Other books that might interest you

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  Catastrophic Happiness - Finding...

  Catherine Newman

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  A comic and heartwarming memoir about childhood's second act from Real Simple journalist Catherine Newman. Much is written about a child's infancy and toddler years, which is good since children will never remember it themselves. It is ages 4-14 that make up the second act, as Catherine Newman puts it in this delightfully candid, outlandishly funny new memoir about the years that "your children will remember as childhood." Following Newman's son and daughter as they blossom from preschoolers into teenagers, CATASTROPHIC HAPPINESS is about the bittersweet joy of raising children--and the ever-evolving landscape of issues parents traverse. In a laugh out-loud, heart-wrenching, relatable voice, Newman narrates events as momentous as grief and as quietly moving as the moonlit face of a sleeping child. From tantrums and friendship to fear and even sex, Newman's fresh take will appeal to any parent riding this same roller coaster of laughter and heartbreak.

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  Eats and Treats Catering for...

  Graham Whittaker

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  This true soul-baring story of grief, tragedy and eventual triumph will have you turning the pages, alternately laughing and crying. The author, consumed by grief banished himself to a strange mountain called Mt Bandi Bandi in the western hills of New South Wales in Australia. When young man arrived with a strange story to tell, they became a team. Together they build a house entirely with bare hands and very modest tools. Soon others joined, forging their way up the almost inaccessible mountain to experience a life where modern conveniences were scant. Each driven by their own demons, they began to accept the magic of the mountain. The sacred mountain gave, and it took away. This is the story of each of them as told by the author

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  American in the Making the Life...

  Marcus Eli Ravage

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  “The sweat-shop was for me the cradle of liberty. . . It was my first university.” Attending lectures and the New York theatre at night; by day sewing sleeves into shirts in a ghetto shop, Marcus Eli Ravage (1884-1965) began his transformation from “alien” to American. His 1917 autobiography is a paean to the transformative power of education.  Ravage emigrated from Rumania in 1900, at the age of 16.  After working for several years as a “sleever” to save money, he enrolls in the University of Missouri (the least expensive school he can find), where culture shock overwhelms him at first.  “I was not sure whether it was a pig or a sheep that bleated, whether clover was a plant and plover a bird, or the other way around.”  But he adapts, and eventually embraces “the bigger and freer world” outside the immigrant ghetto.  He writes that, because of his university experience, he was no longer “a man without a country.”  He had become an American. - Summary by Sue Anderson

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  Pilgrim Soul - WB Yeats and the...

  Daniel Mulhall

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  When W.B. Yeats became the first Irish person to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, the Swedish Academy was crediting him with giving expression to 'the spirit of a whole nation'. The prize established Yeats as the unofficial poet laureate of a country that had, in his own words, been 'transformed utterly' during the preceding decade.
  From the Celtic Twilight of the 1890s to his death in 1939, Yeats's writings offer a unique window through which to view the changing Ireland of his time. In PILGRIM SOUL, Daniel Mulhall's highly accessible and illuminating guide to Yeats, the poet's special role in Irish affairs is examined closely. Each chapter opens with a major Yeats poem through which Mulhall examines the historical events that inspired it. Along the way, he explores Yeats's 'indomitable' Irishness, the roots of his periodic disenchantment with Ireland and the conservative politics of his later years as well as the way Yeats's lifelong encounter with Irish affairs helped reshape his poetry.
  Throughout his life, Yeats produced compelling images of his homeland for readers in Ireland and around the world. As a personal journey through Yeats's poetry and his life, PILGRIM SOUL mirrors Daniel Mulhall's own four decades as an ambassador for Ireland, its people and its culture.

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  Notes from a Public Typewriter

  Michael Gustafson, Oliver Uberti

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  A collection of confessional, hilarious, heartbreaking notes written anonymously on a public typewriter for fans of PostSecret and Other People's Love Letters. 
  When Michael Gustafson and his wife Hilary opened Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they put out a typewriter for  anyone to use. They had no idea what to expect. Would people ask metaphysical questions? Write mean things? Pour their souls onto the page? Yes, no, and did they ever. 
  Every  day, people of all ages sit down at the public typewriter. Children  perch atop grandparents' knees, both sets of hands hovering  above the metal keys: I LOVE YOU. Others walk in alone on Friday nights and confess their hopes: I will find someone someday. And some leave funny asides for the next person who sits down: I dislike people, misanthropes, irony, and ellipses ... and lists too. 
  In Notes from a Public Typewriter Michael and designer Oliver Uberti have combined their favorite notes with essays to create an ode to community and the written word that will surprise, delight, and inspire.

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  Body Lengths

  Liesel Jones, Felicity McLean

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  Leisel Jones is regarded as one of the greatest breaststrokers ever. At just fifteen, she won two silver medals at the Sydney Olympics, and went on to win gold at Athens and Beijing. For the first time, Leisel candidly describes being thrust into the limelight so young and reveals the constant pressure she was under. Despite the highs of stardom, she suffered severe depression. 
  Body Lengths is the inspiring story of an Australian sportsperson told with humour, optimism and style.

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