Tommyland

Clara Batten (Author)

Gin & Phonics: My Journey Through Middle-Class Motherhood (Via the Occasional Pub)

'I was asked the other day what I thought the hardest part of parenting was. I'd have to say that it's definitely the kids.' TikTok sensation Clara Batten has dedicated the last few years to seeking the answer to one of life's most crucial questions: Is it possible to raise and nurture two small humans without losing your bloody mind? The good news is, now she's found (some of) the answers and is sharing her secrets with the rest of us! In this riotous book, Clara reveals: when it's acceptable to buy your kids lunch from a kebab shop. why a jar of pickled herrings from Waitrose is the ultimate guilty pleasure, nay necessity, for a sleep-deprived parent. how to finally pursue your acting ambitions in your forties (despite a toddler sh*tting on the stairs during a self-tape audition). Most importantly, Clara shows us that no matter how much we adore our little treasures, life isn't just about their A, B and bloody Cs.

Thomas R. Martin (Author)

Phocion: Good Citizen in a Divided Democracy

6,Thomas R. Martin recounts the unmatched political and military career of Phocion of Athens, and his tragic downfall "Elegant and enlightening."--Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal Phocion (402-318 BCE) won Athens's highest public office by direct democratic election an unmatched forty-five times and was officially honored as a "Useful Citizen." A student at Plato's Academy, Phocion gained influence and power during a time when Athens faced multiple crises stemming from Macedonia's emergence as an international power under Philip II and his son Alexander the Great. Following Athens's defeat by Macedonia, Phocion unsuccessfully sought mild terms of surrender. Oligarchy was imposed on democratic Athens, and more than twelve thousand "undesirable" Athenians were exiled. When the oligarchic regime was overthrown and the exiles returned, dispossessed Athenians took out their volcanic anger on Phocion, who throughout his career had often been a harsh critic of the citizens' political decisions. His inflammatory rhetoric contributed to the popular conclusion that he lacked a genuine sense of belonging to the community he wished so desperately to preserve. When he was eighty-four, the ...

Curtis Chin (Author)

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir

9,This "vivid, moving, funny, and heartfelt" memoir tells the story of Curtis Chin's time growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in 1980's Detroit (Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers). Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung's Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone--from the city's first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples--could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here was where, beneath a bright-red awning and surrounded by his multigenerational family, filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city's spiraling misfortunes; and where--between helpings of almond boneless chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some of his own, less-savory culinary concoctions--he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself. Served up by the cofounder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop and structured around the very menu that graced the tables of Chung's, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is both a ...