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Showing 9161 - 9180 of 18514 items
By Chelsea Austin Montgomery-Duban Wächter. 2022
A hilariously moving and inspirational memoir of a girl with two gay dads, navigating her way through life with joy,…
love, gratitude, and an excellent sense of humor. As the daughter of two gay fathers in the 90s, Chelsea has always had a different outlook than some people. And yet, her message is one of universal importance – love is the most important force in the world. Through her moving and at times hilarious memoir, Chelsea reflects on how we are all much more similar than we are different. Living &“two doors down from normal,&” Chelsea quickly learned that society loves to put people in boxes, but these boxes do not always reflect how we feel about ourselves. Through Inexplicably Me, Chelsea works to bring people together in love and acceptance and to illustrate that, while her story may seem worlds away from others, we all strive for happiness and love. From sharing the stage with President Obama when she was only eighteen years old, to her father spending her senior year of college in federal prison camp, to her biological mother dying of cancer when she was only 56, Chelsea explores her painful and joyful experiences with the hope that readers will find inspiration to face their own challenges and embrace their own joys. Inexplicably Me is a bridge for those who fear what they don&’t understand, as well as a possibility for those who have lacked love in their lives to see how they can start to access their self-worth, begin achieving their dreams, and start loving themselves again. Most of all, it is a reminder that everyone will have an opinion about who you are supposed to be, but you, and only you, get to decide exactly who it is you want to be.A daughter’s search for her mother’s hidden past reveals long-kept secrets and lies that change both their lives forever Born…
out of wedlock in Dublin in 1937, Phyllis grows up in a brutal, church-run orphanage. She thinks that if she fulfils her dream of becoming a nurse in England, her life might change for the better. But the feelings of worthlessness instilled by the orphanage perpetuate a series of poor choices. Predisposed by her loveless childhood to a loveless marriage, Phyllis sees her life spiralling out of control, and her daughter, Sally, suffers the repercussions. As her mother’s health deteriorates, Sally tries to understand why it seemed inevitable that her mother’s life and her own would go so spectacularly wrong. Confronted by doubts, she asks questions about Phyllis’s true identity. Who was she? Why was she abandoned? Sally needs to find the answers before it’s too late.After a mission that lasts nearly a decade, searching archives and contacting countless organizations and anyone who will listen, Sally finally uncovers the truth and opens the door to a world so many of us take for granted.By Chelsea Clinton, Tae Keller. 2022
Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger comes a chapter book…
series about women who spoke up and rose up against the odds--including Patsy Mink!When Patsy Mink won her seat the House of Representatives as a Democrat from Hawaii, she became the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. A co-author of the Title XI amendment of the Higher Education Act, she was a champion of rights for women, children, immigrants, and minorities throughout her twenty-four years in Congress. She helped paved the way for many other women to succeed.In this chapter book biography by bestselling and Newbery award-winning author Tae Keller, readers learn about the amazing life of Patsy Mink--and how she persisted. Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Patsy Mink's footsteps and make a difference! And don&’t miss out on the rest of the books in the She Persisted series, featuring so many more women who persisted, including Sonia Sotomayor, Margaret Chase Smith, and more!Praise for She Persisted: Patsy Mink:"A propulsive narrative moves quickly through Mink&’s life . . . The book is decidedly inspirational in tone, yet the text includes brief, accurate, and age-appropriate explanations of the laws, people, and ideas that contributed to structural racism and oppression . . . A concise yet stirring biography." --Kirkus ReviewsBy Courtney Maum. 2022
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of Summer, a PureWow Best Book of May, and a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 at…
The Millions, LitHub, and The Rumpus Sharp, heartfelt, and cathartic, The Year of the Horses captures a woman’s journey out of depression and the horses that guide her, physically and emotionally, on a new path forward. At the age of thirty-seven, Courtney Maum finds herself in an indoor arena in Connecticut, moments away from stepping back into the saddle. For her, this is not just a riding lesson, but a last-ditch attempt to pull herself back from the brink even though riding is a relic from the past she walked away from. She hasn’t been on or near a horse in over thirty years. Although Maum does know what depression looks like, she finds herself refusing to admit, at this point in her life, that it could look like her: a woman with a privileged past, a mortgage, a husband, a healthy child, and a published novel. That she feels sadness is undeniable, but she feels no right to claim it. And when both therapy and medication fail, Courtney returns to her childhood passion of horseback riding as a way to recover the joy and fearlessness she once had access to as a young girl. As she finds her way, once again, through the world of contemporary horseback riding—Courtney becomes reacquainted with herself not only as a rider but as a mother, wife, daughter, writer, and woman. Alternating timelines and braided with historical portraits of women and horses alongside history’s attempts to tame both parties, The Year of the Horses is an inspiring love letter to the power of animals—and humans—to heal the mind and the heart.By Ann Hood. 2022
An entertaining and fascinating memoir of “gifted storyteller” (People) Ann Hood’s adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant. In 1978,…
in the tailwind of the golden age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world—and maybe, one day, write about it—Ann Hood joined their ranks. After a grueling job search, Hood survived TWA’s rigorous Breech Training Academy and learned to evacuate seven kinds of aircraft, deliver a baby, mix proper cocktails, administer oxygen, and stay calm no matter what the situation. In the air, Hood found both the adventure she’d dreamt of and the unexpected realities of life on the job. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin and dined in front of the pyramids in Cairo, fended off passengers’ advances and found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more than a million miles in high heels. She flew through the start of deregulation, an oil crisis, massive furloughs, and a labor strike. As the airline industry changed around her, Hood began to write—even drafting snatches of her first novel from the jump-seat. She reveals how the job empowered her, despite its roots in sexist standards. Packed with funny, moving, and shocking stories of life as a flight attendant, Fly Girl captures the nostalgia and magic of air travel at its height, and the thrill that remains with every takeoff.By Wade Rouse. 2022
"Honest, authentic, heartbreaking and healing. I devoured it in one day."—Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times bestselling author Bestselling author Wade…
Rouse finds solace with his dying father through their shared love of baseball in this poignant, illuminating memoir of family and forgiveness.Before his success in public relations, his loving marriage and his storied writing career, Wade Rouse was simply Ted Rouse's son. A queer kid in a conservative Ozarks community, Wade struggled at a young age to garner his father's approval and find his voice. For his part, Ted was a hard-lined engineer, offering little emotional support or encouragement. But Wade and Ted had one thing in common: an undying love of the St. Louis Cardinals.For decades, baseball offered Wade and his father a shared vocabulary—a way to stay in touch, to connect and to express their emotions. But when his father's health takes a turn for the worst, Wade returns to southwest Missouri to share one final season with his father. As the Cards race towards a dramatic pennant race, Wade and his father begin to open up in way they never thought possible. Together, inning by inning during their own magic season, they'll move towards forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.Heartfelt, hilarious and lovingly rendered, Magic Season is an unforgettable story of love, family and forgiveness against the backdrop of America's favorite pastime.By Pyae Moe War. 2022
In this electric debut essay collection, a Myanmar millennial playfully challenges us to examine the knots and complications of immigration…
status, eating habits, Western feminism in an Asian home, and more, guiding us toward an expansive idea of what it means to be a Myanmar woman today.What does it mean to be a Myanmar person - a baker, swimmer, writer and woman - on your own terms rather than those of the coloniser? These irreverent yet vulnerable essays ask that question by tracing the journey of a woman who spent her young adulthood in the US and UK before returning to her hometown of Yangon, where she still lives.In You've Changed, Pyae takes on romantic relationships whose futures are determined by different passports, switching accents in American taxis, the patriarchal Myanmar concept of hpone which governs how laundry is done, swimming as refuge from mental illness, pleasure and shame around eating rice, and baking in a kitchen far from white America's imagination.Throughout, she wrestles with the question of who she is - a Myanmar woman in the West, a Western-educated person in Yangon, a writer who refuses to be labelled a 'race writer.' With intimate and funny prose, Pyae shows how the truth of identity may be found not in stability, but in its gloriously unsettled nature.What people are saying about You've Changed:'Reading You've Changed is like staying up all night with a new friend, swapping stories over a take-out container of fried rice. I was charmed by Pyae Moe Thet War's voice, at turns vulnerable, self-deprecating, and always humorous, and by her thoughtful exploration of the liminal space in which her multitude of identities - Myanmar, woman, feminist, writer - reside.'Larissa Pham, author of Pop Song'This book was a joy to read. Bracing, heartfelt and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, Pyae Moe Thet War considers the complexities of migration, belonging and what it means to love, in a debut that is as refreshing as it is welcoming. I can't wait to read more from this wonderful writer.' Nicole Chung, author of All You Can Ever Know'Arresting... In sparkling essays suffused with cutting humour, she recounts her experiences as a 'young, female Myanmar writer' - which she wryly claims is her 'unique selling point' and also her biggest obstacle... This is intoxicating.' Publishers Weekly'Intelligent, thought-provoking, poignant and a delight to read. A refreshingly honest, original exploration of personal identity and a culture that may be unfamiliar.' Kirkus ReviewBy Zach Wahls. 2012
A resounding testament to the power of family and a reassurance that there is no wrong way to be who…
you are It has been almost two years since Zach Wahls (then 19 years old) bravely stood up in front of the Iowa House of Representative and defended gay marriage and his family. Wahls proudly proclaimed, "The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character," and his speech instantly went viral and became YouTube's #1 political video of 2011. In My Two Moms, Zach offers a stirring and brave defense of his family. Raised by two moms in a conservative Midwestern town, Zach's parents instilled in him values that families everywhere can embrace--values driven home by his journey toward becoming an Eagle Scout. Zach's upbringing couldn't have been more mainstream--he played sports, was active in Boy Scouts, and led his high school speech and debate team--yet, growing up with two moms, he knows that it's like to feel different and fear being bullied, or worse. In the inspirational spirit of It Gets Better edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller, My Two Moms also delivers a reassuring message to same-sex couples, their kids, and anyone who's ever felt like an outsider: "You are not alone."By Emily Bingham. 2022
The long journey of an American song, passed down from generation to generation, bridging a nation&’s fraught disconnect between history…
and warped illusion, revealing the country's ever evolving self.MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, from its enormous success in the early 1850s, written by a white man, considered the father of American music, about a Black man being sold downriver, performed for decades by white men in blackface, and the song, an anthem of longing and pain, turned upside down and, over time, becoming a celebration of happy plantation life.It is the state song of Kentucky, a song that has inhabited hearts and memories, and in perpetual reprise, stands outside time; sung each May, before every Kentucky Derby, since 1930. Written by Stephen Foster nine years before the Civil War, &“My Old Kentucky Home&” made its way through the wartime years to its decades-long run as a national minstrel sensation for which it was written; from its reference in the pages of Margaret Mitchell&’s Gone with the Wind to being sung on The Simpsons and Mad Men. Originally called &“Poor Uncle Tom, Good-Night!&” and inspired by America&’s most famous abolitionist novel, it was a lament by an enslaved man, sold by his "master," who must say goodbye to his beloved family and birthplace, with hints of the brutality to come: &“The head must bow and the back will have to bend / Wherever the darky may go / A few more days, and the trouble all will end / In the field where the sugar-canes grow . . .&” In My Old Kentucky Home, Emily Bingham explores the long, strange journey of what has come to be seen by some as an American anthem, an integral part of our folklore, culture, customs, foundation, a living symbol of a &“happy past.&” But &“My Old Kentucky Home&” was never just a song. It was always a song about slavery with the real Kentucky home inhabited by the enslaved and shot through with violence, despair, and degradation. Bingham explores the song&’s history and permutations from its decades of performances across the continent, entering into the bloodstream of American life, through its twenty-first-century reassessment. It is a song that has been repeated and taught for almost two hundred years, a resonant changing emblem of America's original sin whose blood-drenched shadow hovers and haunts us still.By Valerie Biden Owens. 2022
**INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**A memoir from Valerie Biden Owens, Joe Biden’s younger sister, trusted confidante and lifelong campaign manager.…
Valerie, one of the first female campaign managers in United States history, writes of the role of family, faith, and fate in shaping her life, and the power of empathy and kindness in the face of turmoil and division. Growing Up Biden details Valerie’s decades-long professional career in politics, and the central role she played in her brother’s life as an insightful adviser, an ever-loyal advocate and best friend. This memoir, full of candor and warmth, brings readers into the Biden home and shares stories from growing up in Delaware as the only daughter of the close-knit Irish Catholic family. Valerie writes in a compelling, relatable way about the challenges she faced breaking through gender barriers, the elusive nature of confidence, and navigating professional responsibilities while raising children.By Sara L. Sale. 2010
Traces Mrs Truman’s many philanthropic efforts both before and during her White House years and places her public activities in…
the larger context of contemporary women’s activism. This also reveals how the president discussed all of his policy decisions with his wife, making her his full partner.By Jessica Cornwell. 2022
'I SAVOURED EVERY WORD' ABI DARÉ A REDEMPTIVE TALE OF THE POWER AND WISOM OF WOMEN'S BODIES' LEAH HAZARD'MAGNIFICENT: A…
WORK OF TRUTH' SUSIE ORBACH'FILLED ME WITH HOPE' DR ELINOR CLEGHORN'SO MANY WOMEN WILL FEEL LESS ALONE AFTER READING THIS BOOK' KATIE WARD Following the birth of her first children, twin boys, Jessica Cornwell collapsed in a fever. Rushed back to hospital, she was initially dismissed, before a life-threatening infection was diagnosed. Alone, recovering, watching her body bruise and break, a curious thing happened: she stopped feeling.At home, the numbness remained. Nursing her boys through jaundice, learning to breastfeed, slowly re-emerging into a world where other mothers seemed to cope, Jessica hid her secret - she felt no love, only fear. Worse, vivid memories began to surface, of moments in her past she thought buried.Jessica began to name, one by one, the shadows that returned to haunt her first year as a mother. And in claiming back the words, she fought to claim back her life and the love she bore her young family.Birth Notes is the story - luminous, breathtaking and courageous - of forging a self from fragments. With eloquent rage and searing honesty, it speaks for the unvoiced and shines a light on maternal mental health. It is the love story of a mother for her children and a woman for herself.By Jessica Cornwell. 2022
'I SAVOURED EVERY WORD' ABI DARÉ A REDEMPTIVE TALE OF THE POWER AND WISOM OF WOMEN'S BODIES' LEAH HAZARD'MAGNIFICENT: A…
WORK OF TRUTH' SUSIE ORBACH'FILLED ME WITH HOPE' DR ELINOR CLEGHORN'SO MANY WOMEN WILL FEEL LESS ALONE AFTER READING THIS BOOK' KATIE WARD Following the birth of her first children, twin boys, Jessica Cornwell collapsed in a fever. Rushed back to hospital, she was initially dismissed, before a life-threatening infection was diagnosed. Alone, recovering, watching her body bruise and break, a curious thing happened: she stopped feeling.At home, the numbness remained. Nursing her boys through jaundice, learning to breastfeed, slowly re-emerging into a world where other mothers seemed to cope, Jessica hid her secret - she felt no love, only fear. Worse, vivid memories began to surface, of moments in her past she thought buried.Jessica began to name, one by one, the shadows that returned to haunt her first year as a mother. And in claiming back the words, she fought to claim back her life and the love she bore her young family.Birth Notes is the story - luminous, breathtaking and courageous - of forging a self from fragments. With eloquent rage and searing honesty, it speaks for the unvoiced and shines a light on maternal mental health. It is the love story of a mother for her children and a woman for herself.By Edward Chisholm. 2022
'Visceral and unbelievably compelling' - Emerald Fennell'Vividly written and merciless in its detail' - Edward StourtonA waiter's job is to…
deceive you. They want you to believe in a luxurious calm because on the other side of that door...is hell.Edward Chisholm's spellbinding memoir of his time as a Parisian waiter takes you below the surface of one of the most iconic cities in the world and right into its glorious underbelly. He inhabits a world of inhuman hours, snatched sleep and dive bars; scraping by on coffee, bread and cigarettes, often under sadistic managers, with a wage so low you're fighting your colleagues for tips. Colleagues - including thieves, narcissists, ex-Legionnaires, paperless immigrants, wannabe actors and drug dealers - who are the closest thing to family that you've got.It's physically demanding, frequently humiliating and incredibly competitive. But it doesn't matter because you're in Paris, the centre of the universe, and there's nowhere else you'd rather be in the world.By Tim Heald. 1940
Elegant and sophisticated biography of Princess Margaret, the controversial sister of Queen Elizabeth II, the Princess Diana of her day'A…
fascinating insight into the life of the party girl who became an icon in postwar Britain' DAILY EXPRESS'She was a witty, intelligent, stimulating companion - happily Tim Heald captures all these qualities in his admirably well-balanced biography' LITERARY REVIEWThe almost universal conception is that the life of Princess Margaret (1930-2002) was a tragic failure, a history of unfulfilment.Tim Heald's vivid and elegant biography portrays a woman who was beautiful and sexually alluring - even more so than Princess Diana, years later - and whose reputation for naughtiness co-existed with the glamour. The mythology is that Margaret's life was 'ruined' by her not being allowed to marry the one true love of her life - Group Captain Peter Townsend - and that therefore her marriage to Lord Snowdon and her well-attested relationships with Roddy Llewellyn and others were mere consolation prizes. Margaret's often exotic personal life in places like Mustique is a key part of her story. The author has had extraordinary help from those closest to Princess Margaret, including her family (Lord Snowdon and her son, Lord Linley), as well as three of her private secretaries and many of her ladies in waiting. These individuals have not talked to any previous biographer. He has also had the Queen's permission to use the royal archives.Heald asks why one of the most famous and loved little girls in the world, who became a juvenile wartime sweetheart, ended her life a sad wheelchair-bound figure, publicly reviled and ignored. This is a story of a life in which the private and the public seemed permanently in conflict. The biography is packed with good stories. Princess Margaret was never ignored; what she said and did has been remembered and recounted to Tim Heald.By Christa D'Souza. 2016
'The final step to equality has to be turning the menopause into a topic we can happily discuss, and even…
celebrate. In these pages, Christa D'Souza puts us firmly on that path.' - MARIELLA FROSTRUP'Been there... survived that... but how I wish I'd had this menopause tour guide to get me through. Brilliant and beautifully written.' - CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR'Warm, witty and wise. No woman - or man, come to that - should be without this book.' - CRESSIDA CONNOLLYThere has never been a better time to be a menopausal woman. Technology is such that 60 really is the new 40 (or even 35). But, for Christa D'Souza, some nagging questions remain... What is the point of us now that we are officially biologically irrelevant? Are hormones safe, even if you've had cancer? Is there a cut-off point for plaits? In this fabulously confessional romp through the menopause, D'Souza tells us what it was like for her, and what it will be like for you. She meets a bunch of menopausal nuns in San Francisco, goes hunter-gathering with the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, interviews experts around the world to get the latest science... and discovers along the way some surprising silver linings to this key milestone of maturity. Menopause: the memoir is a treat of a book - liberating, empowering and unexpectedly moving in its truth-telling.By Tim Heald. 1940
Elegant and sophisticated biography of Princess Margaret, the controversial sister of Queen Elizabeth II, the Princess Diana of her day'A…
fascinating insight into the life of the party girl who became an icon in postwar Britain' DAILY EXPRESS'She was a witty, intelligent, stimulating companion - happily Tim Heald captures all these qualities in his admirably well-balanced biography' LITERARY REVIEWThe almost universal conception is that the life of Princess Margaret (1930-2002) was a tragic failure, a history of unfulfilment.Tim Heald's vivid and elegant biography portrays a woman who was beautiful and sexually alluring - even more so than Princess Diana, years later - and whose reputation for naughtiness co-existed with the glamour. The mythology is that Margaret's life was 'ruined' by her not being allowed to marry the one true love of her life - Group Captain Peter Townsend - and that therefore her marriage to Lord Snowdon and her well-attested relationships with Roddy Llewellyn and others were mere consolation prizes. Margaret's often exotic personal life in places like Mustique is a key part of her story. The author has had extraordinary help from those closest to Princess Margaret, including her family (Lord Snowdon and her son, Lord Linley), as well as three of her private secretaries and many of her ladies in waiting. These individuals have not talked to any previous biographer. He has also had the Queen's permission to use the royal archives.Heald asks why one of the most famous and loved little girls in the world, who became a juvenile wartime sweetheart, ended her life a sad wheelchair-bound figure, publicly reviled and ignored. This is a story of a life in which the private and the public seemed permanently in conflict. The biography is packed with good stories. Princess Margaret was never ignored; what she said and did has been remembered and recounted to Tim Heald.By Luiz Schwarcz. 2021
Un testimonio valiente y honesto sobre la lucha contra la tristeza, la melancolía, la angustia y el miedo. Sobre cómo…
podemos quedarnos sin aire y volver a respirar. «Leemos El aire que me falta con taquicardia, en una empatía literaria que cada vez es más singular en estos tiempos de simulacros posmodernos.» Brazil Journal Es en la cima de una montaña de los Alpes donde una angustia inexplicable, casi irracional, se apodera de la respiración de Luiz Schwarcz, bloqueando su garganta en el momento en que más necesitaba el aire. En ese preciso instante nace la decisión de escribir este libro, El aire que me falta, que engloba el proyecto que el autor había alimentado durante años: escribir la historia de su padre, de su familia, que lo abandonó todo para escapar del terror nazi, y cuyo peso ha ido cargando Schwarcz toda su vida. En estas memorias, armadas sobre una estructura en espiral, metáfora perfecta para representar las vueltas que damos alrededor de nuestros traumas, el autor alterna recuerdos para construir un sensible y detallado relato sobre cómo la depresión y los traumas, propios y heredados, pueden dejar sin aliento a cualquiera y seguir latentes en existencias marcadas aparentemente por el éxito. Cómo podemos quedarnos sin aire y volver a respirar. La crítica ha dicho:«Uno de los mejores acontecimientos literarios del año.»Estadão «Sin ser una lectura fácil ni liviana, considero que es un libro necesario, que puede ayudar a muchos lectores.»MãeLiteratura «Uno de los logros de este libro es resaltar cómo una historia de varias generaciones anteriores se teje e influye en el presente del autor.»Instituto Lisondo «El valor de la verdad se ve reforzado por la fuerza del lenguaje, lo que hace que este libro sea único entre los egodocumentos de la cultura brasileña.»Brazil JournalBy Dr Vanessa Howard. 2022
`Have you ever been kissed by a refreshing white cloud? Do you remember how its caress would leave you wanting…
more and waiting for its next lingering touch? White clouds were not strangers in the projects during the summer months. These refreshing vapors provided a welcome break from the sweltering heat of the sun's rays beating down on the concrete palaces that St. Louis called the projects. The fluffy mist was the unifying factor in the projects that all the kids loved. We inhaled the clouds and embraced the cooling mist as it danced around our bodies. Who would have thought that these mystical veils had the potential to destroy my hopes and dreams? Dr. Vanessa Howard's book From the Projects to a Ph.D. discusses humble beginnings, challenges in pursuing higher education, and the determination needed to succeed. You will be inspired by the resiliency of the human spirit, as she shares personal insights, and experiences of racial inequities that shaped, but did not define her life. Although her experiences shared in this book are not unique, they provide a glimpse into the "other side of America" rarely shared with other cultures. Within these pages, you will find strategies to assist readers in becoming more culturally responsive. She prays this story will be a catalyst for change and offer hope to those who need it most. When we know better, we should do better. This is a must-read for those who are passionate about reform in the areas of education, law, gender equity, and racial justice. Discover Life, Literacy, and Legacy with Dr. Vanessa HowardBy Robert Zaretsky. 2022
A timely and nuanced book that sets the author’s experience as a nursing home volunteer during the pandemic alongside the…
wisdom of great thinkers who confronted their own plagues. In any time of disruption or grief, many of us seek guidance in the work of great writers who endured similar circumstances. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, historian and biographer Robert Zaretsky did the same while also working as a volunteer in a nursing home in south Texas. In Victories Never Last Zaretsky weaves his reflections on the pandemic siege of his nursing home with the testimony of six writers on their own times of plague: Thucydides, Marcus Aurelius, Michel de Montaigne, Daniel Defoe, Mary Shelley, and Albert Camus, whose novel The Plague provides the title of this book. Zaretsky delves into these writers to uncover lessons that can provide deeper insight into our pandemic era. At the same time, he goes beyond the literature to invoke his own experience of the tragedy that enveloped his Texas nursing home, one which first took the form of chronic loneliness and then, inevitably, the deaths of many residents whom we come to know through Zaretsky’s stories. In doing so, Zaretsky shows the power of great literature to connect directly to one’s own life in a different moment and time. For all of us still struggling to comprehend this pandemic and its toll, Zaretsky serves as a thoughtful and down-to-earth guide to the many ways we can come to know and make peace with human suffering.