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Abandoned: The True Story Of A Little Girl Who Didn't Belong
by Anya PetersSeparated from her real mother at birth, Anya grew up in terror of her drunken bullying uncle. Beaten, humiliated and sexually abused by him from the age of six, she thought her life couldn't get worse. But one day it did.
The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir
by Fernando Henrique CardosoFernando Henrique Cardoso received a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to be the new Finance Minister of Brazil. As he put the phone down and stared into the darkness of his hotel room, he feared he'd been handed a political death sentence. The year was 1993, and he would be responsible for an economy that had had seven different currencies in the previous eight years to cope with inflation that had run at 3000 percent a year. Brazil had a habit of chewing up finance ministers with the ferocity of an Amazon piranha. This was just one of the turns in a largely unscripted and sometimes unwanted political career. In exile during the harshest period of the junta that ruled Brazil for twenty years, Cardoso started his political life with a tentative run for the Federal Senate in 1978. Within fifteen years, and despite himself, this former sociologist was running the country. And what a country! Brazil, it is often said, is on the edge of modernity, striding with one foot in mid-air towards the future, the other still rooted deep in a traditional past. It is a land of sophisticated music and brutal gold-digging, of the next global superpower and the last old-time coffee plantations. It is gloriously ungovernable, irrepressibly attractive, and home to the family, friends and extraordinary life of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. This is his story and his love song to his country.
After They Killed Our Father: A Refugee from the Killing Fields Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind
by Loung UngIn 1980, at the age of ten, Loung Ung escaped a devastated Cambodia and flew to the US as a refugee. She and her eldest brother, with whom she escaped, left behind their three surviving siblings, and her book is alternately heart-wrenching and heart-warming, as it follows the parallel lives of Loung and her closest sister, Chou, during the 15 years it took for them to be reunited. Their two worlds were very different, and Loung's depiction of the contrast between her life in the affluent West and that of her sister, who navigated her way through landmine-strewn fields and survived raids by the Khmer Rouge, is laced with the guilt she feels about being the lucky one. This powerful story helps us to understand what happens when a family is torn apart by politics, adversity and war. It is also the compelling and inspirational tale of a remarkable woman.
Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran's Radical Leader
by Kasra Naji"When Ahmadinejad was elected President in June 2005, anxiety replaced election fever amongst many Iranians. To let off steam they told jokes. 'Why did the new President part his hair so straight? To segregate the male and female lice.' But while the laughter died down, the anxiety never went away…"As Iran's nuclear programme accelerates, all eyes are on the blacksmith's son who could have his finger on the trigger. Who is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? What drives him? What formed him? To whom, if anyone, does he answer?Internationally acclaimed journalist Kasra Naji, a native Persian speaker, has spent years in Iran interviewing friends, family and colleagues of the firebrand President to tell for the first time the true story of how he came to power. A picture emerges far more compelling than any of the caricatures offered up so far. While Naji documents the often strange behaviour of Ahmadinejad, with his visions of the Hidden Imam and diatribes against Israel, he also shows him to be full of contradictions: a strange and complex man, at once gripped by apocalyptic beliefs, yet capable of switching spiritual allegiance in the quest for power. A man tough enough to fight street battles in the name of Ayatollah Khomeini during the revolution, who was described by former army comrades as a "coward". A man crude enough to invite the German Chancellor to join him in an anti-Jewish alliance, yet sophisticated enough to win the political support of the all-powerful Revolutionary Guard. The unknown Ahmadinejad - revealed here by Naji - is much more of a force to be reckoned with than the bogeyman conjured up by Washington. Naji takes us inside the shadowy council chambers of Tehran, and shows us the plots, passions and personalities that will influence Ahmadinejad's next move, while the world waits with baited breath.
Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America
by Matthew Avery SuttonEvery child knows what it means to play, but the rest of us can merely speculate. Is it a kind of adaptation, teaching us skills, inducting us into certain communities? Is it power, pursued in games of prowess? Fate, deployed in games of chance? Daydreaming, enacted in art? Or is it just frivolity? Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading proponent of play theory, considers each possibility as it has been proposed, elaborated, and debated in disciplines from biology, psychology, and education to metaphysics, mathematics, and sociology. Sutton-Smith focuses on play theories rooted in seven distinct “rhetorics”—the ancient discourses of Fate, Power, Communal Identity, and Frivolity and the modern discourses of Progress, the Imaginary, and the Self. In a sweeping analysis that moves from the question of play in child development to the implications of play for the Western work ethic, he explores the values, historical sources, and interests that have dictated the terms and forms of play put forth in each discourse’s “objective” theory. This work reveals more distinctions and disjunctions than affinities, with one striking exception: however different their descriptions and interpretations of play, each rhetoric reveals a quirkiness, redundancy, and flexibility. In light of this, Sutton-Smith suggests that play might provide a model of the variability that allows for “natural” selection. As a form of mental feedback, play might nullify the rigidity that sets in after successful adaption, thus reinforcing animal and human variability. Further, he shows how these discourses, despite their differences, might offer the components for a new social science of play.
Albert Meets America: How Journalists Treated Genius during Einstein's 1921 Travels
by József IllyIn 1919, newspaper headlines said that a British expedition had confirmed Einstein's general theory of relativity. The news stirred the public imagination on both sides of the Atlantic and thrust the scientist into the spotlight of fame. Two years later, Chaim Weizmann led a fund-raising mission to the United States and invited Einstein to join it. The mission traveled to New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Hartford to campaign for public awareness and support of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This brought Einstein within the grasp of the American media. His lectures delivered in New York, Princeton, and Chicago, and comments on the Jewish presence in Palestine, made Einstein, on his first trip to America, one of the first media stars. In Albert Meets America, József Illy presents a fascinating compilation of media stories of Einstein’s tour—which cover his science, his Zionism, and the anti-Semitism he encountered. As we travel with Einstein, from headline to headline, we experience his emotional connection with American Jews and his frustration at becoming world famous even though his theories were not truly understood. This exciting collection gives readers an intimate glimpse into the life of one of the world’s first modern celebrities and a unique understanding of the media's power over both its subject and its audience.
All For A Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora
by David RensinThere will never be another surfer like Miki 'Da Cat' Dora. For twenty years the dashing and enigmatic dark prince of California surfing dominated the Malibu waves and his peers' imaginations, blazing a trail that would inspire generations to come. But when the sport exploded into the mainstream and surfing changed for ever, Dora's paradise was lost.Outraged at gridlocked swells and a scene that had grown ever more commodified, Dora eventually fled Malibu, seeking empty waves - and anonymity - beyond America. He'd also run afoul of the law, and he led the authorities on a seven-year chase around the globe. Yet, Dora would never give up searching for the spirit of the Malibu he'd lost. Wherever he made his home - New Zealand, South Africa, France - he personified the rebel heart of surfing and became a legend in his own time.This brilliant biography, based on interviews with more than three hundred people who knew Dora, finally uncovers the truth about surfing's most seductive and complicated icon.
Alliance: The Inside Story Of How Roosevelt, Stalin And Churchill Won One War And Began Another
by Jonathan FenbyThe history of the Second World War is usually told through its decisive battles and campaigns. But behind the front lines, behind even the command centres of Allied generals and military planners, a different level of strategic thinking was going on. Throughout the war the 'Big Three' -- Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin -- met in various permutations and locations to thrash out ways to defeat Nazi Germany -- and, just as importantly, to decide the way Europe would look after the war. This was the political rather than military struggle: a battle of wills and diplomacy between three men with vastly differing backgrounds, characters -- and agendas. Focusing on the riveting interplay between these three extraordinary personalities, Jonathan Fenby re-creates the major Allied conferences including Casablanca, Potsdam and Yalta to show exactly who bullied whom, who was really in control, and how the key decisions were taken. With his customary flair for narrative, character and telling detail, Fenby's account reveals what really went on in those smoke-filled rooms and shows how "jaw-jaw" as well as "war-war" led to Hitler's defeat and the shape of the post-war world.
Almost a Celebrity: A Lifetime of Night-Time
by James Whale"Almost a Celebrity" is the no-holds-barred autobiography of radio megastar James Whale, a man who, for over thirty years, has never been afraid to say the unsayable. In his typically deadpan style, "Almost a Celebrity" charts James' rise to the top - with plenty of trademark rants along the way - from his Surrey childhood, where he avoided school by hanging out in Soho strip joints, through his humble beginnings in local radio, via the self-titled TV show which made his name, to his current status as late-night king of the airwaves.
Alone
by Pip GrangerThe only daughter of alcoholic parents, novelist Pip Granger spent much of her childhood outside looking in.No strangers to the demon booze, her parents were deeply involved in a passionate relationship that rose to exciting highs and plunged to terrible and often frightening lows. Drink explained the series of crises, the furious rows and life-threatening accidents Pip had to contend with, and it also explained why her home life was so very different from that of most other people she knew. Just after her first birthday her family was evicted from their cottage in Sussex for non-payment of rent - a pattern that was to recur throughout her childhood. Home became a place best avoided, and soon Pip was spending time with her ne'er-do-well father in cafes, snooker-halls and other low dives in London's Soho where she made a series of lasting friendships with the unlikeliest of people.Brave, funny, original and totally authentic, Alone is a heartbreaking book about alcohol abuse, parental neglect, and the courage of a little girl to find her own way through a trouble-filled world.
American Gangster: And Other Tales of New York (Books That Changed The World Ser.)
by Mark JacobsonThe untold story of Frank Lucas, New York's most notorious drugs lord during the 1970s. Now a blockbuster movie, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.In 1970s New York, the ruthless Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug trade, bringing in more than a million dollars a day. At the height of his power there were so many heroin addicts buying from him on 116th Street that he claimed the Transit Authority had to change the bus routes. Lucas lived a glamorous life, hobnobbing with sport stars, musicians, and politicians, but he was also a ruthless gangster. He was notorious for using the coffins of dead GIs to smuggle heroin into the United States and before his fall, when he was sentenced to 70 years in prison, he played a major role in the near death of New York City. In American Gangster, Marc Jacobson's captivating account of the life of Frank Lucas (the basis for the forthcoming major motion picture) joins other tales of New York City from the past thirty years. It is a vibrant, intoxicating, many-layered portrait of one of the most fascinating cities in the world from one of America's most acclaimed journalists.
The Americano: Fighting with Castro for Cuba's Freedom
by Aran Shetterly"Why do I fight here in this land so foreign to my own? Why did I come here far from my home and family?…Is it because I seek adventure? No…I am here because I believe that the most important thing for free men to do is to protect the freedom of others."—William Morgan, in a letter to Herbert Matthews at the New York TimesWhen William Morgan was twenty-two years old, he was working as a high school janitor in Toledo Ohio. Seven years later, in 1958, he walked into a Rebel camp in the Cuban Jungle to join the revolutionaries in their fight to overthrow the corrupt Cuban president, Fulgencio Batista. They were wary of the broad-shouldered, blond-haired, blue-eyed americano but Morgan's dedication and passion, his military skill and charisma, led him to become a chief comandante in Castro's army—he was the only foreigner to hold such a rank, with the exception of Che Guevera.Vicious battles in the jungles were followed by victorious revelry in the cities. Morgan married a Cuban beauty. He single-handedly thwarted the Dominican Republic's attempt to overthrow Castro. And he was chosen to work with Castro and other high ranking Rebels to improve the quality of life for all people. This man who had lived under the radar in America was now a Cuban hero on the watch lists of several governments, all of whom wondered whose side he was really on. It all ended in 1961, when, at age thirty-two, Morgan was executed by firing squad, at the hands of Fidel Castro.Journalist Aran Shetterly takes us back to an era when democracy could have flourished in Cuba. He interviewed Morgan's friends and family and former Cuban Rebels, and examined FBI and CIA documents in search of the truth. What emerged was the true story of a young man who had never fit in but finally found his place in the world by fighting another country's war.
Amir Khan: A Boy From Bolton: My Story
by Amir KhanSeventeen-year-old Amir Khan became Britain's youngest Olympic boxer since 1976 when he won silver at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He turned professional in 2005, winning his first pro fight last summer in 109 seconds, and has remained unbeaten ever since.His fights are now regularly shown on ITV, who are scheduling boxing again for the first time in ten years. Tickets to his fights sell out in hours and he commands a TV audience of six or seven million viewers for every fight. Emerging as the posterboy for British multiculturalism and an important role model for Asian youngsters, Amir is loved in the press from the Observer Food Monthly to Nuts magazine.A Boy from Bolton, Amir's autobiography, will tell the story of a boy who Don King has compared to Sugar Ray Robinson, but who still lives at his mum and dad's semi-detached in Bolton with his sister and two kid brothers. A boy who fasts in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, even when he has a major fight the next day, and can sometimes be spotted helping out on the till at Moods Fast Food, his uncle and auntie's curry house in Bolton, if they're having a busy night ...Ghostwritten by Kevin Garside, sports reporter for the Telegraph and the Mirror.
And It's Goodnight from Him . . .: The Autobiography of the Two Ronnies
by Ronnie CorbettDouble acts don't come any closer than the The Two Ronnies. Messrs Barker and Corbett kept a nation laughing for two decades, and yet despite the rigorous work that went into writing, rehearsing and broadcasting almost a hundred episodes to millions of viewers each week, the pair never shared a cross word. In this memoir, the late Ronnie Corbett tells the story of their rise from theatre, through The Frost Report and into their own legendary show, as well as how some of their greatest sketches, including Mastermind and Fork Handles, came into being. This is the story of one of the great British institutions of the last thirty years, and a hilarious and moving look inside the working lives of two of our most-beloved comedians.
And Still I Rise
by Doreen Lawrence'This book for me is a warning as well as a reminder. May you never experience what I have experienced.'In April 1993, Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a group of young white men on a street in south-east London. From the first police investigation onwards, the case was badly mishandled. In the end, long after the case against the five suspects had been dropped, the government had to give in to mounting pressure and hold a public inquiry, which became the most explosive in British legal history.These facts leave the reader unprepared for Doreen Lawrence's own story of her son's murder. In this raw, honest book, she writes frankly about her childhood, about her struggle for a decent life for herself and her children and her hopes for her bright, motivated son. Her account of the murder and the botched and insensitive investigation by the Metropolitan Police is deeply moving. She recreates the pain, frustration and bafflement she experienced as she realised that there might never be a moment when she could say to herself that justice had been done.A cold case review led to the discovery of DNA evidence in 2009. In November 2011, two of the alleged members of the gang that killed Stephen were finally brought to trial at the Old Bailey. A guilty verdict was pronounced on 3 January 2012. 'To be put alongside Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom or the works of Maya Angelou.' Andrew Billen, The Times
Andrew Strauss: An incredible rise of prominence in Test cricket
by Andrew StraussOn May 21, 2004, playing against New Zealand, Andrew Strauss wrote his name into the record books when he became only the fourth batsman to score a century at Lord's on his Test debut. He made 112 in the first innings and was only denied a historical second hundred when he was run out on 83 by Nasser Hussain. England went on to beat New Zealand 3-0 before returning to headquarters to welcome the West Indies, Strauss scoring 137 as the hosts laid the foundations for another whitewash. He then raised the bar again when touring the country of his birth, making three centuries in England's first win in South Africa in 40 years. This sensational start to his international career has ensured that he has been celebrated as a world-class opening batsman, and was voted Wisden's Cricketer of the Year 2005. In THE STORY SO FAR, Andrew Strauss looks back on his early cricketing days and astounding first year in Test cricket, and gives the inside story on what it is like to be part of an incredible England side fighting to overtake Australia as the number one cricketing nation. THE STORY SO FAR also includes his personal story of how England beat Australia in the 2005 Ashes Series, in which he played a major part.
The Angry Years: The Rise And Fall Of The Angry Young Men
by Colin WilsonWhat were the achievements of the ’angry’ writers who emerged in the fifties? Historically, they gave birth to the satire movement of the 1960s-Beyond the Fringe, That Was the Week that Was and Private Eye. Their satire and irreverence aroused enthusiasm in man, and a new ‘anti-Establishment’ mood
Anyone Can Do It: My Story
by Duncan BannatyneAt 30, Duncan Bannatyne had no money and was enjoying life on the beaches of Jersey. He saw a story of someone who had made himself a millionaire, and decided to do the same. Five years later he had done it, and now he is worth £168 million.In this remarkable book, Bannatyne relives his colourful path to riches, from ice cream salesman to multi-millionaire, explaining how anyone could take the same route as he did - if they really want to. Hugely articulate, and with numerous fascinating and revealing stories to tell, this is an autobiography and a business book unlike any other - but then Bannatyne isn't like any other businessman, either.
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who 1958-1978
by Andy Neill Matt KentThe most dynamic day-to-day chronicle of the band ever compiled. Organised by year, each chapter of the book gives an overview of the band's fortunes and presents in diary fashion exactly what the boys were doing including detailed information about concert tours, radio and television gigs, recording sessions, record releases and solo activities.Providing a unique insight into the members' professional and personal relationships, there are also quotes from the band members as well as from individuals who knew them and worked with them throughout the years.A unique collection of rare photographs and memorabilia puts the reader in the front row of one of the greatest rock acts ever to appear on stage.
The Architecture of Vision: Writings and Interviews on Cinema
by Michelangelo Antonioni“A filmmaker is a man like any other; and yet his life is not the same. . . . This is, I think, a special way of being in contact with reality.” Or so says Michelangelo Antonioni, the legendary filmmaker behind the stark landscapes and social alienation of Blow-Up and L’Avventura, who here reveals his idiosyncratic relationship with reality in The Architecture of Vision. Through autobiographical sketches, theoretical essays, interviews, and conversations with such luminaries as Jean-Luc Godard and Alberto Moravia, this compelling volume explores the director’s unique brand of narrative-defying cinema as well as the motivations and anxieties of the man behind the camera. “The Architecture of Vision provides a filmmaker’s absorbing reflections and insights on his career. . . . Antonioni’s comments . . . deepen and humanize a sometimes cerebral book.”—Publishers Weekly “[Antonioni’s] erudition is astonishing . . . few of his peers can match his verbal articulateness.”—Film Quarterly “This valuable resource offers entrée to material difficult to gain access to under other circumstances.”—Library Journal
Aristocracy, Temperance and Social Reform: The Life of Lady Henry Somerset (Library of Victorian Studies)
by Olwen Claire NiessenThe visionary achievements of Isabella (Isabel) Caroline Somerset (Lady Henry Somerset), like the temperance cause she led, have undeservedly faded into obscurity. By her contemporaries she was fêted for her social activism, and at the time of her death in 1921, Isabel Somerset's vigorous reform efforts were acclaimed by humanitarian, political and social-reform organizations and the labour movement. She was internationally recognized for her contributions to the temperance cause, social reform and women's rights. The failure of her traumatic marriage to Lord Henry Charles Somerset after revelation of his homosexual affairs, and the ensuing child-custody battle and consequent ostracism by Society, combined with a profound religious experience, effected her metamorphosis from an aristocratic socialite into a temperance and social reform activist.Beginning with local temperance and philanthropic work, Isabel Somerset progressed to become president of the British Women's Temperance Association, which she gradually transformed from a single-issue organization into one committed to women's rights and a broad range of social initiatives; the BWTA became a potent pressure-group force in the politically influential, late-nineteenth-century temperance movement. Discouraged by the existing punitive, futile methods used to combat alcoholism, she founded a farm colony for female inebriates and employed a pioneering rehabilitation programme based upon therapeutic treatment and life-style changes. Through her close co-operation with American temperance icon Frances Willard, Isabel Somerset strengthened the bonds between the Anglo-American and international temperance and women's movements. Isabel Somerset's activism did not go unchallenged. In 1893 she successfully overcame the BWTA social-conservatives' attempts to unseat her, and thereafter expanded the membership to hitherto unprecedented levels. In 1897-8 her position on state-regulated prostitution in India created a controversy which reverberated beyond the Association to encompass its sister organizations and proved temporarily detrimental to Somerset's reputation and credibility. Isabel survived this disputation, retaining her presidency and succeeding Willard as president of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union following her death in 1898.Isabel Somerset was a devout Christian, compassionate humanitarian, temperance activist, committed social reformer and women's rights campaigner, a charismatic leader and eloquent orator. Her roles of reformer and women's advocate, as revealed anew in the pages of this biography, place her in the pantheon of notable Victorian female reformers.
Armed Action
by James Newton, Dfc'I couldn't see the tank. I couldn't see it... Someone was screaming over the radio. "Scream all you want, I still can't see it," I said to my pilot. The next explosion was so close it lifted my chest armour off my body in the shock wave. The noise brought me back to my awful reality. I looked out of the sight to see the shattered cockpit glass. The next one would be it and we knew it.' Lieutenant Commander James Newton survived and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery. In a career that has seen him on operations over Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland and most recently Iraq, Newton is no stranger to being shot at. He has flown all the aircraft the Navy has and even ones it doesn't. Thrilling, fast-paced and an adrenaline-fuelled adventure, Armed Action is a fascinating insight into life in the air.
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life In Letters
by Arthur Conan DoyleA collection of letters between Arthur Conan Doyle (author and creator of Sherlock Holmes) and his mother, covering most of his life, written between 1867 and the year of her death in 1921.
The Assault on Reason: Our Information Ecosystem, from the Age of Print to the Era of Trump (Thorndike Basic Ser.)
by Al GoreNow with a New Preface and Conclusion: 'Post-Truth: On Donald Trump and the 2016 Election' The United States of America is in the midst of a deepening crisis for their democracy. After the strangest election cycle in modern American history it is important that the grave threats to the American way of life that were glaringly revealed in this campaign are addressed. In The Assault on Reason, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore examines how faith in the power of reason – the idea that citizens can govern themselves through rational debate – is in peril. Democracy depends on a well-informed citizenry and a two-way conversation about ideas, but the public sphere has been degraded by fake news and the politics of fear, partisanship and blind faith. Now updated to investigate the rise of Trump and post-truth politics, The Assault on Reason is a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking, crucial if the vitality of democracy is to be rebuilt and good decisions made once more.
At Home in the Land of Oz: Autism, My Sister, and Me Second Edition
by Anne BarnhillAnne's sister Becky was born in 1958, long before most people had even heard of autism. Diagnosed with 'emotional disturbance,' Becky was subjected for much of her childhood to well-meaning but futile efforts at 'rehabilitation' or 'cure,' as well as prolonged spells in institutions away from her family. Painting a vivid picture of growing up in small-town America during the Sixties, Anne describes her sister's and her own painful childhood experiences with compassion and honesty. Struggling with the separation from her sister and the emotional and financial hardships the family experienced as a result of Becky's condition, Anne nevertheless found that her sister had something that 'normal' people were unable to offer. Today she is accepting of her sister's autism and the impact, both painful and positive, it has had on both their lives. This bittersweet memoir will resonate with families affected by autism and other developmental disorders and will appeal to everyone interested in the condition.