Rat Girl

Rat Girl
Author: Kristin Hersh
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2010-08-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1101459026

"One of the 25 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time” --Rolling Stone Magazine (#8) “Sensitive and emotionally raw… it’s also wildly funny”--The New York Times Book Review A powerfully original memoir of pregnancy and mental illness by the legendary founder of the seminal rock band Throwing Muses, 'a magnificently charged union of Sylvia Plath and Patti Smith' - The Guardian Kristin Hersh was a preternaturally bright teenager, starting college at fifteen and with her band, Throwing Muses, playing rock clubs she was too young to frequent. By the age of seventeen she was living in her car, unable to sleep for the torment of strange songs swimming around her head - the songs for which she is now known. But just as her band was taking off, Hersh was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Rat Girl chronicles the unraveling of a young woman's personality, culminating in a suicide attempt; and then her arduous yet inspiring recovery, her unplanned pregnancy at the age of 19, and the birth of her first son. Playful, vivid, and wonderfully warm, this is a visceral and brave memoir by a truly original performer, told in a truly original voice.

Paradoxical Undressing

Paradoxical Undressing
Author: Kristin Hersh
Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0857893017

Kristin Hersh was a preternaturally bright teenager, starting university at fifteen and with her band, Throwing Muses, playing rock clubs she was too young to frequent. By the age of seventeen she was living in her car, unable to sleep for the torment of strange songs swimming around her head - the songs for which she is now known. But just as her band was taking off, Hersh was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Paradoxical Undressing chronicles the unraveling of a young woman's personality, culminating in a suicide attempt; and then her arduous yet inspiring recovery, her unplanned pregnancy at the age of 19, and the birth of her first son. Playful, vivid, and wonderfully warm, this is a visceral and brave memoir by a truly original performer, told in a truly original voice.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
Author: Lynne Jonell
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (BYR)
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2008-09-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1466824662

Emmy was a good girl. At least she tried very hard to be good. She did her homework without being told. She ate all her vegetables, even the slimy ones. And she never talked back to her nanny, Miss Barmy, although it was almost impossible to keep quiet, some days. She really was a little too good. Which is why she liked to sit by the Rat. The Rat was not good at all . . . Hilarious, inventive, and irresistably rodent-friendly, Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat is a fantastic first novel from acclaimed picture book author Lynne Jonell.

Red Girl Rat Boy

Red Girl Rat Boy
Author: Cynthia Flood
Publisher: Biblioasis
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2013-09-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1927428424

A new collection from a noted feminist author and winner of the prestigious Journey Prize for short fiction.

Rat Pack Party Girl

Rat Pack Party Girl
Author: Jane McCormick
Publisher: Story Merchant Books
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2015-12-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9780996990813

Rat Pack Party Girl: From Prostitute to Women's Advocate is the gutsy and wrenching story of former Rat Pack high-roller and sex-trade survivor Jane McCormick. Not only does she reveal her 1960s sexcapades with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Vic Damone, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jerry Lewis, Bill Frawley and other celebrities, she also details her molestation by an abusive stepfather and the too-young marriage that led to her addiction to the "big money" of high-roller prostitution in Las Vegas. She survived a dangerous abortion, seedy silicone injections, years of pill popping, and the harassment of her abusive "old man," all on a long and hard journey down a road of self-discovery. At the end of that road, she was finally able to realize her self-worth and obtain what she wanted all along: happiness fueled by the discovery of her true sexual identity as a gay woman, which has resulted in the comfort of experiencing real love in her now twenty-two year relationship. McCormick tells her story not to titillate but to educate both women and men about the life of selling sex, and to help younger women decide not to enter prostitution, to show them that getting out is way harder than getting in, and to give hope for escape to those who've already fallen victim. She envisions changes in federal and local laws regarding the sex-trade industry as well as a place where prostituting women can find the refuge and the help they need to put their lives in order.

The Rat Prince

The Rat Prince
Author: Bridget Hodder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2016-08-23
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0374302146

The Rat Prince by Bridget Hodder is a funny and magical retelling of the Cinderella story from the point of view of one of her footmen, a rat! Before Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters moved into Lancastyr Manor she was known as the beautiful Lady Rose de Lancaster. Then her stepmother forced her to become a kitchen maid and renamed her. At first the rats of the manor figure her for a lack-wit and take pity on her by bringing her food and a special family heirloom. But when Cinderella's stepmother finds a way to prevent her from attending the ball, the rats join forces to help her. The night of the ball is filled with magic and secrets-not least of all who Lady Rose will choose as her Prince Charming. A Margaret Ferguson Book

The Girl from the Hermitage

The Girl from the Hermitage
Author: Molly Gartland
Publisher: Eye & Lightning Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2020-04-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1785631896

Galina was born into a world of horrors. So why does she mourn its passing? SHORTLISTED: Impress Prize LONGLISTED: Bath Novel Award LONGLISTED: Grindstone Novel Award It is December 1941, and eight-year-old Galina and her friend Vera are caught in the siege of Leningrad, eating soup made of wallpaper, with the occasional luxury of a dead rat. Galina's artist father Mikhail has been kept away from the front to help save the treasures of the Hermitage. Its cellars could now provide a safe haven, provided Mikhail can navigate the perils of a portrait commission from one of Stalin's colonels. Nearly forty years later, Galina herself is a teacher at the Leningrad Art Institute. What ought to be a celebratory weekend at her forest dacha turns sour when she makes an unwelcome discovery. The painting she embarks upon that day will hold a grim significance for the rest of her life, as the old Soviet Union makes way for the new Russia and Galina's familiar world changes out of all recognition. Warm, wise and utterly enthralling, Molly Gartland's debut novel guides us from the old communist world, with its obvious terrors and its more surprising comforts, into the glitz and bling of 21st-century St Petersburg. Galina's story is at once a compelling page-turner and an insightful meditation on ageing and nostalgia. 'A beautifully written book that takes you right into the characters' world. Highly recommended' LUCINDA HAWKSLEY

Breaking My Silence

Breaking My Silence
Author: Jane McCormick
Publisher: Breaking My Silence
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Prostitutes
ISBN: 9781604614770

Recounts her life as one of five or six top call girls in Las Vegas who were part of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack inner circle. Once known as Baby Jane, this great grandmother who lives in Vadnais Heights hopes that her story will help younger women decide not to enter prostitution and explains "that getting out is way harder than getting in."

Rat Rule 79

Rat Rule 79
Author: Rivka Galchen
Publisher: Restless Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-09-24
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 163206099X

From the New Yorker “20 Under 40” author of Atmospheric Disturbances comes a brain-twisting adventure story of a girl named Fred on a quest through a world of fantastical creatures, strange logic, and a powerful prejudice against growing up. Fred and her math-teacher mom are always on the move, and Fred is getting sick of it. She’s about to have yet another birthday in a new place without friends. On the eve of turning thirteen, Fred sees something strange in the living room: her mother, dressed for a party, standing in front of an enormous paper lantern—which she steps into and disappears. Fred follows her and finds herself in the Land of Impossibility—a loopily illogical place where time is outlawed, words carry dire consequences, and her unlikely allies are a depressed white elephant and a pugnacious mongoose mother of seventeen. With her new friends, Fred sets off in search of her mom, braving dungeons, Insult Fish, Fearsome Ferlings, and a mad Rat Queen. To succeed, the trio must find the solution to an ageless riddle. Gorgeously illustrated and reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Rivka Galchen’s Rat Rule 79 is an instant classic for curious readers of all ages.

An Embarrassment of Critch's

An Embarrassment of Critch's
Author: Mark Critch
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0735235104

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The heartfelt and hilarious story of beloved Canadian comedian Mark Critch's journey from Newfoundland to the national stage--and back home again. One of Mark Critch's earliest acting gigs was in a Newfoundland tourist production alongside a cast of displaced fishery workers. Since, he's found increasing opportunities to take his show on the road. In An Embarrassment of Critch's, the star of CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes revisits some of his career's--and the country's--biggest moments, revealing all the things you might not know happened along the way: A wishful rumour spread by Mark's father results in his big break; two bottles of Scotch nearly get him kicked out of a secret Canadian airbase in the United Arab Emirates; and for anyone wondering how to get an interview with the Prime Minister and Bono (yes, that Bono) on the same evening, Critch might recommend a journey to the 2003 Liberal Convention. Critch's top-secret access to all of the funniest behind-the-scenes moments involve many of the charismatic and notorious politicians we love to see blush, including fearless leaders Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, and Jean Chrétien, celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Robin Williams, and other colourful figures he's met over years of pulling off daring skits at home and abroad. Remember when MP Carolyn Parrish took her boot to George W. Bush's head in an interview? Or when Critch asked Justin Trudeau where the best place to smoke pot on Parliament Hill was before pulling out a joint for them to share? There's more to each of those stories than you know. Though Critch has spent years crisscrossing the country--and the globe--with the explicit aim of causing trouble everywhere he goes, like the best journeys, this one takes him right back home.