"Orenstein is such a breezy, funny writer, it's easy to forget she's an important thinker too."--People In this lively, funny memoir, Peggy Orenstein sets out to make a sweater from scratch--shearing, spinning, dyeing wool--and in the process discovers how we find our deepest selves through craft. Orenstein spins a yarn that will appeal to everyone. The COVID pandemic propelled many people to change their lives in ways large and small. Some adopted puppies. Others stress-baked. Peggy Orenstein, a lifelong knitter, went just a little further. To keep herself engaged and cope with a series of seismic shifts in family life, she set out to make a garment from the ground up: learning to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, then knitting herself a sweater. Orenstein hoped the project would help her process not just wool but her grief over the recent death of her mother and the decline of her dad, the impending departure of her college-bound daughter, and other thorny issues of aging as a woman in a culture that by turns ignores and disdains them. What she didn't expect was a journey into some of the major issues of our time: climate anxiety, racial justice, women's rights, the impact of technology, sustainability, and, ultimately, the meaning of home. With her wry voice, sharp intelligence, and exuberant honesty, Orenstein shares her year-long journey as daughter, wife, mother, writer, and maker--and teaches us all something about creativity and connection.

Winner of the 2007 B.C. Award for Canadian Non-fiction A Globe and Mail Best 100 Book (2006) National Post Best Books (2006) A bold cultural portrait of contemporary Canada through the work of its most celebrated novelists, short story writers, and storytellers. Stories are the surest way to know a place, and at a time when the fabric of the country seems daily more uncertain, Noah Richler looks to our authors for evidence of the true nature of Canada. He argues why fiction matters and seeks to discover — in the extra-ordinary diversity of communities these writers represent — what stories, if any, bind us as a nation. Over two years, Richler has criss-crossed the country and interviewed close to one hundred authors — a who’s who of Canadian literature, including Wayne Johnston, Michael Crummey, Alistair MacLeod, Gil Courtemanche, Jane Urquhart, Joseph Boyden, Miriam Toews, Yann Martel, Fred Stenson, Douglas Coupland, and Rohinton Mistry — about the places and ideas that are most meaningful to their work. The result is a journey through the reality of Canada and its imagination at a critical point in the country’s evolution. Within thematic chapters he exposes our “Myths of Disappointment” and considers the stories of our native peoples, the rise of the city, and how our history as a colony shapes our society and politics even today. This Is My Country, What's Yours? is an impassioned literary travelogue and a vivid portrayal of our society, the work of Canadian authors, and the idea of writing itself. This Is My Country, What's Yours? is based on Noah Richler’s ten-part documentary of the same name originally broadcast on CBC Radio’s flagship Ideas program in spring 2005.

The fiction and reportage included in The Last Carousel, one of the final collections published during Nelson Algren's lifetime, was written on ships and in ports of call around the world, and includes accounts of brothels in Vietnam and Mexico, stories of the boxing ring, and reminiscences of Algren's beloved Chicago White Sox, among other subjects. In this collection, not just Algren's intensity but his diversity are revealed and celebrated.

"A compelling read, sad and wistful and breathtakingly forthright." —Chicago Magazine Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg loved his job, his wife, and his two young sons. But he also loved to drink. Drunkard is an unflinchingly honest account of one man's descent into alcoholism and his ambivalent struggle to embrace sobriety. Sentenced to an outpatient rehab program, Steinberg discovers that twenty-eight days of therapy cannot reverse the toll taken by decades of hard drinking. As Steinberg claws his way through recovery, grieves the loss of the drink, and tries to shore up his faltering marriage, he is confronted by the greatest test he has ever faced, and finds himself in the process. Steinberg's gripping memoir is a frank and often painfully funny account of the stark-yet-common realities of a disease that affects millions.

Weisstein was a brilliant, zesty original — hilarious, irrepressibly bold, a daring, joyful mischief-maker. In both her scientific work and her political essays she questioned all the sacred pieties, accepting no orthodoxy without challenge. This volume of her non-scientific articles restores to prominence her rightful place as one of the Left’s most audacious figures. “For years, I’ve been trying to explain that Naomi Weisstein was great at everything, from science and music to writing and friendship. If she hadn’t existed, no one could have invented her. Now, Martin Duberman has collected her essays, so you, too, can discover her.” — Gloria Steinem “Naomi was a force of nature … May the next generation carry on her spirit!”—Heather Booth, founder of JANE “Naomi Weisstein fearlessly challenged bigotry and ignorance … Fortunately for us, her longtime close friend and comrade, esteemed historian Martin Duberman, has assembled and annotated her scattered essays. Weisstein, a multifaceted woman, upended the status quo and paved the way.” — Marcia Gallo, author, Different Daughters “Naomi Weisstein’s ideas suffused the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s with a revolutionary vision … Eloquent, funny and relentlessly honest … she contributed a brilliant critique of hierarchical power relations and the ideologies that justified them.” — Amy Kesselman, Professor Emerita, Women’s Studies, SUNY, New Paltz “Powerful argument coupled with mischievous wit …Viva Naomi!" — Alix Kates Shulman, author, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen

Solitary Courage is the story of a mother’s tough-love determination, her severely disabled daughter’s astonishing triumphs, and a documentary record of the political battles, organizational conflicts, and human struggles that citizens with disabilities face and fight every day of their lives. Mona Winberg became a pioneer of independent living, and emerged a leading advocate for citizens with mental and physical disabilities. Her courageous causes erupted from her deep reservoir of compassion and concern. Her unflinching challenges to the status quo expressed both optimism and realism about life and society. Her life is testament to the power of Solitary Courage . Between 1986 and 1999 she was the only newspaper columnist in North America regularly writing about disability issues. Through her award-winning column "Disabled Today" in Toronto’s Sunday Sun , Mona Winberg painstakingly built up a body of work of more than 600 articles chronicling front-line battles for equality. She was a realist, a wise person with a no-nonsense approach, kindly, but clear-eyed. Solitary Courage begins with the story of Mona Winberg’s life, followed by a representative selection of 156 of her columns organized into 20 thematic chapters, the best of Mona in her own words. The last part of the book reflects upon Mona Winberg’s legacy of lessons that still connect to programs and policies touching the lives of Canadians with disabilities today. The subjects are wide-ranging and engaging because Mona used personal examples of individuals with disabilities and news-making issues raised by their plight. She also reported on the street-level outcomes of government policies. This variety and approach to disability issues provides real education and genuine human interest, whatever a reader’s background or experience.

In a tribute to the great musical loves of his life, the popular musician and performer tells the story of his legendary career as America's favorite interpreter of classical popular music and his love affair with Tin Pan Alley and friendship with Ira Gershwin. Reprint.

This is a book written for a young audience about the life and story of J.R.R. Tolkein, the man who wrote so much, so well, for so many of us. The story of his beginnings, his middle and his end. A story of an ordinary man who did extraordinary things. A story of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. A story of God, religion, happiness, suffering, friendship and genius. Oh, and the story of the The Lord of the Rings, which in spite of what some people might say, is considered by many if not most of us to be one of the greatest books ever written.

"Whenever women are honest about their struggles, they give other women a gift. Mia delivers." Elizabeth GilbertThis book is for every woman who's been told success is as simple as Lean In, Say Yes, Live Your Best Life, Beat Your Fear, Follow Your Dream... and then feel #soblessed.It's for guilty friends, bad mums, crap wives, imperfect feminists, rebellious daughters and any girl with a big mouth and at least one foot in it. It's for any woman who's ever asked: 'Am I the only one who isn't quite coping?'Here is Mia Freedman's low road to the top - a fearless, hilarious, inspiring and surprising collection of modern misadventures to read, relate to and rejoice in, then share with all the women in your life.MORE PRAISE FOR MIA FREEDMAN"Funny, raw, fierce and - at heart - profoundly generous." Annabel Crabb"There are few writers in Australia who care as much about what makes women tick as Mia Freedman and who reveal so much of themselves." Leigh Sales"Mia Freedman is one of the most inspirational, informative and accessible voices among contemporary Australian writers ... She is dedicated to improving the lives of other women. Hers is an important unique voice in our national conversation." Cate McGregor

Accounts of record-breaking attempts by fifteen athletes: Joe DiMaggio, Toni Sailer, Wilt Chamberlain, Johnny Unitas, Roger Bannister, Don Schollander, Jimmy Clark, Jimmy Brown, Bobby Jones, Sandy Koufax, Donald Campbell, Gordie Howe, Maureen Connolly, George Billick, Roger Maris.

Maurice Saatchi is dead. He is standing in front of the Gates of Heaven. Arrival halls worse than Heathrow Airport. Queues. Overcrowding. A tidal wave of Paradise seekers. ID scans. Voice and facial recognition. X-ray examinations. Background checks. It all seems like a bad dream. His tests expose abnormalities. He is charged with multiple breaches of immigration law and detained pending a full jury trial. The verdict will reveal the biggest secret of all time: why some people go to Heaven and others to Hell. Do Not Resuscitate is a bold statement. Maurice Saatchi, a towering figure in the worlds of business and politics, frames his unsparing self-portrait with the conceit of a celestial trial in which his application to pass through the Gates of Heaven is heard before a jury featuring luminaries like Marilyn Monroe, Pablo Picasso, Chairman Mao, and Margaret Thatcher. In seeking admission to Heaven, Saatchi offers a defence like no other.

On Stendhal: "The study of human nature, 'the observation of the human heart and its passions, ' was his constant preoccupation. But where could he study the passions better than in himself? Though he lived exuberantly, submitting himself to experience... he went on incessantly writing down everything that happened to him just as it happened. he even led to perform some remarkable experiments upon himself.He laid claim to having been a soldier, a man of fortune, a great lover, a society wit, a diplomat, a traveler, and even, sometimes, a revolutionary conspirator. "Fifty years after his death he becomes one of the demigods of the world's letters, taking his place in the ranks of the great social writers who appeared toward the end of the last century. his manner of life itself has fascinated whole regiments of literary scholars in France, Italy and Germany in the last forty years." -Matthew Josephson, From the Introduction (1946) "Like Josephson's Victor Hugo, it is the best and most comprehensive English study of its subject, a careful collection of material, skillfully assembled and organized...When Freud read Stendhal's memoirs of his childhood and adolescence he called them 'a manifestation of psychological genius.' Stendhal, he saw, had been a Freudian some 70 years before Freud himself."-TIME Magazine (1946)

A hilarious guide to masculinity and self-destruction. Fifty years have passed since the death of Ernest Hemingway, history's ultimate man, and young males today-obsessed with Facebook, Twitter, and Nintendo-know nothing about his legendary brand of rugged, alcoholic masculinity. They cannot skin a fish, dominate a battlefield, or transform majestic creatures of the Southern Hemisphere into piano keyboards.With chapters such as "For Whom the Beer Flows," "Death in the Afternoon... Lunch is Served," and "The Old Man and the See You in Hell," former Esquire editor Marty Beckerman demonstrates how millions of technology-addled eunuchs-brainwashed by PETA and Alcoholics Anonymous-can learn from Papa's glorious example: drunken, unshaven, meat-devouring, wife-divorcing, and suicide-committing.The Heming Way is a difficult path, and not for the weak, but truth is manlier than fiction.

Hello Dere! This is the official illustrated biography of comedian Marty Allen written by me... Marty Allen! Experience first-hand what it was like over my 60+ year career in the entertainment business. Come with me as I share my personal experiences with many well known entertainers and other high profile people during my career. I have included over 198 well-chosen pictures from my personal library. This edition includes a BONUS photo chapter at the end of the book. You will find a treasure-trove of delightful tidbits from, and about, many people including the Beatles, Elvis and author Sidney Sheldon to Princess Margaret and First Lady Betty Ford!

The tenure of Earl Warren as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court (1953-69) was marked by a series of decisions unique in the history of the Court for the progressive agenda they bespoke. What made the Warren Court special? How can students of history and political science understand the Warren Court as part of constitutional history and politics? To answer such questions, nine well-known legal scholars and historians explore how each justice contributed to the distinctiveness of the Warren Court in Supreme Court history.