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My Memories of John Hartford (American Made Music Series)
by Bob CarlinMy Memories of John Hartford is a memoir about author Bob Carlin's years working alongside singer, songwriter, banjoist, and fiddler John Hartford (1937-2001). Throughout his short life, Hartford was a hit tunesmith, festival headliner, and godfather of newgrass music. He also made contributions to the film and television industry as a star in The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and helped create the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?Carlin and Hartford first met when Carlin interviewed the entertainer for Fresh Air with Terry Gross. From this first meeting over microphones developed a sixteen-year affiliation. Six years into their friendship, a working collaboration grew between the two. Carlin first accompanied John Hartford on several albums, eventually becoming his project manager for audio and video recordings. Finally, Carlin was recruited into John Hartford's last Stringband, for which he also served as the de facto road manager and right-hand guy. My Memories of John Hartford opens with an overview of the years before Hartford and Carlin's friendship, then details the last fifteen years of John Hartford's life. Included are in-depth descriptions of Hartford's lifestyle, as well as his philosophies about music, performing, recording, and living as he expressed them to the author or to those around him, with some road stories thrown in for good measure. And, those last fifteen years of his short life, while tempered by available information, are viewed here through the impressionist lenses of the author's own experience.
My Mercedes Is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou... An Auto-misadventure Across the Sahara
by Jeroen Van Bergeijk"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?" --Janis Joplin. A journalist's intrepid endeavor to sell his used car abroad results in a high-spirited and revealing look at West Africa. "Look, there's my car," I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking lot. "Where?" a fellow desert traveler asks. "There, that Mercedes," I say. He looks at me, questioning. "You want to drive that through the Sahara?" Jeroen van Bergeijk came up with what seemed like a great scheme for making a quick profit: buy a clunker of a car in his native Amsterdam and resell it in the Third World, where a market even for jalopies still thrives. His chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on its odometer; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, across the Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa. My Mercedes Is Not for Sale is a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. The author finds himself facing a driving challenge akin to the Dakar Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditry--mostly by the border guards--and a teenage, chain-smoking desert guide with a fondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization is a bar of soap, some duct tape, and a pair of women's nylons. Then there's the coup he survived. My Mercedes Is Not for Sale captures more than the adventure--it vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture, while asking the question: is the white man's burden really a used car?
My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety
by Georgia Pritchett“Georgia Pritchett is a singularly hilarious person. Her book is a delightful and perfect reflection of her. Its tenderness sneaks up on you and really packs a punch. What a magnificent read!”—Julia Louis DreyfusJenny Lawson meets Nora Ephron in this joyful memoir-in-vignettes on living—and thriving—with anxiety from a multiple Emmy Award-winning comedy writer whose credits include Succession and Veep.When Georgia Pritchett found herself lost for words—a bit of a predicament for a comedy writer—she turned to a therapist, who suggested she try writing down some of the things that worried her. But instead of a grocery list of concerns, Georgia wrote this book.A natural born worrywart, Georgia’s life has been defined by her quirky anxiety. During childhood, she was agitated about the monsters under her bed (Were they comfy enough?). Going into labor, she fretted about making a fuss (“Sorry to interrupt, but the baby is coming out of my body,” I said politely). Winning a prestigious award, she agonized over receiving free gifts after the ceremony (It was an excruciating experience. Mortifying). Soul-baring yet lighthearted, poignant yet written with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, My Mess Is a Bit of a Life is a tour through the carnival funhouse of Georgia’s life, from her anxiety-ridden early childhood where disaster loomed around every corner (When I was little I used to think that sheep were clouds that had fallen to earth. On cloudy days I used to worry that I would be squashed by a sheep), through the challenges of breaking into an industry dominated by male writers, to the exquisite terror (and incomparable joy) of raising children.Delightfully offbeat, painfully honest, full of surprising wonders, and delivering plenty of hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments, My Mess Is a Bit of a Life reveals a talented, vulnerable, and strong woman in all her wisecracking weirdness, and makes us love it—and her—too.
My Meteorite: Or, Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing
by Harry DodgeAn expansive, radiant, and genre-defying investigation into bonding—and how we are shaped by forces we cannot fully know Is love a force akin to gravity? A kind of invisible fabric which enables communications through space and time? Artist Harry Dodge finds himself contemplating such questions as his father declines from dementia and he rekindles a bewildering but powerful relationship with his birth mother. A meteorite Dodge orders on eBay becomes a mysterious catalyst for a reckoning with the vital forces of matter, the nature of consciousness, and the bafflements of belonging. Structured around a series of formative, formidable coincidences in Dodge&’s life, My Meteorite journeys with stylistic bravura from Barthes to Blade Runner, from punk to Pale Fire. It is a wild, incandescent book that creates a literary universe of its own. Blending the personal and the philosophical, the raw and the surreal, the transgressive and the heartbreaking, Harry Dodge revitalizes our world, illuminating the magic just under the surface of daily life.
My Midnight Years: Surviving Jon Burge's Police Torture Ring and Death Row
by Ronald Kitchen Thai Jones Logan McBrideRonald Kitchen was 21, on his way to buy milk for his four-year-old, when he was picked up by the Chicago police, brutally tortured, and coerced to confess to five counts of heinous murder. He spent 22 years in prison, 13 of those on death row, labeled as a monster. Kitchen was only one of the many victims of Jon Burge and his notorious midnight crew that terrorized and incarcerated black men—118 have come forward so far—on the South Side of Chicago for nearly two decades. Not one to give up, Kitchen cofounded the Death Row 10 from his maximum security cellblock. Together, these men fought to expose the grave injustices that led to their wrongful convictions. The Death Row 10 appeared on 60 Minutes II, Nightline, Oprah and Geraldo Rivera, and with the help of lawyers and activists outside, were instrumental in turning the tide against the death penalty in Illinois. Kitchen was finally exonerated in 2013 and filed a high profile lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department, Jon Burge, Mayor Richard Daley, and the Cook County State's Attorney. Kitchen's story is outrageous and heartbreaking. Largely absent from the current social justice narratives are the testimonies of the victims themselves. Kitchen is a rare survivor who has turned his suffering into a public cause and is poised to become a powerful spokesperson. The atrocities of the Midnight Crew have been brought to light through Kitchen's actions and are now part of the discussion as the nation engages in an unprecedented conversation about racism.
My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy
by Andrea AskowitzIf Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) was a lesbian he would have written this book
My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy
by Andrea AskowitzIn this memoir of her 40 weeks and five days in hell, Andrea Askowitz takes an unflinching look at her pregnant life from struggling with hormones to poor body image to a self imposed exile from family to take us on a ride through the turbulence of single lesbian motherhood. Along the way we meet her liberal parents as they struggle with their daughter's choices, the lover she longs to reconnect with who goes M.I.A. before the pregnancy, the friends who turn out to be no help at all and strangers who offer up some unlikely kindness. Andrea presents herself real, raw, impossibly cranky yet deeply touching with her self-deprecating dark sense of humor that will make you wince or better yet send you into uncontrollable fits of laughter.
My Mistake: A Memoir
by Daniel MenakerA former New Yorker editor and book publisher shares a &“ruefully funny insider&’s tour of the publishing world&” in this delightful memoir (Vogue.com). A New York Times Book Review Editors&’ Choice Daniel Menaker started as a fact checker at The New Yorker in 1969. With luck, hard work, and the support of William Maxwell, he was eventually promoted to editor. Never beloved by the magazine&’s legendary editor William Shawn, he was advised early on to find a position elsewhere; he stayed for another twenty-four years. Now Menaker offers an insightful and intimate account of that wonderfully strange place—as well as the publishing world at large and his own life—in this &“tender, smart, and witty&” memoir (Real Simple).My Mistake is a moving, thoughtful meditation on years well lived, well read, and well spent. Full of mistakes, perhaps. But full of effort, full of accomplishment, full of life.&“Energetic and exhilarating . . . [Menaker&’s] clever, fast-paced prose makes you stop and think and wonder.&” —New York Times Book Review
My Moby Dick
by William HumphreyFrom the acclaimed author of Home from the Hill and The Ordways comes a charming and erudite account of what happens when the fish hooks the fisherman In the Berkshire mountains, novelist and avid outdoorsman William Humphrey discovers a gigantic, one-eyed brown trout lazing in the shallows of a roadside stream. Between three and four feet long and weighing more than thirty pounds, it is a fish too big not to be fished for. It is also, therefore, a fish too big to be caught. Yet Humphrey resolves to do just that, and with a dry fly, no less. What follows is a season-long pursuit of the impossible as the amateur angler practices his technique, devises schemes for getting old One-eye to bite, and steels himself for the climactic showdown. Man and trout will find that they have much to learn from each other. One of the finest fishing stories ever published, My Moby Dick is a small masterpiece about a whale of a fish. This ebook features an illustrated biography of William Humphrey including rare photos form the author&’s estate.
My Moment: 106 Women on Fighting for Themselves
by Chely Wright Lauren Blitzer Kristin Chenoweth Linda Perry Kathy NajimyA collection of essays accompanied by beautiful black-and-white photography from a diverse group of women on the moment they realized they were ready to fight for themselves—including Gloria Steinem, Lena Waithe, Joanna Gaines, Brandi Carlile, Beanie Feldstein, Cynthia Erivo, and Billie Jean King, among others.This powerful essay collection is a natural extension of the #MeToo movement, revealing the interior experience of women after they&’ve inevitably been underestimated or hurt—the epiphany that the world is different than they thought it to be—and how they&’ve used this knowledge to make change. In My Moment, Gloria Steinem tells the story of how a meeting with writer Terry Southern drew blood. Carol Burnett shares how CBS discouraged her from pursuing The Carol Burnett Show, because comedy variety shows were &“a man&’s game.&” Joanna Gaines reveals how coming to New York City as a young woman helped her embrace her Korean heritage after enduring racist bullying as a child. Author Maggie Smith details a career crossroads when her boss declined her request to work from home after the birth of her daughter, leading her to quit and never look back. Over and over again, when told &“no&” these women said &“yes&” to themselves. This hugely inspiring, beautiful book will move people of all ages and make them feel less alone. More than the sum of its parts, My Moment is also a handbook for young women (or any woman) making their way through the world.
My Mother and I
by Ingrid SewardThe story of the real relationship between King Charles III and his mother, by the esteemed royal biographer, Ingrid Seward. The relationship between the late Monarch and her son, the King, has long been a subject of fascination. The upbringing of an heir is especially important and places an extra burden on top of all the cares of motherhood. The demands placed on the monarch are unique and there was no one better placed to know this than the late Queen. She knew that not only must they be figureheads, but they must be seen to care for others less fortunate than themselves. They are also expected to uphold family values. Princess Elizabeth made it a point of maternal honour to try and build her routine around her young son while doing her duty. When she became Queen, it was a more delicate balance, but one which she eventually learnt to sustain. Unlike his self-contained mother, who always put duty above personal happiness, King Charles needed love and support to function properly. This is the story of how Charles was shaped and moulded by his heritage. His mother was the woman he always loved but could never be close to. As Queen she held the Pandora&’s box of the crown and all he could do was wait and learn. In his mother&’s old age, he finally received the affection and respect from her he had craved for so long. This book documents his life through many personal anecdotes from his family and his friends, from the moment the guns saluted his birth to the day he was officially declared as the King at his Coronation.
My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man.: An Autobiography Of America
by Kevin PowellWritten in the tradition of works by Joan Didion, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and Eve Ensler, a provocative and soul-searching “autobiography of America”—the past, the present, and the future Kevin Powell wants for us all, through the lens and lives of three major figures: his mother, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Ten short years ago, Barack Obama became president of the United States, and changed the course of history. Ten short years ago, our America was hailed globally as a breathtaking example of democracy, as a rainbow coalition of everyday people marching to the same drum beat. We had finally overcome. But did we? Both the presidencies of Obama and Donald Trump have produced some of the ugliest divides in history: horrific racial murders, non-stop mass shootings, the explosion of attacks on immigrants and on the LGBTQ community, the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots, and legions of women stepping forth to challenge sexual violence—and men—in all forms. In this gripping new collection of thirteen essays, My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man., Kevin Powell interweaves brutally honest personal stories with the saga of America, then and now. Be it politics, sports, pop culture, hip-hop music, mental health, racism, #MeToo, or his very complicated relationship with his mother, these impassioned essays are not merely a mirror of who we are, but also who and what Powell thinks we ought to be.
My Mother, My Teacher: A Memoir from Western Sahara (MLA Texts and Translations)
by Bahia Mahmud AwahSeparated from his family in the aftermath of the failed decolonization process in Western Sahara, Bahia Mahmud Awah was sustained by recollections of his mother. In this memoir, he describes her sacrifices, her optimism, and her deep love. His family's experiences exemplify the larger story of loss and displacement in the region even as his story shows how shared memories can nourish community and culture across generations, even in exile. Incorporating poetry in Hassaniya, the traditional Saharawi language, the work highlights the role of language in shaping identity and resisting colonialism.First published in 2011 as La maestra que me enseñó en una tabla de madera (The Woman Who Taught Me on a Wooden Slate), this edition includes the first complete English translation and a new epilogue by the author featuring further remembrances of his mother and examples of her poetry.
My Mother, the Psychopath: Growing up in the shadow of a monster
by Olivia RayneWhat do you do when the person you’re meant to trust the most in the world is the one trying to destroy you? ‘When people met her they thought how lovely she was, this attractive woman with a beautiful laugh. But she was one person in public and another behind closed doors. Who would she be today? The loving mother? The trusted teacher? The monster destroying my life?’Olivia has been afraid ever since she can remember. Out of sight, she was subjected to cruelty and humiliation at the hands of the one person who should have loved and protected her at all times – her mother, Josephine.While appearing completely normal to the outside world, Josephine displayed all the signs of being a psychopath – unbeknown to her daughter until adulthood – and Olivia grew up feeling scared, worthless and exploited. Even when she found the courage to cut ties, her mother found new ways to manipulate and deceive, attempting to destroy her life with a vicious campaign of abuse.Now Olivia has come to terms with her past and gives a fascinating, harrowing and deeply unsettling insight into what it’s like growing up with a psychopathic parent.
My Mother Warned Warned Me About Blokes Like Me
by Boris MihailovicMy Mother Warned Me About Blokes Like Me is Boris Mihailovic's frank, fearless and fast account of a life of motorcycles, brotherhood, demons, dirt and danger.Whether you're into dirt bikes, road bikes, ride a Yamaha, scooter or Laverda: if you've ever experienced the primal rush of riding a motor bike, the pain of crashing, the suffering of healing and the epiphanies of speed, then this book is for you. My Mother Warned Me About Blokes Like Me is about friendship, treachery, girls in tight pants and motorcycles that have been possessed by Satan. It's about brotherhood, camaraderie, drugs, alcohol and being hounded by the police for daring to combine them all at once. It's about breaking the law, and racing 1000 kilometres through the night for money and thrills. It's about massive amputations, bovine stupidity, maniacal genius and the wisdom of the old.It's about chance and fate and suffering, being two people at once and being handcuffed in a Melbourne gutter. It's about being cold and crazy and hopeful and irredeemably lost. It's about impossible highs and soul-crushing lows, about demons and brothers and dirt and danger, and houses with iron bars instead of glass in their windows.Essentially it's about Boris Mihailovic's life. With motorcycles.'His love of motorcycling, mateship and frequent, subsequent mayhem is matched by a natural writing ability that graphically, often hilariously, brings to life the two-wheeled experiences that have shaped his life... Highly recommended' - 4 x 4 Magazine'There is no requirement to love everything on two wheels to enjoy this book but it would seriously help, as our resident bike nut said about Boris: This guy lives and breathes motorbikes. He's the epitome of two wheel freedom' - Mining Chronicle
My Mother's Daughter: A Memoir of Struggle and Triumph
by Perdita Felicien"A phenomenal, human story. . . . I could not put this book down." —CLARA HUGHESA raw and affecting memoir about a mother and daughter who beat the odds together. Decades before Perdita Felicien became a World Champion hurdler running the biggest race of her life at the 2004 Olympics, she carried more than a nation's hopes—she carried her mother Catherine's dreams. In 1974, Catherine is determined and tenacious, but she's also pregnant with her second child and just scraping by in St. Lucia. When she meets a wealthy white Canadian family vacationing on the island, she knows it's her chance. They ask her to come to Canada to be their nanny—and she accepts. This was the beginning of Catherine's new life: a life of opportunity, but also suffering. Within a few years, she would find herself pregnant a third time—this time in her new country with no family to support her, and this time, with Perdita. Together, in the years to come, mother and daughter would experience racism, domestic abuse, and even homelessness, but Catherine's will would always pull them through. As Perdita grew and began to discover her preternatural athletic gifts, she was edged onward by her mother's love, grit, and faith. Facing literal and figurative hurdles, she learned to leap and pick herself back up when she stumbled. This book is a daughter's memoir—a book about the power of a parent's love to transform their child's life.
My Mother's Daughter
by Rona MaynardPersonal memories of the sort her Chatelaine readers adored -- a remarkable life story seen through the window of her relationship with her mother.Every woman's relationship with her mother is special. Yet everyone will recognize some parts of another woman's story, especially if it is told as honestly and as sensitively as Rona Maynard tells it here.As a little girl, Maynard soon came to see that her family was not an ordinary one. Her father, Max, was an artist and an alcoholic. Her mother was Fredelle Maynard, a brilliant academic who could not get a teaching job because she was a woman. Instead she became a writer -- the author of Raisins and Almonds -- and, above all, a driving, loving, ambitious, overpowering mother.In her shadow (and that of younger sister Joyce, who went off at eighteen to live with J.D. Salinger) Rona took time to blossom as a writer and editor in Toronto. This book takes us through her career, step by step, including the miseries of being accused by her son's teachers -- and her own mother -- of being a bad mother, overly concerned with her own career.Rona's strong, direct style will ring true for every working woman. Through the magic of her writing, she gives a clear-eyed and affectionate account of her relationship with a demanding, loving mother.I said to my father, "You don't live here any more. This is Mother's house, not yours. It's time for you to go."My father cursed me. He shook his fist. Then he left and never came back.--From My Mother's DaughterFrom the Hardcover edition.
My Mother's Eyes
by Shanelle DawsonImagine living with the knowledge that your father had murdered your mother and lied to you your whole life, telling you she left because she didn't love you anymore.How could a father do this to his children? How could a husband do this to a woman he at one time loved?When she was four years old, Shanelle Dawson's mother, Lynette, disappeared. On 8 January 1982, the woman who had been a loving, constant presence vanished without a trace. Four year old's might not be able to articulate questions or understand a lot, but the ache of absence is very real. Year after year that ache persisted.Shanelle's father, Chris Dawson, claimed that his wife just needed to get away. This is what he told Lyn's parents and siblings. This is what he told his daughters. But Lyn never returned home. Her side of the bed was immediately filled by Shanelle's teenage babysitter, a former student of her father's.After thirty-six years of her father's lies, a podcast called The Teacher's Pet investigated her mother's case. Sordid details about the father she loved became public. Whispers that he had murdered Lynette grew louder. The police refocused on the cold case. Then, Chris Dawson faced court. Forty years after she went missing, he was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison for the murder of Lynette.Now, in this brave, emotionally powerful memoir, Shanelle reclaims her mother's story and finds a channel for her own voice. It is an unforgettable insight into the ripples of trauma and loss that family violence brings and shows how Shanelle found the strength to confront her father and can now create a new life after unimaginable deception.This is Shanelle's story.
My Mother's Keeper: A Daughter's Memoir of Growing Up in the Shadow of Schizophrenia
by Tara Elgin Holley Joe HolleyDawn Elgin was destined to be a 1940s big-band star. From the time she was fourteen, she took her place at the microphone in Houston's elite Empire Room and sang with the voice of a jazz angel. Vibrant and glamorous, she boldly pursued her love of performing to New Orleans, Hollywood, and New York, where she gave birth to her daughter, Tara, when she was twenty-one. Then Dawn began to suffer persistent visions of a deathly specter at her bedside. She was diagnosed with acute paranoid schizophrenia and began a lifetime spent in and out of institutions. My Mother's Keeper is Tara's deeply moving story of growing up in the shadow of her mother's tragic illness. As Dawn's state worsened, Tara lived in the care of her imperious great-great-aunt Elsa - the family's elderly matriarch, who drew her into a rich world of old-fashioned treasures and Houston history - while her mother drifted in and out of Tara's life like a fading fairy princess. Though Tara yearned for her mother during her childhood, Dawn's condition was usually kept from her, the subject of secretive family discussion and neighborhood gossip. By the time Tara was seventeen she had become Dawn's guardian, bent on rescuing the shambling street person her mother had become and transforming her back into the beautiful, lively woman she remembered. Above all, it is a deeply moving exploration of the mother-daughter bond - of how Tara learned to balance her mother's needs with her own, and how she finally came to terms with Dawn's legacy when she became a mother herself. Emotionally compelling and powerfully rendered, My Mother's Keeper offers indelible proof of love's power to transcend a devastating illness.
My Mother's Kitchen: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and the Meaning of Life
by Peter GethersMy Mother's Kitchen is a funny, moving memoir about a son’s discovery that his mother has a genius for understanding the intimate connections between cooking, people and lovePeter Gethers wants to give his aging mother a very personal and perhaps final gift: a spectacular feast featuring all her favorite dishes. The problem is, although he was raised to love food and wine he doesn’t really know how to cook. So he embarks upon an often hilarious and always touching culinary journey that will ultimately allow him to bring his mother’s friends and loved ones to the table one last time. The daughter of a restaurateur—the restaurant was New York’s legendary Ratner’s—Judy Gethers discovered a passion for cooking in her 50s. In time, she became a mentor and friend to several of the most famous chefs in America, including Wolfgang Puck, Nancy Silverton and Jonathan Waxman; she also wrote many cookbooks and taught cooking alongside Julia Child. In her 80s, she was robbed of her ability to cook by a debilitating stroke. But illness has brought her closer than ever to her son: Peter regularly visits her so they can share meals, and he can ask questions about her colorful past, while learning her kitchen secrets. Gradually his ambition becomes manifest: he decides to learn how to cook his mother the meal of her dreams and thereby tell the story of her life to all those who have loved her.With his trademark wit and knowing eye, Peter Gethers has written an unforgettable memoir about how food and family can do much more than feed us—they can nourish our souls.
My Mother's Rules: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Emotional Genius
by Lynn TolerAutobiography of Judge Lynn Toler describing her sometimes difficult upbringing and the life-lessons she learned from her mother.
My Mother's War: The Incredible True Story of How a Resistance Fighter Survived Three Concentration Camps
by Eva Taylor"A sad and beautiful book, shining a light on quiet heroism in dark times.&” –Lucy Adlington, New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmakers of Auschwitz The extraordinary story of Sabine Zuur, a beautiful, young Dutch resistance fighter who spent over two years in three concentration camps during World War Two, told by her daughter using an astonishing archive of personal lettersAfter her mother&’s death, Eva Taylor discovered an astounding collection of documents, photos and letters from her time as a resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Holland. Using the letters, she reconstructed her mother's experience in the underground resistance movement and then as a prisoner in the Amersfoort, Ravensbruck and Mauthausen concentration camps. The letters reveal an amazing story of life during wartime, including declarations of love from her fiancé before his tragic death as a Spitfire pilot, prison notes smuggled out in her laundry, and passionate but sometimes terrifying messages from a German professional criminal who ultimately would save Sabine&’s life. A one-of-a-kind story of survival, My Mother&’s War captures a remarkable life in the words of the young woman who lived it.
My Mother's Wars
by Lillian FadermanAn acclaimed writer on her mother's tumultuous life as a Jewish immigrant in 1930s New York and her life-long guilt when the Holocaust claims the family she left behind in Latvia A story of love, war, and life as a Jewish immigrant in the squalid factories and lively dance halls of New York's Garment District in the 1930s, My Mother's Wars is the memoir Lillian Faderman's mother was never able to write. The daughter delves into her mother's past to tell the story of a Latvian girl who left her village for America with dreams of a life on the stage and encountered the realities of her new world: the battles she was forced to fight as a woman, an immigrant worker, and a Jew with family left behind in Hitler's deadly path. The story begins in 1914: Mary, the girl who will become Lillian Faderman's mother, just seventeen and swept up with vague ambitions to be a dancer, travels alone to America, where her half-sister in Brooklyn takes her in. She finds a job in the garment industry and a shop friend who teaches her the thrills of dance halls and the cheap amusements open to working-class girls. This dazzling life leaves Mary distracted and her half-sister and brother-in-law scandalized that she has become a "good-time gal." They kick her out of their home, an event with consequences Mary will regret for the rest of her life. Eighteen years later, still barely scraping by as a garment worker and unmarried at thirty-five, Mary falls madly in love and has a torrid romance with a man who will never marry her, but who will father Lillian Faderman before he disappears from their lives. America is in the midst of the Depression, Hitler is coming to power in Europe, and New York's garment workers are just beginning to unionize. Mary makes tentative steps to join, despite her lover's angry opposition. As National Socialism engulfs Europe, Mary realizes she must find a way to get her family out of Latvia, and she spends frenetic months chasing vague promises and false rumors of hope. Pregnant again, after having submitted to two wrenching back-room abortions, and still unmarried, Mary faces both single motherhood and the devastating possibility of losing her entire Eastern European family. Drawing on family stories and documents, as well as her own tireless research, Lillian Faderman has reconstructed an engrossing and essential chapter in the history of women, of workers, of Jews, and of the Holocaust as immigrants experienced it from American shores.
My Mother's Witness: The Peggy Morgan Story
by Carolyn HainesPeggy thought marriage would deliver her from the poverty and abuse of childhood in rural Mississippi. but she did not know, that she would be exposed to racial violence in the Civil Rights Movement.