by Betty Roberts with Gail Wells (2008)
"In the 1950s, Betty Roberts did what most of her contemporaries considered audacious and inappropriate when she returned to college as a 32-year-old wife and mother. This was only the start of Roberts' lifetime commitment to overcoming obstacles to women’s equality. With Grit and By Grace follows Betty Roberts' rise from a Depressionera childhood on the Texas plains to become a teacher, lawyer, state legislator, candidate for governor, and eventually Oregon's first woman Supreme Court Justice. In this memoir, Justice Roberts reflects on her role as a mother, wife, and political trailblazer. Her story is important to the history of women's struggles to challenge prevailing stereotypes, but it is also a deeply personal story of a life sometimes stark, sometimes humorous, often exhausting, and always brightened with friendships and family. Her story is a vivid reminder of times too quickly forgotten, when a woman could not keep her own name or stay at a motel alone. Justice Roberts began her career during a politically complex time: the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, sentiment against the Vietnam War was growing, and the nascent women's movement would soon burst on the scene. During her 13 years as a legislator, she was instrumental in the passage of Oregon's first legalized right to abortion and the state's ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, as well as pathbreaking environmental and land-use legislation. Roberts tells her engrossing story with honesty and warmth. With Grit and By Grace is about life's disappointments and promises, its rejections and rewards, and its demand for the determination and commitment that bring success. Politicians, civic leaders, feminists, and anyone interested in Oregon's twentieth-century political history will be fascinated by this recounting of events that influenced the political and social landscape of Oregon and beyond"--Publisher.
Charles G. Vaccaro
Humorous anecdotes provide an insider's view of the legal profession and the law from the perspective of a lawyer and judge who practiced law for 27 years in the United States and then in Australia.
Norma Lewis
In a series of letters to Santa, Scalawag the cat explains his recent misadventures, including an incident involving a small house fire, a visit from the paramedics, and broken Christmas tree ornaments.
Erich Leyens, Lotte Andor
This book contains two narratives, each of which offers a clear and moving portrait of how German Jews came to terms with the changes in their lives brought on by the Nazis. Under the Nazi Regime is a powerful study of the destruction of culture and humanity, morality and justice, and the morale of the general population in Hitler's Germany. Erich Leyens, a decorated World War I hero who openly protested the arrival of the Nazis in his hometown, reflects here on his five years of direct experience with the Nazis. Among the questions he explores in his narrative are: How did the pressures of an authoritarian system destroy human relationships and compromise values? How could friends and neighbors, fellow citizens and public officials, undergo such a complete transformation? How could the masses of Germans become disposed to submit unconditionally to the Hitler cult? . In contrast, Lotte Andor's Memoirs of an Unknown Actress focuses on the comical, even absurd side of her experiences as an exile. For Andor, whose promising career as a stage actress was abruptly ended by the Nazis, her emigration from Germany in 1934 brought not only apprehension, pain, and uncertainty, but sometimes unusual joy. Because her commitment to life and humor, Andor was able to make the many very difficult adjustments demanded by emigration, seemingly with ease.
Shirley MacLaine
"Beloved actress and bestselling author Shirley MacLaine contemplates a wealth of subjects from the mundane to the esoteric in this all-new collection of musings that begin with two simple words: What if--What if hope is the most dangerous emotion? What if a frog had wings? (Answer: He wouldnt bump his ass so much.) What if our political leaders actually led? What if Downton Abbey was full of Americans? What if, for some reason, I couldn't be creative and work? These are just a few of the what ifs that Shirley Maclaine considers in her new book written in the style of her beloved and laugh-out-loud memoir I'm Over All That. In What If, she speculates on a wide range of matters both spiritual and secular, humorous and profound, earth-bound and high-flying, personal and universal. This is Shirley MacLaine at her most funny, acerbic, imaginative, and irresistible"--