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I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World
By Kai Cheng Thom. 2019
American Library Association Stonewall Book Awards Honor Book What can we hope for at the end of the world? What…
can we trust in when community has broken our hearts? What would it mean to pursue justice without violence? How can we love in the absence of faith? In a heartbreaking yet hopeful collection of personal essays and prose poems, blending the confessional, political, and literary, acclaimed poet and essayist Kai Cheng Thom dives deep into the questions that haunt social movements today. With the author's characteristic eloquence and honesty, I Hope We Choose Love proposes heartfelt solutions on the topics of violence, complicity, family, vengeance, and forgiveness. Taking its cues from contemporary thought leaders in the transformative justice movement such as adrienne maree brown and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, this provocative book is a call for nuance in a time of political polarization, for healing in a time of justice, and for love in an apocalypse.Straddling the hound: The curious charms of long-distance bus travel
By Trevor Watson. 2020
This wonderful account of four solo bus trips taken by ageing physician and road-addict Trevor Watson breathes new life into…
the much-loved travelogue genre.Narrated masterfully by the author himself, we are taken on a journey across America, as—with open heart and curious mind—Trevor explores the netherworld of long-distance bus travel. Whether he's chatting with outlaws and mystics, hobnobbing with Mormons in Utah, plunging into Mark Twain's glorious Mississippi or discovering what happens at the end of the line, Watson's love of people, oddity and language is deeply engaging and a genuine pleasure to hear. Hop on the bus—you're in for a real treat!Enchanted new york: A journey along broadway through manhattan's magical past
By Dann Kevin. 2020
Enchanted New York chronicles an alternate history of this magical isle. It offers a tour along Broadway, focusing on times…
and places that illuminate a forgotten and sometimes hidden history of New York through site-specific stories of wizards, illuminati, fortune tellers, magicians, and more. Progressing up New York's central thoroughfare, this guidebook to magical Manhattan offers a history you won't find in your Lonely Planet or Fodor's guide, tracing the arc of American technological alchemies-from Samuel Morse and Robert Fulton to the Manhattan Project-to Mesmeric physicians, to wonder-working Madame Blavatsky, and seers Helena Roerich and Alice Bailey. Harry Houdini appears and disappears, as the world's premier stage magician's feats of prestidigitation fade away to reveal a much more mysterious-and meaningful-marquee of magic. Unlike old-world cities, New York has no ancient monuments to mark its magical adolescence. There is no local memory embedded in the landscape of celebrated witches, warlocks, gods, or goddesses-no myths of magical metamorphoses. As we follow Kevin Dann in geographical and chronological progression up Broadway from Battery Park to Inwood, each chapter provides a surprising picture of a city whose ever-changing fortunes have always been founded on magical activityThe solace of open spaces
By Gretel Ehrlich. 2021
A collection of transcendent, lyrical essays on life in the American West, the classic companion to Gretel Ehrlich&’s new book,…
Unsolaced &“Wyoming has found its Whitman.&” —Annie Dillard Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of documentaries when her partner died. Ehrlich stayed on and found she couldn&’t leave. The Solace of Open Spaces is a chronicle of her first years on &“the planet of Wyoming,&” a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life. Ehrlich captures both the otherworldly beauty and cruelty of the natural forces—the harsh wind, bitter cold, and swiftly changing seasons—in the remote reaches of the American West. She brings depth, tenderness, and humor to her portraits of the peculiar souls who also call it home: hermits and ranchers, rodeo cowboys and schoolteachers, dreamers and realists. Together, these essays form an evocative and vibrant tribute to the life Ehrlich chose and the geography she loves. Originally written as journal entries addressed to a friend, The Solace of Open Spaces is raw, meditative, electrifying, and uncommonly wise. In prose &“as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning&” ( Newsday ), Ehrlich explores the magical interplay between our interior lives and the world around usX: A biography of malcolm x
By William Seitu Hayden. 2020
Someone was trying to kill Malcolm X, and he knew who it was. From his troubled youth to his days…
as spokesman for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X had much to say about race and civil rights. But when he split with the Nation of Islam, the charismatic black leader made one powerful enemy. Join him on his life-altering pilgrimage to Mecca where he discovers the power of brotherhood and the cost of racial dividesLeaving isn't the hardest thing: Essays
By Lauren Hough. 2021
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A memoir in essays about so many things—growing up in an abusive cult, coming of…
age as a lesbian in the military, forced out by homophobia, living on the margins as a working class woman and what it&’s like to grow into the person you are meant to be. Hough&’s writing will break your heart." —Roxane Gay Searing and extremely personal essays, shot through with the darkest elements America can manifest, while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners. As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe—to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile—but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond "The Family." Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. She's taken pilgrimages to the sights of her youth, been kept in solitary confinement, dated a lot of women, dabbled in drugs, and eventually found herself as what she always wanted to be: a writer. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America—relying on friends, family, and strangers alike—she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self. At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one's past when carving out a future. A VINTAGE ORIGINALUnsolaced: Along the way to all that is
By Gretel Ehrlich. 2021
From the author of the enduring classic The Solace of Open Spaces, here is a wondrous meditation on how water,…
light, wind, mountain, bird, and horse have shaped her life and her understanding of a world besieged by a climate crisis. Amid species extinctions and disintegrating ice sheets, this stunning collection of memories, observations, and narratives is acute and lyrical, Whitmanesque in breadth, and as elegant as a Japanese teahouse. &“Sentience and sunderance,&” Ehrlich writes. &“How we know what we know, who teaches us, how easy it is to lose it all.&” As if to stave off impending loss, she embarks on strenuous adventures to Greenland, Africa, Kosovo, Japan, and an uninhabited Alaskan island, always returning to her simple Wyoming cabin at the foot of the mountains and the trail that leads into the heart of themHere for it: Or, how to save your soul in america; essays
By R. Eric Thomas. 2020
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • From the creator of Elle &’s…
&“Eric Reads the News,&” a heartfelt and hilarious memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding unexpected hope, and experiencing every awkward, extraordinary stumble along the way. &“Pop culture–obsessed, Sedaris-level laugh-out-loud funny . . . [R. Eric Thomas] is one of my favorite writers.&”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, Entertainment Weekly FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TEEN VOGUE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Marie Claire • Men&’s Health R. Eric Thomas didn&’t know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went—whether it was his rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city—he found himself on the outside looking in. In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Thomas reexamines what it means to be an &“other&” through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents&’ house was an anomalous bright spot, and the Eden-like school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election for Elle online, and the seismic changes that came thereafter. Ultimately, Thomas seeks the answer to these ever more relevant questions: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Thomas finds the answers to these questions by reenvisioning what &“normal&” means and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story. Here for It will resonate deeply and joyfully with everyone who has ever felt pushed to the margins, struggled with self-acceptance, or wished to shine more brightly in a dark world. Stay here for it—the future may surprise youGlobe-trotting golfer Tom Coyne has finally come home. And he's ready to play all of it. After playing hundreds of…
courses overseas in the birthplace of golf, Tom Coyne, the New York Times bestselling author of A Course Called Ireland and A Course Called Scotland , returns to his own birthplace and delivers a rollicking love letter to golf in the United States. In the span of one unforgettable year, Coyne crisscrosses the country in search of its greatest golf experience, playing every course to ever host a US Open, along with more than two hundred hidden gems and heavyweights, visiting all fifty states to find a better understanding of his home country and countrymen. Coyne's journey begins where the US Open and US Amateur got their start, historic Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. As he travels from the oldest and most elite of links to the newest and most democratic, Coyne finagles his way onto coveted first tees (Shinnecock, Oakmont, Chicago GC) between rounds at off-the-map revelations, like ranch golf in Eastern Oregon and homemade golf in the Navajo Nation. He marvels at the golf miracle hidden in the sand hills of Nebraska, and plays an unforgettable midnight game under bright sunshine on the summer solstice in Fairbanks, Alaska. More than just a tour of the best golf the United States has to offer, Coyne's quest connects him with hundreds of American golfers, each from a different background but all with one thing in common: pride in welcoming Coyne to their course. Trading stories and swing tips with caddies, pros, and golf buddies for the day, Coyne adopts the wisdom of one of his hosts in Minnesota: the best courses are the ones you play with the best people. But, in the end, only one stop on Coyne's journey can be ranked the Great American Golf Course. Throughout his travels, he invites golfers to debate and help shape his criteria for judging the quintessential American course. Should it be charmingly traditional or daringly experimental? An architectural showpiece or a natural wonder? Countless conversations and gut instinct lead him to seek out a course that feels bold and idealistic, welcoming yet imperfect, with a little revolutionary spirit and a damn good hot dog at the turn. He discovers his long-awaited answer in the most unlikely of places. Packed with fascinating tales from American golf history, comic road misadventures, illuminating insights into course design, and many a memorable round with local golfers and celebrity guests alike, A Course Called America is an epic narrative travelogue brimming with heart and soulJuneteenth
By Drew Nelson. 2021
June 19th, 1865, began as another hot day in Texas. Enslaved African Americans worked in fields, in barns, and in…
the homes of the white people who owned them. Then a message arrived. Freedom! Slavery had ended! The Civil War had actually ended in April. It took two months for word to reach Texas. Still the joy of that amazing day has never been forgotten. Every year, people all over the United States come together on June 19th to celebrate the end of slavery. Join in the celebration of Juneteenth, a day to remember and honor freedom for all peopleHow to Cure a Ghost
By Fariha Róisín. 2020
A poetry compilation recounting a woman’s journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance, confusion to clarity, and bitterness to forgiveness Following in…
the footsteps of such category killers as Milk and Honey and Whiskey Words & a Shovel I, Fariha Róisín's poetry book is a collection of her thoughts as a young, queer, Muslim femme navigating the difficulties of her intersectionality. Simultaneously, this compilation unpacks the contentious relationship that exists between Róisín and her mother, her platonic and romantic heartbreaks, and the cognitive dissonance felt as a result of being so divided among her broad spectrum of identities.All the Rage: A Partial Memoir in Two Acts and a Prologue
By Brad Fraser. 2021
A Canadian playwright's rise to fame amid the terrors of the AIDS era.Brad Fraser suffered an impoverished and abusive childhood,…
living with his teenage parents in motel rooms and shacks on the side of the highway in Alberta and Northern British Columbia. He grew to be one of the most celebrated, and controversial, Canadian playwrights, his work produced to acclaim all over the world. All the Rage chronicles Brad Fraser's rise as he breaks with his past and enrolls as a performing arts student. He is pulled into the newly developing Canadian theatre scene, where he shows great promise. But his early career is one of challenge after challenge, some of which result from his upbringing and prejudice against his queerness. But just as many challenges arise from his combative personality and willingness to challenge the establishment. Few Canadian artists have been as abrasive, notorious and polarizing as Fraser was in his youth.Woven through this tale of artistic development is his journey as a queer man coming into himself during the most exhilarating period in the Gay Liberation Movement, and the dawn of a global health crisis. What should have been a triumphant time in a young, successful playwright's life was blighted with the terrifying emergence of AIDS, and the sickness and death of comrades and lovers.This is both the story of an artist's evolution and an important work of gay history that has rarely been recounted from a Canadian perspective. Written with Fraser's trademark wit and candour, All the Rage is unsparing, sometimes shocking and always enthralling.Care Of: Letters, Connections, and Cures
By Ivan Coyote. 2021
Beloved storyteller Ivan Coyote returns with their most intimate and moving book yet. Writer and performer Ivan Coyote has spent…
decades on the road, telling stories around the world. For years, Ivan has kept a file of the most special communications received from readers and audience members—letters, Facebook messages, emails, soggy handwritten notes tucked under the windshield wiper of their truck after a gig. Then came Spring, 2020, and, like artists everywhere, Coyote was grounded by the pandemic, all their planned events cancelled. The energy of a live audience, a performer’s lifeblood, was suddenly gone. But with this loss came an opportunity for a different kind of connection. Those letters that had long piled up could finally begin to be answered. Care Of combines the most powerful of these letters with Ivan’s responses, creating a body of correspondence of startling intimacy, breathtaking beauty, and heartbreaking honesty and openness. Taken together, they become an affirming and joyous reflection on many of the themes central to Coyote’s celebrated work—compassion and empathy, family fragility, non-binary and Trans identity, and the unending beauty of simply being alive, a giant love letter to the idea of human connection, and the power of truly listening to each other.More than petticoats: Remarkable California women (More than Petticoats Series)
By Erin H. Turner. 1999
Ten women, each with California ties and born before 1900, who are examples of women performing work and supporting causes…
that were not typical for women of the day, are given short historical biographies. Individual chapters cover a diverse group including early film actress Mary Pickford, Florence Hutchings for whom Mount Florence in Yosemite National Park is named, and Tye Leung Schulze, the first Chinese-American woman to vote in an electionMissed Connections: A Memoir in Letters Never Sent
By Brian Francis. 2021
An entertaining and moving memoir about coming out, looking inwards, and the search for connection, inspired by the responses to…
a personal ad. A Loan Stars Top 10 Pick of the Month.In 1992, Brian Francis placed a personal ad in a local newspaper. He was a twenty-one-year-old university student, still very much in the closet, and looking for love. He received twenty-five responses, but there were thirteen letters that went unanswered and spent years tucked away, forgotten, inside a cardboard box. Now, nearly thirty years later, and at a much different stage in his life, Brian has written replies to those letters. Using the letters as a springboard to reflect on all that has changed for him as a gay man over the past three decades, Brian's responses cover a range of topics, including body image, aging, desire, the price of secrecy, and the courage it takes to be unapologetically yourself. Missed Connections is an open-hearted, irreverent, often hilarious, and always bracingly honest examination of the pieces of our past we hold close -- and all that we lose along the way. It is also a profoundly affecting meditation on how Brian's generation, the queer people who emerged following the generation hit hardest by AIDS, were able to step out from the shadows and into the light. In an age when the promise of love is just a tap or swipe away, this extraordinary memoir reminds us that our yearning for connection and self-acceptance is timeless.42 is not just a number: the odyssey of Jackie Robinson, American hero
By Doreen Rappaport. 2017
Recounts the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson (1919-1972), the man who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball…
and played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named Rookie of the Year, National League MVP, World Series champ, and became an American hero. For grades 5-8. 2017Maya Lin: thinking with her hands
By Susan Goldman Rubin. 2017
A short biography of Maya Lin, the architect and artist whose design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial won a competition…
while she was a senior at Yale University. She later designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Langston Hughes Library in Tennessee. For grades 4-7. 2017Twelve days in May: Freedom Ride 1961
By Larry Dane Brimner. 2017
Recounts the twelve days in May, 1961, when thirteen black and white Freedom Riders traveled by bus from Washington, D.…
C., into the South to draw attention to the unconstitutional segregation still taking place. Their peaceful protest was met by violence. Violence. For grades 5-8. 2017Martin rising: requiem for a King
By Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney. 2018
The history of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Recounts the original campaign in the…
early 1900s to build a national museum honoring the experiences and contributions of African Americans. Also explores the museum's historical and modern-day exhibits. For grades 5-8. 2016