Biographies & Memoirs - Books

Be Careful What You Ask for in Detriot

Biographies & Memoirs

As a kid, David used to always look up to drug dealers, pimps, and players because he thought that they had everything—money, cars, and whores. Even though he wanted to be a lawyer, he wanted to live like them, but his mother was not having that kind of life for him and his big brother, Mike. She raised them like middle class even though they were poor. Growing up, David never saw drugs, pimps, or players. It was not until David turned eighteen that he started to see drugs and prostitution after some guy had left David for dead because they were jealous of him for going to school and working and even trying to get a scholarship to college to play basketball. But his so-called best friend put a stop to that, and David’s whole life had changed. He became that person that he looked up to when he was a kid. He became one of the biggest drug dealers in Detroit and the state of Michigan. He kept the bad-ass killers, the biggest drug dealers and the most scandalous thieves around him. He felt that if they can’t get past him, nobody could. David got married even though he was married to the game and lived that kind of lifestyle. His wife didn’t really know David was in the game until after the wedding. They had the house he bought, the cars they drove, and the jewelry they wore. That’s when David started noticing her stealing money and depositing it into her own private credit union. He thought that she was putting it away for a rainy day, so he never said anything. It seemed like everybody was trying to steal from him—his family, his best friend, everybody except for his mother and father. But this was David’s way of keeping up with the game. It was David’s way of practicing for the people that were not family or friends. The people that were close to David wanted to bring him down and take over his little cartel. And his cousin did bring him down, sending David to federal prison. This story details the life of David Dean.

Die größten Eroberer und Herrscher des Altertums

Biographies & Memoirs

Die Anthologie 'Die größten Eroberer und Herrscher des Altertums' entfaltet ein lebendiges Panorama der Macht und Führungskunst antiker Herrscher. Diese Sammlung vereint eine beeindruckende Vielfalt literarischer Stile – von biografischen Skizzen und philosophischen Abhandlungen bis hin zu historischen Analysen. Sie hebt die weitreichenden Impulse hervor, die die antiken Führer auf das Weltgeschehen ausübten. Neben eindrucksvollen Werken von Johann Gustav Droysen und Ferdinand Gregorovius, die tiefgehende Einsichten in die Strategie und Diplomatie der damaligen Zeit bieten, finden sich auch klassische Texte von Sueton und Marc Aurel, die den Leser in den mittelbaren Dialog mit den Geistern der Antike versetzen. Die beteiligten Autoren repräsentieren eine beeindruckende Bandbreite geschichtlicher und philosophischer Perspektiven. Droysen und Gregorovius sind als bedeutende Historiker des 19. Jahrhunderts bekannt, deren Werke wesentlich dazu beigetragen haben, das historische Verständnis für die Machtstrukturen und sozialen Dynamiken des Altertums zu vertiefen. Sueton bietet als römischer Historiker des 2. Jahrhunderts lebendige Einblicke in die Lebensläufe der Cäsaren, während Marc Aurels philosophische Reflexionen als Kaiser-philosoph uns in die ethischen Dimensionen des Herrschens einführen. Gemeinsam bereichern diese Texte das Verständnis antiker Führungskonzeptionen und offenbaren die vielschichtigen Dimensionen der Macht. Leser, die diese Anthologie in die Hand nehmen, werden nicht nur eine spannende Entdeckungsreise durch die Welt der antiken Eroberer und Herrscher erleben, sondern auch von der immensen Bandbreite an Themen und Perspektiven profitieren, die in diesem Band versammelt sind. Diese Sammlung bietet eine einzigartige Gelegenheit, innerhalb eines Bandes die verschiedenen Facetten und Stile antiker Historiografie und Philosophie zu erkunden. Sie lädt dazu ein, den Dialog zwischen den Werken zu erfahren und das kulturelle und philosophische Erbe dieser prägenden Epochen zu reflektieren, was sowohl für Geschichtsinteressierte als auch für Liebhaber klassischer Literatur von unschätzbarem Wert ist.

Kasperle auf Burg Himmelhoch

Biographies & Memoirs

Kasperle auf Burg Himmelhoch Josephine Siebe, deutsche Redakteurin und Kinderbuchautorin (1870-1941) «Kasperle auf Burg Himmelhoch», von Josephine Siebe. Ein dynamisches Inhaltsverzeichnis ermöglicht den direkten Zugriff auf die verschiedenen Abschnitte. Inhaltsverzeichnis - Präsentation - Der Kasperlemann Erzählt - Bei Den Waldhausleuten - Kasperles Brief - Die Reise Nach Dem Schloss Der Gräfin Rosemarie - Die Ankunft - Hochzeit Und Reise - In Der Haubenschachtel - Die Erste Nacht Auf Burg Himmelhoch - Das Traurige Marlenchen - Eine Neue Freundin - Kasperles Krankheit - Es Geistert Im Schloss - Das Nest Auf Der Ulme - Das Traurige Marlenchen Lernt Lachen - Geh Zum Teufel

Memoiren – Geschichte meines Lebens. Gesamtausgabe

Biographies & Memoirs

Die "Memoiren" erzählen die Geschichte des Giacomo Casanova, von ihm selbst verfasst. Wer in diesem Roman eine Menge wolllüstiger Begebenheiten erwartet, wird nicht enttäuscht. Das Buch erzählt unverblümt von den erotischen Eroberungen des kompromisslosen Hedonisten. Nicht umsonst gilt Casanova als größter Verführer aller Zeiten. Sein Ruf eilte ihm voraus und öffnete ihm schon bald die Türen und Schöße sämtlicher Damen der feinen Gesellschaft. Selbst Katharina die Große soll seinem Charme erlegen sein. Aber die Geschichte von Casanovas Leben ist noch viel mehr als das. Er war nicht nur angeblicher Liebhaber der russischen Zarin und unzähliger anderer. Er besuchte alle wichtigen europäischen Höfe und Metropolen und traf auf viele bedeutende Persönlichkeiten seiner Zeit. Casanova lernte die Päpste Benedikt XIV. und Clemens XIII. kennen, sprach mit Friedrich dem Großen in Sanssouci, traf auf Jean-Jacques Rousseau und lieferte sich Wortgefechte mit Voltaire. Er verkehrte mit Da Ponte, Crébillon, von Haller, Winckelmann und Mengs. Und selbst mit Mozart soll er Kontakt gehabt haben, als dieser an seinem "Don Giovanni" arbeitete. In Polen duellierte er sich mit einem Adligen in Konkurrenz um eine Dame. Er war Flüchtling der Bleikammern Venedigs und Geheimagent der Inquisition. Giacomo Casanova war eine sprichwörtliche Legende. Seine unzähligen Abenteuergeschichten nehmen uns mit auf eine unvergleichliche Reise in die Zeit. Die Memoiren Casanovas mit dem Untertitel "Geschichte meines Lebens" zählen zur Weltliteratur und wurden in mehr als zwanzig Sprachen übersetzt. Das insgesamt etwa 5000 Seiten starke Werk ist trotz seines gewaltigen Umfangs kurzweilig und unterhaltsam, aber vor allem auch kulturhistorisch interessant: Landschaften, Städte und Personen des gesamteuropäischen 18. Jahrhunderts breiten sich vor unseren Augen aus.Und natürlich immer wieder: die Schenkel der Frauen, zwischen denen Casanova Glück und Erfüllung sucht. Begleiten wir den großen Abenteurer und Verführer auf seinen Reisen, und werfen wir einen Blick durch die Schlüssellöcher in die Salons und Boudoirs der feinen Gesellschaft des 18. Jahrhunderts. Nirgends sonst finden sich Spannung, Frivolität, Sinnlichkeit und philosophische Überlegungen in solch verdichteter Lebensbeschreibung. "Das ganze 18. Jahrhundert tummelt sich in seinen Memoiren und lacht, und räsoniert, und hurt, in keinem anderen Buch ist es so lebendig, so deutlich, so zum Riechen, Fühlen, Schmecken nah." (Hermann Kesten)

Devoirs et Délices. Une vie de passeur

Biographies & Memoirs

On fait tout pour son ami comme pour soi, non par devoir mais par délice, écrivait Rousseau. A d'autres moments, le devoir s'impose, alors que le délice est absent. De l'un à l'autre oscille notre vie à tous. "Personnage plutôt discret, Tzvetan Todorov intervient rarement pour commenter l'actualité du moment mais, par son itinéraire et ses thèmes de prédilection, il se trouve au carrefour de bien de nos interrogations contemporaines. Plus français que nombre de nos intellectuels par l'héritage qu'il assume, il est aussi le plus européen et, ce que l'on sait peu, parmi les auteurs les plus traduits dans le monde. Il défend un humanisme critique, débarrassé de la bigoterie bien-pensante des charitables." "Au fur et à mesure que nous avancions dans nos entretiens, je me suis aperçu que j'avais mené une vie de passeur de plus d'une façon : après avoir traversé moi-même les frontières, j'essayais d'en faciliter le passage à d'autres. Frontières d'abord entre pays, langues, cultures ; ensuite entre domaines d'étude dans le champ des sciences humaines. Mais frontières aussi entre le banal et l'essentiel, le quotidien et le sublime, la vie matérielle et la vie de l'esprit. Dans les débats, j'aspire au rôle de médiateur. Le manichéisme et les rideaux de fer sont ce que j'aime le moins."

Life, Explorations and Public Services of John Charles Fremont

Biographies & Memoirs

This work describes the life of John Charles Frémont, the American explorer, military officer and governor of Arizona from 1878?1881. Frémont helped to incorporate the city of Phoenix in 1881.

Der Wendepunkt

Biographies & Memoirs

Diese Autobiographie erschien zuerst, 1944, in englischer Sprache unter dem Titel »The Turning Point«. Das vorliegende Buch ist eine erweiterte Fassung, die der Autor selbst in deutscher Sprache schrieb.

Confessions, Revised and Updated

Biographies & Memoirs

Matthew Fox's stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author's continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in the Catholic church. Instead of living out his vows as a Dominican brother Matthew Fox was expelled from the Order after 34 years by Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. Fox took this as a warning from the Church that henceforth thinkers should not think, but get in line. It is from this anti-intellectual, inquisition-style mentality that the cover-up of priestly pedophilia also grew as the Vatican appointed several generations of bishops and cardinals whose only criterion for selection was that they be uncritical yes-men. Confessions tells the inside story of what it was like "standing in front of the train" when the Vatican was on the attack. It also reflects on the meaning of the encouragingly healthy papacy of Pope Francis, but holds little hope for the institutional church. Rather, this book points to the main interest and accomplishments of the author's work to bring spirituality and prophetic warriorhood alive again in society and religion. Fox draws inspiration from great mystics of the past, such as Hildegard of Bingen (a champion of the Divine Feminine) and Meister Eckhart (a profoundly mystical and ecumenical champion of those without a voice), and the return of the archetype of the Cosmic Christ alongside the teachings of the historical Jesus and the bringing forth of the wisdom traditions from all the world's spiritual traditions to stand up for eco-justice, gender justice, economic justice and social justice.

You Can't Please All

Biographies & Memoirs

A new memoir from renowned political activist and author of Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the SixtiesThe revolutionary upsurge of 1968–1975 jump-hopped continents with ease but finally petered out. What happened after is the subject of You Can’t Please All. Tariq Ali recounts a life committed to writing and cultural interventions. An eyewitness in Moscow to the fall of the Soviet Union, he was caught up in the intellectual excitement that had gripped the country. In Porto Alegre, Hugo Chávez invited him to visit Caracas, and the two men developed a striking friendship.Post-2001, as a founding member of the Stop the War Coalition, he became a fierce critic of the War on Terror, visiting many US cities with surprising regularity to engage in debate and discussion, inaugurating a new phase of political activism. Evident in his work is the integral part politics plays in his life. He is one of the most sought-after socialist and anti-imperialist public intellectuals on most continents.Underlying the narrative is a chain of anecdotes, reflections, jottings and storytelling. The book explores his work for the theatre and film, as well as his fiction, including the acclaimed Islam Quintet. There are pen portraits of friends and comrades such as Edward Said, Derek Jarman, Richard Ingrams, Benazir Bhutto, Mary-Kay Wilmers, and the intellectuals who founded and relaunched New Left Review: E. P. Thompson, Perry Anderson and Robin Blackburn.The book also contains a moving family portrait, describing how his parents met and lived during the early years of Pakistan.

Marlene Dietrich

Biographies & Memoirs

Auszug: ''Eine junge Deutsche, ein Berliner Kind, ist der Film-Stern von Hollywood und New York geworden. Flugzeuge mit ihrem Namen in Riesenlettern überfliegen die Köpfe in U.S.A. In Schlagzeilen und langen Spalten verkünden die amerikanischen Zeitungen, was irgend von den Triumphen dieser Frau zu berichten, was von ihrem Privatleben, ihren Meinungen und Erlebnissen zu erfragen ist. In Paris wird der Film, der in Europa ihren Ruhm begründet hat – in Amerika begründete ihn Marokko – mit deutschem Text vorgeführt. Und die Franzosen, die sonst ausländischem Künstlertum gegenüber bei aller Anerkennung eine gewisse ihnen natürliche Zurückhaltung bewahren und an seinen Leistungen gern betonen, was speziell und fremdartig ist und sie vom Französischen unterscheidet, bewundern und preisen an dieser Frau die Frau schlechthin, das Weib, das in zeitgenössischer Form sein Urwesen offenbart. Diesem plötzlichen, in seiner Art einzigen Ruhm in der weiten Welt entspricht die heimische Wirkung: In der kleinsten deutschen Provinzstadt spielen die Grammophone immer wieder das Lied von der, die »von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt« ist, und sowohl sittsame wie leichtfertige Frauen finden in Wort und Klang dieses Liedes ihr eigentliches Wesen wieder.

Summer

Biographies & Memoirs

The grand finale of Karl Ove Knausgaard's masterful and intensely-personal series about the four seasons, illustrated with paintings by the great German artist Anselm Kiefer2 June--It is completely dark out now. It is twenty-three minutes to midnight and you have already slept for four hours. What you will dream of tonight, no one will ever know. Even if you were to remember it when you wake up, you wouldn't have a language in which to communicate it to us, nor do I think that you quite understand what dreams are, I think that is still undefined for you, that your thoughts haven't grasped it yet, and that it therefore lies within that strange zone where it neither exists nor doesn't exist.The conclusion to one of the most extraordinary and original literary projects in recent years, Summer once again intersperses short vividly descriptive essays with emotionally-raw diary entries addressed directly to Knausgaard's newborn daughter. Writing more expansively and, if it is possible, even more intimately and unguardedly than in the previous three volumes, he mines with new depth his difficult memories of his childhood and fraught relationship with his own father. Documenting his family's life in rural Sweden and reflecting on a characteristically eclectic array of subjects--mosquitoes, barbeques, cynicism, and skin, to name just a few--he braids the various threads of the previous volumes into a moving conclusion. At his most voluminous since My Struggle, his epic sensational series, Knausgaard writes for his daughter, striving to make ready and give meaning to a world at once indifferent and achingly beautiful. In his hands, the overwhelming joys and insoluble pains of family and parenthood come alive with uncommon feeling.

The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Biographies & Memoirs

Truth spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Legislature against capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and lectures, but she had many friends and staunch support among many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony. Truth started dictating her memoirs to her friend Olive Gilbert, and in 1850 William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.

Listening Well

Biographies & Memoirs

From New York Times bestselling author Heather Morris comes the memoir of a life of listening to others.In Listening Well, Heather will explore her extraordinary talents as a listener—a skill she employed when she first met Lale Sokolov, the tattooist at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the inspiration for her bestselling novel. It was this ability that led Lale to entrust Heather with his story, which she told in her novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz and the bestselling follow up, Cilka's Journey.Now Heather shares the story behind her inspirational writing journey and the defining experiences of her life, including her profound friendship with Lale, and explores how she learned to really listen to the stories people told her—skills she believes we can all learn."Stories are what connect us and remind us that hope is always possible."—Heather Morris

Written in the Waters

Biographies & Memoirs

This searing memoir by a National Geographic explorer recounts one woman's epic journey to trace the global slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean—and find her place in the world. For fans of adventurous women’s memoirs like Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped. When Tara Roberts first caught sight of a photograph at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History depicting the underwater archaeology group Diving With a Purpose, it called out to her. Here were Black women and men strapping on masks, fins, and tanks to explore Atlantic Ocean waters along the coastlines of Africa, North America, and Central America, seeking the wrecks of slave ships long lost in time. Inspired, Roberts joined them—and started on a path of discovery more challenging and personal than she could ever have imagined.In this lush and lyrical memoir, she tells a story of exploration and reckoning that takes her from her home in Washington, D.C., to an exotic array of locales: Thailand and Sri Lanka, Mozambique, South Africa, Senegal, Benin, Costa Rica, and St. Croix. The journey connects her with other divers, scholars, and archaeologists, offering a unique way of understanding the 12.5 million souls carried away from their African homeland to enslavement on other continents. But for Roberts, the journey is also intensely personal. Inspired by the descendants of those who lost their lives during the Middle Passage, she decides to plumb her own family history and life as a Black woman to help make sense of her own identity.Complex and unflinchingly authentic, this deeply moving narrative heralds an important new voice in literature that will open minds and hearts everywhere.

"Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit"

Biographies & Memoirs

"Ma mère a été atteinte de la maladie d'Alzheimer au début des années 80 et placée dans une maison de retraite. Quand je revenais de mes visites, il fallait que j'écrive sur elle, son corps, ses paroles, le lieu où elle se trouvait. Je ne savais pas que ce journal me conduirait vers sa mort, en 86." Annie Ernaux.

Is The Young Man Absalom Safe?

Biographies & Memoirs

The story of Absalom's rebellion had been guided by favour or flattery, the fact would have been suppressed or at least toned down, that the King's first word to the breathless messenger who brings tidings of the victory which has saved his crown is this, Is the young man Absalom safe? It is natural, it is human, it is fatherly, it is pathetic and beautiful, but it is not heroic. This young man Absalom comes upon the page a few chapters back, and gathers upon his name quickly the dark stain of murder. It is true he has received most awful provocation, and the victim of that crime has little of our sympathy. But there is no sign of penitence or of sorrow in the mind of Absalom for this deep offence, by which he has violated God's most holy law. His course runs on; it is a selfish, wilful, violent, and graceless course, unredeemed, as far as we can see, by any trace of better things. And it ends in base rebellion against the throne and life of the father who had shown to this son more favour and affection than to any of the rest. And the king fled before Absalom and went over Jordan, and the rebel host followed, and there was a great battle.

Heimliches Berlin

Biographies & Memoirs

Franz Hessels Novelle über das schillernde Berlin der goldenen Zwanziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts. Auszug: ''Bis zum Frühjahr 1924 lebte in Berlin ein junger Mensch, dessen Erscheinung die Männer und Frauen seines Bereiches erfreute, ohne dass sie seinem Wesen tiefer nachforschten. Erst als er fortging, erregte er bei einigen ein schwer zu erklärendes Abschiedsweh. Bei denen ändert sich jetzt Miene und Tonfall, wenn sie von ihm sprechen, sie denken oft an ihn und ordnen ihn in Zusammenhänge und Schicksale ein, die er kaum gestreift hat. Unvergesslich ist Wendelins Auftreten in der Galauniform seines Urgroßvaters, des Kammerherrn von Domrau, an dem Abend bei Margot kurz vor seiner Abreise. Margot hatte gebeten, man solle sich verkleiden. Das hatten aber nur einige von den Frauen ernst genommen, von den Männern außer Wendelin keiner. Zwischen den dunklen Tuchen und bunten Seiden wirkte sein soldatisch eng anliegender Rock mit dem verschossenen Braunrot, wie man es nur noch in alten handkolorierten Kinderbüchern findet, farbiger als alles umher; in den engen weißen Hosen, die mit Stegen um die Schuhe griffen, schienen seine Beine nicht durchaus auf dem Boden, sondern beim Gehen und Tanzen in einer Luftschicht zu enden, beim Stillstehen wie auf einem Zinnsoldatenbrettchen zu ruhen. Der hohe Tressenkragen vermehrte die schüchterne Noblesse seiner Haltung und trennte schwertscharf den rotblonden hellhäutigen Kopf vom Rumpfe.

From Crack To Gary

Biographies & Memoirs

No one has said life is easybut for some, life seems to be so much harder than it is for others. If you are one whose life is difficult, it can seem as though it will never get better.In his memoir, From Crack to Gary: My Journey to Our Savior, Jesus Christ, author Gary Thomas shows that does not have to be the case. Thomas shares his personal story of rising from a difficult childhood to become one of God's beloved. Despite the troubles that Thomas faced, God had his hand in his life and saved him from several dangerous situations. God covered him with his mercy and grace, and He can do the same for you.From Crack to Gary: My Journey to Our Savior, Jesus Christ also teaches and demonstrates how anyone can be delivered from worldly sins and live their life for Jesus Christ. God can transform your mind to be more like Jesus Christ, so you will know about his loving arms that surround us every minute of every day.

George Bernard Shaw: His Plays

Biographies & Memoirs

Arms and the Man,” on its face, is a military satire, not unrelated to “A Milk White Flag,” and Shaw himself hints that he tried to keep it within the sphere of popular comprehension, but under the burlesque and surface wit there lies an idea that the author later elaborated in “Man and Superman.” This idea concerns the relationship of the sexes and particularly the matter of mating. Ninety-nine men in every hundred, when they go a-courting, fancy that they are the aggressors in the ancient game and rather pride themselves upon their enterprise and their daring. Hence we find Don Juan a popular hero. As a matter of fact, says Shaw, it is the woman that ordinarily makes the first advances and the woman that lures, forces, or drags the man on to the climax of marriage. You will find this theory set forth in detail in the preface of “Man and Superman” and elaborated in the play itself. In “Arms and the Man” it is overshadowed by the satire, but even a casual study of the drama will reveal its outlines. The scene of “Arms and the Man” is a small town in Bulgaria and the time is the winter of the Balkan War, 1885–6. Captain Bluntschli, the hero, is a Swiss soldier of fortune, who takes service with the Servians because war is his trade and Servia happens to be nearer his home than Bulgaria. A machine gun detachment under his command is overwhelmed by a sudden and unscientific charge of blundering Bulgarian horsemen, and he swiftly takes to the woods, being little desirous of shedding his blood unnecessarily. He and his comrades are pursued by Bulgarians bent upon finishing them, and, passing through a small town at night at a gallop, he shins up a rainspout and takes refuge in the bed-chamber of a young woman, Raina Petkoff, the daughter of a Bulgarian officer. The ensuing scene between the two is a masterpiece of comedy and Richard Mansfield’s performances of the play have made it familiar to most American theater-goers. Bluntschli, as Shaw depicts him, is a soldier entirely devoid of the heroics associated in the popular imagination with men of war. He has no yearning to die for his country or any other country, and, after bullying his unwilling hostess with an unloaded revolver, he frankly confesses that he is hungry and sleepy, and that, as a general proposition, he prefers a good dinner to a forlorn hope. She is a young woman suffering from much romanticism and undigested French fiction, and very naturally she is tremendously astonished. Her heavy-eyed intruder, as a matter of fact, fairly appals her. His common-sense seems idiocy and his callous realism sacrilege. But, nevertheless, the theatricality of his appearance makes an overwhelming appeal to her and she shelters him and conceals him from his enemies—her countrymen—and when he goes away, she sends after him a portrait of herself, just as any other romantic young woman might do. To her the incident is epochal, but Bluntschli himself gives little thought to it. As he says afterwards, a soldier soon forgets such things: “He is always getting his life saved in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people.” So he fights a bit, forages a bit, perspires a bit, draws his pay, eats his meals, and waits, in patience, for the war to end.

Erection

Biographies & Memoirs

For decades, news outlets have described sexual misconduct by prominent men, ranging from indecent exposure and molestation to spousal abuse, rape, and murder. And while social movements have empowered women to add their stories to these headlines, so much inappropriate sexual behavior happens below the radar and is treated as natural, normal, or is excused—because “boys will be boys,” or worse, “she asked for it.” In Erection, author David Thomas narrates his young, repressed childhood and the pattern of “thinking with his crotch” that haunted his life. After growing up trying to sexually escalate every interaction with a woman, David finds himself the teenage husband in a shotgun marriage that would last twelve years and produce two daughters he adores and abandons. Then divorcing his first wife for a trophy wife and a decade of sexual pleasure, David’s life would spiral into addiction and pain that wounded everyone the marriages touched. It would be only after his second divorce crippled his son when David would discover the right role for passionate sex in an intimate relationship. Erection is a story of the human damage ordinary men create when they follow their hormones and their culture’s permission to pursue aggressive sexual activity unreflectively and to avoid at all costs reflecting on and communicating about their sexuality. Blueink:“. . . a mature, reflective delight to read.”“Thomas writes in spare, organic prose. . . .”“The title of this book has shock value, but it’s inaccurate. Erection: A Memoir isn’t about a body part. Rather, it’s the story of a whole man who was very much a product of his time. With self-criticism and compassion offered in equal measures, the narrative provides a thoughtful and compelling reading journey.”Kirkus:“A frank exploration of men’s sexuality. . . .”“Thomas writes clearly and precisely. . . .”“More nuanced and broader in scope than its provocative title suggests.”“The title. . .moves beyond the obvious phallic reference. . .to include a construction metaphor, that is, the building of a satisfying career, personal life, and physical home. . . . The book addresses a wide array of topics, including the pressures and temptations of academia, the exhilaration and trappings of social mobility, and the tragedy of substance abuse . . . .”The “thoughtful introduction and epilogue. . .situates his story amid current debates about appropriate male behavior via the #Me Too Movement and a whole myriad of contentious cultural issues surrounding sex.”Foreword:“. . . a thorough, humane approach to human sexuality, seen through one man’s experiences.”“encourages men to talk about their sexuality, take responsibility for their choices, and quit making decisions based on sex and self.”“Refreshingly, Erection focuses on . . how men can empower and dignify their sexual needs without preying on women.”“. . . many smart, succinct insights about how young people develop their sexual beliefs.”“. . . complex and moving. Chapters are tight and well structured. The personal story unspools effortlessly, and Thomas’ voice is clear and strong.”

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