Book picks similar to
Cleared for Takeoff by Bob Griffin


missionary-stories
non-fiction
non-fiction-christian
young-adult

Kerry Packer: Tall tales & true stories


Michael Stahl - 2015
    In this fun, irrepressible collection, author Michael Stahl has delved into the world of the man who was instrumental in shaping Australia's media landscape.For 30 years, Kerry Packer controlled television’s perennial ratings leader Channel Nine and up to half of the nation’s magazines. So much of what Australians watched, read and believed came through the prism of this gigantic man.Beneath all the billionaire clutter, though, Packer had plenty in common with the man in the street: a cheeky humour, a competitive drive, a deep love for his kids and a passion for sports and television. In business, Packer would fight to the last dollar in a deal. Yet the same man would take his private jet to Las Vegas and lose $20 million in a week – then leave a $1 million tip. He could verbally dissect a hapless executive in front of his peers, yet no less often, would step in silently and invisibly when hardship or tragedy befell a loyal staff member or their family.This book is a collection of stories on the Big Fella, gathered from people who knew him, from those who documented him, and from the folklore that inevitably grew up around him.Michael Stahl is a journalist who during the 1980s worked at Packer’s ACP headquarters in Park Street, Sydney, where his career highlights included riding in the lift with the chairman. Stahl was named Journalist of the Year in 2011 by Publishers Australia and is currently features editor of Qantas The Australian Way and contributing editor to Wheels magazine.

A Shore Thing


Scotty T - 2016
    Long before starring in the show, Scotty was living life to the fullest and getting up to all sorts. In this hilarious page turner, Scotty T will not only let slip scandalous secrets from Geordie Shore, Ex on the Beach and Celebrity Big Brother, but will open up about his antics when the cameras stop rolling.   But it's not all sex, fights and getting mortal! Scotty also reveals a surprisingly softer side and opens up about living with ADHD, coping with the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and picking up the pieces after the loss of a loved one. The rascal also reflects on the lasses who have tried and failed to tame his heart and introduces us to the love of his life who has been living in the shadows all this time.    And if all that wasn't enough, Scotty explains why he loves maths so much, what it was like to join the Neighbours cast, plus finally admits what he really thinks about his castmates, why he was nearly kicked off the show by producers and what life has in store for him after Geordie Shore.

When Hope Becomes Life: A Five Time Surrogate Mother Shares Her Truth About Surrogacy (Book Two)


Susan A. Ring - 2019
    Invited to share her story with the world, the photographer hands her a sign to hold in front of her body for the article. The sign: FOR RENT.What follows is a transformational story that is both heartbreaking and exhilarating. As Susan hurtles toward the confusion of what it means to be a surrogate mother, she looks for what might help her cope and throws herself back into the surrogacy world. She will end up spending the entire decade of her forties being a surrogate mother for other families. As with many love stories, things start to fall apart and she realizes surrogacy/pregnancy has become an obsession.Susan longs for a single why to her pregnancy past, but instead finds many complex reasons. She forges ahead to find answers deep within herself, and wants what is missing from her life. She finds what she never expected.

The Comeback: How Larry Ellison's Team Won the America's Cup (Kindle Single)


G. Bruce Knecht - 2016
    New Zealand needed just one more win. Oracle ultimately beat back the odds in what's been called the greatest comeback in sport. But was it? G. Bruce Knecht set out to investigate how Oracle turned things around and, most particularly, the source of extra horsepower that seemed to come from nowhere during the final races. What he discovered was that the team was using a sailing technique that was prohibited under the rules. The Comeback is a pulse-pounding account of Oracle's desperate stop-at-nothing campaign.G. Bruce Knecht, a former staff reporter and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, is the author of three books, including The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race. Larry Ellison was a major character in that book as well and it explains how his experience in the race led to his pursuit of the America's Cup. A sailor himself, Knecht raced across the Atlantic in 2005 on the yacht that broke the 100-year-old transatlantic race record.Cover design by Charles Rue Woods.

Beyond No Mean Soldier: The Explosive Recollections of a Former Special Forces Operator


Peter McAleese - 2014
    His classic book "No Mean Soldier" was an immediate bestseller and set the bar for the modern military memoir. Few have since met its match. This completely revised and expanded edition sees a philosophical McAleese revisiting his time with Britain's Parachute Regiment, the SAS, Rhodesia's SAS and the South African Defense Force's 44 Para Brigade. Oh, and a few other adventures in and between - Colombia, private military companies and near fatal skydiving accidents; mercenary, soldier of fortune or flawed ideologist? Now's your time to consider this and more - as has McAleese himself. It's a compelling read - and with the addition of previously unpublished photos from McAleese's private collection, there's no other way to describe it. "Beyond No Mean Soldier" does exactly that, going deep and further beyond the experience of "No Mean Soldier". Over many months and into the early hours, McAleese reflected on his wide and expansive experiences - the men he's served with and the operations he'd conducted. Here in startling detail are the Aden insurgency, covert operations with the Rhodesian SAS and one of the first ever operational HALO inserts in British military history. Heart pumping assaults on SWAPO positions with 44 Para's Pathfinder Company and the sheer terror of flawed mercenary operations in Angola with the likes of 'Colonel Callan'; near death in Colombia when an assassination attempt went terribly wrong. McAleese recounts all of this with amazing clarity and even more humility. 'I'm just an ordinary person who happened to find himself doing extraordinary things' he says. Yes, perhaps that's true to a point, but what rides through all of McAleese's narrative is his total commitment to the profession of arms - soldiering. His attention to detail, his consummate knowledge of military skills from field craft to skill at arms; airborne operations to the tactics of small unit SAS operations.... All of this echoed by the commentary of the numerous individuals that served with McAleese. From around the world, dozens have contributed perspective, commentary and reflection. "Pete does not take fools gladly and this is based upon his comprehensive combat experience where idiots will cause casualties" Alistair Mackenzie - Former 22 SAS Officer. "I managed to get myself into some very nasty but also exciting scraps while latching on to the Pathfinders to see how they were shaping up as the so-called 'Philistines'. They did excellently while under fire, proof that Peter's selection and training regime paid high dividends" Colonel Jan Breytenbach - Former Commander 44 Para Brigade Pathfinder Company, Founder 32 Battalion. These are just two of the contributions featured in "Beyond No Mean Soldier". In an age where we debate courage and leadership, it's all here. Go Beyond No Mean Soldier, it will certainly change the way you see soldiering.

Close Up


Kelly Brook - 2014
    As a child she just wanted to be an actress - she never imagined she'd also become a hugely popular pin up girl or that she'd be romanced by film stars and pursued by paparazzi.Now, in her deeply personal and honest autobiography, Kelly opens up about the men she has loved and the tragic loss and heartache she has overcome. And she reveals how, by refusing to be limited by other people's perceptions of her, she has forged a successful career as an actress, model and business woman. In Close Up we see the real Kelly. The girl behind the gloss. A funny, feisty woman who lives life on her own terms.

Live While You Can: A Memoir of Faith, Hope and the Power of Acceptance


Tony Coote - 2019
    Just a few short months later, he found himself confined to a wheelchair. But rather than succumbing to the darkness that threatened to overwhelm him in the days after his diagnosis, he drew on his powerful faith and unwavering belief in life and found a way to light, hope and acceptance.From growing up in Fairview, to serving in the dioceses in Ballymun and later Mount Merrion and Kilmacud, and his charity work while in UCD, Fr Tony takes us on the journey of his life and shows us how, through this devastating illness, he came to know the true meaning and nature of God's love.Sadly, Tony passed away on the 28 August 2019 but his memoir and his message of hope, strength and unwavering faith live on.'Our lives will never be measured in words spoken or success achieved but rather how we live and how our life has affected those around us.' Fr Tony Coote

Finding Myself in Puglia: A Journey of Self-Discovery Under the Warm Southern Italian Sun


Laine B Brown - 2018
    Laine gave up her job as a nurse, sold her home and gave away most of her belongings. She has three desires bubbling at the heart of her choice: to write a book, paint a picture and climb a mountain before she died. A man with a van took most of her remaining belongings, along with her basset hound Basil, down to the heel of Italy over 1,500 miles away, where she would spend the next four years. If it all seemed like a folly, then she was willing to take the risk. She moved to a house that she had only spent a week in the year before. She knew no one and yet she had surety in her resolve. She wanted to feel fully present in feeling unsafe and comfortable with the not knowing. And so the journey began, a new language, a new life laced with humour and laughter under the warm southern Italian sun. Come and join her...

DOUBT: The Madeleine McCann Mystery (Gone Girl Book 1)


Nick van der Leek - 2017
    We also know the original lead investigator, Goncalo Amaral’s, counter-narrative, now a legally defensible matter of public record. The questions that arise from these opposing narratives are dead simple: Which narrative is more credible? Which narrator is more credible? What was the motive behind all the publicity? Neither Madeleine nor her abductor ultimately benefited from the ongoing media barrage, so who did? True crime maestro, Nick van der Leek, plumbs quagmires of confusion and a thicket of thorny inconsistencies to probe what lies beneath: the psychologies. What is the significance of "doctors" as suspects? Did it matter or mean anything that the McCanns and their cabal of friends in the Algarve were mostly doctors? Peeling away the gossamer threads, over the course of just four days [April 29th – May 2nd], van der Leek intuits that very little was routine: not the weather, not where meals were eaten, not where or when they slept and not what they did as a family. But what were their routines when it came to other, murkier things, like sleeping patterns, cell phones and sedatives? Drawing intangibles out of the darkness, van der Leek sews the vexing loose ends from several conflicting stories into a definite - if not definitive - end-result.

President Trump And The New World Order: The Ramtha Trump Prophecy


Michael Knight - 2017
     Having been a businessman all his life, making billions in the process, as president he now has to choose to either join the club (the "club" that hides in the shadows at the top of the pyramid, or is embedded as the "Deep State" within government and its departments and agencies) or fulfill his campaign promises and "Make America Great Again"...in more ways than one. In this book, retired veteran investigative journalist Michael Knight brings you a unique perspective on the past, the present, and the future. Taking the lid off the pyramid of power, "President Trump And The New World Order" walks you through the veil behind which families such as the Rothschilds and Rockefellers have spent generations, both publicly and behind the scenes, manipulating governments, politicians, and ordinary people alike in order to build their New World Order. At the time of publication (September 2017) President Trump is under siege as outlets like CNN (referred to in this book as the Cabal News Network), continue to insist that he is unfit for the job. What they will never report - but what is revealed here, exclusively - is that President Donald Trump has friends in very high places. Among them is Ramtha the Enlightened One. Ramtha is an enigma to many people, but who he is is well documented in this book - along with his prophecy about President Trump, and UFOs, and why this will lead to some truly radical changes for the entire world. Just as evil can hide within good (an example of which you will see in the associated Ramtha prophecy video) good can also be obscured by chaos - which seems to be the current state of America under the new Trump presidency. Regardless of political persuasion, this book will certainly provide every reader with new and rational insights into the many ways in which deceivers under the appearance of doing good have indeed created a tremendous amount of bad, ranging from assassination of presidents and prime ministers who opposed their agendas, to false flag events that have resulted in major wars and the loss of many lives, to the establishment of central banks that have control of the money supply - control of governments - control of people - right down to the ordinary man in the street. Author Michael Knight and North Star Publishing Inc are licensed to refer to Ramtha's teachings that have been delivered over the past 40 years. For "President Trump And the New World Order" numerous Ramtha quotes are excerpted from the book "Last Waltz of the Tyrants," in which Ramtha outlined the Rothschild dynasty's rise to its current position atop the pyramid - a position which you will find is now in serious jeopardy. "President Trump And The New World Order" is recommended reading for anyone who is concerned about where America (and the world) are headed.

I Still Deserve It: Affirmations for women who refuse to give up on love


Derrick Jaxn - 2017
     Well, look no further. This book contains the affirmations necessary to retrain your mind and redirect your energy in the direction of your destiny. Read to understand and meditate on these passages regularly, and watch everything about your life improve starting with your perspective.

PREGNANCY: What You Need To Know When You're Expecting - The Complete Pregnancy Guide For Moms And Dads (Pregnancy Books) (Pregnancy Books for First Time Moms Book 1)


Jyothi Shenoy - 2016
    Jyothi Shenoy explains EXACTLY what you need to do, why you need to do it, and when you need to do it...all in an easy to understand, step-by-step fashion. Inside this complete pregnancy guide, you will learn: - The 11 most important facts about pregnancy that all mom's and dad's need to know - The top 10 pregnancy myths - The most recent developments in obstetrics that will save you time and energy - The physical symptoms you will experience and the solutions - Dangerous pregnancy symptoms that should not be ignored - Diet and nutrition tips for a pregnant woman - Guidelines for safe exercises during pregnancy - How to handle the emotional roller coaster during pregnancy - The most current lifestyle trends in the pregnancy world - What’s hot and what's not for sex during pregnancy - How to juggle a busy career with your pregnancy - Travel tips for pregnant women - What a man needs to know about pregnancy - Safe skin-care products during pregnancy - What clothes you should and shouldn't wear during pregnancy - The packing list for the hospital or birth center

Perseverance


Kristin Peck - 2014
    Now, graduating from business school, newly married, Kristin is ready to take the next step of starting a family. But when Kristin’s first pregnancy ends with a miscarriage, she is devastated. When her second pregnancy does as well, Kristin and her husband Bob turn to in vitro fertilization – and are heartbroken again after a third miscarriage. Undaunted, they turn to alternate options, including surrogacy and adoption, but face setbacks at every turn, some so unthinkable that they never could have been predicted. In the most extreme of circumstances, when all of our careful plans are thrown out the window, how do we persevere? In spite of the pain and sorrow of the many years spent trying to start their family, Kristin and Bob remain positive, loving, and driven – and learn in their ultimately rewarding journey that life’s joys come more from the unexpected than from the expected.100% of Kristin Peck’s proceeds from the sale of Perseverance will be donated to Family and Children's Agency.Kristin Peck is thrilled to be the working mother of two amazing children. She keeps herself sane by belting out her favorite pop and country songs while running and completing triathlons, and is proud to have recently completed her first marathon. She is currently EVP, Group President of Zoetis, Inc., the world's largest animal health company. Kristin received her bachelor’s from Georgetown and her MBA from Columbia Business School. Kristin, her husband, two children and their dog live in CT. Perseverance is her first book.Cover design by Hannah Perrine Mode.

101 Free Money Making Apps: Earn Money While on the Go From Your Smartphone


Jason Wuerch - 2017
    These money making apps pay you for completing the following: watching videos, taking surveys, completing short tasks, investing, working out, shopping online, mystery shopping and unlocking your phone. This is a great way to earn some extra cash on the side without having to use a large amount of effort. The best part is that some of these apps are completely passive, meaning you can earn a passive income without needing to do anything else other than installing the app and cashing out. As a bonus, we've also included 5 money making websites in addition to the 101 money making apps.

EndEx


Clive Ward - 2017
    Your clearance chit is all signed off. You’ve received your last train warrant, they’ve taken your ID card off you at the guard room, and you walk out through the gate for the last time, it’s Endex. It doesn’t matter how many years you served in the military, it will always have a lasting effect on the way you live the rest of your life. Marine, soldier, sailor or airman, whichever you may be, there are some qualities and experiences that most, if not all veterans, share. There are 3 types of people, Civilian, Military and Veteran. Once you join the military, you can never go back to being a civilian again. When you’ve left the military, you might think you are doing a great job trying to blend in to your civilian surroundings, but the signs are there, that you once served your country, sometimes without you even realising it. What you will realise is you’ll never be normal again.