Kill ‘Em and Leave is a fascinating, gripping
biography of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. After performances, he never
partied. He got on his bus and left for the next venue, hence his motto: Kill
‘em and leave.
Brown was an extremely private, secretive person. Even those who
knew him well didn’t know much about him. McBride interviewed several dozen
folks who were close to Brown and pieces together a marvelous book. I could not
put it down.
'A formidable free-style book that isn't straight biography but a mix of history, street-level investigative reporting, hagiography, Deep South sociology, music criticism, memoir and some fiery preaching' Rolling Stone magazine
A Guardian best music book of 2016
The music of James Brown was almost a genre in its own right, and he was one of the biggest and most influential cultural figures of the twentieth century. But the singer known as the 'Hardest Working Man in Show Business' was also an immensely troubled, misunderstood and complicated man. Award-winning writer James McBride, himself a professional musician, has undertaken a journey of…
Demon
Copperhead is inspired by David Copperfield, but relocated to Appalachia where
Kingsolver has lived most of her life.
Demon, christened Damon, grows up in a
super-dysfunctional family and is pretty much on his own by age 10. Kingsolver
creates a character so real, so believable that you feel like you’re in the
hills of West Virginia working in a meth lab. But Demon retains his humanity
and survives just as Dickens’ David Copperfield did.
Demon Copperhead is a tour
de force that I believe is destined to become a classic novel of down-and-out
America on the order of Grapes of Wrath.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
As a young woman and mother
of three children, her owner subjected her to relentless sexual harassment, a
situation typical of the lot of female enslaved people. Jacobs resisted his
advances. Her owner threatened to sell her children if she refused to submit to
his insatiable sexual demands. One day she disappeared.
Enslavers searched for
her with guns and dogs but couldn’t find her. She had hidden in the cramped
attic of her grandmother’s cabin, a space only three feet high. She hid there
for seven years then was able to escape to the North, where her children had
already fled.
Her memoir is a gripping tale of survival that illuminated the
many horrors of slavery.
The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North. Written and published in 1861 after Jacobs' harrowing escape from a vile and predatory master, the memoir delivers a powerful and unflinching portrayal of the abuses and hypocrisy of the master-slave…
Sizzling Sex for Life
is an inclusive, sex-positive, entirely evidence-based, cradle-to-grave sex
guide, from the sexual implications of circumcision to the growing phenomenon
of partner sex in nursing homes. Eli Coleman, Ph.D., chair of the Human
Sexuality Program at University of Minnesota calls it “the most practical,
authoritative, comprehensive sexuality guide ever written.” Sizzling Sex
provides guidance on all common sexual issues throughout the lifespan: desire
differences, premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, trouble working up to
orgasm, exiting sexual ruts, and a great deal of information on pornography,
which is less harmful than many people believe. Sizzling Sex written by
a man for men but it emphasizes the many things most men don’t know—and need to
know—about women’s sexuality.
