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  American Bulk - Essays on Excess

  Emily Mester

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  What if we explored our relationship to consumption with the same depth and feeling we use to tell stories of great loves and losses? 
   
   
   
  Americans are caught up in bulk. We guiltily watch Amazon boxes pile up on the porch, wade through endless reviews to find the perfect product, and crave the comforting indulgence of a chain restaurant. In American Bulk, Emily Mester intertwines cultural critique and personal history to explore how the things we buy, eat, amass, and discard become an intimate part of our lives. With humor and sharp intellect, she reflects on the joys and anxieties of family Costco trips, how a seasonal stint at Ulta Beauty taught her the insidious art of the sale, and what it means to get Mall Sad. In a nuanced examination of diet culture and fatness, Mester recounts her teenage summer at fat camp and the unexpected liberation she finds there. Finally, she ventures to Storm Lake, Iowa, to reckon with her grandmother's abandoned hoard, excavating the dysfunction that lies at the heart of her family's obsession with stuff. American Bulk introduces listeners to a striking new literary talent from the American heartland, one who dares to ask us to regard consumption not with guilt but with grace and empathy.

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  The Accidental Duchess - From...

  Emma Manners Duchess of Rutland

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  This audiobook is read by the author, Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland.'The Duchess does indeed seem a remarkable woman . . . this is an engaging book' Lynn Barber, Daily TelegraphWhen Emma Watkins, the pony-mad daughter of a Welsh farmer, imagined her future, she imagined following in her mother's footsteps to marry a farmer of her own. But then she fell in love with David Manners, having no idea that he was heir to one of the most senior hereditary titles in the land. When David succeeded his father, Emma found herself becoming the chatelaine of Belvoir Castle, ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland.She had to cope with five boisterous children while faced with a vast estate in desperate need of modernisation and staff who wanted nothing to change - it was a daunting responsibility. Yet with sound advice from the doyenne of duchesses, Duchess ‘Debo’ of Devonshire, she met each challenge with optimism and gusto, including scaling the castle roof in a storm to unclog a flooding gutter; being caught in her nightdress by mesmerised Texan tourists and disguising herself as a cleaner to watch filming of The Crown. She even took on the castle ghosts . . .At times the problems she faced seemed insoluble yet, with her unstoppable energy and talent for thinking on the hoof, she won through, inspired by the vision and passion of those Rutland duchesses in whose footsteps she trod, and indeed the redoubtable and resourceful women who forged her way, whose homes were not castles but remote farmhouses in the Radnorshire Hills.Vividly written and bursting with insights, The Accidental Duchess will appeal to everyone who has visited a stately home and wondered what it would be like to one day find yourself not only living there, but in charge of its future.

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  Hollywood’s 10 Greatest Actresses

  Editors Charles River

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  Early in her career, there was no actress more controversial than Katharine Hepburn. Late in her career, there was no actress more beloved than Katharine Hepburn. Famously labeled “box office poison” in 1938, it is clear that Hollywood was not prepared for the young Hepburn.  
  Bette Davis presided over Hollywood at a time in which the film industry was at its most influential. Every actress from Katharine Hepburn to Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rodgers, themselves now considered among Hollywood’s greatest icons, lived in the shadow of Bette Davis. Not only was Davis a box office sensation and commercial success - she became the highest paid actress in 1938 - but she garnered more critical acclaim than any other actress during the time period. 
  Audrey Hepburn continues to retain her popularity and exert a strong influence over how people view beauty and sophistication. She remains an American icon, despite the fact that she did not even move to the United States until 1953 (at the age of 24). 
  Of all the great movie stars, there may be none more enigmatic than Greta Garbo, who remains internationally famous despite the fact her life and career raise more questions than answers. How did a Swedish actress with very little film acting experience in her native land arrive in the United States and achieve instant stardom? 
  	Few actresses lived their lives in the public eye more than Marilyn Monroe, and yet her life remains shrouded in mystery to this day. While it is common knowledge that Marilyn’s life is a rags-to-riches story, her life is bookended by hazy details surrounding her early life and even more mysterious death.  
  Elizabeth Taylor bears little in common with the paradigm of the troubled child star. After arriving in America at the age of 9, Taylor was indoctrinated into Hollywood shortly after child stars Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, but her experience represented the flip side of the coin. 

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  Winston Churchill & The Queen -...

  Oliver Williams

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  A light-hearted look at royal life during the beginning of Queen Elizabeth the Second’s reign and the final days of Churchill’s prime ministership. How did two people from two different generations come to be such good friends? 
  This readable and relatable Churchill-Queen Elizabeth II book talks to the reader instead of lecturing them. The moment you become immersed in the first pages, you are transported back to what it must have felt like for a young queen to suddenly lose her father and have the elderly Churchill step in to guide, assist, and comfort her, and also tell a great many jokes along the way! 
  There is a reason why Sir Winston Churchill consistently tops the lists of greatest human beings of all time, and every time it happens it must warm Queen Elizabeth’s heart. Despite the 52 year age gap, the monarch and possibly the best Prime Minister Britain will ever have, cemented a friendship of a lifetime as they continued to bring the United Kingdom out of its post-war slump. 
  This book is not for history buffs, although it is historically accurate; it’s a book about friendship and how these two famous people found so much about which to talk and laugh about (with the occasional disagreement thrown in for good measure). 
  The more you read about Churchill and the Queen’s many interactions through the years, the more it is easy to see why theirs was not an unlikely friendship at all. 
  With dozens of interesting facts and never-before-noticed details and observations, not only is this book hard to put down and easy to read, but it also offers the reader a tiny glimpse into royal and parliamentary life in a post-world war Britain. 
  Finally, a history book about two fascinating people for fans of friendship everywhere!

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  The Episode in Room 222 - Short...

  Arnold Bennett

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  Enoch Arnold Bennett was born on the 27th May 1867 in Hanley, one of the six towns that formed the Potteries and that later joined together to become Stoke-On-Trent.  
  After passing entrance examinations for Cambridge University his solicitor father instead decided that he should work for him, unpaid, in his thriving office.  In the evenings the young Bennett wrote or studied and one skill he developed was Pitman’s shorthand which gave him entrance to a position as a clerk at a solicitor’s office in London.  From there followed various jobs but none seemed to be able to ignite his career as a full-time author. 
  By 1903 he had moved to live in Paris; he was 35, unmarried and keen to settle into his new life.  In 1908 he published his first remarkable novel; ‘Clayhanger’, that drew on his earlier life in the Potteries.   
  A prolific writer he was able to deliver very fine works but also write many that were described as ‘potboilers’.  Despite this disclaimer many were lapped up by an audience eager for his prose and helped turn him into the most financially successful author of the times.    
  As the First World War drew to a close, he was appointed to run the Ministry of Information.  During the 1920s he was reputedly the highest paid literary journalist in the land and continued to write novels, plays and short stories.   
  Arnold Bennett died in his flat at Chiltern Court on the 27th March 1931, from typhoid after drinking water in France on his last holiday.  He was 63.

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  5 Puritan Women - Portraits of...

  Jenny-Lyn de Klerk, Karen...

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  What the Lives of 5 Puritan Women Teach about Holy Living and Devotion to God
  The writings of the Puritans have had a recent resurgence, but many Puritan women have often been overlooked or misunderstood. As mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and wives, the vibrant faith of Puritan women has much to teach modern day readers.
  In 5 Puritan Women: Portraits of Faith and Love, Jenny-Lyn de Klerk shows how the lives and writings of Christian women encourage the beauty of holy living and provide practical wisdom for the home and the church. Each chapter portrays a different Puritan woman—Agnes Beaumont, Lucy Hutchinson, Mary Rich, Anne Bradstreet, and Lady Brilliana Harley—telling their stories of devotion, lament, and family. By studying their faith journeys, modern readers can learn more about their roles in church history and glean insights into the Christian life. 
  
  - Accessible Introduction: An affordable, easy-to-read format to introduce readers to the neglected writings of Puritan women
  - Applicable: Explains the need for, and the value of, studying Puritan women today and highlights spiritual disciplines that these women demonstrate
  - Women in Church History: Broadens the reader's understanding of women's roles in furthering God's kingdom throughout history
  - Foreword by Karen Swallow Prior

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