An Aussie soldier's diary of the first World War - by turns compelling, illuminating, funny, touching and sad - and absolutely unputdownable. Archie Albert Barwick was an enthusiastic young 24 year old when he joined the First AIF in late August 1914 - his service number was 914. When he learnt that he'd been accepted into the army, he was so happy he turned two somersaults for pure joy. this is his diary, that he kept throughout the war - from Cairo to Gallipoli, from Marseilles through to the terrible winter of 1916 in the Somme, from Ypres to Pozieres. He was wounded three times and sent back to the fighting, before finally travelling back home in December 1918.this diary is simply a treasure - vivid, alive, compelling. His description of the war is by turns down-to-earth, horrifying, illuminating, funny, touching and terribly sad. Yet his voice and personality shine through. In his diary, Archie describes someone as being 'merry & bright & never downhearted' and this could be a description of Archie himself. Readable, spirited and humming with life, In Great Spirits is a unique and incredibly moving tribute to the Australian character and the ANZAC spirit.
Traces the author's involvement with the Seagram Company, and his experiences and reflections as he learned the running of the business from the ground up.
What do such artists as Bob Marley, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nina Simone, and Sun Ra have in common? All created uniquely powerful musical art that had a profound effect on their audiences. Through their music and their lives they became forces for liberation, challenging the established order and inspiring people around the world to look at life in new ways. So great was their originality that to a large extent they created their own musical genres, and listeners claim the music leads them to a higher state of being. Great Spirits: Portraits of Life-Changing World Music Artists presents personal encounters with some of the most interesting and important musical artists of the past fifty years--Bob Marley, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nina Simone, Sun Ra, Augustus Pablo, the Neville Brothers, Yabby You, and Nadia Gamal. Based on the author's meetings and interviews with these giants, the pieces reveal the unique essence of each musician as a person, as an artist, and as a force for social change. Spanning the realms of jazz, blues, reggae, gospel, African, and Middle Eastern music, these artists epitomize musical creation at its highest level.
Prophets of the Great Spirit offers an in-depth look at the work of a diverse group of Native American visionaries who forged new, syncretic religious movements that provided their peoples with the ideological means to resist white domination. By blending ideas borrowed from Christianity with traditional beliefs, they transformed ?high? gods or a distant and aloof creator into a powerful, activist deity that came to be called the Great Spirit. These revitalization leaders sought to regain the favor of the Great Spirit through reforms within their societies and the inauguration of new ritual practices. Among the prophets included in this study are the Delaware Neolin, the Shawnee Tenkswatawa, the Creek ?Red Stick? prophets, the Seneca Handsome Lake, and the Kickapoo Kenekuk. Covering more than a century, from the early 1700s through the Kickapoo Indian removal of the Jacksonian Era, the prophets of the Great Spirit sometimes preached armed resistance but more often used nonviolent strategies to resist white cultural domination. Some prophets rejected virtually all aspects of Euro-American culture. Others sought to assure the survival of their culture through selective adaptation. Alfred A. Cave explains the conditions giving rise to the millenarian movements in detail and skillfully illuminates the key histories, personalities, and legacies of the movement. Weaving an array of sources into a compelling narrative, he captures the diversity of these prophets and their commitment to the common goal of Native American survival.
The locales of these stories range from California and Utah to Massachusetts and Vermont. The characters seek a paradise of one kind or another but have to make do with the world such as it is -- and all attendant twists and turns. Had this book a motto, it would be, Dont let the bastards grind you down. In The House of Great Spirit, the title story in this collection, the narrator lives in a small room in a big three-story red brick boarding house in Salt Lake City where the live-in-manager was Jon Severs. Already, only in his mid-twenties, lanky Severs had found his calling. It was his job to scold the tenants at Jack Mead's house in Mead's stead to bawl them out. On rent day he went room to room to collect money. If you didn't pay at once, he screwed his face up in a look of almost crushing contempt. Though there are also incidences of grace, courage, and joy along the way, things generally go from bad to worse. They say its always good to touch bottom, in order to start over again. A female narrator once married to the character Eben Anders, admits there were times I wished we'd never met. When we did first meet, I fell for him. She tells the story of how, as a younger man, Eben had found a treasure not only of money, but also of revelations. Finding himself in the role of prophet, Eben was denounced as a madman, liar, scoundrel, false prophet, and the rest. He'd be accused of witchcraft, wizardry, demonism, and Freemasonry, with a mind to eventual world subjugation. He'd even be called the living Anti-Christ. Dont kill the messenger, is all Eben would ever say to all of that. They say you cant win for losing. His ex-wife, having divorced Eben and renounced Ebenism, is now accused of destroying uncounted sacred privileges and worlds and futures. Shes having none of that. In With a View to The Sea, librarian Lars Donnelly tells the story of his voyage from his west coast roots to his marriage and years of parenting in the east. Lars had explained it to his wife, "I don't want my kids to be asking me in future years, 'What did you do in the Internet Revolution, daddy?' and have to tell them that I'd just played it safe. He proposes going, with his teenage son Sean, to an important conference, eBooks and Libraries, taking place in southern California, right on the oceanfront. They reached the convention center around half past eight, giving them plenty of time to take advantage of the free Continental Breakfast while hobnobbing, or not, with the growing throngs of librarians, library trustees, heads of library Friends groups, chief executive officers, directors of operations, product managers, senior and junior business development managers, senior and junior systems analysts, and a broad swath of consultants, hackers, geeks, and gawkers. And maybe a ghost from the past. They say what goes around comes around, but what could possibly go wrong?
An Aussie soldier's diary of the first World War - by turns compelling, illuminating, funny, touching and sad - and absolutely unputdownable. Archie Albert Barwick was an enthusiastic young 24 year old when he joined the First AIF in late August 1914 - his service number was 914. When he learnt that he'd been accepted into the army, he was so happy he turned two somersaults for pure joy. this is his diary, that he kept throughout the war - from Cairo to Gallipoli, from Marseilles through to the terrible winter of 1916 in the Somme, from Ypres to Pozieres. He was wounded three times and sent back to the fighting, before finally travelling back home in December 1918. this diary is simply a treasure - vivid, alive, compelling. His description of the war is by turns down-to-earth, horrifying, illuminating, funny, touching and terribly sad. Yet his voice and personality shine through. In his diary, Archie describes someone as being 'merry & bright & never downhearted' and this could be a description of Archie himself. Readable, spirited and humming with life, In Great Spirits is a unique and incredibly moving tribute to the Australian character and the ANZAC spirit.
With the recent burgeoning of microbreweries, home breweries, and boutique wineries, it's only a matter of time until people start home distillation. The technology has always been around, and the urge to put one's own label on a bottle of whiskey may prove overwhelming to some. So why aren't there any homemade whiskeys in the marketplace? For openers, it's against federal law. It's also dangerous. Stills create explosive gases. Logsdon yearns for a nation of amateur distillers. He recounts a family history of clandestine distilling, and he offers delightful tales and anecdotal histories of home brewers, wine makers, and distillers. Constructing a contrarian account of bootlegging during Prohibition, he makes booze smuggling a cottage industry rather than a gang-run criminal conspiracy. Both funny and serious, Logsdon's book will likely prove controversial, too, especially with those made uncomfortable by irony. - Mark Knoblauch; 240p-
Raise Your Spirits and Toast the Saints Recipe for a liturgically correct cocktail: mix Bartender’s Guide and Lives of the Saints, shake well, garnish with good cheer. Drinking with the Saintsis a concoction that both sinner and saint will savor. Michael Foley offers the faithful drinker witty and imaginative instruction on the appropriate libations for the seasons, feasts, and saints’ days of the Church year. · A guide to wine, beer, and spirits, including 38 original cocktails · Lively sketches of scores of saints, from the popular to the obscure · Tips on giving the perfect toast and on mixing the perfect drink · Even includes drinks for Lent!
I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For many years I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest it vanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinct to share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy and excitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite a romp. So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering. Kalish counts herself among the lucky of that era. She had caring grandparents who possessed—and valiantly tried to impose—all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers who inspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals ready to be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins from the farm across the way played as hard as they worked, running barefoot through the fields, as free and wild as they dared. Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world’s best head cheese (start by scrubbing the head of the pig until it is pink and clean), Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards. There was the unsurpassed flavor of tender new dandelion greens harvested as soon as the snow melted; the taste of crystal clear marble-sized balls of honey robbed from a bumblebee nest; the sweet smell from the body of a lamb sleeping on sun-warmed grass; and the magical quality of oat shocking under the light of a full harvest moon. Little Heathens offers a loving but realistic portrait of a “hearty-handshake Methodist” family that gave its members a remarkable legacy of kinship, kindness, and remembered pleasures. Recounted in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish’s memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the bleakest of times seem like “quite a romp.”
