Book picks similar to
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My Life as An Amish Wife: A Diary
Lena Yoder - 2015
I sewed three blouses before noontime."As an Amish wife and mother of six, Lena Yoder has plenty of ways to fill her time."I helped with the afternoon milking, baked two different kinds of cakes, made two pizzas, and got everybody ready to take supper to school for the teachers."But amid the endless tasks to complete and challenges to overcome, Lena's simple joy and deep faith are ever present in these brief, first-person accounts."I am thoroughly enjoying these days at home...Our family is filled with love...I could never list everything I am thankful for."These unassuming glimpses of Amish life will touch your heart and inspire you to seek the simple things—a loving family, a good day's work, and a grateful heart.
Always a Soldier: Service, Sacrifice, and Coming Out as America's Favorite Black, Gay Republican
Rob Smith - 2020
Before he became a war veteran and political analyst, he was a young black man who enlisted in the U.S. Army right out of high school, survived the notoriously brutal Infantry basic training, and served while remaining a closeted gay man to all but a few of his colleagues. At his first duty station, he finds himself in dangerous territory when the United States declares war on Iraq; in fact, his unit was one of the first called in after the initial invasion. Rob's experience offers a ground-level view of life on the front lines in the United States Army in an unforgettable coming-of-age story with a military twist. In addition to his memoir, Always a Soldier highlights his thoughts on current hot-button political topics like the new crop of Black Republicans and the escalating tactics of the LGBTQ community, announcing him as a voice in American politics that will be heard for years to come.
Sachin Tendulkar: A Definitive Biography
Vaibhav Purandare - 2002
The book talks about Sachin Tendulkar, the renowned Indian cricketer, and throws light on his professional and personal life. It also attempts to present the attributes of the past that shaped Sachin to become one of the most prolific batsmen in the world. Sachin Tendulkar: A Definitive Biography throws light on the preparation that Sachin undertook to achieve all the milestones that he aimed for. The book highlights the highs and lows of his career, and the personal and professional tragedies that he suffered, and also the news that were contentious about him. This biography outlines the personal life of Sachin, which has not been reflected in the public domain so far.Vaibhav Purandare spent his early cricketing days at Shivaji Park, Mumbai, almost around the same time Sachin Tendulkar also had spent his time at the park. He has authored books like The Sena Story and Sachin Tendulkar: A Life In Perspective. Purandare is a journalist by profession, and currently holds the position of Senior Associate Editor with the Mumbai Edition of Hindustan Times.
James Taylor Long Ago and Far Away: His Life and His Music
Timothy White - 2001
This new edition has been updated by his friend and former Rolling Stone comrade Mitch Glazer and includes an epilogue about the memorial concerts for Timothy that James Taylor helped organize.
Harvest of Yesterdays
Gladys Taber - 1976
Taber shares memories of her childhood in the Southwest and Mexico as well as her married life and early pursuit of a writing career.
If Only He'd Told Me: A foster Family Pushed To the Limits
Mia Marconi - 2014
Foster carer Mia Marconi was thrilled when he first arrived – a boy the same age as her son.It can be so bewildering for foster children when they arrive. The older ones are usually withdrawn and sullen. The younger ones will be screaming, spitting at you, making themselves sick and throwing themselves on the floor.For Mia, it’s normally her boisterous, happy children who provide the comfort at the beginning, because why should they trust another adult. Children always feel safe and secure when there are other children about. Mia believes it’s through making relationships with other children that they begin to trust adults again. But little did she know that six-year-old Brody was actually taking his anger and frustration out on her son. She quickly begins to realise the heavy price her family has had to pay. (Amazon.com)
Chloe Sims: The Only Way Is Up: My Story
Chloe Sims - 2012
But there is more to Chloe than viewers see on the TV, and the drama doesn’t stop when the camera stops rolling. Just two years ago, Chloe was a single mother struggling to make ends meet doing a string of jobs she hated and wondering if she would ever find happiness. Since joining the cast of The Only Way Is Essex, her life is now a whirlwind of glitzy parties and jet-set holidays, but life hasn’t always dealt Chloe a good hand. Her story is one of triumph over adversity, with plenty of laughs along the way. From her turbulent childhood where she was raised by a neighbor after her mother abandoned her, to battling with bullies and struggling with an eating disorder, to the magical moment when she met the man of her dreams.
Nina Simone: The Biography
David Brun-Lambert - 2005
After a rejection from an elite New York conservatoire—a rejection she always believed stemmed from the color of her skin—she began performing jazz, blues, and classical songs in a bar to fund her music studies. In 1958 her rendition of the Gershwin standard “I Loves You Porgy” became a Top 40 hit, and her subsequent debut album Little Girl Blue launched what would become an extensive singing and songwriting career. Drawing on a wealth of original interviews with Simone’s closest associates, this extraordinary biography follows her sparkling career as well as her passionate belief in racial equality that eventually led her to undergo self-imposed exile from America in 1970. Featuring rare photographs and a review of Simone’s more than 40 albums and numerous hits, this is an extensive look at the complex and extremely talented diva.
Tales from the Dad Side: Misadventures in Fatherhood
Steve Doocy - 2008
Personally, I think the eye-catching cover shot of me in my pajamas is reason enough. (By the way, those are my real kids on the cover, and yes, those are my actual ankles. No, I'm not retaining water.)What you're holding in your hands is a very funny and sometimes remarkably poignant look at fathers, not from the mother's point of view or the child's, but from the dad's side. Which is why it's called Tales from the Dad Side.It's filled with stories of what it's like to be a dad and a son, from a child's first day of kindergarten to the awkward sex talk and right up to the day the always-practical dad tries to pay for college with bonus miles. I was there for every landmark in my children's lives, except the day I was on the riding lawn mower and missed my son's first words, which my wife insists were “trust fund.”As children get older, the lessons of the father get harder, like teaching my son how to shave just as my father taught me, with a rusty double-edged safety razor. At the end of my dad's lesson, I emerged from the bathroom nicked and gouged, looking like an extra from a Quentin Tarantino film. My more civilized son is a Norelco man. With my high-school-age daughters, I promised them a day on which I'd take them anywhere and do anything with them they wanted, expecting them to ask for dinner and a movie; I was horrified when they told me they wanted all of us to get manicures and pedicures together. That was not the answer I was expecting; it was like discovering Lou Dobbs was an illegal alien.Over the course of raising three children, I have learned with my wife that fathers are different from mothers. That could be the greatest understatement since Noah turned on the Weather Channel and found out that the next forty days called for a 20 percent chance of light rain.The truth is, fatherhood is like Wikipedia: some parts based in fact, others just made up along the way. And while bookstores are filled with tales of mothers, their children and families, there are few from the dad's side. Now, as a public service, I'm doing my part to right this wrong.I sincerely hope this answers your questions. If perhaps it's not exactly your cup of tea, I bet you've got a father or mother in your life who'd like the stone-cold truth about dads. Besides, for the same money, you can either put three gallons of gas in your car or take home this book, which has a highway rating of 29 smiles an hour.Steve Doocy
Acid Alex
Al Lovejoy - 2005
It veers between abject mistreatment, religious hysteria and narcotic intoxication, while journeying deep into the violent underworld of Cape Town gangs and international organized crime, then behind the cold bars of prison and out the other side. Much more than the story of an alternate and differently lived life, every person who wants to fully grasp the complexities and richness of South Africa's social architecture should read this book. Hailed as a great book of reference, not only invaluable for checking facts and culture, but also for feeling the pureness of South Africa's socio-emotional pulse. A unique story told in a unique voice. Acid Alex will shock you, assault, educate and entertain you, and take you on a trip beyond your wildest imagining. A compelling, totally gripping page-turner and a story that reaches deep into ... and, touches the soul."
My Story: Schapelle Corby: Fully Revised and Updated Since Her Release and Return Home
Schapelle Corby - 2019
She had been Hotel K's most famous inmate.Schapelle was a 27-year-old beauty-school student when, in 2004, Bali customs officers found 4.2 kilograms of marijuana in her boogie-board bag. She was convicted of a crime she still vehemently denies committing.She spent ten years in Hotel K, where she survived unimaginable horrors, corrupt guards, degrading conditions, and abuse at the hands of other prisoners, but also, amazingly, found the love of her life - a love that still burns strong.In this revised and updated edition of My Story, first published in 2006, Schapelle describes her descent into madness, and finding her way back, the chaos of her release, the trials of surviving outside on parole and, eventually, her dramatic return to Australia, all the while hounded mercilessly by the media.This is the first time since 2006 that Schapelle has spoken, driven by a determination to show she has emerged, scarred, but with her dignity, humour and courage intact.Written with bestselling author Kathryn Bonella, this is a deeply unsettling but utterly compelling tale of what should have been a holiday in paradise but instead turned into 13 years of living hell. You won't be able to put it down.
One Art
Elizabeth Bishop - 1995
One Art takes us behind Bishop's formal sophistication and reserve, displaying to the full the gift for friendship, the striving for perfection, and the passionate, questing, rigorous spirit that made her a great poet.
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - A Love Story
Ree Drummond - 2011
Ree's love story with Marlboro Man will sweep you off your feet.
Passion & Purpose: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World
Jimmy Seibert - 2014
Now, in the book PASSION & PURPOSE: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World (Clear Day Publishing), Jimmy Seibert, Senior Pastor of Antioch Community Church and Founder & President of Antioch Ministries International, tells the firsthand account of a church that is cultivating a global impact. With an intentional focus on intimacy with Jesus, discipleship, church planting and evangelism, Antioch Ministries International has become one of the fastest growing evangelical movements in the country as well as a common case study among students of church planting and mission work. Based out of the Antioch Community Church of Waco, TX, the Antioch Ministries International movement is spearheaded by Seibert. After deciding to follow Jesus at any cost, Seibert started Antioch Community Church in one of poorest, most crime-ridden and drug-infested part of Waco. Along with a small group of likeminded believers, Seibert embarked on a journey to simply say "yes" to the next thing God was doing. The result has been an astounding adventure of walking with the Holy Spirit, building intimate community, and living with radical intentionality. "God has called us to be a people who passionately pursue Him with all our hearts and are deeply committed to His purposes. Nothing more. Nothing less. Now after 26 years, we feel like we can tell our story with integrity," explains Seibert, when asked about the timing of this book about Antioch and his personal journey. Seibert speaks with humility. A leader who has purposefully avoided the spotlight, Seibert prefers the role of teacher who seeks to encourage and motivate the church. "We have a heart for the body of Christ to believe in the church again, and to know that Jesus is enough." The once small gathering has turned into a network of 78 churches around the world in 24 nations, with 30 churches in the United Stated alone. At the original Waco, Texas home base, more than 3,000 people now attend regularly, with 170 Lifegroups meeting in members' homes across the city. Since its infancy, the church has focused on growing in relational and spiritual depth at home, and sending the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The movement has inspired hundreds of Antioch members to leave their lives of comfort to proclaim the Gospel around the world, often in remote and even hostile environments. Currently, Antioch has more than 200 long-term missionaries who are active around the globe. In 2001, two of Antioch's missionaries who were in Afghanistan, Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, were arrested and held prisoner by the Taliban. The captivity-and the missionaries' miraculous rescue-became a major international news story after the 9/11 attacks, bringing Antioch's evangelical intentionality into the international conversation. PASSION & PURPOSE: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World chronicles the movement's humble beginnings, shares testimonies of powerful encounters with God along the way, and inspires with its rock-solid belief that the local church is God's "Plan A" for reaching the corners of the earth with the good news of Jesus Christ. The book explains Antioch's vision to be a people with "a passion for Jesus and His purposes in the earth." Early responses to PASSION & PURPOSE have begun pouring in. The book foreword is written by Max Lucado who has been acquainted with Seibert and the vision for Antioch Community Church for many years., In the foreword, Lucado states, "To visit Antioch Community Church is to visit the book of Acts; To hear their passion is to hear the heart of God; To listen to their stories of global impact makes you realize...it can happen today!"
Too Many Reasons to Live
Rob Burrow - 2021
Rob Burrow is such a man – a pocket rocket of a player and a giant of a character. It has been a privilege to watch him play and to know him off the pitch. He is one in a million and his story is truly inspirational’
Clare Balding
‘I’m not giving in until my last breath’
Rob Burrow
Rob Burrow is one of the greatest rugby league players of all time. And the most inspirational. As a boy, Rob was told he was too small to play the sport. Even when he made his debut for Leeds Rhinos, people wrote him off as a novelty. But Rob never stopped proving people wrong. During his time at Leeds, for whom he played almost 500 games, he won eight Super League Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups and three World Club Challenges. He also played for his country in two World Cups. In December 2019, Rob was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a rare degenerative condition, and given a couple of years to live. He was only 37, not long retired and had three young children. When he went public with the devastating news, the outpouring of affection and support was extraordinary. When it became clear that Rob was going to fight it all the way, sympathy turned to awe.This is the story of a tiny kid who adored rugby league but never should have made it - and ended up in the Leeds hall of fame. It's the story of a man who resolved to turn a terrible predicament into something positive - when he could have thrown the towel in. It's about the power of love, between Rob and his childhood sweetheart Lindsey; and of friendship, between Rob and his faithful team-mates. Far more than a sports memoir, Too Many Reasons to Live is a story of boundless courage and infinite kindness.