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  Giving Voice to Traditional...

  Jean Redpath

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  The singer tells her story from Scottish childhood to success on the Greenwich Village folk scene and beyond, and shares her passion for traditional music. Jean Redpath is best remembered for her impressive repertoire of ancient ballads, Robert Burns songs, and contemporary folk music, recorded and performed over a career spanning some fifty years. In this book, Mark Brownrigg captures Redpath’s idiosyncratic and often humorous voice through his interviews with her during the last eighteen months of her life. Here Redpath reflects on her humble beginnings, her Scottish heritage, her life’s journey, and her mission of preserving, performing, and teaching traditional song. A native of Edinburgh, Redpath was raised in a family of singers of traditional Scots songs. She broadened her knowledge through work with the Edinburgh Folk Society and Scottish studies at Edinburgh University, but prior to graduation, she abandoned academia to follow her passion of singing. Her independent spirit took her to the United States, where she found commercial success amid the Greenwich Village folk-music revival in New York in the 1960s—and shared a house and concert stages with Bob Dylan and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Soon a rave review in the New York Times launched her career and led to wide recognition as a true voice of traditional Scottish songs. As a regular on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion and a guest on Late Show with David Letterman, Redpath endeared herself to millions with her soft melodies and amusing tales—and her extraordinary career and extensive knowledge of traditional Scottish music history earned her prestigious university appointments, a performance for Queen Elizabeth II, and induction into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame. This is her remarkable story.

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  Nelson Mandela - A Life in...

  David Elliot Cohen

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  The New York Times bestselling author celebrates Mandela’s liberation and his fight for freedom with this collection of rare and historic photographs. 
   
  On February 11th, 1990, Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison after serving twenty-seven years for his struggle against apartheid in South Africa. This beautifully illustrated volume commemorates that event and Mandela’s inspiring life and work. 
   
  Created by renowned author David Elliot Cohen—who has worked with many of the top photojournalists who chronicled the “apartheid battles”—Nelson Mandela contains many images that have rarely, if ever, been seen, as well as the iconic photos that came to define this chapter in history.  
   
  This volume also includes the full text of Mandela’s six most important speeches, an essay on his historic significance, and a detailed overview of the struggle against apartheid.

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  All Gone - A Memoir of My...

  Alex Witchel

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  At just past seventy, Alex Witchel's smart, adoring, ultra-capable mother began to exhibit undeniable signs of dementia. Witchel reacted as she'd been raised: If something was broken, she would fix it. But as medical reality undid that hope, she retreated to the kitchen, trying to reclaim the mother who was disappearing in plain sight, by cooking the comforting foods that were her mother's signature.Reproducing the perfect meat loaf was no panacea, but it helped a grieving daughter come to terms with her predicament, the growing phenomenon of "ambiguous loss" - loss of a beloved one who lives on. Gradually Witchel developed a deeper appreciation for all the ways the mother she was losing lived on in her, starting with the daily commandment - "Tell me everything that happened today" - that set a future reporter and writer on her path. And she was inspired to turn her experience into this bittersweet account that offers true balm for an increasingly familiar form of heartbreak.

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  My First Summer in the Sierra

  John Muir

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  It was June of 1869 when John Muir reluctantly accepted a job herding sheep from the central valley of California to the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers, high into the Sierra Nevadas and deep into the Yosemite region. He felt ill-equipped for the work, and yet the opportunity thrilled his adventurous spirit. With a notebook tied to his belt, he set out for a summer he would never forget.  
  My First Summer in the Sierra is Muir’s classic account of that extraordinary journey. It was not published until 1911, by which time he had become well known for his work as a naturalist and conservationist. More than a century later, we can still experience Muir’s transcendent joy, as he climbed the mountains, explored the lakes and streams, and studied the region’s flowers and trees. His words have since beckoned countless travelers to Yosemite National Park. 
  John Muir (1838-1914) was born in Scotland but became a fierce and influential advocate for conserving America’s wilderness. An author of numerous books and articles about travel and nature, he founded the Sierra Club and served as its president until his death. 
  “Narrator Brett Barry is outstanding; he skillfully captures the language of an earlier America as his poetic delivery matches the beautiful descriptions. A wide audience of conservationists, ecologists, nature lovers, American history fans, and those who merely prefer worthwhile poetic writing will be well rewarded.” – Library Journal, Nov. 2011

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  George the Dog John the Artist -...

  John Dolan

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  The “uplifting, humble, and moving” true story of a troubled, East London artist and a twice-abandoned Staffordshire bull terrier who rescue each other (ForeWord Magazine).   John Dolan grew up rough on the estates of east London. His early life was marked by neglect and abuse, and his childhood gift for drawing was stamped out by the tough realities outside his front door. A life of substance abuse and petty crime eventually landed him in prison. And when he was released, he found himself on the streets, surviving day-by-day, living hand-to-mouth.   It wasn’t until he met George, a homeless Staffy puppy, that his life changed for the better. To begin with, George was a handful: he had been abused himself and was scared of human contact. Soon, John and George became inseparable. It was then that John decided to pick up his long-forgotten gift for drawing, sitting on the sidewalk for hours at a time, sketching pictures of George that he would sell to passers-by.   “With dry wit and a lack of sentimentality,” John recounts how he found his life’s calling with his best friend by his side in this “disarmingly modest yet profound tale of redemption” (Kirkus Reviews).

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  How this artist fantasyland...

  PBS NewsHour

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  Can an immersive, mystery funhouse help revive a state like New Mexico? Economics correspondent Paul Solman visits Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe hippie artist collective turned business that convinced the Game of Thrones author to buy and lease them a defunct bowling alley so that they could turn it into a techno-netherworld, crafted by more than 150 artists, who are now making good salaries.

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