Book picks similar to
Writings from the Sand, Volume 1: Collected Works of Isabelle Eberhardt by Isabelle Eberhardt
travel
non-fiction
pilgrimage-travel-tourism
africa
The White Masai
Corinne Hofmann - 1998
Corinne, a European entrepreneur, meets Lketinga, a Samburu warrior, while on vacation in Mombasa on Kenya's glamorous coast. Despite language and cultural barriers, they embark on an impossible love affair. Corinne uproots her life to move to Africa—not the romantic Africa of popular culture, but the Africa of the Masai, in the middle of the isolated bush, where five-foot-tall huts made from cow dung serve as homes. Undaunted by wild animals, hunger, and bouts with tropical diseases, she tries to forge a life with Lketinga. But slowly the dream starts to crumble when she can no longer ignore the chasm between their two vastly different cultures.A story that taps into our universal belief in the power of love, The White Masai is at once a hopelessly romantic love story, a gripping adventure yarn, and a compulsively good read.
Knit 2 Purl 2 Kill 2
Erina Bridget Ring - 2014
When her mother's health begins to fail, Erina Bridget Ring searches for something to do during the hours she spends at her mother's bedside. What she discovers is knitting--and a group of women knitters. But as she learns to knit and at the same time cares for her ailing mother, she finds that things at the knitting group are not what they seem to be.
ER DOC: Defining Moments of a Career in Emergency Medicine
Reggie Duling - 2021
Get in the Van: On the Road With Black Flag
Henry Rollins - 1994
Rollins's observations range from the wry to the raucous in this blistering account of a six-year career with the band - a time marked by crazed fans, vicious cops, near-starvation, substance abuse, and mind numbing all-night drives. Rollins decided to revise this edition by adding a wealth of new photographs, a new foreword, and an afterword to include some "where-are-they-now" information on the people featured in the book. This new edition includes 40 previously unpublished black-and-white photographs from Rollins's private collection and show flyers by artist Raymond Pettibon. Called "a soul-frying experience not to be undertaken by lightweights" by Wired magazine, Get in the Van perfectly embodies what one critic called the "secular gospel" of one of punk and post-punk's most respected and controversial figures.
To the Ice and Beyond: Sailing Solo Across 32 Oceans and Seaways
Graeme Kendall - 2016
All alone for 193 days in his purpose-built yacht Astral Express, New Zealand yachtsman Graeme Kendall crossed 28,000 miles of ocean, facing some of the Earth
Guantánamo Diary: Restored Edition
Mohamedou Ould Slahi - 2015
Since 2002, Mohamedou Slahi has been imprisoned at the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In all these years, the United States has never charged him with a crime. Although he was ordered released by a federal judge, the U.S. government fought that decision, and there is no sign that the United States plans to let him go. Three years into his captivity Slahi began a diary, recounting his life before he disappeared into U.S. custody and daily life as a detainee. His diary is not merely a vivid record of a miscarriage of justice, but a deeply personal memoir -- terrifying, darkly humorous, and surprisingly gracious. Published now for the first time, Guantanamo Diary is a document of immense historical importance.
Nobody Eats Parsley: And other things I learned from my family
David Oakley - 2020
They're so ridiculous you may think they're fiction. Like the time I went to a drive-in X-rated movie without realizing my parents were in the next car. Or the time I let my kid throw a rock through our living room window. There's the time I bought a camouflage thong in a bait shop and the time I ruined a kid's birthday party. And the other time I ruined a kid's birthday party. I can't guarantee that these stories will make you laugh, but I can guarantee that I didn't make them up.
God and Mr. Gomez
Jack Clifford Smith - 1974
The joys and travails of building a home in Baja California.
Skinhead... The Life I Chose: Memoirs of a Real Skin
Spike Pitt - 2014
It is NOT about Nazism, or Neo-Nazism, and definitely not about politics; it is the story of how the ebullience of youth can be corrupted and misinterpreted by propaganda and the media. Warning This story contains a lot of strong language, British slang and outspoken opinions that may be offensive to some; it is nevertheless the truth.
Who Ate All The Pies? The Life and Times of Mick Quinn
Mick Quinn - 2003
They said Mick had a sixth sense for great accuracy in his playing days - he could find a party from any range. Quinn says he only put £50 on each horse race - but liked to stay in the bookies for twenty races a day!Sentenced in 1987 to three weeks in prison for twice driving whilst banned, Mick's been accused of punching Peter Schmeichel on the football pitch and John Fashanu off it. On retirement, though, Quinn switched to horse racing, the Sport of Kings, but controversy led the blue bloods of racing to hang the scouse oik out to dry and he was suspended from training for two and a half years.Who Ate All The Pies? is the funniest and most honest football book you'll read for a long, long time.
Bret "Hitman" Hart: The Best There Was, the Best There Is, the Best There Will Ever Be.
Bret Hart - 2000
Hitman is a charismatic and imposing 235 pounds of super-might on the mat. He has punched, slammed, kicked, pummeled, and crushed his way to five World Heavyweight Championships, with two Intercontinental titles and two World Tag Team titles to his name.One of the most technically proficient and skilled performers in professional wrestling history, Bret Hart consistently dazzles his fans and crushes his opponents. With a contract valued in the millions, his performances significantly contribute to the WCWs Pay-for-View televised audiences, numbering in the millions!Bret "Hitman" Hart is a provocative account of the building of a legend, from Bret's early days with his family, his entrance into amateur wrestling and the pro ranks, and his famous battles and skirmishes, such as his memorable and surprising run-in with Goldberg at the Toronto "Nitro" night -- all lavishly illustrated with photographs (many never seen before) from his early years to the present, including those with celebrities from sports and entertainment. Bret also writes personally about his brother Owen and his tragic death, and the strong bond that existed between them.
Paw Prints In Oman: Dogs, Mogs and Me
Charlotte Smith - 2014
But playing tennis, avoiding coffee mornings and being a perfect wife and mother in the Middle East is not enough. Charlotte convinces a local veterinary clinic to employ her and throws herself into assisting the vets, overcoming her fear of birds and rehoming hundreds of stray cats and dogs. Cyclones, earthquakes, transvestites, unwanted paramours, cultural differences, tears and laughter follow as seven years flash by. Will Charlotte stay, or gather up the motley crew of pets she has collected and head for home? Charlotte was born, raised and lived in West Sussex, UK, with her children, animals, Aga and husband until 2006. She dreamed of spending time with Colin Firth, or Gordon Ramsey, and couldn't wait for Christmas to come around for Love Actually to be on the TV. But then she was dragged off to live in Oman, in the heart of the Middle East, where coffee mornings and sets of tennis soon gave way to a life of animal rescue and re-homing. Her first book, Paw Prints in Oman, is full of wonderful stories and unique insights into her life in this mystical land.
It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine's Path to Peace
Rye Barcott - 2011
He was a college student heading into the Marines, and he sought to better understand ethnic violence-something he would likely face later in uniform. He learned Swahili, asked questions, and listened to young people talk about how they survived in poverty he had never imagined. Anxious to help but unsure what to do, he stumbled into friendship with a widowed nurse, Tabitha Atieno Festo, and a hardscrabble community organizer, Salim Mohamed.Together, this unlikely trio built a non-governmental organization that would develop a new generation of leaders from within one of Africa's largest slums. Their organization, Carolina for Kibera (CFK), is now a global pioneer of the movement called Participatory Development, and was honored by Time magazine as a Hero of Global Health. CFK's greatest lesson may be that with the right kind of support, people in desperate places will take charge of their lives and create breathtaking change.Engaged in two seemingly contradictory forms of public service at the same time, Barcott continued his leadership in CFK while serving as a human intelligence officer in Iraq, Bosnia, and the Horn of Africa. Struggling with the intense stress of leading Marines in dangerous places, he took the tools he learned building a community in one of the most fractured parts of Kenya and became a more effective counter insurgent and peacekeeper.It Happened on the Way to War is a true story of sacrifice and courage and the powerful melding of military and humanitarian service. It's a story of what America's role in the world could be.
Hardcourt Confidential: Tales from Twenty Years in the Pro Tennis Trenches
Patrick McEnroe - 1900
Patrick McEnroe has been in the world of professional tennis in one way or another for most of his life. As a player, coach, and ESPN commentator, he's seen it all. The significant tennis books of recent years have all been autobiographies--famous players burnishing their image or attempting to set the record straight within carefully controlled memoirs. No one has been willing to do a book that pulls back the curtain and presents an honest, no-holds-barred look into the ultimate gentleman's sport and the larger-than-life personalities that inhabit it. Patrick McEnroe does just that. Curious to know which marquee player threw a tantrum and bailed early on a tournament? Why Roger Federer, presumably the greatest player of all time, has a losing head-to-head record with Rafael Nadal? Why certain tennis prodigies burned out early? The real role of coaches like Nick Bollettieri? Which player is as much of a diva off the court as on? The greatest match ever played? In Hardcourt Confidential, McEnroe uses his twenty-five-plus years in the trenches of the game to tell true tales and wild stories about the players you think you know (from Sampras to Agassi to Roddick to the Williams sisters), how and why the game has changed since he first swung a racket, and what the future holds in store for American tennis. McEnroe takes an unapologetic look at the men, women, and events of the past three decades, right up to the epic Federer vs. Nadal rivalry that dominates the game today. He's got a lot to say and he's not afraid to say it.
Confessions of a Community Nurse
Lucy Spencer - 2019
From travel sickness in the back of an ambulance to chasing 87-year-old patients down the corridors of care homes, from borderline assault to ulcers big enough to fit your fist into, Confessions of a Community Nurse follows the experiences of Lucy and her transition from timid student to a healthcare professional in the NHS. After a shaky start to her career, Lucy has now encountered every bodily fluid going, smelled things no-one should ever have to smell, and resisted the urge to bang her head against a wall more times than she can count. Between fond attachments to patients and wanting to hand them the nails for their own coffins, Lucy has flourished in the healthcare profession, not being afraid to speak up for her patients but also not being afraid to speak up for herself. Offering a completely truthful insight into being a 'baby nurse', it is funny and honest, but also emotional and humbling. Written as a memoir, it may just change the way you think about district nursing and open the mind to understanding the frustrations, and passions, of healthcare staff and patients alike.