Positive A Memoir

An astonishing memoir for the untold number of children whose lives have been touched by bullying. Positive is a must-read for teens, their parents, educators, and administrators—a brave, visceral work that will save lives and resonate deeply. Paige Rawl has been HIV positive since birth, but growing up, she never felt like her illness defined her. On an unremarkable day in middle school, she disclosed to a friend her HIV-positive status—and within hours the bullying began. From that moment forward, every day was like walking through a minefield. Paige was never sure when or from where the next text, taunt, or hateful message would come. Then one night, desperate for escape, fifteen-year-old Paige found herself in her bathroom staring at a bottle of sleeping pills. That could have been the end of her story. Instead, it was only the beginning. Paige's memoir calls for readers to choose action over complacency, compassion over cruelty—and above all, to be Positive. Includes twenty-five photos from Paige's personal collection throughout. Supports the Common Core State Standards

As the body politics of life writing in the United States change, illness and disability memoirs receive considerable attention. Although these narratives are framed by a lack of health, they abundantly present health and do so beyond its binary relationship to the pathological. This book departs from previous scholarship by bringing into focus the writers' representations of cure, recovery, and healing as well as their reluctance to bring closure to their narratives and align their stories with traditional notions of health. These memoirs thus partake in the construction of alternative narratives of illness and disability.

Positively Smarter brings together seven principles for connecting the science of neuroplasticity to practical strategies for enhancing the synergy of happiness, achievement, and physical well-being. Moving beyond common myths, the text builds an evidence-based paradigm to empower readers to take practical steps to move forward. Brings together current research on cognitive psychology, education (learning), and implications of neuroscience to suggest powerful ways to enhance the kind of cognitive function and productivity that leads to happiness and success Applies implications of current research showing that happiness is a skill and that positive affect can lead to higher levels of creative problem solving, productivity, achievement, and well-being Shares research and strategies for supporting physical activity and nutrition that may enhance neuroplasticity, cognitive performance, and positive affect Puts learners first and then brings in the science, presenting creative or adaptive strategies that can be applied in the real world Includes action assessments to guide readers in taking concrete steps to achieve the goals they set for themselves Identifies deeply held assumptions that innate talent, genes, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity mean that a significant percentage of the population lacks the neurocognitive potential to achieve at higher levels Draws on the authors’ research from a broad range of fields in order to maximize the positive impact of a synergistic approach

Examining the memoirs and autobiographies of British soldiers during the Romantic period, Neil Ramsey explores the effect of these as cultural forms mediating warfare to the reading public during and immediately after the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Forming a distinct and commercially successful genre that in turn inspired the military and nautical novels that flourished in the 1830s, military memoirs profoundly shaped nineteenth-century British culture's understanding of war as Romantic adventure, establishing images of the nation's middle-class soldier heroes that would be of enduring significance through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As Ramsey shows, the military memoir achieved widespread acclaim and commercial success among the reading public of the late Romantic era. Ramsey assesses their influence in relation to Romantic culture's wider understanding of war writing, autobiography, and authorship and to the shifting relationships between the individual, the soldier, and the nation. The memoirs, Ramsey argues, participated in a sentimental response to the period's wars by transforming earlier, impersonal traditions of military memoirs into stories of the soldier's personal suffering. While the focus on suffering established in part a lasting strand of anti-war writing in memoirs by private soldiers, such stories also helped to foster a sympathetic bond between the soldier and the civilian that played an important role in developing ideas of a national war and functioned as a central component in a national commemoration of war.

Auto/biographical narratives of the Americas are marked by the underlying themes of movement and belonging. This collection proposes that the impact of the historic or contemporary movement of peoples to, in, and from the Americas—whether chosen or forced—motivates the ways in which identities are constructed in this contested space. Such movement results in a cyclical quest to belong, and to understand belonging, that reverberates through narratives of the Americas. The volume brings together essays written from diverse national, cultural, linguistic, and disciplinary perspectives to trace these transnational motifs in life writing across the Americas. Drawing on international scholars from the seemingly disparate regions of the Americas—North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America—this book extends critical theories of life writing beyond limiting national boundaries. The scholarship included approaches narrative inquiry from the fields of literature, linguistics, history, art history, sociology, anthropology, political science, pedagogy, gender studies, critical race studies, and indigenous studies. As a whole, this volume advances discourse in auto/biography studies, life writing, and identity studies by locating transnational themes in narratives of the Americas and placing them in international and interdisciplinary conversations.

An updated version of the author's discovery of the real person behind the mythology Bob Dylan created includes an interview with the author, previously unpublished photographs, and a new preface by the author. Original.

Positively, Big Mama is a memoir packed with pain, suffering, guilt, and shame, written from the delicate perspective of self-pity and offbeat humor. The words are filled with crazy fear, eccentric parents, raging neurosis, three husbands, three forgotten children, hypochondria, agoraphobia, and the one constant: a predictable male animal. The journey chronicles a descent into a deep abyss that proves finite allowing Positively, Big Mama to become an inspirational piece, whose only omniscient character is God Himself. Not your typical coming of age piece, Big Mamas transition occurs at midlife and beyond. Positively, Big Mama captures the interest and hearts of both sexes. Filled with secrets, regrets, and ill-fated choices, Big Mamas quest is one of forgiveness and redemption. The true story is written from the perspective of a child, adolescent, and immature adult. Maturity does not rear its head in the storyline until Big Mamas hair begins to turn silver. Upon a marketing analysis, Positively, Big Mama has a rebound effect on a small core of men. The claim is supported by the words of Mae West, Women with pasts interest men because they hope history will repeat itself." Oscar Wilde adds to Wests observation with his satirical statement, I like men who have no future and women who have a past. With the Greater New Orleans area and its regional favorites as a backdrop to the story, the setting and content of Positively, Big Mama has a wide, local and national appeal.

This book examines the memoir of Toussaint Louverture—a former slave, general in the French army, and leader of the Haitian Revolution—and the memoir of his son, Isaac.

Generalizing the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel-Renz Invariants, this Memoir presents the foundations of a theory of (not necessarily discrete) actions $\rho$ of a (suitable) group $G$ by isometries on a proper CAT(0) space $M$. The passage from groups $G$ to group actions $\rho$ implies the introduction of 'Sigma invariants' $\Sigma^k(\rho)$ to replace the previous $\Sigma^k(G)$ introduced by those authors. Their theory is now seen as a special case of what is studied here so that readers seeking a detailed treatment of their theory will find it included here as a special case. We define and study 'controlled $k$-connectedness $(CC^k)$' of $\rho$, both over $M$ and over end points $e$ in the 'boundary at infinity' $\partial M$; $\Sigma^k(\rho)$ is by definition the set of all $e$ over which the action is $(k-1)$-connected. A central theorem, the Boundary Criterion, says that $\Sigma^k(\rho) = \partial M$ if and only if $\rho$ is $CC^{k-1}$ over $M$.An Openness Theorem says that $CC^k$ over $M$ is an open condition on the space of isometric actions $\rho$ of $G$ on $M$. Another Openness Theorem says that $\Sigma^k(\rho)$ is an open subset of $\partial M$ with respect to the Tits metric topology. When $\rho(G)$ is a discrete group of isometries the property $CC^{k-1}$ is equivalent to ker$(\rho)$ having the topological finiteness property type '$F_k$'. More generally, if the orbits of the action are discrete, $CC^{k-1}$ is equivalent to the point-stabilizers having type $F_k$. In particular, for $k=2$ we are characterizing finite presentability of kernels and stabilizers. Examples discussed include: locally rigid actions, translation actions on vector spaces (especially those by metabelian groups), actions on trees (including those of $S$-arithmetic groups on Bruhat-Tits trees), and $SL_2$ actions on the hyperbolic plane.