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Unfinished Agenda
by Tom Hayden Junius WilliamsUnfinished Agenda offers an inside look at the Black Power Movement that emerged during the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties. A political memoir that teaches grass-roots politics and inspires organizing for real change in the Age of Obama, this book will appeal to readers of black history, Occupy Wall Street organizers, and armchair political advocates. Based on notes, interviews, and articles from the 1950s to present day, Junius Williams's inspiring memoir describes his journey from young black boy facing prejudice in the 1950s segregated South to his climb to community and political power as a black lawyer in the 1970s and 80s in Newark, New Jersey. Accompanied by twenty-two compelling photographs highlighting key life events, Unfinished Agenda chronicles the turbulent times during the Civil Rights Movement and Williams's participation every step of the way including his experiences on the front lines of racial riots in Newark and the historic riot in Montgomery, Alabama with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Williams speaks of his many opportunities and experiences--beginning with his education at Amherst College and Yale Law School, his travel to Uganda and Kenya, and working in Harlem. His passion for fighting racism ultimately led him to many years of service in politics in Newark, New Jersey as a community organizer and leader. Williams advocates for renewed community organizing and voting for a progressive party to carry out the "Unfinished Agenda" the Black Power Movement outlined in America during the 60s and early 70s for empowerment of the people.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Unfinished Business in Neighborhood and Nation
by Helen HallFor 34 years, from 1933 to 1967, Helen Hall served as director of the Henry Street Settlement House on New York's Lower East Side. In this account she combines memoir with history to trace the changing problems of a poor immigrant community. She describes the settlement's pioneering efforts to promote low-income housing, establish youth programs to fight juvenile delinquency, and to campaign in Washington for Social Security and other federal programs.
Unfinished Business: Life of a Senator
by Derryn HinchDerryn Hinch made headlines in 2016 when he went from media personality to Victorian Senator at the head of a new political party and made a lasting impact on the political landscape. This is an unflinchingly honest account of his last two years as a senator, before he lost his seat in the 2019 election. Hinch's diary exposes Canberra's inner workings and details on his professional successes and failures with trademark frankness.
Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader
by Vivian GornickA New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. One of Library Journal's Best Books of 2020. One of our most beloved writers reassess the electrifying works of literature that have shaped her lifeI sometimes think I was born reading . . . I can’t remember the time when I didn’t have a book in my hands, my head lost to the world around me.Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader is Vivian Gornick’s celebration of passionate reading, of returning again and again to the books that have shaped her at crucial points in her life. In nine essays that traverse literary criticism, memoir, and biography, one of our most celebrated critics writes about the importance of reading—and re-reading—as life progresses. Gornick finds herself in contradictory characters within D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, assesses womanhood in Colette’s The Vagabond and The Shackle, and considers the veracity of memory in Marguerite Duras’s The Lover. She revisits Great War novels by J. L. Carr and Pat Barker, uncovers the psychological complexity of Elizabeth Bowen’s prose, and soaks in Natalia Ginzburg, “a writer whose work has often made me love life more.” After adopting two cats, whose erratic behavior she finds vexing, she discovers Doris Lessing’s Particularly Cats. Guided by Gornick’s trademark verve and insight, Unfinished Business is a masterful appreciation of literature’s power to illuminate our lives from a peerless writer and thinker who “still read[s] to feel the power of Life with a capital L.”
Unfinished History: A New Account of Franz Schubert's B Minor Symphony
by David MontgomeryThis study addresses a long-standing mythology concerning the "Unfinished" Symphony and reviews anachronistic performance practices that prevent listeners from experiencing the work as a product of its own time. David Montgomery’s Unfinished History challenges the traditional story of Franz Schubert’s B-minor Symphony and searches for a more credible account of this great work. Written for all Schubert lovers from lay readers to musicians and musicologists, the book reviews a strangely persistent mythology concerning the symphony, continuing with the first in-depth examination of its manuscript and related documents. Details of handwriting, notation, paper, watermarks, compositional procedures, and stylistic contexts suggest a new year and country of origin for the “Unfinished” Symphony, a possible explanation for the absence of a finale in the sketches, and an alternative account of the score’s disappearance and prolonged sequestration. The author concludes with an essay on performing the work in the context of its own times. The story of the Unfinished has been based partly upon three conflicting letters written in old age by Schubert’s former secretary long after the composer’s death. A fourth document in this insupportable mythology is a photograph of a lost letter purportedly sent from Schubert to the Styrian Music Society in Graz, promising to send them a symphony. Many historians still believe the letter to be genuine, despite the fact that its signature has been traced. David Montgomery’s handwriting analysis finally identifies the real writer of this odd missive, clearing a further path to new research.
Unfinished Journey
by Yehudi MenuhinThe autobiography of the accomplished and world-renowned violinist.
Unfinished Murder: The Pursuit of a Serial Rapist
by James NeffFinalist for the Edgar Award: The gripping account of a sexual predator's reign of terror and the manhunt that sought to bring him to justice From 1983 to 1988, a serial rapist preyed on the women of Cleveland's West Side. His victims were spied on, stalked, and brutally assaulted, their most intimate moments invaded by a vicious stranger. Arrested more than a dozen times for other crimes, Ronnie Shelton slipped through the cracks of an overburdened police department so often it seemed he would never be caught. Based on extensive interviews with the survivors, the police, psychiatrists, and Shelton himself, Unfinished Murder is the riveting, all-encompassing story of this five-year nightmare. In clear-eyed and compelling prose, investigative journalist James Neff documents the long-term devastation caused by rape--a crime too often hidden in shadow--and celebrates the courage of the women who helped to put a ruthless criminal behind bars. Thanks to their brave testimony and the perseverance of the detectives who made the case their personal crusade, Shelton was convicted of raping twenty-nine women. Chillingly, the total number of his victims may be closer to one hundred.
Unfinished Revolution: Daniel Ortega and Nicaragua's Struggle for Liberation
by Kenneth E. MorrisThe first full-length biography of Daniel Ortega in any language, this exhaustive account draws from a wealth of untapped sources to tell the story of Nicaragua's continuing struggle for liberation through the prism of the Revolution's most emblematic yet enigmatic hero. It traces Ortega's life from his childhood in Nicaragua's mountainous mining region, where his parents instilled in him a hatred of Yankee imperialism, through a current presidential administration that has many of the earmarks of the authoritarianism he opposed in others. In between, it shows him as a teenager caught up in political agitation, a political prisoner locked in a jail cell for seven years, a strategist and fighter of the Revolution, a leader in the new republic, and a behind-the-scenes powerbroker plotting his own return to power. The portrait that emerges is of a man who wants the best for his country--and often gets it--yet also one prone to making questionable compromises in pursuit of his lofty ambitions.
Unfinished: A Memoir
by Priyanka Chopra JonasIn this thoughtful and revealing memoir, readers will accompany one of the world&’s most recognizable women on her journey of self-discovery. <p><p>“I have always felt that life is a solitary journey, that we are each on a train, riding through our hours, our days, our years. We get on alone, we leave alone, and the decisions we make as we travel on the train are our responsibility alone. . . .” <p><p>A remarkable life story rooted in two different worlds, Unfinished offers insights into Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s childhood in India; her formative teenage years in the United States; and her return to India, where against all odds as a newcomer to the pageant world, she won the national and international beauty competitions that launched her global acting career. Whether reflecting on her nomadic early years or the challenges she has faced as she has doggedly pursued her calling, Priyanka shares her challenges and triumphs with warmth and honesty. The result is a book that is philosophical, sassy, inspiring, bold, and rebellious. Just like the author herself. From her dual-continent twenty-year-long career as an actor and producer to her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, from losing her beloved father to cancer to marrying Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra Jonas's story will inspire a generation around the world to gather their courage, embrace their ambition, and commit to the hard work of following their dreams.
Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry
by Jerome R. Corsi John E. O'NeillJohn O'Neill was the naval officer who took over John Kerry's Swift Boat in the muddy waters of Vietnam. What he learned convinced him - and convinced the majority of veterans who served directly with Kerry - that John Kerry was and is unfit for command as a naval officer, let alone as commander in chief of the United States. In this stunning new book, John O'Neill and his coauthor Dr. Jerome Corsi (an expert on the anti-Vietnam War movement) interviewed dozens of veterans who served with Kerry and meticulously documented a shameful record of betrayal and deception on the part of John Kerry. In Unfit for Command you'll learn: How two of John Kerry's three Purple Heart decorations resulted from self-inflicted wounds, not suffered under enemy fire Why John Kerry's third Purple Heart "fanny wound" was the highlight of his much touted "no man left behind" Bronze Star How John Kerry turned the tragic death of a father and small child in a Vietnamese fishing boat into an act of "heroism" by filing a false report on the incident How John Kerry entered an abandoned Vietnamese village, slaughtered the domestic animals owned by the civilians, and burned down their homes with his Zippo lighter How John Kerry's reckless behavior convinced his colleagues that he had to go - becoming the only Swift Boat veteran to serve only four months in Vietnam How, as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, John Kerry attended a meeting where plans were discussed to assassinate prominent United States senators who supported the war How Kerry met secretly with Communist delegates at the Paris Peace Conference during the Vietnam War, and why some believe he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and federal law Based on detailed interviews with Swift Boat veterans who served in Vietnam with John Kerry and on recently released FBI surveillance reports of John Kerry's antiwar activities, Unfit for Command is a shocking indictment of a politician who slandered his fellow veterans, danced on the edge of treason, and has shamelessly exaggerated his own war service for political ends.
Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World
by Jessica Slice&“A glorious, revelatory book.&”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of An Immense World&“A beautiful, transformative book about being a parent in a world that rejects frailty and weakness.&”—Rachel Aviv, staff writer at the New YorkerA paradigm shifting look at the landscape of disabled parenting—the joys, stigma, and discrimination—and how disability culture holds the key to transforming the way we all raise our kidsJessica Slice&’s disability is exactly what her child needed as a newborn. After becoming disabled a handful of years prior from a shift in her autonomic nervous system, Jessica had done the hard work of disentangling her worth from productivity and learning how to prepare for an unpredictable and fragile world. Despite evidence to the contrary, nondisabled people and systems often worry that disabled people cannot keep kids safe and cared for, labeling disabled parents &“unfit,&” but disabled parents and culture provide valuable lessons for rejecting societal rules that encourage perfectionism and lead to isolation.Blending her experience of becoming disabled in adulthood and later becoming a parent with interviews, social research, and disability studies, Slice describes what the landscape is like for disabled parents. From expensive or non-existent adaptive equipment to inaccessible healthcare and schools to the terror of parenting while disabled in public and threat of child protective services, Slice uncovers how disabled parents, out of necessity, must reject the rules and unrealistic expectations that all parents face. She writes about how disabled parents are often more prepared than nondisabled parents to navigate the uncertainty of losing control over bodily autonomy. In doing so, she highlights the joy, creativity, and radical acceptance that comes with being a disabled parent.While disabled parents have been omitted from mainstream parenting conversations, Slice argues that disabled bodies and minds give us the hopeful perspectives and solutions we need for transforming a societal system that has left parents exhausted, stuck, and alone.
Unflinching
by Jody MiticElite sniper Jody Mitic loved being a soldier. His raw, candid, and engrossing memoir follows his personal journey into the Canadian military, through sniper training, and firefights in Afghanistan, culminating on the fateful night when he stepped on a landmine and lost both of his legs below the knees.Afghanistan, 2007. I was a Master Corporal, part of an elite sniper team sent on a mission to flush out Taliban in an Afghan village. I had just turned thirty, after three tours of duty overseas. I'd been shot at by mortars, eyed the enemy through my scope, survived through stealth and stamina. I'd been training for war my entire adult life. But nothing prepared me for what happened next. A twenty-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, Jody Mitic served as a Master Corporal and Sniper Team Leader on three active tours of duty over the course of seven years. Known for his deadly marksmanship, his fearlessness in the face of danger, and his "never quit" attitude, he was a key player on the front in Afghanistan. As a sniper, he secured strongholds from rooftops, engaged in perilous ground combat, and joined classified night operations to sniff out the enemy. In this gritty, no-holds-barred memoir, Jody reveals he was born to be a soldier. An aimless teen in search of belonging, he found brotherhood and discipline in army life. In sniper school, he learned the mindset of a hunter-killer and developed the hyper-sensory precision of a human predator. On the warfront, Jody experienced first-hand the valour and the chaos, the battle scars and the pain of war--including the tragic losses of fellow soldiers wounded or killed in action. And one day in 2007, when he was on a mission in a small Afghan village, he stepped on a landmine and the course of his life was forever changed. After losing both of his legs below the knees, Jody was forced to confront the loss of the only identity he had ever known--that of a soldier. Determined to be of service to his family and to his country, he refused to let injury defeat him. Within three years after the explosion, he was not only walking again, he was running. By 2013, he was a star on the blockbuster reality TV show Amazing Race. And in 2014, Jody reinvented himself yet again, winning a seat as a city councillor for Ottawa. Unflinching is a powerful chronicle of the honour and sacrifice of an ordinary Canadian fighting for his country, and an authentic portrait of military life. It's also an inspirational memoir about living your dreams, even in the face of overwhelming adversity, and having the courage to soldier on.
Unflinching Courage: Pioneering Women Who Shaped Texas
by Kay Bailey HutchisonIn Unflinching Courage, former United States Senator and New York Times bestselling author Kay Bailey Hutchison brings to life the incredible stories of the resourceful and brave women who shaped the state of Texas and influenced American history. A passionate storyteller, Senator Hutchison introduces the mothers and daughters who claimed a stake in the land when it was controlled by Spain, the wives and sisters who valiantly contributed to the Civil War effort, and ranchers and entrepreneurs who have helped Texas thrive. Unflinching Courage: Pioneering Women Who Shaped Texas is a celebration of the strength, bravery, and spirit of these remarkable women and their accomplishments.
Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope, leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
by Megan Phelps-RoperLOUIS THEROUX: 'For anyone who enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy or Educated, Unfollow is an essential text'PANDORA SYKES: 'Such a moving, redemptive, clear-eyed account of religious indoctrination' NICK HORNBY: 'A beautiful, gripping book about a singular soul, and an unexpected redemption'DOLLY ALDERTON: 'A modern-day parable for how we should speak and listen to each other'JON RONSON: 'Her journey - from Westboro to becoming one of the most empathetic, thoughtful, humanistic writers around - is exceptional and inspiring'An Amazon Best Book of 2019As featured on the BBC documentaries, 'The Most Hated Family in America' and 'Surviving America's Most Hated Family'It was an upbringing in many ways normal. A loving home, shared with squabbling siblings, overseen by devoted parents. Yet in other ways it was the precise opposite: a revolving door of TV camera crews and documentary makers, a world of extreme discipline, of siblings vanishing in the night.Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church - the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, rejoiceful for AIDS and natural disasters, and notorious for its picketing the funerals of American soldiers. From her first public protest, aged five, to her instrumental role in spreading the church's invective via social media, her formative years brought their difficulties. But being reviled was not one of them. She was preaching God's truth. She was, in her words, 'all in'.In November 2012, at the age of twenty-six, she left the church, her family, and her life behind. Unfollow is a story about the rarest thing of all: a person changing their mind. It is a fascinating insight into a closed world of extreme belief, a biography of a complex family, and a hope-inspiring memoir of a young woman finding the courage to find compassion for others, as well as herself.---'A gripping story, beautifully told . . . It takes real talent to produce a book like this. Its message could not be more urgent' Sunday Times'Hate's kryptonite' Washington Examiner'An exceptional book' The Times'A nuanced portrait of the lure and pain of zealotry' New York Times'Unfolds like a suspense novel . . . A brave, unsettling, and fascinating memoir about the damage done by religious fundamentalism' NPR
Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope, leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
by Megan Phelps-RoperIt was an upbringing in many ways normal. A loving home, shared with squabbling siblings, overseen by devoted parents. Yet in other ways it was the precise opposite: a revolving door of TV camera crews and documentary makers, a world of extreme discipline, of siblings vanishing in the night.Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church - the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, rejoiceful for AIDS and natural disasters, and notorious for its picketing the funerals of American soldiers. From her first public protest, aged five, to her instrumental role in spreading the church's invective via social media, her formative years brought their difficulties. But being reviled was not one of them. She was preaching God's truth. She was, in her words, 'all in'.In November 2012, at the age of twenty-six, she left the church, her family, and her life behind. Unfollow is a story about the rarest thing of all: a person changing their mind. It is a fascinating insight into a closed world of extreme belief, a biography of a complex family, and a hope-inspiring memoir of a young woman finding the courage to find compassion for others, as well as herself.(P)2019 Audible Inc.
Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
by Megan Phelps-RoperThe activist and TED speaker Megan Phelps-Roper reveals her life growing up in the most hated family in AmericaAt the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy. As Phelps-Roper grew up, she saw that church members were close companions and accomplished debaters, applying the logic of predestination and the language of the King James Bible to everyday life with aplomb—which, as the church’s Twitter spokeswoman, she learned to do with great skill. Soon, however, dialogue on Twitter caused her to begin doubting the church’s leaders and message: If humans were sinful and fallible, how could the church itself be so confident about its beliefs? As she digitally jousted with critics, she started to wonder if sometimes they had a point—and then she began exchanging messages with a man who would help change her life.A gripping memoir of escaping extremism and falling in love, Unfollow relates Phelps-Roper’s moral awakening, her departure from the church, and how she exchanged the absolutes she grew up with for new forms of warmth and community. Rich with suspense and thoughtful reflection, Phelps-Roper’s life story exposes the dangers of black-and-white thinking and the need for true humility in a time of angry polarization.
Unforgettable Galveston Characters (American Chronicles)
by Jan JohnsonFrom financiers of the Texas Revolution to contestants in the Pageant of Pulchritude, the shores of Galveston enticed and cultivated a host of memorable men and women. Bishops and bookies, concert pianists and cotton tycoons--all left an indelible print on their remarkable home. Magnolia Willis Sealy and the members of the Women's Health Protective Association reshaped the ravages of the Great Storm into the glories of the Oleander City. The benevolent activism of Norris Wright Cuney transformed the social landscape, while actress Charlotte Walker and painter Boyer Gonzales Sr. extended the island's cultural reach abroad. Jan Johnson keeps company with Galveston's most fascinating characters.
Unforgettable New Jersey Characters: Heroes, Scoundrels, Politicians and More
by Harry Ziegler Joseph BilbyDiscover Sensational Personalities from Throughout Garden State History New Jersey has long punched above its size in producing some of America's leading figures, but for every household name are dozens of unforgettable yet overlooked colorful characters. Jersey City's treasurer, Alexander D. Hamilton, fled the state in 1894 with over one hundred thousand dollars and was apprehended by a Jersey City police sergeant after a stint with a band of outlaws in Mexico. Mary Teresa Norton overcame prejudice to be elected the first woman from the state to serve in Congress, becoming a powerful chair of three Congressional Committees over five terms. Infamous Newark Gangster Abner "Longie" Zwillmann ran gambling circles, labor rackets and prostitution rings while hobnobbing with Joe DiMaggio and stuffing ballot boxes for local politicians. Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler present profiles of memorable characters from the Garden State.
Unforgettable Texans
by Bartee HaileHistory books burst at the seams with stories about Houston, Travis, Crockett and other icons of Texas history. Yet many of the Lone Star State's fascinating figures--well known in life but forgotten in death--remain obscure by omission. This scintillating company includes a World War I spy who became a movie star, the first gringo matador, a West Texas tent showman and the husband-and-wife trick-shot act that amazed audiences for forty years. Some characters cut across the common narrative, like the admiral whose advice might have prevented the attack on Pearl Harbor, the one and only Republican congressman in the first half of the twentieth century, the Klansman Texans elected to the U.S. Senate and the businessman who wrote the longest English-language novel in complete secrecy. Popular columnist and author Bartee Haile brings to life some of the most intriguing Texans who ever slipped through the cracks of history.
Unforgettable: A Son, a Mother, and the Lessons of a Lifetime
by Scott Simon"I'm getting a life's lesson about grace from my mother in the ICU. We never stop learning from our mothers, do we?" UNFORGETTABLE is a son's spirited, affecting, and inspiring tribute to his remarkable mother and the love between parent and child. When NPR's Scott Simon began tweeting from his mother's hospital room in July 2013, he didn't know that his missives would soon spread well beyond his 1.2 million Twitter followers. Squeezing the magnitude of his final days with her into 140-character updates, Simon's evocative and moving meditations spread virally. Over the course of a few days, Simon chronicled his mother's death and reminisced about her life, revealing her humor and strength, and celebrating familial love. UNFORGETTABLE, expands on those famous tweets to create a memoir that is rich, deeply affecting, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating. His mother was a glamorous woman of the Mad Men–era; she worked in nightclubs, modeled, dated mobsters and movie stars, and was a brave single parent to young Scott Simon. Spending their last days together in a hospital ICU, mother and son reflect on their lifetime's worth of memories, recounting stories laced with humor and exemplifying resilience. UNFORGETTABLE is not only one man's rich and moving tribute to his mother's colorful life and graceful death, it is also a powerful portrayal of the universal bond between mother and child.
Unforgettable: Rugby, dementia, and the fight of my life
by Steve Thompson“I'm in My Early Forties. There are Days When I Don't Remember the Names of My Wife and Four Kids . . .”“So powerful. This book might just change the way you think about sport forever” ─Sir Clive Woodward, English rugby union footballer and coachWinner of the Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year Award 2023England won the 2003 Rugby World Cup. At the heart of this triumph was Steve Thompson, a formidable presence in England's front row, navigating the intense battles of the scrum. However, the euphoria of victory came at a staggering cost and today, Steve Thompson has no recollection of that momentous final. To him, watching the tape of that match is like peering into the life of a ghost. Steve has been diagnosed with early onset dementia, and serious progressive brain damage.A testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Unforgettable is the story of unwavering hope and unyielding courage, woven together with raw, powerful storytelling. This poignant sports memoir features contributions from his fellow world-cup winning teammates and his former manager, Sir Clive Woodward. As Steve grapples with the unrelenting challenges of dementia, he not only confronts his own past but also becomes a symbol of endurance, demonstrating that strength transcends the limits of the rugby field.Inside, learn what it’s like:Dealing with a life change and learning to navigate life with dementiaFor rugby players to be pushing past the limitReevaluating what’s important and navigating new family dynamicsIf you have read other sports memoirs and biographies such as Open, Straight Shooter, or Choosing to Run, then Unforgettable is for you!
Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas
by Roberto LovatoAn LA Times Best Book of the Year • A New York Times Editors' Pick • A Newsweek 25 Best Fall Books • A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year"Gripping and beautiful. With the artistry of a poet and the intensity of a revolutionary, Lovato untangles the tightly knit skein of love and terror that connects El Salvador and the United States." —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Natural Causes and Nickel and DimedAn urgent, no-holds-barred tale of gang life, guerrilla warfare, intergenerational trauma, and interconnected violence between the United States and El Salvador, Roberto Lovato’s memoir excavates family history and reveals the intimate stories beneath headlines about gang violence and mass Central American migration, one of the most important, yet least-understood humanitarian crises of our time—and one in which the perspectives of Central Americans in the United States have been silenced and forgotten. The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as MS-13 and other notorious Salvadoran gangs were forming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating violence, and survived acts of brutality himself. He eventually traded the violence of the streets for human rights advocacy in wartime El Salvador where he joined the guerilla movement against the U.S.-backed, fascist military government responsible for some of the most barbaric massacres and crimes against humanity in recent history. Roberto returned from war-torn El Salvador to find the United States on the verge of unprecedented crises of its own. There, he channeled his own pain into activism and journalism, focusing his attention on how trauma affects individual lives and societies, and began the difficult journey of confronting the roots of his own trauma. As a child, Roberto endured a tumultuous relationship with his father Ramón. Raised in extreme poverty in the countryside of El Salvador during one of the most violent periods of its history, Ramón learned to survive by straddling intersecting underworlds of family secrets, traumatic silences, and dealing in black-market goods and guns. The repression of the violence in his life took its toll, however. Ramón was plagued with silences and fits of anger that had a profound impact on his youngest son, and which Roberto attributes as a source of constant reckoning with the violence and rebellion in his own life.In Unforgetting, Roberto interweaves his father’s complicated history and his own with first-hand reportage on gang life, state violence, and the heart of the immigration crisis in both El Salvador and the United States. In doing so he makes the political personal, revealing the cyclical ways violence operates in our homes and our societies, as well as the ways hope and tenderness can rise up out of the darkness if we are courageous enough to unforget.
Unforgivable
by Collette ElliottUnforgivable is the shocking real-life story of suffering and survival from child abuse victim Collette Elliott."I brought you into this world and I can take you out with one click of my fingers."What if Baby P or Daniel Pelka had lived to tell their tale?Collette Elliott once had a similar story. She slipped through the net and only just survived. Her childhood was a place of filth and terror. Her prostitute mother abused and neglected Collette; leaving her with clients, starving her and beating her to a pulp.But the worst thing was that the people who were supposed to protect Collette turned a blind eye. This is the story of a little girl who waited years for justice. It's the story of a woman determined to protect other children from suffering her fate.Collette Elliott is a 35-year-old mother of four. She was born in Birmingham to Maureen Batchelor, a prostitute, and suffered years of physical and mental abuse. In April 2013, Birmingham City Council awarded her £20,000 in damages for the anguish she suffered and their failure to protect her. Collette is now happily married, a devoted mother to her girls, and is campaigning on behalf of other child abuse victims.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
by Geoffrey C. WardIn this vivid biography Geoffrey C. Ward brings back to life the most celebrated — and the most reviled — African American of his age. Jack Johnson battled his way out of obscurity and poverty in the Jim Crow South to win the title of heavyweight champion of the world. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not exist. While most blacks struggled simply to exist, he reveled in his riches and his fame, sleeping with whomever he pleased, to the consternation and anger of much of white America. Because he did so the federal government set out to destroy him, and he was forced to endure prison and seven years of exile. This definitive biography portrays Jack Johnson as he really was--a battler against the bigotry of his era and the embodiment of American individualism.
Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall
by Lindsey JacobellisIn this deeply personal memoir in the vein of Andre Agassi's Open and Megan Rapinoe’s One Life, the winningest snowboardcross rider of all time chronicles her career, a story of self-growth that reveals the secret of her resilience and how she overcame crushing early failure to win Olympic gold.On February 16, 2006, twenty-year old American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis was poised to win the first gold medal in women’s snowboardcross, a sport making its Olympic debut. With a seemingly insurmountable lead over the other competitors, Lindsey only needed a clean run for the gold medal to be hers. But as the five-time world champion entered the last 100 meters the unthinkable happened: choosing to add a little flair to the run, she grabbed the back edge of her board—then lost her balance and fell. It was a mistake that would go down as one of the biggest “unforced errors” in all of sports history. For the next sixteen years, Jacobellis endured the criticism and second-guessing of Olympic commentators, sportswriters, and detractors. Day after day she persevered and trained harder on the snow and with her life coach, learning the power of resilience and what the sport really meant to her. The fierce competitor discovered that life, though it may not seem like it, does happen in just the right way: you end up precisely where you were meant to be. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, Lindsey twice reached the top of the podium, becoming a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Unforgiving recounts Lindsey’s journey from disappointment to triumph. It is an honest account of one life-altering misstep and its aftermath, and a reflection on what it means to come of age as an athlete in the spotlight, the weight of expectations, falling short, and ultimately fulfilling your dreams. Unforgiving is about the purpose-driven, forward-looking attitude Lindsey took on after her fall, when looking back wouldn’t have done anyone any favors. It’s about the pass she refused to grant herself until she’d earned it. Unforgiving is about the commitment to seek her own truth—and to speak up on one’s own behalf after letting others do it for years. Forgiveness, in the end, is at the heart of Lindsey’s story, but underneath and alongside is its polar opposite—an unending, uncompromising determination to push herself, to prove herself, to power past every obstacle in her path, even those of her own making.