LITMIR.BIZ

Ed Simon tells the story of Pittsburgh through this collection of explorations of its hidden histories—one of Newsweek's «21 Best Books to Read This Spring.» The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans for millennia. In the past four centuries, however, it has been transformed utterly and many times over by the people who call it home. In this brief, lyrical, and idiosyncratic new book, Ed Simon follows the story of America's furnace through a series of interconnected segments, covering all manner of Pittsburgh-beloved people, places, and things, including: Paleolithic Pittsburgh The Whiskey Rebellion The attempted assassination of Henry Frick The Harmonists The Mystery, Pittsburgh's radical, Black nationalist newspaper The myth of Joe Magarac and Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Andy Warhol, and much much more Accessible, conversational, and funny, An Alternative History of Pittsburgh is a must-read for anyone curious about this storied city, and for Pittsburghers who think they know it all-too-well already.

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The fourth in Belt's series of idiosyncratic city guides. Pittsburgh is made up of more than ninety different neighborhoods, and while The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook doesn’t have room for all of them, it does its best, exploring the contrasts that exist between and within neighborhoods and how they play out in personal narratives. In these pages you’ll find essays about old Lawrenceville, nonfiction set in the Mon Valley, Wilkinsburg, and East Pittsburgh, and work by lifetime residents, transplants and transients. The newest installment in Belt’s Neighborhood Guidebook Series, The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook is a book for anyone who thinks they know Pittsburgh, or just wishes they did.

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In Letters of Note: Grief, Shaun Usher gathers together some of the most powerful messages about grief, from the heart-wrenching pain of losing a loved one to reliving fond memories of those who have passed on.
Includes letters by:
Audre Lorde, Robert Frost, Nick Cave, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Kahlil Gibran, Edith Wharton, Mary Wortley Montagu, Seungsahn Haengwon & many more

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An accessible introduction to art history looking at how an appreciation of the visual arts can enhance our emotional lives. Graphic layout and unstuffy language introduce ideas in a clear, easy-to-grasp format. Tips on how to make gallery and museum visits more rewarding. Features a selection of over 100 artworks from artists including Picasso, Titian, Agnes Martin, Renoir, Barbara Hepworth and Vincent van Gogh. Includes engaging question and answer activities and discussion points to encourage conversations between parents and children. For ages 9+

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This insightful title explores children’s relationship with and understanding of architecture and its impact on their world. Children are rarely introduced properly to architecture, but there are in fact few subjects more important—because the quality of the architecture that surrounds us has such an impact on our mood and sense of well-being. The bitter truth is that in modern times we’ve built a world that’s far too often ugly or charmless—and we’ve done so because very few people ever feel they have the right to comment on what gets built around them. This is a chance for the next generation to develop the tools to talk about architecture with confidence, knowledge, and passion. It tells us about what a satisfying building is, what makes a street enticing (or not), why some cities are charming and others repel us—and how we might build going forward in a way that will reliably delight and uplift us. This engaging guide is designed to help children (and their favorite adults) to understand how buildings work and how we might create the better looking world we all crave and deserve.

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Blue McCarron has a Ph.D. in social psychology. She teaches and writes while living reclusively in an abandoned motel in the middle of the California desert with her Doberman, Bronte. A minister's kid, she has an imprisoned felon for a twin and a broken heart from grieving over her lost lover, Misha. When a body is found trussed up in a public freezer and widow Muffin Crandall claims she killed an intruder in self-defense and then did some dumb things, including freezing the corpse for five years, Muffin’s brother Dan hires Blue to free his much older sister by analyzing her. It is apparent to Blue and forensic psychiatrist Rox that Muffin's story is a hoax. But who is Muffin protecting? Who wants her dead? And, maybe more important, will Blue ever resolve her love for Misha and love again? Complete with commentary by a Rastafarian Greek chorus in the form of ex-felon BB the Punk, the witty, suspenseful lesbian-detective thriller is hard to resist. This is the first Blue McCarron mystery by Agatha Award-winning author, Abigail Padgett.

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 The Gianna Maglione/Mimi Patterson Mystery Series Continues. Police Lieutenant Gianna Maglione, a newly-minted Captain, is still recovering from a life-threatening gunshot injury as she finds herself and her Hate Crimes Unit assigned a new boss, and a new squad called Special Intelligence Mobile and Tactical Unit, which includes hate crimes. And Gianna’s colleagues in the group are diverse, quirky, loyal, and ready for teamwork. And Mimi Patterson, who quit her job as the lead investigative reporter for Washington DC's top newspaper, is coaxed back to work after having quit rather than apologize to a racist, sexist homophobe as ordered by her new editor. The editor is gone, and the newsroom welcomes Mimi back but she has one condition: she will write no more of her reputation-building stories about corrupt government officials and politicians, and instead, concentrate on stories that help people in the community. With hatred a bigger business than ever, taking different and uglier forms, Mimi and Gianna feel hopelessness, knowing that women are always prey for bullies and haters. Young girls—children, really—make even easier targets. When the reporter and the Captain are tipped off about a depraved ring of men and women, buying and selling young girls for profit, Mimi writes the story, paving the way for Gianna and her team to try to take the ring down. And Mimi, her vow not to cover corruption scandals be damned, helps a colleague chase down a story which winds up intersecting with Gianna’s efforts to take down the repulsive purveyors of child prostitution. Out of this harrowing and unimaginable ugliness, the women view their jobs and relationship with new eyes, realizing they might, after all, be able to improve some horribly broken young lives, heal their own traumas and become better, stronger, more loving women to and for each other.

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The memories we return to most frequently are the most inaccurate, the least faithful to reality… This is the tragic realisation made by the narrator of _Ramifications _as he tries to make sense of the defining event of his childhood: the disappearance of his mother to join the Zapatista uprising that shook Mexico in 1994. Left behind with an emotionally distant father who is singularly unqualified to raise him, and an older sister who only wants to get on with being a teenager, he takes refuge in strange rituals that isolate him from his peers: favouring the left-hand side of his body, trying to tear leaves into perfect halves, obsessively shaping origami figures. Now, two decades older and withdrawn from the world, he folds and unfolds these memories, searching the creases for the truth of what happened to his mother, unaware that he is on the verge of a discovery that will destroy everything he believed he knew about his family.Award-winning Mexican author Daniel Saldaña París masterfully evokes a child’s attempts to interpret events beyond his understanding. Less a  Bildungs-roman  than a tale of arrested development, this story of a boy growing up in the aptly-named Educación neighbourhood of Mexico City is a rich and moving portrait of a life thwarted by machismo and secrecy.

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A playful gift book that explores the highs and lows of parenting in a series of compassionate, authentic and sometimes humorous essays. Being a parent can be one of the sources of our greatest joys. It is also intermittently the cause of some of our deepest sorrows. It is likely that we will spend at least some of the time in despair and confusion, wondering whether it really has to be so hard. Philosophy has, over the last 2,000 years, been a discipline committed to calm, kindness, perspective and a reduction of paranoia. It is one of the most useful sources of solace and humanity. The Joys and Sorrows of Parenting is made up of 26 small essays that aim to shed understanding and give consolation on the trials and pleasures of parenting. They will provoke insight, recognition and a far more forgiving, generous assessment of the challenges of parenthood. The Joys and Sorrows of Parenting promises us a gentle way of staying calm around one of the most arduous yet deeply fulfilling jobs in the world.

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A practical and consoling guide to our anxious minds, reassuring us that we are not alone in our Anxiety. Chapters explore 18 varieties of Anxiety, including Trauma & Anxiety, Friendship & Anxiety, and Happiness & Anxiety. Includes practical exercises for self-reflection to help calm and unburden the mind. Innovative design with full color images throughout.

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