- Table View
- List View
Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost
by Richard RushfieldA strange and salacious memoir of life at the ultimate hippie college during the height of Reaganomics Opening its doors in 1970, Hampshire College was once known as a land of eternal partying, where countercultures thrived and jocks were nowhere to be found. Self- proclaimed nerd Richard Rushfield knew this progressive Massachusetts campus was the place for him, offering a chance to shed his squeaky-clean California upbringing. He was part of the freshman class of 1986, hiding out from Reagan-era excess in a liberal haven where overachievement and preppy clothes were banned. By turns hilarious, ironic, and steeped in history, Don't Follow Me, I'm Losttakes readers to a campus populated by Deadheads, club kids, poets, and insomniac filmmakers, at a time when America saw the rise of punk and grunge alongside neo-conservatism, earnest calls for political correctness, and Take Back the Night vigils. Shunned by all of the school's reigning subcultures, Rushfield joins the most hated clique on campus, the Supreme Dicks, navigates a dating scene where to express interest in anything is social suicide, and mostly avoids class where hippie professors blather on about post-structuralism. Culminating in a mad clash of slackers and yuppies, Don't Follow Me, I'm Lostcaptures a watershed moment for American youth in one hilarious and unforgettable trip.
Don't Forget Me
by Philomene GrandinIzzy Young was a distinctive figure in the folk music and beatnik world. He set up the Folklore Center in New York&’s Greenwich Village, where Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris and Allen Ginsburg performed, and he produced Bob Dylan&’s first show in New York in the 1960s. In 1973, Izzy moved to Sweden, where he opened up a similar cultural centre.In Stockholm, the young Philomène and her father resided in the basement of the folklore centre, living a bohemian life, rich in culture and love. Thirty years later Izzy is fighting dementia.In a raw and unembellished manner, Philomène depicts the emotional rollercoaster of losing a beloved parent and a larger-than-life personality to an invisible, invincible foe. Interspersed are small moments of joy as the fog briefly parts to allow for a reconnection. Philomene masterfully intertwines the two timelines with a beautifully sparse language that vibrates with emotion. Don&’t Forget Me is a deeply personal book, yet the story itself is highly universal.
Don't Forget the Parsley: And More from my Positively Filipino Family
by Marie Claire Lim MooreMarie Claire Lim Moore builds on her first memoir, Don’t Forget the Soap, offering more entertaining stories about her family in this follow up. Like her first book, Don’t Forget the Parsley is a collection of anecdotes from different points in Claire’s life: stories from her second-generation immigrant childhood in Vancouver and New York City mix with recent expat experiences in Singapore and Hong Kong where she balances multiple roles as wife and mother, corporate executive and author. Her positively Filipino parents continue to have a big influence on her whether it comes to managing family and career, meeting heads of state and world leaders or simply making new friends. From stray observations ("everything is funnier at church") and midnight anxieties ("if Jessica Simpson gets to go to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, why shouldn’t I?") to life mantras ("don’t let perfection hold you back") and litmus tests ("would you serve drinks at my mother’s art show?"), Claire’s warm and honest storytelling will resonate with readers and leave them smiling.
Don't Forget to Scream: Unspoken Truths About Motherhood
by Marianne LevyUntil I had my first child, and this is to my shame, I had little understanding of just how much mothers are hidden, their stories unspoken, even as they cross the street in plain sight. Like grief or falling in love, becoming a mother is an experience both ordinary and transformative. You are prepared for the sleeplessness and wonder, the noise and the chaos, the pram in the hall. But the extent to which this new life can turn your inner world upside-down - nothing prepares you for that.In this frank, funny and fearless memoir, Marianne Levy writes with heart-wrenching honesty about love and loss, rage and pain, fear and joy. She breaks the silence around the emotional turmoil that having a child can unleash and asks why motherhood is at once so venerated and so undervalued.This is the real story of being a parent in the modern world. It is a book that mothers will be glad to have read - and that everyone else should read, too.
Don't Forget to Scream: Unspoken Truths About Motherhood
by Marianne LevyUntil I had my first child, and this is to my shame, I had little understanding of just how much mothers are hidden, their stories unspoken, even as they cross the street in plain sight. Like grief or falling in love, becoming a mother is an experience both ordinary and transformative. You are prepared for the sleeplessness and wonder, the noise and the chaos, the pram in the hall. But the extent to which this new life can turn your inner world upside-down - nothing prepares you for that.In this frank, funny and fearless memoir, Marianne Levy writes with heart-wrenching honesty about love and loss, rage and pain, fear and joy. She breaks the silence around the emotional turmoil that having a child can unleash and asks why motherhood is at once so venerated and so undervalued.This is the real story of being a parent in the modern world. It is a book that mothers will be glad to have read - and that everyone else should read, too.
Don't Forget to Write: The true story of an evacuee and her family
by Pam Hobbs'Dad walked determinedly down the path, joined by two neighbours with five children between them. As we reached the corner of Kent Avenue, I looked back for one last wave. But Mum had buried her head in her pinny and it was a year before I saw her again.'In June 1940, 10-year-old Pam Hobbs and her sister Iris took the long journey from their council home in Leigh-on-Sea to faraway rural Derbyshire.Living away from Mum and Dad for two long years, Pam was moved between four foster homes. In some she and Iris found a second family, with babies to look after, car rides and picnics, and even a pet pig. But other billets took a more sinister turn, as the adults found it easy to exploit the children in their care.Returning to Essex, things would never be the same again, and the war was far from over. Making do with rations, dodging bombs and helping with the war effort, Pam and her family struggled to get by.In Don't Forget to Write, with warmth and vivid detail, Pam describes a time that was full of overwhelming hardship and devastation; yet also of kindness and humour, resilience and courage.
Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantanamo
by Mansoor AdayfiThis moving, eye-opening memoir of an innocent man detained at Guantánamo Bay for fifteen years tells a story of humanity in the unlikeliest of places and an unprecedented look at life at Guantánamo.At the age of 18, Mansoor Adayfi left his home in Yemen for a cultural mission to Afghanistan. He never returned. Kidnapped by warlords and then sold to the US after 9/11, he was disappeared to Guantánamo Bay, where he spent the next 15 years as Detainee #441.Don't Forget Us Here tells two coming-of-age stories in parallel: a makeshift island outpost becoming the world's most notorious prison and an innocent young man emerging from its darkness. Arriving as a stubborn teenager, Mansoor survived the camp's infamous interrogation program and became a feared and hardened resistance fighter leading prison riots and hunger strikes. With time though, he grew into the man prisoners nicknamed "Smiley Troublemaker": a student, writer, and historian. With unexpected warmth and empathy, he unwinds a narrative of fighting for hope and survival in unimaginable circumstances, illuminating the limitlessness of the human spirit. And through his own story, Mansoor also tells Guantánamo's story, offering an unprecedented window into one of the most secretive places on earth and the people—detainees and guards alike—who lived there with him. Twenty years later, Guantánamo remains open, and at a moment of due reckoning, Mansoor Adayfi helps us understand what actually happened there—both the horror and the beauty—a vital chronicle of an experience we cannot afford to forget.
Don't Get Mad, Get Successful
by Bozana SkojoOne day, one of Bozana's Skojo's friends told her she was 'a good poor'. Bewildered by the words at first, Bozana gradually came to realize they really did describe her - someone who was never overcome by adversity, but who fixed up her hair, put on a little lipstick and her 'game face' to work her way out of any difficulties that fate tossed her way. She realized it was a strategy for living that could apply to any situation. In Don't Get Mad, Get Successful, Bozana shares stories from her life and talks about how she did overcome the difficulties, the ups and downs - the loss of a parent, professional and personal betrayals - to emerge as a successful business owner and loving mother of a wonderful son. Her story illustrates a host of practical life lessons.
Don't Get Me Started
by Kate ClintonKate Clinton's first book of irreverent humorLet's get one thing straight. I'm not. I'm out and proud. My closet was huge, complete with a foyer, turnstile, a few dead bolts, and a burglar alarm. It wasn't until I had lived and slept with a woman for a year that it occurred to me to ask, "Do you think we're lesbians?"
Don't Get Scrooged: How to Thrive in a World Full of Obnoxious, Incompetent, Arrogant, and Downright Mean-Spirited People
by Richard CarlsonInside find helpful advice, such as:Take a Vacation, Not a Guilt-TripDon't Get "Should Upon"Hades or Homecoming?Opt In- or Out-of Family EventsQuit Being Your MotherBan Worry from Your HolidaysIt's Not Daytona—You're Not Jeff GordonDon't Try to Cook Tailgating TurkeysDon't Get Scrooged is a jewel of a handbook on how to avoid, appease, and even win over the Scrooges who haunt your holidays. Whether it's the salesclerk who ignores you in favor of her cell phone, the customer who knowingly jumps ahead of you in line at Starbucks, the unnaturally irritable boss down the hall, or the in-laws who invite themselves (every year) for a two-week stay at your house, you will always need to deal with Scrooges, grumps, uninvited guests, sticks-in-the-mud, and supreme party poopers. Learning to handle them whenever and wherever they appear is not just optional—it's essential.
Don't Get Too Comfortable
by David RakoffThe Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems David Rakoff's collection of autobiographical essays,Fraud, established him as one of our funniest, most insightful writers. InDon't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff journeys into the land of plenty that is contemporary North America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily portrayed. Whether contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good times and chicken wings of Hooters Air, portraying the rarified universe of Paris fashion shows where an evening dress can cost as much as four years of college, or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core Playboy TV shoot, where he is provided with his very own personal manservant, David Rakoff takes us on a bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess, delving into the manic getting and spending that defines the North American way of life. Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism, and Rakoff is there to map that frontier. He sits through the grotesqueries of "avant garde" vaudeville in Times Square immediately following 9/11. Twenty days without food allows him to experience firsthand the wonders of "detoxification," and the frozen world of cryonics, whose promise of eternal life is the ultimate status symbol, leaves him very cold indeed (much to our good fortune). At once a Wildean satire of our ridiculous culture of overconsumption and a plea for a little human decency,Don't Get Too Comfortableis a bitingly funny grand tour of our special circle of gilded-age hell. From the Hardcover edition.
Don't Give Up, Don't Give In: Lessons from an Extraordinary Life
by Louis Zamperini David RensinNew York Times Bestseller: This memoir by the Unbroken hero &“brims with sage wisdom . . . and fond observations from his adventurous ninety-seven years&” (Kirkus Reviews). Completed just two days before Louis Zamperini&’s death at age ninety-seven, Don&’t Give Up, Don&’t Give In shares a lifetime of wisdom, insight, and humor from &“one of the most incredible American lives of the past century&” (People). Zamperini&’s story has touched millions through Laura Hillenbrand&’s biography Unbroken and its blockbuster movie adaptation. Here, in his own words, Zamperini reveals with warmth and great charm the essential values and lessons that sustained him throughout his remarkable journey. He was a youthful troublemaker from California who turned his life around to become a 1936 Olympian. Putting aside his track career, he volunteered for the army before Pearl Harbor and was thrust into World War II as a B-24 bombardier. While on a rescue mission, his plane went down in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where he survived against all odds, drifting two thousand miles on a small raft for forty-seven days. His struggle was only beginning: Zamperini was captured by the Japanese, and for more than two years he courageously endured torture and psychological abuse in a series of POW camps. He returned home to face more dark hours—but in 1949 Zamperini&’s life was transformed by a spiritual rebirth that would guide him through the next sixty-five years of his long and happy life. Louis Zamperini&’s Don&’t Give Up, Don&’t Give In is an extraordinary last testament that captures the wisdom of a life lived to the fullest. &“A fitting capstone to the Zamperini legend.&” —USA Today
Don't Give Your Heart to a Rambler: My Life with Jimmy Martin, the King of Bluegrass
by Barbara Martin StephensAs charismatic and gifted as he was volatile, Jimmy Martin recorded dozens of bluegrass classics and co-invented the high lonesome sound. Barbara Martin Stephens became involved with the King of Bluegrass at age seventeen. Don't Give your Heart to a Rambler tells the story of their often tumultuous life together. Barbara bore his children and took on a crucial job as his booking agent when the agent he was using failed to obtain show dates for the group. Female booking agents were non-existent at that time but she persevered and went on to become the first female booking agent on Music Row. She also endured years of physical and emotional abuse at Martin's hands. With courage and candor, Barbara tells of the suffering and traces the hard-won personal growth she found inside marriage, motherhood, and her work. Her vivid account of Martin's explosive personality and torment over his exclusion from the Grand Ole Opry fill in the missing details on a career renowned for being stormy. Yet, Barbara also shares her own journey, one of good humor and proud achievements, and filled with fond and funny recollections of the music legends and ordinary people she met, befriended, and represented along the way. Straightforward and honest, Don't Give your Heart to a Rambler is a woman's story of the world of bluegrass and one of its most colorful, conflicted artists.
Don't Go Crazy Without Me: A Tragicomic Memoir
by Deborah A. LottA woman recounts coming of age in the shadow of her father’s mental illness in this “candid, unsettling portrait of madness and enduring love” (Kirkus).Deborah A. Lott grew upina Los Angeles suburb in the 1950s, under the sway of her outrageously eccentric father. A lay rabbi who enjoyed dressing up like Little Lord Fauntleroy, he taught her how to have fun. But he also taught her to fear germs, other children, and contamination from the world at large. Deborah was so deeply bonded to her father and his peculiar worldview that when he plunged from neurotic to full-blown psychotic, she nearly followed him.Sanity is not always a choice, but for sixteen-year-old Deborah, lines had to be drawn between reality and her own “overactive imagination.” She saved herself through an unconventional reading of Moby Dick, a deeply awkward sexual awakening, and entry into the world of political activism as a volunteer in Robert F. Kennedy’s Presidential campaign.After attending Kennedy’s last stop at the Ambassador Hotel the night of his assassination, Deborah would come to a new reckoning with loss. Ultimately, she would find her own path, and her own way of turning grief into love.
Don't Go Near The Water: British Petroleum and Alaska Workers' Compensation Division Practices Exposed
by Merv EgglestonAt British Petroleum's power plant on the oil-field at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a worker experienced nearly a decade of health issues. Repair of a contamination source in the drinking water system, with its sudden resolution of some of the symptoms, both revealed the problem and presented an unexpected situation. Management reacted and a man 55 years old lost his job and career as the situation was buried. Actions of some professionals and the state's people simply seemed to be one-sidedly, goal oriented--and all a disaster for the victim. Medical input concerned cancer and there has been, as feared, an exceptional amount of cancer among the plant's crew-members. Several of them have already died. This book is an effort to tell the story in an attempt to get the remaining crew members monitored for their protection. Be prepared to encounter some unexpected and possibly troubling things.
Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!: Ten Principles for Leading Meetings that Matter
by Marvin Weisbord Sandra Janoff Jack MacneishWhether it is a meeting in your community, in board rooms, with work teams, in offices, schools, factories, or hospitals, Don't Just Do Something, Stand There! shows you how to start leading meetings the right way.
Don't Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty
by Rachel KingThe stories of family members of murder victims who seek healing and reconciliation over vengeance and work to end the use of capital punishment.
Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life
by Sandra BeasleyA beautifully written and darkly funny journey through the world of the allergic. Like twelve million other Americans, Sandra Beasley suffers from food allergies. Her allergies--severe and lifelong--include dairy, egg, soy, beef, shrimp, pine nuts, cucumbers, cantaloupe, honeydew, mango, macadamias, pistachios, cashews, swordfish, and mustard. Add to that mold, dust, grass and tree pollen, cigarette smoke, dogs, rabbits, horses, and wool, and it's no wonder Sandra felt she had to live her life as "Allergy Girl." When butter is deadly and eggs can make your throat swell shut, cupcakes and other treats of childhood are out of the question--and so Sandra's mother used to warn guests against a toxic, frosting-tinged kiss with "Don't kill the birthday girl!" It may seem that such a person is "not really designed to survive," as one blunt nutritionist declared while visiting Sandra's fourth-grade class. But Sandra has not only survived, she's thrived--now an essayist, editor, and award-winning poet, she has learned to navigate a world in which danger can lurk in an unassuming corn chip. Don't Kill the Birthday Girl is her story. With candor, wit, and a journalist's curiosity, Sandra draws on her own experiences while covering the scientific, cultural, and sociological terrain of allergies. She explains exactly what an allergy is, describes surviving a family reunion in heart-of-Texas beef country with her vegetarian sister, delves into how being allergic has affected her romantic relationships, exposes the dark side of Benadryl, explains how parents can work with schools to protect their allergic children, and details how people with allergies should advocate for themselves in a restaurant. A compelling mix of memoir, cultural history, and science, Don't Kill the Birthday Girl is mandatory reading for the millions of families navigating the world of allergies--and a not-to-be-missed literary treat for the rest of us.From the Hardcover edition.
Don't Kiss Them Good-bye
by Allison DuBois"Death is a funny thing. It brings out the best and worst in people. It casts light on the truth and makes life blindingly clear." Her visions have helped solve crimes; her instincts have helped find missing people; she can predict future events and sense your thoughts. These are some of the extraordinary gifts that define the remarkable Allison DuBois, the real-life medium, wife, and mother whose life is the inspiration for the hit NBC television series Medium. When she was six years old, Allison's deceased great-grandfather came to her with a message for her mother: "I am okay, I am still with you. Tell your mom there's no more pain." Allison shared his comforting words with her mother and thus began a lifetime of creating connections between loved ones and those they have lost. The purpose of her gifts became clearer when Allison worked as an intern in the homicide bureau of the district attorney's office and found that she visualized the crime as she handled the evidence. Allison now works as a profiler on criminal investigations. In this stunning book, Allison shares fascinating stories of her encounters with people who have passed and her adventures as a profiler for various law enforcement organizations. With wit and compassion, Allison shows us what it is like to live with these special gifts and talents and also tells about her struggle to live a normal life as a devoted wife and mother. She shows how learning to accept her own gifts has helped her accept the unique gifts of others and how her compelling desire to relieve the pain of others has helped define her own life, a life committed to the search for ultimate truth. If you have ever questioned whether there is an afterlife, this book will help you see that there is a living energy beyond death.
Don't Laugh, It'll Only Encourage Her: The No 1 Sunday Times Bestseller
by Daisy May CooperTHE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLERDiscover the hilarious memoir written by the most relatable woman in the world - Daisy May Cooper, creator and star of BBC's award-winning comedy This Country'Thank goodness for gloriously silly Daisy May Cooper. Joyful, irreverent and totally uplifting' THE TIMES'Hilarious. A riot from start to finish' DAILY EXPRESS'Bloody brilliant, like the woman herself' HEAT______I've always had an over-active imagination and felt the urge to be a massive f**king show-off so acting seemed like the obvious choice of career. There was never anything else I wanted to do more. But fulfilling my ambition wasn't going to be easy . . .I grew up battling rural poverty which was a struggle enough but my family were completely insane to boot. Together with my brother Charlie, I staggered my way through adolescence from one drama to the next until finally, after years of trying, we had This Country commissioned by the BBC.By sharing tales of how I accidentally auditioned to be a pole-dancer to being catfished by a one-armed internet boyfriend, I answer all of life's great mysteries:Could I count wall plaster as one of my five-a-day?Would I find the afterlife in the back of a shitty pub?Who dropped the monster turd at the fake audition?And just how much of a humiliating, ridiculous, screw-up of a s**t-storm life did I need to lead before I could finally realise my dream?
Don't Leave Me This Way: Or When I Get Back on My Feet You'll Be Sorry
by Julia Fox GarrisonJulia Fox Garrison refused to listen to the professionals she called Dr. Jerk and Dr. Panic, who—after she suffered a massive, debilitating stroke at age thirty-seven—told her she'd probably die, or to Nurse Doom, who ignored her emergency call button. Instead she heeded the advice of kind, gifted Dr. Neuro, who promised her he would "treat your mind as well as your body." Julia figured if she could somehow manage to get herself into a wheelchair, at least she'd always find parking. But after many, many months of hospitalization and rehab—with the help of family, friends, and her own indomitable spirit—Julia not only got into a wheelchair, but she got back out.Don't Leave Me This Way is the funny, inspiring, profoundly moving true story of a woman's fight for her life and dignity—and her determined quest to awaken an entrenched, unfeeling medical community to the fact that there's always a human being inside every patient.
Don't Leave Yet: How My Mother's Alzheimer's Opened My Heart
by Constance HanstedtAs a young girl in the Midwest, Constance Hanstedt was consumed by fear—of her parents, especially her disapproving mother, Virginia; of social situations; and of people in general. Unable to connect with those around her, she embraced perfectionism as a substitute for love. Raising her own family eased some of Hanstedt&’s self-doubt. But even as an adult she remained guarded around her mother, avoiding conflict at all costs. Still, when Virginia developed Alzheimer&’s, Hanstedt did what the perfect daughter she&’d always struggled to be would do: she returned to the Midwestern town where she was raised to help care for a mother who could no longer care for herself. In Don&’t Leave Yet, Hanstedt recounts her journey toward facing her fears and rising above the past; her mother&’s unrelenting bitterness regarding life, even as she loses memories of it; and her unexpected discovery of an emotion that reaches beyond familial duty: compassion.
Don't Let Her See Me Cry
by Helen Barnacle"How do you make a decision about when it's best to let go of your child? Is there a mother out there who could give me any advice? I doubt it. Having Ali taught me about unconditional love, she gave me the reason to continue living ... The dreaded day arrived ... 'Helen Barnacle to the front gate.' The sound pierced my ears and my heart. I held Ali in my arms tightly and walked towards the prison gates... 'Don't cry', I kept repeating to myself. 'Don't let her see me cry. Don't upset her. I can't let her see me cry,' I chanted this mantra over and over and over ... I passed Ali through the prison gates to my brother, Ron ... 'Bye-bye, Mum,' Ali said. 'I love you.' And with her little hand waving over Ron's shoulder, they turned and walked away. "DON'T LET HER SEE ME CRY is the sort of bestseller that comes along only once in a lifetime. It is the gutsy, moving and inspiring true story of one woman's remarkable journey from a hopeless young heroin addict facing a 15-year prison sentence with a newborn baby to a successful psychologist, drug counseller, prison reform campaigner, and mother and best friend to Ali --the daughter who gave her the courage and determination to survive. Sentenced to the longest drug-related prison term ever meted out to a woman in Victoria, the discovery that she was to become a mother was far from welcome news to Helen Barnacle. The irony was that this tiny helpless being gave her a new lease on life--and a reason to hope. Helen's love and devotion for baby Ali led to her winning an historic battle. In a landmark decision she became the first woman allowed to keep her baby in prison beyond her first birthday. But three years later Helen had to face every mother's worst nightmare and give up her daughter. While she knew the time had come for Ali to leave the prison for her own good, this did not make the decision any easier. Ali had become her reason for living. Handing her daughter over at the gates of the prison almost destroyed her. In utter despair she resumed her love affair with heroin and was on a hopeless path of destruction until she was caught using in prison. Her brother Ron, the only person who had stood by her, gave her an ultimatum--if she really loved Ali she had to stop thinking of herself and find the courage to live. Helen had first to overcome her lifelong addiction with heroin, a crutch she had relied on since her youth to overcome her feelings of worthlessness. Thanks to the support of staff at Fairlea's Education Centre the former musician began to rediscover her love of music and study classical music, as well as writing and performing her own work for the Fairlea Drama Group, which evolved into the highly acclaimed SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER Theatre group. Helen also began a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in psychology. After leaving prison 12 years ago, she completed her post-graduate studies in psychology and after two years supervision was employed as a psychologist specialising in drug and alcohol problems at TaskForce Community Agency in Prahran. Over the next six years she ran workshops for judges and magistrates, counselled both drug workers and addicts, presented papers for national and international seminars, wrote the drug education booklet 'Tentative Steps', and rose to position of Drug Program Director. She also established a pilot project in the Juvenile Justice System using drama and the arts as therapy with young offenders. Don't Let Her See Me Cry is the story of the power of the bond between a mother and daughter, a brother and sister, of finding love in the most unexpected places, and of the strength of the human spirit. ' The story of Barnacle's life 'inside', how she fought to keep her daughter with her and how she remade herself makes an inspiring, confronting tale.' --The Age
Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body
by Savala NolanA powerful and provocative collection of essays that offers poignant reflections on living between society’s most charged, politicized, and intractably polar spaces—between black and white, rich and poor, thin and fat. <p><p> Savala Nolan knows what it means to live in the in-between. Descended from a Black and Mexican father and a white mother, Nolan’s mixed-race identity is obvious, for better and worse. At her mother’s encouragement, she began her first diet at the age of three and has been both fat and painfully thin throughout her life. She has experienced both the discomfort of generational poverty and the ease of wealth and privilege. It is these liminal spaces—of race, class, and body type—that the essays in Don’t Let It Get You Down excavate, presenting a clear and nuanced understanding of our society’s most intractable points of tension. <p><p> The twelve essays that comprise this collection are rich with unforgettable anecdotes and are as humorous and as full of Nolan’s appetites as they are of anxieties. The result is lyrical and magnetic. In “On Dating White Guys While Me,” Nolan realizes her early romantic pursuits of rich, preppy white guys weren’t about preference, but about self-erasure. In the titular essay “Don’t Let it Get You Down,” we traverse the cyclical richness and sorrow of being Black in America as Black children face police brutality, “large Black females” encounter unique stigma, and Black men carry the weight of other people’s fear. In “Bad Education,” we see how women learn to internalize rage and accept violence in order to participate in our culture. And in “To Wit and Also” we meet Filliss, Grace, and Peggy, the enslaved women owned by Nolan’s white ancestors, reckoning with the knowledge that America’s original sin lives intimately within our present stories. <p><p> Over and over again, Nolan reminds us that our true identities are often most authentically lived not in the black and white, but in the grey of the in-between. Perfect for fans of Heavy by Kiese Laymon and Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay, Don’t Let It Get You Down delivers an essential perspective on race, class, bodies, and gender in America today.
Don't Let The Lipstick Fool You
by Lisa Leslie Larry BurnettForeword by Earvin "Magic" Johnson"Absolutely one of the best players ever to play the game." --Bill Walton A three-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time MVP of the WNBA, and the first woman ever to dunk in a professional basketball game, Lisa Leslie is considered one of the greatest players in the history of women's basketball. But before the superstar was the child growing up too fast in South Central Los Angeles. Over six feet tall in the sixth grade, with a father Lisa never knew, and a sister she couldn't trust, her life seemed destined to go nowhere fast--another failed statistic in the American dream. Today, Lisa is a poised, beautiful, assertive, six-foot-five-inch basketball powerhouse. Her elegance and charm have made her a favorite with fans, the fashion world, and even Hollywood. With hard-won candor and confidence, Lisa Leslie shares in her own words her empowering story about finding grace under pressure, and exceeding expectations--including your own--by playing like a girl. "There are a lot of young girls out there who look up to Lisa Leslie. I think it's great that they can look at Lisa and say we don't have to make sacrifices." --Sheryl Swoopes, Houston Comets and U.S. Olympic Team "Lisa is doing for women what Michael Jordan has done for young men." --Michael Cooper, Lakers great and L.A. Sparks head coach "She has it all: beauty, brains, and athleticism. She brings class, fashion, and she's sassy in her own way. She has all that and the championship rings to back it up." --Nancy Lieberman, ESPN analyst and Hall of Famer "Lisa Leslie is absolutely one of the best players ever to play the game. She is a leader who works hard, plays hard, and carries herself with incredible poise, grace and dignity. She is an icon and a perfect role model." --Bill Walton, ESPN commentator and NBA Hall of Famer Larry Burnett is an Emmy award-winning journalist and sports broadcaster. He has known Lisa for fifteen years and has been the radio and television play-by-play announcer for her L.A. Sparks' games for the past nine seasons. Burnett has anchored Sports Center and The NBA Today Show for ESPN, and he has hosted the Lakers' radio broadcasts and The Phil Jackson Show.