When Montana and I Were Young: A Frontier Childhood (Women in the West)

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Lost for almost half a century and never before published, When Montana and I Were Young is a remarkable primary account of a child’s life in the early part of the twentieth century. Margaret Bell (1888–1982) was a rancher and horse breaker whose memoir tells the story of a frontier childhood on the high plains of Montana and Canada. Hers was not a typical childhood. Bell was barely seven when her mother died, and her stepfather, Hedge Wolfe, moved Bell and her three younger half-sisters far from their nurturing grandmother to the Canadian plains and a life of extreme poverty, hardship, and abuse.

Customer Reviews ::

Out of India: A Raj Childhood

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Born in India in 1937, Michael Foss's childhood was spent between the cold, grey austerity of Britain under threat, and the brightly lit and teeming vitality of wartime India. Here, beautifully evoked, is a childhood spent amongst grudging and unloving English relations; a sufferance of cruelly harsh schooling, a bleak, dank landscape; and a sense of permanent cold and a savage hunger even for dreadful food. All of this was suddenly changed for the sub-continent's jumble of conflicting sights and sounds and smells: the vital, stinking, hot, noisy, crowded streets; the calm, quiet grace of moghul architecture; the ancient Hindu kingdoms reduced to stones amid the roots of trees; the monumental Victorian buildings that echoed British power; the attitudes of the Raj; the self-conscious majesty and pomp. The British, the author notes, lived on but not in India. "Our rules for living were not their rules," he writes in this wry, affectionate reflection on a childhood spent between two continents, two civilizations, two versions of history.

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A Brother's Journey: Surviving a Childhood of Abuse

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- A Brother's Journey will appeal to the same audience that made #1 New York Times bestsellers of Dave Pelzer's popular novels: A Child Called "It" (Health Communications, 1995), The Lost Boy (Health Communications, 1997), and A Man Named Dave (E.P. Dutton, 1999), which have sold over six million copies combined. - There is a strong market for memoirs detailing traumatic experiences, as demonstrated by the success of A Million Little Pieces (Nan A. Talese, 4/03) and Running With Scissors (St. Martin's Press, 2002). - Subsidiary rights have already been sold in England and Japan. - Available as a Time Warner AudioBook.

• ISBN13: 9780446696333
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:

Customer Reviews ::

Interesting Perspective - C. Hulls - Brooklyn, NY
I'm a social worker so these type of stories interest me in how they show the human will to survive and deal with trauma. I of course enjoyed Dave Pelzer's books and this one is interesting in the fact that it gives you another perspective and experience from the same family. I recommend it.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

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A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year”
A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

• ISBN13: 9780375714573
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:

Customer Reviews ::

Forthright and heartbreaking - Ty B. Powers - Nashville, TN
This books begins my foray into graphic novels. The exact definition of a graphic novel is debatable, but Wikipedia defines it as "a type of comic book, usually with a lengthy and complex storyline similar to those of novels, and often aimed at mature audiences." Technically, this volume is a memoir, as it's the true story of author Marjane Satrapi's growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, told in comic-strip form. I figured, "Finally, a book that won't make me cry," but of course, I was wrong. Maybe I'm just a cry-baby.

Though it took me only a couple of hours to complete, it was mesmerizing. I found it unabashedly forthright and ultimately heartbreaking. I appreciated Satrapi's illustrations which, in their broad-stroked black-and-white simplicity, were a stark, yet appropriate, departure from what most people recognize as that highly anatomical, Batmanesque comic-book style. I look forward to reading the sequel "Persepolis: The Story of a Return," and also highly recommend the Oscar-nominated full-length animated feature film of the same name.