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Orde Wingate: A Man of Genius, 1903–1944 (Phoenix Giants Ser.)
by Trevor Royle&“A superb biography&” of the controversial British Army officer who lead the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade against the Japanese in Burma during World War II (HistoryOfWar.org). Winston Churchill described Wingate as a man of genius who might well have become a man of destiny. Tragically, he died in a jungle aircraft crash in 1944. Like his famous kinsman Lawrence of Arabia, Wingate was renowned for being an unorthodox soldier, inclined to reject received patterns of military thought. He was a fundamentalist Christian with a biblical certainty in himself and his mission. He is best-remembered as the charismatic and abrasive leader of the Chindits. With the support of Archibald Wavell, he was responsible for a strategy of using independent groups deep behind enemy lines, supported only by air drops. Wingate was responsible for leading the charge of 2,000 Ethiopians and the Sudan Defence Force into Italian-occupied Abyssinia. Remarkably, he defeated a 40,000 strong enemy that was supported by aircraft and artillery, which Wingate did not possess. Despite his achievements, Wingate suffered from illness and depression and in Cairo attempted suicide. He was not universally liked: his romantic Zionism contrasted with the traditional British Arabist notions. He did, however, lead from the front and marched, ate and slept with his men. In this authoritative biography, Royle expertly brings to life a ruthless, complex, arrogant but ultimately admirable general.&“An insightful look at the controversies which have dogged Wingate&’s reputation over the years . . . strongly recommended to anyone interested in irregular warfare and counterinsurgency operations.&” —African Armed Forces Journal
Ordeal
by Linda Lovelace Mike McgradyGood Girl. Obedient Wife. Porn Slave. Deep Throat Was Only The Beginning. . . Linda Boreman was just twenty-one when she met Chuck Traynor, the man who would change her life. Less than two years later, the girl who wouldn't let her high school dates get past first base was catapulted to fame she could never have imagined in her wildest dreams--or worst nightmares. Linda Boreman of Yonkers, New York, had become Linda Lovelace, international adult film superstar. The unprecedented success of Deep Throat made porn popular with the mainstream and made Lovelace a household name. But nobody, from the A-list celebrities who touted the movie to the audiences that lined up to see it, knew the truth about what went on behind the scenes. Enslaved by the man who would eventually force her into marriage so that he could control her completely, Linda was beaten savagely with regularity, hypnotized, and raped. She was threatened with disfigurement and death. She was terrorized into prostitution at gun and knifepoint. She was forced to perform unspeakable perversions on film. She made Deep Throat under unimaginable duress. Years later, Linda would come out of hiding to relate her side of the story--a modern horror tale of humiliation, betrayal, and violence that would rock the porn industry and put its teller in fear for her life. . . OrdealLinda Lovelace became a household name in 1972, when Deep Throat became the first pornographic movie ever to cross over into the mainstream. Due to the success of Deep Throat, she appeared in Playboy, Bachelor, and even Esquire between 1973 and 1974. Soon after, Lovelace joined in with anti-pornography feminists led by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, and she testified before Attorney General Meese's Commission on Pornography in 1986. She died in Denver on April 22, 2002, due to severe injuries in a car accident. Journalist and former syndicated columnist Mike McGrady (Newsday, Los Angeles Times) has written many books, and he was the chief catalyst for the bestselling novel Naked Came the Stranger.
Ordeal
by Linda Lovelace Mike McGradyGood Girl. Obedient Wife. Porn Slave. Deep Throat Was Only The Beginning Linda Boreman was just twenty-one when she met Chuck Traynor, the man who would change her life. Less than two years later, the girl who wouldn t let her high school dates get past first base was catapulted to fame she could never have imagined in her wildest dreams--or worst nightmares. Linda Boreman of Yonkers, New York, had become Linda Lovelace, international adult film superstar. The unprecedented success of Deep Throat made porn popular with the mainstream and made Lovelace a household name. But nobody, from the A-list celebrities who touted the movie to the audiences that lined up to see it, knew the truth about what went on behind the scenes. Enslaved by the man who would eventually force her into marriage so that he could control her completely, Linda was beaten savagely with regularity, hypnotized, and raped. She was threatened with disfigurement and death. She was terrorized into prostitution at gun and knifepoint. She was forced to perform unspeakable perversions on film. She made "Deep Throat" under unimaginable duress. Years later, Linda would come out of hiding to relate her side of the story--a modern horror tale of humiliation, betrayal, and violence that would rock the porn industry and put its teller in fear for her life. . . Ordeal Linda Lovelace became a household name in 1972, when "Deep Throat" became the first pornographic movie ever to cross over into the mainstream. Due to the success of "Deep Throat, " she appeared in "Playboy, Bachelor, " and even "Esquire" between 1973 and 1974. Soon after, Lovelace joined in with anti-pornography feminists led by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, and she testified before Attorney General Meese s Commission on Pornography in 1986. She died in Denver on April 22, 2002, due to severe injuries in a car accident. Journalist and former syndicated columnist Mike McGrady"(Newsday, Los Angeles Times)" has written many books, and he was the chief catalyst for the bestselling novel "Naked Came the Stranger. ""
Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party
by George R. StewartThe tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846 eighty-seven people -- men, women, and children -- set out for California, persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras, only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering. Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, George Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers.
Order of Assassins: The Psychology of Murder
by Colin WilsonAn examination of the motives for murder from the bestselling author of The Outsider—&“Colin Wilson puts the Manson murders in coldly sharp perspective&” (Evening Standard). Why is the &“motiveless&” murder an increasing phenomenon today? What is the mentality behind the Manson massacres and other shocking cases of brutal killing—too frequent to be written off as isolated cases? In his penetrating exploration of murder, Colin Wilson suggests that the apparently meaningless violence so frighteningly prevalent today is the result of boredom and frustration induced by a repressive society. Particular individuals of high creative potential are thwarted in their natural drives and ambitions and are forced to tread the deadly path of homicide. Colin Wilson traces this path, describing in detail many instances of violent crime, and provides valuable insights that may point to an explanation.
Ordering Life: Karl Jordan and the Naturalist Tradition
by Kristin JohnsonThis biography of the eminent naturalist explores his life and pioneering work through the rapidly changing world of 19th and 20th century science.For centuries naturalists have endeavored to name, order, and explain biological diversity. Born in 1861, Karl Jordan dedicated his long life to this project, describing thousands of new species in the process. Ordering Life celebrates Jordan’s distinguished career as an entomologist and chronicles his efforts to secure a place for natural history museums and the field of taxonomy.In the face of a changing scientific landscape, Jordan was determined to practice good taxonomy while also pursuing status and patronage—an effort that included close collaboration with the Rothschilds. Biographer Kristin Johnson traces the evolution of Jordan’s work through wars, economic fluctuation, and political upheaval, demonstrating that the broader social context is an essential aspect of naming, describing, classifying, and, ultimately, explaining life.
Orders to Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder
by Amy KnightEver since Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia, his critics have turned up dead on a regular basis. According to Amy Knight, this is no coincidence. In Orders to Kill, the KGB scholar ties dozens of victims together to expose a campaign of political murder during Putin’s reign that even includes terrorist attacks such as the Boston Marathon Bombing. Russia is no stranger to political murder, from the tsars to the Soviets to the Putin regime, during which many journalists, activists and political opponents have been killed. Kremlin defenders like to say, “There is no proof,” however convenient these deaths have been for Putin, and, unsurprisingly, because he controls all investigations, Putin is never seen holding a smoking gun,. But Amy Knight offers mountains of circumstantial evidence that point to Kremlin involvement.Called “the West’s foremost scholar” of the KGB by The New York Times, Knight traces Putin’s journey from the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the late 1990s to his subsequent rise to absolute power as the Kremlin’s leader today, detailing the many bodies that paved the way. She offers new information about the most famous victims, such as Alexander Litvinenko, the former FSB officer who was poisoned while living in London, and the statesman Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered outside the Kremlin in 2015, and she puts faces on many others who are less well-known in the West or forgotten. She shows that terrorist attacks in Russia, as well as the Boston Marathon bombing in the U.S., are part of the same campaign. And she explores what these murders mean for Putin’s future, for Russia and for the West, where in America Donald Trump has claimed, “Nobody has proven that he's killed anyone....He's always denied it.…It has not been proven that he's killed reporters."Orders to Kill is a story long hidden in plain sight with huge ramifications.
Ordesa
by Manuel VilasEl libro más personal de Manuel Vilas. «Son dos verdades distintas, pero las dos son verdades: la del libro y la de la vida. Y juntas fundan una mentira.» En Ordesa, Manuel Vilas narra una historia personal con una intensidad similar a la que recorre su poesía: el pasado, el desvanecimiento de dos familias, la muerte de los seres queridos, las ausencias y la lejanía de los que ama, la España en la que vive y aquella en la que creció, los recuerdos, la sensación de desarraigo... Con una voz valiente y transgresora, mezclando realidad y ficción, prosa y poesía, el autor construye un relato en el que todos podemos reconocernos y recorre en él el camino inverso desde el presente inequívoco hasta el origen imaginado. Escrito a ratos desde el desgarro, y siempre desde la emoción, este libro es la crónica íntima de la España de las últimas décadas, pero también una narración sobre todo aquello que nos recuerdaque somos seres vulnerables, sobre la necesidad de levantarnos y seguir adelante cuando nada parece hacerlo posible, cuando casi todos los lazos que nos unían a los demás han desaparecido o los hemos roto. Y sobrevivimos. Críticas:«Este es el libro que necesitábamos todos nosotros. Desde la primera hasta la última sílaba es nuestro libro.»Juan Cruz Ruiz «Un escritor único, brillante y desprejuiciado, que va por libre y al que no le importa arriesgar.»Sara Mesa «Manuel Vilas sabe mirar más allá de los tristes lugares comunes. Su escritura está hecha de sabiduría, es decir, de amor.»Elvira Navarro «El gran signo que diferencia al autor de sus coetáneos de nuestra actual narrativa innovadora es el alejamiento de impostados cosmopolitismos y un enraizamiento español sin complejos, lúcido, crítico y de alcance universal.»Santos Sanz Villanueva, El Cultural «Manuel Vilas sorprende con una renovadora visión crítica de la sociedad española.»J.A. Masoliver Ródenas, La Vanguardia «Si escribir es una "enmienda a la totalidad", Vilas sigue haciéndolo estupendamente.»Nadal Suau, El Cultural (sobre Setecientos millones de rinocerontes) «La voz de Vilas tiene una cualidad a la vez torrencial y cristalina, de idioma sinestésico, libérrimo y asociativo, que produce esa absurda y sombría alegría de vivir.»Alejandro Gándara, El Boomeran(g) (sobre Setecientos millones de rinocerontes) «Vilas tiene talento doble de narrador y de poeta: cuenta el tránsito y aísla el momento, se deja llevar por el fluir de la escritura igual que por el del viaje, y se detiene en estampas de situaciones y espacios que son poemas en prosa y polaroids verbales.»Antonio Muñoz Molina (sobre América) «España es un libro de inusitada frescura. Es literatura en estado puro y procesa sin miedo los desafíos de la identidad y el verosímil que enfrentan los verdaderos creadores como Vilas.»Fogwill, Perfil
Ordesa
by Manuel VilasPremio Femina Étranger 2019Mejor libro del año según Babelia (El País)Libro recomendado por La Esfera (El Mundo)Premio Artes & Letras de Literatura (El Heraldo) El fenómeno literario de 2018 ESTA HISTORIA TE PERTENECE Escrito a ratos desde el desgarro, y siempre desde la emoción, este libro es la crónica íntima de la España de las últimas décadas, pero también una narración sobre todo aquello que nos recuerda que somos seres vulnerables, sobre la necesidad de levantarnos y seguir adelante cuando nada parece hacerlo posible, cuando casi todos los lazos que nos unían a los demás han desaparecido o los hemos roto. Y sobrevivimos. ** Premio al Libro Altoaragonés 2018 Críticas: «Ordesa es la carta del náufrago que esperábamos desde hacía años. Llegó a las librerías cabalgando sobre una ola de espuma que al retirarse la dejó en la orilla. [...] bastaba leer la primera página para advertir que aquella llamada de socorro venía de lo más hondo de nosotros mismos. Nos reclamaba porque en cierto modo, además de sus protagonistas, éramos también sus autores. [...] Describía con palabras nuevas, ordenadas de una manera insólita, lo que habíamos sido y aquello de lo que pretendimos salvarnos. Por medio de una prosa que iba y venía en un vaivén hipnótico, alternaba la fiereza con la piedad, el sí con el no, el ahora con el ayer. Total, que tras leer esa primera página nos la llevamos a casa.»Juan José Millás, Babelia «Libro potente, sincero, a ratos descarnado, sobre la pérdida de los padres, sobre el dolor de las palabras que no se dijeron y sobre la necesidad de querer y ser querido. Muy bien escrito, además. No me extraña que esté teniendo éxito.»Fernando Aramburu «En las páginas de esta novela, que podríamos resumir como una sincera y dura carta de amor a sus padres, [...] he descubierto todo un apasionante laberinto de memorias desordenadas y caóticas. Una historia delicada, sanadora y necesaria. Una reflexión sobre el pudor.»Sara Carbonero«Una puñalada que, lejos de matarte, te cura, pero no está exenta de dolor. Es un cañonazo que te cimbrea el alma. Un recorrido del autor por su visión de España en estas últimas décadas a través del duelo de su mirada a sus padres. Desde la honestidad más cruda y generosa. Una panoplia de confesiones inconfesables que nos va conmoviendo en cada cabriola literaria. Impredecible en sus formas, en sus modos. Cada llegada a un renglón nuevo te aborda como un ladrón en cada vuelta de la esquina. No lo ves venir, y te emociona a traición. Por la espalda. Qué valentía de libro. Qué manera tan agradable y placentera de sufrirlo. Atrévanse.»Dani Rovira «Hace falta mucha precisión para contar estas cosas, hace falta el ácido, el cuchillo afilado, el alfiler exacto que pincha el globo de la vanidad. Lo que queda al final es la limpia emoción de la verdad y el desconsuelo de todo lo perdido.»Antonio Muñoz Molina«Uno de los libros más humanos, más profundos, más reconfortantes que yo he leído en mucho tiempo.»Lorenzo Silva «Un libro hermoso y estremecedor, compuesto a partes iguales de culpa, rabia y amor.»Ignacio Martínez de Pisón «Un escritor único, brillante y desprejuiciado, que va por libre y al que no le importa arriesgar.»Sara Mesa «Nadie debe dejar de leer Ordesa, de Manuel Vilas. Es el libro de 2018, y eso que hay y habrá grandes libros. El amor como medicina. La pobreza como enfermedad. La literatura como pócima.»Luisgé Martín
Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin
by James Kirby MartinThe ordinary and yet exceptional experiences of a young soldier in Washington’s army are given a new life in this fourth edition, sensitively edited for a modern readership. Classic primary source on the Revolutionary War, Edited by a leading US authority on the period, Now with extra maps and a more extensive bibliography, Includes a new Afterword by Karen Guenther on film portrayals of the continental soldier.
Ordinary Daylight
by Andrew PotokAndrew Potok is an intense, vigorous, sensual man--and a gifted painter. Then, passing forty, he rapidly begins to go blind from an inherited eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa. Depressed and angry, he rages at the losses that are eradicating his life as an artist, his sources of pleasure, his competence as a man. He hates himself for becoming blind. But as he will ultimately discover, and as this remarkable memoir recounts, it is not the end of the world. It is the beginning.Ordinary DaylightThis the story of Potok's remarkable odyssey out of despair. He attempts to come to terms with his condition: learning skills for the newly blind, dealing with freakish encounters with the medical establishment, going to London for a promised cure through a bizarre and painful "therapy" of bee stings. He wrestles with the anguish of knowing that his daughter has inherited the same disease that is stealing his own eyesight. And then, as he edges ever closer to complete blindness, there comes the day when he recognizes that the exhilaration he once found in the mix of paint and canvas, hand and eye, he has begun to find in words.By turns fierce, blunt, sexy, and uproariously funny, Andrew Potok's memoir of his journey is as shatteringly frank as it is triumphant.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Ordinary Daylight: A Portrait of an Artist Going Blind
by Andrew Potok<P>Andrew Potok is an intense, vigorous, sensual man--and a gifted painter. Then, passing forty, he rapidly begins to go blind from an inherited eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa. Depressed and angry, he rages at the losses that are eradicating his life as an artist, his sources of pleasure, his competence as a man. He hates himself for becoming blind. But as he will ultimately discover, and as this remarkable memoir recounts, it is not the end of the world. It is the beginning. <P> his the story of Potok's remarkable odyssey out of despair. He attempts to come to terms with his condition: learning skills for the newly blind, dealing with freakish encounters with the medical establishment, going to London for a promised cure through a bizarre and painful "therapy" of bee stings. He wrestles with the anguish of knowing that his daughter has inherited the same disease that is stealing his own eyesight. And then, as he edges ever closer to complete blindness, there comes the day when he recognizes that the exhilaration he once found in the mix of paint and canvas, hand and eye, he has begun to find in words. <P>By turns fierce, blunt, sexy, and uproariously funny, Andrew Potok's memoir of his journey is as shatteringly frank as it is triumphant.
Ordinary Days: The Seeds, Sound, and City That Grew Prince Rogers Nelson
by Angela JoyA rhythmic, striking picture book biography of legendary singer/songwriter/performer Prince.Before he became a legend, he was just a boy… On an ordinary day, you could see him. A young boy named Prince Rogers Nelson, who had parents who fought, nowhere to call home, and a collection of memories turned into sound: the shouts of anger, the purr of pigeons, the roar of cars down a busy Minneapolis street, and the whisper of cold wind on budding lilac bushes. Other sounds joined in as he taught himself to play the guitar, piano, drums, and much more, leading to the day this ordinary boy began to make music—and became extraordinary. Black Is a Rainbow Color and Choosing Brave author Angela Joy’s exquisite words harmonize with acclaimed illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara’s sweeping art to create a tender, profound look into music icon Prince's early life and the moments that shaped him.Ordinary Days also includes an extensive author’s note and playlist of recommended Prince songs suitable for young listeners.
Ordinary Disasters: How I Stopped Being a Model Minority
by Anne Anlin ChengThe most personal writing yet to come from a noted scholar of race: a bold and moving look at race, gender, aging, and immigration that examines, through lenses both intimate and political, what it means to be an Asian American woman living in America today.Part memoir, part cultural criticism, part history, Anne Anlin Cheng&’s original essays focus on art, politics, and popular culture. Through personal stories woven with a keen eye and an open heart, Cheng summons up the grief, love, anger, and humor in negotiating the realities of being a scholar, an immigrant Asian American woman, a cancer patient, a wife of a white man, and a mother of biracial children . . . all in the midst of the (extra)ordinary stresses of recent years.Ordinary Disasters explores with lyricism and surgical precision the often difficult-to-articulate consequences of race, gender, migration, and empire. It is the story of Chinese mothers and daughters, of race and nationality, of ambition and gender, of memory and forgetting, and the intricate ways in which we struggle for interracial and intergenerational intimacies in a world where there can be no seamless identity.
Ordinary Geniuses: How Two Mavericks Shaped Modern Science
by Gino SegreA biography of two maverick scientists whose intellectual wanderlust kick-started modern genomics and cosmology. <P><P> Max Delbruck and George Gamow, the so-called ordinary geniuses of Segre's third book, were not as famous or as decorated as some of their colleagues in midtwentieth-century physics, yet these two friends had a profound influence on how we now see the world, both on its largest scale (the universe) and its smallest (genetic code). Their maverick approach to research resulted in truly pioneering science. Wherever these men ventured, they were catalysts for great discoveries. Here Segre honors them in his typically inviting and elegant style and shows readers how they were far from "ordinary". While portraying their personal lives Segre, a scientist himself, gives readers an inside look at how science is done--collaboration, competition, the influence of politics, the role of intuition and luck, and the sense of wonder and curiosity that fuels these extraordinary minds. Ordinary Geniuses will appeal to the readers of Simon Singh, Amir Aczel, and other writers exploring the history of scientific ideas and the people behind them.
Ordinary Girls \ Muchachas ordinarias (Spanish edition): Memorias
by Jaquira DíazPara las muchachas que fuimos, para la muchacha que fui, para las muchachas de todo el mundo que son como nosotras solíamos ser. Para las muchachas que nunca se vieron reflejadas en los libros. Para las muchachas ordinarias.Jaquira Díaz siempre se encontró entre extremos en lugares permeados por la violencia. A pesar de añorar tener una familia unida y un hogar seguro, éstos eran difíciles de conseguir viviendo bajo los niveles de pobreza en el caserío Padre Rivera en Puerto Rico y en Miami Beach, sobre todo tras el diagnóstico de esquizofrenia de su madre y la subsiguiente ruptura familiar. El amor y apoyo de sus panas la mantuvieron a flote al encontrarse ante otra disyuntiva: su identidad y orgullo como puertorriqueña no dejaba cabida para su nueva identidad sexual.Cada página de Muchachas ordinarias brilla por su lirismo, crudeza y sensibilidad. Desde su lucha contra la depresión y el tortuoso camino que debió recorrer como sobreviviente de agresión sexual, pasando por el estado colonial actual de Puerto Rico, Díaz narra sus vivencias con increíble lucidez y brutal honestidad, trazando la ruta que la alejó de la desesperanza y la llevó hacia el amor y el deseo de convertirse en la muchacha que siempre quiso ser.Jaquira Díaz nació en Puerto Rico y se crió en Miami Beach. Su obra ha sido publicada en Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The New York Times Style Magazine e incluida en la antología The Best American Essays 2016, entre otros. Ha sido galardonada con el Whiting Award, la medalla de oro del Florida Book Awards y ha sido finalista de los Lambda Literary Awards. Divide su tiempo entre Montreal y Miami con su espose, le escritore Lars Horn.
Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
by Jaquira Díaz<P><P> In this searing memoir, Jaquira Díaz writes fiercely and eloquently of her challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz found herself caught between extremes. As her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was supported by the love of her friends. As she longed for a family and home, her life was upended by violence. As she celebrated her Puerto Rican culture, she couldn’t find support for her burgeoning sexual identity. <P><P>From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page of Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism. Díaz writes with raw and refreshing honesty, triumphantly mapping a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be. Reminiscent of Tara Westover’s Educated, Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club, and Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries, Jaquira Díaz&’s memoir provides a vivid portrait of a life lived in (and beyond) the borders of Puerto Rico and its complicated history—and reads as electrically as a novel.
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir
by Nikki GrimesNikki Grimes discovered the power of writing at the tender age of six, when, alone in her room, she poured her fears, anger, and tears onto a piece of paper--and felt sweet relief. Words and faith were her most enduring companions as life flung her headlong from one harrowing experience to the next through her childhood and teenage years. Words, spilled into notebook after notebook, kept her moving forward. Words turned what might have been into what could be. In the course of this remarkable memoir in verse, Nikki Grimes shows how grace, wisdom, and the power of words can help a brave soul conquer the hazards--ordinary and extraordinary--of life. NIKKI GRIMES received the 2017 Children's Literature Legacy Award for substantial and lasting contributions to literature for children. Her books include the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award-winning Words with Wings; the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book One Last Word; the groundbreaking best seller Bronx Masquerade; and Garvey's Choice. She lives in Corona, California.
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir
by Nikki GrimmesA Michael L. Printz Honor BookA Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor BookArnold Adoff Poetry Award for TeensSix Starred Reviews -- ★Booklist ★BCCB ★The Horn Book ★Publishers Weekly ★School Library Connection ★Shelf AwarenessA Booklist Best Book for Youth * A BCCB Blue Ribbon * A Horn Book Fanfare Book * A Shelf Awareness Best Children's Book * Recommended on NPR's "Morning Edition" by Kwame Alexander"This powerful story, told with the music of poetry and the blade of truth, will help your heart grow."--Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and Shout"[A] testimony and a triumph."--Jason Reynolds, author of Long Way DownIn her own voice, acclaimed author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse.Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring memoir that will resonate with young readers and adults alike, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards - ordinary and extraordinary - of her life.
Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11
by Joseph PfeiferNew York Times BestsellerFrom the first FDNY chief to respond to the 9/11 attacks, an intimate memoir and a tribute to those who died that others might liveWhen Chief Joe Pfeifer led his firefighters to investigate an odor of gas in downtown Manhattan on the morning of 9/11, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever. A few moments later, he watched as the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Pfeifer, the closest FDNY chief to the scene, spearheaded rescue efforts on one of the darkest days in American history.Ordinary Heroes is the unforgettable and intimate account of what Chief Pfeifer witnessed at Ground Zero, on that day and the days that followed. Through his eyes, we see the horror of the attack and the courage of the firefighters who ran into the burning towers to save others. We see him send his own brother up the stairs of the North Tower, never to return. And we walk with him and his fellow firefighters through weeks of rescue efforts and months of numbing grief, as they wrestle with the real meaning of heroism and leadership.This gripping narrative gives way to resiliency and a determination that permanently reshapes Pfeifer, his fellow firefighters, NYC, and America. Ordinary Heroes takes us on a journey that turns traumatic memories into hope, so we can make good on our promise to never forget 9/11.
Ordinary Heroes: Untold Stories from the Falklands Campaign
by Christopher HiltonIn 1982, 8,000 miles from home, in a harsh environment and without the newest and most sophisticated equipment, the numerically inferior British Task Force defeated the Argentinian forces occupying the Falkland Islands and recaptured this far-flung outpost of what was once an empire. It was a much-needed triumph for Margaret Thatcher’s government and for Britain. Many books have been published on the Falklands War, some offering accounts from participants in it. But this is the first one only to include interviews with the ordinary seamen, marines, soldiers and airmen who achieved that victory, as well as those whose contribution is often overlooked – the merchant seaman who crewed ships taken up from trade, the NAAFI personnel who supplied the all-important treats that kept spirits up, the Hong Kong Chinese laundrymen who were aboard every warship. Published to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the conflict, this is the story of what ‘Britain’s last colonial war’ was really like.
Ordinary Joe
by Joe Schmidt'He's a great coach. He lives and breathes the game. There's nothing he doesn't know' Brian O'Driscoll'The best coach Irish rugby - arguably Irish sport - has ever had' Malachy Clerkin, Irish TimesIn the autumn of 2010, a little-known New Zealander called Joe Schmidt took over as head coach at Leinster. He had never been in charge of a professional team. After Leinster lost three of their first four games, a prominent Irish rugby pundit speculated that Schmidt had 'lost the dressing room'.Nine years on, Joe Schmidt has stepped down as Ireland coach having achieved success on a scale never before seen in Irish rugby. Two Heineken Cups in three seasons with Leinster. Three Six Nations championships in six seasons with Ireland, including the Grand Slam in 2018. And a host of firsts: the first Irish victory in South Africa; the first Irish defeat of the All Blacks, and then a second; and Ireland's first number 1 world ranking.Along the way, Schmidt became a byword for precision and focus in coaching, remarkable attention to detail and the highest of standards. But who is Joe Schmidt? In Ordinary Joe, Schmidt tells the story of his life and influences: the experiences and management ideas that made him the coach, and the man, that he is today. And his diaries of the 2018 Grand Slam and the 2019 Rugby World Cup provide a brilliantly intimate insight into the stresses and joys of coaching a national team in victory and defeat.From the small towns in New Zealand's North Island where he played barefoot rugby and jostled around the dinner table with seven siblings, to the training grounds and video rooms where he consistently kept his teams a step ahead of the opposition, Ordinary Joe reveals an ordinary man who has helped his teams to achieve extraordinary things.'Rugby obsessives and amateur coaches will revel in the insight that Schmidt offers into his training methods, tactics and preparation ... Full of insight, emotion and considered analysis' Irish Daily Mail'An insight into the fascinating personality of the man who has been the single most influential figure in Irish rugby over the last decade' Irish Times'He is clearly more than an ordinary coach, the winning of two Heinekens, beating New Zealand twice, the 2018 Grand Slam and reaching no.1 in the World Rankings are positive brushstrokes, marking Irish rugby for ever ... A rocky read about exceptional deeds, told in extraordinary fashion' Irish Daily Star'Undoubtedly the greatest coach in Irish rugby history' Daily Telegraph
Ordinary Life: A Memoir of Illness
by Kathlyn ConwayThis book is a striking departure from the literature of illness as well as a remarkable literary work in its own right. The stories we typically hear about people coping with serious illness are set up as heroic tales that emphasize the victim's triumph over adversity or even portray the experience of illness as a transformative event that makes the survivor "a better person."In this compelling account written from within an illness, Kathlyn Conway gives us a deeply honest description of her own struggle with breast cancer and its many reverberations through her everyday life, bringing us to the heart of the experience of illness without preachiness or sentimentality.Conway did not experience breast cancer as a means for reevaluating her life, but rather as a terrible threat to her future and that of her family. Making difficult choices among treatment possibilities, dealing with nurses, doctors, and lab technichians, undergoing a mastectomy, and enduring chemotherapy, Conway discovered that although she wanted to play the part of the brave, long-suffering patient, she could not. Angry and upset much of the time, overwhelmed by her situation, she found it difficult to cope even with the support her family and friends provided.In her willingness to share this story of herself as a frightened, sometimes selfish, often despairing human being, Kathlyn Conway gives us not only an unsettling portrait of our everyday mortality but a renewed appreciation of life itself.
Ordinary Light: A memoir
by Tracy K. SmithNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • This dazzling memoir from the former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Life on Mars is the story of a young artist struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America."Engrossing in its spare, simple understatement.... Evocative ... luminous." —The Washington PostIn Ordinary Light, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith tells her remarkable story, giving us a quietly potent memoir that explores her coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter.
Ordinary Notes
by Christina SharpeOne of The Millions&’ &“Most Anticipated Books of 2023One of The New York Times&’ &“19 Works of Nonfiction to Read This Spring&”A dazzlingly inventive, deeply moving, intellectually bracing exploration of pain and beauty, private memory and public monument, art and complexity in contemporary Black life.&“I wanted to write about silences and terror and acts that hover over generations, over centuries. I began by writing about my mother and grandmother.&” —from &“Note 18&” in Ordinary NotesA singular achievement, Ordinary Notes explores with immense care profound questions about loss, and the shapes of Black life that emerge in the wake. In a series of 248 brief and urgent notes that gather meaning as we read them, Christina Sharpe skillfully weaves artifacts from the past—public ones alongside others that are poignantly personal—with present-day realities and possible futures, intricately constructing an immersive portrait of everyday Black existence. Through the striking images and words in these pages, themes and tones echo: sometimes about life, art, language, beauty, memory; sometimes about history, photography, and literature—but always attending, with exquisite care, to the ordinary-extraordinary dimensions of Black life. At the heart of Ordinary Notes is the indelible presence of the author&’s mother, Ida Wright Sharpe. &“I learned to see in my mother&’s house,&” writes Sharpe. &“I learned how not to see in my mother&’s house . . . My mother gifted me a love of beauty, a love of words.&” Using these and other gifts and ways of seeing, Sharpe steadily summons a chorus of voices and experiences to become present on the page. She articulates and follows an aesthetic of "beauty as a method,&” collects entries from a community of thinkers towards a &“Dictionary of Untranslatable Blackness,&” and rigorously examines sites of memory and memorial. And in the process, she forges a new literary form, as multivalent as the ways of Black being it traces.