Luce Garrison narrates the unraveling of her stoic Midwestern family: a mother plagued by bipolar disorder, a father guilt-ridden by his inability to confront his wife’s descent into madness, and Luce’s own unassailable conviction that she can never be as loved as the brothers she has lost. As a child, Luce often lingered over albums of glossy photographs, longing to be just like her lovely, enigmatic mother. But images frozen for an instant could not capture the lightless depression and manic bouts of frenzied activity which demonized Bets Garrison. Luce does not know the depths of her mother’s undiagnosed mental illness. Her only certainty? She is an inadequate substitute for the older brother who was stillborn just three months after her parents’ marriage. After giving birth to Jonny, eleven years Luce’s junior, Bets develops an obsessive, disturbing devotion which trumps every other relationship in the Garrison home. Although Luce tries to minimize the gulf, she is excluded from the smothering attention her mother lavishes upon Jonny. Caught in a void, she can neither be loving sister nor cherished daughter. She can only be in the way. Set in rural Wisconsin, We Dare Not Whisper explores the toxic legacy of a self-destructive family. With hauntingly beautiful prose, Jan Netolicky illuminates the suffering of individuals with bipolar disorder and the unthinkable challenges facing those closest to them.

Sticks and stones may break bones, but words can inspire an angry mob to pick up those clubs in the first place. This collection of fifty speeches reveals how men and women throughout the ages changed the course of history. Featuring classical orators, wartime heroes, and contemporary icons, from Elizabeth I to Abraham Lincoln, from Margaret Thatcher to Nelson Mandela, right up through Barack Obama, I Dare Say: Great Speeches that Changed the World tells the great stories of human history, including: · The Ancient World: Public speaking became an art in ancient Greece and Rome, and the records of speeches written by philosophers and teachers such as Homer and Cicero form the bedrock for modern philosophical thought and epic literary works. · European History: The bloody Crusades, fractious divisions among the European powers, and a political philosophy of terror redraw the maps of Europe. · Early American History: The dynamic speeches that rallied thousands to join arms against their motherland—and their brothers—from the American Revolution to the Civil War. · Slavery, Suffrage, and Civil Rights: Impassioned and eloquent speeches from luminaries such as Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Hillary Rodham Clinton document the struggle for equal rights that shapes the modern world. · World Wars I and II: The rallying cries to protect, defend, and conquer that defined the twenty-first century—from both the winners and losers of the great World Wars. · Colonialism and Apartheid: The calls for peace and equality from leaders such as Mandela and Jawaharlal Nehru as the global maps were redrawn once again. · Global Terrorism: The speeches from Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush, and others that created a new “war on terror” and reshaped American government. · Contemporary American Politics: A look at the speeches that touched the nation, that put a man to the moon, and that helped Barack Obama, the first African-American U.S. president, rise to office.