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Showing 16661 - 16680 of 33653 items
By Nicole Stamant. 2014
Serial Memoir chronicles the phenomenon of seriality in memoir, a transition in life writing toward repeated acts of self-representation in…
the later twentieth century. Such a shift demonstrates a new way to understand and represent constantly-shifting subjectivities and their ambivalent relationship to the concept and structure of the archive.By Marsha Mason. 2000
As an actress, Marsha Mason has had a varied and very successful career. Winner of the Golden Globe award as…
best actress and a four-time Academy Award® nominee, she has worked in film (perhaps most notably in the movies Cinderella Liberty, Chapter Two, and The Goodbye Girl), television (most recently as Sherry on Frasier), and the theater (having performed in London's West End, on and off Broadway, and in regional theater around the U.S.). While the path she followed to achieve her success was seldom an easy one, Marsha Mason never wavered in her determination. She wanted to be an actress -- that much she knew even as a young girl growing up in a modest neighborhood in St. Louis. For her, acting would be an escape, a chance to be someone other than the girl who seemed always to disappoint and anger her parents, the ticket that would take her out of their provincial, strict Catholic household and transport her to another world somewhere between reality and fantasy. Now, in Journey, Marsha Mason retraces the path she followed out of her difficult childhood. She moved to New York City, where she worked as a waitress and go-go dancer before landing a role in the then popular daytime TV soap opera Love of Life. After that, her world started to change, as one success led to another. The biggest change, however, came when she met Neil Simon, Broadway's most successful and powerful playwright, the creator of such long-running shows as Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. Cast in his play The Good Doctor, Mason found herself drawn to the charismatic Simon, who was still struggling with the pain of losing his wife, Joan, to cancer. After a brief, whirlwind courtship, they married, and nothing was ever the same. The couple moved to Hollywood so Mason could pursue film work, and Simon began writing a string of films to star his new wife. Her journey had indeed taken her far, as she realized an undreamed-of level of success. There was, however, a price to pay. The marriage to Simon ended so abruptly, and left such a major void, that for quite some time afterward Marsha Mason seemed to have neither direction nor focus in her life. Finally deciding to leave Hollywood and to undertake an entirely different career raising herbs on a ranch in New Mexico, she began a new stage of her journey -- the one that frames this very personal and involving memoir -- by packing up a lifetime of memories and setting off with friends on an odyssey that finds her today a successful farmer with a still active career as an actress. Marsha Mason's Journey is revealing of the demands and sacrifices of the life of a successful actress, and at the same time inspiring, as she traces a lifetime spent in search of an elusive happiness. As an adult child of alcoholics, she has come to understand the forces that shaped her life and propelled her along a path that was as inevitable as it was debilitating. And now, from her present vantage point, she is able to look back with a new understanding, one that enables her to take comfort in the success she has found and find joy in learning to celebrate life.By Hana Schank. 2006
Hana Schank had never given much thought to her wedding, or even really imagined herself married, so when she found…
herself suddenly sporting a brand-new engagement ring she assumed planning a small, low-key wedding would be no big deal. But soon she finds herself adrift in Wedding Land, a world where all brides are expected to want to look like Cinderella, where women plan weddings with fantasy butterfly themes, where a woman's wedding is, without question, the Happiest Day of Her Life. Despite her best efforts not to become a Bridezilla, Hana finds herself transformed from a thirty-year-old woman with a 401(k) into a nearly unrecognizable version of herself as she spends weeks crafting save-the-date cards, worries about matching her cocktails to her wedding colors, and obsessively reads Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. She decides that, if she is going to follow traditions like wearing white and walking down the aisle with flowers, she at least wants to understand why. In her search she turns up interesting wedding facts: bridesmaids, for instance, were originally recruited to confuse evil spirits. Ultimately, she casts a critical eye on the $72 billion wedding industry, from the women at wedding websites who cackle over the etiquette missteps of others to wedding magazines that provide checklists of 187 tasks to plan the perfect wedding, suggesting that to have anything less is to fail as a bride, as a woman, as a wife. Part confessional memoir, part social critique, A More Perfect Union chronicles a year in Wedding Land, capturing as it does not only the stresses but the undoubted joys of becoming a bride.By Judith Levine. 2006
Many of us have tried to call a halt to our spending at one time or another. But what if…
we decided not to buy anything for a whole year? Obviously, we would need necessities like food and soap, but how would be manage without new clothes, treats, entertainment?Funny, smart and self-deprecating,Not Buying Itis a close look at our society's obsession with shopping and the cold turkey confession of a woman we can all identify with -- someone who can't live without French roast coffee andexpensive wool socks, but who has had enough of spending money for the sake of it. Without consumer goods and experiences, Levine and her partner Paul pursue their careers, nurture family relationships and try to keep their sanity and humour intact. Tracking their progress and lapses, she contemplates the meanings of need and desire, scarcity and security, consumerism and citizenship. She asks the big questions -- can the economy survive without shopping? Are Q-tips a necessity?A thought-provoking account of the pleasures and perils of the purchase-driven life,Not Buying Itwill get readers talking about their reliance on the act of buying and the possibility of getting off the merry-go-round.By Joy Hendry. 2014
Indigenous science is often dismissed as quackery or nonsense, out of touch with progress and current events. However, Indigenous peoples…
have passed down vital information for generations, from which local plants help cure common ailments, to which parts of the land are unsuitable for buildings because of likely earthquakes. These scientific practices that have been developed by Indigenous peoples around the world have been largely ignored by Western colonizers in their lands. From Japan and New Zealand to Australia and Canada, Indigenous science involves environmentally-focused, sustainable practices that allow people to live with the land rather than in spite of it. Here, Hendry examines science through these Indigenous roots, problematizing the idea that Western science is the only type that deserves that name and drawing attention to some of its shortcomings. She takes the reader with her on the learning process and shares a myriad of sustainable examples that can be put into practice.By Marshall Frady. 1996
No other biographer has come as close as Marshall Frady has to correctly telling the story and understanding the mind…
of Jesse Jackson, arguably the most fascinating figure in contemporary American politics. Frady, who followed Jackson for years and had extensive access to him, rarely gets in the way when recounting Jackson's remarkable history from his humble background in Greenville, South Carolina, to his stirring campaign for the presidency.By Edward King. 2015
This book discusses representations of Japanese culture in Brazil, which emerge both in relation to the history of Japanese immigration…
to the country and to the increasingly global interest in manga and anime. These orientalist texts hesitate between contrasting conceptions of identity. They express both a nostalgia for the imagined stabilities of national modes of identification and a desire to challenge dominant conceptions of race and national belonging through an exploration of the virtualities of time and space opened up by information technologies. Virtual Orientalism in Brazilian Culture analyzes this contradictory discourse and provides a crucial insight into changing conceptions of modernity in Brazil.By Carrie Sessarego. 2014
Three great love stories that started it all...Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights are three of the greatest…
novels in English literature. Now joining them is Pride, Prejudice and Popcorn, a decidedly different take on these classics. You will laugh with delight as you learn:- The importance of thoroughly investigating your employers before accepting a job at their isolated, creepy house (Jane Eyre)- The sad fact that not every bad boy has a heart of gold (Wuthering Heights)- How to make a proper proposal-and how not to. Hint: don't insult your beloved while attempting to talk her into marriage! (Pride and Prejudice)Join blogger and romance aficionado Carrie Sessarego (smartbitchestrashybooks.com) as she takes us to the movies with Jane and Liz and Cathy. In her own unique, hilarious style she discusses the books and the various movie and TV adaptations. Your living room will be graced by heartthrobs like Timothy Dalton (twice!), Colin Firth (he shows up twice, too!), Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy.Whether you are in the mood for serious academic discussion or lighthearted snark, whether you prefer Regency romance or Gothic passion, and whether you prefer your love stories on the screen or on the page, this book has something for you.By Jun'Ichiro Tanizaki. 2017
In Childhood Years, originally published serially in a literary magazine between 1955 and 1956, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro (1886–1965) takes a meandering…
look back on his early life in Tokyo. He reflects on his upbringing, family, and the capital city with a conversational—and not necessarily honest—eye, offering insights into his later life and his writing.By Michal Shapira. 2013
The War Inside is a groundbreaking history of the contribution of British psychoanalysis to the making of social democracy, childhood,…
and the family during World War II and the postwar reconstruction. Psychoanalysts informed understandings not only of individuals, but also of broader political questions. By asserting a link between a real 'war outside' and an emotional 'war inside', psychoanalysts contributed to an increased state responsibility for citizens' mental health. They made understanding children and the mother-child relationship key to the successful creation of a democratic citizenry. Using rich archival sources, the book revises the common view of psychoanalysis as an elite discipline by taking it out of the clinic and into the war nursery, the juvenile court, the state welfare committee, and the children's hospital. It traces the work of the second generation of psychoanalysts after Freud in response to total war and explores its broad postwar effects on British society.By Nahuel Ribke. 2015
Exploring the transition of celebrities into institutional-electoral politics, the book argues that many insights developed by genre theorists could be…
highly instrumental to understand the celebrity politics phenomenon. It analyzes the historical and cultural specificity of celebrity politics as it evolved through different countries and cultures.By Kevin Breel. 2015
Note to Self: When you feel f&*ed up: Stop. Breathe. Talk to someone. Tell them stuff. Stop being an asshole…
and thinking you're going to get through it alone. Problems are like broken pipes: they need a person to fix them. Oh, and clean your room, you filthy animal. Kevin Breel burst into the public's awareness when at 19 his TED talk became a worldwide phenomenon. Through the lens of his own near suicide, he shared his profoundly vulnerable story of being young, male and depressed in a culture that has no place for that. BOY MEETS DEPRESSION is a book that explores what it means to struggle and tells an honest, heartfelt story about how a meaningful life isn't found in perfection, it's found in our ability to heal and accept the dark parts of ourselves.From the Hardcover edition.By Helen Warner, Heather Savigny. 2015
What does it mean to be a woman in the 21st century? The feminist movement has a long and rich…
history, but is its time now passed? This edited collection is driven by the question, why is feminism viewed by some (we would add a majority) as outdated, no longer necessary and having achieved its goals, and what role have the media played in this?By Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Clémentine Tholas-Disset. 2015
Humor and entertainment were vital to the war effort during World War I. While entertainment provided relief to soldiers in…
the trenches, it also built up support for the war effort on the home front. This book looks at transnational war culture by examining seemingly light-hearted discourses on the Great War.By Ulrike M. Vieten. 2014
Revisiting Iris Marion Young on Normalisation, Inclusion and Democracy presents an innovative collection of politically and theoretically inspiring papers by…
feminist, queer and postcolonial writers. All authors engage with Young's politics of cultural difference and a 'politics of positional difference' read against her critique of normalisation.By Marina Benjamin. 2006
Marina Benjamin grew up in London feeling estranged from her family's exotic Middle Eastern ways. She refused to speak the…
Arabic her mother and grandmother spoke at home. She rejected the peculiar food they ate in favor of hamburgers and beer. But when Benjamin had her own child a few years ago, she realized that she was losing her link to the past. In Last Days in Babylon, Benjamin delves into the story of her family's life among the Jews of Iraq in the first half of the twentieth century. When Iraq gained independence in 1932, Jews were the largest and most prosperous ethnic group in Baghdad. They dominated trade and finance, hobnobbed with Iraqi dignitaries, and lived in grandiose villas on the banks of the Tigris. Just twenty years later the community had been utterly ravaged, its members effectively expelled from the country by a hostile Iraqi government. Benjamin's grandmother Regina Sehayek lived through it all. Born in 1905, when Baghdad was still under Ottoman control, her childhood was a virtual idyll. This privileged existence was barely touched when the British marched into Iraq. But with the rise of Arab nationalism and the first stirrings of anti-Zionism, Regina, then a young mother, began to have dark premonitions of what was to come. By the time Iraq was galvanized by war, revolution, and regicide, Regina was already gone, her hair-raising escape a tragic exodus from a land she loved -- and a permanent departure from the husband whose gentle guiding hand had made her the woman she was. Benjamin's keen ear and fluid writing bring to life Regina's Baghdad, both good and bad. More than a stirring story of survival, Last Days in Babylon is a bittersweet portrait of Old World Baghdad and its colorful Jewish community, whose roots predate the birth of Islam by a thousand years and whose culture did much to make Iraq the peaceful desert paradise that has since become a distant memory. In 2004 Benjamin visited Baghdad for the first time, searching for the remains of its once vital Jewish community. What she discovered will haunt anyone who seeks to understand a country that continues to command the world's attention, just as it did when Regina Sehayek proudly walked through Baghdad's streets. By turns moving and funny, Last Days in Babylon is an adventure story, a riveting history, and a timely reminder that behind today's headlines are real people whose lives are caught -- too often tragically -- in the crossfire of misunderstanding, age-old prejudice, and geopolitical ambition.By James Fox. 2000
The author of the bestseller White Mischief tells the story of the beautiful Langhorne sisters, who lived at the Pinnacle…
of high and powerful society from the end of the Civil War through the Second World War. Making their way across two continents, they left in their wakes rich husbands, fame, adoration, and scandal. Lizzie, Irene, Nancy, Phyllis, and Nora were born in Virginia to a family impoverished by the Civil War. Their father remade his fortune by collaborating with the Yankees and building rail-roads; the sisters became southern belles and northern debutantes. James Fox draws on unpublished correspondence between the sisters and their husbands, lovers, children, and the powerful and glamorous of their day to construct a plural topography with the scope of a grand novel and the pace of a historical thriller. At its center is the most famous sister, Nancy, who married Waldorf Astor, one of the richest men in the world. Heroic, hilarious, magnetically charming, and a bully, Lady Astor became Britain's first female MP, championing women's rights and the poor. The beautiful Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and was the model for the Gibson Girl. The author's grandmother, Phyllis, married a famous economist, one of the architects of modern Europe. Fox has written an absorbing and spirited, intimate and sweeping account of extraordinary women at the highest reaches of society, their adventures set against the background of a tumultuous century.By Richard Wright. 1977
By John Ibbitson. 2015
The authoritative biography of Stephen Harper, to be published on the eve of the next election. As one of the…
important prime ministers in the life of our nation, Stephen Harper has reshaped Canada into a more conservative country, a transformation that his opponents tacitly admit will never be reversed. He has made government smaller, justice tougher, and provinces more independent, whether they want to be or not. Under its 22nd prime minister, Canada shows the world a plainer, harder face. Those who praise Harper point to the Conservatives' skillful economic management, the impressive new trade agreements, the tax cuts and the balanced budget, the reformed immigration system, the uncompromising defence of Israel and Ukraine, and the fight against terrorism. Critics--pointing to punitive punishments, muzzled scientists, assaults on the judiciary, and contempt for parliament--accuse the Harper government of being autocratic, secretive and cruel. But what about the man? In this definitive new biography, the Globe and Mail's John Ibbitson explores the life of the most important Canadian of our times--his suburban youth, the crisis that caused Stephen Harper to quit university for three years, the forces that shaped his tempestuous relationship with Reform Leader Preston Manning, how Laureen Harper influences her husband, his devotion to his children--and his cats. Ibbitson explains how this shy, closed, introverted loner united a fractured conservative movement, defeated a Liberal hegemony, and set out to reshape the nation. With unparalleled access to sources, years of research and writing, and a depth of insight that has made him one of the most respected voices in journalism, John Ibbitson presents an intimate, detailed portrait of a man who has remained an enigma to supporters and enemies alike. Now that enigma is revealed, in a masterful exploration of Stephen Harper, the politician and the man.By Debra Barrett-Graves. 2013