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Fixing Hell: An Army Psychologist Confronts Abu Ghraib
by Gregory A. Freeman Larry C. JamesThis is the story of Abu Ghraib that you haven't heard, told by the soldier sent by the Army to restore order and ensure that the abuses that took place there never happen again.In April 2004, the world was shocked by the brutal pictures of beatings, dog attacks, sex acts, and the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. As the story broke, and the world began to learn about the extent of the horrors that occurred there, the U.S. Army dispatched Colonel Larry James to Abu Ghraib with an overwhelming assignment: to dissect this catastrophe, fix it, and prevent it from being repeated. A veteran of deployments to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a nationally well-known and respected Army psychologist, Colonel James's expertise made him the one individual capable of taking on this enormous task. Through Colonel James's own experience on the ground, readers will see the tightrope military personnel must walk while fighting in the still new battlefield of the war on terror, the challenge of serving as both a doctor/healer and combatant soldier, and what can-and must-be done to ensure that interrogations are safe, moral, and effective.
Fixing the Fates: An Adoptee's Story of Truth and Lies
by Diane DeweyThe secrets, lies, and layers of deception about Diane Dewey&’s origins were meant for her protection—but eventually, they imploded. Living with her family in suburban Philadelphia, Diane had grown up knowing she was born in Stuttgart and adopted at age one from an orphanage. She&’d been told her biological parents were dead. Then, in 2002, when she was forty-seven years old, Diane got a letter from Switzerland: her biological father, Otto, wanted to bring her into his life. With that, her world shifted on its axis. In the months that ensued, everybody had a different story to tell about Diane&’s origins, including Otto when they met in New York City. She struggled to understand what was at stake with the lies. Like a private eye, she sifted through competing versions of the truth only to find that, having traveled throughout Europe and back, identity is a state of mind. As more information surfaced, the myths gave way to a certain elusive peace; Diane discovered a tribe in her mother&’s family, found a Swiss husband, gained a voice, and, for the first time, began to trust in the intuition that had nudged her all along. One-part forensic investigation, one-part self-discovery, Fixing the Fates is a story about seeing behind artifice and living one&’s truth.
Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima (abridged)
by James Bradley Ron Powers Michael FrenchNow abridged for young people, Flags of Our Fathers is the unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history: the raising of the U. S. flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima--and into history. The son of one of the flag raisers has written a powerful account of six very different men who came together in the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island.
Flagstad: A Personal Memoir
by Edwin McArthurAn intimate, no-holds-barred, light-and-dark portrait of the great Norwegian soprano/opera singer Kirsten Flagstad from her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House on February 2, 1935, to her death on December 7, 1962. Edwin McArthur was Flagstad's accompanist--and often her orchestral conductor as well--throughout her American career. He knew her in her hours of triumph, during the dramatic struggles through which the Second World War put her, during her trial in Norway (at which he testified and gave depositions), during her painful return to the United States as a falsely accused "quisling" after the war, and in the strange period of her partial--and then complete--retirement. Not a book about music (McArthur does quote some opinions of Flagstad the artist and occasionally expresses his own reactions, but he preponderantly sticks to the subject of Flagstad the woman), this is an intensely personal portrait. Its subject emerges as devoted, blindly selfish, alternately generous and cruel even to her own children, wayward, overwhelming, finally inscrutable, but always fascinating. The book also provides one view of the strange (and at times dirty) inside business dealings in the world of opera and concert.
Flagstad: Singer of the Century
by Howard VogtA biography of the great Norwegian soprano who had a world-wide reputation but is especially known for her singing at the Met in New York. She returned to Norway during World War II which caused considerable controversy and split her career into two phases. She is especially known for her Wagner roles.
Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known
by George M. JohnsonFrom the New York Times–bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue comes an empowering set of essays about Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance.In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer – and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities.
Flame Of Adventure
by Simon YatesSimon Yates, author of Against the Wall, takes us back to his early years as a climber - the escapades and excitement of a young life lived on the edge and for the moment, when experience was all-important and dramatic achievements and failures came as naturally as the hair-raising risks themselves.A mountaineering travelogue of dazzling variety, The Flame of Adventure moves from the camaraderie of deprived Russian climbers in the little-known peaks in the Tien Shan to the awesome experience of the North Face of the Eiger, from a rumbustious motorbike ride across Australia with a psychotic lorry driver. We meet a remarkable gallery of climbers, from Doug Scott to Joe Simpson, and, when not exploring high mountains, we enter the bizarre world of rope access workers: mavericks balancing high above building sites on the London skyline.
Flames of Calais: The Soldier's Battle, 1940
by Airey NeaveThe defence of Calais in May/June 1940 was a superb example of selfless courage and sacrifice. Sent by Churchill to divert the Germans from Dunkirk and so save the British Army, 30 Infantry Brigade had orders not to evacuate or surrender. Airey Neave, later to be Margaret Thatcher's right hand man until his assassination in 1979, was one of those who fought, was wounded and captured there and his account remains the classic.
Flames of Rebellion: A Medieval Romance (The Knights of England Series #6)
by Mary Ellen JohnsonCivil War Once Again Threatens England in the Medieval Historical, THE FLAMES OF REBELLION, by Mary Ellen Johnson1397 to 1403. England, Tintagel, London, Shrewsbury, Conway Castle, Tower of London, Cumbria, Westminster Abbey, Wales and ScotlandIn the fourteenth century’s waning days, the tyrannical Richard II is knocked from his throne, and Henry IV is crowned, despite a shaky claim to the throne.Knight Matthew Hart, now in his sixties, believes he can retire to a quiet life in the wilds of Cumbria while Lancelot and Janey’s love remains more the stuff of Romances than reality.Yet, all too soon, England’s lords grow restless, betrayal is in the air, and Matthew and his family must again ride into battle on behalf of their endangered king.The fates of all the characters who grace the Knights of England series, spanning a century—including some of the most vivid battles, events and historical characters in medieval history—are resolved.Publisher’s Note: Readers with a passion for history will appreciate the author’s penchant for detail and accuracy. In keeping with the era, this story contains scenes of brutality which are true to the time and man’s timeless inhumanity. There are a limited number of sexual scenes and NO use of modern vulgarity.From the Author: There is nothing new under the sun. If we seek to understand today’s events, history will always provide the answer. By 1398 the megalomaniacal Richard II had consolidated his power, executed or banished all his enemies and destroyed all those who might speak out in opposition to him. Two years later Richard was deposed, thrown into a dungeon in Pontefract Castle and starved to death. Lessons: We can never predict the future; actions always have unintended consequences; we sow the seeds of our own destruction and payback’s a bitch!THE KNIGHTS OF ENGLAND, in series orderThe Lion and the LeopardA Knight There WasWithin A Forest DarkA Child Upon The ThroneLords Among the RuinsThe Flames of Rebellion
Flamin' Hot: La increible historia verdadera del ascenso de un hombre, de conserje a ejecutivo
by Richard MontañezLa inolvidable historia real de cómo un simple empleado de limpieza que trabajaba duro para llevar comida a su casa, inventó Flamin’ Hot Cheetos haciendo pruebas de sabor en secreto, rompiendo barreras y convirtiéndose en el primer ejecutivo latino de la compañía Frito-Lay. No se suponía que Richard Montañez tuviera grandes sueños y aspiraciones. Nacido en la pobreza, de padres migrantes y trabajadores agrícolas, dejó la escuela en el sexto grado, y finalmente tomó un trabajo limpiando pisos en la fábrica de Frito Lay y así dar de comer a su joven familia. Todo cambió cuando una noche, a los 28 años, Montañez tomó su futuro entre sus manos: usó la receta de salsa de chile de su esposa para condimentar una bolsa de Cheetos regulares. Luego de un intenso proceso de experimentación y pruebas en secreto, y una llamada increíblemente arriesgada al presidente de la empresa, rompiendo con todo protocolo, Montañez lanzó Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Nunca se imaginó que recibiría ataques de discriminación, puñaladas por la espalda y hasta un intento de sabotaje por parte de un científico de primer nivel en Frito-Lay que quería frenar el nuevo producto antes que saliera al mercado, envidioso de que alguien sin educación formal más allá del sexto grado pudiera hacer su trabajo. Flamin’ Hotcomparte la historia de cómo Montañez no solo irrumpió en la industria alimenticia con un sabor que el mercado recibió maravillosamente, sino que también sacudió una cultura corporativa en la que todos debían mantenerse en su propio carril. Este es un manual de empoderamiento para cualquiera que se encuentre atrapado en un trabajo sin futuro o que se enfrente a un sistema donde no ve avance y progreso para sí mismo. Flamin' Hotbrinda la esperanza de que nuestras circunstancias actuales no tengan que dictar nuestro futuro, abriendo un nuevo camino hacia el sueño americano.
Flamin' Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man's Rise from Janitor to Top Executive
by Richard MontanezRead the story everyone is talking about: how a janitor struggling to put food on the table invented Flamin&’ Hot Cheetos in a secret test kitchen, breaking barriers and becoming the first Latino frontline worker promoted to executive at Frito-Lay.Richard Montañez is a man who made a science out of walking through closed doors, and his success story is an empowerment manual for anyone stuck in a dead-end job or facing a system stacked against them. Having taken a job mopping floors at Frito-Lay's California factory to support his family, Montañez took his future into his own hands and created the world&’s hottest snack food: Flamin&’ Hot Cheetos. This bold move not only disrupted the food industry with some much-needed spice, but also shook up a corporate culture in which everyone stayed in their lane. When a top food scientist at Frito-Lay sent out a memo telling sales and marketing to kill the new product before it made it to the store shelves—jealous that someone with no formal education beyond the sixth grade could do his job—Montañez was forced to go rogue once again to save his idea. Through creative thinking, community building, and a few powerful mindset shifts, he outsmarted the naysayers who tried to get in his way. Flamin' Hot proves that you can break out of your career rut and that your present circumstances don't have to dictate your future.
Flannery O'Connor's Manhattan (Studies in the Catholic Imagination: The Flannery O'Connor Trust Series)
by Katheryn Krotzer LabordeThis book offers a unique twist to the Who’s Who of midcentury writers, editors, and artistsMuch is made of Flannery O’Connor’s life on the Georgia dairy farm, Andalusia—a rural setting that clearly influenced her writing. But before she lived on that farm, before she showed signs of having lupus, before she became dependent on her mother and then succumbed to the disease at thirty-nine, O’Connor lived in the northeast. She stayed at the artists’ colony Yaddo in 1948 and early 1949 and lived in Connecticut with good friends from fall of 1949 through all of 1950. But in between those experiences, and perhaps more importantly, O’Connor lived in Manhattan.In her biographies, little is said of her time in Gotham; in some sources, this period gets no more than one sentence. But little is said because little has been known. In Flannery O’Connor’s Manhattan, the author’s goal is to explore New York City from O’Connor’s point of view. To do this, the author consults not just letters (both unpublished and published) and biography, but five personal address books housed in Emory’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and, Rare Book Library. The result is a book of interest to both the O’Connor fan and the O’Connor scholar, not to mention those interested in midcentury Manhattan.Flannery O’Connor’s Manhattan is part guide to the who-was-who and who-lived-where of New York from roughly 1948 to 1964, at least those as they mattered to O’Connor. It also acts as a window to the writer’s experiences in the city, whether she was coming into town for a series of meetings or strolling down Broadway on her way to lunch. In the end, it is the combination of the who-she-knew and the what-she-did that formed O’Connor’s personal view of what is arguably the most famous of American cities.
Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor
by Brad GoochThe landscape of American literature was fundamentally changed when Flannery O'Connor stepped onto the scene with her first published book, Wise Blood, in 1952. Her fierce, sometimes comic novels and stories reflected the darkly funny, vibrant, and theologically sophisticated woman who wrote them. Brad Gooch brings to life O'Connor's significant friendships--with Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick, Walker Percy, and James Dickey among others--and her deeply felt convictions, as expressed in her communications with Thomas Merton, Elizabeth Bishop, and Betty Hester. Hester was famously known as "A" in O'Connor's collected letters, The Habit of Being, and a large cache of correspondence to her from O'Connor was made available to scholars, including Brad Gooch, in 2006. O'Connor's capacity to live fully--despite the chronic disease that eventually confined her to her mother's farm in Georgia--is illuminated in this engaging and authoritative biography.
Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation
by Judith MackrellBy the 1920s, women were on the verge of something huge. Jazz, racy fashions, eyebrowraising new attitudes about art and sex—all of this pointed to a sleek, modern world, one that could shake off the grimness of the Great War and stride into the future in one deft, stylized gesture. The women who defined this the Jazz Age—Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Tamara de Lempicka—would presage the sexual revolution by nearly half a century and would shape the role of women for generations to come.In Flappers, the acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell renders these women with all the color that marked their lives and their era. Both sensuous and sympathetic, her admiring biography lays bare the private lives of her heroines, filling in the bold contours. These women came from vastly different backgrounds, but all ended up passing through Paris, the mecca of the avant-garde. Before she was the toast of Parisian society, Josephine Baker was a poor black girl from the slums of Saint Louis. Tamara de Lempicka fled the Russian Revolution only to struggle to scrape together a life for herself and her family. A committed painter, her portraits were indicative of the age's art deco sensibility and sexual daring. The Brits in the group—Nancy Cunard and Diana Cooper— came from pinkie-raising aristocratic families but soon descended into the salacious delights of the vanguard. Tallulah Bankhead and Zelda Fitzgerald were two Alabama girls driven across the Atlantic by a thirst for adventure and artistic validation.But beneath the flamboyance and excess of the Roaring Twenties lay age-old prejudices about gender, race, and sexuality. These flappers weren't just dancing and carousing; they were fighting for recognition and dignity in a male-dominated world. They were more than mere lovers or muses to the modernist masters—in their pursuit of fame and intense experience, we see a generation of women taking bold steps toward something burgeoning, undefined, maybe dangerous: a New Woman.
Flash Crash: A Trading Savant, a Global Manhunt, and the Most Mysterious Market Crash in History
by Liam VaughanThe riveting story of a trading prodigy who amassed $70 million from his childhood bedroom--until the government accused him of helping trigger an unprecedented market collapse *Soon to be a feature film starring Dev Patel*On May 6, 2010, financial markets around the world tumbled simultaneously and without warning. In the span of five minutes, a trillion dollars of valuation was lost. The Flash Crash, as it became known, represented the fastest drop in market history. When share values rebounded less than half an hour later, experts around the globe were left perplexed. What had they just witnessed?Navinder Singh Sarao hardly seemed like a man who would shake the world's financial markets to their core. Raised in a working-class neighborhood in West London, Nav was a preternaturally gifted trader who played the markets like a computer game. By the age of thirty, he had left behind London's "trading arcades," working instead out of his childhood home. For years the money poured in. But when lightning-fast electronic traders infiltrated markets and started eating into his profits, Nav built a system of his own to fight back. It worked--until 2015, when the FBI arrived at his door. Depending on whom you ask, Sarao was a scourge, a symbol of a financial system run horribly amok, or a folk hero who took on the tyranny of Wall Street and the high-frequency traders.A real-life financial thriller, Flash Crash uncovers the remarkable, behind-the-scenes narrative of a mystifying market crash, a globe-spanning investigation into international fraud, and the man at the center of them both.
Flash Fire (The Extraordinaries)
by T J KluneFlash Fire is the explosive sequel to The Extraordinaries by USA Today bestselling author TJ Klune.The explosive sequel to The Extraordinaries by USA Today bestselling author TJ Klune.Nick landed himself the superhero boyfriend of his dreams, but with new heroes arriving in Nova City it's up to Nick and his friends to determine who is virtuous and who is villainous. Which is a lot to handle for a guy who just wants to finish his self-insert bakery AU fanfic.'Uproariously funny!' Sophie Gonzales, author of Only Mostly Devastated'The most down-to-earth book about superheroes I've ever read' Mason Deaver, bestselling author of I Wish You All the Best(P) 2021 Macmillan Audio
Flash Point: A Firefighter's Journey Through PTSD
by Christy WarrenFor twenty-five years, paramedic and firefighter Christy Warren put each tragic, traumatizing call she responded to in a box and closed the lid. One day, however, the box got too full and the lid blew open—and she found herself unable to close it again. Her brain locked her inside a movie theater in which film after film of gut-wrenching scenes from her career played over and over again; she found herself incapable of forgiving herself for what happened at one call in particular. Caught in a loop of shame, anger, irritability, and hypervigilance—classic signs of PTSD—she began to spiral, even to the point of considering suicide, and yet still she was reluctant to seek help.In the end, it took almost losing her marriage to force Christy into action—but once she began to reach out, she found a whole army of folks waiting and ready to help her. The team of people supporting her eventually grew to include an EMDR therapist, a psychiatrist, her peers at a trauma retreat, and a lawyer who made the case for medical retirement and workers compensation. Along the way, Christy learned the vital truths that made it possible to keep going even in her darkest moments—that post-traumatic stress was literally a brain injury; that suicide and alcohol were not the only ways out; that asking for help was a sign of strength, not weakness; and that although it was ultimately up to her to do the work to change the dialogue in her head, she was not alone.
Flash Points: Lessons Learned and Not Learned in Malawi, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan (Excelsior Editions)
by Jade WuHonorable Mention, 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Political Science CategoryFrom the hot savannah of Malawi to the cold, damp gray of Kosovo and into the volatile war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States and other donors have invested enormous financial and human resources in major peacekeeping and development efforts. Why then is the world no closer to being a "better and safer" place? Both a salient critique of US foreign assistance and a thought-provoking memoir, Flash Points describes the issues with personnel, language, and gender dynamics, as well as the cross-cultural challenges that often undermine and betray the best intentions of policy makers comfortably situated in Washington. Revealed in illuminating flashbacks, Jade Wu recalls her experiences in each of these four countries highlighting how, all too often, Americans in the field and the US government were unable to learn the lessons that ought to have been learned when dealing with host countries and their people. The final results were efforts poorly conceived and executed and, ultimately, detrimental to American national interests.
Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous
by Christopher BonanosWinner of the National Book Critics Circle AwardThe first comprehensive biography of Weegee—photographer, “psychic,” ultimate New Yorker—from Christopher Bonanos, author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid.Arthur Fellig’s ability to arrive at a crime scene just as the cops did was so uncanny that he renamed himself “Weegee,” claiming that he functioned as a human Ouija board. Weegee documented better than any other photographer the crime, grit, and complex humanity of midcentury New York City. In Flash, we get a portrait not only of the man (both flawed and deeply talented, with generous appetites for publicity, women, and hot pastrami) but also of the fascinating time and place that he occupied.From self-taught immigrant kid to newshound to art-world darling to latter-day caricature—moving from the dangerous streets of New York City to the celebrity culture of Los Angeles and then to Europe for a quixotic late phase of experimental photography and filmmaking—Weegee lived a life just as worthy of documentation as the scenes he captured. With Flash, we have an unprecedented and ultimately moving view of the man now regarded as an innovator and a pioneer, an artist as well as a newsman, whose photographs are among most powerful images of urban existence ever made.
Flashback: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War
by Penny ColemanWith the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, once again America's men and women who have seen war close-up are suddenly expected to return seamlessly to civilian life. In <i>Flashback</i>, Penny Coleman tells the cautionary and timely story of posttraumatic stress disorder in the hope that we can sensitively assist those veterans who return from combat in need of help, and the families struggling to support them.
Flashbacks: A Twenty-Year Diary of Article Writing
by John A. WilliamsA brilliant and thought-provoking collection of articles, profiles, and opinions from one of the twentieth century&’s most acclaimed African American writers A journalist, novelist, and educator, John A. Williams was never afraid to rock boats or take aim at society&’s most sacred institutions, white and black. Flashbacks is an essential compilation of Williams&’s best nonfiction pieces and an enthralling combination of memoir, biography, and social commentary that sheds a fascinating light on the black experience in America and abroad. With Flashbacks, the author of The Man Who Cried I Am and Captain Blackman reports on a wide array of world events and political realities, from South African apartheid to Israel&’s victory in the Six-Day War and the American civil rights movement. He offers insightful appreciations of some of the century&’s most celebrated and controversial black public figures, including Marcus Garvey, Jack Johnson, Charlie Parker, Dick Gregory, and Malcolm X. With insight, candor, and brutal honesty, Williams explores the struggle of the African American middle class and the roots of his own black awareness in essays that remain provocative, powerful, courageous, and relevant today.
Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir
by Jennifer McGahaWhen life gets your goat, bring in the herdJennifer McGaha never expected to own a goat named Merle. Or to be setting Merle up on dates and naming his doeling Merlene. She didn't expect to be buying organic yogurt for her chickens. She never thought she would be pulling camouflage carpet off her ceiling or rescuing opossums from her barn and calling it "date night." Most importantly, Jennifer never thought she would only have $4.57 in her bank account.When Jennifer discovered that she and her husband owed back taxes—a lot of back taxes—her world changed. Now desperate to save money, they foreclosed on their beloved suburban home and moved their family to a one-hundred-year-old cabin in a North Carolina holler. Soon enough, Jennifer's life began to more closely resemble her Appalachian ancestors than her upper-middle-class upbringing. But what started as a last-ditch effort to settle debts became a journey that revealed both the joys and challenges of living close to the land.Told with bold wit, unflinching honesty, and a firm foot in the traditions of Appalachia, Flat Broke with Two Goats blends stories of homesteading with the journey of two people rediscovering the true meaning of home.
Flat: Reclaiming My Body from Breast Cancer
by Catherine Guthrie<p>A feminist breast cancer memoir of medical trauma, love, and how she found the strength to listen to her body. <p>As a young, queer woman, Catherine Guthrie had worked hard to feel at home in her body. However, after years writing about women’s health and breast cancer, Guthrie is thrust into the role of the patient after a devastating diagnosis at age thirty-eight. At least, she thinks, I know what I'm up against. <p>She was wrong. In one horrifying moment after another, everything that could go wrong does—the surgeon gives her a double mastectomy but misses the cancerous lump, one of the most effective drug treatments fails, and a doctor's error may have unleashed millions of breast cancer cells into her body. <p>Flat is Guthrie’s story of how two bouts of breast cancer shook her faith in her body, her relationship, and medicine. Along the way, she challenges the view that breasts are essential to femininity and paramount to a woman’s happiness. Ultimately, she traces an intimate portrayal of how cancer reshapes her relationship with Mary, her partner, revealing—in the midst of crisis—a love story. <p>Filled with candor, vulnerability, and resilience, Guthrie upends the “pink ribbon” narrative and offers a unique perspective on womanhood, what it means to be “whole,” and the importance of women advocating for their desires. Flat is a story about how she found the strength to forge an unconventional path—one of listening to her body—that she’d been on all along.</p>
Flat: Reclaiming My Body from Breast Cancer
by Catherine GuthrieA feminist breast cancer memoir of medical trauma, love, and how she found the strength to listen to her body. As a young, queer woman, Catherine Guthrie had worked hard to feel at home in her body. However, after years writing about women’s health and breast cancer, Guthrie is thrust into the role of the patient after a devastating diagnosis at age thirty-eight. At least, she thinks, I know what I'm up against. She was wrong. In one horrifying moment after another, everything that could go wrong does—the surgeon gives her a double mastectomy but misses the cancerous lump, one of the most effective drug treatments fails, and a doctor's error may have unleashed millions of breast cancer cells into her body. Flat is Guthrie’s story of how two bouts of breast cancer shook her faith in her body, her relationship, and medicine. Along the way, she challenges the view that breasts are essential to femininity and paramount to a woman’s happiness. Ultimately, she traces an intimate portrayal of how cancer reshapes her relationship with Mary, her partner, revealing—in the midst of crisis—a love story. Filled with candor, vulnerability, and resilience, Guthrie upends the “pink ribbon” narrative and offers a unique perspective on womanhood, what it means to be “whole,” and the importance of women advocating for their desires. Flat is a story about how she found the strength to forge an unconventional path—one of listening to her body—that she’d been on all along.
Flaubert
by Michel WinockA “well-researched, elegantly written” study of the life and work of 19th-century French author Gustave Flaubert (Roger Pearson, University of Oxford).Michel Winock’s biography situates Gustave Flaubert’s life and work in France’s century of great democratic transition. Flaubert did not welcome the egalitarian society predicted by Tocqueville. Wary of the masses, he rejected the universal male suffrage hard won by the Revolution of 1848, and he was exasperated by the nascent socialism that promoted the collective to the detriment of the individual. But above all, he hated the bourgeoisie. Vulgar, ignorant, obsessed with material comforts, impervious to beauty, the French middle class embodied for Flaubert every vice of the democratic age. His loathing became a fixation—and a source of literary inspiration.Flaubert depicts a man whose personality, habits, and thought are a stew of paradoxes. The author of Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education spent his life inseparably bound to solitude and melancholy, yet he enjoyed periodic escapes from his “hole” in Croisset to pursue a variety of pleasures: fervent friendships, society soirées, and a whirlwind of literary and romantic encounters. He prided himself on the impersonality of his writing, but he did not hesitate to use material from his own life in his fiction. Nowhere are Flaubert’s contradictions more evident than in his politics. An enemy of power who held no nostalgia for the monarchy or the church, he was nonetheless hostile to collectivist utopias.Despite declarations of the timelessness and sacredness of Art, Flaubert could not transcend the era he abominated. Rejecting the modern world, he paradoxically became its celebrated chronicler and the most modern writer of his time.Praise for Flaubert“This generous study ingeniously builds a narrative around Flaubert’s own words—from not only the novels but also voluminous correspondence and unpublished work. Adding light background and analysis, Winock allows the mind of the Master to shine.” —The New Yorker“It is precisely the historical background of Flaubert’s times, both its conscious and its invisible impingements on the writer’s sensibility, on which Winock is especially revelatory . . . Michel Winock has written a compelling and stylish biography, and Nicholas Elliott has brought it into English with flair and skill.” —Bruce Whiteman, Hudson Review“Noted French historian Winock’s biography succeeds in presenting a fresh portrait of a man plagued by paradoxes . . . Winock provides absorbing background related to the country’s social and political scenes that occurred during his subject’s lifetime.” —Erica Swenson Danowitz, Library Journal