Little By Little

Scramble is a little otter who can't swim. At the beginning of the story, we find him in the middle of writing a list. It's his Can-do and Can't-do List. The Can't-do side just says 'Swimming'. One small word. But not being able to swim is a big deal for Scramble. It means he's teased by some of the riverbank animals. It means he feels left out when everyone else is in the water. And it means he spends hours and hours sitting on his own on the slippery rock wishing and wishing and wishing that he could. But something is going round in Scramble's head. Something his mummy has said. Something his older sister has said. 'You've got to start small' And so, slowly, slowly, Scramble builds his confidence in the water - overcoming each new incremental goal that he sets himself. Until, finally, Scramble really can swim! At the heart of this gentle story about learning a new skill is the message of encouragement - something that is important for toddlers everywhere.

“How did I become an impersonator? Perhaps my mother was conceived by a Zerox machine!” So, how did a kid from Ottawa, Canada, growing up in the ’50s become an impressionist? No one in our family had ever been in show business. No one ever had “show biz” yearnings. My father was a doctor. My mother was a housewife. So where did my desire to become an impressionist come from? I’ve often asked myself this question. I didn’t know the answer, but I did love the movies. As a boy, I would go every weekend, sometimes staying to see the show twice. Just going to the movies and getting so involved in the storytelling and the characters made me want to be that person up on the screen, never dreaming that I could turn it into a career. The glory days of Hollywood and their icons, like no other, have remained as indelible images in our hearts and minds for decades. I, like many, idolized these giants of the screen and comedy, but was so fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet, work with, and get to know many of them along the way during my career. From the genius of Jack Benny, the unmatched humor of George Burns, the debonair, handsome Cary Grant, the unforgettable John Wayne, the king of late night hosts Johnny Carson, and the former actor-turned-president Ronald Reagan to name a few. In this gem of a book are insights into the likes of many of these great people I’ve had the privilege and fortune to meet and imitate, shining new light on our beloved stars. This is really not a biography, but more of a humorous glimpse of the people I’ve impersonated and some of the funny stories that happened along the way.

"Eric, or Little by Little" is a book by Frederic W. Farrar, first published in 1858. The book deals with the descent into the moral depravity of a boy at a boarding school in the Victorian era. This is the story about how an originally pure boy loses his morals after being wrongfully punished or bullied. Yet, the author gives hope that the main character's fate may change if he learns to seek help from above.

This matchless account of a superb collection of New England country arts of the 17th through the 19th centuries tells the story of the collection and describes the joys, pitfalls, and philosophy of collecting with grace, humor, and great knowledge.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.