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Molly Keane: A Life
By Sally Phipps. 1993
Molly Keane (1904 - 96) was an Irish novelist and playwright (born in County Kildare) most famous for Good Behaviour…
which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Hailed as the Irish Nancy Mitford in her day; as well as writing books she was the leading playwright of the '30s, her work directed by John Gielgud. Between 1928 and 1956, she wrote eleven novels, and some of her earlier plays, under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell. In 1981, aged seventy, she published Good Behaviour under her own name. The manuscript, which had languished in a drawer for many years, was lent to a visitor, the actress Peggy Ashcroft, who encouraged Keane to publish it.Molly Keane's novels reflect the world she inhabited; she was from a 'rather serious hunting and fishing, church-going family'. She was educated, as was the custom in Anglo-Irish households, by a series of governesses and then at boarding school. Distant and awkward relationships between children and their parents would prove to be a recurring theme for Keane. Maggie O'Farrell wrote that 'she writes better than anyone else about the mother-daughter relationship, in all its thorny, fraught, inescapable complexity.'Here, for the first time, is her biography and, written by one of her two daughters, it provides an honest portrait of a fascinating, complicated woman who was a brilliant writer and a portrait of the Anglo-Irish world of the first half of the twentieth century.Saving Safa: Rescuing a Little Girl from FGM
By Waris Dirie. 2013
Waris Dirie, the Somalia nomad who became a supermodel, and an anti-FGM activist, first came to the world's attention with…
the publication of her autobiography, Desert Flower. The book was subsequently made into a film and little Safa Nour, from one of the slums of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, was chosen to play the young Waris. The book and the film record many extraordinary things - from facing down a tiger, to being discovered by a famous photographer in London - but it also tells the grim story of female circumcision, an ordeal that the young Waris had to endure. Saving Safa opens with a letter from Safa, now aged seven, who explains that she is worried that she will undergo FGM in spite of the contract her parents have signed with Dirie's Desert Flower Foundation stating that they will never have their daughter cut. Waris drops everything and flies to Djibouti where she meets Safa's father and mother who thinks her daughter should be cut to stop the community ostracising them. Waris brings them to Paris and to Vienna, they learn about the foundation and Safa's father finally comes round to the idea of working for the foundation as well. As Safa was saved from FGM through a contract with her parents, the Foundation believes a thousand other girls can be saved through providing their families with aid in return for a promise not to mutilate their daughtersDog Church
By Gail Gilmore. 2017
Does saving a life always mean preserving it, or does it sometimes mean letting go? When Gail Gilmore's beloved dog…
Chispa is diagnosed with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, her first instinct is to do everything possible to bring the symptoms of this neurologically debilitating condition under control. But treatments fail, and Chispa's symptoms worsen. Faced with emotionally complicated questions and difficult ethical decisions, Gail repeatedly visits the one place where she believes she might find the spiritual guidance and wisdom needed to make the best choice for Chispa—a tiny, extraordinary church in St. Johnsbury, Vermont called the Dog Chapel. Within the chapel, its walls deeply layered with overlapping photographs and notes from thousands of previous visitors to dogs loved and lost, Gail finds both answers and peace in the wise words of the unknown people she comes to consider her tribe. A story of unconditional love and devotion, Dog Church is also a story of finding comfort in faith and the ways in which the emotional threads of love and grief can bind complete strangers together for brief moments in time in ways that are ultimately life-changing.Greetings From Afghanistan, Send More Ammo
By Benjamin Tupper. 2010
"Raw, direct, and powerful. . . This work is vitally important. " -Ken Stern, former CEO of National Public Radio…
Captain Benjamin Tupper spent a year in Afghanistan in an Embedded Training Team, tasked with training, leading in combat, and mentoring the Afghan Army to victory against the brutal Taliban. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Tupper's dispatches were posted on the blog The Sandbox and broadcast on NPR, bringing vivid snapshots of America's longest ongoing war to a wide audience back home. Here, he takes us inside the intricacies of the war, opening up a unique and multifaceted view of both Afghan culture and the daily life of an American soldier. From the rush of gunfire to surreal, euphoric moments of cross-cultural understanding, this emotional and thought- provoking narrative is rich with humor, eloquence and contradiction. Deeply personal and darkly funny, Tupper illuminates the challenges of the war, vividly bringing to life both the mundane and the extraordinary and seeking a way forward.Necessary to Life: A Memoir of Devotion, Cancer and Abundant Love
By Mich n Neal, Louisa Leontiades. 2017
Vilified by the media for her outspoken non-monogamous lifestyle, Louisa Leontiades is, unbeknownst to the outside world, being defeated by…
mundanity. Four years of caring for toddlers and living in tracksuits has left her anxious, exhausted, and virtually celibate. Her partner, Morten, falls in love with Yasmin, whose family will never allow their relationship unless he leaves Louisa. Louisa falls for Janus, a terminal cancer patient looking for a mother for his children before he dies. As Louisa and Morten seem poised to be torn apart, Louisa learns she has a potentially fatal tumour. Should she start a family with Janus (if she lives)? Would Yasmin make a good stepmother for her children (if she dies)? Necessary to Life takes an unflinching look at the importance of seizing the moment and the costs of following your heart.A World in Us: A Memoir of Open Marriage, Turbulent Love and Hard-Won Wisdom
By Louisa Leontiades, Gracie X. 2017
A guided tour of non-monogamy, A World in Us begins with Louisa and her husband Gilles, who love each other…
but whose marriage is going nowhere. They decide to explore polyamory, falling for another couple and trying to forge a life together as a quad. But they are challenged in ways they didn't expect, and their experimentation forces them to accept a new understanding of themselves and each other. This chronicle is followed by Louisa's letters to her younger self. Sometimes love and good intention isn't enough. Do you cut your losses and return to monogamy, or do you rise from the ashes? In this compilation of her previous works, The Husband Swap and Lessons in Love and Life to My Younger Self, Louisa offers candid insight into the polyamorous heart.Tango: An Argentine Love Story
By Camille Cusumano. 2008
Tango is a memoir by a woman who loved, lost, got mad, and decided to dance. The book traces the…
author's fall, redemption, and renewal through tango. After a violent encounter with her ex's new girlfriend, Camille Cusumano decided she had some serious soul-searching to do. She took off for Buenos Aires intending to stay a few short weeks, but when her search for inner peace met with her true passion for tango, she realized she'd need to stay in Argentina indefinitely. Tango chronicles Camille's experience falling in love with a country through the dance that embodies intensity, freedom, and passion-all pivotal to her own process of self-discovery. From the charm of local barrios to savory empanadas, Camille whole-heartedly embraces the ardent culture of Argentina, and soon a month-long escape turns into a year-long personal odyssey. Slowly letting go of her anger through a blend of tango, Zen, and a burgeoning group of friends, she discovers that her fierceness and patience can exist in harmony as she learns how to survive in style when love falls apart.'Zine
By Pagan Kennedy. 1995
Back in print for the first time in a decade, this is the hilarious autobiography of a pioneer of the…
1990s zine movement. A young woman named Pagan, having just graduated from a writing program at a very prestigious university, is left with a single burning question: Now what? She then takes an unusual step by deciding to invent her new self--the one the public will know--by starting her own magazine, one that will be written, created, and star none other than herself.Gold Rush
By Jim Richards. 2016
When young Jim Richards left the army to make to chase a dream, he had no language skills, no money…
and no idea, just the kind of gold lust that has driven fortune hunters throughout history. And when he struck gold and diamonds in the remote rivers of Guyana, his problems and his success grew in equal measure. Jim Richards has done it all: dived for diamonds in the piranha-infested rivers of South America; discovered a fabulously rich goldmine in the Australian outback; got caught up in the world's biggest mining scam in Indonesia; and even started a gold rush in the war-torn jungles of Laos.Still Life with Teapot: On zen, writing and creativity
By Brigid Lowry. 2016
The good thing about being my age is that if you haven’t grown up already, you don’t have to.What do…
you do when you start talking to yourself on the bus? If you’re the writer Brigid Lowry, you change tack and write a book about what it means to be an ageing woman in the 21st century.In Still Life with Teapot Lowry offers advice, observations, hope and reality checks in equal measure. She drops us straight into the writer’s world into the nuts and bolts of writing practice and into the art of life and ways to write about it.Still Life with Teapot is an essential brew for people who love to make lists, for people who love to write and for people who love to read about writing.Purple Prose
By Rachel Robertson, Liz Byrski. 1937
Fifteen Australian women writers were asked to respond to the colour purple. In their hands, purple takes on many meanings.…
There are stories about Tyrian purple, a snippet of King George's coronation gown, pigeon fanciers, the Dockers' Purple Haze and their layers are explored through themes of feminism, multiculturalism, artists and aging, mothers and daughters and aunts. This is a book for women readers everywhere.In Love and War: Nursing Heroes
By Liz Byrski. 2015
In the aftermath of the Battle of Britain, airmen filled a small town where pioneering plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe established…
revolutionary surgical and therapeutic treatments. For the child Liz Byrski, growing up in East Grinstead, the burnt faces of these airmen filled her nightmares. In her late 60s, Liz returned to make peace with her memories and to speak not only with the survivors—known as the Guinea Pig Club—but with the nurses who played a vital and unorthodox role in their treatment, sometimes at a significant personal cost.Swimming to the Moon
By Robert Drewe. 2014
From a floury encounter on a baker's work table to the art of sitting backwards on chairs, from budgie training…
to spontaneous human combustion, this collection showcases the nonfiction writing of one of Australia's best-loved authors. These pieces encompass suburban portraits and coastal living, affectionate nostalgia and the absurdity of the every day. They are endearing and often hilarious snapshots of life from a master novelist who has turned the column into an artform.Salt Story: Of Sea-Dogs and Fisherwomen
By Sarah Drummond. 2013
In this warm, lively account of living on and by the sea, Sarah Drummond writes of life as an apprentice…
fisherwoman. Through her firsthand experience with small-scale commercial fishing in the Great Southern, Drummond documents a way of life—fishing—that is slowly dying as waters become politicized and fished out. She writes of fishing, of feuds, and of all the fish that got away. Salt Story is a tribute to sea-dogs, fisherwomen, oystermen, and storytellers everywhere.My Life in Porn: The Bobby Blake Story
By Bobby Blake. 2008
The most successful African American in gay adult film, Bobby Blake has appeared in over one hundred movies. In My…
Life in Porn, Blake for the first time goes behind the scenes of the sex industry to reveal intimate stories that are sexy, fascinating, and sometimes disturbing. Blake also shares his private spiritual struggle and the quest for love.And Then Like My Dreams: A Memoir
By Margaret Rose Stringer. 2013
A celebration of the career of one of the most respected still photographers in the film industry of the 1970s…
and 1980s, this is the story of Charles “Chic” Stringer, written by his widow Margaret Rose. Written with a blend of humor and acuity, this work shares the career of the acclaimed photographer who worked on such films as Mad Max and Gone to Ground. It is intended for not only film buffs, but for those who, like Margaret Rose, are bereaved and alone. This work is not only a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the film and television industry, but it also provides insight into recovery after the loss of a life partner. An intimate and touching work about the power of the human spirit and our will to persevere, this work is, above all, the story of two people who were made for each other and of life after absolute loss.Remember Me
By Liz Byrski. 2000
Separated from her true love at the age of 18, Liz dreamt of the day he would return to marry…
her, but fate had other plans. Thirty-seven years later, Liz answers the telephone to hear a voice from the past that still has the power to stop her in her tracks. A true story of love lost and found, this personal memoir journeys across continents and decades to relate the details of the couple’s original love affair and their reunion years later. Poignant and romantic, this story is a testament to the extraordinary powers of the heart.Three Jumpers
By Michael Marr. 2008
RX
By Rachel Lindsay. 2018
A graphic memoir about the treatment of mental illness, treating mental illness as a commodity, and the often unavoidable choice…
between sanity and happiness.In her early twenties in New York City, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Rachel Lindsay takes a job in advertising in order to secure healthcare coverage for her treatment. But work takes a strange turn when she is promoted onto the Pfizer account and suddenly finds herself on the other side of the curtain, developing ads for an antidepressant drug. She is the audience of the work she's been pouring over and it highlights just how unhappy and trapped she feels, stuck in an endless cycle of treatment, insurance and medication. Overwhelmed by the stress of her professional life and the self-scrutiny it inspires, she begins to destabilize and while in the midst of a crushing job search, her mania takes hold. Her altered mindset yields a simple solution: to quit her job and pursue life as an artist, an identity she had abandoned in exchange for medical treatment. When her parents intervene, she finds herself hospitalized against her will, and stripped of the control she felt she had finally reclaimed. Over the course of her two weeks in the ward, she struggles in the midst of doctors, nurses, patients and endless rules to find a path out of the hospital and this cycle of treatment. One where she can live the life she wants, finding freedom and autonomy, without sacrificing her dreams in order to stay well.Diaries, 1984-1997
By Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne. 2009
This final compilation from James Lees-Milne's celebrated diaries covers the last fourteen years of his life, when he was living…
on the Duke of Beaufort's Badminton estate. Old age and infirmity have not dimmed his sharpness, literary skill or interest in the world around him, and his reflection on people, places and experiences are as vivid as ever. A tour of the Cotsworlds makes him ruefully aware of the yuppy trends of the Thatcher era, while he predicts that the New Labour victory will bring 'a descent into American-style vulgarity and yob culture'. Witty, waspish, poignant and candid, James Lees-Milne's last diaries contain as much to delight as the first, and confirm his reputation as one of the great commentators of his times.