Other books that might interest you

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  ¡Ándale Prieta! - A Love Letter...

  Yasmín Ramírez

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  When I tell people who don’t speak Spanish what “prieta” means—“dark” or “the dark one”—their eyes pop open and a small gasp escapes. … How do I tell them that now, even after the cruelty of children, “Prieta” means love? That each time “Prieta” fell from my grandmother’s lips, I learned to love my dark skin. My Ita called me Prieta. When she died, she took the name with her. 
   
  Yasmín Ramírez spent her twenties feeling lost—working an intensely taxing retail job and turning to bars for comfort. When her beloved grandmother dies, she comes home to El Paso, Texas, where people know how to spell her accented name. As she pulls her life together, she finds comfort in celebrating her Ita, a resilient matriarch who was far from the stereotypical domestic abuelita. Yasmín remembers Ita wistfully singing old Mexican rancheras, her mastectomy scar, the hours they spent watching boxing matches at a dive bar, and of course, Ita’s lesson on how to ball a fist for a good punch. Interviewing her mom and older  
  sister, Yasmín learns even more about why her Ita was so tough—the abusive men, the lost pregnancies, and the toil of almost literally back-breaking jobs. In time, the writer finds her grandmother calling her forth to live with the same bravery and tenacity: “¡Ándale, Prieta!”

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  Alaska Pilot Ketch Ketchum - I...

  Ketch Ketchum

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  Ketch Ketchum's story is like many other people who grew up in America's Great Depression. He was raised on his parents' homestead in Readyville, Idaho. Ketch and his brothers milked cows, dug postholes, collected firewood, and marched to the tune of a strict father. He joined the Army Air Corp in 1942, married his high school sweetheart, Marguerite, and traveled the world with the new United States Air Force. Ketch retired as a Major Command pilot in 1964 and this is when his Alaska adventure begins. Traveling north on the Alaska Canada Highway in a trailer with three kids, the family's road ended in Anchorage, Alaska. Ketch, building on his Air Force flying career, mastered the single engine planes of the Alaska bush pilots. Eventually he and Marguerite established Ketchum Air Service on Lake Hood and never looked back. The next 35years was devoted to flying the Alaska wilderness. He transported hunters and fishermen, flew ski-planes for winter seismic exploration on the North Slope, supplied aircraft support during the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup, and grew the air service business from one to twelve airplanes.

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  Yes Sister

  Alice Love

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  My sister spent her last years in a rest home and I visited her every Monday. She asked me, whether I had thought about writing another book, and I said yes - in fact I have the first two words: "Yes Sister" 
  When I got home, I thought I should get on and write the book, so my sister would be able to enjoy it. I wrote a chapter each week until the book was finished. I took each new chapter to my sister week by week. The topic of the book is my life story from the time I started nursing in 1947 until the birth of our third child in 1956.I added the pencil sketches later. 
  Alice Love

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  Ankami - Stolen children...

  Debra Dank

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  'Be careful what you wish for,' wrote Aesop, 'lest it come true.' Debra Dank had long been desperate to visit the National Archives, to paint a fuller picture of her family, to add flesh to the name-bones and the few precious stories she possessed. What she discovered would shatter everything she thought she knew about her family and her past.She had been aware of her father's five siblings, some of whom had died before she could come to know them, but there were always whispers and gaps and silences. Certainly, her parents had experiences that affected how Debra grew up, but hers seemed to be one of the very few Aboriginal families who had escaped having children stolen, who had viewed this horror from a seemingly safer distance. But the information she uncovered revealed that her paternal grandmother had given birth to ten children. Four had been taken from her.Ankami is written from the perspective of those left behind, those who search always for the faces of stolen and lost Aboriginal children, now known only through a few cruel, thoughtless words written by a violent pastoral manager and a paternalistic colonial administrator, a footnote in a yellowed letter.This is a story about absences and the secrets that come with them, about unknown but somehow still present family. It is a story about what those speaking silences may be trying to tell as families sit around fires at night or celebrate together at a festive table. It is a story about the lost opportunity to grow with aunts and dads, the knowledge not shared and learned, the memories not made and a love that must remain one-sided and yearning.Ankami is a book like no other, a searing, unforgettable and deeply human account of sorrow and incomprehensible loss, and the essential power of memory.

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  Driving Lessons - A Road Trip...

  Christopher B. Strain

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  In Driving Lessons, Christopher B. Strain sets out on a quintessential American road trip, exploring not just the roads and byways of the country but the road trip's place in American culture. Strain dives into the well of American travel writing, illuminating fascinating aspects of the road trip, such as how race, class, and gender shape the experiences of road trippers. 
   
   
   
  In the summer of 1998, amid a professional crisis of confidence, Strain settled on a plan to reconnect with both himself and the country he studies. He purchased a 1972 Volkswagen Westfalia van and set off on his own cross-country odyssey. In the weeks that followed, he ruminated on his own ongoing journey alongside great journeys from the past and how they reveal the heart of the traveler as well as the landscape of the nation. 
   
   
   
  Visiting archives and landmarks across the United States, Strain's journey became a parallel to the stories he studied—an opportunity to see and experience the cities, national parks, and monuments that define United States history. Driving Lessons is a compelling blend of literary analysis and memoir, offering listeners an insightful and heartfelt reflection on the enduring power of the American road trip.

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  Beautifully Lost

  Muxu

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  I wasn’t supposed to be here. Not in the poetic look how far I’ve come kind of way. I mean it quite literally. There were moments I thought I had nothing left to give, when the weight of my own thoughts made it hard to breathe, and I started to believe that life was just hard. But a quieter part of me knew that wasn’t the whole truth. Maybe I wasn’t broken, just lost, and perhaps being lost wasn’t something to fear but something to honour. 
  Accompanied by a music album with the same name, Beautifully Lost tells the story of what happened when I finally decided to listen to that voice. Set in crowded streets filled with neon and quiet mornings spent alone with my thoughts, it is a journey through chaos and clarity, mistakes and magic, loss and love. 
  Above all, it is a story of hope, connection, and a reminder that even in the moments we feel lost, there is still beauty to be found.

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