"In Catbird: The Ballad of Barbi Prim, the world meets an insightful, opinionated eight-year-old who's already taken a few steps toward becoming a pioneer--but also a shadow of her quirky self. Although she's corroded--sometimes literally--by a toxic but familiar social atmosphere, her love of singing propels her to become the first ordained woman cantor in 3,000 years of Jewish history. A family crisis exposes old and enduring wounds, but she begins to rescue herself--by diligently going to therapy--and embarks on an imperfect but perpetual metamorphosis, becoming the well-coiffed heroine of her own story. Barbara Ostfeld shows us that we are all brave pioneers--at becoming our true selves." -- Amazon.com.

Allan Spear had a long and distinguished career as a historian and as a Minnesota state senator. Perhaps best known for coming out as openly gay during his first term in the Minnesota Senate-becoming one of the first elected officials in the nation to do so-Spear was also a leader of Eugene McCarthy's run for the presidency, an organizer against the war in Vietnam, and a key proponent for the establishment of the African-American studies department at the University of Minnesota. Spear's memoirs are fascinating and moving: in early chapters on his childhood and college years, he writes with great introspection about his growing self-awareness of being gay. Later he writes about his development as an intellectual, particularly as a white man fighting to win legitimacy for the study of African-American history and culture. During his time at the University of Minnesota, Spear became deeply involved with the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) and the antiwar movement. At the same time, Spear became increasingly active in the emerging gay rights movement and began the process of coming out to his friends and colleagues. After a failed run for the Minnesota House in 1968, Spear was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 1972 and served as Senate president from 1993-2000. In 1993, he was instrumental in the passage of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which protected LGBT people from discrimination in housing, education, and employment-an achievement he considered one of the finest of his career. A skilled parliamentarian, he remained a progressive leader in the legislature until his retirement in 2000. Spear passed away on October 11, 2008, leaving his memoir slightly incomplete. A stirring afterword by John Milton completes the story of Spear's life, chronicling the recognition of his accomplishments as a politician and activist during his final years.

Thea: To Alexandria, Jerusalem and Freedom - is a movng and exciting story of life in Egypt during the tumultuous thirties and forties. The kaleidoscope of human events described, over sixty years of our century, gives the reader a sense of having lived and witnessed important moments of history. It is a book which makes a strong protest against war. But most of all it is the story of ordinary people performing extraordinary feats of love for their fellowmen. This is a sincere, well-written and poignant book with universal appeal.

Literary Nonfiction. FURTHER CONFESSIONS OF A SMALL PRESS RACKETEER is a continuation of the columns and essays that comprised Stuart's 2005 release, Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer. Again, equal parts literary memoir, reckless tirade, and unsolicited advice for the aspiring writer, FURTHER CONFESSIONS is drawn largely from Stuart Ross's notorious Hunkamooga column, his blog entries, essays for subTerrain magazine and other online venues. We bring them together here in their collected brilliance: alternately snarky, sincere, touching, honest, and always opinionated, Stuart's confessions are essential reading for any literary confessional. This volume offers its readers a roller-coaster journey into the mind of one of Canada's most committed small press activists. Praise for Stuart Ross: One of North America's most active and fiercely independent literary populists.--Another Chicago Magazine If Stuart Ross was living and working in the United States, and writing the exact same poetry he does now he would be rich and famous. Well, famous, at least.--The Globe and Mail Praise for CONFESSIONS OF A SMALL PRESS RACKETEER: For a quick and dirty breath of fresh air, it's difficult to beat renegade urban poet Stuart Ross's latest effort... Ross has the battle scars and knows poetry isn't about flowers and meadows, it's about blood and guts.--Steven Knight, Quill & Quire ...a wonderful book--funny, outrageous, and acute. I'll even say it's the best short-essay collection about the writing life that I've read in ages... Every aspiring writer should read CONFESSIONS OF A SMALL PRESS RACKETEER, just to find inspiration. And so should every established writer--just to keep humble.--Lynne Van Luven, Malahat Review

"Inspired by a search for the origin of his Lithuanian-immigrant grandfather's unlikely name - Charles Beresford Price - Stanley Price sets out to assemble his own identity from a multitude of fragments: rugby-playing, patriotic Irish; rebellious orthodox Jewish; Cambridge, anti-Establishment British; 1960s immigrant to America; not to mention, eventually, successful novelist and playwright." "Price introduces us to a varied, Woody Allen-esque cast: the eccentric grandfather who was once famously asked by a Dublin policeman whether he was 'a Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew'; the ageing spinster aunts Minnie and Hilda, aka 'The Girls'; a wind-obsessed rabbi; and guest appearances from Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Marilyn Monroe." "Criss-crossing both the Irish Sea and the North Atlantic, this perfectly paced and witty memoir also tells a little-known story: that of the Jews of Ireland - their history, culture and contribution."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Selected by his daughter, Vivien, from Max Perutz's voluminous correspondence, the letters reproduced here portray their author with a spontaneity and directness no autobiography could have matched. They chronicle Perutz's adventurous life through his own vivid, erudite and humorous pen, documenting the hopes, roadblocks and moments of elation of his sixty-year quest to understand the molecular biology of hemoglobin. The first great step in this quest ― unraveling the molecular structure of hemoglobin ― earned Perutz the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Narrated against a backdrop of family and friends, politics and war, literature, travels, and Max's beloved mountains, these letters provide rare insight into the thoughts of a remarkable and very human scientist, and delightful sketches of some of the people he encountered. Starting with lively letters to a girlfriend written in his youth in Vienna and the impressions of a young scientist in Cambridge, the letters progress to the desperate pleas of an "enemy alien" interned in Canada during World War II. The diary of Perutz's subsequent super-secret war work for the British to build a floating ice airstrip in the North Atlantic, ardent campaigning letters to scientists and politicians, and self-deprecating stories of his own mishaps written to amuse his children and grandchildren are some of the many highlights of these fascinating letters, unique in the annals of recent scientific history. This book is a companion to Georgina Ferry's Max Perutz and the Secret of Life. Together these volumes provide a portrait of an extraordinary character in the development of molecular biology.

Having moved from the richest suburb in America to a plantation in Florida (which his father dreams of recreating as Tara, the mansion from Gone with the Wind ), George Tabb enters late adolescence with a black leather jacket and a penchant for punk rock — quirks that don’t sit well with his conservative Southern classmates. In Surfing Armageddon, Tabb shares his painfully funny recollections of teenage rebellion, family turmoil, and an abusive father with black humor and real humanity.

'Personal Terms IV' follows Raphael's distinguished and eventful career as a novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter, offering a wry take on the glamorous worlds of Hollywood and literary London during the second half of the 1970s.

The trials and triumphs of the two-time Louisiana governor and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame are told here with warmth.

The author describes his activities as a sportsman, his involvement in the London literary circle, and the beginnings of his career as a poet

My grandfather's name was Richard, but everyone called him by his nickname Understanding Richard is not that hard to do when you know where Richard is coming from. Females must remember that Richard is always on the prowl. Looking to conquer yet another to add to his repertoire. Richard will lie straight to your face and tell you what you want to hear so you can let him in. Understanding Richard is a book written by a black guy in his thirties, born and raised in the projects of Newark, New Jersey. It's a book written for women about men, why he believes they cheat, and how they will continue to do so. It sheds light on subjects such as monogamy, infidelity, love, relationships, and the attitudes of the majority of most men, regardless of race in America today . It's real talk! It's not sugar coated nor is it politically correct, the way it was intended. It was written to be raw and in your face in order to really get the point across. Men do and will continue to cheat, unless So many women love Richard, but they don't understand it (not a type-o)

From the celebrated Russian intellectuals Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin to the little-known Australian bootmaker and radical speaker J. W. Fleming, this book probes the lives and personalities of representative anarchists.

Translated from the original Kindheit, written in 1958 and published in German in 2003, David Dollenmayer’s edition makes this remarkable work available to a much-deserved wider audience. Moses Rosenkranz came from impoverished roots in rural Bucovina and gained acclaim for his poetry only late in his life. He survived the same Rumanian fascist work camp as his fellow poet Paul Celan, only to be arrested by the Russians in 1947 and interned in the Gulag for ten years. With his richly detailed recollections of rural life among Jews, Ukrainians, Rumanians, Poles, and Germans in Bucovina, a colorful parade of characters, and a remarkable eloquence, Rosenkranz recaptures a vanished moment of cultural history. The author’s unvarnished portraits of love, jealousy, and passion in his extensive family bring a fresh resonance to his poetry.