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Unfinished woman : a memoir / by Davidson, Robyn,1950-author.;
In 1977, while she was in her twenties, Robyn Davidson set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea. A life of almost constant travelling followed-from the Outback to Sydney's underworld; from sixties street life, to the London literary scene; from migrating with nomads in India and Tibet, to marrying an Indian prince. The only territory she avoided was the past. In Unfinished Woman, she ventures into that unknown, unearthing an ache for a lost but barely remembered mother and an unmet desire to feel at home in her freedom. Adventurous but guarded, fearless yet broken, Davidson asks: how can we live with pain and uncertainty, to find beauty in the strangeness of being? Unfinished Woman is a stunning literary achievement, inviting readers in as a world-famous wandering spirit is, for the first time, laid truly bare.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Travel writing.; Davidson, Robyn, 1950-; Davidson, Robyn, 1950-; Davidson, Robyn, 1950-; Authors, Australian; Travel writers; Women authors, Australian;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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If I knew then : finding wisdom in failure and power in aging / by Arden, Jann,author,illustrator.;
"Jann Arden--bestselling author, recording artist and late-blooming TV star--is back with this funny, heartfelt and fierce memoir on becoming a woman of a certain age. The power, gravity and freedom she's found at fifty-seven are superpowers she believes all of us can unleash. Digging deep into her strengths, her failures and her losses, Jann Arden brings us an inspiring account of how she has surprised herself, in her fifties, by at last becoming completely her own person. Like many women, it took Jann a long time to realize that trying to be pleasing and likeable and beautiful in the eyes of others was a loser's game. Letting it rip, and damning the consequences, is not only liberating, it's a hell of a lot of fun: "Being the age I am--that so many women are--is just the best time of my life." Jann weaves her own story together with tales of her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and the father she came close to hating, to show her younger self--and all of us--that fear and avoidance is no way to live. "What I'm thinking about now aren't all the ways I can try to hang on to my youth or all the seconds ticking by in some kind of morbid countdown to death," she writes, "but rather how I keep becoming someone I always hoped I could be. If I'm lucky one day a very old face will look back at me from the mirror, a face I once shied away from. I will love that old woman ferociously, because she has finally figured out how to live a life of purpose--not in spite of but because of all her mistakes and failures.""--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Arden, Jann.; Actresses; Aging.; Singers;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Rowdy : the Roddy Piper story / by Toombs, Ariel Teal,author.; Toombs, Colt Baird,author.; Pyette, Craig,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In early 2015, Roderick Toombs, aka Rowdy Roddy Piper, began researching his own autobiography with a trip through Western Canada. He was re-discovering his youth, a part of his life he never discussed during his 61 years, many spent as one of the greatest talents in the history of pro wrestling. Following his death due to a heart attack that July, two of his children took on the job of telling Roddy's story, separating fact from fiction in the extraordinary life of their father. Already an accomplished wrestler before Wrestlemania in 1985, Roddy Piper could infuriate a crowd like no 'heel' before him. The principal antagonist to all-American champion Hulk Hogan, Piper used his quick wit, explosive ring style and fearless baiting of audiences to push pro wrestling to unprecedented success. Wrestling was suddenly pop culture's main event. An actor with over 50 screen credits, including the lead in John Carpenter's #1 cult classic, They Live, Piper knew how to keep fans hungry, just as he'd kept them wishing for a complete portrait of his most unusual life. He wanted to write this book for his family; now they have written it for him."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Piper, Roddy, 1954-2015.; Wrestlers; Motion picture actors and actresses; Entertainers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Cinema speculation / by Tarantino, Quentin,author.;
"The long-awaited first work of nonfiction from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: a deliriously entertaining, wickedly intelligent cinema book as unique and creative as anything by Quentin Tarantino. In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans--and all movie lovers--could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining. At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT's and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever."--
Subjects: Film criticism.; Tarantino, Quentin; Tarantino, Quentin; Film criticism; Motion pictures;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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This woman's work : essays on music / by Gleeson, Sinéad,editor.; Gordon, Kim,editor.;
"THIS WOMAN'S WORK is a collection of essays by 18 female writers, writing about exclusively female experiences in music, co-edited by Sonic Youth co-founder Kim Gordon and Irish author Sinead Gleeson. This book celebrates the instrument makers, the experimentalists, the harmonizers, the avant-garde, the genre-breakers, the pop queens, and all those on the margins who expose the lack of intersectionality in this industry. For a long time, the narrative of music has been male-centered and hyper-masculine. The purpose of the women within it was to orbit these men: swooning to Elvis, screaming en-masse at Beatles gigs, or trying to get backstage to sleep with the rock bad boys. When women gained visibility in the music of the 1960s, they were-again-allocated specific tropes: backing singer, lone woman in the band, Motown trios singing innocuous love songs. In the 1970s, at the time Kate Bush became the first woman (at just 17) to have a number one with song she'd written herself, the women of punk began to make their voices heard. But many didn't like these acts of assertion; the femaleness, the raging against gender stereotypes, the Amazonian loudness of it all. Joan Jett recalls being knocked over on stage by flying bottles; The Slits were chased and threatened after gigs and their singer Ari Up was stabbed twice. Even as late as the 1980s, as hip hop gained prominence, it made room for only a handful of women, while trading in misogynist rhymes, where women could only be hoes, bitches or gold diggers. How were young female rappers of color to participate when they didn't see themselves represented in that culture? Trapped within an entertainment industry relentlessly catering to men, these rappers, and many other budding female musicians across a variety of genres in modern music, were often othered and exoticized-until the moment when they dared to own it. To speak up. To shout louder. Digging into the depths of an industry hard-coded for sexism, THIS WOMAN'S WORK is an ode to the thousands of women in music whose stories we don't know. Pioneers whose achievements are undervalued, often by virtue of their gender, or because someone else (many times, a man) took credit for it. Featuring brand new essays from notable feminist writers like Ottessa Moshfegh, Juliana Huxtable, Maggie Nelson, Rachel Kushner, Leslie Jamison, and more, THIS WOMAN'S WORK reminds us to pay our respects to the women who shattered ceilings and kicked in doors, vastly expanding the spectrum of women's influence in the world of modern music"--
Subjects: Essays.; Misogyny.; Music.; Women musicians.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The hope in leaving : a memoir / by Williams, Barbara,1953-author.;
"On the day she is leaving town to escape her troubled family and to start over at twenty-four--she finds a note on her mother's door. Her brother has shot himself. In stories that face reality so squarely they express what usually goes unsaid, from exhilaration to despair, Barbara Williams remembers her childhood leading up to this moment. Her father is a logger, nomad, and born dreamer. Her mother has too many kids and never enough money to support or protect them. The family keeps on the move, shedding a grand total of twenty-seven homes. Williams remembers having one hope as a child, 'the hope in leaving and doing better next time.' But poverty, mental illness, substances abuse, and injustice pursued them wherever they went. They lived smalltown life hard and suffered, most of all her brother, the fearless star of their childhood adventures and misadventures. Williams writes, 'We grew up like wild animals with the wrong set of instincts for our environment.' It might be said it's a miracle she survived to bring us these stories. In doing so, Williams proves there is one thing that can survive the worst of life and even death: love without judgment"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Williams, Barbara, 1953-; Williams, Barbara, 1953-; Actresses; Coming of age; Dysfunctional families; Loggers; Logging; Migrant laborers' families; Poor families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Bits and pieces : my mother, my brother, and me / by Goldberg, Whoopi,1955-author.;
If it weren't for Emma Johnson, Caryn Johnson would have never become Whoopi Goldberg. Emma gave her children the loving care and wisdom they needed to succeed in life, always encouraging them to be true to themselves. When Whoopi lost her mother in 2010 -- and then her older brother, Clyde, five years later -- she felt deeply alone; the only people who truly knew her were gone. Emma raised her children not just to survive, but to thrive. In this intimate and heartfelt memoir, Whoopi shares many of the deeply personal stories of their lives together for the first time. Growing up in the projects in New York City, there were trips to Coney Island, the Ice Capades, and museums, and every Christmas was a magical experience. To this day, she doesn't know how her mother was able to give them such an enriching childhood, despite the struggles they faced -- and it wasn't until she was well into adulthood that Whoopi learned just how traumatic some of those struggles were. Fans of personal memoirs such as Finding Me by Viola Davis and In Pieces by Sally Field will be touched by Bits and Pieces: a moving tribute from a daughter to her mother, and a beautiful portrait of three people who loved each other deeply. Whoopi writes, "Not everybody gets to walk this earth with folks who let you be exactly who you are and who give you the confidence to become exactly who you want to be. So, I thought I'd share mine with you."
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Goldberg, Whoopi, 1955-; Goldberg, Whoopi, 1955-; Goldberg, Whoopi, 1955-; Johnson, Clyde, 1949-2015.; Johnson, Emma, 1931-2010.; African American actors; African American entertainers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Stay true : a memoir / by Hsu, Hua,1977-author.;
"From the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art. In the eyes of 18-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken--with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity--is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, a first-generation Taiwanese American who has a 'zine and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn't seem to have a place for either of them. But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become best friends, a friendship built of late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the textbook successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet. Determined to hold on to all that was left of his best friend--his memories--Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he's been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Hsu, Hua, 1977-; Hsu, Hua, 1977-; Ishida, Kenneth N., 1977-1998.; University of California, Berkeley; Children of immigrants; Coming of age.; Murder victims; Popular culture; Taiwanese Americans; Taiwanese Americans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last Tudor / by Gregory, Philippa,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The latest novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory features one of the most famous girls in history, Lady Jane Grey, and her two sisters, each of whom dared to defy her queen. Seventeen-year-old Jane Grey was queen of England for nine days. Her father and his allies crowned her instead of the dead king's half-sister Mary Tudor, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her throne, and locked Jane in the Tower of London. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner's block, where Jane transformed her father's greedy power-grab into tragic martyrdom. 'Learn you to die,' was the advice Jane wrote to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and fall in love. But she is heir to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and then to her sister Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a Tudor son. When Katherine's pregnancy betrays her secret marriage she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister's scaffold. 'Farewell, my sister,' writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth's suspicious glare. After seeing her sisters defy the queen, Mary is acutely aware of her own danger, but determined to command her own life. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Queen Elizabeth?"--
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Grey, Jane, Lady, 1537-1554; Queens;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Gender queer : a memoir / by Kobabe, Maia.; Kobabe, Phoebe,colourist.; Small Press Expo Collection (Library of Congress)DLC;
This book is part of our Book Sanctuary collection. A Book Sanctuary is a physical or digital space that actively protects the freedom to read. It provides shelter and access to endangered books. Launched by Chicago Public Library in 2022, The Book Sanctuary initiative brings attention to challenged titles, and commits to making these books accessible. Innisfil ideaLAB & Library's Book Sanctuary Collection represents books that have been challenged, censored or removed from a public library or school in North America. More than 50 adult, teen, and children's books are in our collection and are available for browsing and borrowing in our branches and online. Explore the collection to learn more about why these books were challenged."In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere."--Amazon.Stonewall Book Awards, 2020ALA Alex Award Winner, 2020
Subjects: Young adult literature.; Autobiographical comics.; Autobiographies.; Comics (Graphic works); Nonfiction comics.; Graphic novels.; Comics (Graphic works); Autobiographies.; Nonfiction comics.; Autobiographical comics.; Graphic novels.; Genderqueer comics.; Banned book sanctuary.; Kobabe, Maia; Banned book sanctuary.; Sexual minority youth; Sexual minorities; Asexuality (Sexual orientation); Gender identity; Gender-nonconforming people; Coming out (Sexual orientation); Kobabe, Maia.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 3
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