![]() They were a precursor to the legal lottery that we all know about today. I want to start by asking you to describe the numbers at the time your mother started working as a numbers runner.īRIDGETT DAVIS: The numbers were, first of all, illegal. She's the author of two novels and is a creative writing professor at Baruch College of The City University of New York, where she directs the writer-in-residence program.īridgett Davis, welcome to FRESH AIR. She went on to graduate from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. ![]() ![]() She's written a new memoir about her mother called "The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life In The Detroit Numbers." Her mother's profits from being a numbers runner enabled Bridgett to attend Spelman College. One of those children is my guest, Bridgett Davis. She did well and raised her five children in a comfortable home that she owned. In 1960s Detroit, at a time when a lot of African-Americans were shut out of job and economic opportunities, Fannie Davis started running her own numbers operation. Some were run by enterprising individuals whose best chance at prosperity was through the underground economy. Some numbers games were run by organized crime. ![]() Before states ran legal lotteries, there was the underground street version, the numbers. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Miranda was an art student, and she haunted the thoughts and the dreams of Frederick Clegg. It bought him a van in which to search for rare fritillaries. It rid him of his Aunt Annie and his cousin Mabel, who had long wanted to visit the family in Australia. The Midas shower of gold which fell upon him did several things. His one outlet was a collection of butterflies. He was an unattractive fellow, crippled by "higher aspirations," prudish, plain, dull, tasteless, victim of a noncomformist conscience and a dormant imagination. A spell in the Pay Corps and a minor job at the Town Hall had ill equipped him for life. Somewhere in his middle twenties, Frederick Clegg won $200,000 and more in the football pools. The theme of "The Collector," if bizarre, is transparent. There is no room in itįor the least hesitation, the smallest false note, for not only is it written in the first person singular, but its protagonist is a very special case indeed. ![]() He has written a novel which depends for its effect on total acceptance by the reader. JObsession's Prisoners By ALAN PRYCE-JONES ![]() ![]() ![]() When Granny, Nanny, and Magrat’s meeting is interrupted, they find themselves with an infant and a crown on their hands. There are three witches and thespians, destiny and murdered kings, bubbling cauldrons and a clever fool – and of course Greebo, the cat. The German title for this early Discworld novel is MacBest and it should give you a pretty good idea of the theme Terry Pratchett tackles in this one. But even she found that meddling in royal politics was a lot more complicated than certain playwrights would have you believe, particularly when the blood on your hands just won’t wash off and you’re facing a future with knives in it… ![]() Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn’t have. Witches don’t have these kind of dynastic problems themselves – in fact, they don’t have leaders. A child heir and the crown of the kingdom, both missing. ![]() A king cruelly murdered, his throne usurped by his ambitious cousin. Three witches gathered on a lonely heath. ![]() Things like crowns had a troublesome effect on clever folks it was best to leave all the reigning to the kind of people whose eyebrows met in the middle. Even if this wasn’t my favorite Discworld novel, I still enjoyed myself enormously. They are the coolest old ladies I’ve ever read about and I can’t get enough of them. The more Discworld books I read, the more I want to be like Granny Weatherwax and/or Nanny Ogg when I’m old. ![]() ![]() As a result, her actions are constantly reinterpreted-and misinterpreted-by others. In the process, she paints a portrait of a woman whose accomplishments are varied and extraordinary, and who should be known not as a scandalous Halloween costume but as a pioneering early career woman whose story has been cruelly usurped over the years.Ĭleopatra’s biography is murky: she left behind almost no written records, and most of our sources come from men who, Schiff suggests, resented her for her wealth, felt threatened by her power, and didn’t know how to handle her independence. Schiff does a brilliant job bringing Cleopatra to life, sifting through vast numbers of historical sources to show which are valid and which are doused in propaganda. ![]() Stacy Schiff-bestselling author of THE WITCHES-won the Pulitzer Prize for her book CLEOPATRA: A LIFE, which takes on the challenge of telling Cleopatra’s true story while at the same time illustrating how unfair it is that her narrative has always been written by other people. Yet it still reads as part drama, part farce, part tragedy, part thriller, and part romance, bringing new meaning to the old adage, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” ![]() CLEOPATRA: A LIFE, like all good nonfiction, sticks to the facts and avoids exaggeration. ![]() ![]()
![]() He later worked for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, first in September 1992 which resulted in a 12-year collaboration. His work drew the attention of Elle, Marie Claire and 20 Ans Magazine ![]() He discovered fashion photography by working as a freelance photographer and learning and working with photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Terry King, and Jacque Guilbert. In 1975, he left Paris for New York to follow his girlfriend. Demarchelier learned how to develop film, retouch negatives and began shooting friends and weddings. For his seventeenth birthday, his stepfather bought him his first Eastman Kodak camera. ![]() He spent his childhood in Le Havre with his mother and four brothers. All fashionistas and photographers know the name of Patrick Demarchelier (born 21 August 1943 in Paris), one of the best French fashion photographers. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In doing so, she wrestles with some of our most profound questions: What does it take to inspire compassion? What impact can one person have? How should we respond to violence when it feels like it can’t be stopped? ![]() With echoes of Susan Sontag and Maggie Nelson, Sentilles investigates images of violence from the era of slavery to the drone age. ![]() The pacifist and the soldier both create art in response to war: Howard builds a violin Miles paints portraits of detainees. In Draw Your Weapons, Sentilles tells the true stories of Howard, a conscientious objector during World War II, and Miles, a former prison guard at Abu Ghraib, and in the process she challenges conventional thinking about how war is waged, witnessed, and resisted. It is a literary collage with an urgent hope at its core: that art might offer tools for remaking the world. Through a dazzling combination of memoir, history, reporting, visual culture, literature, and theology, Sarah Sentilles offers an impassioned defense of life lived by peace and principle. “How to live in the face of so much suffering? What difference can one person make in this beautiful, imperfect, and imperiled world?” But this utterly original meditation on art and war might transform the way you see the world-and that makes all the difference. St Joseph's University (Brooklyn Voices Series)Ī single book might not change the world. ![]() ![]() She especially liked the narrator's voice and the proverbs and cat idioms she uses. She's now asking about other books by Richard Peck. "This is not a book my 10-year-old daughter picked up to read on her own when I left it lying around, so we read it aloud. ![]() Will our Cranston heroes squeak by, or will they go entirely overboard? There are plenty of laughs and thrills, and of course there’s a ship’s cat too. ![]() The masterful Richard Peck brings all of his talents to this tale of two branches of an American family, set on the eve of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. and titled mice, and surprise endings for all. When the Cranston humans decide to sail away to England to find a husband for one of their daughters, the Cranston mice stow away in the name of family solidarity.Īnd so begins the scamper of their lives as Helena, her siblings, and their humans set sail on a life-changing voyage into the great world of titled humans. Helena is big-sister mouse to three younger siblings, living a snug and well-fed life within the ancient walls of the Cranston family home. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() “Negro society, she had learned, was as complicated and as rigid in its ramifications as the highest strata of white society” (Larsen 19).Īt the same time, she feels that in the communication with the whites, she misses the surrounding of the black people. Helga comes to the conclusion that both the societies of the black and white people are overfilled with prejudices, and are too complicated for her to be accepted. ![]() She is a stranger to them because of her mixed ancestry. The problem of cultural interaction is emphasized in the novel by the description of the gap between Helga and her fiancé’s family. She leaves Naxos and her fiancé because she is not satisfied with her career of the teacher and the attitude towards her. It is an endless journey, in which the lead character tries to find herself. The whole novel is the description of the endless row of Helga’s trips. Being the daughter of two races, she is not recognized by any of them. She feels lonely, alienated, and unsatisfied with the surrounding reality. From the very beginning of the novel, the author reveals the problem of the individual and its place in society. She was brought up by her mother’s brother. The lead character of the novel is a pretty woman of a mixed marriage. ![]() ![]() ![]() She works hard and deserves to find the right person. We were happy that Laurel got a love interest. Laurel doesn’t have a romance in the book and instead spends most her time with Susannah. ![]() ![]() In the show, Laurel dates a fellow author Cleveland Castillo. In the books, Laurel is actually a teacher, which explains why she can spend her summers at Cousins.Īnother change is Laurel’s romantic life. Laurel mentions that she is an author and has an upcoming event. Laurel DunneĪt the beginning of the show, we saw Laurel, Steven and Belly driving to Cousins Beach. Warning: Spoilers if you haven’t read or watched The Summer I Turned Pretty. While we didn’t love every change, we’re impressed that the show still captured the character’s personalities and the book’s heart. Overall, we really liked Amazon’s adaption. Belly’s turning 16, guys are noticing her and their families are hiding some major secrets. ![]() We first read these books over a decade ago and quickly became invested in this summer story about Belly Conklin, who falls in love with two brothers named Conrad Fisher and Jeremiah Fisher.īelly measures her life in summers, always counting down the days until June when she can go to Cousins Beach. When we found out that Amazon Prime was making one of our favorite series a TV Show, we couldn’t wait to watch it. Before T o All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han wrote The Summer I Turned Pretty, which released in 2009. ![]() |