Other books that might interest you

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  This Boy's Life - A Memoir

  Tobias Wolff

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  The PEN/Faulkner Award–winning author recounts coming of age in 1950s Washington State with his mother and abusive stepfather in this classic memoir. 
   
  This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move. As he fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical, and Wolff masterfully re-creates the frustrations, cruelties, and joys of adolescence. His various schemes—running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars—lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility. 
   
  Praise for This Boy’s Life 
   
  “Wolff writes in language that is lyrical without embellishment, defines his characters with exact strokes and perfectly pitched voices, [and] creates suspense around ordinary events, locating the deep mystery within them.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review 
   
  “[This] extraordinary memoir is so beautifully written that we not only root for the kid Wolff remembers, but we also are moved by the universality of his experience.” —San Francisco Chronicle 
   
  “A work of genuine literary art . . . as grim and eerie as Great Expectations, as surreal and cruel as The Painted Bird, as comic and transcendent as Huckleberry Finn.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer 
   
  “Wolff’s genius is in his fine storytelling. This Boy’s Life reads and entertains as easily as a novel. Wolff’s writing and timing are superb, as are his depictions of those of us who endured the 50s.” —The Oregonian

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  Struggling schools benefit from...

  PBS NewsHour

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  At Renew Cultural Arts Academy, students put their multiplication tables to song, while eighth graders use the musical Hamilton to study debate. The public charter school’s curriculum is a product of a federal effort to use arts education to boost achievement in the nation’s lowest performing schools. Jeffrey Brown reports.

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  Female Short Story The - A...

  Vernon Lee, Edith Nesbit,...

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  A wise man once said ‘The safest place for a child is in the arms of his mother’s voice’.  This is a perfect place to start our anthology of female short stories. 
   
  Some of our earliest memories are of our mothers telling us bedtime stories. This is not to demote the value of fathers but more to promote the often-overshadowed talents of the gentler sex. 
   
  Perhaps ‘gentler’ is a word that we should re-evaluate. In the course of literary history it is men who dominated by opportunity and with their stranglehold on the resources, both financial and technological, who brought their words to a wider audience.  Men often placed women on a pedestal from where their talented words would not threaten their own.   
   
  In these stories we begin with the original disrupter and renegade author Aphra Behn.  A peek at her c.v. shows an astounding capacity and leaves us wondering at just how she did all that. 
   
  In those less modern days to be a woman, even ennobled, was to be seen as second class.  You literally were chattel and had almost no rights in marriage.  As Charlotte Smith famously said your role as wife was little more than ‘legal prostitute’.  From such a despicable place these authors have used their talents and ideas and helped redress that situation.   
   
  Slowly at first.  Privately printed, often anonymously or under the cloak of a male pseudonym their words spread.  Their stories admired and, usually, their role still obscured from rightful acknowledgement. 
   
  Aided by more advanced technology, the 1700’s began to see a steady stream of female writers until by the 1900’s mass market publishing saw short stories by female authors from all the strata of society being avidly read by everyone.  Their names are a rollcall of talent and ‘can do’ spirit and society is richer for their works.   
   
  In literature at least women are now acknowledged as equals, true behind the scenes little has changed but if (and to mis-quote Jane Austen) there is one universal truth, it is that ideas change society.  These women’s most certainly did and will continue to do so as they easily write across genres, from horror and ghost stories to tender tales of love and making your way in society’s often grueling rut.  They will not be silenced, their ideas and passion move emotions, thoughts and perhaps more importantly our ingrained view of what every individual human being is capable of.    
   
  It is because of their desire to speak out, their desire to add their talents to the bias around them that we perhaps live in more enlightened, almost equal, times.   
   
  Within these stories you will also find very occasional examples of historical prejudice.  A few words here and there which in today’s world some may find inappropriate or even offensive.  It is not our intention to make anyone uncomfortable but to show that the world in order to change must reconcile itself to the actual truth rather than put it out of sight.  Context is everything, both to understand and to illuminate the path forward.  The author’s words are set, our reaction to them encourages our change. 
   
  01 - The Female Short Story. A Chronological History - An Introduction - Volume 5 
  02 - The Death Mask by H D Everett writing as Theo Parker 
  03 - The Story of 'The Spaniards', Hammersmith by Kate and Hesketh Pritchard 
  04 - A New England Nun by Mary E Wilkins Freeman 
  05 - A Dream of Wild Bees by Olive Schreiner 
  06 - The Hired Baby, A Romance of the London Streets by Mary Mackay writing as Marie Corelli 
  07 - The Runaway by Marion Hepworth-Dixon 
  08 - Amour Dure by Violet Paget writing as Vernon Lee 
  09 - My Flirtations by Ella Hepworth Dixon writing as Margaret Wynham 
  10 - Irremediable by Ella D'Arcy 
  11 - When the Devil Was Well by Gertrude Ather

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  Malthus and his work

  James Bonar

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  Thomas Malthus was an English economist and demographer who lived from 1766 to 1834. He is best known for his influential work, "An Essay on the Principle of Population," which was first published in 1798. 
  Malthus argued that population growth would eventually outstrip the available resources, leading to poverty, famine, and disease. He believed that population growth would increase geometrically (exponentially), while the growth of resources would only increase arithmetically (linearly). This meant that, in the long run, population growth would inevitably lead to a scarcity of resources and a decline in living standards. 
  Malthus's work was controversial and was often criticized for its pessimistic outlook on human progress. However, it was also influential and helped to shape the field of demography and population studies. 
  James Bonar was a Scottish economist and historian who lived from 1852 to 1941. He wrote extensively on the history of economic thought and was particularly interested in the work of Malthus. 
  Bonar's most important contribution to the study of Malthus was his biographical work, "Malthus and His Work," which was first published in 1885. This book provides a detailed analysis of Malthus's life and work, as well as an assessment of his contributions to economic thought. 
  Bonar argues that Malthus's work was important because it challenged the prevailing optimistic view of human progress and brought attention to the issue of population growth. He also suggests that Malthus's ideas were misinterpreted by many of his contemporaries, who saw his work as a call for population control or as an attack on the poor. 
  Overall, Bonar's work on Malthus helped to shed light on the importance of Malthus's contributions to economic thought and the continuing relevance of his ideas in modern times.

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  The Hollywood Scandal Almanac -...

  Jerry Roberts

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  A “this day in Hollywood history” reference that recounts the scandals of the stars—from Charlie Chaplin to Charlie Sheen.   The real-life scandals of Hollywood’s personalities rival any drama they bring to life on the silver screen. This book provides 365 daily doses of high and low crimes, fraud and deceit, culled from Tinseltown’s checkered past.   Whether it’s the exploits of silent-era star Fatty Arbuckle, the midcentury misdeeds of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, or the modern excesses of Lindsay Lohan, this calendar of Hollywood transgressions has a sensational true tale for every day of the year. It’s an entertaining and sometimes shocking trip down memory lane filled with sneaky affairs, box-office bombs, and careers cut short—sometimes by murder. It shows that the drama doesn’t end when the credits roll.

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  A Voice from Old New York - A...

  Louis Auchincloss

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  An “entertaining and occasionally even moving” personal recollection by the lawyer, historian, and renowned chronicler of old-money WASP society (The Boston Globe). At the time of his death, Louis Auchincloss—enemy of bores, self-pity, and stale gossip—had just finished taking on a subject he had long avoided: himself. His memoir confirms that, despite the spark of his fiction, Auchincloss himself was the most entertaining character he ever created.   No traitor to his class, but occasionally its critic, Auchincloss returns to his insular society, which he maintains was less interesting than its members admitted—and unfurls his life with dignity, summoning family (particularly his father, who suffered from depression and forgave him for hating sports) and intimates. Brooke Astor and her circle are here, along with glimpses of Jacqueline Onassis. Most memorable, though, is Auchincloss’s way with those outside the salon: the cranky maid; the maiden aunt, perpetually out of place; the less-than-well-born boy who threw himself from a window over a woman and a man. Above all, here is what it was like to be Auchincloss, an American master, a New York Times–bestselling novelist, and a rare, generous, lively spirit to the end.   “[Auchincloss] concentrates on bringing back to life—literary alchemy, after all—the people who loved him: his mother, father, aunts, uncles, school friends and colleagues. He understands how lucky he was to have them, and ‘A Voice From Old New York’ is his thank-you note.” —The New York Times

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