Other books that might interest you

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  Yankee Doodle Dandy - George M...

  Elizabeth Titrington Craft

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  Playwright, composer, actor, director, and producer George M. Cohan looms large in musical theater legend. Remembered today for classic tunes like "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Give My Regards to Broadway," he has been called "the father of musical comedy," and his statue stands in the heart of the New York theater district. Cohan's early twentieth-century shows and songs captured the spirit of an era when staggering social change gave new urgency to efforts to define Americanism. He was an Irish American who had the audacity to represent himself as the Yankee Doodle emblem of the nation, a vaudevillian who had the nerve to unapologetically climb the ranks and package his lower-brow style as Broadway. 
   
   
   
  In Yankee Doodle Dandy, the first book on Cohan in fifty years, author Elizabeth T. Craft situates Cohan as a central figure of his day. Examining his multifaceted contributions and the various sociocultural identities he came to embody, Craft shows how Cohan and his works indelibly shaped the American cultural landscape. Informative and engaging, this book offers rich listening for Broadway musical aficionados as well as scholars of musical theater and American cultural history.

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  Nothing Will Be Different - A...

  Tara McGowan-Ross

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  A neurotic party girl's coming-of-age memoir about learning to live before getting ready to die. 
   
   
   
  Tara has it pretty good: a nice job, a writing career, a forgiving boyfriend. She should be happy. Yet Tara can't stay sober. She's terrible at monogamy. Even her psychiatrist grows sick of her and stops returning her calls. She spends most of her time putting out social fires, barely pulling things off, and feeling sick and tired. 
   
   
   
  Then, in the autumn following her twenty-seventh birthday, an abnormal lump discovered in her left breast serves as the catalyst for a journey of rigorous self-questioning. Waiting on a diagnosis, she begins an intellectual assessment of her life, desperate to justify a short existence full of dumb choices. Armed with her philosophy degree and angry determination, she attacks each issue in her life as the days creep by and winds up writing a searingly honest memoir about learning to live before getting ready to die.

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  The Living Goddess - A journey...

  Isabella Tree

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  In a small medieval palace on Kathmandu's Durbar Square lives Nepal's famous Living Goddess -a child as young as three who is chosen from a caste of Buddhist goldsmiths to watch over the country and protect its people. To Nepalis she is the embodiment of Devi (the universal goddess) and for centuries their Hindu kings have sought her blessing to legitimize their rule. Legends swirl about her, for the facts are shrouded in secrecy and closely guarded by dynasties of priests and caretakers. How come a Buddhist girl is worshipped by autocratic Hindu rulers? Are the initiation rituals as macabre as they are rumoured to be? And what fate awaits the Living Goddesses when they attain puberty and are dismissed from their role? Weaving together myth, religious belief, modern history and court gossip, Isabella Tree takes us on a compelling and fascinating journey to the esoteric, hidden heart of Nepal. Through her unprecedented access to the many layers of Nepalese society, she is able to put the country's troubled modern history in the context of the complex spiritual beliefs and practices that inform the role of the little girl at its centre. Deeply felt, emotionally engaged and written after over a decade of travel and research, The Living Goddess is a compassionate and illuminating enquiry into this reclusive Himalayan country -a revelation.

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  Broken: A traumatised girl Her...

  Rosie Lewis

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  Nine-year-old Archie and his five-year-old sister, Bobbi, are taken into emergency police protective custody after an incident of domestic violence at their family home. 
  Rosie collects the children from their out-of-hours foster carer on New Year’s Day and instantly recognises Archie from a domestic violence workshop she helped with. Rosie remembers that when asked what he enjoyed most about the course, Archie said: ‘the biscuits’. 
  Social workers are concerned that Archie and Bobbi have been neglected. As Rosie gets to know the children, she begins to suspect that something far more disturbing lies in their past. 
  Archie, jovial and polite, bats away Rosie’s attempts to talk to him about anything serious with witty one-liners and sophisticated distractions. Bobbi reacts violently, lashing out and throwing herself around. Rosie has never seen a child as young a Bobbi behaving so viciously, but it is Archie she is most concerned about as the weeks go by. 
  After a worrying incident at school, Archie tearfully discloses the truth – a shocking secret that has left him and his sister traumatised. Horrified at what she learns, Rosie is determined to help the young siblings find a forever-home that will provide them with the love and care they deserve. 
  Rosie Lewis, the Sunday Times bestselling author, delves into the personal biography of Archie and Bobbi, revealing the dysfunctional family dynamics that led to their adoption. The bestselling book is a testament to the resilience of children in the face of abuse and neglect. 
  For fans of Maggie Hartley (Battered, Broken, Healed), Linda Watson-Brown (Don't Say A Word), Veronica Clark (Enslaved), Torey L. Hayden (The Invisible Girl), and Katy Weitz (The Girl for the Job).

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  Heraclitus - Ancient Philosophy...

  Hector Davidson

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  Heraclitus of Ephesus, a pre-Socratic philosopher who lived in the 6th century BCE, remains one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of Western thought. Known for his cryptic sayings and profound insights into the nature of reality, Heraclitus' ideas have had a lasting influence on philosophy, science, and the arts. His philosophy, often centered around the concept of change, emphasized that everything in existence is in a constant state of flux. This view is encapsulated in one of his most famous quotes: "You cannot step into the same river twice." For Heraclitus, the essence of life and the universe lies in this unceasing transformation, where stability and change are not opposing forces but interconnected aspects of existence. 
  At the core of Heraclitus' thought is his doctrine of "flux", which asserts that everything is in a perpetual state of becoming rather than being. This contrasts sharply with other pre-Socratic philosophers like Parmenides, who held that change was illusory and that true reality was unchanging and eternal. Heraclitus, however, rejected this view and instead argued that change is not only inevitable but also necessary for the very existence of the cosmos. To him, the dynamic interplay between opposing forces—such as life and death, hot and cold, light and dark—was the fundamental structure of reality. These dualities, far from being contradictions, were essential for the creation and maintenance of order in the universe.

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  A Political Education - A...

  Harry McPherson

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  This classic political memoir offers an insider’s view of Washington in the ‘50s and ‘60s—with a preface by the author reflecting on the Clinton era. 
   
  A Texas native, Harry McPherson went to Washington in 1956 as an assistant to Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. He served in key posts under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, including as Johnson’s special counsel and speechwriter. 
   
  In Political Education, McPherson offers a vividly evocative portrait of Johnson’s tumultuous presidency and of the conflicts and factions of the president's staff. Long regarded as a political classic, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand national politics of the period. 
   
  In 1995, McPherson added a preface discussing how Washington had changed since the Johnson era. In it he suggests what lessons Bill Clinton could have learn from Johnson’s time in the Oval Office.

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