Climbing Higher


Montel Williams - 2004
    He was struck with denial, fear, depression, and anger, and now he's battling back. Graced with strong values, courage, and hard-won wisdom, he shares his insights in this powerful book on the divergent roads a life can take, and recounts how he rose to meet the challenges he's faced. Surprising, searing, and deeply personal, Climbing Higher is as honest and inspiring as its author.

Divide By One


Grace Ragland - 2019
    This is the story of Grace's journey from the snow-capped peaks of Banff, Canada, down the spine of the Rocky Mountains, and finally into the forbidding desert of New Mexico. Grace battled many difficulties, including an infection that put her two days behind the nearest competitor, Multiple Sclerosis, the elements, demons from her past, as well as a secret that even she didn't know. Ride with Grace and laugh at her hilarious interactions with the oddballs she encountered along the way. Divide By One is an adventure story with heart and humor that shows how indomitable will and perseverance can change the way we see our limitations and our world.

ER DOC: Defining Moments of a Career in Emergency Medicine


Reggie Duling - 2021
    

Confessions of a Community Nurse


Lucy Spencer - 2019
     From travel sickness in the back of an ambulance to chasing 87-year-old patients down the corridors of care homes, from borderline assault to ulcers big enough to fit your fist into, Confessions of a Community Nurse follows the experiences of Lucy and her transition from timid student to a healthcare professional in the NHS. After a shaky start to her career, Lucy has now encountered every bodily fluid going, smelled things no-one should ever have to smell, and resisted the urge to bang her head against a wall more times than she can count. Between fond attachments to patients and wanting to hand them the nails for their own coffins, Lucy has flourished in the healthcare profession, not being afraid to speak up for her patients but also not being afraid to speak up for herself. Offering a completely truthful insight into being a 'baby nurse', it is funny and honest, but also emotional and humbling. Written as a memoir, it may just change the way you think about district nursing and open the mind to understanding the frustrations, and passions, of healthcare staff and patients alike.

Winner: My Racing Life


A.P. McCoy - 2015
    This is it. This is really the end. I was now a matter of seconds away from the moment all the numbers stopped for ever. My career total of National Hunt winners would remain at 4,348 after this, my 17,546th ride. All the stats, the numbers that had governed my life for the last two decades, they were just a few hundred yards from being stilled for ever. My whole career, my whole adult life, had been built on making those numbers click upwards as fast as I could, but in a couple of furlongs they would never move again.Deciding to retire was the most difficult decision I've ever had to make. Fortunately I was able to go out at the very top, and being able to say that makes me a very, very lucky man indeed. And now, in this book, I've been able to look back over my entire career - both good and bad moments - and see it in its entirety: the biggest wins, the disappointments, the injuries and the tragedies, my wonderful family, and the amazing horses and the fantastic personalities I've worked with.18,000 people turned up to that final race at Sandown, and I can now look back on my career with immense pride and gratitude. But that chapter of my life is closed. This book is the final word on my riding career - it's time to move forward.

Marine A: The truth about the murder conviction


Alexander Blackman - 2019
    . . For the first time, a blistering, highly charged account from the man known as 'Marine A' who was at the centre of the controversial murder of a wounded Taliban fighter. His case led to an unprecedented wave of public support which raised over £800,000 to fund his appeal. The nerve-shredding situations Sgt Blackman operated within, under sustained attack for long periods, living in the unrelenting horror of a theatre of war, took their toll mentally and physically. 'This book chronicles my young life, my recruitment and training, my first deployments, and then my experiences in the Middle East, where I fought first in Iraq, and later completed two tours of duty in Helmand, Afghanistan - before finally confronting the final moment of my 2011 tour, and the killing of the Afghan insurgent which led to my conviction for murder. 'I confront this moment in a spirit of total honesty, chronicling the weeks and months of a hellish tour that led up to it, the mental frailties the tour exposed - and, without seeking to make excuses, reclaim at least some of that experience for myself. 'This is a searingly honest look at the brutal realities of life in the military.' - Sgt Alexander Blackman (Marine A)

Who Ate All The Pies? The Life and Times of Mick Quinn


Mick Quinn - 2003
    They said Mick had a sixth sense for great accuracy in his playing days - he could find a party from any range. Quinn says he only put £50 on each horse race - but liked to stay in the bookies for twenty races a day!Sentenced in 1987 to three weeks in prison for twice driving whilst banned, Mick's been accused of punching Peter Schmeichel on the football pitch and John Fashanu off it. On retirement, though, Quinn switched to horse racing, the Sport of Kings, but controversy led the blue bloods of racing to hang the scouse oik out to dry and he was suspended from training for two and a half years.Who Ate All The Pies? is the funniest and most honest football book you'll read for a long, long time.

Life in a Jungle: My Autobiography


Bruce Grobbelaar - 2018
    And yet, question marks have followed him around; question marks about his goalkeeping suitability after arriving on Merseyside; question marks about his integrity after match fixing allegations were laid against him. Here, Grobbelaar takes you to Africa, where nothing is at it seems; he takes you back to an era when Liverpool ruled Europe; he takes you to the benches of the Anfield dressing room, where only the strongest personalities survived. For the first time, he takes you inside the court room, detailing the draining fight to clear his name.

Lipsticks and Bullets: ISIS, Crisis, and the Cost of Revolution


Fairouz Abdalla - 2017
    Born to a family of artists known for their literary interests, Fairouz, an English Literature student from Syria was well known for her work in Arabic poetry, theatre, short stories, performance and local journalism long before the Syrian war began. As the Arab Spring reaches her town, she realises her life is transforming into a blockbuster movie before her very eyes, and so decides to document it with an unflinching honesty and rawness. Frequently described as the Syrian Anne Frank by pan Arab media, Fairouz Abdalla’s diary Lipsticks and Bullets takes us on an exclusive trip into her politically-charged world, from the hipsters on the historic roads of Hama to the upper class circles in the bourgeoisie private clubs of Damascus. Inspired by revolts in Tunisia and emboldened by Libya’s dissidents, Fairouz and her activist friends dream of a revolution and a Syria free from the rule of the tyrannical Bashar al-Assad and his minions. But revolutions are not so easily achieved, as she soon discovers.The spirited young beauty, the daughter of a Christian and a Muslim only has eyes for a handsome bachelor from the esteemed and well-connected Atassi family. The pastel-eyed engineer and member of the Arab student movement who stole her heart is swiftly torn away from her, seemingly forever. Fairouz faces losing all that she loves – Syria is a dangerous place for an activist ­– and especially for a woman. Fairouz must fight not just for a Syrian revolution, but also for the lives of her loved ones, herself, and against the growing nightmare that are western Jihadists.As the Arab spring turns to winter, Syria’s citizens will learn that nothing—not war, not politics, not even religion—can tear them apart. Together, they remain defiant and insist on keeping humour and hope alive. From Syria to Sweden, Istanbul, and Damascus, Lipsticks and Bullets is an intimate tale of love and adventure, by a celebrated Arab author who is a powerful witness to the terror and horror wrought by Assad, Iran and Russia on the lives and souls of Syrians. It is a vivid exploration of Middle Eastern culture, Romance, Islamic extremism, class conflict, and social activism. Syria's story is her story.

Goldfinger and Me: The Real Story of John Palmer, Britain's Most Powerful Gangster


Marnie Palmer - 2018
    Palmer hit the big time in 1983 with the Brink’s-Mat gold bullion raid, netting £500 million in today’s money for himself and Kenneth Noye – the biggest heist in UK criminal history at the time. While murders and lethal accidents befell at least 20 accomplices and police officers connected to the raid, Palmer somehow remained unscathed. His luck finally ran out on 24 June 2015 when he was shot six times by an assassin. The killer remains unknown and, until now, so too did most of Palmer's secrets. Few gangsters have attracted as many newspaper column inches in recent decades, but only one woman saw it all from the start and lives to tell the tale. In Goldfinger and Me, his wife Marnie lifts the lid on Palmer's rise from a deprived childhood in Birmingham to a life of yachts, private jets, helicopters, fast cars, cocaine addiction and infidelity. His criminal exploits in Tenerife as well as his links to the Hatton Garden jewellery heist are also laid bare in this explosive book.

Mad Frank and Sons


David Fraser - 2016
    It includes the story of Frank's beloved sister, Eva, who was a top-class West End shoplifter, and his sons David and Patrick, who reveal in shocking detail the full extent of the family's network and the influences that shaped them.With sawn-off shotguns as toys, the Kray twins as family friends and a mother who urged them as teenagers to 'get out of bed and rob a bleedin' bank', it is little wonder that the Fraser boys were heavily involved in organized crime by the time they were in their twenties. Packed with new information, and featuring some of the most famous names in the London underworld, this is a fascinating slice of gangland history seen through the eyes of Frank Fraser and his two renegade sons.

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.

L.E.O.: The True Stories of Lt. Wayne Cotes


Wayne Cotes - 2018
    Some of his tales will seem far fetched, unless you're a cop and then you know that anything can happen - and just when you think you've seen it all, someone will surprise you.

Seve: The Autobiography


Severiano Ballesteros - 2007
    And then there's Seve.Severiano Ballesteros was perhaps the most naturally gifted golfer ever to have walked a fairway. From the moment his brother Manuel gave him his first club he was unstoppable. A few weeks before his seventeenth birthday he turned pro. Five years later he won the Open. A genius had arrived.For the best part of two decades Seve dominated the golfing landscape. He played shots others could only dream of. With 94 wins as a professional (including 5 majors) he was a phenomenon, an athlete who transcended his sport.But Seve stood for more than simple excellence. Almost single-handedly, Seve gave European golf credibility; almost single-handedly, he made the Ryder Cup one of the greatest contests in world sport. And when, as captain, he finally lifted the trophy on home soil in 1997, a whole continent rejoiced. His pride and passion have inspired millions, and we have taken him to our hearts. Here, for the first time, Seve tells his own story. From his humble beginnings right up to the present day, here at last is the man behind the magic in his own words. Seve is utterly entertaining, blazingly charismatic and unique.Severiano "Seve" Ballesteros Sota was a Spanish professional golfer and a leading sports figure. He won more than 90 international tournaments in an illustrious career. He first caught the attention of the sporting world in 1976, when at the age of 19 he finished second at The Open. He played a leading role in the re-emergence of European golf, helping the European Ryder Cup team to five wins both as a player and captain. He won the World Match Play Championship a record-tying five times. He is generally regarded as the greatest Continental European golfer of all time and won a record 50 times on the European Tour.Ballesteros died of brain cancer on 7 May 2011, aged 54.

The Last Gangster: My Final Confession


Charlie Richardson - 2013
    Boss of the Richardson Gang and rival of the Krays, to cross him would result in brutal repercussions. Famously arrested on the day England won the World Cup in 1966, his trial heard he allegedly used iron bars, bolt cutters and electric shocks on his enemies.The Last Gangster is Richardson’s frank account of his largely untold life story, finished just before his death in September 2012. He shares the truth behind the rumours and tells of his feuds with the Krays for supremacy, undercover missions involving politicians, many lost years banged up in prison and reveals shocking secrets about royalty, phone hacking, bent coppers and the infamous black box.Straight up, shocking and downright gripping, this is the ultimate exposé on this legendary gangster and his extraordinary life.