Fierce

Fierce
Author: Barbara Robinette Moss
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1416590382

From the award-winning author of Change Me into Zeus's Daughter comes this compelling memoir about a single mother determined to break the patterns that she has been taught. Barbara Robinette Moss grew up in the red clay hills of Alabama, the fourth of eight children, in a childhood defined by close sibling alliances, staggering poverty, and uncommon abuse at the hands of her wild-eyed, charismatic, alcoholic father. In Fierce, Moss looks at what happens when a child of such a family grows up. At once poetic and plainspoken, Moss, a "powerful writer" (Chicago Tribune), paints a vivid, moving portrait of her persistent quest to reinvent her life and rebel against the rural indigence, addiction, and broken dreams she inherited from her parents. With warmth, insight, and candor, Moss tells the poignant story of finally leaving everything she knew in Alabama to fulfill her ambition to become an artist. It is an odyssey filled with gritty improvisation (bringing her son, Jason, to her night job to sleep on the floor), bittersweet pragmatism (filling her purse on a dinner date with shrimp, rolls, and even a doily, to bring home to a waiting eight-year-old), and staunch conviction and pride (chasing a mail carrier down the street to defend her use of food stamps). As with many other children of alcoholics, the legacy of her father's alcoholism catches up with Moss, and an abusive relationship -- an inheritance and addiction of its own sort -- threatens to destroy all that she has accomplished. But as Moss learns to cope with her anger and pain, parenthood helps her discover true strength. Ultimately, Fierce is a warm, honest, and triumphant story, from a writer celebrated for her Southern lyricism, about a woman determined to make it on her own -- to shrug off the handicaps of her childhood and raise her son responsibly and well.

Send the Alabamians

Send the Alabamians
Author: Nimrod Thompson Frazer
Publisher: University Alabama Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-06-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780817359799

Send the Alabamians recounts the story of the 167th Infantry Regiment of the WWI Rainbow Division from their recruitment to their valiant service on the bloody fields of eastern France in the climactic final months of World War I. To mark the centenary of World War I, Send the Alabamians tells the remarkable story of a division of Alabama recruits whose service Douglas MacArthur observed had not “been surpassed in military history.” The book borrows its title from a quip by American General Edward H. Plummer who commanded the young men during the inauspicious early days of their service. Impressed with their ferocity and esprit de corps but exasperated by their rambunctiousness, Plummer reportedly exclaimed: In time of war, send me all the Alabamians you can get, but in time of peace, for Lord’s sake, send them to somebody else! The ferocity of the Alabamians, so apt to get them in trouble at home, proved invaluable in the field. At the climactic Battle of Croix Rouge, the hot-blooded 167th exhibited unflinching valor and, in the face of machine guns, artillery shells, and poison gas, sustained casualty rates over 50 percent to dislodge and repel the deeply entrenched and heavily armed enemy. Relying on extensive primary sources such as journals, letters, and military reports, Frazer draws a vivid picture of the individual soldiers who served in this division, so often overlooked but critical to the war’s success. After Gettysburg, the Battle of Croix Rouge is the most significant military engagement to involve Alabama soldiers in the state’s history. Families and genealogists will value the full roster of the 167th that accompanies the text. Richly researched yet grippingly readable, Nimrod T. Frazer’s Send the Alabamians will delight those interested in WWI, the World Wars, Alabama history, or southern military history in general. Historians of the war, regimental historians, military history aficionados, and those interested in previously unexplored facets of Alabama history will prize this unique volume as well.

The Good Wife of Bath

The Good Wife of Bath
Author: Karen Brooks
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2021-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1489277447

In the middle ages, a poet told a story that mocked a strong woman. It became a literary classic. But what if the woman in question had a chance to tell her own version? Who would you believe? 'Brooks' mischievous retelling [of Chaucer's The Wife of Bath] dials up the feminist themes - and the fun - to 11.' The Canberra Times England, The Year of Our Lord, 1364 When married off aged 12 to an elderly farmer, Eleanor Cornfed, who's constantly told to seek redemption for her many sins, quickly realises it won't matter what she says or does, God is not on her side - or any poor woman's for that matter. But Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars. Both a lover and a fighter, she will not bow meekly to fate. Even if five marriages, several pilgrimages, many lovers, violence, mayhem and wildly divergent fortunes (that swoop up and down as if spinning on Fortuna's Wheel itself) do not for a peaceful life make. Aided and abetted by her trusty god-sibling Alyson, the counsel of one Geoffrey Chaucer, and a good head for business, Eleanor fights to protect those she loves from the vagaries of life, the character deficits of her many husbands, the brutalities of medieval England and her own fatal flaw... a lusty appreciation of mankind. All while continuing to pursue the one thing all women want - control of their own lives. This funny, picaresque, clever retelling of Chaucer's 'Wife of Bath' from The Canterbury Tales is a cutting assessment of what happens when male power is left to run unchecked, as well as a recasting of a literary classic that gives a maligned character her own voice, and allows her to tell her own (mostly) true story. 'Astonishingly good - an instant classic. Certes 'tis a tale for everywoman.' Tea Cooper, Bestselling International Author

82nd Airborne Division

82nd Airborne Division
Author: Steven J. Mrozek
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 206
Release: 1997
Genre: World War, 1939-1945
ISBN: 1563113643

Follow the All American Division from its activation in 1917 through campaigns in St. Mihiel, Anzio, Normandy, Holland, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, and Iraq. Includes more than 700 biographies of 82nd Airborne veterans, personal stories and roster, awards and decorations, five Medal of Honor recipients, a memorial section and index. Hundreds of photos show America's Guard of Honor in action for over 75 years.

Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama

Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama
Author: Walter Lynwood Fleming
Publisher: New York : Smith
Total Pages: 876
Release: 1905
Genre: History
ISBN:

Describes the society and the institutions that went down during the Civil War and Reconstruction and the internal conditions of Alabama during the war. Emphasizes the social and economic problems in the general situation, as well as the educational, religious, and industrial aspects of the period.

The Morse Dry Dock Dial

The Morse Dry Dock Dial
Author: Morse Dry Dock & Repair Co
Publisher:
Total Pages: 600
Release: 1918
Genre: Employees' magazines, newsletters, etc
ISBN:

Sermons, Addresses and Reminiscences and Important Correspondence

Sermons, Addresses and Reminiscences and Important Correspondence
Author: E. C. Morris
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2000
Genre: African American Baptists
ISBN:

A collection of sermons, addresses, question and answer formatted lessons, catechisms, and other documents addressed to the members and officers of the National Baptist Convention. There is a section containing biographical sketches of prominent Baptists, as well as an autobiographical sketch of Morris' life and works. The book contains a directory of ordained African-American ministers in the Southern states and territories.