The boy who comes back from a war far away in a wooden box is glorified and called a hero. As the funeral plans are made in a small Kent town, his siblings squabble over who he was. Maybe the fanfare isn't needed for this heroic martyr. Vera Vera Vera is a blackly comic play about what we are willing to fight for. Her first work for the theatre, Hayley Squires is a bracing new voice, clear eyed and loud, looking at violence, neglect and apathy. Depicting a gritty slice of social realism, Vera Vera Vera portrays the disjunction between the lives of the surviving family against the memories and patriotic commemoration for the dead. Looking at drug addiction, crime, verbal and domestic abuse, engrained racism, the characters' downtrodden and trapped lives are exposed with honesty and verve. This brave and uncompromising play questions both the validity of the myth of the martyred soldier and the true worth of survival for those left behind.

A collections of stories and recipes from renowned Georgia chef Vera Stewart

Winner of the 2021 Edgar Award – G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards An NPR Best Book of the Year "Gripping, subtle, magnificently written." —The New York Times Book Review "A delectable page-turner . . . Vera Kelly introduces a fascinating new spy to literature’s mystery canon—one we hope sticks around long beyond this snappy, intimate debut." —Entertainment Weekly New York City, 1962. Vera Kelly is struggling to make rent and blend into the underground gay scene in Greenwich Village. She's working night shifts at a radio station when her quick wits, sharp tongue, and technical skills get her noticed by a recruiter for the CIA. Next thing she knows she's in Argentina, tasked with wiretapping a congressman and infiltrating a group of student activists in Buenos Aires. As Vera becomes more and more enmeshed with the young radicals, the fragile local government begins to split at the seams. When a betrayal leaves her stranded in the wake of a coup, Vera learns the Cold War makes for strange and unexpected bedfellows, and she's forced to take extreme measures to save herself. An exhilarating page-turner and perceptive coming-of-age story, Who Is Vera Kelly? introduces an original, wry, and whip-smart female spy for the twenty-first century.

New York Times bestselling author Carol Edgarian delivers “an all-encompassing and enthralling” (Oprah Daily) novel featuring an unforgettable heroine coming of age in the aftermath of catastrophe, and her quest for love and reinvention. Meet Vera Johnson, fifteen-year-old illegitimate daughter of Rose, notorious proprietor of San Francisco’s most legendary bordello. Vera has grown up straddling two worlds—the madam’s alluring sphere, replete with tickets to the opera, surly henchmen, and scant morality, and the quiet domestic life of the family paid to raise her. On the morning of the great quake, Vera’s worlds collide. As the city burns and looters vie with the injured, orphaned, and starving, Vera and her guileless sister, Pie, are cast adrift. Disregarding societal norms and prejudices, Vera begins to imagine a new kind of life. She collaborates with Tan, her former rival, and forges an unlikely family of survivors, navigating through the disaster together. “A character-driven novel about family, power, and loyalty, (San Francisco Chronicle), Vera brings to life legendary characters—tenor Enrico Caruso, indicted mayor Eugene Schmitz and boss Abe Ruef, tabloid celebrity Alma Spreckels. This “brilliantly conceived and beautifully realized” (Booklist, starred review) tale of improbable outcomes and alliances takes hold from the first page, with remarkable scenes of devastation, renewal, and joy. Vera celebrates the audacious fortitude of its young heroine, who discovers an unexpected strength in unprecedented times.

You can teach yourself to play the cello. This comprehensive, authoritative guide covers basics to Bach. Including 116 selections, it explains reading music, playing-by-ear and theory. Play-along CD.

Being successful doesn't mean how much money you may have or how big your house is or even the kind of car you drive. To me, life is beautiful in every way. Somehow I ran from myself for years and became someone else that made me very unhappy. That person was Vera, which is my first name that was given to me by my parents. The person I was named after was an amazing woman in every way possible. She was a lovely lady who is no longer with me now, but I know now that having that name will make me become the woman I was meant to be. And that woman is greatness in every way.

Rosa is excited that her Aunt Ida is having a baby-she's going to have a cousin! But when the baby comes, Grandma suggests they get rid of the family's beloved armchair so that baby Benji can play on a nicer one. But Rosa puts her foot down: this chair is a member of the family, she says, and it will be with them always.