the mysterious way that God ministers to and transforms us through death and suffering.Beautifully honest and theologically rich, Whitney invites us to consider death so that we might understand life and how to live it.Rather than wanting to run from discussions of death—as I did for so long—I now want to press into them, to wring from one of the hardest trials life has to offer every drop of sanctification and glory. I see now that having a front seat to my mom&’s final days has forever changed the ones I have left to live. —Whitney PipkinA book for those who are caring for the sick and dying . . . for those who will care for parents, family, or friends in their last days . . . and for those who have already walked this journey. This book is for us.Adult Personality Development: Volume 1: Theories and Concepts
Par Lawrence S. Wrightsman. 1994
Why do we, as adults, have the personality characteristics we do? No one explanation is accepted by all; however, in…
this greatly expanded version of his earlier book, Personality Development in Adulthood, Wrightsman helps us understand and organize the three broad theoretical approaches to explain psychological changes during the period from adolescence to the onset of late adulthood. Each of these approaches--early formation theories, stage theories, and the dialectical approach--are described and contrasted in order to help us more easily compare our experiences with those of others. Case histories, relevant current events, and boxed inserts are used throughout the book to illustrate important concepts in a thought-provoking, lively manner. Written in a compelling, non-technical style, the book is accessible to students and interested readers from all disciplines, especially psychology, clinical and developmental psychology, aging, family studies, sociology, gender studies and nursing.Beginning in the fall of 1914, every French soldier on the Western Front received a daily ration of wine from…
the army. At first it was a modest quarter litre, but by 1917 it had increased to the equivalent of a full bottle each day. The wine ration was intended to sustain morale in the trenches, making the men more willing to endure suffering and boredom. The army also supplied soldiers with doses of distilled alcohol just before attacks to increase their ferocity and fearlessness. This strategic distribution of alcohol was a defining feature of French soldiers’ experiences of the war and amounted to an experimental policy of intoxicating soldiers for military ends.A Thirst for Wine and War explores the French army’s emotional and behavioural conditioning of soldiers through the distribution of a mind-altering drug that was later hailed as one of the army’s “fathers of victory.” The daily wine ration arose from an unexpected set of factors including the demoralization of trench warfare, the wine industry’s fear of losing its main consumers, and medical consensus about the benefits of wine drinking. The army’s related practice of distributing distilled alcohol to embolden soldiers was a double-edged sword, as the men might become unruly. The army implemented regulations and surveillance networks to curb men’s drinking behind the lines, in an attempt to ensure they only drank when it was useful to the war effort. When morale collapsed in spring 1917, the army lost control of this precarious system as drunken soldiers mutinied in the thousands. Discipline was restored only when the army regained command of soldiers’ alcohol consumption.Drawing on a range of archives, personal narratives, and trench journals, A Thirst for Wine and War shows how the French army’s intoxication of its soldiers constituted a unique exercise of biopower deployed on a mass scale.Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Hospital Ship During the Great War
Par Nate Hendley. 2024
How a German submarine sank a Canadian military hospital ship during the First World War and sparked outrage.On the evening…
of June 27, 1918, the Llandovery Castle — an unarmed, clearly marked hospital ship used by the Canadian military — was torpedoed off the Irish Coast by U-Boat 86, a German submarine.Sinking hospital ships violated international law. To conceal his actions, the U-86 commander had the submarine deck guns fire on survivors. One lifeboat escaped with witnesses to the atrocity. Global outrage over the attack ensued.The sinking of the Llandovery Castle was adjudicated at the Leipzig War Crimes Trials, an attempt to establish justice after hostilities ceased. The Llandovery Castle case resulted in a historic legal precedent that guided subsequent war crime prosecutions, including the Nuremberg Trials.Atrocity on the Atlantic explores the Llandovery Castle sinking, the people impacted by the attack, and the reasons why this wartime atrocity was largely forgotten.The Road to Passchendaele: The Heroic Year in Soldiers' Own Words and Photographs
Par Richard Van Emden. 2017
Passchendaele is the next volume in the highly regarded series of books from the best-selling First World War historian Richard…
van Emden. Once again, using the winning formula of diaries and memoirs, and above all original photographs taken on illegally held cameras by the soldiers themselves, Richard tells the story of 1917, of life both in and out of the line culminating in perhaps the most dreaded battle of them all, the Battle of Passchendaele. His pervious book, The Somme, has now sold nearly 20,000 copies in hardback and softback, proving that the public appetite is undiminished for new, original stories illustrated with over 150 rarely or never-before-seen battlefield images. The author has an outstanding collection of over 5,000 privately taken and overwhelmingly unpublished photographs, revealing the war as it was seen by the men involved, an existence that was sometimes exhilarating, too often terrifying, and occasionally even fun. Richard van Emden interviewed 270 veterans of the Great War, has written extensively about the soldiers' lives, and has worked on many television documentaries, always concentrating on the human aspects of war, its challenge and its cost to the millions of men involved. This book will be published in June 2017, in time for the 100th anniversary of the epic Battle of Passchendaele which began on 31st July 1917 Richard van Emdens books sold over 650,000 books and have appeared in The Times bestseller chart on a number of occasions. He lives in West London and regularly appears on television, mostly recently as BBC1s historian for the national commemorations of the Somme Battle. He has appeared on over forty television documentaries and has written nineteen books on the First World War.Healthy Ageing after COVID-19: Research and Policy Perspectives from Asia (ISSN)
Par Wang-Kin Chiu and Vincent T. S. Law. 2024
Written by researchers and experienced health professionals from Hong Kong, China, Chiu and Law identify and examine important issues of…
healthy ageing after COVID-19 from research and policy perspectives in the Asian contexts.This book opens with discussions of healthy ageing from personal, social, economic, and political perspectives. These discussions make reference to the key characteristics of a community health model. It aims to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on aged care in an international perspective, citing the fifth wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong as a case report. Comprehensive analysis on the influence of COVID-19 infection on Hong Kong and the implemented anti-pandemic policy measures, as well as recommendations of post-pandemic policies to promote healthy ageing, are provided. This monograph also reviews the worldwide impacts on aged care during and after the pandemic, as well as the experience of aged care services in Hong Kong and other Asia-Pacific regions. The responding changes in policies and strategies for healthy ageing in selected countries are also reviewed. This monograph ends with a highlight on the design and development of a community model for healthy ageing, providing insights to the achievement of sustainable healthy ageing with reference to the sustainable development goal (SDG) 3.A valuable resource to governments, politicians, academics, and practitioners, it is intended for formulating future directions of relevant research, and the design and implementation of interventions for the promotion of healthy ageing in the post-pandemic era.The Boomer Burden: Dealing with Your Parents' Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff
Par Julie Hall. 2008
A practical guide to advise Baby Boomers how to deal with the daunting task of facing a parents' eventual passing…
as it relates to residential contents, heirlooms, and the often difficult family interactions and feuds that accompany them.With fascinating stories and comprehensive checklists, professional estate liquidator Julie Hall walks Baby Boomers through the often painful challenge of dividing the wealth and property of their parents' lifetime accumulation of stuff. From preparation while the parent is still living through compassionately helping them empty the family home, The Estate Lady® gives invaluable tips on negotiating the inevitable disputes, avoiding exploitation from scam artists, and eventually closing the chapter of their lives in a way that preserves relationships and maximizes value of assets.Home Care for Sale: The Transnational Brokering of Senior Care in Europe (SAGE Studies in International Sociology)
Par Brigitte Aulenbacher, Helma Lutz, Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck, Karin Schwiter. 2024
The world of senior care provision and care work is changing rapidly. Across Europe, brokering agencies for live-in care workers…
have become powerful players in reshaping welfare systems, transnational care chains and working conditions. This volume draws together the latest research on live-in home care for seniors in Europe, exploring processes of commodification and marketisation, the transnationalisation of care work, the private household as a workplace, and workers’ contestation of the live-in care arrangement. Together, they depict far-reaching challenges in care provision and care work. "A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the changes in the political economy of care in the 21st century. A compelling exploration of the emergence of care brokerage and agency intermediation in Europe with a variety of examples from different countries and care settings." - Professor Sabrina Marchetti, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice "Essential reading. Rich empirical and conceptual work provides an exhaustive account of the commodification, marketisation, transnationalisation and exploitation in the care industry, all in the context of global and local inequalities. This is a group of amazing critical analysts who dare to confront some of the key contradictions of our current painful social transformation in European terrains." - Professor Attila Melegh, Corvinus University Budapest "An encyclopaedic account of the commodification and marketisation of transnationally-brokered senior home care provision across Europe. It pays close attention to the economic and social inequalities, as well as state policies, that underlie this new migration industry, and the collective efforts to contest and improve conditions of work and care. Home Care for Sale documents the geography of care chains within a divided Europe - a geography that both complements and disrupts conventional understandings of international care chains between the Global North and South. A must-read for those interested in senior home care, social reproduction, migration, border studies and the workings and repercussions of neoliberal state policies." - Professor Géraldine Pratt, University of British ColumbiaHome Care for Sale: The Transnational Brokering of Senior Care in Europe (SAGE Studies in International Sociology)
Par Brigitte Aulenbacher, Helma Lutz, Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck, Karin Schwiter. 2024
The world of senior care provision and care work is changing rapidly. Across Europe, brokering agencies for live-in care workers…
have become powerful players in reshaping welfare systems, transnational care chains and working conditions. This volume draws together the latest research on live-in home care for seniors in Europe, exploring processes of commodification and marketisation, the transnationalisation of care work, the private household as a workplace, and workers’ contestation of the live-in care arrangement. Together, they depict far-reaching challenges in care provision and care work. "A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the changes in the political economy of care in the 21st century. A compelling exploration of the emergence of care brokerage and agency intermediation in Europe with a variety of examples from different countries and care settings." - Professor Sabrina Marchetti, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice "Essential reading. Rich empirical and conceptual work provides an exhaustive account of the commodification, marketisation, transnationalisation and exploitation in the care industry, all in the context of global and local inequalities. This is a group of amazing critical analysts who dare to confront some of the key contradictions of our current painful social transformation in European terrains." - Professor Attila Melegh, Corvinus University Budapest "An encyclopaedic account of the commodification and marketisation of transnationally-brokered senior home care provision across Europe. It pays close attention to the economic and social inequalities, as well as state policies, that underlie this new migration industry, and the collective efforts to contest and improve conditions of work and care. Home Care for Sale documents the geography of care chains within a divided Europe - a geography that both complements and disrupts conventional understandings of international care chains between the Global North and South. A must-read for those interested in senior home care, social reproduction, migration, border studies and the workings and repercussions of neoliberal state policies." - Professor Géraldine Pratt, University of British Columbia"Exceptional military history worthy of its heroic subject." —Matthew J. DavenportIn the vein of Band of Brothers and American Sniper, a…
riveting history of Alvin York, the World War I legend who killed two dozen Germans and captured more than 100, detailing York's heroics yet also restoring the unsung heroes of his patrol to their rightful place in history—from renowned World War I historian James Carl Nelson.October 8, 1918 was a banner day for heroes of the American Expeditionary Force. Thirteen men performed heroic deeds that would earn them Medals of Honor. Of this group, one man emerged as the single greatest American hero of the Great War: Alvin Cullum York. A poor young farmer from Tennessee, Sergeant York was said to have single-handedly killed two dozen Germans and captured another 132 of the enemy plus thirty-five machine guns before noon on that fateful Day of Valor. York would become an American legend, celebrated in magazines, books, and a blockbuster biopic starring Gary Cooper. The film, Sergeant York, told of a hell-raiser from backwoods Tennessee who had a come-to-Jesus moment, then wrestled with his newfound Christian convictions to become one of the greatest heroes the U.S. Army had ever known. It was a great story—but not the whole story.In this absorbing history, James Carl Nelson unspools, for the first time, the complete story of Alvin York and the events that occurred in the Argonne Forest on that day. Nelson gives voice, in particular, to the sixteen “others” who fought beside York. Hailing from big cities and small towns across the U.S. as well as several foreign countries, these soldiers included a patrician Connecticut farmer whose lineage could be traced back to the American Revolution, a poor runaway from Massachusetts who joined the Army under a false name, and a Polish immigrant who enlisted in hopes of expediting his citizenship. The York Patrol shines a long overdue spotlight on these men and York, and pays homage to their bravery and sacrifice. Illustrated with 25 black-and-white images, The York Patrol is a rousing tale of courage, tragedy, and heroism.An account of Germany's little known U-boat campaign against merchant shipping along the North American Atlantic coast during the first…
six months of 1942. It also documents the failure of the US Navy to meet the German attack.Good to Go: The Life And Times Of A Decorated Member of the U.S. Navy's Elite Seal Team Two
Par Harold Constance, Randall Fuerst. 1997
"Fractions of a second in time. What amazing violence can be meted out in the blink of an eye."In the…
mid-nineteen sixties, Harry Constance made a life-altering journey that led him out of Texas and into the jungles of Vietnam. As a young naval officer, he went from UDT training to the U.S. Navy's newly formed SEAL Team Two, and then straight into furious action. By 1970, he was already the veteran of three hundred combat missions and the recipient of thirty-two military citations, including three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.Good To Go is Constance's powerful, firsthand account of his three tours of duty as a member of America's most elite, razor-sharp stealth fighting force. It is a breathtaking memoir of harrowing missions and covert special-ops—from the floodplains of the Mekong Delta to the beaches of the South China Sea—that places the reader in the center of bloody ambushes and devastating firefights. But his extraordinary adventure goes even farther—beyond 'Nam—as we accompany Constance and the SEALs on astonishing missions to some of the world's most dangerous hot-spots . . . and experience close-up the courage, dedication, and unparalleled skill that made the U.S. Navy SEALs legendary.Includes 8 Pages of SEAL Team Action Photos!Indestructible: The Unforgettable Memoir of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima
Par Jack H. Lucas, D. K. Drum. 1945
Medal of Honor recipient Jack H. Lucas’s classic memoir of his heroics at the Battle of Iwo Jima—with a foreword…
by Bob Dole and reissued to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the battle in 2020.On February 20, 1945, the second day of the assault on Iwo Jima—one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific theater in World War II—Private Jack Lucas, who was only seventeen, and three other Marines engaged in a close-proximity firefight with Japanese soldiers. When two enemy grenades landed in their trench, Lucas jumped on one and pulled the other under his body to save the lives of his comrades. Lucas was blown into the air as his body was torn apart by 250 entrance wounds. He was so severely wounded that his team left him for dead. Miraculously, he survived.While on the hospital ship Samaritan, his spirit soared to see the American flag flying atop Mount Suribachi—the same flag immortalized in Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. Lucas endured twenty-one grueling surgeries and carried 200 pieces of shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life. Awarded the Medal of Honor, he became the youngest Marine in U.S. history—and the youngest of all World War II servicemen—to receive the honor.Indestructible tells the remarkable story of an extraordinary American possessed with a fierce determination to serve his country.Compared to Casablanca by the Washington Post, The Freedom Line is a page-turning story of a group of resistance workers who secreted downed…
Allied fighter pilots through France and into safety in Spain during World War II—perfect for fans of Apple TV's Masters of the Air.As war raged against Hitler's Germany, an increasing number of Allied fliers were shot down on missions against Nazi targets in occupied Europe. Many fliers parachuted safely behind enemy lines only to find themselves stranded and hunted down by the Gestapo. The Freedom Line traces the thrilling and true story of Robert Grimes, a 20–year–old American B–17 pilot whose plane was shot down over Belgium on Oct. 20, 1943. Wounded, disoriented, and scared, he was rescued by operatives of the Comet Line, a group of tenacious young women and men from Belgium, France, and Spain who joined forces to rescue the Allied aircrews and take them to safety. And on Christmas Eve 1943, he and a group of fellow Americans faced unexpected sudden danger and tragedy on the border between France and Spain.The road to safety was a treacherous journey by train, by bicycle, and on foot that stretched hundreds of miles across occupied France to the Pyrenees Mountains at the Spanish border. Armed with guile and spirit, the selfless civilian fighters of the Comet Line had risked their lives to create this underground railroad, and by this time in the war, they had saved hundreds of Americans, British, Australians, and other Allied airmen.Based on interviews with the survivors and in–depth archival research, The Freedom Line is the story of a group of friends who chose to act on their own out of a deep respect for liberty and human dignity. Theirs was a courage that presumed to take on a fearfully powerful foe with few defences.Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War
Par Linda Hervieux. 2015
"An utterly compelling account of the African Americans who played a crucial and dangerous role in the invasion of Europe.…
The story of their heroic duty is long overdue.” —Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest GenerationThe injustices of 1940s Jim Crow America are brought to life in this extraordinary blend of military and social history—a story that pays tribute to the valor of an all-Black battalion whose crucial contributions at D-Day have gone unrecognized to this day.In the early hours of June 6, 1944, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers, landed on the beaches of France. Their orders were to man a curtain of armed balloons meant to deter enemy aircraft. One member of the 320th would be nominated for the Medal of Honor, an award he would never receive. The nation’s highest decoration was not given to Black soldiers in World War II.Drawing on newly uncovered military records and dozens of original interviews with surviving members of the 320th and their families, Linda Hervieux tells the story of these heroic men charged with an extraordinary mission, whose contributions to one of the most celebrated events in modern history have been overlooked. Members of the 320th—Wilson Monk, a jack-of-all-trades from Atlantic City; Henry Parham, the son of sharecroppers from rural Virginia; William Dabney, an eager 17-year-old from Roanoke, Virginia; Samuel Mattison, a charming romantic from Columbus, Ohio—and thousands of other African Americans were sent abroad to fight for liberties denied them at home. In England and Europe, these soldiers discovered freedom they had not known in a homeland that treated them as second-class citizens—experiences they carried back to America, fueling the budding civil rights movement.In telling the story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, Hervieux offers a vivid account of the tension between racial politics and national service in wartime America, and a moving narrative of human bravery and perseverance in the face of injustice.Black May: The Epic Story of the Allies' Defeat of the German U-Boats in May 1943
Par Michael Gannon. 1998
In May 1943, Allied sea and air forces won a stunning, dramatic, and vital victory over the largest and most…
powerful submarine force ever sent to sea, sinking forty-one German U-boats and damaging thirty-seven others. It was the forty-fifth month of World War II, and by the end of May the Germans were forced to acknowledge defeat and recall almost all of their remaining U-boats from the major traffic lanes of the North Atlantic. At U-Boat Headquarters in Berlin, despondent naval officers spoke of "Black May." It was a defeat from which the German U-boat fleet never recovered.Black May is a triumph of scholarship and narrative, an important work of history, and a great sea story. Acclaimed historian Michael Gannon, author of Operation Drumbeat, has done enormous research and produced the most thoroughly documented study ever done of these battles. In his compelling historical saga, the people are as significant as the technical information.Given the strategic importance of the events of May 1943, it is natural to ask, How did Black May happen and why? Who or what was responsible? Were new Allied tactics adopted or new weapons employed?This book answers those questions and many others. Drawing on original documents in German, British, U.S., and Canadian archives, as well as interviews with surviving participants, Gannon describes the exciting sea and air battles, frequently taking the reader inside the U-boats themselves, aboard British warships, onto the decks of torpedoed merchant ships, and into the cockpits of British and U.S. aircraft.Throughout, Gannon tells the Black May story from both the German and Allied perspectives, often using the actual words of captains and crews. Finally, he allows the reader to "listen in" on secretly recorded conversations of captured U-boat men in POW quarters during that same incredible month, giving intimate and moving access to the thoughts and emotions of seamen that is unparalleled in naval literature. Rarely, if ever, has the U-boat war been presented so accurately, so graphically, and so personally as in Black May.Loving Your Parents When They Can No Longer Love You
Par Terry D. Hargrave. 2005
Insights on Caring for Any Aging Parent• Timely guidance for the challenges• Encouragement for the journeyYou had plans for this…
time in your life, but now a parent needs care. It’s a confusing, stressful, and exhausting time. But it can also be a time of remarkable spiritual growth. Loving Your Parents When They Can No Longer Love You helps you navigate your role as caregiver with God’s grace and guidance. And it alerts you to the difficult issues you may face, such as:• Legal and financial decisions• How much care will be needed and when• Evaluating different living options• Depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease• Caring for a parent who has mistreated you • Accepting and planning for deathMost important, this book helps you embrace caregiving as a spiritual journey that will deepen your faith and strengthen your character. It not only opens your eyes to the realities of caregiving; it also teaches you how to allow God to change your life for the better.Forward from Here: Leaving Middle Age—and Other Unexpected Adventures
Par Reeve Lindbergh. 2008
In her funny and wistful new book, Reeve Lindbergh contemplates entering a new stage in life, turning sixty, the period…
her mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, once described as "the youth of old age." It is a time of life, she writes, that produces some unexpected surprises. Age brings loss, but also love; disaster, but also delight. The second-graders Reeve taught many years ago are now middle-aged; her own children grow, marry, have children themselves. "Time flies," she observes, "but if I am willing to fly with it, then I can be airborne, too." A milestone birthday is also an opportunity to take stock of oneself, although such self-reflection may lead to nothing more than the realization, as Reeve puts it, "that I just seem to continue being me, the same person I was at twelve and at fifty." At sixty, as she observes, "all I really can do with the rest of my life is to...feel all of it, every bit of it, as much as I can for as long as I can." Age is only one of many subjects that Reeve writes about with perception and insight. In northern Vermont, nature is an integral part of daily life, especially on a farm. Whether it is the arrival and departure of certain birds in spring and fall, wandering turtles, or the springtime ritual of lambing, the natural world is a constant revelation. With a wry sense of humor, Reeve contemplates the infirmities of the aging body, as well as the many new drugs that treat these maladies. Briefly considering the risks of drug dependency, she writes that "the least we [the "Sixties Generation"] can do for ourselves is live up to our mythology, and take lots of drugs." Legal drugs, that is -- although what sustains us as we grow older is not drugs but an appreciation for life, augmented by compassion, a sense of humor, and common sense. And of course there is family -- especially with the Lindberghs. Reeve writes about discovering, thirty years after her father's death and two and a half years after her mother's, that her father had three secret families in Europe. She travels to meet them, learning to expand her self-understanding: "daughter of," "mother of," "sister of" -- sister of many more siblings than she'd known, in a family more complicated than even she had imagined. Forward from Here is a brave book, a reflective book, a funny book -- a book that will charm and fascinate anyone on the journey from middle age to the uncertain future that lies ahead.