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The convert: a tale of exile and extremism (ITK audio)
By Deborah Baker. 2012
Baker offers an eye-opening account of Margaret Marcus' dramatic conversion from an American secular Jew to a proponent of radical…
Islam. In 1962, Margaret left New York for Lahore, Pakistan, changed her name, and quickly became one of Islam's loudest critics of the West. 2012.The cracker queen: a memoir of a jagged, joyful life (Southern voices audio)
By Lauretta Hannon. 2009
Growing up in Warner Robins, Georgia, with her parents - and their loving but rocky relationship - isn't always easy…
for Lauretta. It doesn't help that the rest of her family is a who's who list of misfits and petty criminals. Learning from them and their experiences, Lauretta develops a keen wit and an observant eye, talents she then takes on the road to Savannah and even to Europe. There she encounters even more oddballs and colourful characters - many of whom are profiled here. 2009.From the early 1800s to the end of his life in 1917, Buffalo Bill Cody was as famous as anyone…
could be. With his Wild West show, he helped invent the image of the West that still exists today - cowboys and Indians, rodeo, sheriffs and outlaws, trick shooting, Stetsons, and buck-skin. Annie Oakley was his most celebrated protégée, who could outshoot anybody while entertaining Queen Victoria, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, among others. To each other, they were always "Missie" and "Colonel". To the rest of the world, they were cultural icons, setting the path for all that followed. 2005.The curious cage: a Shanghai journal, 1941-1945
By Peggy Abkhazi, S. W Jackman. 1981
While in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, the British author kept a journal which records the routines…
of camp life and the variety of ways prisoners coped with their new existence. 1981.The crack in the teacup: the life of an old woman steeped in stories
By Joan Bodger. 2000
Gestalt therapist, story-teller, teacher, writer, children's book editor, director of the first Headstart Program in New York State, Joan Bodger…
is a woman whose life has always been intertwined with stories. Her biography depicts how a life -- and a century -- can be shaped and given meaning by personal mythology, how the power of stories can repair a shattered life. While describing her own life she also includes sharp observations of the nuances of class, racial prejudice, and regional and national differences. Some strong language. 2000.The comeback
By John Ralston Saul. 2014
Presents a powerful portrait of modern Aboriginal life in Canada, in contrast with the perceived failings so often portrayed in…
politics and in media. The author illustrates his arguments by compiling a remarkable selection of letters, speeches and writings by Aboriginal leaders and thinkers, showcasing the extraordinarily rich, moving and stable indigenous point of view across the centuries. 2014.The curse of the singles table: a true story of 1001 nights without sex
By Suzanne Schlosberg. 2004
Author Schlosberg, humiliated by being seated at the dreaded 'Singles Table' at weddings, embarked on a quest not necessarily for…
'Mr. Right', but at least for 'Mr. Remote Possibility'. She tried everything from a Kenyan game park, Club Med, and a millennial New Year's Eve celebration in Jackpot, Nevada to feng shui, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, and online dating. To celebrate her 1,001 days of celibacy, she set off for an arctic mountain-bike trip but wound up stranded in Russia, where, finally giving up hope, things began to change. Some descriptions of violence and some strong language. 2004.The author writes of her conversion from a Southern Baptist with a patriarchal view of the world to a feminist…
who glories in the spiritual consciousness of womanhood. Kidd includes research from the Bible, fairy tales, myths, and feminist religious leaders to illustrate her beliefs. 1996.The broken biscuit
By John Cowell. 1999
Author John Cowell’s mother Winifred is a woman of true courage, generosity and spirit; a woman who throughout her life…
has pitted herself against poverty and hardship. The heart-rending story of one woman's struggle and refusal to succumb to adversity - the beatings of a violent husband, the crippling poverty of age – and to raise six children in the only way she knew how. 1999.The boy on the beach: my family’s escape from Syria and our hope for a new home
By Tima Kurdi. 2018
Alan Kurdi's body washed up on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea on September 2, 2015, and overnight, the political…
became personal, as the world awoke to the reality of the Syrian refugee crisis. Tima Kurdi first saw the shocking photo of her nephew in her home in Vancouver, Canada. Tima recounts her idyllic childhood in Syria, where she grew up with her brother Abdullah and other siblings in a tight knit family. A strong willed, independent woman, Tima studied to be a hairdresser and had dreams of seeing the world. At twenty two, she emigrated to Canada, but much of her family remained in Damascus. As Tima struggled to adapt to life in a new land, war overtook her homeland. Caught in the crosshairs of civil war, her family risked everything and fled their homes. Tima worked tirelessly to help them find safety, but their journey was far from easy. Although thwarted by politics, hounded by violence, and separated by vast distances, the Kurdis never gave up hope. And when tragedy struck, Tima suddenly found herself thrust onto the world stage as an advocate for refugees everywhere, a role for which she had never prepared but that allowed her to give voice to those who didn't have an opportunity to speak for themselves. Bestseller. 2018.Recounts the author's experiences caring for a flock of chickens on a farm north of San Francisco, documenting her personal…
discovery, political commitment, and the joys of relating to animals. 2011.The center cannot hold: my journey through madness
By Elyn R Saks. 2007
Professor of psychiatry Elyn R. Saks writes about her struggle with schizophrenia in this unflinching account of her mental illness.…
Saks draws readers into a nightmare world of medications, a misguided health care system, and social stigmas. But she would not be defeated. With a strength and force of will that most can only imagine, Saks reclaimed her life and went on to achieve great success. 2007.In 1934 Idina Sackville met the son she had last seen fifteen years earlier, when she shocked high society by…
running off to Africa with a near-penniless man, abandoning her son, his brother and their father. So scandalous was Idina's life - she was said to have had 'lovers without number' - that it was kept a secret from her great-granddaughter, Frances Osbourne. Now Frances explores her tale of betrayal and heartbreak. 2009, c2008.Twenty-three-year old Cleo Koff, a forensic anthropologist, was one of sixteen scientists chosen to go to Rwanda in 1996 to…
find evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity. Her job was to discover who the victims were and how they had been killed. Koff also describes similar missions to Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. Some violence. 2004.The Bride of the wind: the life and times of Alma Mahler-Werfel
By Susanne Keegan. 1991
The art world was a natural home to Alma Mahler-Werfel, songwriting daughter of Viennese landscape artist Emil Schindler. The author…
discusses Werfel's life as the wife of three men -- the composer Gustav Mahler, the architect Walter Gropius, and the novelist Franz Werfel -- and the mistress of many more. Keegan portrays Werfel as a talented woman against the cultural and political background of early twentieth-century Europe. 1991.The blessings of a good thick skirt: women travellers and their world
By Mary Russell. 1988
Some of the most remarkable journeys ever made have been undertaken by women. These include Alexandra David-Neel and her explorations…
of Tibet, and Naomi James and her solo voyage around the world. A gallery of female adventurers is presented, as well as insights into their motives for leaving the traditional women's roles behind.The bite of the mango
By Mariatu Kamara, Susan McClelland. 2008
Sierra Leone. At the age of 12, Mariatu Kamara was raped by a family friend, then captured by rebels who…
cut off her hands. Despite her wounds, Kamara walked out of the bush and sought help, ending up in an amputee camp, where she gave birth to a son who died of malnutrition. When foreign journalists interviewed Kamara in the camp, her story garnered international interest and assistance, which eventually brought her to Toronto. Her autobiography testifies to Kamara's horrific trauma, but with the aim of fostering hope and reconciliation. Winner of the 2011 Red Maple Non-Fiction Award. For junior high and older readers. Some strong language, some descriptions of sex, and some descriptions of violence. c2008.The art of waiting: on fertility, medicine, and motherhood
By Belle Boggs. 2016
The author recounts her realization that she might never be able to conceive. She searches the apparently fertile world around…
her -- the emergence of thirteen-year cicadas, the birth of eaglets near her rural home, and an unusual gorilla pregnancy at a local zoo -- for signs that she is not alone. She also explores other aspects of fertility and infertility: the way longing for a child plays out in the classic Coen brothers film "Raising Arizona"; the depiction of childlessness in literature, from "Macbeth" to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"; the financial and legal complications that accompany alternative means of family making; the private and public expressions of iconic writers grappling with motherhood and fertility. She reports complex stories of couples who adopted domestically and from overseas, LGBT couples considering assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and women and men reflecting on childless or child-free lives. 2016.The best of friends: Martha and me
By Mariana Pasternak. 2010
A meditation on the dynamics of female friendship describes the author's life-defining relationship with Martha Stewart, relating the common experiences…
that bonded them and the factors that resulted in their estrangement. 2010.The audacity of Inez Burns: dreams, desire, treachery, and ruin in the city of gold
By Stephen G Bloom. 2018
Inez Burns was adored by the desperate women who sought her out--and loathed by the power-hungry men who plotted to…
destroy her. During a time when women risked their lives with predatory practitioners lurking in back alleys, Inez and her team of women, clad in crisp, white nurse's uniforms, worked night and day in her elegantly appointed clinic, performing fifty thousand of the safest, most hygienic abortions available during a time when even the richest wives, Hollywood stars, and mistresses had few options when they found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. 2018.