Broke Heart Blues: A Novel
Broke Heart Blues: A Novel

Author: Joyce Carol Oates

Publisher: Akashic Books

Published: 2024-10-01

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1636141943

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The much-anticipated reissue of a novel that is one of Joyce Carol Oates’s personal favorites among her oeuvre; featuring a new afterword by Oates IN THE HEART OF A LANGUID JULY, ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD JOHN REDDY HEART drives a traffic-stopping, salmon-colored Cadillac into the quiet upstate town of Willowsville, New York. His mother, Dahlia Heart, a blackjack dealer, has brought her family east from Las Vegas to claim the rambling mansion left to her by a wealthy suitor. But it is John Reddy—already growing into a heartbreaking hybrid of James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Elvis Presley—who will claim the town itself. It is John Reddy who will arouse the desire of Willowsville’s teenage girls and the worship of its boys, the fear and envy of its men, and the yearning of its women. And it is John Reddy who will capture the town’s soul forever on the night a prominent citizen is shot dead in Dahlia Heart’s bedroom—and a statewide manhunt sweeps Willowsville’s rebel outlaw into the realm of living myth. Over the course of thirty years, Broke Heart Blues charts the rise and fall—and the ultimate call to reckoning— of John Reddy Heart, through the myriad voices of those who find him their whipping boy, savior, dream lover, and confessor. At once a scathing indictment of the cultlike nature of fame and celebrity in America and a deeply moving mediation on human need and longing, the novel explores loneliness, and the profound price we pay for our desires and dreams.

Give My Poor Heart Ease
Give My Poor Heart Ease

Author: William Ferris

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2009-11-01

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 080789852X

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Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the musicians and their communities and including a CD of original music, the book features more than twenty interviews relating frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South. Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions--from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. Celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon, along with performers known best in their neighborhoods, express the full range of human and artistic experience--joyful and gritty, raw and painful. In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself.

Bill Wyman's [blues Odyssey]
Bill Wyman's [blues Odyssey]

Author: Bill Wyman

Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13:

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A history of the Blues genre and its celebrated musicians discusses how African-Americans expressed poverty, injustice, faith, and love in their music as they journeyed from southern plantations to northern cities.

Slow Dance Heartbreak Blues
Slow Dance Heartbreak Blues

Author: Arnold Adoff

Publisher:

Published: 1995-08-16

Total Pages: 88

ISBN-13:

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"Adoff addresses his poetry to modern, urban teens in a gritty, hip-hop style. He manages to create poetry from the universal concerns of love and loneliness, the specific teen concerns of acne and braces, and unpleasant realities like selling and taking drugs."--Booklist. "Telling, recognizable, and readable....Intriguing."--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

Book of Blues
Book of Blues

Author: Jack Kerouac

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1995-09-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1101548800

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Best known for his "Legend of Duluoz" novels, including On the Road and The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac is also an important poet. In these eight extended poems, Kerouac writes from the heart of experience in the music of language, employing the same instrumental blues form that he used to fullest effect in Mexico City Blues, his largely unheralded classic of postmodern literature. Edited by Kerouac himself, Book of Blues is an exuberant foray into language and consciousness, rich with imagery, propelled by rythm, and based in a reverent attentiveness to the moment. "In my system, the form of blues choruses is limited by the small page of the breastpocket notebook in which they are written, like the form of a set number of bars in a jazz blues chorus, and so sometimes the word-meaning can carry from one chorus into another, or not, just like the phrase-meaning can carry harmonically from one chorus to the other, or not, in jazz, so that, in these blues as in jazz, the form is determined by time, and by the musicians spontaneous phrasing & harmonizing with the beat of time as it waves & waves on by in measured choruses." —Jack Kerouac

Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's
Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's

Author: Tiffany Midge

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1496218051

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Why is there no Native woman David Sedaris? Or Native Anne Lamott? Humor categories in publishing are packed with books by funny women and humorous sociocultural-political commentary—but no Native women. There are presumably more important concerns in Indian Country. More important than humor? Among the Diné/Navajo, a ceremony is held in honor of a baby’s first laugh. While the context is different, it nonetheless reminds us that laughter is precious, even sacred. Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s is a powerful and compelling collection of Tiffany Midge’s musings on life, politics, and identity as a Native woman in America. Artfully blending sly humor, social commentary, and meditations on love and loss, Midge weaves short, stand-alone musings into a memoir that stares down colonialism while chastising hipsters for abusing pumpkin spice. She explains why she does not like pussy hats, mercilessly dismantles pretendians, and confesses her own struggles with white-bread privilege. Midge goes on to ponder Standing Rock, feminism, and a tweeting president, all while exploring her own complex identity and the loss of her mother. Employing humor as an act of resistance, these slices of life and matchless takes on urban-Indigenous identity disrupt the colonial narrative and provide commentary on popular culture, media, feminism, and the complications of identity, race, and politics.

Heart Takes the Stage
Heart Takes the Stage

Author: Steenz

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Published: 2022-05-03

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1524877980

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"Warm, funny, and a visual delight, Steenz's take on Heart of the City is next-level." –Dana Simpson, Phoebe and Her Unicorn This first book collection of Heart of the City comics by the strip’s new creator, Steenz, is packed with outstanding art, a diverse cast of characters, and engaging, positive storylines about friendship, pop culture, ghost stories, and a wide range of real-world issues. Heart Lamarr is a girl with big dreams who lives in Philadelphia with her single mom. She has her sights set on a life of theater, but she runs into plenty of drama off-stage, too. Luckily, her best friends Dean, Kat, and Charlotte form a stellar supporting cast to help Heart navigate the challenging world of school plays, cliques, rumors, and everything else middle school throws at them.

Suspect My Heart
Suspect My Heart

Author: Diane Wiggs

Publisher:

Published: 2020-09-18

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13:

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If love and hate are two sides of the same coin, murder could be a flip away. As prime suspect in her ex-husband's disappearance, single mother Lorna Doyle longs to trust CJ, the sexy cop, but the only one way to protect her children from the thugs sniffing around is to keep her cheating ex's secret.Homicide detective CJ Whittier has an ex-wife, perpetually disappointed parents, and a dead body. Of the three, he prefers the dead body. His teenage daughter is the only good thing in his life, until Lorna.With a high value stolen collectibles deal going down soon and a dead dealer in their quiet Minneapolis suburb, CJ rushes to find the victim's silent partner before the killer does. He can't shake the feeling there's a connection between his murder victim and Lorna's missing ex. His cop senses whisper Lorna's hiding something. Is she the killer or the next victim?With his head and heart at war, can he keep things professional while he seeks the truth?

Little Blues Book
Little Blues Book

Author: Brian Robertson

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9781565121379

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This little book transcends geographical, social, and economic boundaries to search the heart and soul of the blues, looking for rules to live by, hope for the downtrodden, cautionary tales for the good times, and truths that "hurt so good". Sometimes, you just gotta be blue. But, as this book goes to show, that's okay--because you're never alone.

South Carolina Blues
South Carolina Blues

Author: Clair DeLune

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2015-09-21

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1439653275

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The history of South Carolina blues is a long, deep--and sometimes painful--story. However, it is a narrative with aspects as compelling as the music itself. Geographical differences in America led to variations in the styles of music that developed from African rhythms. The wet, marshy landscape and hot, muggy weather of the Carolina Lowcountry combined to cultivate not only rice, but a Gullah-based style of South Carolina blues. In drier climates, toward the Midlands and the Upstate, the combination of European influences led to the emergence of Piedmont blues, which in turn spawned country music as well as bluegrass. Those same Gullah roots resulted in four major dance crazes, starting with the Charleston.