Book picks similar to
Oh Carol! by Carol McGiffin


autobiography-biography
autobiographies-read
read-in-previous-years
wow-this-is-why-i-love-reading

One Perfect Op: Navy SEAL Special Warfare Teams


Dennis Chalker - 2002
    Dennis Chalker was an original “plankowner” (founding member) of SEAL Team Six, and in One Perfect Op, he takes readers deep inside the remarkable world of America’s Special Forces operatives. With an introduction by Richard Marcinko of Rogue Warrior fame, One Perfect Op describes, step by breathtaking step, one extraordinary SEALs mission, shedding fascinating new light on the training, the planning, the courage and the skill of these exceptional warriors.

Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story


Chuck Gross - 2004
    When Chuck Gross left for Vietnam in 1970, he was a nineteen-year-old Army helicopter pilot fresh out of flight school. He spent his entire Vietnam tour with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company flying UH-1 Huey helicopters. Soon after the war he wrote down his adventures, while his memory was still fresh with the events. Rattler One-Seven (his call sign) is written as Gross experienced it, using these notes along with letters written home to accurately preserve the mindset he had while in Vietnam. During his tour Gross flew Special Operations for the MACV-SOG, inserting secret teams into Laos. He notes that Americans were left behind alive in Laos, when official policy at home stated that U.S. forces were never there. He also participated in Lam Son 719, a misbegotten attempt by the ARVN to assault and cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail with U.S. Army helicopter support. It was the largest airmobile campaign of the war and marked the first time that the helicopter was used in mid-intensity combat, with disastrous results. Pilots in their early twenties, with young gunners and a Huey full of ARVN soldiers, took on experienced North Vietnamese antiaircraft artillery gunners, with no meaningful intelligence briefings or a rational plan on how to cut the Trail. More than one hundred helicopters were lost and more than six hundred aircraft sustained combat damage. Gross himself was shot down and left in the field during one assault. Rattler One-Seven will appeal to those interested in the Vietnam War and to all armed forces, especially aviators, who have served for their country.

Imperfect


Sanjay Manjrekar - 2017
    His photographic memory takes the reader along on his journey from the dusty maidansof Mumbai to the world stage as the diminutive batsman faces up to the fearsome West Indian andPakistani pace attacks.In his precise plainspeak, Sanjay reflects on his father Vijay Manjrekar, and the effects of thatlegend on his game; comments on the complex equations with the India greats with whom he sharedthe dressing room and on the lessons learnt from his opponents; and reveals his own excruciatingobsession with batting technique, the quest for perfection, and the battle to try to shake off hismental shackles.This remarkable memoir sets a new standard for cricket writing in India, with significant life lessonsfor those who aren t cricket fans as well.

No Quarter: The Three Lives of Jimmy Page


Martin J. Power - 2015
    Starting with the early Sixties session scene when the teenage Page contributed to recordings by The Who, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and many more, the author goes on to explore Page's time in The Yardbirds, the band that would metamorphose into the legendary Led Zeppelin.Supported by album reviews, rare photographs, a full discography and candid conversations with Page's friends, managers and musical collaborators, author Martin Power's No Quarter: The Three Lives Of Jimmy Page represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography yet written about Jimmy Page—a "one man guitar army" and true music legend.

The Shaman in Stilettos


Anna Hunt - 2012
    A burn-the-candle-at-both-ends 29-year-old with a love of stilettos, chocolate, fast cars and Sauvignon Blanc, she seems to have it all, including a wealthy boyfriend and a comfortable pad in Marylebone. How will she manage in a Third World country?Anna's quest takes her from the wilderness of the Amazon jungle where she drinks ayahuasca, one of the most mysterious and potent hallucinogens known to man, to a passionate affair with Maximo Morales, a disarmingly seductive and charismatic shaman who offers her the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become his apprentice. Anna embarks on what is to be an utterly exhilarating, life-changing journey of mysterious rituals and burning passion. Will she find the fulfilment and inner peace she craves? And how will she bridge her two worlds and bring the ancient healing arts home to 21st century London?

The Branded (Uchalya)


Laxman Gaikwad - 1987
    This book also brings in the problems faced by the Dalits in India.

True Red


Tuhoe 'Bruno' Isaac - 2007
    "Because all levels of society hated us we created a new society of hatred symbolised by the bulldog. Its ferocious habits were engraved on our hearts," Tuhoe says, "If you weren't a mobster you weren't worth knowing." He lived this way for 17 years.However, constantly living for the bash, beer, prison and the possibility of dying in a pool of blood eventually saw Tuhoe search for another way of doing life. Leaving the Mob was hard. Not only did he face the rejection of his own and the fierce judgemental prejudices of mainstream society, but with the awakening of his conscience came the realisation of a past filled with inflicting pain on others besides himself, and of a life devoid of any sense of love or hope. This led him down a path of confession, forgiveness and reconciliation.True Red is the essential biography of one man's fascinating journey from the realm of darkness into the world of light.

Fast Forward: Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist: Volume II


Stephen Morris - 2020
    

Nobody's Child


Kate Adie - 2005
    What's your name? Where were you born? What is your date of birth? Simple questions that we are asked throughout our lifeand shows what makes us who we really are.

Lost Without My Daughter


Sayed Mahmoody - 2013
    In the book, Betty claimed that she and Mahtob, her five-year-old daughter, had been kidnapped from the USA in 1984 and imprisoned in Tehran by her Iranian husband, Dr Sayed Mahmoody - aka 'Moody' - a man she vilified as a violent, sadistic monster. Betty's story culminated with a dramatic escape, as she takes her daughter from Iran over the Zagros Mountains and into Turkey. The book sold 12 million copies and inspired the 1991 Hollywood film of the same name, starring Oscar-winner Sally Field. For twenty years Betty's husband has kept silent. Now, in Lost Without My Daughter, Sayed Mahmoody finally reveals the astonishing truth. As well as being a moving, frank story of a once happy family's collapse, and a father's subsequent search for meaning in his life, Lost Without My Daughter is also a cultural and political history of Iran, from the revolution to the present day. Perhaps more than anything, it is an exercise in truth, the last-ditch attempt of a father desperate to reach his daughter, to let her know that he is not the monster he has been portrayed to be.

Get to the Heart: My Story


Barbara Mandrell - 1990
    A multifaceted performer whose music strikes a chord of truth. A loving wife and mother whose traditional values and tremendous faith touch the heart. But in September 1984 fate placed Barbara Mandrell and two of her children on a Tennessee highway, where a car crossed two lanes of traffic to hit her car head-on...and Barbara Mandrell and her story book life were changed forever.Here, for the first time, the spirited star who made her professional debut at age eleven who performed with country legends such as Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash, and who was chosen Entertainer of the Year two years running, shares her memories of the accident and her long, painful journey back. This is a chronicle of her remarkable rise to fame, a tribute to the extraordinary family who protected and sustained her. But most of all this is Barbara's own triumphant story of hard-won survival.Get To The Heart

Women Of The Outback


Sue Williams - 2008
    Cheryl lives in such a remote area, she had to winch herself and her three children across the Murray River to get the eldest to school. Alice admits she couldn't even tell a cow from a bull when she first went to live in the outback. These women are only some of the twelve extraordinary women who have overcome incredible hardships to survive and thrive in some of the most extremely remote parts of Australia. Sue Williams has uncovered some remarkable subjects in this book. From high-profile businesswomen to everyday heroes, these women will inspire and delight.

Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur


Armond White - 1997
    White's understanding of Tupac's art will uncork the bottled up rage and confusion that attends the way hip-hop culture is produced and received. Rebel details each step in Shakur's development, from his early exposure to racism and political activism to his move from New York to the West Coast and his innovative work with early hip hop culture and music. Through connections drawn between Shakur and Public Enemy, Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Sister Souljah, White examines Shakur's life as a prism for the hip-hop world. Photographs, a useful chronology of important dates in the life of Shakur, and an updated discography and filmography of his career as a rapper and actor are included. "Talk about diversity, talk about identity, talk about icons—White's in-depth look at Tupac Shakur talks about all of 'em."—Booklist "White has written a nuanced, expansive and impassioned study of the life and art of Tupac Shakur."—Tyrone Williams, Metro Times Literary Quarterly "Rebel ... is a means of analyzing the rage, fatalism and rootlessness of the contemporary rap scene."—Select Magazine

Holly Hagan: Not Quite A Geordie


Holly Hagan - 2014
    Fed up with her dead end job at a call center, and with dreams of being a star one day, Holly applied for a new reality TV show. She couldn’t know it was to catapult her into fame and make her one of the most recognizable faces on British TV. Fame and fortune, though, came at a price—the road from the call center to the celebrity circuit has been far from smooth. For the first time, Holly is lifting the lid on the perks and perils she’s faced ever since her topless hot tub antics shocked the nation. Holly owes her success to a very simple change of look, which involved both a new bottle of red hair dye and a newfound confidence. Ever since then, audiences have been in stitches as they watch Holly (and her flame-red hair) flirt her way around Newcastle’s famed "Diamond Strip," and places further afield, such as Magaluf, Cancun, and Australia. In this action-packed, revealing, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking memoir, Holly recounts her life in and out of the limelight with brutal honesty—from her childhood days when she was badly bullied, her shocking take on sex and dating, her liaison with bad-boy musician Frankie Cocozza, and what really goes on behind-the-scenes on the UK’s biggest reality TV show. Filled with genuinely touching stories and inside accounts of what they don’t show you on TV, Holly has laid herself bare, first physically and now emotionally. If you think you know all there is to know about Holly from Geordie Shore, think again.

God's Smuggler To China


Brother David - 2000
    This is the story of one man's call to God's service, which culminated in the largest operation of its kind ever seen in China - the smuggling of one million Bibles into the hands of Chinese believers.