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Lily Briscoe
by Mary MeigsTaking as her alter-ego Lily Briscoe - the painter in Woolf's To the Lighthouse - Mary Meigs portrays herself, her family, and her friends in Lily Briscoe: A Self-Portrait, a book that is both autobiography and memoir. She describes the three major decisions of her life: "not to marry, to be an artist," and to listen to her "own voices."
Lily of the Nile (Cleopatra's Daughter Trilogy #1)
by Stephanie DrayHeiress of one empire and prisoner of another, it is up to the daughter of Cleopatra to save her brothers and reclaim what is rightfully hers... To Isis worshippers, Princess Selene and her twin brother Helios embody the divine celestial pair who will bring about a Golden Age. But when Selene's parents are vanquished by Rome, her auspicious birth becomes a curse. Trapped in an empire that reviles her heritage and suspects her faith, the young messianic princess struggles for survival in a Roman court of intrigue. She can't hide the hieroglyphics that carve themselves into her hands, nor can she stop the emperor from using her powers for his own ends. But faced with a new and ruthless Caesar who is obsessed with having a Cleopatra of his very own, Selene is determined to resurrect her mother's dreams. Can she succeed where her mother failed? And what will it cost her in a political game where the only rule is win-or die?
The Lily Pond
by Mike BarnesA memoir that chronicles unflinchingly the destructiveness of bipolar disorder - an illness that infiltrates thinking, feeling and acting in ways that change the very fabric of identity, of the life story one is telling oneself; however, The Lily Pond is equally searching in its exploration of the psyche's resources in healing and reknitting that story.
Lily Robbins, M. D.: Medical Dabbler
by Nancy RueAfter witnessing a car accident and helping a little boy who was hurt, Lily is on a mission to become a "great healer" or healthcare professional, and no one's going to stop her. Lily starts watching medical shows on TV and checking out health books at the library, but that's not all, she signs up for a health class for girls at a local health club.
Lily's Promise: Holding On to Hope Through Auschwitz and Beyond—A Story for All Generations
by Lily Ebert Dov Forman"Heartbreaking, inspirational, and uplifting, this is an engaging story of one remarkable woman's will to survive." — The Library Journal“Utterly compelling, heartbreaking, truthful and yet redemptive . . . a testimony of irrepressible spirit and an unforgettable family chronicle. I couldn't stop reading it.”—Simon Sebag MontefioreIn this life-affirming intergenerational memoir, Lily Ebert, a Holocaust survivor, and her great-grandson, Dov Forman, come together to share her story—an unforgettable tale of resilience and resistance. On Yom Kippur, 1944, fighting to stay alive as a prisoner in Auschwitz, Lily Ebert made a promise to herself. She would survive the hell she was in and tell the world her story, for everyone who couldn’t. Now, at ninety-eight, this remarkable woman—and TikTok sensation, thanks to the help of her eighteen-year-old great-grandson—fulfills that vow, relaying the details of her harrowing experiences with candor, charm, and an overflowing heart.In these pages, she writes movingly about her happy childhood in Hungary, the death of her mother and two youngest siblings on their arrival at Auschwitz, and her determination to keep her two other sisters safe. She describes the inhumanity of the camp and the small acts of defiance that gave her strength. Lily lost so much, but she built a new life for herself and her family, first in Israel and then in London.Dov knows that it is up to younger people like him to keep Lily’s promise. He and Lily bridge the generation gap to share her experience, reminding us of the joy that accompanies the solemn responsibility of keeping the past—and our stories—alive.
Lilyville: Mother, Daughter, and Other Roles I've Played
by Tovah FeldshuhThis heartwarming and funny memoir from a beloved actress tells the story of a mother and daughter whose narrative reflects American cultural changes and the world's shifting expectations of women.From Golda to Ginsburg, Yentl to Mama Rose, Tallulah to the Queen of Mean, Tovah Feldshuh has always played powerful women who aren't afraid to sit at the table with the big boys and rule their world. But offstage, Tovah struggled to fulfill the one role she never auditioned for: Lily Feldshuh's only daughter.Growing up in Scarsdale, NY in the 1950s, Tovah—known then by her given name Terri Sue—lived a life of piano lessons, dance lessons, shopping trips, and white-gloved cultural trips into Manhattan. In awe of her mother's meticulous appearance and perfect manners, Tovah spent her childhood striving for Lily's approval, only to feel as though she always fell short. Lily's own dreams were beside the point; instead, she devoted herself to Tovah's father Sidney and her two children. Tovah watched Lily retreat into the roles of the perfect housewife and mother and swore to herself, I will never do this.When Tovah shot to stardom with the Broadway hit Yentl, winning five awards for her performance, she still did not garner her mother's approval. But, it was her success in another sphere that finally gained Lily's attention. After falling in love with a Harvard-educated lawyer and having children, Tovah found it was easier to understand her mother and the sacrifices she had made during the era of the women's movement, the sexual revolution, and the subsequent mandate for women to "have it all."Beloved as he had been by both women, Sidney's passing made room for the love that had failed to take root during his life. In her new independence, Lily became outspoken, witty, and profane. "Don't tell Daddy this," Lily whispered to Tovah, "but these are the best years of my life." She lived until 103. In this insightful, compelling, often hilarious and always illuminating memoir, Tovah shares the highs and lows of a remarkable career that has spanned five decades, and shares the lessons that she has learned, often the hard way, about how to live a life in the spotlight, strive for excellence, and still get along with your mother. Through their evolving relationship we see how expectations for women changed, with a daughter performing her heart out to gain her mother's approval and a mother becoming liberated from her confining roles of wife and mother to become her full self. A great gift for Mother's Day—or any day when women want a joyous and meaningful way to celebrate each other.
L'imbalsamatore
by Maria Paola Fortuna Enrique LasoEnrique, un adolescente inquieto, conosce José, un anziano imbalsamatore che vive isolato e ritirato da ogni attività. Tra i due a poco a poco si instaurerà una solida amicizia. L'imbalsamatore insegna al giovane l'arte della tassidermia, ma anche altri aspetti non meno importanti della vita.Ma presto questa relazione amichevole troverà un ostacolo: Enrique è sul punto di scoprire un oscuro segreto che José mantiene gelosamente da anni.Un romanzo breve ma molto intenso, che lascia un sedimento difficile da dimenticare. Un'atmosfera che ti catturerà e due personaggi che seducono adolescenti e adulti. La passione per l'arte, la devozione per il maestro e gli intricati segreti della mente sono saggiamente uniti in una storia che ha già catturato migliaia di lettori in tutto il mondo.Mistero, amore, arte, crescita personale e profonde riflessioni...
Limber: Essays
by Angela Pelster"What a strange and unexpected treasure chest this is, filled with all manner of quirky revelations, all about the mundane sublime and the ineffable extraordinary. Most extraordinary of all, perhaps, through, is the haunting perfection, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, of the writing itself. Who is this Angela Pelster and where has she been all our lives?"-Lawrence WeschlerAngela Pelster's startling essay collection charts the world's history through its trees: through roots in the ground, rings across wood, and inevitable decay. These sharp and tender essays move from her childhood in rural Canada surrounded by skinny poplar trees in her backyard to a desert in Niger, where the "Loneliest Tree in the World" once grew. A squirrel's decomposing body below a towering maple prompts a discussion of the science of rot, as well as a metaphor for the ways in which nature programs us to consume ourselves. Beautiful, deeply thoughtful, and wholly original, Limber valiantly asks what it means to sustain life on this planet we've inherited.Angela Pelster's essays have appeared in Granta, the Gettysburg Review, Seneca Review, the Globe and Mail, Relief Magazine, and others. Her children's novel The Curious Adventures of India Sophia won the Golden Eagle Children's Choice award in 2006. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa's nonfiction writing program and lives with her family in Baltimore, Maryland, where she teaches at Towson University.
Limbo: A Memoir
by A. Manette AnsayFrom childhood, acclaimed novelist A. Manette Ansay trained to become a concert pianist. But at nineteen, a mysterious muscle disorder forced her to give up the piano, and by twenty-one, she couldn't grip a pen or walk across a room. She entered a world of limbo, one in which no one could explain what was happening to her or predict what the future would hold. At twenty- three, beginning a whole new life in a motorized wheelchair, Ansay made a New Year's resolution to start writing fiction, rediscovering the sense of passion and purpose she thought she had lost for good. "Writing fiction began for me as a side effect of illness, a way to live beyond my body when it became clear that this new, altered body would be mine to keep. A way to fill the hours that had once been occupied by music. A way to achieve the kind of closure that, once, I'd found in prayer." Limbo takes its title from the Catholic belief in a place between heaven and hell that is neither, one that Ansay imagines as a gray room without walls, a gray floor, a gray bench .... You wouldn't know how long you'd been in that room, or how much longer you had to go." Thirteen years and five books later, still without a firm diagnosis or prognosis, Ansay reflects on the ways in which the unraveling of one life can plant the seeds of another, and considers how her own physical limbo has challenged--in ways not necessarily bad her most fundamental assumptions about life and faith.
Limbo
by A. Manette AnsayFrom childhood, acclaimed novelist A. Manette Ansay trained to become a concert pianist. But when she was nineteen, a mysterious muscle disorder forced her to give up the piano, and by twenty-one, she couldn't grip a pen or walk across a room. She entered a world of limbo, one in which no one could explain what was happening to her or predict what the future would hold. At twenty-three, beginning a whole new life in a motorized wheelchair, Ansay made a New Year's resolution to start writing fiction, rediscovering the sense of passion and purpose she thought she had lost for good. Thirteen years later, still without a firm diagnosis or prognosis, Ansay reflects on the ways in which the unraveling of one life can plant the seeds of another, and considers how her own physical limbo has challenged--in ways not necessarily bad--her most fundamental assumptions about life and faith. Luminously written, Limbo is a brilliant and moving testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.
Liminal
by Jordan TannahillFrom award-winning playwright and filmmaker Jordan Tannahill comes a masterful and moving novel in the tradition of Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station and Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be.At 11:04 a.m. on January 21st, 2017, Jordan opens the door to his mother’s bedroom. As his eyes adjust to the half-light, he finds her lying in bed, eyes closed and mouth agape. In that instant he cannot tell whether she is asleep or dead. The sight of his mother's body, caught between these two possibilities, causes Jordan to plunge headlong into the uncertain depths of consciousness itself.From androids to cannibals to sex clubs, an unforgettable personal odyssey emerges, populated by a cast of sublime outsiders in search for the ever-elusive nature of self. Part ontological thriller, part millennial saga, Liminal is a riotous and moving portrait of a young man in volatile times, a generation caught in suspended animation, and a son’s enduring love for his mother.
Limited Boxed Set: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health (Children’s Health Defense)
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.#1 on AMAZON, and a NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA TODAY and PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NATIONAL BESTSELLERPharma-funded mainstream media has convinced millions of Americans that Dr. Anthony Fauci is a hero. He is anything but.As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci dispenses $6.1 billion in annual taxpayer-provided funding for scientific research, allowing him to dictate the subject, content, and outcome of scientific health research across the globe. Fauci uses the financial clout at his disposal to wield extraordinary influence over hospitals, universities, journals, and thousands of influential doctors and scientists—whose careers and institutions he has the power to ruin, advance, or reward. During more than a year of painstaking and meticulous research, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unearthed a shocking story that obliterates media spin on Dr. Fauci . . . and that will alarm every American—Democrat or Republican—who cares about democracy, our Constitution, and the future of our children&’s health. The Real Anthony Fauci reveals how &“America&’s Doctor&” launched his career during the early AIDS crisis by partnering with pharmaceutical companies to sabotage safe and effective off-patent therapeutic treatments for AIDS. Fauci orchestrated fraudulent studies, and then pressured US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators into approving a deadly chemotherapy treatment he had good reason to know was worthless against AIDS. Fauci repeatedly violated federal laws to allow his Pharma partners to use impoverished and dark-skinned children as lab rats in deadly experiments with toxic AIDS and cancer chemotherapies. In early 2000, Fauci shook hands with Bill Gates in the library of Gates&’ $147 million Seattle mansion, cementing a partnership that would aim to control an increasingly profitable $60 billion global vaccine enterprise with unlimited growth potential. Through funding leverage and carefully cultivated personal relationships with heads of state and leading media and social media institutions, the Pharma-Fauci-Gates alliance exercises dominion over global health policy. The Real Anthony Fauci details how Fauci, Gates, and their cohorts use their control of media outlets, scientific journals, key government and quasi-governmental agencies, global intelligence agencies, and influential scientists and physicians to flood the public with fearful propaganda about COVID-19 virulence and pathogenesis, and to muzzle debate and ruthlessly censor dissent.
Limited Choices: Mable Jones, a Black Children's Nurse in a Northern White Household
by Emily K. Abel Margaret K. NelsonWhen interviewed by the Charlottesville, Virginia, Ridge Street Oral History Project, which documented the lives of Black residents in the 1990s, Mable Jones described herself as a children’s nurse, recounting her employment in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. Emily Abel and Margaret Nelson, whose mother employed Jones, use the interview and their own childhood memories as a starting point in piecing together Jones’s life in an effort to investigate the impact of structural racism, and a discriminatory system their family helped uphold. The book is situated in three different settings—the poor rural South, Charlottesville, and the affluent suburb of Larchmont, New York—all places that Mable Jones lived and worked.Mable Jones was emblematic of her race, gender, time, and place. Like many African Americans born around 1900, she lived first in a rural community before moving to a city. She had to leave school after the eighth grade and worked until a year before her death. And her occupation was that held by the majority of African American women through the twentieth century. Reflecting on her life, local civil rights leader Eugene Williams asked the authors to document the "segregation in Charlottesville that Mrs. Jones endured." This book honors his charge by highlighting the limited choices available to her. It documents the slow progress of change for many African Americans in the South, explores the still little-known experiences of Black household workers in the suburban North, and reconstructs the textured lives that Mable Jones and the many women like her nevertheless carved out in a system that was and continues to be stacked against them.
Limited Edition of One
by Steven WilsonThe more I thought about it, the more I realised my career has been unusual. How did I manage to do everything wrong but still end up on the front cover of magazines, headlining world tours and achieving Top 5 albums? How did I attract such obsessive and fanatical fans, many of whom take everything I do or say very personally, which is simultaneously flattering but can also be tremendously frustrating? Even this I somehow cultivated without somehow meaning to. My accidental career.Limited Edition of One is unlike any other music book you will ever have read.Part the long-awaited memoir of Steven Wilson: whose celebrated band Porcupine Tree began as teenage fiction before unintentionally evolving into a reality that encompassed Grammy-nominated records and sold-out shows around the world, before he set out for an even more successful solo career.Part the story of a twenty-first century artist who achieved chart-topping mainstream success without ever becoming part of the mainstream. From Abba to Stockhausen, via a collection of conversations and thought pieces on the art of listening, the rules of collaboration, lists of lists, personal stories, professional adventurism (including food, film, TV, modern art), old school rock stardom, how to negotiate an obsessive fanbase and survive on social media, and dream-fever storytelling.
Limited Edition of One
by Steven WilsonThe more I thought about it, the more I realised my career has been unusual. How did I manage to do everything wrong but still end up on the front cover of magazines, headlining world tours and achieving Top 5 albums? How did I attract such obsessive and fanatical fans, many of whom take everything I do or say very personally, which is simultaneously flattering but can also be tremendously frustrating? Even this I somehow cultivated without somehow meaning to. My accidental career.Limited Edition of One is unlike any other music book you will ever have read.Part the long-awaited memoir of Steven Wilson: whose celebrated band Porcupine Tree began as teenage fiction before unintentionally evolving into a reality that encompassed Grammy-nominated records and sold-out shows around the world, before he set out for an even more successful solo career.Part the story of a twenty-first century artist who achieved chart-topping mainstream success without ever becoming part of the mainstream. From Abba to Stockhausen, via a collection of conversations and thought pieces on the art of listening, the rules of collaboration, lists of lists, personal stories, professional adventurism (including food, film, TV, modern art), old school rock stardom, how to negotiate an obsessive fanbase and survive on social media, and dream-fever storytelling.
Limited Edition of One: How to Succeed in the Music Industry Without Being Part of the Mainstream
by Steven WilsonThe more I thought about it, the more I realised my career has been unusual. How did I manage to do everything wrong but still end up on the front cover of magazines, headlining world tours and achieving Top 5 albums? How did I attract such obsessive and fanatical fans, many of whom take everything I do or say very personally, which is simultaneously flattering but can also be tremendously frustrating? Even this I somehow cultivated without somehow meaning to. My accidental career.Limited Edition of One is unlike any other music book you will ever have read.Part the long-awaited memoir of Steven Wilson: whose celebrated band Porcupine Tree began as teenage fiction before unintentionally evolving into a reality that encompassed Grammy-nominated records and sold-out shows around the world, before he set out for an even more successful solo career.Part the story of a twenty-first century artist who achieved chart-topping mainstream success without ever becoming part of the mainstream. From Abba to Stockhausen, via a collection of conversations and thought pieces on the art of listening, the rules of collaboration, lists of lists, personal stories, professional adventurism (including food, film, TV, modern art), old school rock stardom, how to negotiate an obsessive fanbase and survive on social media, and dream-fever storytelling.
Limitless: The bestselling story of Britain’s inspirational astronaut
by Tim PeakeThe inspirational autobiography of Britain’s beloved astronaut Tim Peake, the #1 bestselling author of Hello, is this Planet Earth? and Ask an AstronautAs heard on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs__________________'What surprised me was how entirely serene I felt. I was weightless, no forces exerting themselves on my body. To my left was the Space Station. Below me, gradually going into shadow, was the Earth. And over my right shoulder was the universe.'In fascinating and personal detail, and drawing on exclusive diaries and audio recordings from his mission, astronaut Tim Peake takes readers closer than ever before to experience what life in space is really like: the sights, the smells, the fear, the sacrifice, the exhilaration and the deep and abiding wonder of the view.Warm, inspiring and often funny, Tim also charts his surprising road to becoming an astronaut, from a shy and unassuming boy from Chichester who had a passion for flight, to a young British Army officer, Apache helicopter pilot, flight instructor and test pilot who served around the world. Tim's extensive eighteen-year career in the Army included the command of a platoon of soldiers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, deployment in Bosnia, and operations in Afghanistan.Full of life lessons for readers of all ages, Limitless is the story of how ordinary can become extraordinary.__________________'For someone who has literally been out of this world Tim's an incredibly down to earth guy and I think you'll be amazed at some of the things he has done ... it's so inspiring to know that even going into space didn't change him as much as being a parent did.' JOE WICKS'Tim is one of our nation's good guys - and his story is a testament to his courage, kindness and a never-give-up spirit.' BEAR GRYLLS'Full of courage, camaraderie and daring escapades, this reads like a Boys' Own adventure' MIRROR'A fantastic book' PIERS MORGAN'Fasten your seatbelt for an exhilarating read ... His accounts of blasting into orbit at 25 times the speed of sound and floating, weightless, around the space station are enthralling.' EXPRESSBestseller in the UK, Sunday Times, October 2020
Limitless: An Ultrarunner's Story of Pain, Perseverance and the Pursuit of Success
by Lucy Waterlow Mimi AndersonDon’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limitsAt the age of 55, record-breaking ultrarunner Mimi Anderson embarked on her most ambitious adventure yet. She wanted to become the fastest woman in history to run across America from Los Angeles to New York.Her journey would cover 2,850 miles, 12 states and four time zones, dealing with extreme changes in terrain, weather and altitude along the way.For 40 days, the determined mother of three pushed herself on and on for more than 2,000 miles across the vast continent, despite the onset of severe pain, until she was forced to make a crushing decision: carry on and risk never being able to run again or give up on her all-time goal.What happened next set Mimi on a new, unexpected journey. She learned to face her fears and bounce back from defeat by taking up the new challenge of becoming a triathlete.A follow-up to her first memoir Beyond Impossible, this next instalment in Mimi’s inspiring story proves that when one door closes, another opens – you just need the courage to swim, cycle and run through it.
Limitless: An Ultrarunner's Story of Pain, Perseverance and the Pursuit of Success
by Lucy Waterlow Mimi AndersonDon’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limitsAt the age of 55, record-breaking ultrarunner Mimi Anderson embarked on her most ambitious adventure yet. She wanted to become the fastest woman in history to run across America from Los Angeles to New York.Her journey would cover 2,850 miles, 12 states and four time zones, dealing with extreme changes in terrain, weather and altitude along the way.For 40 days, the determined mother of three pushed herself on and on for more than 2,000 miles across the vast continent, despite the onset of severe pain, until she was forced to make a crushing decision: carry on and risk never being able to run again or give up on her all-time goal.What happened next set Mimi on a new, unexpected journey. She learned to face her fears and bounce back from defeat by taking up the new challenge of becoming a triathlete.A follow-up to her first memoir Beyond Impossible, this next instalment in Mimi’s inspiring story proves that when one door closes, another opens – you just need the courage to swim, cycle and run through it.
Limitless: The Power of Hope and Resilience to Overcome Circumstance
by Mallory WeggemannThe Paralympic gold-medalist, world champion swimmer, ESPY winner, and NBC Sports commentator uses her extraordinary story to equip others to meet whatever challenges they face in life.On January 21, 2008, a routine medical procedure left Mallory Weggemann paralyzed from her waist down. Less than two years later, Mallory had broken eight world records, and by the 2012 Paralympic Games, she held fifteen world records and thirty-four American records. Two years later a devastating fall severely damaged her left arm, yet Mallory refused to give up. After two reconstructive surgeries and extended rehab, she won two golds and a silver at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships. And perhaps most significantly, she found confidence, independence, and persevering love as she walked down the aisle on her wedding day.Mallory's extraordinary resilience and uncompromising commitment to excellence are rooted in her resolve, perseverance, and sheer grit. In this remarkable new book, Mallory shares the lessons she learned by pushing past every obstacle, expectation, and limitation that stood in her way, including the need to:redefine limitations;remember that healing is not chronological;be willing to fail;and embrace your comeback.Mallory's story reminds us that whatever circumstances we face, we have the capacity to face down whatever challenges, labels, or difficulties confront us--and to do so on our own terms.
The Limits of Hope: An Adoptive Mother's Story
by Ann Kimble LouxMark andAnn Kimble adopt two sisters and bring them into their family of five. Because professionals did not share information about these two children, the family has its share of trials and tribulations before coming into acceptance of themselves and each other.
The Limits of Love: The Lives of D. H. Lawrence and Frieda von Richthofen
by Michael SquiresThe Limits of Love: The Lives of D. H. Lawrence and Frieda von Richthofen provides a candid look at two illustrious people who tested the capacity—and the limits—of marriage. The Lawrences come alive not as simple quarreling travelers, nor as blissful domestic partners, but as complex personalities who experimented with marriage to see if it would fulfill their needs. Their antagonisms and their sexual experiences informed Lawrence’s fearless novels The Rainbow and Women in Love. Both works also tested the boundaries of public taste and faced harsh receptions.The cost of the Lawrences’ strong but unstable marriage was high. Despite periods of happiness and peace, angry clashes meant separations and uneasy agreements to repair the marital intimacy when it cracked. Fractures of 1916, 1919, 1923, and 1926 healed slowly and with difficulty. In Lawrence’s most calculated and famous work, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, he successfully coded their marital stress and, full of rage, fused two stories of failed marriages.Drawing on many unpublished and recently discovered letters, The Limits of Love offers readers a detailed reconstruction of two complicated lives, written with narrative speed and a forceful style, filled with vivid interpretations of Lawrence’s work, and conveying deep sympathy for people living outside established norms. This new dual biography, based on years of research by Michael Squires, captures the essence of Lawrence and Frieda, making the couple real, alive, and accessible.
The Limits of My Language: Meditations on Depression
by Eva Meijer"Moving, poetic, cogent and honest." -- Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon An intimate study of depression that draws on personal experience and a deep knowledge of philosophy—perfect for fans of Maggie Nelson and Leslie JamisonThe Limits of My Language is both a razor-sharp analysis of depression and a steadfast search for the things great and small -- from philosophy and art to walking a dog or sitting quietly with a cat -- that make our lives worth living. Much has been written about the treatment of depression, but relatively little about its meaning. In this strikingly original book, Eva Meijer weaves her own experiences and the insights of thinkers from Freud to Foucault and Woolf into a moving and incisive evocation of the condition. Depression is more than a chemical problem—the questions that occupy someone with depression are fundamentally human, and they touch on other philosophical questions that concern language, autonomy, power relations, loneliness, and the relationship between body and mind. But this book-length essay is also about the other side, such as animals, trees, others, art: about consolation, and hope, and the things that can give life meaning. The Limits of My Language explores how depression can make us grow out of shape over time, like a twisted tree, how we can sometimes remould ourselves in conversation with others, and how to move on from our darkest thoughts.
Limits of the Known
by David RobertsA celebrated mountaineer and author searches for meaning in great adventures and explorations, past and present. David Roberts, "veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures" (Washington Post), has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In Limits of the Known, he reflects on humanity’s—and his own—relationship to extreme risk. Part memoir and part history, this book tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure. In the wake of his diagnosis with throat cancer, Roberts seeks answers with sharp new urgency. He explores his own lifelong commitment to adventuring, as well as the cultural contributions of explorers throughout history: What specific forms of courage and commitment did it take for Fridtjof Nansen to survive an eighteen-month journey from a record "farthest north" with no supplies and a single rifle during his polar expedition of 1893–96? What compelled Eric Shipton to return, five times, to the ridges of Mt. Everest, plotting the mountain’s most treacherous territory years before Hillary and Tenzing’s famous ascent? What drove Bill Stone to dive 3,000 feet underground into North America’s deepest cave? What motivates the explorers we most admire, who are willing to embark on perilous journeys and push the limits of the human body? And what is the future of adventure in a world we have mapped and trodden from end to end?
Limonov: The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia
by Emmanuel CarrèreA thrilling page-turner that also happens to be the biography of one of Russia's most controversial figuresThis is how Emmanuel Carrère, the magnetic journalist, novelist, filmmaker, and chameleon, describes his subject: "Limonov is not a fictional character. There. I know him. He has been a young punk in Ukraine, the idol of the Soviet underground; a bum, then a multimillionaire's butler in Manhattan; a fashionable writer in Paris; a lost soldier in the Balkans; and now, in the fantastic shambles of postcommunism, the elderly but charismatic leader of a party of young desperadoes. He sees himself as a hero; you might call him a scumbag: I suspend my judgment on the matter. It's a dangerous life, an ambiguous life: a real adventure novel. It is also, I believe, a life that says something. Not just about him, Limonov, not just about Russia, but about all our history since the end of the Second World War."So Eduard Limonov isn't fictional—but he might as well be. This pseudobiography isn't a novel, but it reads like one: from Limonov's grim childhood to his desperate, comical, ultimately successful attempts to gain the respect of Russia's literary intellectual elite; to his immigration to New York, then to Paris; to his return to the motherland. Limonov could be read as a charming picaresque. But it could also be read as a troubling counternarrative of the second half of the twentieth century, one that reveals a violence, an anarchy, a brutality, that the stories we tell ourselves about progress tend to conceal.