JoAnne O'Connell – författare

The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster offers an engaging reassessment of the life, politics, and legacy of the misunderstood father of American music. Once revered the world over, Foster’s plantation songs, like “Old Folks at Home” and “My Old Kentucky Home,” fell from grace in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement due to their controversial lyrics. Foster embraced the minstrel tradition for a brief time, refining it and infusing his songs with sympathy for slaves, before abandoning the genre for respectable parlor music. The youngest child in a large family, he grew up in the shadows of a successful older brother and his president brother-in-law, James Buchanan, and walked a fine line between the family’s conservative politics and his own pro-Lincoln sentiments. Foster lived most of his life just outside of industrial, smoke-filled Pittsburgh and wrote songs set in a pastoral South—unsullied by the grime of industry but tarnished by the injustice of slavery.Rather than defining Foster by his now-controversial minstrel songs, JoAnne O’Connell reveals a prolific composer who concealed his true feelings in his lyrics and wrote in diverse styles to satisfy the changing tastes of his generation. In a trenchant reevaluation of his NewYork Bowery years, O’Connell illustrates how Foster purposely abandoned the style for which he was famous to write lighthearted songs for newly popular variety stages and music halls. In the last years of his life, Foster’s new direction in songwriting stood in the vanguard of vaudeville and musical comedy to pave the way for the future of American popular music. His stylistic flexibility in the face of evolving audience preferences not only proves his versatility as a composer but also reveals important changes in the American music and publishing industries.An intimate biography of a complex, controversial, and now neglected composer, The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster is an important story about the father of American music. This invaluable portrait of the political, economic, social, racial, and gender issues of antebellum and Civil War America will appeal to history and music lovers of all generations.

Joanne O'Connell's Beauty and the Bin is a fresh and funny debut about friends, family, and the environment. Perfect for young eco-warriors!Laurie's home-made beauty recipes are no secret. The secret is that her eco-warrior family get their ingredients from the bin.Laurie loves her family and she wants to join them in making the world a better place, one home-made bath bomb at a time. But right now, she doesn't want to be fishing her food out the bin. She just wants to go for a hot chocolate with her friends after school and be a normal kid.So when a competition comes to her school looking for the next best 'Business with a difference', and the most popular girl in school wants to team up to sell Laurie's lotions and potions, she can hardly believe her luck. But can she find success and popularity without losing sight of her true self?Some fabulous beauty recipes are also included at the end of this book to get budding environmentalists started!'Funny, warm, and just so refreshing . . . I loved this sparkling debut.' – Carlie Sorosiak, author of I, Cosmo

Joanne O'Connell's Beauty and the Bin is a fresh and funny debut about friends, family, and the environment. Perfect for young eco-warriors!Laurie's home-made beauty recipes are no secret. The secret is that her eco-warrior family get their ingredients from the bin.Laurie loves her family and she wants to join them in making the world a better place, one home-made bath bomb at a time. But right now, she doesn't want to be fishing her food out the bin. She just wants to go for a hot chocolate with her friends after school and be a normal kid.So when a competition comes to her school looking for the next best 'Business with a difference', and the most popular girl in school wants to team up to sell Laurie's lotions and potions, she can hardly believe her luck. But can she find success and popularity without losing sight of her true self?Some fabulous beauty recipes are also included at the end of this book to get budding environmentalists started!'Funny, warm, and just so refreshing . . . I loved this sparkling debut.' – Carlie Sorosiak, author of I, Cosmo

Stitched Up is the heartwarming and fashion-forward novel from author and journalist Joanne O'Connell, perfect for readers of Elle McNicoll and younger fans of Geek Girl.Cassie has a passion for fashion so when the opportunity to redesign her school uniform comes up Cassie is thrilled. The only problem? She’s stuck between eco-conscious Fern and label-loving Azra.As the competition heats up, Cassie joins The KnitWits – a local knitting group that immediately makes Cassie feel at home, especially once she sees that it’s secretly attended by the coolest girl at school.As Cassie’s skills grow, she has to learn to balance Azra’s obsession with trends with her own love of sustainable fashion. But will the pressure cause the ultimate bestie break-up?

Stitched Up is the heartwarming and fashion-forward novel from author and journalist Joanne O'Connell, perfect for readers of Elle McNicoll and younger fans of Geek Girl.Cassie has a passion for fashion so when the opportunity to redesign her school uniform comes up Cassie is thrilled. The only problem? She’s stuck between eco-conscious Fern and label-loving Azra.As the competition heats up, Cassie joins The KnitWits – a local knitting group that immediately makes Cassie feel at home, especially once she sees that it’s secretly attended by the coolest girl at school.As Cassie’s skills grow, she has to learn to balance Azra’s obsession with trends with her own love of sustainable fashion. But will the pressure cause the ultimate bestie break-up?