Memoirs And Letters

On March 15, 1939, as Hitler's army rolled into Prague, Helen Waldstein's father snatched the last exit visa from a distracted clerk and fled with wife and child. Only letters from the rest of their family could follow as the Nazis closed in. Through the war years, letters kept coming to the southern Ontario farm where Helen's small family learned to speak English, to be Canadian farmers, and to forget they were Jewish. Helen did not notice when the letters stopped coming, but they surfaced intermittently until she couldn't ignore them anymore. Reading the letters changed everything. As her past refused to keep silent, Helen followed the trail of letters back to Europe to find living witnesses of what the letters related. She has here interwoven their stories and her own in an engrossing narrative of suffering and rescue, survivor guilt and overcoming obstacles to intergenerational dialogue about a traumatic past.

From the Governor General’s Award winning author of Forms of Devotion, Our Lady of the Lost and Found and By the Book “Never once in my life had I dreamed of being in bed with a convicted killer.” For almost six turbulent years, award-winning writer Diane Schoemperlen was involved with a prison inmate serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. The relationship surprised no one more than her. How do you fall in love with a man with a violent past? How do you date someone who is in prison? This Is Not My Life is the story of the romance between Diane and Shane—how they met and fell in love, how they navigated passes and parole and the obstacles facing a long-term prisoner attempting to return to society, and how, eventually, things fell apart. While no relationship takes place in a vacuum, this is never more true than when that relationship is with a federal inmate. In this candid, often wry, sometimes disturbing memoir, Schoemperlen takes us inside this complex and difficult relationship as she journeys through the prison system with Shane. Not only did this relationship enlarge her capacity for both empathy and compassion, but it also forced her to more deeply examine herself.

2020 Chautauqua Prize Finalist 2020 NAACP Image Award Nominee - Outstanding Literary Work (Nonfiction) Best-of Lists: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · 25 Can't-Miss Books of 2019 (The Undefeated) Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love—finding beauty and possibility in life—and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition. Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools. With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.

Longtime friends Helen Levine and Oonagh Berry decided they missed the tradition of "real" letters. The obvious solution for them was to initiate a correspondence project. Their goal? To write each other a longhand letter every two weeks for a year, and see what, if anything, they were missing in their usual friendship rituals of lunches, visits and telephone chats. The result is a wealth of insights yielded from over 150 years of combined life experience. Week in and week out, Helen and Oonagh weave together tales of family, work, politics, motherhood, aging and creativity. Reading Between Friends is like sharing a warm pot of tea with two frank, articulate and experienced companions.

This book "renders the singular arc of a woman's life through letters Mary-Louise Parker composes to the men, real and hypothetical, who have informed the person she is today. Beginning with the grandfather she never knew, the letters range from a missive to the beloved priest from her childhood to remembrances of former lovers to an homage to a firefighter she encountered to a heartfelt communication with the uncle of the infant daughter she adopted"--

An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn On a winter day in 1953, a mysterious man in a sheepskin coat stood out to Harriet Pattison, then a theater student at Yale. She would later learn he was the architect Louis Kahn (1901–1974). This chance encounter served as preamble to a fifteen-year romance, with Pattison becoming the architect’s closest confidante, his intellectual partner, and the mother of his only son. Here for the first time, Pattison recounts their passionate and sometimes searing relationship. Married and twenty-seven years her senior, Kahn sent her scores of letters—many from far-flung places—until his untimely death. This book weaves together Pattison’s own story with letters, postcards, telegrams, drawings, and photographs that reveal Kahn’s inner life and his architectural thought process, including new insight into some of his greatest works, both built and unbuilt. What emerges is at once a poignant love story and a vivid portrait of a young woman striving to raise a family while forging an artistic path in the shadow of her famous partner.

A New York Times bestseller For readers of Eat Pray Love, Under the Tuscan Sun, and The 4-Hour Workweek, comes a funny, romantic, and inspiring travel memoir about a woman who quits her job, moves to Paris, and finds love—and herself. Exhausted and on the verge of burnout, Janice MacLeod cuts back, saves up, and buys herself two years of freedom in Europe. In Paris, Janice meets Christophe, the cute butcher down the street—who doesn't speak English. They embark on a whirlwind Paris romance, and she soon realizes she can never return to the world of twelve-hour workdays. But her dwindling savings force her to find a way to fund her dreams again. So Janice turns to her three loves—words, art, and Christophe—to figure out a way to make her happily-ever-after in Paris last forever. Not only is this a charming nonfiction love story, but it's also filled with financial tips, including MacLeod's list of "100 Ways to Save," and other practical advice to make your dream of living abroad reality. Paris Letters invites you to experience the magic of Paris, find inspiration in Janice's journey, and perhaps, ignite your own quest for a life less ordinary. Praise for Paris Letters: "Janice MacLeod's charming Paris Letters takes us on her starry-eyed discovery of Paris, the joys of learning the French language, a unique career in art and, best of all, the romance of a lifetime! C'est bon!"—Lynne Martin, author of Home Sweet Anywhere "Written as though to a best friend telling her story over lattes—or café crème. Relatable and inspiring ... cleverly crafted with wit and unexpected wisdom"—New York Journal of Books "Aspirational fiction? No, a true story to inspire similar dreamers out there."—National Geographic's "Intelligent Travel" A wonderful gift for the armchair traveler, artist, and people who love to travel.