Book picks similar to
The Source of the Spring: Mothers Through the Eyes of Women Writers by Judith R. Shapiro
biography-autobiography
cultural-studies
feminism
mom
Horror Stories: A Memoir
Liz Phair - 2019
"Girly Sound" was the name of the cassettes she used to pass around in those days, and in 1993 those songs became the landmark album Exile in Guyville, which turned Phair, at twenty-five, into a foul-mouthed feminist icon.Now, like a Gen X Patti Smith, Liz Phair tells the story of her life and career in a memoir about the moments that have haunted her most. Horror is in the eye of the beholder. For Phair, horror is what stays with you—the often unrecognized, universal experiences of daily pain, shame, and fear that make up our common humanity. In Phair's case it means the dangers of falling for "the perfect guy," and the disaster that awaits her; the memory of a stranger passed out on a bathroom floor amid a crowd of girls, forcing her to consider our responsibilities to one another, and the gnawing regret of being a bystander; and the profound sense of emptiness she experienced on the set of her first celebrity photoshoot.Horror Stories reads like the confessions of a friend, a book that gathers up all of our isolated shames, bringing us together in our shared imperfection, our uncertainty and our cowardice, smashing the stigma of not being in control. But most importantly, Horror Stories is a memoir that asks questions of how we feel about the things that have happened to us, how we cope with regret and culpability, and how we break the spell of those things, leeching them of their power over us. This memoir is an immersive experience, taking readers inside the most intimate moments of Phair's life. Her fearless prose, wit, and uncompromising honesty transform those deeply personal moments into tales about each and every one of us—that will appeal to both the serious fan and the serious reader.
Kid Me Not: An anthology by child-free women of the '60s now in their 60s
Aralyn Hughes - 2014
Wade, when free love wasn’t always free. As the women’s movement spread, these women faced a future of extraordinary possibilities – possibilities seen by today’s youth as commonplace. These writers’ stories are universal – they fell in love, most married, some divorced. Others divulge, for the first time, details kept hidden nearly five decades. Each recognized early the irresistible urge to defy tradition. They no longer felt obligated to follow in the footsteps of their mothers. Indeed, they no longer felt obligated to be mothers. In Kid Me Not – with Foreword by Elizabeth Gilbert – you’ll discover how everyday women, childfree by choice or circumstance, created an array of fascinating, fulfilling lives.
Elvis and Gladys
Elaine Dundy - 1985
It is at once an intimate psychological portrait of a tragic relationship and a mesmerizing tale of the early years of an international idol."For once, a legend is presented to us by the mind and heart of a literate, careful biographer who cares," wrote Liz Smith in the New York Daily News when Elvis and Gladys was originally published in 1985. This is the book, Smith says, "for any Elvis lover who wants to know more about what made Presley the man he was and the mama's boy he became."The Boston Globe called this thoughtful, informative biography of one of popular music's most enduring stars "nothing less than the best Elvis book yet."
Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales
Guy de Maupassant - 2004
You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
The MD Emperor Has No Clothes: Everybody Is Sick and I Know Why
Peter Glidden - 2012
Glidden is one of the very few to realize the sobering truths that MD directed medicine consistently fails to cure disease, and that it causes massive amounts of harm in the process. Furthermore, he understands that people around the world who continue to hold onto their cultural home remedies live longer and healthier than those that buy into modern medical methods! In America, Hispanics outlive whites by 2.5 years and blacks by 8 years - and it has nothing to do with genetics! Few physicians understand how and why this happens. Few physicians have hands-on experience delivering non-drug treatments that actually help people to recover their health. Dr. Glidden does.The MD Emperor Has No Clothes, by reconciling the ancient methods of Wholistic medicine with the urgent health needs of our modern world, offers a key to the very survival of America herself. God-speed Dr. Glidden!"- Joel Wallach BS, DVM, ND
The Tale of Melkorka: A Novella
Octavia Randolph - 2013
A beautiful slave girl. A missing royal daughter. A carefully wrought revenge.Iceland in the 10th century. There is nothing unusual in a wealthy farmer returning home with a slave girl, even if she is a mute. But she conceals a secret that will echo across the oceans.Based on an episode from the great Icelandic Sagas, The Tale of Melkorka will grip you with an unfolding mystery of loss, triumph, and the rough justice of revenge.
Melkorka's world awaits you...
The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience
Hillary Rodham Clinton - 2019
"Go ahead, ask your question," her father urged, nudging her forward. She smiled shyly and said, "You're my hero. Who's yours?" Many people - especially girls - have asked us that same question over the years. It's one of our favourite topics.HILLARY: Growing up, I knew hardly any women who worked outside the home. So I looked to my mother, my teachers, and the pages of Life magazine for inspiration. After learning that Amelia Earhart kept a scrapbook with newspaper articles about successful women in male-dominated jobs, I started a scrapbook of my own. Long after I stopped clipping articles, I continued to seek out stories of women who seemed to be redefining what was possible.CHELSEA: This book is the continuation of a conversation the two of us have been having since I was little. For me, too, my mom was a hero; so were my grandmothers. My early teachers were also women. But I grew up in a world very different from theirs. My pediatrician was a woman, and so was the first mayor of Little Rock who I remember from my childhood. Most of my close friends' moms worked outside the home as nurses, doctors, teachers, professors, and in business. And women were going into space and breaking records here on Earth.Ensuring the rights and opportunities of women and girls remains a big piece of the unfinished business of the twenty-first century. While there's a lot of work to do, we know that throughout history and around the globe women have overcome the toughest resistance imaginable to win victories that have made progress possible for all of us. That is the achievement of each of the women in this book.So how did they do it? The answers are as unique as the women themselves. Civil rights activist Dorothy Height, LGBTQ trailblazer Edie Windsor, and swimmer Diana Nyad kept pushing forward, no matter what. Writers like Rachel Carson and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie named something no one had dared talk about before. Historian Mary Beard used wit to open doors that were once closed, and Wangari Maathai, who sparked a movement to plant trees, understood the power of role modeling. Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai looked fear in the face and persevered. Nearly every single one of these women was fiercely optimistic - they had faith that their actions could make a difference. And they were right.To us, they are all gutsy women - leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done. So in the moments when the long haul seems awfully long, we hope you will draw strength from these stories. We do. Because if history shows one thing, it's that the world needs gutsy women.
A Childhood in Malabar: A Memoir
Kamala Suraiyya Das - 2003
At once an outsider and an integral part of her ancestral home, Kamala struggle to fathom the intricacies of class, caste and language.
My Grandma's Bag of Stories
Nishant Joshi - 2017
Nishan Joshi's "My Grandma's Bag of Stories" is delightful and at the same time enjoyable. This book is a collection of 40 moral stories, ideal for young children and those who are 5+ in age. Simple and lucid language of the book, makes reading a pleasure. Each story ends with a powerful message which can be interpreted in various ways and will help you expand the horizons of your mind. This book guides one on the correct path by enlightening with age old morals interlaced with new age stories. I hope you will imbibe the morals and apply them in your day to day life. You can read more moral stories on Nishant’s website: www.nishantindia.com.
Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters, and Social Change in Nepal
Laura M. Ahearn - 2001
Laura M. Ahearn shows that young Nepalese people are applying their newly acquired literacy skills to love-letter writing, fostering a transition that involves not only a shift in marriage rituals, but also a change in how villagers conceive of their own ability to act and attribute responsibility for events. These developments have potential ramifications that extend far beyond the realm of marriage and well past the Himalayas.The love-letter correspondences examined by Ahearn also provide a deeper understanding of the social effects of literacy. While the acquisition of literary skills may open up new opportunities for some individuals, such skills can also impose new constraints, expectations, and disappointments. The increase in female literacy rates in Junigau in the 1990s made possible the emergence of new courtship practices and facilitated self-initiated marriages, but it also reinforced certain gender ideologies and undercut some avenues to social power, especially for women. Scholars, and students in such fields as anthropology, women's studies, linguistics, development studies, and South Asian studies will find this book ethnographically rich and theoretically insightful. Laura M. Ahearn is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University.
Timepass: The Memoirs of Protima Bedi
Protima Bedi - 1999
There was immediate uproar. The incident was, in many ways, the culmination of a life of youthful rebellion and brash sexuality that Protima, the scandalous model and wife of the rising star of Bollywood, Kabir Bedi, had lived ever since she ran away from home to live ‘in sin’. Barely four years later, the glamorous flower child had reinvented herself as an accomplished classical dancer, a devotee of Goddess Kali, and chosen the sari over slit skirts and halter-necks Shortly before her death, she had shaved her head and decided on a monk’s life. She died in August 1998, in a landslide in the Himalayas while on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar, leaving behind her most lasting achievement—a flourishing dance village, Nrityagram, where students continue to learn the classical dance styles of India Few lives have been more eventful and controversial than Protima Bedi’s, and Timepass, derived from her unfinished autobiography, journals and her letters to family, friends and lovers, is a startlingly frank and passionate memoir. Protima recounts with unflinching honesty the events that shaped her life: her humiliation as a child at being branded the ugly duckling, repeated rape by a cousin when she was barely ten, the failure of her ‘open’ marriage with Kabir Bedi, her many sexual encounters, and the romantic relationships she had with prominent politicians and artistes. She writes, too, of her involvement with dance, her relationship with her guru and fellow dancers, the difficult mission of establishing Nrityagram, and the suicide of her son—a tragedy from which she never fully recovered. In a moving afterword to the book, her daughter, Pooja Bedi, describes her last days and the circumstances of her death. Illustrated with over fifty photographs, Timepass is the story of a remarkable woman who had the spirit, the courage and the intelligence to live life entirely on her own terms.
Gloria Steinem: The Kindle Singles Interview (Kindle Single)
Salamishah Tillet - 2013
Steinem has spent her life working for racial justice and women’s rights. In this interview, she speaks humorously and insightfully on everything from politics to pop culture. She reveals that the backlash she received for supporting Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid was “one of the worst experiences of my life,” and criticizes a history of feminism that forgets the deep alliances between early civil rights and women’s rights activists. Whether she’s defending Kim Kardashian from public vitriol or calling out the antiquated sexual assault policies of the U.S. military, Gloria Steinem is always engaged, always fighting for what she believes in. The interview was conducted by Salamishah Tillet, an Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Tillet blogs for The Nation, and is the author of Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination. She is also the co-founder of A Long Walk Home, a non-profit organization that uses art therapy and the visual and performing arts to end violence against girls and women. Cover design by Adil Dara Kim.
The Summer Home #1
Hazel Taylor - 2020
It was supposed to be a peaceful time for her to pursue a new career and possibly begin dating after so many years alone as a single mother. Like any mother of two adult daughters, she weathers the storms of excitement, heartache, and joy.Miranda, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility could have never predicted a late-night text from her oldest daughter that would change everything. The text was only the first sign of what will become a summer full of mayhems and surprises. Reluctantly putting a new career on hold and removing all possibility of dating, Miranda enlists the help of her sister Jasmin and soon both of them and the daughters are headed to beautiful Grassy Key, Florida. Deep in the heart of the Florida Keys, this was the place that Miranda and Jasmin called their second home as children. Determined to straighten the girls out, both women find out how life can quickly turn plans upside down. Memories long since buried are brought back to life and secrets the sisters wish were left hidden in their bedroom closet are aired-out.Throw sisters, daughters, new romances, and long-kept secrets onto a beautiful island, and what might seem like a relaxing getaway turns into much more. Before the time summer ends, truths are uncovered, friendships are strengthened, love is rekindled, and fate will have its say in more ways than one.
MASSIVE (Ten Book Romance Box Set)
Paige North - 2017
That’s what I’ll be, my virginity bought by notorious billionaire Travis Star. I’ve only seen pictures of him on gossip sites and in business magazines, but in the flesh he’s tall and broad-shouldered, with a penetrating stare. Hard muscles under his impeccable jacket, shirt, tie, and trousers. Dark green eyes, as cool as emeralds. Tan skin that he probably got from the exotic trips to his private island in the Bahamas. Thick, short, dark hair, and a dusting of rough scruff around lips that I can’t look away from. He never smiles. His expression is always stoic, never giving anything away. Even so, I can’t help the throbbing between my legs every time I think about what he has paid so dearly to do to me. There’s no denying Travis Star is hot. But his heart is cold. He has demons. The kind of demons that would drive a man to want to buy a woman. And I’m about to find out the hard way just how dark those demons are… Better When It’s Wrong My stepbrother. He’s devastatingly gorgeous. Dark hair. Ripped body. Piercing blue eyes that contrast perfectly with his dark complexion. A smoldering gaze that makes everyone around him fall in love. My friends used to joke that if Cole looked at you, you’d have your panties off by the end of the night. And it was true. He’d slept with most of my friends, and any other hot girl he happened to want. It had been infuriating when we were younger, watching him sneak girls into his room at night, hearing them moaning and screaming his name as he got them off. He’d had things handed to him because he was beautiful and smart and good at sports. I hated him because he was everything I wasn’t. He was outgoing, I was shy. He was smart, I made mediocre grades. He was special, I wasn’t. But the biggest reason I hated him was because he left us. He left me. Five years ago, he’d up and moved out, packing up his things in the middle of the night and taking the bus to New York City with three of his friends. They’d created a messaging app that had taken off, and now he was a billionaire. I haven’t heard from him in years. Until now. Because Cole’s back. Just when my dysfunctional mother decides to kick me out of the house. I have nowhere to go, so Cole agrees to let me stay with him in his penthouse apartment in New York City. Under one condition – that I follow his rules, whatever they are, no questions asked. I know that what he wants from me is wrong. He wants me to strip. To touch him. To put his lips and mouth all over my body. I know it’s twisted. But I love the way he talks to me, love how demanding he is. The tone of his voice, the look in his eyes, the way he assumes he’s going to end up getting whatever he wants– all of it swirls together into an ache that permeates my whole body. I try to resist him, but it’s impossible.
Unexpected Pregnancy
Viola Black - 2016
Never had she imagined it would go by so quickly. Memories of friends that had long since come and gone. Laughter that still echoed through the corridors of her mind. Each thought of those people made her stomach turn on end. The betrayal she felt from them was more than she could comprehend. Xavier was dead. He had passed, and Dawnika knew it before they even got to the hospital. It came as a bit of a shock that he ended up like his father. He was healthy, never did anything that he shouldn’t have. For Christ’s sake he was captain of the soccer and football team. Xavier was as healthy as could be, yet he gave no sign of life. One moment, he was breathing, the next he was lying, sprawled out on the couch. They were watching cheesy horror flicks, and laughing at every flaw, when he started to appear uncomfortable. At first, she wasn’t really worried, of course that was the first mistake that she made. He was her boyfriend, and she should’ve always been concerned, however, she wasn’t. The reason why would remain unknown to her. Twenty minutes later, he was complaining of chest pains and asked her to call an ambulance. She did, but when they arrived, she knew they were too late. He wasn’t breathing. He wasn’t moving. That of course nearly gave her a heart attack. Moreover she passed out, and when she woke up she was at the hospital, lying in a bed.