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Male Friendship and Testimonies of Love in Shakespeare's England
by Will ToshMale Friendship and Testimonies of Love in Shakespeare's England reveals the complex and unfamiliar forms of friendship that existed between men in the late sixteenth century. Using the unpublished letter archive of the Elizabethan spy Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), it shows how Bacon negotiated a path through life that relied on the support of his friends, rather than the advantages and status that came with marriage. Through a set of case-studies focusing on the Inns of Court, the prison, the aristocratic great house and the spiritual connection between young and ardent Protestants, this book argues that the 'friendship spaces' of early modern England permitted the expression of male same-sex intimacy to a greater extent than has previously been acknowledged.
Maleantes: Historias reales de estafadores, asesinos, rebeldes e impostores
by Patrick Radden KeefeTras No digas nada y El imperio del dolor, Patrick Radden Keefe explora los límites, a menudo imperceptibles, entre lo legal y lo ilegal, a través de doce retratos reales protagonizados por maleantes de medio mundo LIBRO DE LA SEMANA POR EL PERIÓDICO «Keefe hahecho carrera sumergiéndose en personajes fascinantes, en eso es el mejor. [...] En Maleantes regresa con su altísimo rigor periodístico y la misma pasión de siempre por desvelar misterios, con un resultado inconfundible».New York Times Book Review «Un narrador virtuoso».The Washington PostCon el fascinante estilo que le caracteriza, Patrick Radden Keefe ofrece en este libro una compleja panorámica del lado oscuro del ser humano. Aquí retrata, entre otros personajes, al traficante de armas Monzer al-Kassar, apodado «el príncipe de Marbella» y perseguido incansablemente por un agente de la D.E.A., a la controvertida «abogada del diablo» que lucha contra la pena de muerte representando a los peores criminales, al Chapo Guzmán y su vida tras huir de una prisión de alta seguridad, o al célebre delincuente holandés William Holleeder y los esfuerzos de su propia hermana para lograr su encarcelación. Maleantes recoge doce perfiles de estafadores, truhanes, asesinos y rebeldes, gente que nada a contracorriente y cuya vida excepcional, para bien y para mal, invita al lector a reflexionar sobre temas como la esencia del mal, del poder, del crimen y de la corrupción, pero también sobre el coraje de quienes decidieron enfrentarse a ellos. La crítica ha dicho... «Una obra rigurosa y literaria. [...] Honesto y escrupuloso, [Radden Keefe] es la cara y la cruz del periodismo».Marta Ailouti, El Cultural «Lo ha vuelto a hacer. Una no-ficción que se lee como un thriller y se sigue como la trama de una película. [...] La recomiendo mucho».Glòria Aznar, Diari de Tarragona «El catálogo de personajes que desfilan por aquí es digno del Hollywood más oscuro: crímenes, sí, pero también con glamur y carisma».Adrià Puértolas, El Nacional «El periodista narrativo más prestigioso de su generación».Gonzalo Suárez, El Mundo«Un conjunto de relatos con afán literario, como la antología de cuentos de un escritor con voluntad de estilo; solo que aquí prima la verdad, y los hechos de los relatos se ciñen a un concienzudo fact checking».José S. de Montfort, The Objective«La magnífica prosa de investigación de Keefe tiene elementos propios de la crónica literaria y podría recordar un poco a Gay Talese en el sentido de ser un periodista de raza que guarda el deseo de llegar al fondo de la cuestión en lo que tenga entre manos y una gran vocación de observador».Toni Montesinos, La Razón «Con su envidiable manera de mirar y contar, dibuja retratos depersonajes tan paródicos como crueles, estúpidos e insanos, tiernos y horribles. Talento y rigor».Carlos Zanón, La Vanguardia «Un nuevo libro de Keefe significa dejarlo todo y bajar las persianas; estarás pasando páginas durante horas».Los Angeles Times«Maleantes no es solo la muestra de lo buen periodista que es su autor, sino del inmenso poder del reportaje como género. Quizá el mayor don que tiene Keefe como escritor es la comodidad con la que se mueve en terrenos ambiguos, un recordatorio oportuno de que las cosas no son nunca blancas o negras».Toronto Star «Un espectacular libro de periodismo en mayúsculas».Irish Independent
Malevolent Republic: A Short History Of The New India
by K. S. KomireddiAfter decades of imperfect secularism, presided over by an often corrupt Congress establishment, Nehru's diverse republic has yielded to Hindu nationalism. India is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. Since 2014, the ruling BJP has unleashed forces that are irreversibly transforming the country. Indian democracy, honed over decades, is now the chief enabler of Hindu extremism. Bigotry has been ennobled as a healthy form of self-assertion, and anti-Muslim vitriol has deluged the mainstream, with religious minorities living in terror of a vengeful majority. Congress now mimics Modi; other parties pray for a miracle. In this blistering critique of India from Indira Gandhi to the present, Komireddi lays bare the cowardly concessions to the Hindu right, convenient distortions of India's past and demeaning bribes to minorities that led to Modi's decisive electoral victory. If secularists fail to reclaim the republic from Hindu nationalists, Komireddi argues, India will become Pakistan by another name.
Malice in Wonderland: My Adventures in the World of Cecil Beaton
by Hugo Vickers'A fascinating document, a window on to a lost world of glamour, grandeur and snobbery . . . an elegy, sad and comical, to a passing era' Craig Brown, MAIL ON SUNDAY'I got as caught up in these distant but strangely evocative events as Vickers did . . . delicious in its way, recreating a lost world' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, THE TIMES'A luxuriant trawl through the recovered past . . . extraordinary book' John Walsh, SUNDAY TIMES'A quite brilliant record of a fading social and artistic milieu . . . a world to which Vickers is an unrivalled cicerone' Matthew Sturgis, THE OLDIE'Vickers' diaries bristle with injudicious indiscretion...it is no small compliment to say that the biographer is here the equal of his subject' Michael Arditti, THE SPECTATOR'Beaton himself was one of the finest 20th-century diarists. It is no small compliment to say that the biographer is here the equal of his subject' THE SPECTATOR'Illuminating and brilliantly scurrilous' Marcus Field, THE STANDARD'Scintillating' DAILY MAIL'Vickers - as ever - is a warm and enthusiastic guide to a nearly lost world' TATLER.COMThe witty and perceptive diaries kept by Cecil Beaton's authorised biographer during his many fascinating encounters with extraordinary - often legendary - characters in his search for the real Cecil Beaton.Hugo Vickers's life took a dramatic turn in 1979 when the legendary Sir Cecil Beaton invited him to be his authorised biographer. The excitement of working with the famous photographer was dashed only days later when Cecil Beaton died. But the journey had begun - Vickers was entrusted with Beaton's papers, diaries and, most importantly, access to his friends and contemporaries. The resulting book, first published in 1985, was a bestseller. In Malice in Wonderland, Vickers shares excerpts from his personal diaries kept during this period. For five years, Vickers travelled the world and talked to some of the most fascinating and important social and cultural figures of the time, including royalty such as the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, film stars such as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews, writers such as Truman Capote, and photographers such as Irving Penn and Horst. And not only Beaton's friends - Vickers sought out the enemies too, notably Irene Selznick. He was taken under the wings of Lady Diana Cooper, Clarissa Avon and Diana Vreeland.Drawn into Beaton's world and accepted by its members, Vickers the emerging biographer also began his own personal adventure. The outsider became the insider - Beaton's friends became his friends. Malice in Wonderland is a fascinating portrait of a now disappeared world, and vividly and sensitively portrays some of its most fascinating characters as we travel with Vickers on his quest.
Malice in Wonderland: My Adventures in the World of Cecil Beaton
by Hugo VickersThe witty and perceptive diaries kept by Cecil Beaton's authorized biographer during his many fascinating encounters with extraordinary—often legendary—characters in his search for the real Cecil Beaton.Hugo Vickers's life took a dramatic turn in 1979 when the legendary Sir Cecil Beaton invited him to be his authorised biographer. The excitement of working with the famous photographer was dashed only days later when Cecil Beaton died. But the journey had begun - Vickers was entrusted with Beaton's papers, diaries and, most importantly, access to his friends and contemporaries. In Malice in Wonderland, Vickers shares excerpts from his personal diaries kept during this period. For five years, Vickers travelled the world and talked to some of the most fascinating and important social and cultural figures of the time, including royalty such as the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, film stars such as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews, writers such as Truman Capote, and photographers such as Irving Penn and Horst. And not only Beaton's friends - Vickers sought out the enemies too, notably Irene Selznick. He was taken under the wings of Lady Diana Cooper, Clarissa Avon and Diana Vreeland. Drawn into Beaton's world and accepted by its members, Vickers the emerging biographer also began his own personal adventure. The outsider became the insider - Beaton's friends became his friends. Malice in Wonderland is a fascinating portrait of a now disappeared world, and vividly and sensitively portrays some of its most fascinating characters as we travel with Vickers on his quest.
Malice in Wonderland: My Adventures in the World of Cecil Beaton
by Hugo VickersThe witty and perceptive diaries kept by Cecil Beaton's authorised biographer during his many fascinating encounters with extraordinary - often legendary - characters in his search for the real Cecil Beaton.Hugo Vickers's life took a dramatic turn in 1979 when the legendary Sir Cecil Beaton invited him to be his authorised biographer. The excitement of working with the famous photographer was dashed only days later when Cecil Beaton died. But the journey had begun - Vickers was entrusted with Beaton's papers, diaries and, most importantly, access to his friends and contemporaries. The resulting book, first published in 1985, was a bestseller. In Malice in Wonderland, Vickers shares excerpts from his personal diaries kept during this period. For five years, Vickers travelled the world and talked to some of the most fascinating and important social and cultural figures of the time, including royalty such as the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, film stars such as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews, writers such as Truman Capote, and photographers such as Irving Penn and Horst. And not only Beaton's friends - Vickers sought out the enemies too, notably Irene Selznick. He was taken under the wings of Lady Diana Cooper, Clarissa Avon and Diana Vreeland.Drawn into Beaton's world and accepted by its members, Vickers the emerging biographer also began his own personal adventure. The outsider became the insider - Beaton's friends became his friends. Malice in Wonderland is a fascinating portrait of a now disappeared world, and vividly and sensitively portrays some of its most fascinating characters as we travel with Vickers on his quest.(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Malignant Metaphor: Confronting Cancer Myths
by Alanna Mitchell“Clear medical explanations . . . will bring comfort to those readers and their loved ones facing a cancer diagnosis” (Publishers Weekly). A Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award for Science Writing Alanna Mitchell explores the facts and myths about cancer in this powerful book, as she recounts her family’s experiences with the disease. When her beloved brother-in-law John is diagnosed with malignant melanoma, Alanna throws herself into the latest clinical research, providing us with a clear description of what scientists know of cancer and its treatments. When John enters the world of alternative treatments, Alanna does, too, looking for the science in untested waters. She comes face to face with the misconceptions we share about cancer, which are rooted in blame and anxiety, and opens the door to new ways of looking at our most-feared illness. Beautifully written, Malignant Metaphor is a compassionate and persuasive book that has the power to change the conversation about cancer. “Mitchell’s research is rooted in science, while her writing remains grippingly personal.” ―Quill & Quire
Maligned Presidents: The Late 19th Century
by Max J. SkidmoreCertain 19th Century presidencies contrast common perceptions of the office's authority and strength. These presidents were a strong group and were anything but insignificant. They fought substantial battles with Congress, and often won. This book seeks to provide more substantive analysis of maligned presidencies, and the legacies left behind.
Malintzin's Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico (Dialogos Series)
by Camilla TownsendIn this study of Malintzin's life, Camilla Townsend rejects all the previous myths and tries to restore dignity to the profoundly human men and women who lived and died in those days. Drawing on Spanish and Aztec language sources, she breathes new life into an old tale, and offers insights into the major issues of conquest and colonization, including technology and violence, resistance and accommodation, gender and power.
Malled
by Caitlin KellyOne woman's midcareer misadventures in the absurd world of American retail. After losing her job as a journalist and the security of a good salary, Caitlin Kelly was hard up for cash. When she saw that The North Face-an upscale outdoor clothing company-was hiring at her local mall, she went for an interview almost on a whim. Suddenly she found herself, middle-aged and mid-career, thrown headfirst into the bizarre alternate reality of the American mall: a world of low-wage workers selling overpriced goods to well-to-do customers. At first, Kelly found her part-time job fun and reaffirming, a way to maintain her sanity and sense of self-worth. But she describes how the unexpected physical pressures, the unreasonable dictates of a remote corporate bureaucracy, and the dead-end career path eventually took their toll. As she struggled through more than two years at the mall, despite surgeries, customer abuse, and corporate inanity, Kelly gained a deeper understanding of the plight of the retail worker. In the tradition of Nickel and Dimed, Malled challenges our assumptions about the world of retail, documenting one woman's struggle to find meaningful work in a broken system. .
Mallory Pugh: Soccer Superstar (Sports Illustrated Kids Stars of Sports)
by Shane FrederickAs a child, Mallory Pugh would do anything she could to watch soccer, practice soccer, and play soccer. She was soccer obsessed! Not much has changed for Pugh in terms of her passion for soccer. In 2015, she was named the U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year. In 2019, she played for the U.S. team that won the World Cup. Discover more about Pugh's highlights on the field in this thrilling biography in the Stars of Sports series.
Mallory: A Mysterious Profile (Mysterious Profiles #11)
by Carol O'ConnellThe New York Times–bestselling author discusses her crime-solving hacker heroine, &“surely one of the genre&’s oddest and most interesting creations&” (Chicago Tribune). When the NYPD detective and sociopath known simply as Mallory made her series debut, John Sandford called her &“one of the most interesting new characters to come along in years.&” A homeless wild child who was taken in by a New York City cop and grew up to follow in his footsteps, she possesses a skill set—including a talent for computer hacking—that allows her to track down her prey like no one else. In this insightful essay, author Carol O&’Connell shares fascinating insights about her origins, her psychology, and her strikingly different sense of right and wrong. &“Mallory is not your usual plucky and generally wholesome mystery solver. Jane Marple would probably cross the street to avoid making eye contact with her.&” —The Washington Post Book World &“Mallory is a marvelous creation.&” —Jonathan Kellerman, New York Times–bestselling author of the Alex Hunter novels
Malraux
by Axel MadsenThe authorized biography of the most important man of letters in twentieth century France: André Malraux, French novelist, art theorist, and France's Minister of Cultural Affairs.
Malraux: A Life
by Olivier ToddWriter, publisher, war hero, French government minister, André Malraux was renowned as a Renaissance man of the twentieth century. Now, Olivier Todd–author of the acclaimed biographyAlbert Camus–gives us this life, in which fact competes dramatically with his subject’s previously little-known mythomania. We see the adventurous young Malraux move from 1920s literary Paris to colonial Cambodia, Cochin China, and Spain in its civil war. Todd charts the thrilling exploits that would inspire such novels asMan’s Fate,but, just as fascinating, he also traces Malraux’s lifelong pattern of lies: claiming friendship with Mao, he was called to tutor Nixon, despite having met the Great Helmsman only once; a minor injury becomes in recollections a near-mortal battlefield wound; stories of heroism in the French Resistance omit to mention that Malraux joined up just a few weeks before the Allied landings. With meticulous research, Todd separates myth from reality to throw light on a brilliant con man who would become a national hero, but he also lets us see Malraux’s genuine achievements as both writer and man of action. His real life and the one he embroidered come together in this superb biography to reveal how Malraux, the protean genius, became his own greatest character. From the Hardcover edition.
Malta Spitfire Pilot: A Personal Account of Ten Weeks of War, April–June 1942
by Denis Barnham&“One of the classic first-hand pilot accounts of World War II . . . covers . . . the siege and the Axis aerial onslaught on the island.&”—The Spitfire Site Malta Spitfire Pilot is the journal of Flight Lieutenant Denis Barnham. Having joined the RAF at the outbreak of war, Denis grew from an inexperienced young pilot into a battle-hardened Spitfire ace—most of which occurred in the 200 grueling operational hours that followed his arrival on the embattled island of Malta, in a period of just ten weeks in the spring and summer of 1942. Malta was of great strategic importance to the Allies and was pivotal to their success in North Africa as it provided the perfect launching pad for aircraft to attack Axis supply ships in the Mediterranean. As a direct result, the island, in turn, suffered intensive aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica. This memoir was written by the author as he and his fellow pilots battled against terrible odds and under constant attack. It is one man&’s dramatic and moving account of the air battle to save Malta. &“Much has been written on this subject, but the author records his experiences in a personal way, rather than strategy . . . It is well worth reading his comments on action in one of the most bombed islands of the war.&”—Aeromilitaria
Malta Spitfire Pilot: Ten Weeks of Terror, April–June 1942
by James Holland Denis BarnhamAn RAF fighter pilot’s “intensely vivid” account of the siege of Malta in World War II (The Times Literary Supplement). In the summer of 1942, Malta was vulnerable to air attack from the Germans and Italians, and defended by a handful of Spitfires and a few anti-aircraft guns. Denis Barnham, a young and inexperienced flight lieutenant, spent ten hectic weeks on this indomitable island; he left a well-ordered English aerodrome for the chaos and disillusionment of Luqa. His task was to engage the overwhelming number of enemy bombers, usually protected by fighter escorts, and shoot down as many as possible. The Spitfires were bomb-scarred and battered. Oftentimes they could only get two or three in the air together, and the airfields were riddled with bomb craters, but they managed to keep going and make their mark on enemy operations. Barnham has written a powerful account of his experiences in Malta, starting with his trip in an American aircraft carrier through the ceaseless battle and turmoil during the desperate defense of the island, through his departure by air back to England, having seen the reinforcements safely landed and the tide of battle turning. With thrilling and terrifying descriptions and illustrations of the air action, this account, told with humor and compassion, is one of the best firsthand accounts of aerial combat ever written.
Malta Spitfire: The Diary of an Ace Fighter Pilot
by George Beurling Leslie RobertsAn aviator&’s true story of WWII air combat, including two dramatic weeks in the skies above the besieged island of Malta. Twenty-five thousand feet above Malta—that is where the Spitfires intercepted the Messerschmitts, Macchis, and Reggianes as they swept eastward in their droves, screening the big Junkers with their bomb loads as they pummeled the island beneath: the most bombed patch of ground in the world. One of those Spitfire pilots was George Beurling, nicknamed &“Screwball,&” who in fourteen flying days destroyed twenty-seven German and Italian aircraft and damaged many more. Hailing from Canada, Beurling finally made it to Malta in the summer of 1942 after hard training and combat across the Channel. Malta Spitfire tells his story and that of the gallant Spitfire squadron, 249, which day after day ascended to the &“top of the hill&” to meet the enemy against overwhelming odds. With this memoir, readers experience the sensation of being in the cockpit with him, climbing to meet the planes driving in from Sicily, diving down through the fighter screen at the bombers, dodging the bullets coming out of the sun, or whipping up under the belly of an Me for a deflection shot at the engine. This is war without sentiment or romance, told in terms of human courage, skill, and heroism—a classic of WWII military aviation.
Malta's Greater Siege & Adrian Warburton DSO* DFC** DFC (USA): The Most Valuable Pilot In The Raf
by Paul McDonaldThis is a true historical account of war in the air, at sea and on land in the battle for Malta's survival in the Second World War. It was a battle which decided the outcome of the war in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Adrian Warburton, the airman described in the subtitle by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, went missing in 1944 in a single-seat American aircraft. He had flown at least 395 operational missions mostly from Malta. Unusually for a reconnaissance pilot, 'Warby' as he was known was credited with nine aircraft shot down. He lay undiscovered for sixty years. He is the RAF's most highly decorated photo-recce pilot.In Malta, Adrian met Christina, a stranded dancer turned aircraft plotter in the secret world deep beneath Valletta's fortress walls. She too was decorated for heroism. Together, they became part of the island's folklore. How important was Malta and the girl from Cheshire to the man behind the medals? This tale takes the form of a quest opening in a cemetery in Bavaria and closing in another in Malta. In between, the reader is immersed within the tension and drama surrounding Malta's Greater Siege retracing the steps of the main characters over the forever changed face of the island following its heroic victory.
Maltese in Detroit
by Larry Zahr U.O.M. Diane Gale AndreassiMost Maltese immigrants came to the United States during the first decades of the 20th century after the discharge of skilled workers from the Royal British Dockyard in 1919 following the end of World War I. More than 1,300 Maltese came to the United States in the first quarter of 1920. Many people found work in the automobile industry, and with about 5,000 residents, Detroit had the largest Maltese population in the United States. Maltese in Detroit focuses on the many people of Maltese descent who made their homes in Detroit's Corktown area. By the mid-1920s, it is believed that more than 15,000 Maltese had settled in the United States. After World War II , the Maltese government launched a program to pay passage for Maltese willing to immigrate and remain abroad for at least two years. By the mid-1990s, an estimated more than 70,000 Maltese immigrants and descendants were living in the United States, with the largest single community in Detroit and its surrounding suburbs.
Malthus
by Robert J. MayhewThomas Robert Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population was an immediate succès de scandale when it appeared in 1798. Arguing that nature is niggardly and that societies, both human and animal, tend to overstep the limits of natural resources in "perpetual oscillation between happiness and misery," he found himself attacked on all sides--by Romantic poets, utopian thinkers, and the religious establishment. Though Malthus has never disappeared, he has been perpetually misunderstood. This book is at once a major reassessment of Malthus's ideas and an intellectual history of the origins of modern debates about demography, resources, and the environment. Against the ferment of Enlightenment ideals about the perfectibility of mankind and the grim realities of life in the eighteenth century, Robert Mayhew explains the genesis of the Essay and Malthus's preoccupation with birth and death rates. He traces Malthus's collision course with the Lake poets, his important revisions to the Essay, and composition of his other great work, Principles of Political Economy. Mayhew suggests we see the author in his later writings as an environmental economist for his persistent concern with natural resources, land, and the conditions of their use. Mayhew then pursues Malthus's many afterlives in the Victorian world and beyond. Today, the Malthusian dilemma makes itself felt once again, as demography and climate change come together on the same environmental agenda. By opening a new door onto Malthus's arguments and their transmission to the present day, Robert Mayhew gives historical depth to our current planetary concerns.
Malvinas. La trama secreta (Edición definitiva)
by Ricardo Kirschbaum Eduardo Van Der Kooy Oscar Raúl CardosoEdición ampliada del primer best seller de la primavera democrática. Tres jóvenes periodistas del diario Clarín publicaron en 1983 un librollamado a ser clave en más de un sentido. Por un lado, «Malvinas, latrama secreta» servía para entender qué había pasado realmente en esaguerra inaudita, cuyas heridas estaban aún en carne viva. Por otro, ellibro fue fundamental por marcar un hito en el terreno de la másrigurosa investigación periodística. Y finalmente, «Malvinas# llegabapara dejar en claro todo lo que había cambiado en la Argentina en apenasun año: palabras que se amontonaban allí donde solo había silencio,revelaciones reemplazando al oscurantismo, libertad en lugar derepresión.Esta edición ampliada incorpora un importante número de documentosdesclasificados reveladores del rol que asumieron las potenciasmundiales en el conflicto: la U.R.S.S. apoyando a los militaresargentinos y los Estados Unidos asumiendo sin medias tintas el papel dealiados de Gran Bretaña. De cualquier modo, estas nuevas pruebas no hancambiado la potencia ni la estructura original del relato. Como bienaclaran los autores: «Hemos sido, lo somos todavía, cronistas de lahistoria e investigadores periodísticos.De esa compulsión y de ese contrato dimos nuestra versión de aquellaguerra. En esta edición hemos hecho ajustes imprescindibles, dediferente magnitud, para que el texto pueda ser comprendido en el sigloXXI con una visión más vasta de la que teníamos en los últimos meses dela dictadura y en el umbral de la democracia, cuando amanecía la décadade los 80».
Mama
by Adam CassIn August 2017, Melbourne's La Mama Theatre celebrates 50 years since the premiere of its first production, Jack Hibberd's 'Three Old Friends'. La Mama commemorates the rich life story of the theatre so far, tracking the history and chronology of the work that has been made and the many careers that have been born, raised and cherished there. Complemented by hundreds of wonderful photographs, the book is woven together through a series of rowdy yarns spun by the La Mama community, capturing a sense of the magic that has been inspiring audiences for fifty years.
Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song
by Kathryn ErskineAn inspiring picture-book biography of iconic singer and activist Miriam Makeba by National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine.Miriam Makeba, a Grammy Award–winning South African singer, rose to fame in the hearts of her people at the pinnacle of apartheid—a brutal system of segregation similar to American Jim Crow laws. Mama Africa, as they called her, raised her voice to help combat these injustices at jazz clubs in Johannesburg; in exile, at a rally beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and before the United Nations. Set defiantly in the present tense, this biography offers readers an intimate view of Makeba’s fight for equality. Kathryn Erskine’s call-and-response style text and Charly Palmer’s bold illustrations come together in a raw, riveting duet of protest song and praise poem. A testament to how a single voice helped to shake up the world—and can continue to do so.
Mama Bear: One Black Mother's Fight for Her Child's Life and Her Own
by Shirley Smith“Brave. Compelling. Provocative. ” —Gabrielle Union Wade, actress and New York Times bestselling authorIn this moving memoir, Shirley Smith, wife of NBA Champion and All-Star J. R. Smith, tells the story of giving birth to one of the youngest premature babies to survive—using her experience to heighten awareness of the crisis of Black maternal and infant health and pay tribute to Black women’s resilience.Shirley Smith and her husband, NBA champion J. R. Smith, looked forward to the birth of their second child, Dakota, as they celebrated New Year’s Eve with family at home. After dinner, Shirley felt a sharp pain that worsened through the night. Only 21-weeks pregnant, she was in labor. Mama Bear is the story of her 141-day ordeal, from entering a hospital emergency room on New Year’s morning and giving birth to her premature newborn, to taking her daughter home for the first time the following May.In telling her story, written with Zelda Lockhart, Shirley shines a spotlight on the dangers Black women face during pregnancy. Black mothers are twice as likely as their white counterparts to go into labor prematurely and lose their babies—and almost four times as likely to die giving birth. Neither socioeconomic status nor access to quality healthcare seem to matter. Tennis champion Serena Williams experienced life-threatening complications during childbirth, and Beyoncé suffered toxemia with her premature twins. Shirley chronicles the emotional and physical battle she and J. R. endured to save their daughter, and her continual struggles to support her family while nurturing herself. Like many Black women, Shirley was raised to believe that pain is a sign of weakness. The one who kept it together for everybody, she had always put herself second. She parallels this difficult journey to her childhood growing up with an addict mother, and having to raise herself and her brother from a very young age. A chronicle of pain, loss, and infidelity, Mama Bear is ultimately a story of love—a celebration of community, family, faith, healing, the maternal bond, and one woman’s indomitable spirit.
Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen: An Ordinary Family’s Extraordinary Tale of Love, Loss, and Survival in Congo
by Lisa J. ShannonInternational human rights activist Lisa Shannon spent many afternoons at the kitchen table having tea with her friend Francisca Thelin, who often spoke of her childhood in Congo. Thelin would conjure vivid images of lush flower gardens, fish the size of small children, and of children running barefoot through her family’s coffee plantation, gorging on fruit from the robust and plentiful mango trees. She urged Shannon to visit her family in Dungu, to get a taste of real Congo, peaceful Congo; a place so different than the conflict-ravaged places Shannon knew from her activism work. But then the nightly phone calls from Congo began: static-filled, hasty reports from Francisca’s mother, #147;Mama Koko,” of gunmen#151;Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army#151; who had infested Dungu and began launching attacks. Night after night for a year, Mama Koko delivered the devastating news of Fransisca’s cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, and neighbors, who had been killed, abducted, burned alive on Christmas Day. In an unlikely journey, Shannon and Thelin decided to travel from Portland, Oregon to Dungu, to witness first-hand the devastation unfolding at Joseph Kony’s hands. Masquerading as Francisca’s American sister-in-law, Shannon tucked herself into Mama Koko’s raw cement living room and listened to the stories of Mama Koko and her husband, Papa Alexander#151;as well as those from dozens of other friends and neighbors (#147;Mama Koko’s War Tribunal”)#151;who lined up outside the house and waited for hours, eager to offer their testimony. In Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen, Shannon weaves together the family’s tragic stories of LRA encounters with tales from the family’s history: we hear of Mama Koko’s early life as a gap-toothed beauty plotting to escape her inevitable fate of wife and motherhood; Papa Alexander’s empire of wives he married because they cooked and cleaned and made good coffee; and Francisca’s childhood at the family #147;castle” and coffee plantation. These lively stories transport Shannon from the chaos of the violence around her and bring to life Fransisca’s kitchen-table stories of the peaceful Congo. Yet, as the LRA camp out on the edge of town grew, tensions inside the house reach a fever pitch and Shannon and Thelin’s friendship was fiercely tested. Shannon was forced to confront her limitations as an activist and reconcile her vision of what it means to affect meaningful change in the lives of others. Mama Koko and the Hundred Gunmen is at once an illuminating piece of storytelling and an exploration of what it means to truly make a difference. It is an exquisite testimony to the beauty of human connection and the strength of the human spirit in times of unimaginable tragedy.