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  Exotics and Retrospectives

  Lafcadio Hearn

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  Lafcadio Hearn, born 1850 in Greece, went to Japan when he was 40 years old and became a Japanese citizen only 6 years later. His writings about Japan from the beginning of the Meiji era, when the country was just opening to the West, remain among the most important explanations of Japanese culture. This book contains in the first part, "Exotics", his observations of and personal insights into Japan. For example, Fuji no Yama tells about him climbing the highest mountain in Japan; and A Question in the Zen Texts, Literature of the Dead, and Of Moon Desire try to explain Buddhist teachings. In the second part, "Retrospectives", Hearn leaves both Japan and his vantage point as impartial observer behind and delves into personal experiences and musings that occurred to him in the numerous countries he visited. The main topic of these very personal pieces is beauty in all its forms. (Summary by Availle)

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  I'm Just Dead I'm Not Gone

  Jim Dickinson

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  I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone chronicles Jim Dickinson's extraordinary life in the Memphis music scene of the fifties and sixties and how he went on to play with and produce a rich array of artists, including Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder, Duane Allman, Arlo Guthrie, and Albert King. With verve and wit, Dickinson (1941-2009) describes how his trip to Blind Lemon's grave on the Texas flatlands as a college student and how that encounter inspired his return to Memphis. Back home, he looked up Gus Cannon and Furry Lewis, began staging plays, cofounded what would become the annual Memphis Blues Festival, and started recording.The blues, Elvis, and early rock 'n' roll compelled Dickinson to reject racial barriers and spurred his contributions to the Memphis music and experimental art scene. He explains how the family yardman, WDIA, Dewey Philips, Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Howlin' Wolf shaped him and recounts how he went on to learn his craft at Sun, Ardent, American, Muscle Shoals, and Criteria studios from master producers Sam Phillips, John Fry, Chips Moman, and Jerry Wexler.

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  Oddly Normal - One Family's...

  John Schwartz

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  Three years ago, John Schwartz, a national correspondent for The New York Times, got the call that every parent hopes never to receive: His thirteen-year-old son, Joe, was in the hospital following a suicide attempt. Mustering the courage to come out to his classmates, Joe had delivered a tirade about homophobic and sexist attitudes that was greeted with unease and confusion by his fellow students. Hours later, he took an overdose of pills. 
   
  After a couple of weeks in the hospital and in the locked ward of a psychiatric treatment center, Joe returned to his family. As he recovered, his parents were dismayed by his school's inability to address-or reluctance to deal with-Joe's needs. Determined to help their son feel more comfortable in his own skin, Schwartz and his wife, Jeanne, launched their own search for services and groups that could help Joe know he wasn't alone. 
   
  In Oddly Normal, Schwartz writes of his family's struggles within a culture that is changing fast-but not fast enough. Interweaving his narrative with contextual chapters on psychology, law, and common questions, Schwartz shares crucial lessons about helping gay kids learn how to cope in a potentially hostile world. From buying rhinestone-studded toddler shoes to creating a "Joseph manual" for Joe's teachers; from finding a hairdresser who stocks purple dye to fighting erroneous personality disorder diagnoses, Oddly Normal offers a deeply personal look into one boy's growing up. 
   
  Joe, far happier today than he was three years ago, collaborated on this work.

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  O Solo Homo - The New Queer...

  David Román, Holly Hughes

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  “Fresh, funny, sad, and sexy . . . [A] diverse collection of good, honest, and soundly structured monologue writing” (David Drake, Obie Award–winning actor and playwright).  O Solo Homo is a diverse, definitive, and hugely entertaining collection representing the cutting edge of queer solo performance. The pieces in O Solo Homo touch nerves that run deep—from sex, politics, community, and health to the struggles and joys of family, friends, and lovers. Peggy Shaw, of Split Britches, revisits how she learned to be butch. The late Ron Vawter, of the Wooster Group, juxtaposes the lives of two very different men who died of AIDS: diva filmmaker Jack Smith and Nixon crony Roy Cohn. Tim Miller, one of the NEA 4, surveys the landscape of gay desire before and after the advent of AIDS. And Carmelita Tropicana, the “national songbird of Cuba,” makes an unforgettable, hilarious return to Havana.   “A funny, personal, powerful primer of identity, performance and politics. O Solo Homo is a must read.” —Paula Vogel, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of How I Learned to Drive   “Naked passion, fiery intellect and dissatisfaction with the status quo mark all good performance art. This collection embodies those elements at their best. Each piece makes you sit up and listen.” —Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories   “O Solo Homo represents the most significant and vibrant cross-section of queer solo performance since the gospels. A must-have field guide for the amateur and professional alike. Ten thumbs up!” —The Five Lesbian Brothers

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  Bob Kleberg and the King Ranch -...

  John Cypher

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  “Combines a biography of Kleberg . . . with the story of the postwar boom years that changed the King Ranch . . . into an international corporate agribusiness.” —Houston Chronicle Ranching on the vast scale that Texas is famous for actually happened at King Ranch, a sea of grass that ultimately spread its pastures to countries around the globe under the fifty-year leadership of Bob Kleberg. This absorbing biography, written by Kleberg's top assistant of many years, captures both the life of the man and the spirit of the kingdom he ruled, offering a rare, insider's view of life on a fabled Texas ranch. John Cypher spent forty years (1948–1988) on King Ranch. In these pages, he melds highlights of Kleberg’s life with memories of his own experiences as the “right hand” who implemented many of Kleberg's grand designs. In a lively story laced with fascinating anecdotes, Cypher both recounts his worldwide travels with Kleberg as the ranch expanded its holdings around the world, and describes timeless, traditional tasks such as roundup at the home ranch in Kingsville. Chronicling Kleberg’s accomplishments as well as his legendary lifestyle, which included friendships not merely with the rich and famous but also with Queen Elizabeth, who shared his love of horse racing, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in ranching and one of its most famous practitioners.   “Cypher[‘s] easy conversational style makes life on a working ranch, the care and feeding of visiting celebrities and the field of international agribusiness both understandable and entertaining.” —San Antonio Express-News   “Probably the best of what will ever be known of the inner Bob Kleberg.” —East Texas Historical Journal

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  The Wild Remedy - How Nature...

  Emma Mitchell

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  Emma Mitchell has suffered with depression—or as she calls it, "the grey slug"—for twenty-five years. In 2003, she moved from the city to the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens and began to take walks in the countryside around her new home, photographing, collecting, and drawing as she went. Each walk lifted her mood, proving to be as medicinal as any talking therapy or pharmaceutical.In Emma's hand-illustrated diary, she takes us with her as she follows the paths and trails around her cottage and further afield, sharing her nature finds and tracking the lives of local flora and fauna over the course of a year. Reflecting on how these encounters impact her mood, Emma's moving and candid account of her own struggles is a powerful testament to how reconnecting with nature may offer some answers to today's mental health epidemic. While charting her own seasonal highs and lows, she also explains the science behind such changes, calling on new research into such areas as forest bathing and the ways in which our bodies and minds respond to plants and wildlife when we venture outdoors.Written with Emma's characteristic wit and frankness, this is a truly unique book for anyone who has ever felt drawn to nature and wondered about its influence over us.

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