The Leader


Guy Walters - 2003
    He and his new bride, Wallis Simpson, are preparing for their coronation.Winston Churchill is a prisoner on the Isle of Man.The Prime Minister, Oswald Mosley consults the new Chancellor of Germany, and his close ally, Adolf Hitler on a more 'permanent' solution to the 'Jewish problem'.The secret police have Britain in an iron grip.But one man, James Armstrong , a hero of the Great War, is organising the resistance against the government . While 'the leader' is determined to see him hang, Armstrong, constantly on the run, is every bit as clever and resolute as his enemy.

Children of the Dead End


Patrick MacGill - 1972
    Starting with an account of his childhood in Ireland at the end of the 19th century, the story moves to Scotland where, tramp then gang-labourer then navvy, Dermond Flynn (as he sometimes calls himself) discovers himself as a writer.

The Power of One & Tandia (Omnibus)


Bryce Courtenay - 1992
    It has been translated into 18 languages, has sold more than 8 million copies and has been made into a Hollywood film. It is the wonderful story of a boy growing up South Africa. Tandia is the sequel to The Power of One and continues the story of the main character, Peekay. This gem of story is beloved by millions around the world!

In the Face of Fear: The Authentic Holocaust Survival Story of the Weisz Family


Thomas Weisz - 2018
    Tomorrow they will be taken to the ghetto, the last step before deportation to Auschwitz and certain death. But one man defies the Nazis and seeks to deny them these victims. Alone, unarmed and crippled, Joseph Cseh, a smooth talking (black marketer), struggles to rescue the woman he loves and her entire family. Surrounded on all sides he stands up to the fascists, playing a life and death con game. But can he bluff the Gestapo and defeat an army? This is the amazing true story of the Weisz family and the man who took it upon himself to try and do some good in a world turned evil.

The Rice Mother


Rani Manicka - 2002
    At fourteen, she finds herself traded in marriage to a stranger across the ocean in the fascinating land of Malaysia. Duped into thinking her new husband is wealthy, she instead finds herself struggling to raise a family with a man too impractical to face reality and a world that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful. Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matriarch, determined to wrest from the world a better life for her daughters and sons and to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength.By sheer willpower Lakshmi survives the nightmare of World War II and the Japanese occupation -- but not unscathed. The family bears deep scars on its back and in turn inflicts those wounds on the next generation. But it is not until Lakshmi's great-granddaughter, Nisha, pieces together the mosaic of her family history that the legacy of the Rice Mother bears fruit.

Jackie Style


Pamela Clarke Keogh - 2001
    And whether she liked it or not, she was, and still is, the most famous woman in the world."No one else looked like her, spoke like her, wrote like her, or was so original in the way she did things," said her brother-in-law Senator Edward Kennedy. Her style -- what made her Jackie -- has been emulated, imitated, even occasionally reviled, but never fully examined. For the first time, this biography details the singular life that made Jackie an icon and contributed so greatly to her enduring appeal. Drawing on original interviews with Valentino, Hubert de Givenchy, Manolo Blahnik, and Oleg Cassini, as well as close friends C. Z. Guest, George Plimpton, and John Loring, and family members such as Joan Kennedy, Hugh D. Auchincloss, and John Davis, this compelling volume brings to life the private Jackie her family and friends loved.With one hundred rare color and black-and-white photographs and sketches, and never-before-published personal letters, memos, and essays, Jackie Style re-creates not only Jackie's extraordinary history -- fashion being just one part of it -- but the world she came from, the White House she revived, the husband and children she adored, the causes she supported, and, finally, the life she chose to lead.

The Shadow of God: A Novel of War and Faith


Anthony A. Goodman - 2002
    The year is 1522. Two great leaders, twenty-five-year-old Suleiman the Magnificent, the absolute ruler of the mighty Ottoman Empire, and Philippe de L'Isle Adam, the grisly, fifty-eight-year-old Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, come to war on the Greek island of Rhodes. For 145 days, Philippe and 500 European Knights fight to protect their fortressed city and withstand an assault of nearly 200,000 men from Suleiman's army, in a battle that becomes the historic hallmark for siege warfare. Authentic in all its historical detail, The Shadow of God evokes a seismic clash of cultures: Muslim versus Christian, the Ottoman Empire versus the last remaining Knights of the Crusades and, most important, two of the most powerful men of their time. Embedded in this fictional account is the secret marriage of a lovely Jewish nurse to her Christian French Knight, as well as the forbidden love of the Grand Master for the beautiful Helene. An epic of bravery and courage, The Shadow of God weaves a tapestry of beauty, terror and triumph set in a forgotten time of brutality and courage, loyalty and honor.

The Harmony Silk Factory


Tash Aw - 2005
    Somerset Maugham, and Anthony Burgess have shaped our perceptions of Malaysia. In Tash Aw, we now have an authentic Malaysian voice that remaps this literary landscape.The Harmony Silk Factory traces the story of textile merchant Johnny Lim, a Chinese peasant living in British Malaya in the first half of the twentieth century. Johnny's factory is the most impressive structure in the region, and to the inhabitants of the Kinta Valley Johnny is a hero—a Communist who fought the Japanese when they invaded, ready to sacrifice his life for the welfare of his people. But to his son, Jasper, Johnny is a crook and a collaborator who betrayed the very people he pretended to serve, and the Harmony Silk Factory is merely a front for his father's illegal businesses. This debut novel from Tash Aw gives us an exquisitely written look into another culture at a moment of crisis.The Harmony Silk Factory won the 2005 Whitbread First Novel Award and also made it to the 2005 Man Booker longlist.

Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot


J. Randy Taraborrelli - 2000
    Ethel Skakel. Joan Bennett. Three women who married into America's royal family and became forever linked in legend. Set against the panorama of explosive American history, this unique story offers a rarely-seen look at the relationship shared among the three women -- during the Camelot years and beyond. Whether dealing with their husbands' blatant infidelities, stumping for their many political campaigns, touring the world to promote their family's legacy, raising their children, or confronting death, the Kennedy wives did it all with grace, style and dignity.

The House in Prague: How a Stolen House Helped an Immigrant Girl Find Her Way Home


Anna Nessy Perlberg - 2016
    Little Anna huddles with her doll in the corner of a train car while a German officer shrieks, “You are Jews!” Fleeing for their lives, her family has abandoned their elegant house near Prague Castle, bringing their life of privilege to an abrupt halt.In this memoir that reads like a novel, we meet Anna’s shining and beautiful opera singer mother, her prominent lawyer father, and their circle of friends that includes Albert Schweitzer and the family of Czech President Thomas Masaryk.Through Anna’s eyes, we relive magical Christmases, summers in the country, and a terrifying trip to Nazi Dresden that changes everything. We experience the family’s escape, their voyage to Ellis Island, and Anna's struggle to become an American girl in a city teeming with immigrants and prejudice. Post-war life brings cherished Holocaust survivors and their harrowing stories.After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Anna’s family sues for the return of their house in Prague. But will they prevail? And if they do, what then?The House in Prague is richly illustrated with pictures and artifacts from the author’s family archive. Written with straightforward, lyrical clarity, the members of her family and the many famous musicians, authors, and poets that pass through their lives come alive for the reader. A gripping story on its own merits, this tale of war, love, and loss dares us to think about the immigrant experience in fresh ways.Index included."An exquisite rumination on history, loss, and love. Anna Perlberg's voice is a luminous guide to the heart of home - hers, but also, as is true of all great stories, ours." (Caroline Heller, author of Reading Claudius: A Memoir in Two Parts)

গাদ্দার


Krishan Chander - 1960
    But the world outside is being torn asunder and Krishan Chander shows how love, brotherhood and humanity swiftly turn into redundant emotions, as permanent lines are drawn between two nations. Traitor .... a word that acquires a new meaning and a sharper edge in the times we live in, Krishan Chander’s classic novel seems especially relevant as we mark the 70th anniversary of the annus horribilis that was the year 1947.

Crazy Train: The High Life and Tragic Death of Randy Rhoads


Joel McIver - 2011
    He first came to international prominence in 1979, when he was recruited from the cult metal band Quiet Riot to play with Ozzy Osbourne, who had been fired from Black Sabbath for his drink and drug addictions and was in urgent need of a co-writer to kickstart a solo career. How and why Ozzy and Randy went on to find enormous success is one of the key themes of Crazy Train, named after the first and most famous Osbourne/Rhoads co-composition. It was Randy's pioneering combination of neo-classical soloing, catchy riffage and unforgettable songwriting which propelled Ozzy. The two albums that Randy recorded with Quiet Riot and the two with Ozzy showcase the young guitarist's immense ability, although the full extent of his talent may never have been revealed. In 1982 he died in an air crash. The parallels between Crazy Train and the author's best-selling To Live Is To Die: The Life And Death Of Metallica's Cliff Burton (Jawbone 2009) are intentional and obvious. Both books deal with a musical prodigy who died tragically in his mid-20s; both men have a vast following and a profile which has risen in the years since their deaths; and both men have a large coterie of friends, family and associates prepared to tell their stories for the very first time.

The Danish Queen


Lynda M. Andrews - 2017
    But her marriage to James I saw her become key to the legacy of the Stuarts. From her homeland of Denmark, Anne travelled to Scotland – a place she had heard tales about of ruthless and bloodthirsty people – and met her betrothed. A teenage Anne was infatuated with her match. They married and bore children, but as the Princess grew to womanhood in the turbulent court of Scotland, she was subject to the unpredictable behaviour of her husband. When Queen Elizabeth I died, James inherited the crown of England and was the first ruler to call himself ‘King of Great Britain’, and Anne the first queen. The Danish Queen tells the story of a woman who crossed the sea and found love and power, but was fated to watch the tragic demise of her children, all of whom were to be haunted by the tragic destiny of the Stuarts. It is a dramatic and enlightening account of the early years and marriage of a queen whose place in history is little known, and is perfect for fans of Anne O’Brien, Elizabeth Chadwick and Alison Weir. Lynda M. Andrews, who also writes as Lyn Andrews, is the Sunday Times Number One bestselling author of over 34 sagas, and one of the top 100 bestselling authors in the UK. She was born and raised in Liverpool, which serves as the inspiration for many of her novels. She now divides her time between Merseyside and the Isle of Man, where she has lived for several years.

Final Witness: My journey from the holocaust to Ireland


Zoltan Zinn-Collis - 2006
    In Bergen-Belsen concentration camp he survived the inhuman brutality of the SS guards, the ravages of near starvation, disease, and squalor. All but one of his family died there, his mother losing her life on the very day the British finally marched into the camp. Discovered by a Red Cross nurse who described him as ‘an enchanting scrap of humanity’, Zoltan was brought to Ireland and adopted by one of the liberators, Dr Bob Collis, who raised him as his own son on Ireland’s east coast. Now aged 65, Zoltan is ready to speak. His story is one of deepest pain and greatest joy. Zoltan tells how he lost one family and found another; of how, escaping from the ruins of a broken Europe, he was able to build himself a life – a life he may never have had.

The Mad Trapper


Rudy Wiebe - 1980
    When it ended, he was the most notorious criminal in North America, the object of the largest manhunt in RCMP history.This is the story of Albert Johnson, the Mad Trapper, a silent man of superhuman strength and endurance, who defied capture for fifty days in the bitter cold of winter, north of the Arctic Circle. He was a man who crossed hundreds of miles of frozen tundra on foot, who survived dynamite blasts and the pursuit of police, trappers and the army, and who became the first man to cross the Richardson Mountains in a blizzard.