The Greek Village Series Books 1-3


Sara Alexi - 2013
     Here the first three books in the series are presented together. The Illegal Gardener Driven by a need for some control in her life, Juliet sells up on impulse and buys a dilapidated farmhouse in a tiny Greek village, leaving her English life behind. The house is livable by local standards, but the job of restoring the garden is too big. It requires strength. Juliet cannot bring it to life on her own. Around the olive tree, hidden beneath the covering of bindweeds, are mattresses, broken chairs, shepherds' crooks, and old goat bells, the remains of past lives intertwined in a slow decay. The beauty of the garden is lost with the years of neglect and no one to appreciate it. Juliet reluctantly enlists casual labour. She has no desire to share her world with anyone. The boys have grown, Mick has gone. This is her time now. Aaman has travelled to Greece from Pakistan illegally. His task is to find work and raise money for the harvester his village desperately needs to deliver them out of poverty. Poverty that is sending the younger generation to the cities, dividing families, and slowly destroying his community. What he imagined would be a heroic journey in reality is fraught with danger and corruption. He finds himself in Greece and follows the work, a little here, a little there. As time passes, he loses his sense of self. He is now an immigrant worker, illegal, displaced, unwanted, with no value. Some days he does not have enough money to feed himself, let alone to return home to Pakistan. In the village square, he waits for work, dawn not even broken. Juliet hires Aaman. Neither is entirely comfortable with their role. Juliet the Westerner, who has money and a valid passport, resents the intrusion even though she wants her garden cleared. Aaman needs the work and money but resents the humiliation. As the summer progresses, even though they are from vastly different backgrounds, cultures apart, they discover they have something in common, an event that has defined how they interact and even how they view themselves. Pieces of their lives they have kept hidden even from themselves are exposed. They are each other's catalysts to facing their own ghosts... ) Although the island looks harmless, Marina knows it harbours ghosts from the past. Nothing would induce her to visit there again - except to protect her daughter. Sara Alexi's second book is a romp packed with a troupe of colourful characters intertwining in a gripping story. By turn uproariously funny, touching or sad this book is the stuff of which all families are made. Hopes, fears, secrets and misunderstandings beset relationships. Discovery and acceptance bridge a divide. The Explosive Nature of Friendship Do you like books about people? Then you'll love this intimate portrait of a man searching for meaning... Set in an idyllic Greek village, with a backdrop of sea and sun, this book will transport you... Mitsos has spent the last twenty years trying to comes to terms with the events of a single day and all that led up to it. In his twilight years a surprising turn of events gives him a chance to rectify his biggest wrong and give himself the peace he is seeking. But is what he has wanted for the last twenty years what he still wants now and is he the man he thought he was? Set against a backdrop of a small Greek farming village, comedy and tragedy are present in equal measures.Sara transports you to a land of sea and sun as she explores what it means to be human, and fallible.The book examines the nature of friendship, and how our choices and our perceptions of our place in society can define us.

Things Unspoken


Anitra Sheen - 1999
    After her mother's death, young Jorie grows up with her two older brothers and a mostly absent physician-father. While her brothers become increasingly wild, Jorie becomes the central force holding the family together. And as they discover more of their father's entangled secret life, Jorie embarks on her own relationships that threaten their strange-but-stable world.

Tony Accardo is Joe Batters


Neil Gordon - 2018
    Throw in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and the murders of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marilyn Monroe, Bugsy Siegel, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, Tony the Ant Spilotro, Johnny Roselli and Jimmy Hoffa. Toss in Hollywood scandal and the mobbed up career of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack. Now you can begin to grasp the epic story of Tony Accardo. Why has this story never been told? Accardo killed everyone in his path: family, friends, cops, reporters, movie stars, and politicians. Operating from deep within the shadows Tony influenced national policy, exploited the FBI, owned politicians, and fixed presidential elections. Connected to every gangster from Al Capone to Lucky Luciano to John Gotti, Joe Batters is the must-read that every Godfather fan is craving.

Rigged Justice: How the College Admissions Scandal Ruined an Innocent Man's Life


John Vandemoer - 2021
    Though the hours were long and the program struggled for funding, sailing gave Vandemoer’s life shape and meaning.But early one morning, everything came crashing down when Vandemoer, still in his pajamas, opened the door to find FBI and IRS agents on his doorstep. He quickly learned that a recruiter named Rick Singer had used him as a stooge in a sophisticated scheme designed to take advantage of college coaches and play to the endless appetite for university fundraising—and wealthy parents looking for an edge for their college-bound children.Vandemoer was summarily fired, kicked out of campus housing, his children booted from campus daycare. The next year of his life was a Kafkaesque hellscape, and though he was an innocent man who never received a dime was the first person to be convicted in what became known as the Varsity Blues scandal.A true story that reads like a suspense novel, Rigged Justice lays bare how a sophisticated scheme could take advantage of college coaches and university money—and how one family became collateral damage in a large government investigation that dominated national headlines.

Tears Behind the Veil: A True Story


Shaida Mehrban - 2008
    She does well at school, plays football with her classmates and lives in a happy home with two loving parents. She has no cares, no worries. However, this all changes the day her father dies. To cope with the death of her English husband, Sania's mother takes her on a journey back to India, the land of her birth, to reunite with her family. What Sania doesn't know is that this is no holiday, but possibly her new home for the rest of her life. Sania becomes embroiled in a world of culture clashes, prejudice and forced marriages; a world where sexual abuse and the subordination of women is commonplace and unquestioned. When her mother remarries and Sania too is forced into a marriage, she must learn to live her life in India until she can find a way to get home. But how? Who will hear her cries and wipe her tears? Who will see the tears behind the veil, who will hear her tears of silence? Who can she turn to for help and support? How many sacrifices can she endure for the promise of the freedom that she so desperately desires?

Mummy's Boy


Larry Lamb - 2011
    'Mummy's Boy' is by turns heartrending as Larry recalls the relationship broken beyond repair with his father.

Dance to My Tunes: A collection of short stories


Tanvi Sinha - 2020
    It is time to rewrite the stories. We are no longer the hero’s love interest. Neither do we believe in happily ever after. We do not wish to dance to anybody else’s tunes. We choose our path. We make mistakes. We learn from them. We love. We lose. We age. We evolve. These are stories of women. Different women. For we cannot and should not stereotype women. These stories are of relationships. These stories touch upon social issues. These stories may inspire you. These stories make you feel like you are not alone. These stories may surprise you. These stories may entertain you. I hope everybody would be able to pick something they like.

The Life and Adventures of Nat Foster: Trapper and Hunter of the Adirondacks


Arthur Lester Byron-Curtiss - 2008
    This book is not a novel, but a true history of the noted perrson whose name is given above; and although it is not a work of fiction we can safely say that with scenes of thrilling interest, daring exploits and adventures, it can vie with the most sensational novel. The history begins immedciately prior to the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, when the Foster family were living near Hinsdale, N. H. The first part of the book is taken up with the history of the father of the hero of the story, giving an account of his enlistment in the American army, the part he took in the battle of Bunker Hill, and his numerous and daring exploits throughout the whole of the war. When Mr. Foster went to the war his family consisted of his wife, two sons armd a daughter. Nat was the younger son, being nine years old when his father joined the army; but he early learned the skillful use of the rifle, and as deer, moose and other game abounded in the Adirondacks at that time, he did much toward the support of the family during his father’s absence, who when the war was over returned to his home broken down in health, having expended his strength and health in aiding to achieve the independence of his country. To follow Nat Foster from this time to the close of his life in old age, in his wonderful adventures with Indians and daring exploits with wild beasts, would farr exceed the limits of a book notice. One must read the book itself; and whoever begins to read it will not be apt to lay it aside for lack of interest. This book originally published by The Willard Press, in 1912 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.

My Bloody Efforts: Life as a Rating in the Modern Royal Navy


Stephen Bridgman - 2012
    Daysearlier, while traversing the Straits of Sicily the crew had discovered a crack in one ofthe nuclear reactor pipes, requiring the immediate shutting down of the reactor toprevent a potential reactor accident, an operation never before conducted on a Britishsubmarine at sea.Th e previous six days had been a difficult time for the crew of the submarine. Initialindications of a nuclear reactor defect had quickly escalated into a full scale potential nuclearreactor accident at sea, requiring decisive action by the crew to make the reactor safe, toidentify the defect and attempt to repair the reactor, and then to surface the submarine andto sail her safely back to the nearest safe harbor using emergency propulsion machinerydesigned for very limited use. The resulting lack of electrical power resulted in the crewhaving to sacrifice lighting, air-conditioning, bathing facilities and even hot food until theirreturn to harbor, and to suffer in the excessively hot interior of the boat. Throughout,there remained the fear of exposure to deadly radiation and the uncertainty that the reactormight still be one step away from a major accident.For one man onboard, this episode formed the culmination of a 25 year navalengineering career almost fated for this moment. Charge Chief Stephen Bridgman,the senior nuclear propulsion technician, had needed all of his engineering knowledgeand experience in the identification and eventual repair of the submarine reactor,subsequently being awarded an MBE together with a colleague for his services to navalengineering for his actions.This book provides an insight into a remarkable naval career starting as a 16 year oldStoker on the final proper British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal in 1977, throughthe Falklands War, being selected for naval technician training and submarine service,submarine training, submarine patrols in the supposed post cold-war period, theKosovo conflict, progression through the ranks, submarine refi t and refueling throughto the nuclear reactor accident onboard HMS Tireless.While there are countless accounts of naval life during wartime, this book tells theunique story of life as a British naval rating in the modern era, starting from the lowestlevel at a time of decline for the Royal Navy in the late 1970s, and paralleling the majorpolitical and military events of the 1980s and 1990s.

Here’s the Story: A Memoir


Mary McAleese - 2020
    The reality of what she went on to achieve - despite those obstacles, and despite a sectarian attack that forced her family to flee their home - is even more improbable.In this luminous memoir, Mary McAleese traces that astonishing arc: from the tight streets of north Belfast, to a professorship in Dublin while still in her twenties, behind-the-scenes work on the peace process, and two triumphant terms as President of Ireland. She writes of her encounters with prime ministers, popes and royalty with the same easy candour and intimacy with which she describes her childhood. And her account of the latest act in her remarkable career - quietly pursuing a doctorate, and loudly opposing the misogyny of the Catholic Church - is inspiring.Here's the Story is warm, witty, often surprising and relentlessly fascinating: an extraordinarily intimate memoir by one of the most remarkable public figures of our time._______________'A fascinating story and well worth the read' Irish Times'Riveting ... A fiercely urgent reminder to the world - and the Government - that peace must never be sacrificed for politics' Telegraph 'Excellent' Matt Cooper, Irish Daily Mail'Artful, entertaining and often enlightening - one of the few memoirs by a senior Irish office-holder that's actually worth reading' Sunday Times'I was enthralled and absorbed by this memoir' Sunday Independent'What an incredible life lived by an outstanding role model. I ate this book up' Sinéad Moriarty'Full of conviction and isn't afraid of plain speaking ... Priests, popes, paramilitaries and Ian Paisley are all held to account' Herald Scotland '[A] chatty, provocative and embraceable biography' RTÉ Guide'Compelling ... Displays many of the qualities that made her such a popular president' Business Post

Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World


Louis de Bernières - 2001
    Taking his inspiration from Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, Louis de Bernières chose to celebrate his ten years of life in the south London suburb, living above a small shop that had been by turns an outlet for oversized naughty clothes for transvestites, a West Indian hairdressers and a junk shop, by writing of the people that he had known and come to love in his time there.Brilliantly capturing the myriad voices of modern Britain, with their different rhythms of speech and accents, their humour and their tragedy, jokes and gossip, de Bernières' tour de force takes us to the heart of a community and its spirit - the lives and loves, the tears and the laughter of its people.

My World


Sagan Peter - 2018
    With four Tour de France points jersey victories, three road race world championships, the 2018 Paris-Roubaix, and multiple spring classics among Sagan’s palmares, the world of cycling agrees that this intense yet fun-loving rider is among the most dominant and fun-to-watch riders of his generation. In My World, for the very first time, bike racing fans will have the opportunity to glimpse behind the scenes of Sagan’s cycling life, revealing the full extent of his dedication to competition and determination to win. They will read about his relationship with fellow riders, his heroes and how he copes with the expectation of success. He will share technical details about his preparation, dissect the art of the sprint and analyze the tactics that play out during a fiercely competitive stage or race.

Crashed And Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw


Tommy Byrne - 2008
    Peppered with dark humour, this book tells Tommy's story from fending for himself as the runt of a big Catholic litter in the 1960s to driving for a deluded billionaire madman and then gun-toting Mexicans in the 1990s.

Summer Of The Aliens


Louis Nowra - 1992
    He has also written fim scripts and for television.

A Secret Worth Keeping: Deleted Scene


Lakisha Johnson - 2014
     5,000 additional words completed with sex, lies, and secrets A preview of Part 2 raw, unedited, and edge of the seat drama Follow Lakisha Johnson on social media: Instagram @KishaJohnson Twitter @_LakishaJohnson