"Winner of the Nike Prize, Poland's most prestigious literary award Joanna Olczak-Ronikier is one of Poland's most admired dramatists, screenwriters, and authors. In the Garden of Memory, her most acclaimed work, traces the lives of four generations of her own family-Polish Jews who were members of one of the country's most illustrious clans, noted for its achievements in business, politics, and culture-as they lived, struggled, and (mostly) survived through the turbulent twentieth century. Rich with tales of bravery as well as poignant, sometimes comic anecdotes of everyday life, the book follows the family members as they scattered around the world to European spas, tsarist prisons, Soviet war camps, and the Royal Air Force. Tracing their roots to a renowned Austrian rabbi, the family members included an array of amazing characters. One became an industrial magnate who founded the Citroën automobile company in France; another was a Communist revolutionary who ended up being arrested, tortured, and executed by Stalin's police. One worked as an undercover agent, another as a zoologist in France. One became a notable Polish publisher, another a leading Freudian psychiatrist. Inevitably, the tragic history of the Second World War and its catastrophic impact on European Jews looms darkly over the narrative, yet remarkably enough only two members of the clan were killed in the Holocaust. Today the survivors have continued the family journey around the world, including in the United States. Beautifully translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, In the Garden of Memory is ultimately the uplifting account of a family that never gave up hope and never gave in"--

"For years Heather Roberson, a passionate peace activist, has argued that war can always be avoided. But she has repeatedly faced counter-arguments that fighting is an inescapable consequence of world conflicts. Indeed, Heather finds proving her point to be a little tricky without examples to bolster her case. So she does something a little crazy: She sets out for far-off Macedonia, a landlocked country north of Greece and west of Bulgaria, to explore a region that has edged--repeatedly--dangerously close to the brink of violence, only to refrain. In the process--and as vividly portrayed by the talented duo of Harvey Pekar and Ed Piskor--Heather is tangled in red tape, ripped off by cabdrivers and hotel clerks, hit on by creepy guys, secretly photographed, and mistaken for a spy. She also creates unlikely friendships, learns that getting lost means something new, and makes some startling discoveries. War is hell and peace is difficult--but conflict is always necessary." -- Publisher's description

Elana Sztokman arrived in Israel in 1993 as a young religious mother wearing a long skirt and a hat covering her hair. Today, nearly 30 years later, after spending years fighting for women's rights in Orthodoxy, writing books about gender in religion, and eventually leaving that world behind, she confronts the personal struggles behind the public persona, revealing the traumas from her past that affected her entire relationship with her body. From two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Council Award comes a refreshing and very personal exploration of cultures of the female body in Jewish life. This collection of essays - marking the 25-year anniversary of her feminist awakening and spanning a diverse career of research, writing, and advocacy around Jewish women's experiences - offers political and personal insights and retrospectives on some of the most burning issues today. Topics include: sexuality, relationships, body-image, body-cover, ritual immersion, fat-shaming, slut-shaming, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. Elana brings her characteristic honesty, courage, wit, and profound insight into her writing, and shares some of her own traumas that set her on a sometimes tortuous life path.

Hardback, ex-library, with usual stamps and markings, in good all round condition. Dust jacket in fair condition.

This collective memoir of the Bloomington, Indiana High School Class of 1968 chronicles the transformation of clean-cut midwestern teens grappling with issues that would touch the rest of their lives. Chuck Walls, a young English teacher turned them on to edgy literature, music---and marijuana. His life was short but remains consequential to more than a hundred people who spoke candidly to the authors. Hiding his sexuality was mandatory and we see how it led to the demise of a gifted yet troubled teacher. His arrest and tragic death, still wreathed in mystery, continue to haunt the minds of the Class of 1968.

'I feel like there's a leopard in my house, locked in a room. I've contacted the leopard authorities and they assure me they are used to dealing with leopards like this, and they have a plan for removing the leopard. It will take a while, though, and once in a while I can hear it growl.' And that's all very reassuring. Even so, several times a day I think to myself: "Hang on, there's a leopard in my house."' One morning, while shaving, the comedian Mark Steel noticed that one side of his neck seemed larger than the other. After a whistlestop tour of assorted medical professionals, a consultant delivered the ominous words that would define the next months of his life: 'I'm afraid it's not good news, Mr. Steel'. And so began a journey into the heart of the NHS, as he embarked on the long and uncertain road to cancer recovery via a range of mildly torturous and entirely miraculous treatments. What, if anything, might he learn about himself - and our capacity for coping with life when times get tough - as he becomes part of a club that one in two British people will ultimately join? A frank and funny diary of one man's rather trying year, this is an unforgettable and uplifting story of getting ill, getting on with it, and getting better.

This white husband-and-wife team of photographers became Black Panther sympathizers through their Peace and Freedom Party political involvement and their deeply-imprinted memories of anti-Semitism (Baruch) and Southern lynchings (Jones). ""Slowly, we began to comprehend how severely maligned they were by all the communications media."" Armed with a spur-of-the-moment promise from the art director of San Francisco's De Young Museum to show Panther pictures, Baruch approached Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver, gained their tentative assent and, eventually, their full confidence. The pair's first photographic foray was to a Free Huey rally in Oakland's De Fremery Park. At first they could aim their cameras only at the rank and file, but ultimately they were permitted to photograph the leaders at close range too, including founder Huey Newton at the Alameda County Court House jail. The completed collection became an object of controversy when the exhibit was abruptly canceled, but Baruch and Jones fought back and their show finally opened to record crowds. Displayed here along with a historical interpretation of the Panthers by black journalist William Worthy, a ""review of Panther growth and harassment,"" and the Party rules, platform, and program, the photographs are of demonstrations, crowds, speeches, displays, but mostly of faces--candid, committed, and compellingly human.

Molly Picon began as a child actor in the Yiddish Theatre at age six. Picon went on to appear in many films, beginning with silent movies. In 1934, Picon had her own musical comedy radio show, Picon went on to appear in many TV shows and her final role was as Roger Moore's mother in cameo appearances in the comedies Cannonball Run and its sequel Cannonball Run II. In "So Laugh a Little" the famous Yiddish actress, has written a funny and poignant book describing her life journey all the while paying homage to the many life lessons learned from her grandmother. Molly's grandmother came to Philadelphia from Russia and helped raise Molly and encourage her in her career in show business. Part autobiography, part common-sense wisdom, this book will engage and entertain you through every chapter. Starting with Molly's early start in Yiddish to her later success in her own stage show and on to many TV and film roles, Molly shares life advice that is just as important to hear today as it was when the book was originally published in 1962.

"Night People conjures the undeniable magic of the city's bygone nightlife-a time when clubs were diverse, glamorous, and a little lawless, and each night brought a heady mix of music, ambition, danger, delight, and possibility. It's about the beauty of what you can create with just two Technics and a mixer, in a golden era before Giuliani, camera phones, and bottle service upended everything. It's also about a teenager finding his way-stalking DJ Stretch Armstrong and biting his mixes, crate-digging in every corner of New York, grinding gig after gig through a decade of incredible music-and finding a community of people who, in their own strange, cracked ways, lived for the night. Organized around the venues that defined his experience of the downtown scene, Ronson evokes the specific rush of that decade and those spaces-where fashion folks and rappers on the rise danced alongside club kids and 9-to-5'ers-and invites us into the tribe of creatives and partiers who came alive when the sun went down. A heartfelt coming-of-age tale, Night People is the definitive account of '90s New York nightlife and the making of a musical mastermind"--

"If a paternity test were done on South Africa's widely admired Constitution, whose DNA would come up? Is the Constitution just a beautiful piece of paper? If Oliver Tambo were alive today, walking around South Africa, would he be pleased with what he saw? In this riveting, direct account of the genesis of South Africa's Constitution, former Justice Albie Sachs answers these crucial questions. In Oliver Tambo's Dream, Sachs writes about the years he spent working under Tambo's leadership in exile preparing for a post-apartheid constitutional order in South Africa and about the extreme crises that were overcome during the post-1990 constitution-making process to arrive at the document we have today. Tackling the burning issues that face our country today, he argues that the Constitution is a framework for struggle and decolonization that can be used to bring about land reform and true equality"--

The magnum opus of one of Europe's greatest living writers. “When telling one’s life story to someone else one manufactures not chronicles but legends for oneself,” Péter Nádas writes in his fiction masterpiece, Parallel Stories . Now, in his illuminating memoir, Shimmering Details , the renowned author investigates what it means to reconstruct a life without recourse to the techniques and embellishments of traditional storytelling. Taking his firmly embedded memories—the “shimmering details” that give this work its title—as his starting point, Nádas dissects them using a method inspired by Freudian dream interpretation. Sounds, scenes, smells, feelings—all are probed for details that might allow him to reconstruct what happened, and when and where. To avoid conscious or unconscious distortions, he deconstructs the stories of others, too—moving in concentric circles toward cause and effect, until their meaning and significance come to light. In Shimmering Details, Volume I , Nádas probes the history of his family from the late nineteenth century to his birth in 1942 and beyond. In a work that encompasses World War II and the Hungarian Revolution, Nádas traces the hidden connections between the seemingly random events of a life and assembles them into a memoir like no other.

No marks or tears to inside but bent pages, top & bottom. Cover is very worn with loss of color. Bent tips with small tear. Spine is intact but has small tears top & bottom.

Visionary Memoirs: Arab Mother, Jewish Baby tells the personal story of an individual who was able to not only overcome numerous and incredible challenges and setbacks in both Iraq and Israel, but also to find physical and spiritual security in the United States. Both steadfast determination and psychological stamina and an unyielding sense of humor were utilized in order to triumph against many odds.

First printing of the Albert E. Kahn book; Ships from California- Smoke free home

[Jamee] As we talked, a thought came to me and I told her that, when we first came to know each other, I was fourteen years old, Sharon was thirteen, and you (Joan) were ten. That means that, for over fifty years, you two have been the closest thing to sisters I'll ever have and I just can't believe that she's [Sharon] gone. [Richard] And now Joan is gone, too. She died on September 30, 2022. That leaves Jamee and me as the only ones left of that generation.

A Lesser Child recounts the childhood of distinguished poet Karen Gershon, who grew up in Germany under Hitler's regime. Karen was the granddaughter of a wealthy member of the local Jewish community, and her family was close-knit. She was academically gifted and a natural poet, with striking good looks. Yet none of her good fortune could dispel her sense of inferiority. In Hitler's Germany, a conventional adolescence was impossible, and Karen cowered behind an unrelieved bewilderment. Karen's story, however, is more than an account of her childhood. It is a vivid and moving re-creation of the period leading up to the Holocaust, with all its tension and uncertainty.

This is a revised version of the original Polish edition; the author collected six more tapes of interviews with Alex and wrote a large portion of the book anew. At the time of printing, Alex still refused to reveal his last name for the book.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.