Book picks similar to
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Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance [With DVD]
Ric Gillespie - 2006
Dozens of books have offered a variety of solutions to the puzzle, but they all draw on the same handful of documents and conflicting eyewitness accounts. Now, a wealth of new information uncovered by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) allows this book to offer the first fully documented history of what happened. Scrupulously accurate and thrilling to read, it tells the story from the letters, logs, and telegrams that recorded events as they unfolded. Many long-accepted facts are revealed as myths. Author Ric Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive director, draws on the work of his organization's historians, archaeologists, and scientists, who compiled and analyzed more than five thousand documents relating to the Earhart case. Their research led to the hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan died as castaways on a remote Pacific atoll. But this book is not a polemic that argues for a particular theory. Rather, it presents all of the authenticated historical dots and leaves it to the reader to make the connections. In addition to details about the Earhart's career and final flight, the book examines her relationship with the U.S. government and the massive search undertaken by the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy. For serious students of Earhart's disappearance, an accompanying DVD reproduces the documents, reports, and technical studies cited in the text, allowing instant review and verification of the sources.
Sudden Fury
Leslie Walker - 1989
One of the couple's three adopted children, he was shy and emotionally undemonstrative. His background and the circumstances leading to murder are the thrust of this searching study by Baltimore Evening Sun reporter Walker, less a true-crime re-creation than the story of a tortured being. Larry was given up by his birth mother when he was two and shunted from family to family, none of them willing to cope with his increasing insecurity and alienation. At age six, he was adopted by Bob and Kay Swartz, a model church-going Catholic couple but severe and demanding of their children, the father's temper sometimes growing into physical abuse.
What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism
Dan Rather - 2017
Now, with this collection of original essays, he reminds us of the principles upon which the United States was founded. Looking at the freedoms that define us, from the vote to the press; the values that have transformed us, from empathy to inclusion to service; the institutions that sustain us, such as public education; and the traits that helped form our young country, such as the audacity to take on daunting challenges in science and medicine, Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. As a living witness to historical change, he offers up an intimate view of history, tracing where we have been in order to help us chart a way forward and heal our bitter divisions. With a fundamental sense of hope, What Unites Us is the book to inspire conversation and listening, and to remind us all how we are, finally, one.
Al Capone: A Life From Beginning to End
Hourly History - 2018
While opinions of the infamous mob leader varied from group to group, Capone was at one point seen by many as a lovable outlaw and modern Robin Hood. How could this man who ran the most vicious criminal organization in the country become so beloved by the general public? Was it the rags to riches tale of an immigrant that rose from the bottom to make it to the big time that transfixed the nation? Or is it something else entirely? Let us discover just what is it about the life of Al Capone that seems to spark both disgust and admiration in those that hear it.
Inadmissible
Elsayed - 2014
in pursuit of the American dream, and how one mistake landed him behind bars along with some of America’s most notorious offenders. Against innumerable odds, he manages to survive prison and later earns his PhD from the world's number one university—Caltech—becoming an accomplished scientist, writer, and motivational speaker. It’s the true tale of one man’s redemption and triumph, lived through believing in himself and believing in the good hearts of the people who stuck by him.
I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the
Mike Edison - 2008
Mike Edison’s résumé spans twenty years and a slew of notorious titles, including "Screw," "High Times," "Penthouse," and "Hustler." An Ivy League dropout who’s never looked back, Edison embarked on a career that’s landed him in the producer’s chair for one of the worst B movies of all time; on tour with the likes of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, GG Allin, and the Ramones; undercover at a religious cult; on a bender with Evel Knievel; feuding with Hulk Hogan; smoking dope with Ozzy Osborne; and authoring some twenty novels you wouldn’t want your mother to catch you reading—let alone writing. As the publisher of "High Times," he battled almost daily with a rainbow brigade of unrepentant hippies plagued with short-term memory loss, and owners who treated their employees more like the tenants of a halfway house for potheads than a team of professional editors and writers, all while leading the magazine to record heights in sales and advertising. "I Have Fun Everywhere I Go "combines the fear and loathing of Hunter Thompson’s journalistic thrill rides with the acerbic insider voice of Toby Young. It’s an eye-opening, gleeful view of life on the edge—and the outlaws and oddballs encountered there.
God Save the Kinks: A Biography
Rob Jovanovic - 2013
After a little noticed debut and a follow-up that had failed to chart at all, Pye Records were threatening to annul the group’s contract. But with its unforgettable distorted guitar riff, 'You Really Got Me’ went on to reach No.1, entering the US Top Ten later the same year. Followed by a string of hits, it marked the breakthrough of one of Britain’s most innovative and influential bands, and a turning point in the fortunes of two brothers whose troubled story is as tumultuous and characterful as the music they produced: Ray and Dave Davies. Born into a deeply musical working-class family in London’s Muswell Hill, Ray and Dave grew up in a city recovering from the bombs and privations of the Second World War, and, more than any other musicians of the Sixties, they crafted the soundtrack that made it swing again. In songs such as ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’, ‘Sunny Afternoon’ – which toppled The Beatles to become the hit of Summer 1966 – ‘Waterloo Sunset’, ‘Days’ and ‘Lola’, they drew on music hall, folk and rhythm and blues to craft a peculiarly English pop idiom, inspiring generations of songwriters from David Bowie to Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn.Pocked by sibling rivalry, furious on-stage violence, walkouts, overdoses, a career-throttling ban from the US, gross self-indulgence, and the band's curious rebirth as Eighties stadium rockers, the story laid bare in God Save The Kinks is one of the greatest in British pop history.
Wildlife Warrior: Steve Irwin: 1962 - 2006, a Man Who Changed the World
Richard Shears - 2006
'Wildlife Warrior' charts his amazing life - from his childhood catching snakes in Victoria, through to his work in the wilderness and in his zoo. It follows his love story with his wife Terri and his rise to fame.
The Krays and Me
Charles Bronson - 2004
Charlie Bronson met the Kray twins in prison and eventually became a trusted friend. Here he tells the inside story of the infamous duo and sets the record straight once and for all.
Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order And Reducing Crime In Our Communities
George L. Kelling - 1995
George Kelling, one of America’s leading criminologists, has proven the success of his method across the country, from the New York City subways to the public parks of Seattle. Here, Kelling and urban anthropologist and lawyer Catherine Coles demonstrate that by controlling disorderly behavior in public spaces, we can create an environment where serious crime cannot flourish, and they explain how to adapt these effective methods for use in our own homes and communities.
A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun: The Autobiography of a Career Criminal
Razor Smith - 2004
An extraordinarily vivid account of how a tearaway kid from South London became a career criminal, it is both a searing indictment of a system that determinedly brutalized young offenders and a frank, unsentimental acknowledgement of the thrills of the criminal life. Shocking, fascinating and frightening by turns, it also reveals Razor Smith to be a remarkably talented writer.
I Promise I Won't Kill You: A Hitchhiking Adventure
Nate Damm - 2014
The people who chose to give him a lift along the way proved to be every bit as interesting and strange as he had hoped they would, sharing their stories, unique nuggets of wisdom, and heartfelt thoughts on life as they shared their passenger seats. Along the way, Nate experienced extreme boredom, run-ins with the law, drunk drivers, handsy truckers, and more, finding the spirit of America and coming to some important personal realizations in the process.
One Foot on the Ground: A Life Told Through the Body
Shanta Gokhale - 2019
Starting with her birth in 1939—in philosophic silence, till the doctor’s slap on her bottom made her bawl—she recounts her childhood, youth and middle and old age in chapters built around the many elements and processes of the physical self: tonsils and adenoids, breasts and misaligned teeth; childbirth and fluctuating weight, cancer and bunions. And through these memories emerge others, less visible but just as defining: a carefree childhood growing up in a progressive Marathi household in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park; the pleasures, in adolescence, of badminton, Kathak and hairdressing; the warmth of friends and an almost love in cold England; finding and losing a mate—twice—and bringing up her children as a single parent; the great thrill of her first translation from Marathi into English; nursing her mother, dying of cancer, as she would a baby; surviving cancer herself, and writing her second novel through the recovery. Told with effortless humour and candour, One Foot on the Ground is the story of a life full of happiness, heartbreak, wonder and acceptance. It will rank among the finest personal histories written in India.
Confessions of the Serial Killer H.H. Holmes (Illustrated)
Herman Webster Mudgett - 2013
Holmes himself.There are many who claim Herman Mudgett (a.k.a. H. H. Holmes) was Jack the Ripper. While many of the facts support the theory, many do not. While no one can know the extent of Holmes crimes, his own words and those of contemporary reporters provide a unique view into the mind of the man who is probably the most prolific serial killer of all time. While Holmes admitted to 27 murders, the number is probably far higher. Holmes posted job opportunities for assistants in local papers and women who responded to these advertisements were never heard from again. During the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 (frequently referred to as the Chicago World's Fair), a Holmes ran a hotel filled with secret rooms and traps made to murder his guests. Soundproof rooms allowed him to torture and kill both his guests and his lovers, sometimes for months on end. After his arrest, H.H. Holmes wrote two confessions. In the first confession, he admits that he is a swindler but insists he is not a murderer. In the second, after his conviction, he admits to murdering 27 people. For the first time in the 21st century, both confessions are now available to readers everywhere.The confessions have been painstakingly transcribed for all to see the devious nature of this monster. It is unknown how many people Holmes killed in his murder hotel in Chicago. The detectives who searched the horror chambers were unable to get a true body count because Holmes had installed lime pits to dissolve the bodies. Some place the number of murders attributed to Holmes as high as 200. The book now includes another book written shortly after the trial and execution of Holmes: Holmes, the Arch Fiend Or: A Carnival of Crime; The Life, Trial, Confession and Execution of H. H. Holmes. This book provides a narrative that is not covered in the other texts, including possible conversations between Holmes and his victims. A fourth book has been added to this series: The Holmes Castle. This contemporary account, written in 1895 prior to Holmes execution, describes more of the atrocities of Holmes and provides new names of people who simply disappeared after contacting Holmes.
Watch My Back: The Geoff Thompson Story
Geoff Thompson - 1992
He took a job as a bouncer in one of Britain's roughest nightclubs. His life was never to be the same again. This is his story.