The Facts of Life

The Facts of Life
Author: Paula Knight
Publisher: Myriad Editions
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2017-03-06
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1908434767

'In her moving and sympathetic book, Paula Knight charts the emotional cost of the pursuit of motherhood and thoughtfully challenges the societal notion that to live a life without children is to live a lesser life.'— Aminatta Forna A clarion call to recognise that parenting isn't the be-all and end-all of family life, Paula Knight's extraordinarily powerful graphic memoir is a beautifully drawn, funny and sometimes painful exploration of what it takes to be a woman, and a mother—or not. In 1970s Northeast England, best friends Polly and April are sitting up a tree, whispering about periods and swapping their hazy knowledge of the facts of life. They both expect to have families one day—it's the normal script to follow, isn't it? But, as Polly grows up, education and career become important too, and she believes that she can have it all. When, some years later, Polly settles with Jack, her career has taken off and she feels torn over whether or not to try for a baby. Has she left it too late? Did she have any control over that choice? They go ahead, but, after repeated miscarriage and chronic illness take their toll, Polly and Jack have to face a very tough decision. As Polly looks back to discover the origins of her own expectations, she has to confront what family means in a society where 'family' usually means 'children'.

Putting Popular Music in Its Place

Putting Popular Music in Its Place
Author: Charles Hamm
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 1995
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780521028615

Essays on the context of popular music and its interrelationships with politics and ideology.

The Facts of Life

The Facts of Life
Author: Willie Nelson
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2009-03-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307523209

If you had to give America a voice, it’s been said more than once, that voice would be Willie Nelson’s. For more than fifty years, he’s taken the stuff of his life-the good and the bad-and made from it a body of work that has become a permanent part of our musical heritage and kept us company through the good and the bad of our own lives. Long before he became famous as a performer, Willie Nelson was known as a songwriter, keeping his young family afloat by writing songs-like “Crazy”-that other people turned into hits. So it’s fitting, and cause for celebration, that he has finally set down in his own words, a book that does justice to his great gifts as a storyteller. In The Facts of Life, Willie Nelson reflects on what has mattered to him in life and what hasn’t. He also tells some great dirty jokes. The result is a book as wise and hilarious as its author. It’s not meant to be taken seriously as an instruction manual for living-but you could do a lot worse.

The Facts of Life

The Facts of Life
Author: Anne McKenna
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1788032802

Despite describing an Irish-Scottish childhood in Glasgow during the 1930s Depression – in a period book-ended by two world wars – The Facts of Life is written in a charming and simple style with many amusing and memorable vignettes. As Anne grows into adolescence, the warm and loving relationship with her parents begins to grow dull and chafe as a new and exciting social life opens up in dancing, amateur dramatics and in the university campus. Although it is a personal intimate story of suburban family life in Scotland, it is of interest to parents and early educators the world over. Anne McKenna’s professional familiarity with child psychology, parent-child relations, education and cultural and religious practice permeates the narrative in a seamless and rich account of childhood. From this forthright and practical account, the reader will absorb much that is helpful in their own child rearing practice and preschool activities from the chapters on learning to read, folklore of children’s street games and how children learn the facts of life

The Ballad in American Popular Music

The Ballad in American Popular Music
Author: David Metzer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2017-09-21
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1107161525

The first book to explore the ballad's history and emotional appeal, surveying seventy years of the genre in modern America.

Firefly Lane

Firefly Lane
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2008-02-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429927844

From the New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . . now a #1 Netflix series! In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all—beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend. . . . For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship—jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test. Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone's Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it's the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you—and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you'll never forget . . . one you'll want to pass on to your best friend.

The International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002

The International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002
Author: Andy Gregory
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 666
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781857431612

TheInternational Who's Who in Popular Music 2002offers comprehensive biographical information covering the leading names on all aspects of popular music. It brings together the prominent names in pop music as well as the many emerging personalities in the industry, providing full biographical details on pop, rock, folk, jazz, dance, world and country artists. Over 5,000 biographical entries include major career details, concerts, recordings and compositions, honors and contact addresses. Wherever possible, information is obtained directly from the entrants to ensure accuracy and reliability. Appendices include details of record companies, management companies, agents and promoters. The reference also details publishers, festivals and events and other organizations involved with music.

Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 1

Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 1
Author: John Shepherd
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 833
Release: 2003-03-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 184714473X

The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music Volume 1 provides an overview of media, industry, and technology and its relationship to popular music. In 500 entries by 130 contributors from around the world, the volume explores the topic in two parts: Part I: Social and Cultural Dimensions, covers the social phenomena of relevance to the practice of popular music and Part II: The Industry, covers all aspects of the popular music industry, such as copyright, instrumental manufacture, management and marketing, record corporations, studios, companies, and labels. Entries include bibliographies, discographies and filmographies, and an extensive index is provided.

Popular Music: Popular music analysis

Popular Music: Popular music analysis
Author: Simon Frith
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2004
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780415332699

Popular music studies is a rapidly expanding field with changing emphases and agenda. This is a multi-volume resource for this area of study

News and the Human Interest Story

News and the Human Interest Story
Author: Helen MacGill Hughes
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2017-07-12
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1351503014

In this account of the growth of newspapers in modern, industrial society, Helen Hughes traces the development of a mass audience through analysis of the origins of the human interest story in the popular ballads of an earlier day. She shows how such commonly found interests as a taste for news of the town, ordinary gossip, and moving or gripping tales with a legendary or mythic quality have reflected the tastes of ordinary folk from the days of illiterate audiences to the present. She explains how these interests ultimately were combined with practical economic and political information to create the substance and demand for a popular press. In describing the rise and fall of newspaper empires, each with their special readership attractions, Hughes shows how technological innovation and idiosyncratic creativity were used by owners to capture and hold a reading audience. Once this audience developed, it could be fed a variety of messages—beamed at reinforcing and maintaining both general and specific publics—as well as a view of the world consonant with that of the publisher and major advertisers. Hughes offers a persuasive argument for the continuing viability of this method for combined social control, instruction, and amusement captured by the association of news and the human interest story.