Vietnam Diary


Richard Tregaskis - 1963
     For the next four months he spent his life on the frontline, witnessing and recording what the American men were doing, saying and thinking in the fight against the communist forces of Northern Vietnam. Tregaskis exposes the confusion of the conflict as he climbs on board Marine and Army helicopters and goes on missions to search out their deadly foes that seem to disappear into the jungle as soon as they are seen. Vietnam Diary is a remarkable book that takes the reader to the heart of what it was like to be fighting in this vicious war. Through the course of the book Tregaskis develops deep friendships with many of the troops who begin to open up to him and explain their experiences that they have been through since the beginning of the war. “He discusses in typical Tregaskis style his observations and experiences during the time he spent with the Marine and Army helicopter units, the Special Forces, the MAAG personnel, and the Junk fleet.” R. C. Rosacker, Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Marine Corps, Naval War College Review Tregaskis won the George Polk Award for first-person reporting under hazardous conditions shortly after publishing Vietname Diary. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Vietnam War as well as the lives of the soldiers who fought within it. Richard Tregaskis was an American journalist and author who served as a war correspondent during World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He was no stranger to danger as he frequently put himself in the firing line to report and during the Second World War while in Italy a shell fragment pierced his helmet and his skull and nearly killed him. His book Vietnam Diary was first published in 1963 and he passed away in Hawaii in 1973.

Love Me or Else: The True Story of a Devoted Pastor, a Fatal Jealousy, and the Murder that Rocked a Small Town


Colin McEvoy - 2012
    But inside, she longed for the church's handsome Pastor Gregory Shreaves, a former golf pro who sparked her most sinful thoughts.When Mary Jane let her feelings be known, the Pastor gently pushed her away. But her obsession only grew stronger when she became convinced that he was romantically involved with a younger church member, a woman named Rhonda Smith.Rhonda was doing volunteer work in the church office one day when she was shot to death in cold blood. The trail of evidence led police to Mary Jane, and soon other suspicions were raised: Was she also involved in the mysterious death of her own father fifteen years earlier? This is the shocking true story of love, worship, and murder in one American small town.

McSweeney's #50


Dave Eggers - 2017
    There have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head. McSweeney’s has won multiple literary awards, including two National Magazine Awards for fiction, and has had numerous stories appear in The Best American Magazine Writing, the O. Henry Awards anthologies, and The Best American Short Stories. Design awards given to the quarterly include the AIGA 50 Books Award, the AIGA 365 Illustration Award, and the Print Design Regional Award.

How to Buy Your First Home (And How to Sell it Too)


Phil Spencer - 2011
    Breaking everything down into simple and achievable steps, he makes this daunting process easy. Learn how to:- Find your perfect pad- Choose which mortgage is right for you- Negotiate with estate agents and sellers- Organise exchange and completion Including indispensable advice, money-saving tips and an essential trouble-shooting section, this guide covers everything a first-time buyer needs to know. And when it's time to move on again, this book will show you how to sell your home too.Phil Spencer is one the best-known faces on British television, co-presenting the hit Channel 4 series Location, Location, Location and Relocation, Relocation. Phil has written regularly columns in The Sunday Times and Country Life, and is contracted to Archant publishing to write columns that are syndicated in the group's numerous local glossy magazines which are distributed nationwide. Recent TV appearances include on The One Show, Children in Need and The Friday Night Project, and Phil also regularly appears on the radio to discuss property issues.

Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek


John Branch - 2012
    Still, they took the deadly gamble—and lost. As acclaimed "New York Times" reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist John Branch writes in this harrowing tale of disaster and survival, "the very thing the skiers and snowboarders had sought—fresh, soft snow—instantly became the enemy." In less than a minute, Tunnel Creek turned from a playground into an icy tomb.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker: A Selection of Real Meals


Will Self - 2012
    I aimed to turn this proposition on its head, and instead of commenting on where and what people would ideally like to eat I would consider where and what they actually did: the ready meals, buffet snacks and - most importantly - fast food that millions of Britons chomp upon in the go-round of their often hurried and dyspeptic lives.'In this selection from his hilarious New Statesman Real Meals column, Will Self reviews the chains where most of us go to eat (KFC, Greggs, Yo! Sushi, Pizza Express and their like), delves into the ubiquitous Thai meal and chicken tikka masala, and experiences hotel breakfasts, frozen tv dinners and airline food on our behalf. These are restaurant reviews of the kind you've never read before.

War Stories


Jeremy Bowen - 2006
    He had witnessed violence already, both at home & abroad, but it wasn't until he covered his first war that he felt he had arrived. This is his story, examining his desire to become a war reporter & how the nature of the job has changed.

A Day Like Today: Memoirs


John Humphrys - 2019
    Humphrys was the BBC’s youngest foreign correspondent; he was the first reporter at the catastrophe of Aberfan, an experience that marked him for ever; he was in the White House when Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign; in South Africa during the dying years of apartheid; and in war zones around the globe throughout his career. John was also the first journalist to present the Nine O’Clock News on television.Humphrys pulls no punches and now, freed from the restrictions of being a BBC journalist, he reflects on the politicians he has interrogated and the controversies he has reported on and been involved in, including the interview that forced the resignation of his own boss, the director general. In typically candid style, he also weighs in on the role the BBC itself has played in our national life – for good and ill – and the broader health of the political system today.A Day Like Today is both a sharp, shrewd memoir and a backstage account of the great newsworthy moments in recent history – from the voice behind the country’s most authoritative microphone.

Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in the Syrian Kurdistan


Michael Knapp - 2015
    And while the reality of the devastation is undeniable, there is  reason for hope in at least one small pocket of the nation: the cantons of Rojava in Syrian Kurdistan, where in the wake of war people are quietly building one of the most progressive societies in the world today. Revolution in Rojava tells the story of Rojava's groundbreaking experiment in what they call democratic confederalism, a communally organized democracy that is fiercely anti-capitalist and committed to female equality, while rejecting reactionary nationalist ideologies. Rooted in the ideas of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, the system is built on effective gender quotas, bottom-up democratic structures, far-sighted ecological policies, and a powerful militancy that has allowed the region to keep ISIS at bay. This first full-length study of democratic developments in Rojava tells an extraordinary and powerfully hopeful story of a little-known battle for true freedom in dark times.

Hell Is Round the Corner: The Unique No-Holds Barred Autobiography


Tricky - 2019
    His signature sound, coupled with deep, questioning lyrics, took the UK by storm in the early 1990s and was part of the soundtrack that defined the post-rave generation.This unique, no-holds barred autobiography is not only a portrait of an incredible artist - it is also a gripping slice of social history packed with extraordinary anecdotes and voices from the margins of society. Tricky examines how his creativity has helped him find a different path to that of his relatives, some of whom were bare-knuckle fighters and gangsters, and how his mother's suicide has had a lifelong effect on him, both creatively and psychologically. With his unique heritage and experience, his story will be one of the most talked-about music autobiographies of the decade.

To Be Someone


Ian Stone - 2020
    Everywhere around him, adults were behaving badly. His parents’ relationship was in freefall so he tried not to spend too much time at home. But outside, there was industrial unrest, football violence, racism and police brutality. As for the music, it was all ‘Save All Your Grandma’s Kisses For My Love Sweet Jesus’. It made him feel physically sick. Then The Jam appeared.This is Ian’s story of that time. Of weekend jobs so that he could go to gigs. Of bunking into the Hammersmith Odeon and ending up on the roof. Of going to see The Jam in Paris and somehow finding himself being interviewed for Melody Maker. Of attempting to keep out of the way of skinheads and trying (and failing) to work out how to talk to girls. And of devastation when in 1982 Paul Weller announced that the band were splitting up. There will never be another band like The Jam. For those who went on that journey with them, the love ran deep. And still does. They helped Ian and thousands like him to grow up – to be someone.

24 Hour Revenge Therapy (33 1/3, #130)


Ronen Givony - 2018
    If anything, today, the cult of Jawbreaker-in their own words, "the little band that could but would probably rather not"-is now many times greater than it was when they broke up in 1996. Like the best work of Fugazi, The Clash, and Operation Ivy, the album is now is a rite of passage and a beloved classic among partisans of intelligent, committed, literary punk music and poetry.Why, when a thousand other artists came and went in that confounding decade of the 90s, did Jawbreaker somehow come to seem like more than just another band? Why do they persist, today, in meaning so much to so many people? And how did it happen that, two years after releasing their masterpiece, the band that was somehow more than just a band to its fans-closer to equipment for living-was no longer?Ronen Givony's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy is an extended tribute in the spirit of Nicholson Baker's U & I a passionate, highly personal, and occasionally obsessive study of one of the great confessional rock albums of the 90s. At the same time, it offers a quizzical look back to the toxic authenticity battles of the decade, ponders what happened to the question of "selling out," and asks whether we today are enriched or impoverished by that debate becoming obsolete.

Pale Native: Memories of a Renegade Reporter


Max Du Preez - 2003
    Sometimes wacky, sometimes profound, the title is always entertaining, with the odd bit of sleaze.

Mindfracked


M.R. Forbes - 2021
    Digitized consciousnesses known as Shades prowl the streets in bodies that aren’t their own, carrying out clandestine operations ordered by the artificial intelligence created to shepherd humankind through the aftermath. Civilization clings to a tenuous thread.Cassidy is one of the most experienced Shades in the Initiative. An elite operative with an impeccable record, he’s dedicated his life to combating the rampant organized crime that threatens the new world order.But when a beautiful stranger shows Cassidy that his entire existence is a lie, everything he’s ever known begins unraveling around him. It isn’t long before his fight for justice becomes a fight for something much bigger…...and the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.Follow Cassidy through the rain-soaked streets of 24th century Manhattan as he fights like John Wick against a corrupt system of repression and control where the lines between ally and enemy are always blurred and trust is a dangerous gambit.

This is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco


Garry Mulholland - 2002
    Along with that song, every one of these singles helped reshape the culture’s style, language, and performance. This is the story of how music and the world change, how bands reach a peak and dominate the scene briefly before fading away, and about the undeniable power of certain songs (Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” for example). Here are punk and grunge, disco and rock, funk and electronica, rap and hip-hop. Every incisive, illuminating, and outspokenessay defies the accepted view of music journalism. From Elvis Costello’s “Alison” and The Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” to Bjork’s “Hyperballad” and Missy Elliot’s “The Rain”, it’s a truly provocative read.