Book picks similar to
A Handful Of Earth: A Year Of Healing And Growing by Barney Bardsley
non-fiction
calibre
food-and-gardening
garden
My (not so) Storybook Life: A Tale of Friendship and Faith
Elizabeth Owen - 2011
This enjoyable read handles with heart and a light touch such issues as marriage, family, home ownership, illness, and death.
Election Notebook: The Inside Story Of The Battle Over Britain’s Future And My Personal Battle To Report It
Nick Robinson - 2015
This is Nick‘s behind-the-scenes account of his encounters with David Cameron, who many wrote off before the shock victory he called his 'sweetest'; Ed Miliband, who turned abuse & ridicule into respect before leading Labour to its worst defeat in a generation; Nick Clegg, who led his party into power and then to humiliation and near oblivion; Nigel Farage, who rose so fast and then fell at the final hurdle; Alex Salmond, whose public clash with Nick led to thousands protesting outside the BBC’s Scottish HQ, and Nicola Sturgeon, whose stunning success as SNP leader has put Scottish independence back on the map.The result is an extraordinary narrative, characterized by Nick Robinson’s trademark insight, analysis and backstage gossip, of an adrenaline-fuelled year which culminated in a captivating election that transformed Britain’s political landscape.
Making It Happen: The Autobiography
Carl Hester - 2014
In these memoirs, he tells the story of the passion for horse-riding which revolutionised his life and made him the champion he is today. Carl grew up on the remote Channel Island of Sark, moving to the UK mainland at the age of 16 to work with horses, mainly as a way to leave home. He could never have predicted what a great affinity he would have for dressage. Carl's career enjoyed a stratospheric rise as he progressed from working as a groom/rider to riding international dressage horses full time for renowned owners Dr and Mrs Bechtolsheimer, to training his own horses, and other top riders, to international success. Carl's early career revealed someone capable of monumental achievements. He provides a rare insight into both the people and the horses that drove him to victory.
Desert Sniper: How One Ordinary Brit Went to War Against ISIS
Ed Nash - 2019
Ed Nash has travelled across the globe, and is working with refugees in Burma, when he first becomes aware of the terrible atrocities being committed under ISIS's newly established 'Caliphate', covering vast tracts of Iraq and Syria. In June 2015, he chooses to undertake the hazardous journey, via Northern Iraq, to Syria, to join ill-equipped and poorly trained but battle-hardened Kurdish forces as they attempt to halt Daesh's relentless advance. Nash is an articulate, insightful and refreshingly honest companion as he unpacks the shifting complexities of the political and military situation in which he finds himself. As one of a motley band of foreign volunteer fighters - veterans of other conflicts, adventurers and misfits, from many different countries - we follow him through his rudimentary training and early combat operations as he and his companions slowly gain the trust and respect of their Kurdish colleagues. Nash shows us the realities of the war on the ground in Syria in fascinating detail; the privations of the ordinary Kurdish soldiers, the terrible price paid by civilians caught in the cross-fire, the ever-present danger of lethal suicide bombers and occasional moments of striking beauty in amongst the carnage. A modern classic in the making, Desert Sniper will prove to be one of the most unforgettable accounts to emerge from the war against ISIS.
The Job: Fighting Crime From the Frontline
Charlie Bezzina - 2010
The Job is an explosive and intriguing account of what it takes to be a criminal investigator at the highest level.
Laughing Through the Ugly Cry: ...and Finding Unstoppable Joy
Dawn Barton - 2020
She's an upbeat Southerner with good hair and a successful business background, but she's had more heartache than most of us can imagine. Laughing Through the Ugly Cry is a collection of honest and sometimes raw stories. Dawn throws an arm around readers as she brings them along on her journey through the loss of a child, divorce, cancer, rape, the death of her only sibling, her husband's substance abuse, and finding her way back to Jesus in the middle of it all. Dawn shares her personal story to show readers how to find happiness and purpose even in the darkest of days. By laughing through the ugly cry, you will discover how to:Shut down negative feelings causing you to feel inadequateIdentify the pros despite how challenging the cons may seemEmbrace joy wherever you can find itLearn how to be honest with yourself and process grief in a healthy wayDawn writes, If more women were open about just how difficult our lives feel and how hard we are on ourselves, I think we'd learn to relax a little and give ourselves the grace God gives us every day. Laughing Through the Ugly Cry is great for:Women of any age seeking comfort, encouragement, and inspirationBook clubs and girls' nights--Dawn poses thoughtful group questions to support meaningful conversations about growth and joy
From the Eye of the Hurricane
Alex Higgins - 2007
In 1972 he became the youngest winner of the World Championship, repeating his victory in emotional style in 1982.Higgins's story is so much more than just snooker. Head-butting tournament officials, threatening to shoot team-mates, getting involved with gangsters, abusing referees, affairs with glamorous women, frequent fines and lengthy bans, all contributed to Higgins slipping down the rankings as he succumbed to drink and lost his fortune. After suffering throat cancer, Alex Higgins now reflects on his turbulent life and career in his first full autobiography. The Hurricane is back - prepare to be caught up in the carnage.
Hillsborough Voices: The Real Story Told by the People Themselves
Kevin Sampson - 2014
96 people were crushed to death and another 766 injured in a tragedy that was later admitted to have been exacerbated by police failures.Hillsborough Voices does justice to the memory of all those who died and for all those left behind. From the tragic events of the day to what unfolded in the hours, days and eventually years that followed, the book will interweave the voices of those who were there with the families and friends of those who died, and all those who have played key roles in the long search for the truth.The author, Kevin Sampson, has a long history with Hillsborough. Not only was he there as a fan to witness the horror first-hand, he also helped organise the Hillsborough benefit concert at Anfield and has close connections with the justice campaign. He has conducted exhaustive and exclusive interviews both with people who have become familiar public figures and those who will be telling their heart-rending personal stories for the first time – to bring us the full story.The book will be fully endorsed and promoted by the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and will carry the official HJC logo.
Finding Love Series Clean Romance Collection: Books 1-6
Delaney Cameron - 2018
These small town, clean contemporary romances are about first love, second chances and happily ever afters.Team MomJulie's calm life is thrown a curve ball when her brother arrives the night before his seven-month deployment asking her to take care of his son. Noting her nephew's interest in baseball, Julie signs him up for little league. She's anything but thrilled to find out that his coach is a celebrity.Stealing His HeartJust days after her return to St. Marys, Darcy runs into her childhood crush. Given that she was twelve and he was nineteen at the time, it's not surprising that he doesn't remember her. Her dreams of him coming back to find her grown up and so beautiful that he can't help but fall instantly in love with her should have been long forgotten. All he can ever be is a reminder of how much she lost when she veered off the road to avoid an oncoming car.Love of a LifetimeFaith's boyfriend has started mentioning the "M" word. Her family and friends are thrilled that she's finally found someone, pointing out that Ian (the husband she lost in Iraq four years earlier) wouldn't expect her to mourn him forever. There's just one problem: Faith isn't in love with Connor. Feeling pressure from all sides, she jumps at the chance to get away from St. Marys for a few days. Her escape to the Georgia Mountains isn't supposed to include waking up to find a stranger in her room.Dare to LoveWhen Sabrina arrives for a job interview, she never expects to run into the man who broke her heart six years ago. Trent is a painful souvenir of a first love that went terribly wrong. Four months of being unemployed is the only reason she agrees to work for him. For the present, she can't escape the cruel trick fate has dealt her. There will be no running away from Trent this time.Yours, With LoveAn unexpected inheritance brings Ellen back to her hometown of St. Marys. After an absence of ten years, she never expects to run into Quinn, one of her sister's old boyfriends and her teenage obsession. If it's true that it's a small world, it's also true that it can be a cruel one. The good-looking eighteen-year-old who touched her young heart is no more. In his place is a man whose life has been torn apart by tragedy and loss.Love at LastWorking on her grandmother's house gives Rosemary a reason to escape the media attention of a very public broken engagement. In St. Marys, she hopes to rekindle the music that used to flow easily from her mind to paper and rediscover the girl who's somehow lost her way. Instead she finds someone who challenges her beliefs about love and tests her resolve to guard her heart.
Aftershock: One Man's Quest and the Quake on Everest
Jules Mountain - 2017
The odds of surviving his type of cancer were one in five; the odds of dying on Everest are one in sixty.But just as he reaches Base Camp in April 2015, the giant earthquake in Nepal sets off an avalanche that will kill 21 . Jules is within touching distance of his life's ambition and is now faced with an agonising choice about his next move.Aftershock is a heart-stopping eyewitness account of the deadliest day in history on the world's most iconic mountain. It is also an exploration of the choices we make in life, and throws up difficult questions about how logic and compassion can be affected by altitude and extreme stress.
The Time Mom Met Hitler, Frost Came to Dinner, and I Heard the Greatest Story Ever Told: A Memoir
Dikkon Eberhart - 2015
If only his father hadn’t used up all the words.As the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet laureate Richard Eberhart, Dikkon Eberhart grew up surrounded by literary giants. Frequent dinner guests included, among others, Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, and Sylvia Plath. To the world, they were literary icons. To Dikkon, they were friends who read him bedtime stories, gave him advice, and, on one particularly memorable occasion, helped him with his English homework.Anxious to escape his famous father's shadow, Dikkon struggled for decades to forge an identity of his own, first in writing and then on the stage, before inadvertently stumbling upon the answer he'd been looking for all along--in the most unlikely of places.Filled with unforgettable stories featuring some of the most colorful characters of the Beat Generation, "The Time Mom Met Hitler, Frost Came to Dinner, and I Heard the Greatest Story Ever Told" is a winsome coming-of-age story about one man's search for identity and what happens when he finally finds it.
Hurry up Nurse 2: London Calling
Dawn Brookes - 2017
Will these nurses' from all over the United Kingdom ever manage the stresses and strains of learning and shift work in a specialist hospital? This sequel to Hurry up Nurse: memoirs of nurse training in the 1970s, follows the author to London in 1980. Here she takes up further training at a hospital in the heart of the capital’s East End. The author moves into a nurses’ home so expect some antics as she and her new found friends settle in. Hurry up Nurse 2: London Calling is another charming medical biography that includes humour and compassion as you would expect from this author. There is a lot of nursing and medical history to pack in as the experiences are set in a hospital specialising in heart and chest surgery. Cancer chemotherapy is in its infancy, open heart surgery is fast becoming routine and tuberculosis is ever present in the east end so there’s a lot to learn. Added to all of this is the enquiring mind of a young nurse who, having been told to avoid the hospital God squad does the exact opposite. There are some lovable characters in this book, from the charming Mr Robinson who sees potential in this lively young woman, now aged twenty-one, to the energetic Mrs Chang, the girls in the nurses’ home, the night porter and of course the patients’ who touch all of their lives. If you liked the first book in this series, you will love this one.
Hunter S. Thompson: The Playboy Interview
Hunter S. Thompson - 2012
It covered jazz, of course, but it also included Davis’s ruminations on race, politics and culture. Fascinated, Hef sent the writer—future Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Alex Haley, an unknown at the time—back to glean even more opinion and insight from Davis. The resulting exchange, published in the September 1962 issue, became the first official Playboy Interview and kicked off a remarkable run of public inquisition that continues today—and that has featured just about every cultural titan of the last half century.To celebrate the Interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have culled 50 of its most (in)famous Interviews and will publish them over the course of 50 weekdays (from September 4, 2012 to November 12, 2012) via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Here is the interview with the journalist Hunter S. Thompson from the November 1974 issue.
Twenty-Seven Years in Alaska: True Stories of Adventure in the Alaskan Wilderness
Jennifer Hellings - 2015
From canoe camping next to unnamed lakes, to kayaking in Alaska’s pristine waters, she describes her many encounters with the bears, moose and other animals that make this wilderness their home. With her partner David she helped to build a cabin on a remote piece of property, off the grid and accessible only by boat. Illustrated with the photos she took along the way, her story is sometimes comic, and sometimes tragic, but throughout its pages she speaks with the voice of one who loves nature and the wilderness.
Lawyer X: A True Story
Jake Banks - 2015
A bright, young Texas lawyer determined to make it on his own leaves the DA's Office to pursue a career as a criminal defense attorney. Just months later, he finds himself at the center of an international Ecstasy drug trafficking ring. As a charismatic negotiator, Lawyer X ignores danger and resurrects a deal gone bad. Caught red-handed in Paris, France, he lands in prison indefinitely. Isolated from his culture and marked as l'Américain, he is focused on staying alive at a time when Anglo – Franco relations are at an all time low. Facing years in French prison and multiple life terms in the United States, Lawyer X must protect his best friend’s innocence and salvage his own dignity. His mentor, a legendary Dallas attorney, fights to keep him from becoming a casualty in the War on Drugs. A TRUE STORY Hardcover available in 2016