Book picks similar to
Shakespeare For My Father: A One Woman Play In Two Acts by Lynn Redgrave
non-fiction
plays
creative-nonfiction
drama
Caring For Nigel: Diary of a Wife Coping With Her Husband's Dementia
Eileen Murray - 2013
Doctors suspected he was suffering from a rare and degenerative neurological disorder known as Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). However, Nigel also had many of the symptoms of both Parkinson’s disease and Lewy Body dementia and an official diagnosis was never made.For four years Nigel's wife, Eileen, kept a diary. This was her "safety valve" - an outlet for the daily stresses of caring for him at home, as his mental and physical health slowly deteriorated. In her diary she gives a frank and detailed account of his challenging and erratic behaviour, his bizarre hallucinations, the relentless struggle with his incontinence and the endless disturbed nights.Even in her darkest moments, Eileen's dry Scottish humour shines through - you will laugh one moment and be moved the next. You can’t help but smile at Nigel's trousers with the “appetite mechanism” and his special “anti-dandruff comb”.As the dementia advances, Nigel retreats into a busy world of army and lecturing duties, harking back to his earlier days. Eventually, the burden of running her own “one-woman nursing home” becomes too much for Eileen and her quest to find respite care begins. This presents challenges of its own. This true and touching account offers a unique insight into the day-to-day experience of caring for someone with dementia or a related illness.Some Amazon Five Star Reviews:★★★★★ Excellent - a great read★★★★★ Loved it★★★★★ Very eye opening★★★★★ Brilliant book★★★★★ Sad but a good read★★★★★ A gem★★★★★ Five stars
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Eric J. Sterling - 2008
The topics include feminism and the role of women in the drama, the American Dream, business and capitalism, the significance of technology, the legacy that Willy leaves to Biff, and Miller's use of symbolism. The authors of the essays include prominent Arthur Miller scholars such as Terry Otten and the late Steven Centola as well as young, emerging scholars. Some of the essays, particularly the ones written by the emerging scholars, tend to employ literary theory while the ones by the established scholars tend to illustrate the strengths of traditional criticism by interpreting the text closely. It is fascinating to see how scholars at different stages of their academic careers approach a given topic from distinct perspectives and sometimes diverse methodologies. The essays offer insightful and provocative readings of Death of a Salesman in a collection that will prove quite useful to scholars and students of Miller's most famous play.
Dark Knights: The Dark Humor of Police Officers
Robert L. Bryan - 2017
The profession requires cops to see people at their worst. They see death, tragedy, crime, and despair on a daily basis. The very nature of the tasks cops perform and the things cops see skews their sense of humor. Sometimes, a sense of humor is the only defense mechanism in a police officer's tool box. Stripped of the ability to laugh, or forced to be politically correct in a politically incorrect work environment can be hazardous to one's health. Coping becomes an essential component of a police officer's arsenal. One of the primary coping mechanisms utilized by cops is humor. A cop can find something funny about almost anything, regardless of how tragic the circumstances. Dark humor involves making light of a serious, disturbing or taboo subject matter. It is sometimes viewed as morbid, cruel, offensive, and graphic in nature and is yet, still found funny. This is the story of the author's twenty-year police career with the New York City Transit Police and NYPD as he worked with some of New York City's darkest knights - those cops who did and said the funniest things under the most difficult circumstances.
Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot/Endgame: A reader's guide to essential criticism
Peter Boxall - 2000
The guide presents the major debates that surround these works as they develop, from Martin Esslin's early appropriation of the plays as examples of the Theatre of the Absurd, to recent poststructuralist and postcolonial readings by critics such as Steven Connor, Mary Bryden and Declan Kiberd. Throughout, Boxall clarifies and contextualizes critical responses to the plays, and considers the difficult relationship between Beckett and his critics.
Invisible Child
Mary Hayward - 2010
This compelling story is a tribute to all those brave women who believe in “yes we can”. Mary’s life was always a miracle of survival. It is a tale of courage and responsibility, as she battles to keep herself and baby sister from starvation and TB, sometimes with fun and laughter, and at other times so desperate that we are drawn to tears. But when her best friend steals a rifle, we listen to her heartbreaking plea to the Samaritans as her life is crushed. It is a story of heartbreak and passion, a blinding love so certain that it comes but once in a lifetime. She finds her freedom to study at university, and doing what she does best, saving damaged children like herself.
My Life After Life: A Posthumous Memoir
Galen Stoller - 2011
He was able to make contact in dream states with his intuitive father within days and verbal contact by the end of the first month. Two years later he requested his father write down communication from Galen about his new circumstances. Dr. Stoller’s only comments in this revelatory account appear in Editor’s Notes at the end of each chapter. While there are many accounts of near-death experiences, never has an account been written documenting a personal encounter with such detail and clarity. The story of this gifted boy intent on getting through to earth the knowledge of what lies beyond is both comforting and sobering with a message relevant for all of us still living in this dimension.
Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard
James N. Loehlin - 2006
In the century since its first performance, The Cherry Orchard has undergone a wide range of conflicting interpretations: tragic and comic, naturalistic and symbolic, reactionary and radical. Beginning with the 1904 premiere at Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre, this study traces the performance history of one of the landmark plays of the modern theatre. Considering the work of such directors as Anatoly Efros, Giorgio Strehler, Peter Brook, and Peter Stein, Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard explores the way different artists, periods and cultures have reinvented Chekhov's poignant comedy of failure and hope.
Afraid to Tell
Heidi Harding - 2017
After years of fear and isolation, Heidi knew she had to go to the police. For a long time, Chloe resented Heidi for forcing her to disclose what had happened when she wasn’t ready, while their brother, Tom, couldn’t understand how he had so misjudged his father, and at first he didn’t believe their tale. The truth threatened to destroy them all. This is the very honest story of three siblings, and how a man they trusted threatened to tear their family apart.
The Names of My Mothers
Dianne Sanders Riordan - 2013
In 1942 Elizabeth Bynam Sanders was a young woman who left home under false pretenses and travelled to Our Lady of Victory, a home for unwed mothers in upstate New York. Shortly after surrendering her daughter for adoption, she returned to her life in Johnston County, North Carolina. She never married and never had another child of her own. This powerful and moving memoir speaks of the profound need for connection. It is a story about identity, the hunger we feel for a sense of belonging and the ineffable significance of blood.
An Inspector Calls
John Scicluna - 1990
York Notes author John Scicluna discusses all aspect of An Inspector Calls --a thorough run-down very helpful to anyone studying the famous Priestley play.
BITING THE BULLET: Memoirs of a Police Officer
Ajai Raj Sharma - 2019
He was handpicked to lead the Delhi Police Force at a time when India’s capital was in a crisis. He also stood at the helm of the world’s largest border force, which secures India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.In the pages of this searing memoir, readers will be treated with the inside story of the creation of Special Task Force, of the elimination of the dreaded Shri Prakash Shukla, the exposing of the match-fixing scandal, the hunting down of ISI terrorist Ghazi Baba and the dynamic response to the 2001 Parliament attack, amongst many others.Biting the Bullet is a trailblazing account of a life full of tackling dacoits, encounters, shootouts and terror attacks, all the while giving an insight into the mind and heart of this police officer as he makes life-changing decisions.