Author: Teri Sforza
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616140895
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
Gloria Lenhoff's story - of living with a rare congenital disorder and enormous musical talent - is extraordinary, like Williams syndrome itself. The Strangest Song is a marvelous achievement, beautifully and compellingly written by Teri Sforza, who interweaves Gloria's poignant and dramatic personal story with a fascinating history of the scientific investigation of a puzzling brain condition.-OLIVER SACKS, MD, Author of Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and many other worksThis is the first book to tell the story of Williams syndrome and the extraordinary musicality of many of the people who have it. Interweaving science and the personal in a compelling narrative, author Teri Sforza follows the quest of biochemistry professor Howard Lenhoff to help his mentally handicapped daughter, Gloria. From his discovery of Gloria's outstanding vocal talent and innate musical gifts, Lenhoff becomes convinced that people with her disorder have an unusual capacity for learning music, despite their profound mental disabilities. Lenhoff is at first rebuffed, called crazy, and finally vindicated when scientists - and his own formal research - confirm his hunch.Williams syndrome is a rare genetic aberration that occurs once in every 7,500 births. It springs from a peculiar mishap on the molecular level, a tiny chemical error, but one that exacts an enormous toll on body, brain, and personality. The result is an atypical body and a profoundly asymmetrical mind.Thanks to Howard Lenhoff's single-minded determination and love for his daughter, he succeeds in helping his daughter beyond his wildest dreams. Gloria's talents take her to a concert at Washington's Kennedy Center and a number of classical recordings. Besides his daughter's personal success, Lenhoff helps establish the first residential college for mentally disabled musicians in Massachusetts, where today talented Williams people are finally getting professional training and performing at professional levels.An inspiring blend of human interest and breakthrough science, The Strangest Song offers startling insights into the mysteries of the brain and hope that science can find new ways to help the handicapped.MORE PRAISE FOR THE STRANGEST SONGAn inspirational diary of a daughter with a marvelous musical gift. And a hopeful roadmap for other parents that reveals what dedication, determination, belief, inquiry, cheer-leading, love and advocacy can do when the focus is on ability rather than dis-ability in children with handicaps. 'Train the talent - in whatever form and in whatever measure it exists - and do so with joy,' sings out loudly from the pages here in convincing and extraordinary song. Gloria wants to make the world more ready for William's people. She does. Bravo Gloria!-DAROLD A. TREFFERT, MD, Author of Extraordinary People: Understanding Savant Syndrome; Clinical Professor, University of Wisconsin Medical SchoolTeri Sforza has done a masterful job in telling a story that not only touches us, but gives us a deeper understanding of Williams Syndrome. Like a complex puzzle, the story unfolds as more and more pieces come together to make a rich, colorful and unexpected picture. Bravo Teri.-ARLENE ALDA, Award-winning children's book author/photographer; Director of the documentary film Bravo Gloria!Teri Sforza (Laguna Beach, CA) is a senior writer at the Orange County Register, where she contributed to its Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of fertility fraud at the University of California, Irvine, and covered the largest municipal bankruptcy in America's history. She is the winner of an Associated Press News Executives Council award for public service reporting and a Lowell Thomas prize for travel writing.
Author: Scott David Aniolowski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
Most readers acknowledge Brian Lumley as the superstar of British horror writers. With the great popularity of his Necroscope series, he is one of the best known horror authors in the world. Devoted fans know that his roots are deep in the Cthulhu Mythos, with which most of his early work deals. This volume contains eleven new tales in that vein, as well as three reprints of excellent but little-known stories by Mr. Lumley.
Author: Adi Rule
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250048168
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332
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Book Description
Sent to the prestigious Dunhammond Conservatory, Sing da Navelli must work with the mysterious Apprentice Nathan Daysmoor as her vocal coach, who is both her harshest critic and staunchest advocate. But Nathan has secrets of his own, secrets that are entwined with the myths and legends surrounding Dunhammond, and the great creature they say lives there.
Author: Gary Golio
Publisher: Millbrook Press (Tm)
ISBN: 1467751235
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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Book Description
Tells the story of how Billie Holiday and songwriter Abel Meeropol combined their talents to create "Strange Fruit," the iconic protest song that brought attention to lynching and racism in America.
Author: Lesley Chow
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
ISBN: 1913462358
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 148
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Book Description
Raucous, sensual and sublime: how twelve pioneering female artists rewrote the rules of pop. From Kate Bush to Nicki Minaj, from Janet Jackson to TLC and Taylor Swift, pop's greatest female pioneers are simply strange: smashing notions of taste and decorum, and replacing them with new ideals of pleasure. Instead of rehashing biographies, Lesley Chow dives deep into the music of these groundbreaking performers, identifying the ecstatic moments in their songs and finding out what makes them unique. You're History is a love letter to pop's most singular achievements, celebrating the innovations of women who are still critically underrated. It's a ride that includes tributes to Chaka Khan, Rihanna, Neneh Cherry, Sade, Shakespears Sister, Azealia Banks, and many more... “The slim, sharp book considers a range of female artists from Janet Jackson and Taylor Swift to TLC and Nicki Minaj, a group that the Australian cultural critic Chow views as ‘outliers, marking moments where the culture might have swerved to incorporate their influence, but somehow contrived not to.’” — New York Times summer reads
Author: Sj Fowler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781913642389
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 128
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Book Description
To say that SJ Fowler's Come and See the Songs of Strange Days is a poetic encyclopaedia of film would be right but falls short of describing its true nature. From an authorship marked by poetic skill and genius insanity, this book covers a range of avantgarde methodology without parallel in the British literary tradition. At times aberrant, at times playful, it overlaps cinema and language, combining lyricism with abstract visual commentary, and thriving on that which defies description. The films include American blockbusters and European arthouse, obscure documentary and all-time classics. It is a book that offers much, whether or not you like film, and whether or not you like poetry
Author: Marie Corelli
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
Author: Jason Heller
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 1612196977
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
A Hugo Award-winning author and music journalist explores the weird and wild story of when rock ’n’ roll met the sci-fi world of the 1970s As the 1960s drew to a close, and mankind trained its telescopes on other worlds, old conventions gave way to a new kind of hedonistic freedom that celebrated sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. Derided as nerdy or dismissed as fluff, science fiction rarely gets credit for its catalyzing effect on this revolution. In Strange Stars, Jason Heller recasts sci-fi and pop music as parallel cultural forces that depended on one another to expand the horizons of books, music, and out-of-this-world imagery. In doing so, he presents a whole generation of revered musicians as the sci-fi-obsessed conjurers they really were: from Sun Ra lecturing on the black man in the cosmos, to Pink Floyd jamming live over the broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing; from a wave of Star Wars disco chart toppers and synthesiser-wielding post-punks, to Jimi Hendrix distilling the “purplish haze” he discovered in a pulp novel into psychedelic song. Of course, the whole scene was led by David Bowie, who hid in the balcony of a movie theater to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, and came out a changed man… If today’s culture of Comic Con fanatics, superhero blockbusters, and classic sci-fi reboots has us thinking that the nerds have won at last, Strange Stars brings to life an era of unparalleled and unearthly creativity—in magazines, novels, films, records, and concerts—to point out that the nerds have been winning all along.
Author: Michael Hearst
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1452104670
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 111
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Book Description
"Introduces the reader to a wealth of extraordinary life forms"-- P. [4] of cover.
Author: Scientific American
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781404214019
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 116
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Book Description
Presents a series of articles on different types of intellectual abilities and talents, looking at such topics as savants, prodigies, links between certain mental disorders and creativity, and whether genius might be something that can be attained through training.
