Spike, Mike, slackers & dykes

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Betty Mahmoody with William Hoffer

Imagine yourself alone and vulnerable, trapped by a husband you thought you trusted, and held prisoner in his native Iran; a land where women have no rights and Americans are despised. For one American woman, Betty Mahmoody, this nightmare became reality, and escape became only an impossible dream. Not Without My Daughter is the true story of one woman's desperate struggle to survive and to escape with her daughter from an alien and frightening culture. Betty had married the Americanized Dr. Sayed Bozorg Mahmoody in 1977. His interest in his homeland had been revived since Khomeini's takeover, and he had increasingly expressed his desire to introduce his five-year-old daughter Mahtob and his American wife to his beloved family in Tehran. Betty and her daughter anxiously awaited the end of their vacation in this hostile land, but the end never came--Moody had other plans for his family. Betty and Mahtob became virtual hostages of Betty's tyrannical husband and his often vicious family. Hiding her secret meetings from her husband and his large network of spies, a desperate Betty began to plan her escape. But every option involved leaving Mahtob behind, abandoning her to Moody and a life of near-slavery and degradation. After a harsh and terrifying year, Betty discovered a ray of hope--a man would guide them across the mountain range that forms the border between Iran and Turkey. One dark night, Betty and Mahtob escaped and began the long journey home to Michigan, but first they had to survive a crossing that few women or children have ever made. In this gripping, true story, Betty Mahmoody tells her tale of faith, courage, and constant hope in the face of incredible adversity. Breathlessly exciting, Not Without My Daughter is a rivoting true adventure that grips its readers from the very first page. --- Also contained in: - Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Volume 1. 1988

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Tom Pendergast, Sara Pendergast

Written for film students and film buffs alike, this set features thorough coverage of legendary films, actors, actresses, directors, writers, and other production artists through detailed essays and commentary by experts. Entries include biographies, filmographies, comprehensive credits, production information, major awards, and bibliographies.

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King Vidor

Autobiography of a famous movie director. Contains anecdotes of many actors and actresses from the old silent days to the 1950s.

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Torey Hayden

Special-education teacher Torey Hayden's first book, One Child, was an international bestseller, thrilling readers on every continent. Their hearts were captured by Sheila, a silent, troubled girl who had been abandoned on a highway by her mother and abused by her alcoholic father, and who refused to speak. As Hayden writes in the prologue to this book, "This little girl had a profound effect on me. Her courage, her resilience, and her inadvertent ability to express that great, gaping need to be loved that we all feel - in short, her humanness - brought me into contact with my own. Since then Hayden has gone on to write books about many of her students, but her fans continue to ask her, "What happened to Sheila?" The Tiger's Child is her response. Here Hayden tells how Sheila, now a young woman, finally came to terms with her nightmare childhood. When Hayden was working on One Child, she showed the manuscript to Sheila, then a teenager, and was astonished to find that Sheila remembered almost nothing of her troubled younger years. She had no recollection of her many clashes with her teacher as Hayden tried to break through her emotional pain. And although Hayden had managed to get Sheila to communicate and become an active and lively child, Sheila's home life was still very troubled. Her father had been sent to prison when she was eight and Sheila had run away from a series of foster homes until finally she was placed in a children's home. But as Hayden continued to renew her relationship with the teenage Sheila, the memories slowly came back, bringing with them feelings of abandonment and hostility. Overwhelmed by the intensity of her awakening emotions, Sheila was driven to suicidal despair. The Tiger's Child is the touching, inspiring story of how a maturing Sheila came to perceive her mother not as a monster who willfully cast off her eldest child, but as a weak, forlorn, ordinary human being. Able to appreciate her own strength and resilience, Sheila at last is free to overcome the haunting legacy of child abuse.