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These Things Really Do Happen To Me by Khaya Dlanga
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Shoulder Season (Lake Michigan Lodge, #1): A New Romantic Comedy
Kathy Fawcett
As far as Kay is concerned, the best season begins when the last lodger packs up their sunscreen and novelty t-shirts and goes home. Shoulder season was when Kerby Lodge was just for the Kerbys—her family huddled around the massive stone fireplace playing games and listening to the Great Lakes wind wail like a tragic shipwreck. She loves Kerby Lodge, but she also loved the idea of leaving it after she graduated from college. Then tragedy struck, and instead of leaving the lodge, it was left to her. Leaving Kay to keep the family tradition alive, which she numbly does year after year. Now storms are looming over Lake Michigan. An epic snowstorm pounds the coastline, and a blizzard of bills and taxes threaten to bury the family lodge her parents worked so hard to build. But the storms she doesn’t see coming are the volatile unpredictable Mayne brothers. The first is a cloud of dark curls and surly attitude named Daniel Mayne, her reclusive final guest of the season. An abrupt alpha-male licking his wounded pride after a devastating career loss, Daniel just wants to be left alone. Kay is happy to oblige him until a freak accident and record-breaking blizzard leave them holed up together with no possibility of escape. Trapped behind walls of snow, Kay finds herself confiding long-distance with Luke, Daniel’s younger brother, a nomadic school teacher wandering rootless from job to job. Forced to face their broken dreams together, Kay and Daniel forge an uneasy alliance and set out on a journey of reclamation that will change both their lives. Kay finds herself entangled, not only with Daniel, but also Luke. One brother makes her laugh, and the other just makes her crazy. In this smart, warm, uplifting tale of renovation, redemption and romance, a rustic old lodge on Lake Michigan isn’t the only thing that gets a second chance.
The Promise: A Story of Faith, Love, and Forgiveness
John Stone - 2018
But when the relationship between John and Tiffany ends, chaos begins to emerge. Caught in the middle is their son. This child is ruthlessly kidnapped from his father, and would then endure years of abuse. This child's father would be forced to endure years of stalking, harassment, threats, false accusations, and even an attempt on his life. He would endure all of this, all for the love of his son. In this book, which is based on a dramatic true story, a father must face countless challenges when his son's mother, who has Borderline Personality Disorder, stops at nothing in her attempt to dismantle his life. Little does she know, that God has promised this young father that He would someday bring his son back home to him. Come with us as we take you through this man's journey of faith. Feel the love that he has for his son as he risks his life and his freedom in order to be with him. And let us take you all the way to the end of this journey, where God's promise is fulfilled, and forgiveness reigns. www.johnstonebooks.com
Padmavati: The Queen Tells Her Own Story
Sutapa Basu - 2017
Who was Padmavati, the Queen of Chittor? What does history tell of her? Where did she come from? What kind of life did she lead? How did she have the courage to jump willingly into fire? Mrinalini goes to Chittorgarh to discover the truth. What does she really discover?
Bangkok Wakes to Rain
Pitchaya Sudbanthad - 2019
A post-World War II society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting her solitary fate. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the house's resident spirits. In the present, a young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in a New Krungthep yet to come, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these lives collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an elegy for what time erases and a love song to all that persists, yearning, into the unknowable future.
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Salman Rushdie - 2015
A masterful, mesmerizing modern tale about worlds dangerously colliding, the monsters that are unleashed when reason recedes, and a beautiful testament to the power of love and humanity in chaotic times. Inspired by 2,000 years of storytelling yet rooted in the concerns of our present moment, this is a spectacular achievement--enchanting, both very funny and terrifying. It is narrated by our descendants 1000 years hence, looking back on "The War of the Worlds" that began with "the time of the strangenesses": a simple gardener begins to levitate; a baby is born with the unnerving ability to detect corruption in people; the ghosts of two long-dead philosophers begin arguing once more; and storms pummel New York so hard that a crack appears in the universe, letting in the destructive djinns of myth (as well as some graphic superheroes). Nothing less than the survival of our world is at stake. Only one, a djinn princess who centuries before had learned to love humankind, resolves to help us: in the face of dynastic intrigue, she raises an army composed of her semi-magical great-great--etc.--grandchildren--a motley crew of endearing characters who come together to save the world in a battle waged for 1,001 nights--or, to be precise, two years, eight months and twenty-eight nights.
Untold Resilience
Future Women - 2020
In every town and suburb in Australia, there are women from older generations who have encountered unimaginable difficulties before; women who have endured and survived. Their stories are proof of the incredible resilience of the female spirit.Based on hours of interviews from their homes during lockdown, in Untold Resilience the all-female journalistic team at Future Women uncovers the real-life accounts of a diverse and fascinating collection of women. In doing so they have drawn on the deep wisdom and perspective that can only be gained from a life fully lived.Our history books have long been dominated by men’s triumphant tales but there are also lessons to be learned from the quiet, modest and largely untold experiences of women. With warmth and candour, 19 ordinary, and yet truly remarkable, individuals share their experiences of pandemic, poverty, famine, war, violence and discrimination.Through these hope-filled stories from women who have gone before, we can find inspiration and comfort, and rebuild faith in our own futures.
Two Prospectors: The Letters of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark
Sam Shepard - 2013
Winner of a Pulitzer Prize, he has written more than forty-five plays, including True West, Fool for Love, and Buried Child. Shepard has also appeared in more than fifty films, beginning with Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Right Stuff. Despite the publicity his work and life have attracted, however, Shepard remains a strongly private man who has said many times that he will never write a memoir. But he has written intensively about his inner life and creative work to his former father-in-law and housemate, Johnny Dark, who has been Shepard's closest friend, surrogate brother (they're nearly the same age), and even artistic muse for forty-five years and counting.Two Prospectors gathers nearly forty years of correspondence and transcribed conversations between Shepard and Dark. In these gripping, sometimes gut-wrenching letters, the men open themselves to each other with amazing honesty. Shepard's letters give us the deepest look we may ever get into his personal philosophy and creative process, while in Dark's letters we discover insights into Shepard's character that only an intimate friend could provide. The writers also reflect on the books and authors that stimulate their thinking, their relationships with women (including Shepard's anguished decision to leave his wife and son--Dark's stepdaughter and grandson--for actress Jessica Lange), personal struggles, and accumulating years. Illustrated with Dark's candid, revealing photographs of Shepard and their mutual family across many years, as well as facsimiles of numerous letters, Two Prospectors is a compelling portrait of a complex friendship that has anchored both lives for decades, a friendship also poignantly captured in Treva Wurmfeld's film, Shepard & Dark.
The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq
Dunya Mikhail - 2018
Mikhail extensively interviews these women—who’ve lost their families and loved ones, who’ve been sexually abused, psychologically tortured, and forced to manufacture chemical weapons—and as their tales unfold, an unlikely hero emerges: a beekeeper, who uses his knowledge of the local terrain, along with a wide network of transporters, helpers, and former cigarette smugglers, to bring these women, one by one, through the war-torn landscapes of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, back into safety.In the face of inhuman suffering, this powerful work of nonfiction offers a counterpoint to Daesh’s genocidal extremism: hope, as ordinary people risk their own lives to save those of others.
Day Use: Sex, Secrets & Stories
Dalia Rosenfeld - 2014
In her despair, following this disaster, she decides to change and rehabilitate her life. She turns her life upside down and opens a business for day use renting rooms by the hour for intimacy purposes. At the same time, she begins to search for the truth regarding her husband’s death and investigates a series of explosions that took place in secret military facilities. She refuses to believe that the series of explosions is random and unconnected. ˃˃˃ Funny, tragic and dramatic stories Her new unorthodox job exposes her to a new, intriguing world. She collects funny, tragic and dramatic stories about her guests’ She writes about her experiences and publishes a book about them.Her new fascinating life exposes the reader to amusing and even occasionally frightening stories. ˃˃˃ Based on real life events The book also sheds light on Israel’s nuclear secrets. The ending is surprising and unpredictable. The story is based on real life events; although the names have been changed to avoid invasion of privacy.
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What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: The Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor
Tony Bleetman - 2019
And, should you ever get to hold one, you will find the human heart to be rubbery and shockingly light.'What Could Possibly Go Wrong? is a report from the front line of emergency medicine, the first ever account of what it is like to work as an air ambulance doctor. Whether describing cutting through a patient's breastbone to plug a stab wound or barrel rolling a light aircraft at 5,000 feet, Tony Bleetman captures the sheer adrenaline of racing through the sky to save lives. You will learn how to land a helicopter on the side of a mountain, what it means to encounter death every day, and how to perform a tracheotomy in real life (clue: it doesn’t involve a ball-point pen).Funny, shocking and moving, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? is a glimpse at a world where the wrong decision can mean the difference between life and death.Originally published as You Can't Park There: The Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor.
As the Smoke Clears: The inspirational true story of surviving Greece’s deadly wildfires, overcoming devastating loss, and discovering a path to renewal
Zoe Holohan - 2021
Tales from the Dugout: Football at the Sharp End
Richard Gordon - 2015
When the action heats up on the pitch, emotions in the dugout boil over. Grown men lose control. The normally sane turn into irrational agitators. And every decision, no matter how minor, is hotly contested. Tales From The Dugout is a fantastically entertaining collection of incidents and memories gathered from managers, players, referees, linesmen and broadcasters, which encapsulates the unique environment of the technical area and reveals how even limited exposure to it can transform people unrecognisably. And when the red mist descends, the consequences can be almost unbelievable - and frequently hilarious. With contributions from a host of those who have been at the sharp end and lived to tell the tale, Tales From The Dugout is a unique insight into life in the technical area. There are tales from Scotland manager Gordon Strachan, Craig Brown, Pat Nevin, Kenny Clark, Pat Bonner, Scott Booth, Terry Butcher, Jimmy Calderwood, Billy Dodds, Jim Duffy, Alex McLeish, Alex Smith, Willie Young and Chick Young - amongst many others. And brilliant stories about legends of the game like Tommy Burns, Walter Smith, Martin O'Neill, Ally McCoist, Jim McLean and, of course, Sir Alex Ferguson. And it explains why that small area by the side of the pitch is no place for the faint-hearted.
Churchill in the Trenches
Peter Apps - 2015
As First Lord of the Admiralty at the start of the First World War, Churchill found himself blamed for the catastrophic military fiasco of the Dardanelles. Thrown for the first time into the political wilderness, he decided to rejoin the British Army and take his place on the Western Front.The first standalone account of this period of his life since the 1920s, Churchill in the Trenches reconstructs his six months near the Belgian town of Ypres. It reveals he how he gradually won over the troops he commanded -- the tough but traumatized 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers. And it tells the largely unknown story of how amid mud and squalor, one of the 20th century's most memorable characters became one of its greatest leaders.Peter Apps is global defense correspondent for Reuters news. In 2006, he broke his neck in a minibus accident while covering the civil war in Sri Lanka, leaving him largely paralyzed from the shoulders down. Of the 20 or so countries he has reported from, more than half have been since the injury. He is currently on sabbatical as executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century (PS21) www.projects21.com.Cover design by Kerry Ellis.
Adele
Sean Smith - 2016
In a cynical age, she is a phenomenon.In Adele, bestselling biographer Sean Smith talks to those close to her as he follows her astonishing journey to fame that began on the gritty streets of Tottenham. Through compelling new research and interviews, he reveals that there is far more to Adele than the superstar we all think we know.He uncovers the story of her complex family relationships; the ill-starred love affair between her mother and father; her devastation at the untimely death of her grandfather; and her seemingly unpromising future in a gang-ravaged area of South London.She found salvation at the BRIT School before a series of unhappy love affairs provided the inspiration for her record-breaking albums. He describes how she conquered America and how it all could have been ended by a dramatic vocal injury. Instead, she has made an amazing comeback and found personal happiness in a new relationship and becoming a mum.Intimate and revealing, Adele is the uplifting story of the woman with the most glorious voice in the world.
Narrow Escape - A Year of Highs and Lows on Narrowboat Minerva (Narrow Boat Books)
Marie Browne - 2013
This month by month account of one family’s liveaboard year takes a firmly tongue in cheek look at what it takes to enjoy the ‘idyllic’ lifestyle.