Oakton College Library Archives

The Palgrave Handbook of Holocaust Literature and Culture reflects current approaches to Holocaust literature that open up future thinking on Holocaust representation. The chapters consider diverse generational perspectives--survivor writing, second and third generation--and genres--memoirs, poetry, novels, graphic narratives, films, video-testimonies, and other forms of literary and cultural expression. In turn, these perspectives create interactions among generations, genres, temporalities, and cultural contexts. The volume also participates in the ongoing project of responding to and talking through moments of rupture and incompletion that represent an opportunity to contribute to the making of meaning through the continuation of narratives of the past. As such, the chapters in this volume pose options for reading Holocaust texts, offering openings for further discussion and exploration. The inquiring body of interpretive scholarship responding to the Shoah becomes itself a story, a narrative that materially extends our inquiry into that history.

In December 2010, one phone message changed everything for Greg Baldauf. After thirty-five years of living with policystic kidney disease (PKD), he learned that his kidneys were in renal failure and he would need a transplant to survive. My New Kidney & Me tells his story: the long search for a donor, the anxious lead-up to transplant surgery, the sometimes-disorienting recovery process, and the gratitude and joy that came after. Baldauf's words will be illuminating for anyone going through this situation, describing the physical, psychological, and emotional struggles that can come when facing a failure of the body. My New Kidney & Me brings the mysteries of transplant surgery out of the dark and hole into the light. Book jacket.

One little girl knows that our world is whole because the connections between us all makes it so--from the family cat to the chatty neighbor to Mom and Dad and cousin Jerry. Our World is Whole is a lyrical meditation on mindfulness that celebrates interconnectedness and the ways we support one another and keep our world whole and spinning.

"Safa Hamed learned from a young age how to overcome adversity-- with humor and passion. She shares her Palestinian wit with open arms and an open heart. An hour with Safa is like spending an hour with your favorite storyteller, and her gentle narrative guides you through her memories of growing up in Palestine. She will move and transform the way you view the Palestinian story through both social and cultural sharing in her unique style - a style passed down by her beloved Grandpa, Sidi. Safa's art of storytelling masterfully crafts an engaging, educating, and informing experience of living in the Holy Land as a young woman. Hers is a thought-provoking and empowering story of a spirited young Palestinian woman. Both inspiring and motivating, it is a perfect balance of storytelling and writing as she shares her story and the history of her country.