Vividly capturing the tastes, sounds, and smells of Hangzou, China, this entertaining and witty travelogue details a year spent teaching creative writing at Zeijang University and the experiences of being a fish out of water. Containing contributions from the author as well as his students, this memoir fondly depicts China’s galloping economy, respect for ancient texts, and everyday people.

"In 1966, at the ripe age of 22, Richard Goldstein approached The Village Voice with a novel idea. "I want to be a rock critic," he said. "What's that?" the editor replied. It was a logical question, since rock criticism didn't yet exist. In the weekly column he would produce for the Voice, Goldstein became the first person to write regularly in a major publication about the music that changed our lives. He believed deeply in the power of rock, and, long before it was acceptable, he championed the idea that this music was a serious art form. From his unique position in journalism, he saw the full arc of events that shaped culture and politics in the 1960s--and participated in them, too. He toured with Janis Joplin, spent a day at the Grateful Dead house in San Francisco, and dropped acid with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. He was present for Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, the student uprising at Columbia, and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. He was challenged to a boxing match by Norman Mailer, and took Susan Sontag to her first disco. Goldstein developed close relationships with several rock legends--Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, to name two--and their early deaths came as a wrenching shock, fueling his disillusionment as he watched the music he loved rapidly evolve from a communal rite to a vast industry--and the sense of hope for radical social upheaval fade away. Another Little Piece of My Heart is the intimate memoir of the writer as a young man with profound ambition. It is also a sweeping personal account of a decade that no one else could provide--a deeply moving, unparalleled document of rock and revolution in America"--

First, pick up a copy of Rachel Rosenthal's inspiring The DbD Experience; Part manual, part manifesto, part memoir, then head for Los Angeles....: FRIDAY - Origins. Arrive at the Doing by Doing workshop to be greeted by Rosenthal, pioneering theatre explorer and your host for the weekend ahead. Explore non-human ways of living and moving. Begin to develop a shared vocabulary with your fellow students through exercises.; SATURDAY - Connections. Continue to connect with the group on an energetic level. Make the journey from Kansas to OZ. Collaborate and create as a group, moving and vocalising wit

A Book of Memories is made up of three first-person narratives- The first, that of a young Hungarian writer and his fated love for a German poet; we also learn of the narrator's adolescence in Budapest, when he experiences the downfall of his once upper-class but now pro-Communist family. A second memoir, alternating with the first, is a novel the narrator is composing about a refined Belle Epoque aesthete, whose anti-bourgeois transgressions seem like emotionally overcharged versions of the narrator's own experiences. A third voice is that of a childhood friend who, after the narrator's return to his homeland, offers an apparently more objective account of their friendship. Together these brilliantly coloured lives are integrated into a powerful work of tragic intensity.

Pauline Wengeroff, the only nineteenth-century Russian Jewish woman to publish a memoir, sets out to illuminate the "cultural history of the Jews of Russia" in the period of Jewish "enlightenment," when traditional culture began to disintegrate and Jews became modern. Wengeroff, a gifted writer and astute social observer, paints a rich portrait of both traditional and modernizing Jewish societies in an extraordinary way, focusing on women and the family and offering a gendered account (and indictment) of assimilation. In Volume 1 of Memoirs of a Grandmother, Wengeroff depicts traditional Jewish society, including the religious culture of women, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, who wished "his" Jews to be acculturated to modern Russian life.Pauline Wengeroff's Memoirs of a Grandmother offers a unique first-person window into traditionalism, modernity, and the tensions linking the two in nineteenth-century Russia. Wengeroff (1833–1916), a perceptive, highly literate social observer, tells a gripping tale of cultural transformation, situating her narrative in the experience of women and families. In Volume Two, Wengeroff claims that Jewish women were capable and desirous of adopting the best of European modernity but were also wedded to tradition, while Jewish men recklessly abandoned tradition and forced their wives to do the same. The result was not only marital and intergenerational conflict but also catastrophic cultural loss, with women's inability to transmit tradition in the home leading to larger cultural drift. Two of Wengeroff's children converted when faced with anti-Jewish educational and professional discrimination, unwilling to sacrifice secular ambitions and visions for the sake of a traditional culture they did not know. Memoirs is a tale of loss but also of significant hope, which Wengeroff situates not in her children but in a new generation of Jewish youth reclaiming Jewish memory. To them, she addresses her Memoirs, giving an "orphaned youth"―orphaned of their past and culture―a "grandmother."

Miriam Gross, as a journalist and editor, has worked with some of the most influential figures of the 20th century poets, philosophers, playwrights and politicians. This book offers recollections from 40 years at the heart of English cultural life. Brought up in wartime Jerusalem, she was deposited by her parents, speaking no English, at the bohemian Dartington Hall School; and then continued her education at Oxford where eschewing her quiet, tea-drinking contemporaries at St Anne s she found her way into more glamorous academic circles. From there it was a short hop to pre-spell-check Fleet Street. Her descriptions whether she is having to mend her boss's bra on her first day at work, or rewriting Angus Wilson's slapdash book reviews, or being asked to make the women s pages of the Observer more raunchy show a merciless eye for the bogus and the absurd. Alongside reflections on everything from feminism and motherhood to education and anti-semitism, she recounts her numerous infatuations, both requited and unrequited, with the sort of self-deprecating candour that makes this memoir a classic of its kind.

Emmy-winning journalist, congresswoman, and the first single American to adopt internationally, Marjorie Margolies masterfully blends her personal narrative with national history and politics in this call-to-action memoir. Filled with the wisdom Marjorie Margolies gained as an athlete, educator, TV reporter, congressperson, world traveler, adoption advocate, parent, and grandparent, this memoir provides readers with an abundance of upbeat, prescriptive advice and inspiration with Marjorie's trademark self-effacing humor . Today, the world talks a lot about female empowerment, but when Marjorie was breaking through professional glass ceilings, she was unknowingly paving the way for the generations that followed in several different industries. After more than 25 years with NBC, she ran for U.S. Congress in 1991-as a registered Democrat in a historically Republican district of suburban Philadelphia-and she shocked the state and the country by winning by just over 1000 votes. She was the first woman elected in her own right in the state of Pennsylvania, but during her short tenure, Marjorie became the main target of Republicans taunts after she cast the deciding vote to approve President Clinton's budget. And How Are the Children? explores the life of a woman who was hardwired to shift paradigms and break down historic boundaries while managing a busy household and later dealing with heartbreaking tragedies including divorce and the death of a child. Her intention is for women of every generation to recognize themselves in her story and learn how to nurture themselves and the life decisions they have made.

"Marcia was instrumental in introducing so many artists throughout her career, and I was one of them."—Bruce Nauman "I know of no other curator who has left a major museum and said, 'I'll start a new museum.' Marcia was for me a mentor, then a beacon, and later a role model. I consider myself fortunate."—John Baldessari "Marcia was a rebel with a cause: shaking up the staid world of art museums. She did it with vision, guts, and humor. We are forever indebted to her example."—Guerrilla Girls " A Short Life Of Trouble —gossipy and delicious, smart and often deeply moving—takes us through Marcia Tucker's tough but fascinating days as a young, adventurous curator at the Whitney Museum to her ambivalent triumphs and constant challenges as the visionary founder of the New Museum, and beyond. The author emerges as a fierce, outspoken champion of contemporary artists, especially the risk-takers who are often marginalized and overlooked or not an easy sell. Her intelligence, passion, immense generosity of spirit, and wry, witty observations on the battles and machinations of the New York art world of the 1980s and 1990s are alive on every page. Although in her quest to live a just, meaningful existence she was often hardest on herself, Marcia Tucker clearly knew how to have fun and made every minute count. This poignant memoir lets us glimpse the all-too-brief but rich and remarkable life of an extraordinary human being."—Jessica Hagedorn, author of Dream Jungle

Acclaim for Leo Melamed Escape to the Futures "A well-written, fascinating memoir of a remarkable man of many parts, who arrived in the United States at age 9, fleeing the Holocaust. Almost single-handedly, he transformed a minor commodity exchange into the leading futures market in the world. His influence was and remains worldwide." —Milton Friedman Senior Research Fellow Hoover Institution, Stanford University "There are only a few people who have revolutionized big portions of the business world. Warren Buffett did it in investing, Bill Gates in software. Leo Melamed, author of this book, is in that same league. He truly revolutionized futures trading in the United States, and in the world. This book tells how." —Ambassador Clayton Yeutter Past President of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Former U.S. Trade Representative "A grizzled old Merc trader once assured me that nobody ever lost by being long on Leo. Why that's so, this endlessly fascinating personal history makes clear. It shows how an immigrant boy, after surviving unimaginable horrors, drew on the 'elan, combativeness, and sophisticated conviction' learned from his equally remarkable father to build the CME and to lay the foundations of the modern, Chicago-based, financial services industry." — Merton H. Miller 1990 Nobel Laureate Emeritus Professor University of Chicago Graduate School of Business "Leo tells it all. To say there would not have been a financial futures industry without Leo is probably only a slight exaggeration!!!" — John Damgard President Futures Industry Association "Escape to the Futures tells the remarkable story of a young boy's escape from the Nazis and the impact of his life on the financial markets of the world. It also serves as yet another poignant reminder of the immeasurable losses —in the arts, sciences, professions, and everyday life—humanity suffered because of the Holocaust." — Benjamin Meed President American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors He is one of the most powerful figures in the world of finance—a visionary who pioneered the modern futures industry and launched the International Monetary Market (IMM). Yet, Leo Melamed was not born to wealth and influence. His is an extraordinary rags-to-riches tale of intelligence, drive, savvy, timing, and the overpowering force of a uniquely charismatic personality. Now the inside story of the remarkable life and career of Leo Melamed is revealed in this long-awaited autobiography. A Holocaust survivor, Leo Melamed had barely begun the first grade in 1939 when he and his parents fled their native Poland one step ahead of the oncoming Nazi juggernaut. Crossing Siberia en route to a brief stay in Japan—just months before Pearl Harbor—the family arrived in the United States to begin life anew. They settled in Chicago, where young Leo became a product of the inner city and embraced his new country and its culture. Seeking part-time employment while attending law school, Leo Melamed answered a classified ad that would change his life. Hired by what he presumed was a law firm named Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Bean, he found himself on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "I was Alice stepping through the Looking Glass into a world of not just one Mad Hatter, but hundreds. The shouting among the traders, the movement of their bodies and hands, captivated me like nothing before . . . there was a life force on that floor that was magical and exciting, and though I didn't understand what was going on, I wanted to be a part of it." Leo Melamed became much more than just a part of it. From modest beginnings as a pork belly trader, he led the Chicago Merc for the next quarter of a century, introducing finance to an industry that was the exclusive domain of agriculture. As his reputation as a financial genius grew, so did the tales of his larger-than-life personality. In Leo Melamed: Escape to the Futures, you'll meet the man behind the legend. Written with the assistance of award-winning journalist Bob Tamarkin, this enthralling memoir deftly weaves intimate personal details with behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the most momentous financial events of our century—including Leo's role as advisor to the White House after the Hillary Rodham Clinton cattle futures trading episode. You'll read fascinating accounts of his dealings with political powerhouses like Bob Dole, Tip O'Neill, Dan Rostenkowski, and others. Offering penetrating insights into the workings of a multibillion dollar industry, this is a story that has as much to say about human nature as it does about the nature of today's markets. Hailed as both hero and tyrant, Leo Melamed is undeniably one of the most colorful and intriguing personalities of our time. This intimate, revealing personal account is not to be missed.

Kim Chernin is renowned for her prolific writing -- including fiction and memoir -- on issues affecting women's lives, ranging from eating disorders and sex to relationships. In The Woman Who Gave Birth to Her Mother, she offers readers a culmination of that work -- a fully integrated vision that will help women resolve their lifelong struggles with their mothers and become fully independent, capable people. Exploring six compelling case histories of women who have resolved these issues in unique and creative ways, Chernin offers her own insights based on years of working with women in therapy, and on her own problematic relationship with her daughter. A tour de force of analysis, compassion, and erudition, this exciting, important work is further evidence that Chernin is "blessed with the eloquence of a poet and the gifts of a born therapist" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Notes from the Other Side of Night is a diary-memoir written upon Juliana Geran Pilon's return to her native Romania in 1975, which she had left along with her family when she was just fourteen. Poetically weaving together modern insight and realities with childhood perceptions, Pilon tells the haunting stories of her parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends. Although the scenery of her native home had remained essentially unchanged since her childhood, Pilon recalls streets that are no more, homes and churches that have been demolished. Yet, the hills and forests, the flowers and mountains, the heat of old Bucharest, remained the same. The scenes and characters described in this book are simply unforgettable. Despite the many tragedies it describes--anti-semitism, political imprisonment, and judicial execution were ruthless realities under communism--Notes from the Other Side of Night is not a depressing book. Pilon writes with a detached melancholy about events and characters that illustrate Hannah Arendt's terrifying "banality of evil." But she remembers, as well, those few who managed to remain human beings until the end. Ultimately, hope triumphs in this memoir. This edition includes a new foreword, which discusses the initial writing and publication of this and previous editions.

In an autobiographical memoir directed to his young son Dylan, the film and theater critic uses stories and anecdotes to present the story of his life and the life lessons he has learned.

The Letter(TM) by Jerry Yellin confronts that quality in a novel in which two men are destined for conflict from their first meeting at age 13, continuing as one accepts his personal vision of a peaceful and inclusive God to become a rabbi while the other pursues a life of political and personal conquest that seems at first to be impossible to reconcile with his Protestant Christian faith. Religion is a comfort, if not a beacon, for Yellin's rabbi, Mark Davidson; it is a tool rather than a philosophy for Adam Flowers, a shallow politician and American Talibaptist. "As a WWII fighter pilot Jerry Yellin knows a few things about threats to humanity, and this nation. In The Letter he uses his considerable insight to strike a major blow against religious bigotry, hatred, and intolerance. If you are not concerned about the invasion of American politics by religious extremists, you will be when you finish this intriguing novel. I love the book!" -- Troy Evans Author Jerry Yellin was a WW 2 fighter pilot from Hillside, NJ. He flew P-51's over Japan from Iwo Jima. Married to Helene for 60 years, they have four sons and six grandchildren, three in America and three born and raised in Japan. Jerry is the author of the award winning historical fiction book The Blackened Canteen and his memoir Of War and Weddings. For More Info perform a Video Search "World War II: Jerry Yellin" These videos will bring Jerry's true story to life. "The hint of violence is always on the back burner, and kept me turning the page. My favorite line in the book: "This is where grown men come to cry." A deep compelling story that will keep you awake at night, wondering about the future of this planet, the human family and where we came from. I highly recommend this book. Five stars!!!" -- Kathleen Rogers, MWSA Reviewer "In his novel The Letter, Jerry Yellin tells the story of an American family divided by religion and politics, love and hate, old and new. By exposing the ramifications of one-way thinking he makes the case for religious tolerance in a personal and convincing way. A consummate storyteller, Jerry keeps us turning the pages through myriad plot twists and masterful plotting. A must read for everyone." -- Linda Egenes, author of Visits with the Amish: Impressions of the Plain Life "Most human beings have the bad habit of defining themselves by nationality, religion, or both-divisions which can lead to violent disagreements and, ultimately, death. In The Letter a powerful U.S. Senator who considers himself a Christian fundamentalist learns, after reading The Letter, that his bloodline is quite different-that he may, in fact, be just what he hates. Highly recommended for those who believe in the ultimate brotherhood of man, and for those who seek to exorcise their own demons." -- Neal Stannard: Author of Now and Then, the Movies Get it Right "The playing field that is Mark Davidson's life is be-sodded when he receives a letter from an attorney that reveals that his boyhood adversary who has grown up to become a hawkish politician is indeed his half-brother. His enemy has become his family. Does he have a duty to his brother? Does he have a duty to those who are the victims of his brother's brutal hatreds? The Letter is the novel you would expect when both religion and brotherhood engage in full combat for peace and for primacy, and yet, both must find a way to survive." A rare find with real-life messages. -- Jack Woodville London, Author of French Letters

Jenny Joseph was no ordinary poet - and Led by the Nose is no ordinary memoir. Shaped around the smells of the English countryside, it is full of the wilful personality and the sly humour that characterised the purple-clad old woman in her iconic poem 'Warning'. Joseph's eccentricities permeate each chapter as she flows through the gardening year with its chores and blossoms, frequently leading the reader off the garden path to stop, smell the roses, and ignore the world for a while. Full of the sensual awareness of Jenny Joseph's poetry, Led by the Nose is a singular memoir: a work of delicious diversion and literary flair, horticultural anxieties and countercultural tendencies, providing a glimpse - or sniff - of the landscape of this treasured poet's life.

Over the course of his career, Jeff Corey (1914-2002) educated movie, television, and theater stars from James Dean to Jane Fonda in the art of acting. Though he worked with some of the most famous talents of his day, one of Corey's greatest pleasures was teaching regular people - accountants, schoolteachers, and lawyers - who had a secret desire to act. In his eyes, anyone could nurture his or her innate "mimetic impulse." Jack Nicholason, one of Corey's most famous students, said, "Acting is life study, and Corey's classes got me into looking at life as an artist." In Improvising Out Loud: My Life Teaching Hollywood How to Act, Jeff Corey narrates his life story first as a successful young actor in Hollywood and later as one of the industry's most revered acting instructors. Corey made a name for himself as a strong character actor in films like The Killers (1946), Home of the Brave (1951). However, everything changed in 1951, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Corey refused to name names before the committee and was promptly blacklisted, forcing him to walk away from his vibrant career as an actor. Later that year, Corey began work as an acting teacher in a small studio, and almost overnight, he became one of the most sought-after instructors in Hollywood, with students such as Kirk Douglas, Rob Reiner, and Tony Perkins. In 1962, when the blacklist ended, Corey was one of the industry's first trailblazers to seamlessly reboot his acting career and he secured roles in some of the classic films of the era, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), True Grit (1969), and Little Big Man (1970), in which he starred as the legendary Wild Bill Hickok. The major action of Corey's life was to capture the human heart: in conflict, in terror, in love, and in all of its small triumphs. His memoir, which he wrote with his daughter Emily Corey, provides a unique and personal perspective of the man whose teaching inspired some of Hollywood's biggest names to excel in the roles that made them famous--Dust jacket

"This memoir of a radical Jew follows Jack Nusan Porter's journey from his birth in Ukraine during the Holocaust, through the radical 60s and 70s, to the present day, and details his experiences fighting anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, xenophobia, and hate"--

Edokko means child of Edo, Tokyo's former name. The author’s parents Constantine and Lydia are musicians and Russian Jews who meet and marry in Berlin, Germany, after fleeing the pogroms in the Soviet Union. With Nazism on the rise they move to France, then Palestine. They decide to join Lydia's father in China before before settling down in the relative safety of Japan, where Isaac son number four and author of this memoir is born in 1931. Isaac grows up speaking fluent Russian, Japanese, English and French. After Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, foreigners are banned from the Yokohama shore and the Shapiro's and their five sons are forced to move to Tokyo, where they suffer endless strategic United States bombing campaigns. When 14-year-old multi-lingual Isaac watches the Americans come ashore, a few stare right at him and he stares back. The U.S. Marines end up poaching him from the U.S Army and hire him as an interpreter. A United States Marine colonel paves the way for Isaac to immigrate to the United States. He becomes a United States citizen in 1951, serves in the army and graduates from Columbia Law School and the Institute of Comparative Law of the University of Paris. This is a true story. Holocaust/WWII memoirs by seasidepress.org

Irma Kurtz arrived in London from New Jersey in the late 1950s. Dismayed by the city's drabness, she quickly moved on to Paris - but returned in 1963, and stayed. Part memoir, part autobiography, this book offers insights into a love affair with London and a portrait of the Age of Aquarius. Kurtz's account of her early career takes in the Central Office of Information, Raymond's Revue Bar, and life at England's first girlie magazine, King, before the post with Nova magazine which set her on the course which led to her prominence as an agony aunt.

Amy Sedaris meets Woody Allen in an uproarious memoir of self discovery. In her critically acclaimed memoir Dork Whore, Iris Bahr finally lost her virginity in the summer between high school and Brown University. In this book, she’s ready for love a year later—but not much wiser. Through all of her uproarious capers, she tries to reconcile her craving for mindblowing sex with her desire for a meaningful relationship—all in an attempt to become an adult. Sort of.

'In the Lower Saxony region of northwestern Germany sits the city of Osnabrück. This is where, in 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was signed, bringing the Thirty Years' War and one of the most calamitous periods of European history to an end. But the city was later to witness another calamity. Today, as one walks through Old Synagogue Street in a rich neighborhood of Osnabrück, one might miss noticing a pile of pale stones held together by chicken wire that sits between two fashionable homes. These are the well-kept ruins from behind which stares a gaping space--a place of memory and oblivion. Four polished plaques tell the tale of the horror-filled night of November 9, 1938--today known as Kristallnacht--when the synagogue that had stood on this spot was desecrated, looted, set on fire, and eventually demolished by Hitler's forces. On the same day, ninety parishioners were imprisoned by the Gestapo and eventually sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Osnabrück was also home to Eve Klein, a member of the city's early-twentieth-century Jewish community and the mother of author Hélène Cixous. In Well-Kept Ruins, Cixous returns to the historic city in 2019 and reflects on the remains of the synagogue that "express the life lost, the life kept." Walking the streets of the city, plumbing the depths of the past along with her own family's history, looking deep into the future, and punctuating her poetic prose with haunting photographs, Cixous explores the ruins at the heart of humanity. Part memoir, part philosophical meditation, Well-Kept Ruins is a genre-defying and timely reflection of the contemporary human condition.'--Publisher description.