Red Love: The Story of an East German Family


Maxim Leo - 2009
    Why did his parents, once passionately in love, grow apart? Why did his father become so angry, and his mother quit her career in journalism? And why did his grandfather Gerhard, the Socialist war hero, turn into a stranger? The story he unearths is, like his country's past, one of hopes, lies, cruelties, betrayals but also love. In Red Love he captures, with warmth and unflinching honesty, why so many dreamed the GDR would be a new world and why, in the end, it fell apart.Growing up in East Berlin, Maxim Leo knew not to ask questions. All he knew was that his rebellious parents, Wolf and Anne, with their dyed hair, leather jackets and insistence he call them by their first names, were a bit embarrassing. That there were some places you couldn't play; certain things you didn't say.

A Gathering Evil


Michael A. Stackpole - 1991
    He's sure of that. But, waking up in a body bag with amnesia, he not sure of much else. Except that someone wants him dead.The New York Times Bestselling author of I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron, Michael A. Stackpole brings you an exciting adventure novel of a near-future world where technology and occult mysticism merge. Dark forces and hidden masters conspire to control humanity, and Tycho Caine needs to figure out which side he's on.

The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis


Simon Goodman - 2015
    And that’s almost all he knew about them—his father rarely spoke of their family history or heritage. But when he passed away, and Simon received his father’s old papers, a story began to emerge.The Gutmanns, as they were known then, rose from a small Bohemian hamlet to become one of Germany’s most powerful banking families. They also amassed a magnificent, world-class art collection that included works by Degas, Renoir, Botticelli, Guardi, and many, many others. But the Nazi regime snatched from them everything they had worked to build: their remarkable art, their immense wealth, their prominent social standing, and their very lives.Simon grew up in London with little knowledge of his father’s efforts to recover their family’s prized possessions. It was only after his father’s death that Simon began to piece together the clues about the Gutmanns’ stolen legacy and the Nazi looting machine. He learned much of the collection had gone to Hitler and Hermann Goering; other works had been smuggled through Switzerland, sold and resold to collectors and dealers, with many works now in famous museums. More still had been recovered by Allied forces only to be stolen again by heartless bureaucrats—European governments quietly absorbed thousands of works of art into their own collections. Through painstaking detective work across two continents, Simon has been able to prove that many works belonged to his family, and successfully secure their return.With the help of his family, Simon initiated the first Nazi looting case to be settled in the United States. They also brought about the first major restitution in The Netherlands since the post-war era.Goodman’s dramatic story, told with great heart, reveals a rich family history almost obliterated by the Nazis. It is not only the account of a twenty-year long detective hunt for family treasure, but an unforgettable tale of redemption and restoration.

How to Improve Your Memory and Remember Anything: A Very Easy Guide


John Connelly - 2012
    It contains advice on time management, goal setting and how to get the best grades with the least effort. Advice that transfers just as well for professionals and the self employed to get ahead of the competition.----------HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY: FREE EXCERPT BELOW----------Reviews from other eBook websites:"Effortless reading, and I now feel much more confident studying for tests. This was exactly what I've been looking for."-Graham Panci"Thank you for showing me how I can use my mind much more effectively. It all makes sense now that I've read it here. Eye opening!"-Clay Winters"Brilliantly simple, I've heard of some of these things before, but never had it explained so completely and so clearly. Many thanks John."-Julie YotoFREE EXCERPT:Mnemonic Tip 2- Convert Digits into WordsRemembering phrases is easier than remembering a series of digits. Similarly whole words are easier to remember than just single letters. So try to convert single digits and letters into words and then out them into memorable sentences.The reason these are more memorable than digits or letters alone is that there is no meaning, no reference point to a single number or a letter, and so they don’t make much of an impression on our minds. Actors can remember whole scripts, some then remember these for the rest of their lives. They can do this because the words, the phrases, have such a clear meaning to them; they are characters and stories. If they tried to remember the same amount of information in the form of just numbers or letters they would have no chance.This is an important aspect to all of these mnemonic devices, moving information of little meaning, to something of greater meaning.For example we can turn the digits 0 1 8 2 4 into the phrase “Only One Crate of beer tonight for me”. Here I have converted the numbers into words in the following way:Only= 0 or ZeroOne= 1Crate=8 (here I am using only a phonetically similar word, but still this is more than enough to make it memorable and link us back to the number 8.)Tonight= TwoFor= FourThis was quite straight forward for just five digits. But for longer series of digits, such as a whole phone number, the same process applies. Take your time to practice this on your own phone number now, or maybe create a random series of digits, and then code it into a sentence. It will seem difficult at first, but with a small amount of practice you can quickly become adept at this method.The exact same process can be applied to letters. Perhaps the letters H P become the words “Harry Potter”. And so, if you wanted to remember the code 01824HP you could encode it into the phrase:‘“Only one crate of beer tonight for me” said Harry Potter.’Read it a few times aloud to yourself then turn into an image in your mind, visualize it clearly; picture Harry Potter sat drinking beer at a bar, then saying this as he burps loudly. Creating a visual image will cause the phrase to route more deeply into your mind as you are creating a clear memory, and building a still deeper and stronger collection of new pathways in your mind.I promise you this image and phrase will be easier to remember than the 5 digits and 2 letters would by themselves.