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The Noise of Time
by Julian BarnesA masterful novel dedicated to the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, from the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending.The book begins in 1936, with Dmitri Shostakovich petrified at the age of thirty and fearing for his livelihood and even his life. His opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District has just been denounced in Pravda in an article that certainly reflects the opinion of Joseph Stalin himself. Every night he waits on the landing outside his apartment, expecting NKVD agents to come and whisk him away. Shostakovich reflects on not only his predicament but also his own personal history, his parents and his various women and wives and his children, and all who are still alive themselves hang in the balance of his fate. When the interrogation he fears does eventually arrive, a stroke of luck prevents him from becoming a casualty of the Great Terror that claims so many of his friends and contemporaries--"chips that had flown while the wood was being chopped." Still, the spectre of the government hovers over him for several further decades, forcing him to constantly weigh the merits of appeasing those in power against the integrity of his music. Barnes elegantly guides us through subsequent stages of Shostakovich's life, from being ground into the dirt under the thumb of despotism to being made to serve as a figurehead of Soviet values at a cultural conference in New York, and finally being forced into joining the Party. The trajectory of his career illuminates the evolution of the Soviet Union, with Nikita Khrushchev assuming its leadership, this providing no great joy to Shostakovich. The Noise of Time is both a heartbreaking account of a relentlessly fascinating man's experience and a brilliant meditation on the meaning of art and its place in society.
The Noise of Time: A novel (Vintage International Series)
by Julian BarnesA compact masterpiece dedicated to the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich: Julian Barnes's first novel since his best-selling, Man Booker Prize-winning The Sense of an Ending. In 1936, Shostakovich, just thirty, fears for his livelihood and his life. Stalin, hitherto a distant figure, has taken a sudden interest in his work and denounced his latest opera. Now, certain he will be exiled to Siberia (or, more likely, executed on the spot), Shostakovich reflects on his predicament, his personal history, his parents, various women and wives, his children--and all who are still alive themselves hang in the balance of his fate. And though a stroke of luck prevents him from becoming yet another casualty of the Great Terror, for decades to come he will be held fast under the thumb of despotism: made to represent Soviet values at a cultural conference in New York City, forced into joining the Party and compelled, constantly, to weigh appeasing those in power against the integrity of his music. Barnes elegantly guides us through the trajectory of Shostakovich's career, at the same time illuminating the tumultuous evolution of the Soviet Union. The result is both a stunning portrait of a relentlessly fascinating man and a brilliant exploration of the meaning of art and its place in society.From the Hardcover edition.
Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices & Changed the World - A Graphic Collection from Kazoo
by Kazoo Magazine"Thoughtful, timely and Super-Engaging. So glad the powerhouse young people coming up have Kazoo as a blueprint, a roadmap, and a glimpse into history." -Jacqueline Woodson"Astonishing comics about world-changing women. What could possibly be better?"--Neil Gaiman"All the women in this book were discouraged from doing the work they were born to do. Fortunately, they didn't let that stop them. Here are their riveting stories, told in unputdownable comics. I wish I'd had NOISEMAKERS when I was growing up." -Alison Bechdel From the creators of Kazoo magazine, a quarterly magazine for girls ages 5-12, which Amy Poehler's Smart Girls called "required reading," comes a graphic novel anthology of women who are not afraid to make some noise!Did anyone ever get anywhere by being quiet? To change anything, you have to make some noise! From the creators of the award-winning Kazoo magazine comes a look at the lives of 25 extraordinary women through the eyes of 25 extraordinary comic artists. In chapters titled Grow, Tinker, Play, Create, Rally, and Explore, you'll meet Eugenie Clark, who swam with sharks, Raye Montague, who revolutionized the design process for ships, Hedy Lamarr, a beautiful actress and brilliant inventor, Julia Child, a chef who wasn't afraid to make mistakes, Kate Warne, the first female detective, who saved the life of President-Elect Abraham Lincoln, and many more. In 25 distinct styles from some of the most exciting comic artists, Noisemakers is for everyone who is not afraid to use their voice and for those who could use a little boost.
Noisy at the Wrong Times: The uplifting story of a different kind of education - 'Hugely entertaining and inspiring' The Sunday Times
by Michael Volpe'Hugely entertaining and inspiring' The Sunday TimesOne of The Sunday Times' 100 biographies to loveThe inspirational and colourful memoir of Michael Volpe, the general manager of Opera Holland Park. The son of Italian immigrants, he and his brothers were raised by his mother on a council estate in West London, before he attended Woolverstone Hall, a prestigious state boarding school designed to give bright inner city boys the opportunity of a public school education. Set against a backdrop of nuns, hit men, ice cream vans, rugby, gangsters, strict school masters and music, Noisy at the Wrong Times is the vibrant, funny, inspiring story of a boy who was given a chance - though whether he took it or not is another question...AS SEEN ON BBC ARTS' HIP HOP 2 OPERA
Noisy at the Wrong Times: The uplifting story of a different kind of education - 'Hugely entertaining and inspiring' The Sunday Times
by Michael Volpe'Hugely entertaining and inspiring' The Sunday TimesThe inspirational and colourful memoir of Michael Volpe, the general manager of Opera Holland Park. The son of Italian immigrants, he and his brothers were raised by his mother on a council estate in West London, before he attended Woolverstone Hall, a prestigious state boarding school designed to give bright inner city boys the opportunity of a public school education. Set against a backdrop of nuns, hit men, ice cream vans, rugby, gangsters, strict school masters and music, Noisy at the Wrong Times is the vivid, funny and often moving story of a boy who was given a chance - though whether he took it or not is another question...(P)2015 John Murray Press
The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art
by Mary Grandpre Barb RosenstockVasya Kandinsky was a proper little boy: he studied math and history, he practiced the piano, he sat up straight and was perfectly polite. And when his family sent him to art classes, they expected him to paint pretty houses and flowers--like a proper artist. But as Vasya opened his paint box and began mixing the reds, the yellows, the blues, he heard a strange sound--the swirling colors trilled like an orchestra tuning up for a symphony! And as he grew older, he continued to hear brilliant colors singing and see vibrant sounds dancing. But was Vasya brave enough to put aside his proper still lifes and portraits and paint . . . music? In this exuberant celebration of creativity, Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré tell the fascinating story of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the very first painters of abstract art. Throughout his life, Kandinsky experienced colors as sounds, and sounds as colors--and bold, groundbreaking works burst forth from his noisy paint box. Backmatter includes four paintings by Kandinsky, an author's note, sources, links to websites on synesthesia and abstract art.From the Hardcover edition.
A Noiva Tonta de Hitler
by Borja Loma Barrie Luiza Castilho Saturnino BragaRomance histórico. Biografia de Eva Braun, esposa de Adolf Hitler. Relato de como Hitler e Eva se conheceram. A sexualidade de Hitler. A vida cotidiana de Hitler. Hitler na intimidade. A psicologia de Hitler.
The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan
by Tom ShoneAn in-depth look at, and written in collaboration with, the man considered to be the most profound, and commercially successful director at work today--his work, including his latest blockbuster, the action-thriller/spy-fi Tenet ("Big, brashly beautiful, grandiosely enjoyable"--Variety); his influences, his vision, his enigmatic childhood past, and much more. With Nolan's never-before-seen photographs, storyboards, and scene sketches. "The Nolan Variations is that rare thing, a superb book about a living filmmaker. Erudite, complex, labyrinthine and mind-expanding--it's as close as you're ever going to get to the Escher drawing that is Christopher Nolan's remarkable brain."--Sam Mendes"Fabulous: intelligent, illuminating, rigorous, and highly readable. The very model of what a filmmaking study should be. Essential reading for anyone who cares about Nolan or about film for that matter."--Neal Gabler, author of An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood and Walt Disney, The BiographyA rare, intimate portrait of Christopher Nolan with the full cooperation of Nolan himself who opened up more fully than ever before in his talks with Tom Shone. In chapters structured by themes and motifs ("Time"; "Chaos"), Shone writes of Nolan's thoughts on movies, on plots; on time, identity, perception, chaos, daydreams.Here is Nolan on the evolution of his pictures, and the writers, artists, directors, and thinkers who have inspired and informed his films.To write the book, Tom Shone, who has known Nolan for more than two decades and who spent months with the director, was given unprecedented access to Nolan's notes, scripts, storyboards, and artwork.In this riveting portrait of an artist, Shone deftly navigates Nolan's themes, influences, and working methods (both in writing and directing). Here is his trans-Atlantic childhood ("It makes you feel very differently about the concept of 'home'") . . . how he dreamed up the plot of Inception lying awake one night in his dorm ("I prized the imaginative space of listening to music in the dark, thinking about things, imagining things, films, stories") . . . his color-blindness and its effect on Memento ("People are fascinated by other people's perception of the world and the way in which it differs") . . . his obsession with puzzles and optical illusions . . . and much, much more.
Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms
by Carmela CiuraruA literary history of eighteen authors from the 19th and 20th centuries and their famous pseudonyms.Exploring the fascinating stories of more than a dozen authorial impostors across several centuries and cultures, Carmela Ciuraru plumbs the creative process and the darker, often crippling aspects of fame.Only through the protective guise of Lewis Carroll could a shy, half-deaf Victorian mathematician at Oxford feel free to let his imagination run wild. The three weird sisters from Yorkshire—the Brontës—produced instant bestsellers that transformed them into literary icons, yet they wrote under the cloak of male authorship. Bored by her aristocratic milieu, a cigar-smoking, cross-dressing baroness rejected the rules of propriety by having sexual liaisons with men and women alike, publishing novels and plays under the name George Sand. Highly accessible and engaging, these provocative stories reveal the complex motives of writers who harbored secret identities—sometimes playfully, sometimes with terrible anguish and tragic consequences. Part detective story, part exposé, part literary history, Nom de Plume is an absorbing psychological meditation on identity and creativity.Praise for Nom de PlumeA San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year“Each page affords sparkling facts and valuable insights into . . . the eternally mysterious, often tormented interface between life and literature.” —Elif Batuman“A richly documented literary excursion into the inner, secret lives of some of our favorite writers.” —Joyce Carol Oates“You are on the second to last page . . . and wishing you weren’t because this book is such great fun.” —San Francisco Chronicle“[An] engrossing, well-paced literary history. . . . It’s biography on the quick, and done well.” —Bookforum
Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations
by Ayaan Hirsi AliNomadis a philosophical memoir, telling how Ayaan Hirsi Ali came to America in search of a new life, and the difficulties she faced in reconciling her two worlds. With vivid anecdotes and observations of people, cultures, and political debacles, this narrative weaves together Hirsi Ali's personal story -- including her reconciliation with her devout father who had disowned her when she denounced Islam -- with the stories of other women and men, high-profile and not, whom she encounters. With a deep understanding and intimate perspective of the situation of Muslim women and moderates in the world today and her singular, unwavering intellectual courage, Hirsi Ali offers her always notable, often controversial analysis of Islam vis a vis the superiority of Western democratic values.
Nomad
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali"This woman is a major hero of our time." --Richard Dawkins Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the world's attention with Infidel, her compelling coming-of-age memoir, which spent thirty-one weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, in Nomad, Hirsi Ali tells of coming to America to build a new life, an ocean away from the death threats made to her by European Islamists, the strife she witnessed, and the inner conflict she suffered. It is the story of her physical journey to freedom and, more crucially, her emotional journey to freedom--her transition from a tribal mind-set that restricts women's every thought and action to a life as a free and equal citizen in an open society. Through stories of the challenges she has faced, she shows the difficulty of reconciling the contradictions of Islam with Western values. In these pages Hirsi Ali recounts the many turns her life took after she broke with her family, and how she struggled to throw off restrictive superstitions and misconceptions that initially hobbled her ability to assimilate into Western society. She writes movingly of her reconciliation, on his deathbed, with her devout father, who had disowned her when she renounced Islam after 9/11, as well as with her mother and cousins in Somalia and in Europe. Nomad is a portrait of a family torn apart by the clash of civilizations. But it is also a touching, uplifting, and often funny account of one woman's discovery of today's America. While Hirsi Ali loves much of what she encounters, she fears we are repeating the European mistake of underestimating radical Islam. She calls on key institutions of the West--including universities, the feminist movement, and the Christian churches--to enact specific, innovative remedies that would help other Muslim immigrants to overcome the challenges she has experienced and to resist the fatal allure of fundamentalism and terrorism. This is Hirsi Ali's intellectual coming-of-age, a memoir that conveys her philosophy as well as her experiences, and that also conveys an urgent message and mission--to inform the West of the extent of the threat from Islam, both from outside and from within our open societies. A celebration of free speech and democracy, Nomad is an important contribution to the history of ideas, but above all a rousing call to action.
Nomad's Land
by Mary Roberts RinehartA memoir of desert travel—by camel and horseback—from a beloved authorAn internationally renowned writer of mystery fiction, Mary Roberts Rinehart knows her way around an exotic setting. When faced with the Pyramids, the Nile, and the sprawling Egyptian desert in her own life, she does not fall in with the crowd of tourists waiting in line at the tombs of the Pharaohs. Instead, she hikes up her skirt, plants her pumps in the sand, and hops on a camel. She has but one question: Where am I supposed to sit?On a hundred-mile expedition into the Egyptian desert, Rinehart does her best to master the herky-jerk of this desert beast. But traveling with an entourage of well-mannered people, she finds that desert living is not completely stripped of the comforts of home. Upon returning to the United States, Rinehart makes an excursion out west, which, she finds, is where the true adventure begins.
NOMINADOS (EBOOK)
by Marcos GorbanGran Hermano es el reality show más importante del mundo. El de mayores audiencias, el de mayor facturación, el que más fantasías despierta. Los drogan? Les dan alcohol para que tengan sexo? Está todo arreglado? Por qué están tomando sol todo el día sin hacer nada? Están guionados? Los mitos que se tejieron alrededor del programa son muchos. Y han ido cambiando a través de los años. Pero hay muchas historias que el público y la prensa desconocen. Cuál fue la trastienda de los castings, de las galas en vivo, de las decisiones que más impacto tuvieron, desde la confesión de homosexualidad de Gastón hasta la inclusión de un ex presidiario en 2007?
The Nominee: A Political and Spiritual Journey (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography)
by Leslie H. SouthwickPresident George W. Bush nominated Leslie H. Southwick in 2007 to the federal appeals court, Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans. Initially, Southwick seemed a consensus nominee. Just days before his hearing, though, a progressive advocacy group distributed the results of research it had conducted on opinions of the state court on which he had served for twelve years. Two opinions Southwick had signed off on but not written became the center of the debate over the next five months. One dealt with a racial slur by a state worker, the other with a child custody battle between a father and a bisexual mother. Apparent bipartisan agreement for a quick confirmation turned into a long set of battles in the Judiciary Committee, on the floor of the Senate, and in the media.In early August, Senator Dianne Feinstein completely surprised her committee colleagues by supporting Southwick. Hers was the one Democratic vote needed to move the nomination to the full Senate. Then in late October, by a two-vote margin, he received the votes needed to end a filibuster. Confirmation followed.Southwick recounts the four years he spent at the Department of Justice, the twelve years on a state court, and his military service in Iraq while deployed with a Mississippi National Guard Brigade. During the nomination inferno Southwick maintained a diary of the many events, the conversations and emails, the joys and despairs, and quite often, the prayers and sense of peace his faith gave him--his memoir bears significant spiritual content. Throughout the struggle, Southwick learned that perspective and growth are important to all of us when making decisions, and he grew to accept his critics, regardless of outcome. In The Nominee there is no rancor, and instead the book expresses the understanding that the difficult road to success was the most helpful one for him, both as a man and as a judge.
Non, je ne regrette rien
by Lázaro Droznes Guillermo Cabello GarciaEdith Piaf est l'un des mythes les plus vivaces de la musique française et mondiale. Née littéralement dans la rue, elle développa une carrière de chanteuse et compositrice qui l'amena à devenir une icône mondiale d'une importance exceptionnelle. Ce spectacle est une reconstitution de ses récitals historiques à l'Olympia entrecoupés par des histoires et anecdotes de sa vie qui reflètent sa passion pour la musique, pour la vie et pour les hommes. Elle vécut sa vie en repoussant toujours les limites, défiant tout et risquant tout. Elle vécut comme elle chanta: en soumettant son petit corps à l'extrême de ses possibilités. Et elle ne regretta rien.
The Non-Jewish Jew: And Other Essays
by Isaac Deutscher Tamara DeutscherEssays on Judaism in the modern world, from philosophy and history to art and politicsIn these essays Deutscher speaks of the emotional heritage of the European Jew with a calm clear-sightedness. As a historian he writes without religious belief, but with a generous breadth of understanding; as a philosopher he writes of some of the great Jews of Europe: Spinoza, Heine, Marx, Trotsky, Luxemburg, and Freud. He explores the Jewish imagination through the painter Chagall. He writes of the Jews under Stalin and of the “remnants of a race“ after Hitler, as well as of the Zionist ideal, of the establishment of the state of Israel, of the Six-Day War, and of the perils ahead.
Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity
by Micah Rajunov Scott DuaneWhat happens when your gender doesn’t fit neatly into the categories of male or female? Even mundane interactions like filling out a form or using a public bathroom can be a struggle when these designations prove inadequate. In this groundbreaking book, thirty authors highlight how our experiences are shaped by a deeply entrenched gender binary.The powerful first-person narratives of this collection show us a world where gender exists along a spectrum, a web, a multidimensional space. Nuanced storytellers break away from mainstream portrayals of gender diversity, cutting across lines of age, race, ethnicity, ability, class, religion, family, and relationships. From Suzi, who wonders whether she’ll ever “feel” like a woman after living fifty years as a man, to Aubri, who grew up in a cash-strapped fundamentalist household, to Sand, who must reconcile the dual roles of trans advocate and therapist, the writers’ conceptions of gender are inextricably intertwined with broader systemic issues. Labeled gender outlaws, gender rebels, genderqueer, or simply human, the voices in Nonbinary illustrate what life could be if we allowed the rigid categories of “man” and “woman” to loosen and bend. They speak to everyone who has questioned gender or has paused to wonder, What does it mean to be a man or a woman—and why do we care so much?
The Nonconformists: American and Czech Writers across the Iron Curtain
by Brian K. GoodmanHow risky encounters between American and Czech writers behind the Iron Curtain shaped the art and politics of the Cold War and helped define an era of dissent.“In some indescribable way, we are each other’s continuation,” Arthur Miller wrote of the imprisoned Czech playwright Václav Havel. After a Soviet-led invasion ended the Prague Spring, many US-based writers experienced a similar shock of solidarity. Brian Goodman examines the surprising and consequential connections between American and Czech literary cultures during the Cold War—connections that influenced art and politics on both sides of the Iron Curtain.American writers had long been attracted to Prague, a city they associated with the spectral figure of Franz Kafka. Goodman reconstructs the Czech journeys of Allen Ginsberg, Philip Roth, and John Updike, as well as their friendships with nonconformists like Havel, Josef Škvorecký, Ivan Klíma, and Milan Kundera. Czechoslovakia, meanwhile, was home to a literary counterculture shaped by years of engagement with American sources, from Moby-Dick and the Beats to Dixieland jazz and rock ’n’ roll. Czechs eagerly followed cultural trends in the United States, creatively appropriating works by authors like Langston Hughes and Ernest Hemingway, sometimes at considerable risk to themselves.The Nonconformists tells the story of a group of writers who crossed boundaries of language and politics, rearranging them in the process. The transnational circulation of literature played an important role in the formation of new subcultures and reading publics, reshaping political imaginations and transforming the city of Kafka into a global capital of dissent. From the postwar dream of a “Czechoslovak road to socialism” to the neoconservative embrace of Eastern bloc dissidence on the eve of the Velvet Revolution, history was changed by a collision of literary cultures.
None Came Home: The War Dogs Of Vietnam
by John E. O'DonnellAutobiography of a Vietnam soldier who joins the K-9 corps and is teamed with German Shepherd named King. He writes about the training for K-9, many of their experiences, and a small group's attempts to smuggle their dogs home. [Note: There were numerous errors in the print edition which had to be left due to copyright laws.]
None Left Behind: The 10th Mountain Division and the Triangle of Death
by Charles W. SasserA devastating ambush in Iraq, kidnapped soldiers, and the men who wouldn't leave their comrades behindThe 10th Mountain Division is known as the most deployed unit in the U.S. Army. Today, the War on Terror has drawn it to Afghanistan and Iraq. To Lieutenant Colonel Mike Infanti's unit fell the pacification of a hellish hotbed of terrorism south of Baghdad dubbed "The Triangle of Death." Of the more than three thousand Americans killed since the start of the war, more than one thousand were in this region.Colonel Infanti assigned Delta Company to the most dangerous sector of the Triangle. Delta knew they were virtually assured of getting hit on a daily basis. Each day and night became something to be dreaded and feared.In the predawn of May 12, 2007, two humvees occupied by seven soldiers and an Iraqi translator were ambushed by insurgents. When the smoke cleared, four soldiers and the translator were dead and three were missing, presumably seized by the enemy. For more than a year, Delta searched for their missing comrades, never giving up hope. Their creed of battle: None Left Behind.
None of this Rocks: The brilliant first memoir by Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman
by Joe TrohmanNone of This Rocks is a memoir by Joe Trohman - lead guitarist and cofounder of Fall Out Boy - that reads like a double album full of revealing stories from his youth and his experiences of modern rock and roll stardom. With wit and wisdom, and maybe a little bit of whining, Trohman grapples with depression, his mother's brain cancer, antisemitism, pills, petty larceny, side hustles, and pop punk at the turn of the century. None of This Rocks chronicles a turbulent life that has informed Trohman's music and his worldview. His mother suffered from mental illness and multiple brain tumors that eventually killed her. His father struggled with that tragedy, but was ultimately a supportive force in Trohman's life who fostered his thirst for knowledge. Trohman faced antisemitism in small-town Ohio, and he witnessed all levels of misogyny, racism, and violence amid the straight edge hardcore punk scene in Chicago. Then came Fall Out Boy. From the guitarist's very first glimpses of their popular ascension, to working with his heroes like Anthrax's Scott Ian, to writing for television with comedian Brian Posehn, Trohman takes readers backstage, into the studio, and onto his couch. He shares his struggles with depression and substance abuse in a brutally honest and personal tone that readers will appreciate. Not much of this rocks, perhaps, but it all adds up to a fascinating music memoir unlike any you've ever read.
None of this Rocks: The brilliant first memoir by Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman
by Joe TrohmanNone of This Rocks is a memoir by Joe Trohman - lead guitarist and cofounder of Fall Out Boy - that reads like a double album full of revealing stories from his youth and his experiences of modern rock and roll stardom. With wit and wisdom, and maybe a little bit of whining, Trohman grapples with depression, his mother's brain cancer, antisemitism, pills, petty larceny, side hustles, and pop punk at the turn of the century. None of This Rocks chronicles a turbulent life that has informed Trohman's music and his worldview. His mother suffered from mental illness and multiple brain tumors that eventually killed her. His father struggled with that tragedy, but was ultimately a supportive force in Trohman's life who fostered his thirst for knowledge. Trohman faced antisemitism in small-town Ohio, and he witnessed all levels of misogyny, racism, and violence amid the straight edge hardcore punk scene in Chicago. Then came Fall Out Boy. From the guitarist's very first glimpses of their popular ascension, to working with his heroes like Anthrax's Scott Ian, to writing for television with comedian Brian Posehn, Trohman takes listeners backstage, into the studio, and onto his couch. He shares his struggles with depression and substance abuse in a brutally honest and personal tone that listeners will appreciate. Not much of this rocks, perhaps, but it all adds up to a fascinating music memoir unlike any you've ever heard.(P) 2022 Hachette Audio
None of This Rocks: A Memoir
by Joe TrohmanLead guitarist and cofounder of Fall Out Boy shares personal stories from his youth and his experiences of modern rock and roll stardom in this memoir filled with wit and wisdom. Trohman cofounded Fall Out Boy with Pete Wentz in the early aughts, and he&’s been the sticky element of the metaphorical glue-like substance holding the band together ever since, over the course of a couple decades that have included massive success, occasional backlashes, and one infamous four-year hiatus. Trohman was, and remains, the emotive communicator of the group: the one who made sure they practiced, who copied and distributed the flyers, and who took the wheel throughout many of the early tours. As soon as he was old enough to drive, that is—because he was all of 15 years old when they started out. That&’s part of the story Trohman tells in this memoir, which provides an indispensable inside perspective on the history of Fall Out Boy for their legions of fans. But Trohman has a great deal more to convey, thanks to his storytelling chops, his unmistakable voice, and his unmitigated sense of humor in the face of the tragic and the absurd. None of This Rocks chronicles a turbulent life that has informed Trohman&’s music and his worldview. His mother suffered from mental illness and multiple brain tumors that eventually killed her. His father struggled with that tragedy, but was ultimately a supportive force in Trohman&’s life who fostered his thirst for knowledge. Trohman faced antisemitism in small-town Ohio, and he witnessed all levels of misogyny, racism, and violence amid the straight edge hardcore punk scene in Chicago. Then came Fall Out Boy. From the guitarist&’s very first glimpses of their popular ascension, to working with his heroes like Anthrax&’s Scott Ian, to writing for television with comedian Brian Posehn, Trohman takes readers backstage, into the studio, and onto his couch. He shares his struggles with depression and substance abuse in a brutally honest and personal tone that readers will appreciate. Not much of this rocks, perhaps, but it all adds up to a fascinating music memoir unlike any you&’ve ever read.
A None's Story: Searching for Meaning Inside Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam
by Corinna NicolaouThe rising population known as "nones" for its members' lack of religious affiliation is changing American society, politics, and culture. Many nones believe in God and even visit places of worship, but they do not identify with a specific faith or belong to a spiritual community. Corinna Nicolaou is a none, and in this layered narrative, she describes what it is like for her and thousands of others to live without religion or to be spiritual without committing to a specific faith.Nicolaou tours America's major traditional religions to see what, if anything, one might lack without God. She moves through Christianity's denominations, learning their tenets and worshiping alongside their followers. She travels to Los Angeles to immerse herself in Judaism, Berkeley to educate herself about Buddhism, and Dallas and Washington, D.C., to familiarize herself with Islam. She explores what light they can shed on the fears and failings of her past, and these encounters prove the significant role religion still plays in modern life. They also exemplify the vibrant relationship between religion and American culture and the enduring value it provides to immigrants and outsiders. Though she remains a devout none, Nicolaou's experiences reveal points of contact between the religious and the unaffiliated, suggesting that nones may be radically revising the practice of faith in contemporary times.
The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women
by Dawn DaisDawn Dais hated running. And it didn't like her much, either. Her fitness routine consisted of avoiding the stairs in her own house, because who really has the energy to climb stairs? It was with this exercise philosophy firmly in place that she set off to complete a marathon.The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women is a fun training manual for women who don't believe that running is their biological destiny but who dream of crossing the finish line nonetheless. Revised in 2013, it now includes a new chapter on using technology as a training aid.Dais's book features a realistic training schedule and is chock-full of how-to's, quizzes, and funny observations, which she felt were lacking in the guides she had consulted. She also integrates entries from her journal, sharing everything would-be marathoners need to know about the gear, the blisters, the early morning workouts, the late-night carb binges, and-most important of all-the amazing rewards.Anyone can do a marathon. This book just makes the experience a little more bearable and a lot more fun.