Clay Felker's Passages

Chelsea Rathburn’s “After Filing for Divorce” compares the emotions that the speaker feels after filing for a divorce to the morning after a wild party and all the mess someone might find after waking up and realizing all the destruction that is left in the aftermath. Rathburn’s speaker recalls how she felt in the beginning of the marriage and now how she feels after filing for the divorce. She sees the wreckage that is her life, the dread of the cleanup, and how her happiness has strayed so far from where it began.

In “The Author to Her Book,” Bradstreet is inundated in indecision and internal struggles over the virtues and shortfalls of her abilities and the book that she produced. As human beings we associate and sympathize with each other through similar experiences. It is difficult to sympathize with someone when you don’t know where they are coming from and don’t know what they are dealing with. Similar experiences and common bonds are what allow us to extend our sincere appreciation and understanding for another human being’s situation. In this poem an elaborate struggle between pride and shame manifests itself through an extended metaphor in which she equates her book to her own child.

The reader cannot help but feel the burden the daughter will be sharing with the mother. And while the plight of the mother is real, the reader cannot ignore how the isolation and loneliness of this type of community, or lack there of, has effected Tome's judgment in mothering.

David Pelzer, the main (and perhaps only) protagonist, has struggled with a lot throughout the book I read. The story is mainly about Dave’s determination to withstand his abusive, alcoholic mother, who will, without a second thought, beat him if he doesn’t get his chores done. Even if he does get all of his chores done, he is starved and forced to sleep on an old army cot in his basement while his family lives in the luxury of the upstairs section of the house. The writer, Dave Pelzer, changed the names of his family to keep their anonymity, which was nice of him due to what goes on in his story. This essay is about a book called A Child Called “It.”

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them”, says Maya Angelou, an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. This quote reflects to Sarah’s journey in the novel Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay, since the main character, Sarah, faces events that affect her well being, as they make her both weaker and stronger. These events causes her to lose her innocence, makes her persistent, and then eventually drives her to be pessimistic. Sarah experiences traumatic events through her journey, which leads her to change both in a positive and negative way.

As a young wife and mother, Ashima Ganguli experiences labor and delivery just like many other American women, in

However, when her career as a nurse started, it was not in the maternity ward. It started in general care, where she witnessed first-hand the disparity in care between male and female patients.

Imagine a memoir with skillfully alternating chapters between two characters that have distinct differences. It 's what sets James McBride 's chronicle from your average, everyday book as this story as he packs a healthy amount of content such as issues of race, religion, and identity into one paperback. Published in February 1998, it maintained the New York Times bestseller list for over 2 Years, won the 1997 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Literary Excellence, was an ALA Notable Book of the Year, and has sold more than 1.5 million copies. It has been published in 16 languages and in more than 20 countries. It is an autobiography that sort of strays away from the common formula, however it still retains the core welcoming feeling you get when you can relate to the characters. McBride recognizes what a wonder his mother is when she raised 12 kids and gets her to open her secretive past.

Gaby Rodriguez’s purpose in The Pregnant Project is to inspire readers to think positively and to know their own inner strength despite how others may judge or act.

In this novel Taylor is a dynamic character, we see her transform from a young girl who didn’t want to get married or have kids to an independent single mother. In the beginning we get to know her as a self-owned, determined and a stubborn girl who is focused, ambitious and thinks outside the box; because she knows firsthand what is like to see her mother struggle as a single parent. She learned to value every day because pregnancy was like a disease. An example of her considerate outlook is “believe me in those days the girls were dropping by the wayside like seeds off a poppy seed bun and you learned to look at every day as a prize” (3). This small but

Through all the readings that she had possessed she had become, what was the start of, an independent woman. The fact that she continued to read to further her knowledge and to learn more did not faze her that not many other women were doing as she was. At a young age she knew that “settling” with the roles of women during this time was a life that she had to choose but she also wanted more. She wanted to educate herself and that she did through the works of her favorite author’s books and poems.

In the book She’s Come Undone by author Wally Lamb, we travel on a journey with a young girl Dolores Prices, as she matures from early childhood to adulthood and all the terrible things that accompany her along her voyage. It was rather intriguing the Wally Lamb did such an excellent job of writing in a first person perceptive as a woman. He accredits his ability to his older sisters. Wally Lamb wrote this book to help emphasize one’s journey to self-discovery. This book’s theme heavily shows the loss of innocence and a coming of age story. Lamb was able to write in a way that many of us could relate to or may have found ourselves in similar situations. Regardless of Lamb’s purpose for writing this book, he was able to create a relatable

The book is a testimony to the strength and determination of her grandmother, her mother, and herself and their resourcefulness in recreating themselves during

Louise was a nulliparous woman in her thirties who had no pregnancy complications and nothing sinister in her medical history, so she was classed as “low risk” and she was 7 days over her estimated due date. Louise came on to the delivery suite and my mentor and I were looking after her throughout her labour, her partner was away at work so Louise only had us for support.

Clay Felker was a huge supporter of Sheehy and encouraged her to write “Passages” after her first book flopped in 1970. He would push her to never give up on herself and reminded her that she was wonderful at journalism (Sheehy, 30-40). Felker is known to the world as the founder of New York magazine and also as a prominent figure in American journalism (Carmody). In “Daring; My Passages” Sheehy discusses how Clay was her mentor and friend while they were both married to other people. Felker was married to an actress and they would divorce soon after Sheehy’s failed marriage (Sheehy, 21-29). They married each other in 1984, consequently becoming his third and final wife (Carmody).