Growing Up Between Stops On The A Train

Jennifer Johnson is blessed with a beautiful singing voice but cursed with type 1 diabetes and stepparents who are intent on making life miserable. By seventeen, Jennifer leaves home. Determined, she kisses Colorado goodbye and sets off on a one-way trip to New York City where events set her on the rockiest road to dreams come true.

Twins Gail and Lynn loved being twins growing up. They were protective of each other, counted on each other, and always had a partner in sports. They signed an unwritten oath to never rat on each other. That means they never admitted to doing something wrong or wild and crazy. They either both confessed they were guilty, or both confessed to being innocent. Their bond and loyalty were unbreakable, which the average person does not understand. When in trouble, they became one person with a united front. It was never discussed, just understood.

Poverty and inequality have gained a new public presence in the United Kingdom. Literature, and particularly narrative literature, (re-)configures how people think, feel and behave in relation to poverty. This makes the analysis of poverty-themed fiction an important aspect in the new transdisciplinary field of poverty studies.

Rail By Request is an enthusiast’s personal story and tells how the author visited, photographed, and spent time at every request stop on mainland Britain. It also explains where his love of railways is rooted, why he began this odyssey and how it became a very different and important experience to him. Journeying across the whole railway map to capture these often ignored stops – not just for posterity, but for the journey. The lure of request stops and the practicalities of completing the journey to discover them, is the core of the story. Researching every request stop in Britain and planning how to get there and overcoming any difficulties, became a source of great satisfaction. Every stop is described and has at least one illustration. Some historical context to the stops is included, with current statistics. The story also shows how, he ticked off each stop, but unexpectedly found himself passing the time engaged in a form of railwayana mindfulness – allowing the world to rush past whilst being alive in the moment. It shows a calmer slower world does exist.

"It's in the nature of things that whole worlds disappear," writes the poet Robert Hass in the foreword to Jimmye Hillman's insightful memoir. "Their vanishings, more often than not, go unrecorded or pass into myth, just as they slip from the memory of the living." To ensure that the world of Jimmye Hillman's childhood in Greene County, Mississippi during the Great Depression doesn't slip away, he has gathered together accounts of his family and the other people of Old Washington village. There are humorous stories of hog hunting and heart-wrenching tales of poverty set against a rural backdrop shaded by the local social, religious, and political climate of the time. Jimmye and his family were subsistence farmers out of bare-bones necessity, decades before discussions about sustainability made such practices laudable. More than just childhood memories and a family saga, though, this book serves as a snapshot of the natural, historical, and linguistic details of the time and place. It is a remarkable record of Southern life. Observations loaded with detail uncover broader themes of work, family loyalty, and the politics of changing times. Hillman, now eighty-eight, went on to a distinguished career as an economist specializing in agriculture. He realizes the importance of his story as an example of the cultural history of the Deep South but allows readers to discover the significance on their own by witnessing the lives of a colorful cast of characters. Hogs, Mules, and Yellow Dogs is unique, a blend of humor and reflection, wisdom and sympathy--but it's also a hard-nosed look at the realities of living on a dirt farm in a vanished world.

Ever since Peter Gabriel fronted progressive rock band Genesis, journalists and academics alike have noted the importance of Gabriel's contribution to popular music. Gabriel secured his place in the annals of popular music history through his groundbreaking performances, the establishment of WOMAD and the Real World record label and for his political agenda. This collection documents and critically explores the most central themes found in Gabriel's work.