![]() ![]() She often said that the constant support he gave her was the key to the longevity of their turbulent marriage. In the meantime, Loretta was also being a mama to their four (later to be six) kids. As she learned to play it and began writing songs, “Doo” unfailingly supported her, driving to local honky tonks and radio stations around the country (clocking 14,000 miles on their car) to promote her earliest records. On their anniversary in 1953, he gifted her with a $17 guitar. Married at 15 to a man she’d only known for a month, Loretta settled into life with her rowdy husband “Doolittle.” He cheated on her, drank too much – but he also believed deeply in her innate talent. The frilly long dresses she wore on stage masked a woman with a spine of steel. Hers was a voice and viewpoint borne from a gritty, hardscrabble life where women – especially those from rural areas like the Kentucky “holler” she hailed from – were simply expected to endure. ![]() ![]() She hated being called a feminist and had no use for “women’s lib” – but Loretta Lynn, who just passed away at 90, did more to give a voice to ordinary women than many artists of her time. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() It was only when he saw a paperback copy of The Lord of the Rings on sale in the local grocery store that he realised fantasy was a big thing and began work on The Belgariad. David Eddings tried to make a career as a writer, but his early attempts at contemporary fiction bombed. Both children were traumatised by their experiences.ĭavid and Leigh Eddings spent a year in jail in 1970, during which time they lost their jobs and relocated on release to Denver, Colorado. During the subsequent trial, exacting details of physical and emotional abuse emerged, with the children imprisoned in the cage for the slightest perceived disobedience and corporal punishment being regularly administered. The Eddings were arrested and the children removed into protective custody (subsequently their adoption of the children was revoked). In 1969, alerted by neighbours to the sounds of mistreatment at their South Dakota property, police arrived to find the adopted son locked in a cage in a dirty basement (the basement shared with several animals) and being beaten by his parents with a belt. ![]() They adopted a son in 1966 and a daughter several years later. The Belgariad, in particular, is often hailed as a formative post-Tolkien fantasy series, serving as a frequently-recommended gateway book for new and younger readers to the genre. David and Leigh Eddings were the co-authors of the Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium, Tamuli and Dreamers fantasy series, which cumulatively have sold almost 20 million copies. ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s hard to read a Fletch book without conjuring up this twit he played the character twice back in the eighties and now he’s linked forever in my mind with McDonald’s character. ![]() ![]() That is when he’s not “entertaining” his future mother-in-law and visiting with the good Inspector Flynn and his family.Ĭhevy Chase, with that smug, smirking frat boy face, almost ruined this book for me. With the police on his tail and a few other things to do beside prove his own innocence, Fletch makes himself at home in Boston, renting a van, painting it black, and breaking into a private art gallery. And Flynn wasn’t entirely convinced that the nineteenth-century Western artist Edgar Arthur Tharp really occupied most of Fletch’s thoughts. He wasn’t exactly uncooperative, but it wasn’t like he was entirely forthcoming either. Inspector Flynn found him a little glib for someone who seemed to be the only likely suspect in a pretty clear case of homicide. But when he arrives in his apartment to find a dead body, things start to get complicated. His Italian fiancée’s father had been kidnapped and presumably murdered, and Fletch is on the trail of a stolen art collection that is her only patrimony. The flight from Rome had been pleasant enough, even if the business he was on wasn’t exactly. ![]() ![]() Ultimately, Troop 6000 puts a different face on homelessness. And they will cheer when the girls sell their very first cookies. Readers will feel an instant connection and express joy when a family finally moves out of the shelter and into a permanent home, as well as the pain of the day-to-day life of homelessness. ![]() ![]() Stewart takes the reader with her as she paints intimate portraits of Giselle’s family and the others whom she met along the way. New York Times journalist Nikita Stewart embedded with Troop 6000 for more than a year, at the peak of New York City’s homelessness crisis in 2017, spending time with the girls and their families and witnessing both their triumphs and challenges. Having worked for the Girl Scouts earlier on, Giselle knew that these girls, including her own daughters, needed something they could be a part of, where they didn’t need to feel the shame or stigma of being homeless, but could instead develop skills and build a community that they could be proud of. ![]() Giselle Burgess, a young mother of five, and her children, along with others in the shelter, become the catalyst for Troop 6000. The extraordinary true story of the first Girl Scout troop designated for homeless girls – from the homeless families it brought together in Queens, New York, to the amazing citywide and countrywide responses it sparked. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This is his first book on the subject of climate change and I found “How To Avoid Climate Disaster” very accessible and conversational with all the information clearly set-out, and a good logical progression of his argument. Mr Gates has founded or backed many early stage climate-related ventures such as TerraPower (next generation fast breeder nuclear reactors), Carbon Engineering (direct air capture), and Memphis Meats (cultured meat). We are encouraging the development of new net-zero energy technologies, championing policies that speed innovation from lab to market, and bringing together governments, research institutions, private companies, and investors to expand and enhance clean-energy investment.” “Breakthrough Energy is a network of entities and initiatives, including investment funds, nonprofit and philanthropic programs, and policy efforts linked by a common commitment to scale the technologies we need to achieve a path to net zero emissions by 2050. Bill Gates has a long history of involvement with climate action through the Gates Foundation and more recently the Breakthrough Energy coalition, established in 2015 by Bill and private investors, which aims to support the transition to net-zero emissions. ![]() ![]() It was ten years after we had made the movie ‘Swallow & Amazons’ but the atmosphere and the camaraderie felt similar. You can see from our faces how everyone made the whole experience enjoyable. ![]() The eight-part drama serial was filmed over three months during long hot summer of 1983. It is almost thirty years since we made the BBC adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s books Coot Club and The Big Six on the Norfolk Broads. Caroline Downer, Rosemary Leach and Henry Dimbelby ![]() If you are interested in the BBC serial of ‘Coot Club’ and ‘The Big Six’, originally titled ‘Swallows and Amazons Forever’ please read on. Sophie Neville in ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974) by the film poster artist Arnaldo Putzu If you want to see what Sophie Neville, who played Titty Walker has been doing, please click here. You can read the first three chapters for free here Different editions of ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974) by Sophie Neville’ ![]() ![]() If you are interested in the cast of the 1974 movie ‘Swallows & Amazons’, you can find out more in the paperback or kindle edition of ‘The Making of SWALLOWS and AMAZONS’ or the £2.99 ebook ‘The Secrets of filming SWALLOWS & AMAZONS’ both by Sophie Neville who played Titty Walker. ![]() ![]() In 1953, Bradbury published Fahrenheit 451, which would become his most significant work. Published the following year, The Illustrated Man remains one of Bradbury’s most popular collections of short stories. Though he published several short stories in his early writing career, it was the publication of his first major novel, The Martian Chronicles, in 1950 that established his reputation in the writing community. He became a full-time writer in 1943 after it was determined he was ineligible for military service in World War II due to poor eyesight. ![]() Having never attended college, Bradbury would say he was a “student of life,” reading by day and writing by night. ![]() He published his first short story in 1938, the same year he graduated high school. Bradbury always knew he wanted to be a writer, penning his first short stories by the age of 11. ![]() ![]() ![]() So I wanted to compile all of our favorites into 1 post that you can use to help you and your employees feel inspired. The videos below have been used during Sensei’s, retreats, and a variety of planning sessions to help our team get in the zone and “crush it”. The impact these meetings have on the entire team is invaluable, and your company would benefit greatly from holding your own version of the “Sensei Session”. Most of our Sensei topics involve personal development, goal setting, nutrition, or productivity hacking, and almost all of them include a motivational video clip. These company-wide meetings are a way for our CEO to give company announcements and for anyone in the company to come up and give a presentation on something they’re really passionate about. Each Monday at noon, we hold a “Sensei Session”. One thing I believe our company does better than 95% of other companies is the way our leaders motivate the employees around them. As you take your seat for another Monday morning meeting, it’s likely that you look around the room and see a lot of unexcited faces. ![]() ![]() ![]() Whilst accepting these were as she remembered them but in certain chapters she inserts clearly researched events (eg Louis v Carnera) and uses them for her own ends (Louis was not World Champ at that point) The last third of the book rushes through teenage years and is somewhat ridiculous at times, particularly the pages of her driving a car for the first time for 50 miles of winding road only to subsequently have an accident when the car is parked in relatively safe surroundings. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous. The rape scene is excellently crafted though is sadly the only part of such high quality I was particularly unsettled by memories of the very young Angelou as to how such detail could be recalled. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. ![]() For such a respected author I felt it was quite badly written with an overly florid style I’m not a great reader of memoirs but this seemed be more a collection of dreams or short stories some of which were interesting and others were tedious and dull. ![]() ![]() The same is true of short stories from other lands we could name. ![]() In Russia, the short stories by writers like Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Zoshenko mark vital stages in literary development and still intrigue young readers. We Americans are not great lovers of the genre of short story. Yet, his international fame rests on one brief story, dashed off reportedly in two hours for an editor right before O’Henry was due to be fired! His own life was tumultuous, marked by troubles, struggles, and mixed success as an author. Henry (1862-1910) would say about our ongoing embrace of his thought-provoking story The Gift of the Magi, first published in 1905. It’s hard to know what American writer O. ![]() What if you wrote 600 short stories, but posterity remembers you for just one? Would you be pleased? ![]() |