In a blend of intimate memoir and passionate advocacy, Nancy Mairs takes on the subject woven through all her writing: disability and its effect on life, work, and spirit.

The novel interrogates the dynamics of challenging relationships, betrayals, forgiveness, and healing. When the pressure of having a male child becomes overwhelming, Adaugo seeks for ways to save her failing marriage. She blames her husband's infidelity on her inadequacies. The many marital challenges she experiences seem to be machinations of her fate. Nothing seems to save her marriage but Adaugo's love for her daughters. Will she leave, or will she stay to fight for her marriage? She turns to God and finds strength, not just to move on, but to extend forgiveness to her husband.

Not nearly as provocative as the title would have you believe, Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down is the story of three guys attempting to make something of themselves in the world of comedy. Overly melodramatic at times, the Michael Rupert and Jerry Colker musical is entertaining and boasts a performance by Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame.

In 1948 Andrew Wyeth produced what would become one of the most iconic paintings in American art: a desolate landscape featuring a woman lying in a field, that he called "Christina's World." The woman in the painting, Christina Olson, lived in Cushing, Maine, where Wyeth and his wife kept a summer house. She suffered from polio, and was paralyzed from the waist down; Wyeth was moved to portray her when he saw her one day crawling through the field towards her house. "Christina's World" was to become one of the most well-loved and most scorned works of the twentieth century, igniting heated arguments about parochialism, sentimentality, kitsch and elitism that have continued to dog the art world and Wyeth's own reputation, even after the artist's death in 2009. An essay by MoMA curator Laura Hoptman revisits the genesis of the painting, discussing Wyeth's curious focus, over the course of his career, on a deliberately delimited range of subjects and exploring the mystery that continues to surround the enigmatic painting.

This book tells the story of William Davis Parker, a Radio Operator/Waist-Gunner on a B-24 heavy bomber in World War II. Stationed in the Southwest Pacific, his story is told through an almost day to day diary that he kept in the period March 1943 to February 1945. The early pages in the diary sketch in some detail the training phase during which Parker evolved from a young cadet in pilot training to a disciplined and skilled Radio Operator/Gunner. Here we experience with Parker his daily frustrations and disappointments, his ups and downs, the environment in which this training took place -- as well as the few simple pleasures that airmen-trainees enjoyed in the early 1940s. The major portion of the diary is devoted to a nine-month period from May 1944 to February 1945. In that time span, Parker was assigned to a B-24 crew in the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bomb Group, in the 13th Air Force. He was stationed at various times throughout the Southwest Pacific. His combat missions were flown from such places as Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands, Wakde and Noemfoor in New Guinea, and Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies. Targets bombed included such Japanese airfields and installations as those on Truk, Yap, Woleai, and others in New Guinea, Borneo and the Philippines. Waste Gunner also includes three papers by Ulmer, which flush out some of the stories in Parker's diary. " The Cisco Kid in World War II" focuses on one 5th Group B-24, the crew that flew it overseas, and the adventures of that crew during their combat tour. This paper provides a detailed understanding of the conditions of life in the Pacific during World War II. But it also reveals the spirit of airmen under very harsh conditions--a spirit that never wavered and had much to do with the success of our forces in that theater of war. The second paper, "A Tough Month for the 5th Group, November, 1944" briefly summarizes all the missions flown by the 5th group in November but focuses specifically on two that Ulmer flew, one on November 7th and one on November 16th. Parker also flew the November 7th strike. This paper provides considerable detail on that mission from official Mission Reports that were not available to Parker as he composed his diary. The third paper,"Balikpapan, The 5th Group's Shining Hour", is devoted to a single mission, one flown against Japanese oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo on September 30,1944. That strike is generally viewed as the most important mission flown by the 5th Group during World War II.It significantly reduced the ability of the Japanese to produce refined petroleum products for use in their Philippines campaign. It is thought to have saved many lives later and was of great assistance to MacArthur in his campaign to recapture the Philippines. Parker flew this mission but in his diary, he does not adequately describe the mission and its consequences for his crew. The deficiency may be due to the fact that returning from the target his plane crash-landed on an island 400 miles from base, earning him a purple heart and delaying his return for a week. The Balikpapan paper provides many more details about the planning and execution of this mission. A strong feature of the diary is the detailed account Parker gives for each of the 28 missions he flew during his combat period. These accounts provide an excellent picture of just what was taking place in Parker's plane while subject to intense flak and Japanese fighter attack. He tells us about the fear, joy, hubris, and other characteristics of the men in his crew (and other crews) under combat conditions. He also keeps us well-informed about life on the ground -- the frequent Japanese bombing raids on his bases, how air crewmen spent their time when not on a mission, and the interaction of

The incredible bestselling book from the author of No Barriers and The Adversity Advantage Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that would leave him blind by the age of thirteen. But Erik was determined to rise above this devastating disability and lead a fulfilling and exciting life. In this poignant and inspiring memoir, he shares his struggle to push past the limits imposed on him by his visual impairment-and by a seeing world. He speaks movingly of the role his family played in his battle to break through the barriers of blindness: the mother who prayed for the miracle that would restore her son's sight and the father who encouraged him to strive for that distant mountaintop. And he tells the story of his dream to climb the world's Seven Summits, and how he is turning that dream into astonishing reality (something fewer than a hundred mountaineers have done). From the snow-capped summit of McKinley to the towering peaks of Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro to the ultimate challenge, Mount Everest, this is a story about daring to dream in the face of impossible odds. It is about finding the courage to reach for that ultimate summit, and transforming your life into something truly miraculous. "An inspiration to other blind people and plenty of us folks who can see just fine."—Jon Krakauer, New York Times bestselling author of Into Thin Air

In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of art, and a voyage of self-discovery on the order of Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As Bouvier writes, “You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making—or unmaking—you.”

“She was part of the ‘stunt girl’ movement that was very important in the 1880s and 1890s as these big, mass-circulation yellow journalism papers came into the fore.” –Brooke Kroeger Around the World in Seventy-Two Days (1890) is a travel narrative by American investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Proposed as a recreation of the journey undertaken by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), Bly’s journey was covered in Joseph Pulitzer’s popular newspaper the New York World, inspiring countless others to attempt to surpass her record. At the time, readers at home were encouraged to estimate the hour and day of Bly’s arrival, and a popular board game was released in commemoration of her undertaking. Embarking from Hoboken, noted investigative journalist Nellie Bly began a voyage that would take her around the globe. Bringing only a change of clothes, money, and a small travel bag, Bly travelled by steamship and train through England, France—where she met Jules Verne—Italy, the Suez Canal, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. Sending progress reports via telegraph, she made small reports back home while recording her experiences for publication upon her return. Despite several setbacks due to travel delays in Asia, Bly managed to beat her estimated arrival time by several days despite making unplanned detours, such as visiting a Chinese leper colony, along the way. Unbeknownst to Bly, her trip had inspired Cosmopolitan’s Elizabeth Brisland to make a similar circumnavigation beginning on the exact day, launching a series of copycat adventures by ambitious voyagers over the next few decades. Despite being surrounded by this air of popularity and competition, however, Bly took care to make her journey worthwhile, showcasing her skill as a reporter and true pioneer of investigative journalism. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Nellie Bly’s Around the World in Seventy-Two Days is a classic work of American travel literature reimagined for modern readers.

A history of our time.