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Yamamoto Isoroku (Command #26)
by Mark Stille Mr Adam HookAdmiral Yamamoto Isoroku was the defining Japanese naval commander of World War II. Yamamoto's career in the Imperial Japanese Navy started in the early years of the 20th century and he saw service in the Russo–Japanese War, being wounded in the battle of Tsushima in 1904. He went on to study at Harvard University and serve as a naval attaché in the inter-war years, an experience that was to give him a unique insight into the American psyche. Despite the success of his daring pre-emptive strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941, that damaged the US Pacific Fleet and ushered in the Pacific War, Yamamoto's subsequent handling of the Japanese combined fleet can be called into question. The final campaign commanded by Yamamoto was that around Guadalcanal, where Yamamoto's myth of excellence will be totally laid bare. Despite a considerable numerical advantage over the Americans, Yamamoto never brought this advantage to bear. The result was a devastating defeat for the Imperial Japanese Navy and, eventually, the death of Yamamoto himself.
Yash Chopra (World Directors)
by Rachel DwyerAs a charismatic director in the Indian film industry, Chopra's name is synonymous with the glamour of the romantic film and a certain style within Indian culture. Spanning four decades, his directed features include some of the classic films of Indian film history, such as 'Deewaar' and 'Kabhi Kabhie'. His directorial career began in 1959 with 'Dhool Ka Phool' and he has been a major producer since 1973, consolidating his success in the 1990s with a series of huge box office hits including 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'. He has also worked in other Hindi movie genres, directing action movies such as 'Mashaal' and a thriller, 'Darr'. This book discusses in depth his work with the Hindi megastar Amitabh Bachanan in films such as 'Deewaar', 'Trishul', 'Kala Patthar' and 'Silsila' and how, in his transformation of the look of mainstream cinema in 'Dil To Pagal Hai' and other films, Yash Chopra has proved to be a tireless innovator within a mainstream tradition. The author integrates this analysis with information about the man and his work, based on interviews with Yash Chopra, his family, his colleagues, his stars, his contemporaries and major critics that include views from Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Shashi Kapoor and Sri Devi. A study of a top contemporary Indian film director, Rachel Dwyer's book also examines the influence on Chopra of predecessors such as Raj Kapoor and how his own legacy can be seen in such films as 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' and younger directors such as Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra.
Yash Chopra (World Directors)
by Rachel DwyerAs a charismatic director in the Indian film industry, Chopra's name is synonymous with the glamour of the romantic film and a certain style within Indian culture. Spanning four decades, his directed features include some of the classic films of Indian film history, such as 'Deewaar' and 'Kabhi Kabhie'. His directorial career began in 1959 with 'Dhool Ka Phool' and he has been a major producer since 1973, consolidating his success in the 1990s with a series of huge box office hits including 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'. He has also worked in other Hindi movie genres, directing action movies such as 'Mashaal' and a thriller, 'Darr'. This book discusses in depth his work with the Hindi megastar Amitabh Bachanan in films such as 'Deewaar', 'Trishul', 'Kala Patthar' and 'Silsila' and how, in his transformation of the look of mainstream cinema in 'Dil To Pagal Hai' and other films, Yash Chopra has proved to be a tireless innovator within a mainstream tradition. The author integrates this analysis with information about the man and his work, based on interviews with Yash Chopra, his family, his colleagues, his stars, his contemporaries and major critics that include views from Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Shashi Kapoor and Sri Devi. A study of a top contemporary Indian film director, Rachel Dwyer's book also examines the influence on Chopra of predecessors such as Raj Kapoor and how his own legacy can be seen in such films as 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' and younger directors such as Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra.
Yasuke: The true story of the legendary African Samurai
by Geoffrey Girard Thomas LockleyWARRIOR. SAMURAI. LEGEND.The remarkable life of history's first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society.The man who came to be known as Yasuke arrived in Japan in the 16th century, an indentured mercenary arriving upon one of the Portuguese ships carrying a new language, a new religion and an introduction to the slave trade. Curiously tall, bald, massively built and black skinned, he was known as a steadfast bodyguard of immense strength and stature, and swiftly captured the interest, and thence the trust, of the most powerful family in all of Japan. Two years later, he vanished.Yasuke is the story of a legend that still captures the imagination of people across the world. It brings to life a little known side of Japan - a gripping narrative about an extraordinary figure in a fascinating time and place.
Yayoi Kusama (Lives of the Artists)
by Robert Shore'I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland' Yayoi KusamaNonagenarian Japanese artist is simultaneously one of the most famous and most mysterious artists on the planet. A wild child of the 1950s and 1960s, she emerged out of the international Fluxus movement to launch naked happenings in New York and went on to become a doyenne of that city's counter-cultural scene. In the early 1970s, she returned to Japan and by 1977 had checked herself in to a psychiatric hospital which has remained her home to this day. But, though she was removed from the world, she was definitely not in retirement. Her love and belief in the polka dot has given birth to some of the most surprising and inspiring installations and paintings of the last four decades - and made her exhibitions the most visited of any single living artist.
Yeah, But Where Are You Really From?: A story of overcoming the odds
by Marguerite Penrose'An engrossing, urgent, and entertaining read. I couldn't put it down' Roddy Doyle______Marguerite Penrose's is an extraordinary story of making a great life from complicated beginnings. Marguerite was born in a Dublin mother-and-baby home in 1974, the daughter of an Irish mother and a Zambian father. Severe scoliosis indicated a future of difficult medical procedures. She was a little girl who needed a break. And she got it at three when she was fostered - and later adopted - by a young couple, Mick and Noeline, and acquired a mam, dad, sister, Ciara, and loving extended family. Growing up, Marguerite's appearance was occasionally remarked on by strangers, but it wasn't until her teens that she understood that her skin colour was a provocation for some. The progressive city that she knew was revealed to have an unpleasant undercurrent. So, she became an expert in shaping her life around anything that marked her out as 'different'.Marguerite's story is one of facing some big questions - Who am I? How do I live in world made for people with bodies different to mine? Why does anyone care about my skin colour? - with intelligence, humour, courage and common-sense. She writes about coming to terms with the circumstances of her birth and, like so many in her position, looking for answers. About navigating the world as an active woman with a disability. About what it means to be both Irish and Black, particularly at a moment when the conversation is becoming mainstream in Ireland and she is thinking about it in new ways herself. Mostly, she writes about embracing life in a spirit of openness and positivity.Yeah, But Where Are You Really From? is a captivating, wise and inspiring memoir by a truly remarkable woman.___________'Beautiful, moving, tender and informative' SINÉAD MORIARTY
Yeah, Nah!: A celebration of life and the words that make us who we are
by William McInnesHave you ever bunged it on?Behaved like a drongo?Added mayo to a story?Lost your Reg Grundies?Join bestselling storyteller William McInnes as he offers his own take on our colourful and colloquial way with words. From the simpler times of childhood to today's testing (and unprecedented!) times, or when we're wasting time, enjoying sporting times or hitting the big time, Australians have a turn of phrase for every situation. Our love of plain speaking communicates the essence of the thing to our mates, to those in the know - and to those who should know better.Part memoir, part manifesto, this warm, witty, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny collection will have you thinking about what you say, how you say it and what that really says about us as a nation. Praise for the writing of William McInnes'Warm and engaging . . . feels a little bit like home' Daily Telegraph'If there is a quintessence of Australia at its best, William McInnes has distilled it' The Age'Warm, nostalgic, funny and undeniably Australian' Sydney Morning Herald
The Year: Reawakening the legend of cycling's hardest endurance record
by Dave BarterIn 1939 British cyclist Tommy Godwin cycled 75,065 miles in a single year. Think about that for a second: that's an average of over 200 miles each day. And it's a mark that still stands after almost eighty years. In The Year, Dave Barter resurrects the legend of the year record - a challenge nearly as old as bicycles themselves - and the cyclists who pushed themselves to establish and break it. Barter uncovers the stories behind these riders who would routinely cycle over a hundred miles a day in the race to set new records: Americans such as John H. George who recorded over 200 'centuries', nineteen double 'centuries' and three triple 'centuries' in the late 1800s. The British advertising executive Harry Long, whose annual tallies of over 20,000 miles in the early twentieth century led to the founding of the formal cycling year record, and Cycling magazine's Century Competition. The Englishman of French descent, Marcel Planes, whose 1911 record of 34,366 miles stood for over twenty years. Not forgetting the legends of the job-seeking Arthur Humbles, the one-armed vegetarian communist Walter Greaves, the 'keep-fit girl' Billie Dovey and the staggering mark set by Godwin who left a youthful Bernard Bennett trailing in his wake. Meticulous research through the annuals, archives and news stories of the bicycling world is backed up with insights from the families of these legendary cyclists, as well as Dave's own analysis of the riders' years in numbers. There is no more difficult challenge in cycling. The Year is the definitive story of these phenomenal cyclists.
A Year at the Chateau: As seen on the hit Channel 4 show
by Dick Strawbridge Angel StrawbridgeLike many couples, Dick and Angel had long dreamed of living in France, but where others might settle for a modest bolthole in the French countryside, the Strawbridges fell in love with a 19th-century fairytale château, complete with 45 rooms, seven outbuildings, 12 acres of land and its own moat.Throwing caution to the wind, Dick and Angel swapped their two-bedroom flat in East London for an abandoned and derelict castle in the heart of the Loire valley and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime with their two young children Arthur and Dorothy.Sharing their full journey for the first time, A Year at the Château follows Dick and Angel from when they first moved to France in the depths of winter and found bedrooms infested with flies, turrets inhabited by bats, the wind rattling through cracked windows, and just one working toilet, which flushed into the moat, through to the monumental efforts that went into readying the château for their unforgettable wedding and their incredibly special first Christmas.Along the way we'll read glorious descriptions of rural life in France, with charming characters, delicious food and wonderful seasonal produce, together with the extraordinary list of renovations and restorations Dick and Angel completed, many of which were never shown on TV.As warm and entertaining as their much-loved show, A Year at the Château is a truly irresistible story of adventure and heart, epic ambitions and a huge amount of hard graft.
A Year in Jamaica: Memoirs of a girl in Arcadia in 1889
by Diana LewesA Year in Jamaica is a complex memoir telling the story of two simultaneous journeys: Diana Lewes's 1889 trip from England to visit her family's sugar plantations in the Caribbean and, more intriguingly, the internal rite of passage of a Victorian girl on her journey to adulthood. For it is in Jamaica that Miss Lewes tries to find a place for herself in the mysterious adult world, to understand its coded rules and hidden passions. Set primarily on a plantation called Arcadia, overlooking the sea and a distant Cuba from on high, Miss Lewes alternates between the acceptable pursuits of a Victorian gentlewoman -sewing, social visits, riding -and trying to find a more meaningful role for herself in this man's world. She delights in the exhilarating freedom of careering across the countryside on horseback with her sister, is cowed by the roaring rains and horrified at watching a hen peck a lizard to death. And against this background, we see an intelligent and competent young woman appraising the society around her, and struggling with its contradictions. Quite how complex those contradictions were is only finally revealed in the publisher's afterword.
A Year in Provence (Popular Penguins Series)
by Peter MayleThe bestselling, much-loved classic account of an English couple enjoying the fruits of French rural living - an irresistible feast of humour and heart.Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Lubéron Valley and began a new life.In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait.'One of the most successful travel books of all time... Mayle created a new travel genre' GuardianDelightful' Washington Post'Engaging, funny and richly appreciative' New York Times Book Review'Stylish, witty, delightfully readable' Sunday Times'I really loved this book' Julia Child
Year In The Sun: A legacy in Cricket
by Michael VaughanDescribed as the most exciting batsman to emerge since David Gower retired, Michael Vaughan provides a personal view of his own amazing acheivements during 2002. He also contemplates the controversy that surrounded England's ill-fated World Cup mission, and discusses the real story behind the decision not to go to Zimbabwe. Vaughan's thoughts about Nasser Hussain, the captain he has served most, and his other international and county colleagues are also shared.Every aspect of an intense and exciting year gets Vaughan's complete consideration - from being given out handled ball in India to clean bowling Sachin Tendulkar, from being targeted by Glenn McGrath to winning the Player of the Series award in the Ashes battle, and on to the World Cup fiasco. This is a compelling insight into the world of the 2002 Cricketer of the Year.
A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess (The\yorkshire Shepherdess Ser. #2)
by Amanda Owen'Amanda Owen is like a breath of fresh air. Amanda's life is one of old-fashioned values, hard graft and plenty of love. She, like her life, is extraordinary.' - Ben FogleAs seen on Channel 5's Our Yorkshire FarmFrom bestselling author Amanda Owen come more tales of life at Ravenseat, the remote Yorkshire hill farm she shares with husband Clive, eight children and 1,000 sheep. In A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess she describes the age-old cycles of a farming year and the constant challenges the family faces, from being cut off in winter to tending their flock on some of Yorkshire's highest, bleakest moors - land so inaccessible that in places it can only be reached on foot. Writing with her trademark warmth and humour, Amanda takes us into her life as nine-year-old Miles gets his first flock, Reuben takes up the flugelhorn and she gives birth to a new baby girl. She is touched by the epic two-day journey of a mother sheep determined to find her lamb and gives a new home to an ageing and neglected horse. Meanwhile Clive is almost arrested on a midnight stakeout to catch a sheep-worrying dog and becomes the object of affection for a randy young bull. Funny, poignant and charming, A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess is a must for anyone interested in the countryside and those who farm it.
The Year My Family Unravelled
by Cynthia DearbornCynthia Dearborn is struggling to convince her father, who has vascular dementia, to move into an aged care facility. He won't budge. Further complicating matters is the fact that Cynthia lives in Sydney, and her father in Seattle. Truth be told, it suits her to live halfway around the world from her family.Cynthia's attempts to get her father and stepmother into care, and to protect them from themselves and each other, drive this compelling memoir. But braided in is a deeply moving and surprising backstory about Cynthia's tumultuous childhood and the difficult relationships she had with both parents.The Year My Family Unravelled continues to surprise right to the last page. Despite heavy subject matter - mental decline, illness, abuse, death - this is a memoir of buoyancy and hope. Ultimately, it is a story about redemption, self-worth, and the tangled and often contradictory impulses of love.
The Year My Mother Came Back: A Memoir
by Alice Eve Cohen&“A riveting journey.&” —Julie Metz, author of Perfection &“A perfect book. I want to tell everyone, every mother, every daughter, to read it.&” —Abigail Thomas, bestselling author of A Three Dog LifeFor the first time in decades I&’m remembering Mom, all of her--the wonderful and terrible things about her that I&’ve cast out of my thoughts for so long. I&’m still struggling to prevent these memories from erupting from their subterranean depths. Trying to hold back the flood. I can&’t, not today. The levees break. Thirty years after her death, Alice Eve Cohen&’s mother appears to her, seemingly in the flesh, and continues to do so during the hardest year Alice has had to face: the year her youngest daughter needs a harrowing surgery, her eldest daughter decides to reunite with her birth mother, and Alice herself receives a daunting diagnosis. As it turns out, it&’s entirely possible for the people we&’ve lost to come back to us when we need them the most. Although letting her mother back into her life is not an easy thing, Alice approaches it with humor, intelligence, and honesty. What she learns is that she must revisit her childhood and allow herself to be a daughter once more in order to take care of her own girls. Understanding and forgiving her mother&’s parenting transgressions leads her to accept her own and to realize that she doesn&’t have to be perfect to be a good mother. &“Alice Eve Cohen&’s warm, witty, wise memoir is an elixir of love. It captures the struggles of every woman who ever wanted to be a better mother or daughter. Read it and weep, and laugh, and love.&” —Nancy Bachrach, author of The Center of the Universe &“Funny, painful, absurd, and heartwarming . . . Alice&’s struggle to accept her imperfect self is a loving message tomothers who struggle to live life with grace. A beautiful book.&” —Julie Metz, New York Times bestselling author of Perfection &“Cohen navigates what was a perfect storm of a year . . . What she made of this year is a book so honest, so moving, and ultimately so wise that it is a privilege to take the journey with her.&” —Abigail Thomas, bestselling author of A Three Dog Life &“I love, love, love this book. It&’s so rich, so real, and so moving . . . An astonishingly wonderful book—I was enthralled.&” —Caroline Leavitt, bestselling author of Pictures of You &“Compassionate, compelling, and told in luscious prose that practically begs you to sink in and linger, Cohen&’s imaginative story and its fascinating characters will stay with you long after you&’ve turned the last page.&” —Jessie Sholl, author of Dirty Secret
A Year of Doing Good: One Woman, One New Year's Resolution, 365 Good Deeds
by Judith O'ReillyJudith O'Reilly, author of the hugely popular blog and book Wife in the North embarks on a year long social experiment in the witty A Year of Doing Good.Fed up of New Year's resolutions involving diets and exercise abandoned on January 2nd, Judith is attempting to be good. For one whole year.She embarked on a mission to do one good deed every day. Some called it a social experiment. At times she called it madness.Juggling family, friends and a variety of neighbours in the small Northumberland village she calls home, she recounts the ups, downs, moments of doubt and sheer bloody hard work of doing good. From the small - babysitting a friend's child, clearing up her neighbour's dead mice and feeding her friendship cake Herman the German, to the slightly larger - trying to raise £10,000 for charity with her Jam Jar Army and teaching a severely handicapped child to write - she describes what she learns along the way: that no good deed is too small and that being good makes you happy. Well, most of the time.'A funny, uplifting and admirable book' Observer 'Banish January blues with A Year of Doing Good by Judith O'Reilly who resolved to do one good turn day. . . utterly uplifting' Woman & Home 'Fizzing with energy Judith's writing is open-hearted and funny. . . though not a guide to doing good, Judith's story may inspire you to do a little more for others this year' Express 'Glorious sincerity. . .the admiring accounts of others' lives, the detailing of the deeds gladly done or furiously resented, the unending chaos of family life - all are rendered honestly, colourfully and occasionally hilariously' Lucy Mangan, Sunday Times A Year of Doing Good inspires the reader with the day-to-day journey of meaning, gratification and joy that comes from contributing to the lives of others in so many creative ways. For those who want to put "do unto others" in the centre of their lives and reap the unexpected benefits of happiness and health, this is the book for you. Elegantly written, the words jump off the page' Stephen G. Post, PhD, author of The Hidden Gifts of HelpingJudith O'Reilly is a writer and journalist. Her first book Wife in the North was based on her blog of the same name and was a bestseller. Her second book, a novel, is living in a drawer. Her third book is this one. She is married with three children, and for one year she tried to be good.
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest To Follow The Bible As Literally As Possible (Thorndike Core Ser.)
by A J JacobsAvoiding shellfish was easy. The stoning of adulterers proved a little more difficult - and potentially controversial. Was it enough to walk up to an adulterer and gently touch them with a stone? Even that could be grounds for accusations of assault, especially with female adulterers in Manhattan. So what's a good Bible-reading boy to do?Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in head first and attempt to obey the hundreds of less-publicized rules. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal, and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes.
A Year of Living Simply: The joys of a life less complicated (Kate Humble)
by Kate Humble'Simply wonderful.' - BEN FOGLE'Kate's book has the warmth and calming effect of a log fire and a glass of wine. Unknit your brow and let go. It's a treat.' - GARETH MALONE'Kate Humble pours her enviable knowledge into attainable goals. It's a winning combination and the prize - a life in balance with nature - is definitely worth claiming.' - LUCY SIEGLE'As ever, where Kate leads, I follow. She has made me reassess and reset.' - DAN SNOW'Kate Humble's new book is a lesson in moving on from a tragedy and finding our place in the world' - WOMAN & HOME'A Year of Living Simply is timely, given that the pandemic has forced most of us, in some way to simplify our lives, whether we planned to or not. Kate wrote it before any of us were aware of the upcoming crisis, but it captures the current moment perfectly... It's not necessarily a "how to" book, more of a "why not try?" approach.' - FRANCESCA BABB, MAIL ON SUNDAY YOU'What I particularly love is her philosophy for happiness, which is the subject of her new book, A Year of Living Simply. The clue is in the title. Remember the basics. Instead of barging through the day on autopilot, really stop to think about the tiniest little things that added a moment of joy. No, of course stopping and smelling the flowers won't cure all our ills and woes. But taking the time to savour the things that bring pleasure, really being in that moment and appreciating it, can remind you that most days have moments that buoy your mood.' - JO ELVIN, MAIL ON SUNDAY YOUIf there is one thing that most of us aspire to, it is, simply, to be happy. And yet attaining happiness has become, it appears, anything but simple. Having stuff - The Latest, The Newest, The Best Yet - is all too often peddled as the sure fire route to happiness. So why then, in our consumer-driven society, is depression, stress and anxiety ever more common, affecting every strata of society and every age, even, worryingly, the very young? Why is it, when we have so much, that many of us still feel we are missing something and the rush of pleasure when we buy something new turns so quickly into a feeling of emptiness, or purposelessness, or guilt?So what is the route to real, deep, long lasting happiness? Could it be that our lives have just become overly crowded, that we've lost sight of the things - the simple things - that give a sense of achievement, a feeling of joy or excitement? That make us happy. Do we need to take a step back, reprioritise? Do we need to make our lives more simple? Kate Humble's fresh and frank exploration of a stripped-back approach to life is uplifting, engaging and inspiring - and will help us all find balance and happiness every day.
The Year of Magical Thinking (Sparknotes Literature Guide Ser.)
by Joan DidionFrom one of America's iconic writers, a portrait of a marriage and a life – in good times and bad – that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. A stunning book of electric honesty and passion.
Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War
by Douglas R. Egerton"Egerton tells the story of the dissolution of the Union as it should be told, not from the perspective of those looking back on the crisis, but from the clouded vision of those who lived through it.†? -Carol Berkin, author of A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution and Civil War Wives In early 1860, pundits across America confidently predicted the election of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas in the coming presidential race. Douglas, after all, was a national figure, a renowned orator, and led the only party that bridged North and South. But his Democrats fractured over the issue of slavery, creating a splintered four-way race that opened the door for the upstart Republicans, exclusively Northern, to steal the Oval Office. Dark horse Abraham Lincoln-not the first choice even of his own party-won the presidency with a record-low share of the popular vote. His victory instantly triggered the secession crisis. With a historian's keen insight and a veteran political reporter's eye for detail, Douglas R. Egerton re-creates the cascade of unforeseen events that confounded political bosses, set North and South on the road to disunion, and put not Stephen Douglas but his greatest rival in the White House. Year of Meteors delivers a vibrant cast of characters-from the gifted, flawed Douglas to the Southern "fire-eaters,†? who gleefully sabotaged their own party, to the untested Abraham Lincoln-and a breakneck narrative of this most momentous year in American history.
The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-so-great Ones) Saved My Life
by Andy MillerA working father whose life no longer feels like his own discovers the transforming powers of great (and downright terrible) literature in this laugh-out-loud memoir.
The Year of the Buttered Cat: A Mostly True Story
by Lexi Haas Susan HaasA funny and empowering memoir from a girl with a severe form of cerebral palsy, for fans of Wonder and Out of My Mind. Includes 30 full color photos and a discussion guide, in print for the first time! When she was just a tiny baby, something terrible happened to Lexi. It left her with an out-of-control body and without a voice. Now, as a precocious, superhero-obsessed thirteen-year-old, Lexi is counting down the final 24 hours to a risky brain surgery that might help her talk or—dare she dream it?—to walk and use her hands. As surgery grows closer, Lexi finds an urgent, relentless need to share the story of the year in her life she calls The Year of the Buttered Cat. That year, on the verge of shutting out the rest of the world, Lexi began a gutsy and solitary quest to find her "missing" body… and she learns new ways to reach out to the world to save her friendships and uncover the startling truth about what happened to her as a baby. In the spirit of Wonder by R.J. Palacio and Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, here is a riveting story that offers empowering messages of friendship, family, and the art of redefining ourselves.
The Year of the Cat: A Love Story
by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett'A brave process of healing and self reconstruction' Observer'Simply one of the best writers working today. Here's to family, to glamour, and to love' Nell Frizzell, author of The Panic YearsI looked around at my flat, at the woodchip wallpaper and scuffed furniture, and realised that I did have a life after all. What it didn't have in it was a cat.When Rhiannon fell in love with, and eventually married her flatmate, she imagined they might one day move on. But this is London in the age of generation rent, and so they share their home with a succession of friends and strangers while saving for a life less makeshift. The desire for a baby is never far from the surface, but can she be sure that she will ever be free of the anxiety she has experienced since an attack in the street one night? And after a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother does she really want to devote herself to motherhood?Moving through the seasons over the course of lockdown, The Year of the Cat nimbly charts the way a kitten called Mackerel walked into Rhiannon's home and heart, and taught her to face down her fears and appreciate quite how much love she had to offer.'A superbly written, special book' Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road'Beautifully captures that liminal period before any life-changing decision' New Statesman
Year of the Cock: The Remarkable True Account of a Married Man Who Left His Wife and Paid the Price
by Alan WiederFrom a powerful new voice in nonfiction comes this electrifying chronicle of a married man who leaves his wife to pursue a carefree bachelorhood - only to plunge into an abyss of shame, regret, and penis envy. Thirty-year-old Alan Wieder has everything a man could possibly want: a nice home in L.A., a thriving Hollywood career, and to top it all off, a beautiful and adoring wife. Then one day in 2005 - the Year of the Rooster - he wakes up with questions: Have I settled down too soon? Am I consigned to a humdrum future of marriage, kiddies, home-cooked meals and hybrid SUVs? How the %&! did this happen to me? And just like that - after ten years in a committed relationship - Alan decides to walk out on his wife to pursue his fantasy of becoming a hardcore bachelor. Explaining very little, thinking even less, he dives into his exhilarating new single existence - buying a vintage Porsche, moving into a tastefully decorated bachelor pad, ignoring his wife, and bedding as many chicks as possible. However, to Alan's surprise and dismay, becoming a single dude also unleashes in him a torrent of crippling insecurities that he didn't even know he had. And soon, his would-be swingin' bachelorhood is cut short - very short - by a strange and shameful obsession that drives him to utter madness. Some men leave their wives only to discover that the grass isn't greener. What Alan Wieder discovers - about the perils of newfound freedom, and about his own fragile male psyche - is far more agonizing and wretched. In this riveting and brutally honest memoir, Alan recounts the true story of his impulsive, wild, and ultimately disastrous foray into bachelorhood. A tragicomic tale of betrayal, sexual (mis)adventure, and ultimately redemption, Year of the Cock marks the debut of a remarkably talented new writer.
The Year of the End: A Memoir of Marriage, Truth and Fiction
by Anne Theroux'Brave, honest, sad, funny, truthful and a striking insight into the reality of the literary life.' Nicholas Rankin, Writer and Broadcaster 18TH JANUARY 1990 Paul left today at 8am. We had been married just over 22 years. The previous evening we had gone out to eat at a local restaurant, where we drank champagne and reminisced. In a short story which he wrote about that final evening of a marriage, the central characters talk wittily and poignantly about the explorer Sir Richard Burton and the sad, misunderstood wife who burnt his books. The reality was different. ‘This memoir is based on the diary I kept during 1990, the year that my first marriage came to an end.’ After 22 years, spent across four continents, with two children – Louis and Marcel – in 1990 Anne and Paul Theroux decided to separate. For that year, Anne – later a professional relationship therapist herself – kept a diary, noting not only her day-to-day experiences as a busy freelance journalist and broadcaster, but the contrasts in her feelings between despairing grief and hope for a new future. With reflections on truth and fiction, literature and art, and the nature of marriage, alongside commentary on notable political and cultural events, and interviews with prominent writers of the time, including Kingsley Amis and Barbara Cartland, The Year of the End offers a unique insight into the unravelling of a relationship and the attempt to rebuild a life.