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Moving Forward: Taking The Lead In Your Life
by Dave PelzerAn inspirational account of how anyone can achieve their full potential from the bestselling author of the MY STORY trilogy.MOVING FORWARD is a motivational book written for anyone wanting to move forward, to change their lives, no matter what their past may have held.Dave Pelzer teaches readers how to harness the strength of surviving past negative experiences and use that empowerment to live their lives according to their own values. Drawing on the examples of his own horrific childhood as well as his experience helping others, Dave blends his gift for memoir-style storytelling with solid, actionable advice.
Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress
by Joseph WheelanWhen John Quincy Adams-the sixty-three-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and diplomat-was elected to the House of Representatives by his Massachusetts neighbors, he embarked on a spectacular late-life career.He became Congress's most acerbic and influential critic of slavery as well as a tireless proponent for human freedoms and First Amendment rights. This remarkable congressional career utterly transformed him, the public's perception of him, and his legacy-in many ways redeeming his failed presidency. Mr. Adams's Last Crusade renders an insightful portrait of a man who placed his country above politics.
Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress
by Joseph WheelanFollowing his single term as President of the United States (1825-1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor's inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done (the only two presidents ever to do so). Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the "incubus of Jacksonianism." It was the opening chapter in what was arguably the most remarkable post-presidency in American history. In this engaging biography, historian Joseph Wheelan describes Adams's battles against the House Gag Rule that banished abolition petitions; the removal of Eastern Indian tribes; and the annexation of slave-holding Texas, while recounting his efforts to establish the Smithsonian Institution. As a "man of the whole country," Adams was not bound by political party, yet was reelected to the House eight times before collapsing at his "post of duty" on February 21, 1848, and then dying in the House Speaker's office. His funeral evoked the greatest public outpouring since Benjamin Franklin's death.Mr. Adams's Last Crusade will enlighten and delight anyone interested in American history.
Mr. Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the Birth of the NBA
by Michael SchumacherBefore Shaquille O'Neal and before Bill Russell, there was George Mikan, a six-foot-ten, 240-pound center, whose quiet demeanor and bespectacled face belied his competitive fire. A four-time All-American at DePaul and a six-time professional champion, Mikan was such an unstoppable force-and a national sensation-that, when his Minneapolis Lakers played the New York Knickerbockers in 1949, the marquee outside Madison Square Garden read simply, "George Mikan vs. Knicks." Drawing on extensive interviews-with former teammates, opponents, coaches, friends, and rivals-critically acclaimed author Michael Schumacher presents, for the first time, a wonderfully nuanced portrait of one of the most unheralded athletes of our time, and a fascinating look at the birth of the National Basketball Association. REVIEWS: "Schumacher (Family Business) explores the on-court life and legacy of George Mikan, the big man who revolutionized both college and professional basketball as a dominant center in the '40s and '50s and as the American Basketball Association's first commissioner in the 1960s. Several rules in the modern game were enacted to offset 6'10" Mikan's uncommon height advantage at the time: his shot-blocking ability for DePaul University led to the goaltending rule in college basketball in 1943, and his rebounding and scoring for the Minneapolis Lakers prompted the nascent NBA to widen the free-throw lane from six feet to 12 feet in 1951. Wilt Chamberlain described Mikan as the "first true superstar of the league," and Shaquille O'Neal, who paid for Mikan's funeral when he died in 2005 in dire financial straits due to the expenses of his health problems, said, "Without George Mikan, there is no me." A native of Joliet, Ill., Mikan was from a Croatian family and remained a true Midwesterner to the end, Schumacher writes. Schumacher's narrative sometimes gets bogged down with tedious, almost box score-like itemizing of the numerous games from Mikan
Mr Blue: Memoirs Of A Renegade
by Edward BunkerEdward Bunker's life is beyond the imaginings of most fiction writers. He was born in Hollywood, California, the son of a stagehand and Busby Berkeley chorus girl, whose early divorce propelled him into a series of boarding homes and military schools. From the age of five he repeatedly ran away, roaming the city streets at night. A proud character, combined with an IQ of 152, resulted in a series of altercations with the authorities. He became the youngest ever inmate of San Quentin at the age of seventeen, and there he learned survival skills and faced down the toughest prisoners in the system. He was befriended by Mrs Louise Wallis, a former star of the silent screen and wife of movie mogul, Hal Wallis, who produced films starring Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. She introduced Bunker to her circle of friends, including Jack Dempsey, Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley and William Randolph Hearst, whose guest he was at San Simeon. A parole violation resulted in a spell crossing America as a fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list. His eventual capture led to Folsom prison. Encouraged by the example of Dostoevsky, Cervantes and Caryl Chessman, and by the kindness of Mrs Wallis, he determined to write his way out of prison. Bunker's first published novel, No Beast So Fierce, viewed by many including Quentin Tarantino as the finest crime novel ever written, changed his fortunes. It was filmed as Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman. He has written three other novels, The Animal Factory, Little Boy Blue and Dog Eat Dog, (all published by No Exit) admired by writers as diverse as William Styron and James Ellroy. He received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Runaway Train, and has appeared in a score of films, most notably his legendary role as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs. This blistering narrative is a memoir like no other.
Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury
by Alison LightWhen Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One's Own in 1929, she established her reputation as a feminist, and an advocate for unheard voices. But like thousands of other upper-class British women, Woolf relied on live-in domestic servants for the most intimate of daily tasks. That room of Woolf's own was kept clean by a series of cooks and maids throughout her life. In the much-praised Mrs. Woolf and the Servants, Alison Light probes the unspoken inequality of Bloomsbury homes with insight and grace, and provides an entirely new perspective on an essential modern artist.
Mrs Woolf and the Servants: The Hidden Heart of Domestic Service
by Alison LightLoathing, anger, shame – and deep affection: Virginia Woolf’s relationship with her servants was central to her life. Like thousands of her fellow Britons she relied on live-in domestics for the most intimate of daily tasks. Her cook and parlour maid relieved her of the burden of housework and without them she might never have become a writer. But unlike many of her contemporaries Virginia Woolf was frequently tormented by her dependence on servants. Uniquely, she explored her violent, often vicious, feelings in her diaries, novels and essays. What, the reader might well wonder, was it like for the servants to live with a mistress who so hated giving her orders, and who could be generous and hostile by turns?Through the prism of the writer’s life and work, Alison Light explores the volatile, emotional territory which is the hidden history of domestic service. Compared to most employers in Britain between the wars, Leonard and Virginia Woolf were free and easy. Life in the Bloomsbury circle of writers and artists was often fun. Yet despite being liberal in outlook, these were also households where the differences in upbringing and education were acute: employers and servants were still ‘us’ and ‘them’. The women who worked for the Woolfs, like other domestic servants, have usually been relegated to the margins of history, yet unearthing their lives reveals fascinating stories: of Sophie Farrell, the Victorian cook and ‘family treasure’, who ended her days in a London bed-sit; Lottie Hope, the parlour maid, a foundling, who’d been left on a doorstep like a parcel; and Nellie Boxall, the Woolfs’ cook, who was finally dismissed after sixteen years of rows and reconciliations, only to find herself a more glamorous job. Mrs Woolf and the Servants is a riveting and highly original study of one of Britain’s greatest literary modernists. Ultimately, though, it is also a moving and eloquent testimony to the ways in which individual creativity always needs the support of others.
Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe's Future
by Martin MeredithRobert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980 after a long civil war in Rhodesia. The white minority government had become an international outcast in refusing to give in to the inevitability of black majority rule. Finally the defiant white prime minister Ian Smith was forced to step down and Mugabe was elected president. Initially he promised reconciliation between white and blacks, encouraged Zimbabwe's economic and social development, and was admired throughout the world as one of the leaders of the emerging nations and as a model for a transition from colonial leadership. But as Martin Meredith shows in this history of Mugabe's rule, Mugabe from the beginning was sacrificing his purported ideals-and Zimbabwe's potential-to the goal of extending and cementing his autocratic leadership. Over time, Mugabe has become ever more dictatorial, and seemingly less and less interested in the welfare of his people, treating Zimbabwe's wealth and resources as spoils of war for his inner circle. In recent years he has unleashed a reign of terror and corruption in his country. Like the Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Zimbabwe has been on a steady slide to disaster. Now for the first time the whole story is told in detail by an expert. It is a riveting and tragic political story, a morality tale, and an essential text for understanding today's Africa.
Mum, Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid?: What drugs did to my family
by Elizabeth Burton-Phillips MBEi newspaper 'What We're Reading This Week' December 2017'Elizabeth's courage in speaking out is moving, and her ability to move others is impressive. This is a story that needs to be told, and needs to be heard.' - Theresa May, Prime Minister'Elizabeth [is] someone who had the courage to tell her family's story and to challenge attitudes. Elizabeth has already made a difference and I am sure that all those who read this book will be both challenged and inspired.' - Chief Constable Sara Thornton, National Police Chiefs' Council'I cannot praise this book highly enough . . . Born out of personal pain and tragedy, this story will lead you to the birth of DrugFAM . . . It is truly inspiring and wonderful what has been and continues to be achieved through this story.' - Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham'I would urge all parents, teachers and pupils to read this heart-rending book.' - FT Magazine'A book that is moving and ultimately, inspiring.' - Waterstones Books QuarterlyElizabeth Burton Phillips was a teacher, an ordinary mother who had always tried to do the best for her children; she never imagined that her identical twin sons, who had been doing so well at school, would become involved in drugs. She was shocked when they were suspended from school for smoking cannabis; but this was just the start of a terrible descent into personal and family heartbreak. The painful journey ended in the way Elizabeth had always dreaded - a knock on the door in the middle of the night by the police. They gave her the devastating news that her son Nick had killed himself in despair at his heroin addiction. Since his death, Elizabeth has campaigned tirelessly to make parents aware of the pain and suffering caused to families by drug addiction; and her surviving twin, Simon, now drug-free, has contributed his own thoughts to this inspiring and gut-wrenching story that will shake every reader to the core.This new edition brings Elizabeth's story up to date, sharing the inspiring achievements of the author - awarded an MBE in the Queen's 2017 Honours List - and her charity DrugFAM, giving hope to families impacted by addiction.
Mummy, Come Home: The True Story Of A Mother Kidnapped And Torn From Her Children
by Oxana KalemiWaking up bleary-eyed and beaten, Oxana wondered how she had got there. Then she remembered: her abusive husband, the dream of a better life, the 'job' that turned into a nightmare….
My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia
by Markar MelkonianWhat do 'Abu Sindi', 'Timothy Sean McCormack', 'Saro', and 'Commander Avo' all have in common? They were all aliases for Monte Melkonian. But who was Monte Melkonian? In his native California he was once a kid in cut-off jeans, playing baseball and eating snow cones. Europe denounced him as an international terrrorist. His adopted homeland of Armenia decorated him as a national hero who led a force of 4000 men to victory in the Armenian enclave of Mountainous Karabagh in Azerbaijan. Why Armenia? Why adopt the cause of a remote corner of the Caucasus whose peoples had scattered throughout the world after the early twentieth century Ottoman genocides? Markar Melkonian spent seven years unravelling the mystery of his brother's road: a journey which began in his ancestors' town in Turkey and leading to a blood-splattered square in Tehran, the Kurdish mountains, the bomb-pocked streets of Beirut, and finally, to the windswept heights of Mountainous Karabagh. Monte's life embodied the agony and the follies bedevelling the end of the Cold War and the unravelling of the Soviet Union. Yet, who really was this man? A terrorist or a hero? 'My Brother's Road' is not just the story of a long journey and a short life, it is an attempt to understand what happens when one man decides that terrible actions speak louder than words.
My England Years: The Autobiography
by Bobby CharltonSir Bobby Charlton is widely acknowledged as the greatest player ever to wear an England shirt. He won a record number of caps and scored a record number of goals. Here, in the second volume of his bestselling autobiography, Sir Bobby talks in detail about his phenomenal career with England. During the 12 years he played for his country, he was involved in some of the greatest England games of all time: the 9-3 thrashing of Scotland, the 1962 and 1970 World Cup games against the Brazilians, the classic 1970 World Cup quarter-final against West Germany and, of course, the triumph of the 1966 World Cup. His story encompasses drama, passion, goals, controversies, classic matches, world-class players, and moments of footballing genius. A truly inspirational story from a true football legend.
My Father's Heart: A Son's Reckoning with the Legacy of Heart Disease
by Steve McKeeOn an autumn night in 1969, John McKee had a heart attack-an event that would end his life, and change his son Steve's forever. With heart disease being the number one cause of death among Americans, My Father's Heart is an extraordinary story of an all-too-ordinary scenario: A father dies, a son remains, and the loss casts a long shadow across a generation. Chronicling the disorienting first days following John McKee's death, this powerful memoir of love, forgiveness, and finding oneself is rich in evocative details of time, place, and family.
My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past
by Ariel SabarIn a remote corner of the world, forgotten for nearly three thousand years, lived an enclave of Kurdish Jews so isolated that they still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Mostly illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers and humble peddlers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born. Yona's son Ariel grew up in Los Angeles, where Yona had become an esteemed professor, dedicating his career to preserving his people’s traditions. Ariel wanted nothing to do with his father’s strange immigrant heritage—until he had a son of his own. Ariel Sabar brings to life the ancient town of Zakho, discovering his family’s place in the sweeping saga of Middle-Eastern history. This powerful book is an improbable story of tolerance and hope set in what today is the very center of the world’s attention.
My Friend Leonard: A Rip-roaring Ride Through La From The Author Of My Friend Leonard
by James FreyWhile in rehab, James Frey finds a father figure in a shady mafia boss called Leonard. When Leonard returns to his dubious, prosperous life in the criminal underworld of Las Vegas, he promises James his support on the outside. Tragedy strikes the day James is released and his world seems set to implode. Unsure where to turn, he calls Leonard. Paradoxically, it is in Leonard's lawless underworld that James discovers the courage and humanity needed to rebuild his life.
My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me
by Mahvish KhanMahvish Khan is the only Afghan-American to walk into Guantanamo of her own accord. This unique book is her story, and the story of the men she grew to know uniquely well inside the cages of Guantanamo. Mahvish Khan is an American lawyer, born to immigrant Afghan parents. She was outraged that her country, the USA, seemed to have suspended its tradition of equality for all under the law with regard to those imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and so she volunteered to translate for the lawyers - including British lawyer and founder of Reprieve Clive Stafford Smith - acting pro bono for the prisoners. Because she spoke their language, understood their customs and brought them Starbucks chai, the closest available drink to the kind of tea they would drink at home, they quickly befriended her, offering fatherly advice as well as a uniquely personal insight into their plight, and that of their families thousands of miles away at home. Some at Guantanamo are terrorists who deserve to be convicted and sentenced as such. Some are paediatricians and school teachers. We cannot tell the difference until we see them as individuals with their own unique stories. They deserve that much. No other writer has had access to the detainees. This book is a testament to their captivity. It documents the voices of men who have been tortured and held in a black hole of indefinite detention without legal recourse for years. It shows who they are and also allows readers to see that these men are more similar to us than they are different.
My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me
by Mahvish KhanMahvish Khan is an American lawyer, born to immigrant Afghan parents in Michigan. Outraged that her country was illegally imprisoning people at Guantanamo, she volunteered to translate for the prisoners. She spoke their language, understood their customs, and brought them Starbucks chai, the closest available drink to the kind of tea they would drink at home. And they quickly befriended her, offering fatherly advice as well as a uniquely personal insight into their plight, and that of their families thousands of miles away. For Mahvish Khan the experience was a validation of her Afghan heritage -- as well as her American freedoms, which allowed her to intervene at Guantanamo purely out of her sense that it was the right thing to do. Mahvish Khan's story is a challenging, brave, and essential test of who she is -- and who we are.
My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir
by Susie BoytJudy Garland has been an important figure in Susie Boyt's life since she was three years old, comforting, inspiring, and at times disturbing her. In this unique book Boyt travels deep into the underworld of hero-worship, examining our understanding of rescue, consolation, love, grief, and fame through the prism of Judy. Her journey takes in a duetting breakfast with Mickey Rooney, a munchkin luncheon, a late-night spree at the Minnesota Judy Garland Museum, and a breathless, semi-sacred encounter with Liza Minnelli.Layering key episodes from Garland's life with defining moments from her own, Boyt demands with insight and humor, what it means, exactly, to adore someone you don't know. Does hero worship have to be a pursuit that's low in status or can it be performed with pride and style? Are there similarities that lie at the heart of all fans? Chronicling her obsession, Boyt illuminates her own life and perfectly distills why Judy Garland is such a legend.
My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir
by Susie BoytFascinating and extraordinary, thrilling and poignant, My Judy Garland Life will speak to anyone who has ever nursed an obsession or held a candle to a star.Judy Garland has been an important figure in Susie Boyt's life since she was three years old, comforting, inspiring and at times disturbing her. In this unique book, Boyt travels deep into the underworld of hero worship, reviewing through the prism of Judy our understanding of rescue, consolation, love, grief and fame. What does it mean to adore someone you don't know? What is the proper husbandry of a twenty-first century obsession?Boyt's journey takes in a duetting breakfast with Mickey Rooney, a Munchkin luncheon, tea with the largest collector of Garlandia, an illicit late-night spree at the Minnesota Judy Garland Museum and a breathless, semi-sacred encounter with Miss Liza Minnelli . . .
My Life Behaving Badly: The Autobiography
by Leslie AshThe full and honest story from one of the UK's favourite celebrities, including her astonishing fightback from the superbug that nearly killed herLeslie Ash has been one of Britain's most popular actresses for many years now, having made her big break in the film 'Quadrophenia'. In the 1980s she starred in 'Cat's Eyes', but it is as Deb in 'Men Behaving Badly' that she is best known. Yet this hugely successful career is only a part of the story.Her marriage to Lee Chapman has been turbulent, as they lived (and partied) the celebrity lifestyle to the full. Viewed as a 'beaten' spouse, a blonde bimbo and the 'victim' of plastic surgery, she has been pigeon-holed by many but understood by few. Now, in her long-awaited memoirs, she tells the whole story from the day she first appeared on TV at four to advertise Fairy Liquid, through to her battle to recover from the superbug that nearly killed her and how it transformed her life and made her understand what is really important. Leslie now campaigns for better hygiene in hospitals. This is an astonishing, moving and yet very funny memoir.
My Life in Porn: The Bobby Blake Story
by Bobby BlakeThe most successful African American in gay adult film, Bobby Blake has appeared in over one hundred movies. In My Life in Porn, Blake for the first time goes behind the scenes of the sex industry to reveal intimate stories that are sexy, fascinating, and sometimes disturbing. Blake also shares his private spiritual struggle and the quest for love.
My Psychic Life
by Sally MorganThe Sunday Times bestselling memoir, My Physic Life by Sally Morgan.Sally Morgan is an ordinary woman with an extraordinary gift: she can communicate with the dead.Her first psychic experience was when she heard voices when she was just nine months old. She saw her first ghost when she was five. Since then she has been speaking to spirits and passing on their messages, hopes and fears to the living with astonishing accuracy.It took a personal disaster in Sally's life to understand how to take control of the mysteries of the spirit world and become a professional medium. She has now done thousands of readings for people who have experienced a personal tragedy and suffered a great loss. My Physic Life is packed with amazing anecdotes that will send a shiver down the spine, in Sally Morgan's remarkable life story.Star of the popular ITV series Star Psychic and Living TV's Psychic Sally: On the Road, showbiz mediumdu jour Sally Morgan is the country's most accurate and respected psychic. Her memoir, My Psychic Life, was a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. She also authored Healing Spirits and Life After Death.
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
by Jill Bolte TaylorThe astonishing international bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment.On the morning of the 10th December 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four hours. As the damaged left side of her brain - the rational, logical, detail and time-oriented side - swung in an out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realities: the euphoric Nirvana of the intuitive and emotional right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical left brain, that realized Jill was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely. In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Taylor brings to light a new perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery that she gained through the intimate experience of awakening her own injured mind. The journey to recovery took eight years for Jill to feel completely healed. Using her knowledge of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Taylor completely repaired her mind and recalibrated her understanding of the world according to the insight gained from her right brain that December morning.
My Three Fathers: And the Elegant Deceptions of My Mother, Susan Mary Alsop
by Bill PattenBill Patten grew up in the heart of privileged society to American parents-a debutante mother, a diplomatic father-stationed in Europe. Weekends away from his English boarding school were often spent at the regal country estates of important policy makers and historical figures of the mid-twentieth century. When Bill was twelve years old, his father, William Patten, died, and his mother remarried the renowned columnist Joe Alsop. Patten was swept into Washington during the Kennedy years, where he bore witness to his stepfather's legendary power-brokering, and watched a very different father figure at work. In 1996, when he was forty-seven years old, Bill Patten learned that his biological father was not William Patten, but the noted English diplomat, Duff Cooper. In this quest to know his triumvirate of fathers, Bill Patten offers an unforgettable memoir. My Three Fathers is a search for identity-and a luscious chronicle of a fascinating, bygone era of American aristocracy.
My Three Fathers: And the Elegant Deceptions of My Mother, Susan Mary Alsop
by Bill PattenBill Patten grew up in the heart of privileged society to American parents -- a debutante mother, a diplomatic father -- stationed in Europe. Weekends away from his English boarding school were often spent at the regal country estates of important policy makers and historical figures of the mid-twentieth century. When Bill was twelve years old, his father, William Patten, died, and his mother remarried the renowned columnist Joe Alsop. Patten was swept into Washington during the Kennedy years, where he bore witness to his stepfather's legendary power-brokering, and watched a very different father figure at work. In 1996, when he was forty-seven years old, Bill Patten learned that his biological father was not William Patten, but the noted English diplomat, Duff Cooper. In this quest to know his triumvirate of fathers, Bill Patten offers an unforgettable memoir. My Three Fathers is a search for identity -- and a luscious chronicle of a fascinating, bygone era of American aristocracy.