After being on yo-yo diets almost all her life, she tried one more time without much hope for positive results. But this time was different. She was fed up with not being able to do things because of her size. She was tired of not being able to tie her own shoes, fit in restaurant booths, or walk more than a few feet. She was ready.The Athlete Inside follows Reynolds's journey as she lost 200 pounds and found an athlete hiding inside her body. From her first walk to the neighbor's mailbox to finishing sixth in the world at the Triathlon World Championship, Reynolds discovered the joy of conquering fear and pride to find that the best version of herself had been there all along.A world-class triathlete and a grandmother, Reynolds is proof that you can transform your life at any age. Her story is one of hope, tenacity, and faith, as she committed to doing whatever it took to be among the best triathletes in the world.

    

    Phil McGraw's beloved sister–in–law, an ordinary woman transformed by tragedy who has become an extraordinary hero for us all.In 2001, Cindi Broaddus was a passenger in a car driving along a lonely highway on her way toward a much–anticipated vacation. Suddenly, the predawn peace was shattered when an unknown assailant threw a gallon–sized jar full of sulphuric acid off an overpass and through the windshield. Though Broaddus was covered with second– and third–degree burns across her face and body, miraculously she did not die.Today, she is not only alive and well, but has a positive message of survival and hope to share.A Random Account recounts Broaddus's incredible journey from life–threatening disaster to recovery. Throughout her years–long, often excruciating recuperation – involving numerous reconstructive surgeries, multiple skin grafts, and implanted tissue expanders – this single mother of three has had one goal: to prevent such a terrible crime from happening again. Although her attacker has never been caught, Broaddus travels far and wide, sharing her story, lobbying for improving highway safety, and offering hope and down–to–earth guidance for other victims of senseless tragedy. For such a random act can happen to anyone, turning one's life upside down in an instant. As compelling as it is important, A Random Act is a must–read tale of tragedy and triumph from a truly remarkable woman.

     The political theories of Lenin have long outlived him, and have even gone on to outlive the Marxist state he help to found; the Soviet Union. The name Lenin still reverberates around the world, and yet “Lenin” is not even his real name. He was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the name Lenin was just the word he used to attach to his ideology, Lenin was just the brand that he developed as he attempted to make good on his promise to export Leninism all over the world. Inside you will read about... ✓ The Birth of Revolution ✓ Lenin’s Honeymoon in Exile ✓ Lenin’s Blank Check ✓ Dealing with Monarchist Filth ✓ Saving Face ✓ Voice of a Nation ✓ Russia Holds its Breath And much more! The man that came to be known as Vladimir Lenin almost single-handedly sparked communist revolution in Russia and he very nearly brought his brand of Marxism to the rest of the world. What drove him to do this? Where did he derive such an immense desire for societal change? This book serves to examine the landscape that brought such a pivotal figure to such prominence, examining all of the catalysts, from personal, to national, that led the man known simply as “Lenin” down his inexorable path of revolution.

    Tonnes of snow carried 13 members of two guided backcountry skiing groups down the 37-degree incline of a run called La Traviata and buried them. After a frantic hour of digging by remaining group members, an unthinkable outcome became reality. Seven people were dead.The tragedy made international news, splashing photos of the seven dead Canadian and US skiers on television screens and the pages of newspapers. The official analysis did not specifically note guide error as a contributing factor in the accident. This interpretation has been insufficient for some of the victims' families, the public and some members of the guiding community.Why did the guiding team seemingly ignore a particularly troublesome snowpack? Why were two groups travelling so close together? Were the guides adhering to best practices for terrain selection and snow stability evaluation? What motivated them to go there?"Buried" is the assistant guide's story. It renders an answerable truth about what happened by delving deep into the human factors that played into putting people in harm's way. The story begins buried metres deep in snow, and through care-filled reflection emerges slowly like spring after a long winter, nurturing a hopeful, courageous dialogue for all who make journeys through the mountains of their life. The story illustrates the peace that comes from accountability and the growth that results from understanding.

    History shows that they succeeded; the Cold War ended peacefully, but for security reasons, only now can this story be told.Eric Thompson is a career nuclear submarine officer who served from the first days of the Polaris missile boats until after the end of the Cold War. He joined the Navy in the last days of Empire, made his first sorties in World War II type submarines and ended up as the top engineer in charge of the Navy's nuclear power plants. Along the way, he helped develop all manner of kit, from guided torpedoes to the Trident ballistic missile system. In this vivid personal account of his submarine operations, he reveals what it was like to literally have your finger on the nuclear button.In his journey, the author leads the reader through top-secret submarine patrols, hush-hush scientific trials, underwater weapon developments, public relations battles with nuclear protesters, arm-wrestling with politicians, and the changing roles of women and homosexuals in the Navy. It is essentially a human story, rich in both drama and comedy, like the Russian spy trawler that played dance music at passing submarines. There was never a dull moment.Behind the lighter moments was a deadly serious game. This, the inside story of Britain's nuclear deterrent, reveals the secretive life of submarines and the men who served on them; they kept their watch, and by maintaining the threat of 'Mutually Assured Destruction, ' helped keep Britain and the world safe.

    His life, too, is the stuff of legend, from his survival of the siege of Leningrad in early childhood to his expulsion from the Soviet Union and his achievements as a Nobel Prize winner and America’s poet laureate.In this penetrating biography, Brodsky’s life and work are illuminated by his great friend, the late poet and literary scholar Lev Loseff. Drawing on a wide range of source materials, some previously unpublished, and extensive interviews with writers and critics, Loseff carefully reconstructs Brodsky’s personal history while offering deft and sensitive commentary on the philosophical, religious, and mythological sources that influenced the poet’s work. Published to great acclaim in Russia and now available in English for the first time, this is literary biography of the first order, and sets the groundwork for any books on Brodsky that might follow.

    

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    It is a story about a boy lost in life, the system and finally found. It is a moving and troubling sotry to read

    Released after eight long years he is finally able to recount the experience of being transported to and between prisons, interactions and friendships with other prisoners, the day to day drudgery of trying to stay alive under horrendous conditions which involved trying to meet ridiculously high work quotas for extremely strenuous jobs while in a constant state of starvation and often, sickness.

    Anton, a remote village nestled in the glittering and dangerous peaks of the Austrian Alps. There, he befriends the local clique of ski bums and fills his days with endless, exhilarating skiing, and his nights flirting with the prettiest girls at the bars. But in the quiet moments, Norman cannot escape the painful memories of his challenging, adrenaline-addicted father who took him to St. Anton fifteen years earlier, and who died in a terrible plane crash of which Norman, at the age of eleven, was the sole survivor. In Gravity, Ollestad transports us to those thrilling days in the Alps, and reveals how his search to find greater meaning in his rudderless life helped him discover the relationships that make life worth living.Norman Ollestad was born in Los Angeles in 1967 and grew up in Malibu. He studied creative writing at UCLA and attended UCLA’s undergrad Film School. His writing has appeared in Outside, Men’s Journal and Time. He is married and has two children—a son and daughter—and lives in Venice, California.Cover design by Adil Dara

    Those selected for Bomber Command operations went on to rain devastation upon the Third Reich in the great air battles over Europe, but their losses were high. German fighters and anti-aircraft guns took a terrifying toll. The chances of surviving a tour of duty as a bomber crew were almost nil.Murray Peden's story of his training in Canada and England, and his crew's operations on Stirlings and Flying Fortresses with 214 Squadron, has been hailed as a classic of war literature. It is a fine blend of the excitement, humour, and tragedy of that eventful era.

    Shirer's new book - written in his ninth decade - explores the passionate, highly charged, and extraordinary lives of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy. It is a compelling illumination both of the nature of genius and of the universal problems of love, sex, and marriage - themes that Tolstoy played out in his great fiction and that haunted him in his tangled domestic life. Rich in anecdotes, wise, full of sweeping history, and imbued with Shirer's profound knowledge of literature and life, Love and Hatred ranks beside such works as Robert Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra and Nigel Nicolson's Portrait of a Marriage as a masterly, intuitive, and sympathetic exploration of the love/hate relationship between two famous, bigger-than-life people. Beginning in 1862, when Tolstoy committed the blunder of asking his young bride to read his diaries of his bachelor life so there should be no secrets between them, and ending with his tragic flight from home (and marriage) in 1910 while the whole world waited for news of him, Love and Hatred tells the story of a great romance between two people who could live neither together nor apart - a romance that exhausted and obsessed them both, and that forms the basis for much of Tolstoy's work. The final book of William L. Shirer's long and brilliant career, it is - appropriately - a masterly re-creation of a time, of two extraordinary people, and of the very nature of love, marriage, and old age.

    Photographs and maps.