Momma S Lost Piano

"This memoir was composed after the author started having memories of events that occurred in his early lifetime, growing up in a gritty neighborhood in Depression-era Knoxville. The memories centered around his mother, Emily Merritt Madden, and her experiences dealing with poverty, a sometimes well-intentioned but never reliable husband, one son who ends up in prison and her other son, who later grows up to become one of Knoxville's greatest authors. The style of the manuscript mimics the way memories came to the author and, in some respects, the ways we recall the significant and insignificant events of our lives. The memoir is at once an intimate retelling of a fundamental relationship and a vivid evocation of an earlier place and time"--

When she is seventeen, Emily Merritt’s beloved father gives her the piano she has always wanted. A few days later, having lost his job, he sells Emily’s piano and moves the family out of its two-story house in Cleveland, Ohio, to his mother’s three-room house in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. The loss of her piano casts a shadow over Emily’s life in Knoxville, a city she could never love. Throughout the rest of her life, Emily longs to return to Cleveland, where she had an idyllic youth with many boyfriends and girlfriends and was, above all, a good piano student. Her life becomes like that of a nomad, moving from house to house and from job to job. Her great love of life is expressed by dancing in highway honky-tonks, along with her six beautiful girlfriends. After divorcing her lovable, alcoholic husband, Emily falls deeply in love with troubled married men. She doesn’t enjoy whiskey or smoking, but she’s not a churchgoer. She raises three boys in poverty. A fourth son dies soon after birth. Oldest Dickie becomes a life-long petty conman, but little brother John, known as “Sunshine,” becomes a legendary rescuer of wayward boys and girls. Jerry, the middle brother, becomes a merchant seaman, a soldier, and finally a professor and successful writer. Rather than a chronological narrative, Madden employs an impressionistic style that enables readers to experience Emily’s memories as he imagines them. In sharply focused scenes, Madden evokes the colorful expressions of the articulate, witty woman he has spent all his life listening to—and this memoir will inspire readers to listen eagerly, too.

This “melodious” mix of music, history, and travelogue “reveals a story inextricably linked to the drama of Russia itself . . . These pages sing like a symphony.” —The Wall Street Journal Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies, and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos—grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos traveled into this snowbound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers, and exiles. Siberian pianos have accomplished extraordinary feats, from the instrument that Maria Volkonsky, wife of an exiled Decembrist revolutionary, used to spread music east of the Urals, to those that brought reprieve to the Soviet Gulag. That these instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle. The Lost Pianos of Siberia follows Roberts on a three-year adventure as she tracks a number of instruments to find one whose history is definitively Siberian. Her journey reveals a desolate land inhabited by wild tigers and deeply shaped by its dark history, yet one that is also profoundly beautiful—and peppered with pianos. “An elegant and nuanced journey through literature, through history, through music, murder and incarceration and revolution, through snow and ice and remoteness, to discover the human face of Siberia. I loved this book.” —Paul Theroux

As a child, Laura Ingalls Wilder traveled across the prairie in a covered wagon. Her daughter, Rose, thought those stories might make a good book, and the two created the beloved Little House series. Sara Breedlove, the daughter of former slaves, wanted everything to be different for her own daughter, A'Lelia. Together they built a million-dollar beauty empire for women of color. Marie Curie became the first person in history to win two Nobel prizes in science. Inspired by her mother, Irène too became a scientist and Nobel prize winner. Borrowed Names is the story of these extraordinary mothers and daughters. Borrowed Names is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

In this deeply moving and wonderfully insightful novel, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb explores what can happen when one woman decides to reclaim her past-and her future-no matter where they lead. . . Madeline O'Shea tells people what to do with their lives. A renowned life coach, she inspires thousands of women through her thriving practice-exuding enviable confidence along with her stylish suits and sleek hair. But her confidence, just like her fashionable demeanor, is all a front. For decades, Madeline has lived in fear of her traumatic past becoming public. Now a reporter is reinvestigating the notorious crime that put Madeline's mother behind bars, threatening to destroy her elaborate façade. Only Madeline's sister, Annie, and their frail grandparents know about her childhood--but lately Madeline has reason to wonder if her grandparents also have a history they've been keeping from her. As the demons of the past swirl around her, a tough, handsome judge with a gentle heart is urging Madeline to have faith in him-and in herself. And as she allows her resistance to thaw, the pain she expects pales in comparison to the surprises headed straight to her door. With one bold, unprecedented move, Madeline O'Shea may just wake up out of the sadness and guilt that have kept her sleepwalking through life for so long-and discover that the worst thing that can happen is sometimes the very thing we desperately need. The First Day of the Rest of My Life is an eloquent and triumphant tale of a fierce act of love, a family's legacy, and one woman's awakening to her own power-with no secrets. . .. .

Since Sylvia Plath’s death in 1963, she has become the subject of a constant stream of books, biographies, and articles. She has been hailed as a groundbreaking poet for her starkly beautiful poems in Ariel and as a brilliant forerunner of the feminist coming-of-age novel in her semiautobiographical The Bell Jar. Each new biography has offered insight and sources with which to measure Plath’s life and influence. Sylvia Plath Day by Day, a two-volume series, offers a distillation of this data without the inherent bias of a narrative. Volume 1 commences with Plath’s birth in Boston in 1932, records her response to her elementary and high school years, her entry into Smith College, and her breakdown and suicide attempt, and ends on February 14, 1955, the day she wrote to Ruth Cohen, principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, to accept admission as an “affiliated student at Newnham College to read for the English Tripos.” Sylvia Plath Day by Day is for readers of all kinds with a wide variety of interests in the woman and her work. The entries are suitable for dipping into and can be read in a minute or an hour. Ranging over several sources, including Plath’s diaries, journals, letters, stories, and other prose and poetry—including new material and archived material rarely seen by readers—a fresh kaleidoscopic view of the writer emerges.

'A fantastic read. I was gripped and enthralled. Wonderful storytelling' JILL MANSELL 'Fascinating, moving, romantic and utterly gripping. I couldn't stop reading' KATIE FFORDE 'Readers will adore walking through occupied Paris in the footsteps of the brave. A fabulous story' MANDY ROBOTHAM 'A tense, heart-in-mouth story about courage in Occupied Paris, and secrets' GILL PAUL Inspired by true events, a heartwrenching story of lost love, danger and one woman's bravery in WWII, perfect for fans of My Name is Eva, The Shut Away Sisters and The Secret Messenger. _________ 'For a moment she closed her eyes and imagined she was perched on the diving board at the Piscine Molitor, the sun beating down on her bare shoulders and the sound of Parisians at play beneath her. All she had to do was jump.' 1941. Darkness descends over London as the sirens begin to howl and the bombs rain down. Devastation seeps from every crack of the city. In the midst of all the chaos is a woman gripping a window ledge on the first floor of a Baker Street hotel. She is perched, ready to jump. And as flames rise around her, she is forced to take her chances. 1997. Amy Novak has lost the two great loves in her life: her husband, Michael, and her first love, music. With the first anniversary of Michael's death approaching, Amy buries herself in her job as an archivist. And when a newly declassified file lands on her desk, she is astonished to uncover proof that 'Agent Colette' existed - a name spoken only in whispers; an identity so secret that it has never been verified. Her discovery leads her to MI6 'godmother' Verity Cooper - a woman with secrets of her own - and on to the streets of Paris where she will uncover a story of unimaginable choices, extraordinary courage and a love that will defy even the darkest days of World War Two . . . _________ What real readers are saying about The Lost Song of Paris: 'I loved this book - a perfect summer read' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Truly riveting... A heartwrenching story of love and the bravery and danger of those involved in espionage. A must-read in historical fiction' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Kept me turning the pages wanting to know what happens next' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Gripping...I loved the dual timeline' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'A great novel about the war...highly recommended' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHORS ADORE THE LOST SONG OF PARIS: 'The Lost Song of Paris takes you right into the beating heart of occupied France [and] shows us the best and worst of what it is to be human, and the redeeming power of love . . . heart-wrenching' Jane Bailey 'Sarah writes with a lyrical beauty. This is a novel you should not miss and is impossible to put down' Caroline Montague FIND OUT WHY READERS LOVE SARAH STEELE: 'A beautifully worked tale of bravery, woven into the reality of a time we can't forget' Mandy Robotham 'An emotional, beautifully constructed read. I loved the way the clues from the past and present slowly knitted together, answering the questions that had been missing their answers for so long' Jill Mansell 'Gripping, at times heartbreaking, but ultimately uplifting, I found this beautifully written novel impossible to put down' Katie Fforde