Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 20817 items
Sarah's Diary: An unflinchingly honest account of one family's struggle with depression
By Sarah Griffin. 2007
'I was fourteen when I found my Dad trying to commit suicide in the garage. Sounds shocking doesn't it? But…
that was part of me, part of living with my Dad'Sarah's Diary is the very personal diary of Sarah Griffin - an ordinary teenage girl learning to deal with the ups and downs of family life. On the outside hers was like any other family, but behind closed doors lay a sad and lonely secret. Sarah's Dad had depression -- a condition we've all heard of but seldom discuss. Beautifully written, brutally honest, Sarah's story is compelling reading.Rough: How violence has found its way into the bedroom and what we can do about it
By Rachel Thompson. 2021
**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4'S WOMEN'S HOUR**Rough is a revolutionary non-fiction work exploring the narratives of sexual violence that…
we don't talk about.A bad sexual experience.A grey area. Not rape but... A violation .These are the terms we use to describe the experiences we don't have words for. The way we talk about topics such as sex, consent, assault aren't fit for purpose.Through powerful testimony from 50 women and non-binary people, this book shines a light on the sexual violence that takes place in our bedrooms and beyond, sometimes at the hands of people we know, trust, or even love. Rough investigates violations such as 'stealthing,' non-consensual choking, and non-consensual rough sex acts that our culture is only starting to recognise as sexual violence.The book explores the ways in which systems of oppression manifest in our sexual culture - from racist microaggressions, to fatphobic acts of aggression, and ableist dehumanising behaviour. An intersectional, sex-positive, kink-positive work, the book also examines how white supremacy, transphobia, biphobia, homophobia, and misogyny are driving forces behind sexual violence.Rough is an urgent, timely call for change to the systems that oppress us all.'An incredible investigation into a frighteningly common part of our sexual experience,' Dr Fern Riddell'Rough speaks to how many women often feel after sexual encounters ...This book is excellent and demonstrates just how valid those feelings are,' Adele Walton, founder of Humanitarian HotgirlA Room of One's Own (Penguin Great Ideas)
By Virginia Woolf. 2004
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other.…
They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.Republic of Shame: Stories from Ireland's Institutions for 'Fallen Women'
By Caelainn Hogan. 2019
'At least in The Handmaid's Tale they value babies, mostly. Not so in the true stories here' Margaret Atwood '[A]…
furious, necessary book' Sinéad GleesonUntil alarmingly recently, the Catholic Church, acting in concert with the Irish state, operated a network of institutions for the concealment, punishment and exploitation of 'fallen women'. In the Magdalene laundries, girls and women were incarcerated and condemned to servitude. And in the mother-and-baby homes, women who had become pregnant out of wedlock were hidden from view, and in most cases their babies were adopted - sometimes illegally. Mortality rates in these institutions were shockingly high, and the discovery of a mass infant grave at the mother-and-baby home in Tuam made news all over the world. The Irish state has commissioned investigations. But the workings of the institutions and of the culture that underpinned it - a shame-industrial complex - have long been cloaked in secrecy and silence. For countless people, a search for answers continues. Caelainn Hogan - a brilliant young journalist, born in an Ireland that was only just starting to free itself from the worst excesses of Catholic morality - has been talking to the survivors of the institutions, to members of the religious orders that ran them, and to priests and bishops. She has visited the sites of the institutions, and studied Church and state documents that have much to reveal about how they operated. Reporting and writing with great curiosity, tenacity and insight, she has produced a startling and often moving account of how an entire society colluded in this repressive system, and of the damage done to survivors and their families. In the great tradition of Anna Funder's Stasiland and Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea - both winners of the Samuel Johnson Prize - Republic of Shame is an astounding portrait of a deeply bizarre culture of control.'Achingly powerful ... There will be many people who don't want to read Republic of Shame, for fear it will be too much, too dark, too heavy. Please don't be afraid. Read it. Look it in the eye' Irish Times'A must read for everyone' Lynn Ruane'Republic of Shame is a careful, sensitive and extremely well-written book - but it is harrowing. It would break your heart in two' Ailbhe Smyth'Hogan's captivatingly written stories of people who were consigned to what she calls the "shame-industrial complex" puts faces - many old now, and lined with pain - to the clinical data ... Brilliant' Sunday Times'Utterly brilliant. Please read it' Marian Keyes'Riveting, immensely insightful and horrifically recognisable' Emma Dabiri'[A] sensitive, can't-look-away book ... Through moving stories, Hogan shows how the past is still present' NPRRed Sky at Night: The Book of Lost Country Wisdom
By Jane Struthers. 2009
The indispensable guide to everything we knew and loved before modern life got in the way. This gorgeous and beautifully…
illustrated countryside miscellany is the perfect purchase for anyone wanting to go back to their roots and rediscover a lost world...'Beautiful book' -- ***** Reader review'A delightful book with some lovely illustrations' -- ***** Reader review'A heart-warming read, I love this book' -- ***** Reader review'Magical' -- ***** Reader review'Lovely book to just DELVE into' -- ***** Reader review'A little gem!' -- ***** Reader review'Sheer delight!' -- ***** Reader review****************************************************************************************************Ever wondered how to predict the weather just by looking at the sky?Or wanted to attract butterflies to your garden?Is there a knack to building the perfect bonfire?And how exactly do you race a ferret?In this world of traffic tailbacks, supermarket shopping and 24-hour internet access, it's easy to feel disconnected from the beauty and rhythms of the natural world.If you have ever gazed in awe at stars in the night's sky, tried to catch a perfect snowflake or longed for the comfort of a roaring log fire, then this is the book for you.From spotting Britain's five kinds of owl to gardening by the phases of the moon, from curing a cold to brewing your own ale, and from navigating by the stars to making sloe gin, Red Sky at Night is packed with instructions and lists, ancient customs and old wives tales, making it an indispensable guide to countryside lore.Please Don't Cry: A family torn apart by grief. An incredible act of love.
By Jane Plume. 2014
'I’m glad I could do her this one last favour. If it had been the other way round, I know…
Gina would have done the same for me.’Jane and Gina were the best of friends. When Gina’s husband Shaun was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2009, Jane vowed to do everything she could to help her best mate and her two small sons through the awful time to come. But things were about to take a tragic turn for the worse. In 2010, Gina was killed in a shock car crash. Though devastated by her own grief, Jane knew that Gina needed her now more than ever – to help with the boys she had left behind. And after cancer claimed Shaun's life, Jane stepped in to care for the two orphans, becoming the mother her best friend could no longer be.This is the moving true story behind an incredible act of love.Chinese Politics: The Xi Jinping Difference (ISSN)
By Stanley Rosen, Daniel C. Lynch. 2024
Written by a team of leading China specialists, this updated 2nd edition of Chinese Politics explores the dynamics of state…
power and politics in contemporary China, focusing on the Xi Jinping era.Through its multi-disciplinary contributions, this book explores the extent to which Xi has reshaped the political, economic, socio-cultural, and demographic terrains of the PRC, as well as Beijing’s foreign policy. The book will help readers to think productively about the trajectory of these aspects of Chinese politics and society through Xi’s current term and beyond. The book also highlights the potential role outside countries and non-state actors might play in shaping China’s trajectory as the PRC’s economic rise may be stalling. Through each exploration of these issues, the book addresses the central question of what The Xi Jinping Difference has been, and will likely continue to be, in Chinese politics.Key subjects covered in this new edition include: Law and the political system Socialization of youth The fate of the private sector Technology and digital authoritarianism The Belt and Road Initiative Population aging Chinese Politics continues to be an essential textbook for all students of contemporary China as well as scholars interested in the dynamics of political and social change.The Death Class: A True Story About Life
By Erika Hayasaki. 2014
The poignant, “powerful” (The Boston Globe) look at how to appreciate life from an extraordinary professor who teaches about death:…
“Poetic passages and assorted revelations you’ll likely not forget” (Chicago Tribune).Why does a college course on death have a three-year waiting list? When nurse Norma Bowe decided to teach a course on death at a college in New Jersey, she never expected it to be popular. But year after year students crowd into her classroom, and the reason is clear: Norma’s “death class” is really about how to make the most of what poet Mary Oliver famously called our “one wild and precious life.”Under the guise of discussions about last wills and last breaths and visits to cemeteries and crematoriums, Norma teaches her students to find grace in one another. In The Death Class, award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki followed Norma for more than four years, showing how she steers four extraordinary students from their tormented families and neighborhoods toward happiness: she rescues one young woman from her suicidal mother, helps a young man manage his schizophrenic brother, and inspires another to leave his gang life behind. Through this unorthodox class on death, Norma helps kids who are barely hanging on to understand not only the value of their own lives, but also the secret of fulfillment: to throw yourself into helping others. Hayasaki’s expert reporting and literary prose bring Norma’s wisdom out of the classroom, transforming it into an inspiring lesson for all. In the end, Norma’s very own life—and how she lives it—is the lecture that sticks. “Readers will come away struck by Bowe’s compassion—and by the unexpectedly life-affirming messages of courage that spring from her students’ harrowing experiences” (Entertainment Weekly).Written &“with passion and insight about the knotted history of racism within women&’s movements and feminist culture&” (Rebecca Traister, New…
York Times bestselling author), this whip-smart, timely, and impassioned call for change is perfect for fans of Good and Mad and Hood Feminism.Addressing today&’s conversation about race, empowerment, and inclusion in America, Koa Beck, writer and former editor-in-chief of Jezebel, boldly examines the history of feminism, from the true mission of the suffragists to the rise of corporate feminism with clear-eyed scrutiny and meticulous detail. She also examines overlooked communities—including Native American, Muslim, transgender, and more—and their ongoing struggles for social change.With &“intellectually smart and emotionally intelligent&” (Patrisse Cullors, New York Times bestselling author and Black Lives Matter cofounder) writing, Beck meticulously documents how elitism and racial prejudice have driven the narrative of feminist discourse. Blending pop culture, primary historical research, and first-hand storytelling, she shows us how we have shut women out of the movement, and what we can do to correct our course for a new generation.Combining a scholar&’s understanding with hard data and razor-sharp cultural commentary, White Feminism &“is a rousing blueprint for a more inclusive &‘new era of feminism&’&” (TheBoston Globe).In einer stark männlich geprägten US-amerikanischen Politik trat Hillary Clinton 2016 als erste aussichtsreiche weibliche Präsidentschaftskandidatin an. Ihr Gegenkandidat Donald…
Trump nahm dies zum Anlass, im Wahlkampf wiederholt mit diffamierenden, oft sexistischen Kommentaren auf sich aufmerksam zu machen. Gender und konkret Hillary Clintons Feminität rückten damit in den Vordergrund des polarisierenden und feindseligen Wahlkampfes. Clinton stand in drei TV-Duellen ihrem Kontrahenten gegenüber und versuchte, die Bürger*innen von ihren Kompetenzen als Frau für das höchste politische Amt der USA zu überzeugen. Studien zu Wahlverhalten zeigen, dass die Entscheidung der Wähler*innen am Tag der Wahl nicht bloß davon abhängt, welche Argumente und Positionen die Politiker*innen in den Debatten anführen und vertreten. TV-Duelle nehmen verstärkt eine zentrale Rolle für den Ausgang der Wahlen ein. Dieses Buch analysiert den Genderaspekt (konkret Clintons Feminität) in den drei TV-Debatten und untersucht, inwiefern Clintons Weiblichkeit von Trump als Nachteil dargestellt, von Clinton selbst jedoch als Vorteil genutzt wurde, um rhetorisch zu punkten. Hierzu werden die Debatten- und Kommunikationsstrategien der beiden Politiker*innen systematisch analysiert.The Problem with Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars
By Meghan Daum. 2019
&“[A]ffectingly personal, achingly earnest, and something close to necessary.&” —Vogue&“Personal, convincing, unflinching.&” —TabletFrom an author who&’s been called &“one of…
the most emotionally exacting, mercilessly candid, deeply funny, and intellectually rigorous writers of our time&” (Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author) comes a seminal book that reaches surprising truths about feminism, the Trump era, and the Resistance movement. You won&’t be able to stop thinking and talking about it.In this gripping work, Meghan Daum examines our country&’s most intractable problems with clear-eyed honesty instead of exaggerated outrage. With passion, humor, and personal reflection, she tries to make sense of the current landscape—from Donald Trump&’s presidency to the #MeToo movement and beyond. In the process, she wades into the waters of identity politics and intersectionality, thinks deeply about campus politics and notions of personal resilience, and tests a theory about the divide between Gen Xers and millennials.This signature work may well be the first book to capture the essence of this era in all its nuances and contradictions. No matter where you stand on its issues, this book will strike a chord.Tangible Things: Making History Through Objects
By Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Ivan Gaskell, Sara Schechner, Sarah Anne Carter, Samantha Van Gerbig. 2015
In a world obsessed with the virtual, tangible things are once again making history. Tangible Things invites readers to look…
closely at the things around them, ordinary things like the food on their plate and extraordinary things like the transit of planets across the sky. It argues that almost any material thing, when examined closely, can be a link between the present and past. The authors of this book pulled an astonishing array of materials out of storage - from a pencil manufactured by Henry David Thoreau to a bracelet made from iridescent beetles - in a wide range of Harvard University collections to mount an innovative exhibition alongside a new general education course. The exhibition challenged the rigid distinctions between history, anthropology, science, and the arts. It showed that object-centered inquiry inevitably leads to a questioning of categories within and beyond history. Tangible Things is both an introduction to the range and scope of Harvard's remarkable collections and an invitation to reassess collections of all sorts, including those that reside in the bottom drawers or attics of people's houses. It interrogates the nineteenth-century categories that still divide art museums from science museums and historical collections from anthropological displays and that assume history is made only from written documents. Although it builds on a larger discussion among specialists, it makes its arguments through case studies, hoping to simultaneously entertain and inspire. The twenty case studies take us from the Galapagos Islands to India and from a third-century Egyptian papyrus fragment to a board game based on the twentieth-century comic strip "Dagwood and Blondie." A companion website catalogs the more than two hundred objects in the original exhibition and suggests ways in which the principles outlined in the book might change the way people understand the tangible things that surround them.Us History in 15 Foods (History In 15 Ser.)
By Anna Zeide. 2023
From whiskey in the American Revolution to Spam in WWII, food reveals a great deal about the society in which…
it exists. Selecting 15 foods that represent key moments in the history of the United States, this book takes readers from before European colonization to the present, narrating major turning points along the way, with food as a guide. US History in 15 Foods takes everyday items like wheat bread, peanuts, and chicken nuggets, and shows the part they played in the making of America. What did the British colonists think about the corn they observed Indigenous people growing? How are oranges connected to Roosevelt's New Deal? And what can green bean casserole tell us about gender roles in the mid-20th century? Weaving food into colonialism, globalization, racism, economic depression, environmental change, and more, Anna Zeide shows how America has evolved through the food it eats.Where a Man Stands: Two Different Worlds, an Impossible Situation, and the Unexpected Friendship that Changed Everything
By Carter Paysinger, Steven Fenton. 2014
When Beverly Hills High School welcomed a skinny boy from the other side of the tracks, no one knew just…
how life-changing the decision would be, not just for Carter Paysinger but for all of Beverly Hills.Carter grew up hearing his parents say, “Don’t just strive to be good. Always strive to be great.” He dreamed of finding greatness in playing professional baseball or becoming a black Donald Trump, but fate had different plans and, ultimately, he found his calling as a teacher and coach at the school that once embraced him, becoming a rock for the innumerable kids who came seeking an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on. One such kid, a scrappy Jewish boy from a prominent family, would change the course of Carter’s life. His name was Steven Fenton.Twenty years later, as Beverly Hills High fell into disarray—with principals hired and fired and families fleeing the school—as well as his own life coming apart, Carter ran into Steven Fenton again. Together, they found renewed passion and hope to fight for their school and test the limits of what community means. But when Steven convinced Carter to throw his hat into the ring as principal, the progressive Beverly Hills suddenly thought that its winningest and most beloved coach didn’t fit the profile for the Beverly Hills image. It was the beginning of a long road, but Carter could hear his father saying, “Don’t listen to those voices. Do what you have to do.” Filled with hope, triumph, and the struggles that come to define us, Where a Man Stands is a beautiful fish-out-of-water story about the families formed in unlikely places and how, in the end, where you stand, and with whom, and for what, matters as much as anything.Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End
By Alua Arthur. 2024
A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more…
fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s most visible death doula."A truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world.... There is no one I'd trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life." — Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways"Briefly Perfectly Human is a beautiful, raw, light-bringing experience. Alua's voice is shimmering, singular, and pulses with humor, vulnerability, insight, and refreshing candor.... Be prepared for it to grab you, hold you tight, and raise the roof on the power of human connection." — Tembi Locke, author of From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding HomeFor her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.” Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.”Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony
By Robert B. Edgerton. 1992
Author and scholar Robert Edgerton challenges the notion that primitive societies were happy and healthy before they were corrupted and…
oppressed by colonialism. He surveys a range of ethnographic writings, and shows that many of these so-called innocent societies were cruel, confused, and misled.This book proposes new understandings of modern life in Britain by bringing constructs of female spirituality centre stage and examining…
three ‘forgotten’ artists identified with the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorianism. Thomas Cooper Gotch, Robert Anning Bell and Frederick Cayley Robinson are resituated squarely within the tumultuous social and cultural changes of the period. Becoming visible again, in more inclusive histories, allows such artists not only to re-inhabit but to reshape narratives of modernism, reanimating the scholarly discourse and creating a dynamic cultural history of modern Britain expressed through their striking visions of womanhood. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, gender studies and British studies.Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America
By Laura Wexler. 2004
In the tradition of Melissa Faye Greene and her award-winning Praying for Sheetrock, extraordinarily talented debut author Laura Wexler tells…
the story of the Moore's Ford Lynching in Walton County, Georgia in 1946—the last mass lynching in America, fully explored here for the first time.July 25, 1946. In Walton County, Georgia, a mob of white men commit one of the most heinous racial crimes in America's history: the shotgun murder of four black sharecroppers—two men and two women—at Moore's Ford Bridge. Fire in a Canebrake, the term locals used to describe the sound of the fatal gunshots, is the story of our nation's last mass lynching on record. More than a half century later, the lynchers' identities still remain unknown.Drawing from interviews, archival sources, and uncensored FBI reports, acclaimed journalist and author Laura Wexler takes readers deep into the heart of Walton County, bringing to life the characters who inhabited that infamous landscape—from sheriffs to white supremacists to the victims themselves—including a white man who claims to have been a secret witness to the crime. By turns a powerful historical document, a murder mystery, and a cautionary tale, Fire in a Canebrake ignites a powerful contemplation on race, humanity, history, and the epic struggle for truth.The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks
By Robin Romm. 2009
When Robin Romm's The Mother Garden was published, The New York Times Book Review called her "a close-up magician," saying,…
"hers is the oldest kind [of magic] we know: the ordinary incantation of words and stories to help us navigate the darkness and finally to hold the end at bay." In her searing memoir The Mercy Papers, Romm uses this magic to expand the weeks before her mother's death into a story about a daughter in the moments before and after loss. With a striking mix of humor and honesty, Romm ushers us into a world where an obstinate hospice nurse tries to heal through pamphlets and a yelping grandfather squirrels away money in a shoe-shine kit. Untrained dogs scamper about as strangers and friends rally around death, offering sympathy as they clamor for attention. The pillbox turns quickly into a metaphor for order; questions about medication turn to musings about God. The mundane and spiritual melt together as Romm reveals the sharp truths that lurk around every corner and captures, with great passion, the awe, fear, and fury of a daughter losing her mother. The Mercy Papers was started in the midst of heartbreak, and not originally intended for an audience. The result is a raw, unsentimental book that reverberates with humanity. Robin Romm has created a tribute to family and an indelible portrait that will speak to anyone who has ever loved and lost.How to Be Danish: A Journey to the Cultural Heart of Denmark
By Patrick Kingsley. 2012
Part reportage, part travelogue, this is a fascinating introduction to contemporary Danish culture for anyone who wants to know more…
about the happiest nation in the world.Denmark is the country of the moment. The motherland of Borgen and The Killing, it&’s the runaway champion of Eurovision, and home to Noma, the world&’s most eccentric restaurant.But though we wear their sweaters and read their thrillers, how much do we really know about the Danes themselves? Part reportage, part travelogue, How to be Danish fills in the gaps – an introduction to contemporary Danish culture that spans politics, television, food, architecture and design. Welcome to the happiest country in the world.