Live While You Can: A Memoir of Faith, Hope and the Power of Acceptance


Tony Coote - 2019
    Just a few short months later, he found himself confined to a wheelchair. But rather than succumbing to the darkness that threatened to overwhelm him in the days after his diagnosis, he drew on his powerful faith and unwavering belief in life and found a way to light, hope and acceptance.From growing up in Fairview, to serving in the dioceses in Ballymun and later Mount Merrion and Kilmacud, and his charity work while in UCD, Fr Tony takes us on the journey of his life and shows us how, through this devastating illness, he came to know the true meaning and nature of God's love.Sadly, Tony passed away on the 28 August 2019 but his memoir and his message of hope, strength and unwavering faith live on.'Our lives will never be measured in words spoken or success achieved but rather how we live and how our life has affected those around us.' Fr Tony Coote

A Slow Train To Budapest


Ann Abelson - 2013
    Along the way, however, Miriam boards the wrong train . . . Ann Abelson's novella begins a family saga based on actual events.

Lucky Infantryman


Ed Jackel - 2007
    A young man older than most, he went on to do his duty when called. Mr. Jackel was one of many in the generation that truthfully saved the world and made it a much better place for those who would become his children and grandchildren. In Lucky Infantryman, Eddie Jackel spins a wonderful story of great historical significance. This is an account every American should read. In the telling of his time in training for and in going to war, Ed Jackel does not glorify the events, does not politicize. He merely tells a soldier’s story with all the genuineness and grit of growing up in America and being called on to do the seemingly impossible. This narrative is important for the historians of our times and the future. Eddie Jackel, an average American from the Lower East Side, one of many young men from all over the United States, captures the essence and flavor of America in the mid 1940s. To Eddie Jackel, and all the others who served, we say, “Thank you.”

Bassie: My Journey of Hope


Basetsana Kumalo - 2019
    As the first black presenter of the glamorous lifestyle TV show Top Billing, she travelled the world and interviewed legends like Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson and Luther Vandross. After a successful career in front of the camera, Bassie’s drive and ambition took her into the world of business and entrepreneurship. The street savvy that her entrepreneurial mother bestowed on her as a child stood her in good stead as she built a media empire. In Bassie – My Journey of Hope, Bassie recounts her life journey, including her relationships with mentors like Nelson Mandela. She also shares the secrets of her success and all the lessons she’s learnt along the way. She opens up about the pressures of her high-profile marriage to Romeo Kumalo and their heartbreaking struggle to have a family. She talks honestly about motherhood and maintaining a healthy work/life balance, and unpacks how she pays it forward through mentoring young people she has met along the way.Bassie also describes the legal battles she has had to wage in order to protect her name and her brand over the years. She gives a chilling account of the stalker who has harassed her for decades, and the spurious ‘sex-tape’ allegation that rocked her family and almost destroyed her career. Bassie’s enthusiasm, humour and hope infuses every page of her memoir, making it an intimate, inspiring and entertaining account of a remarkable life.

Starfish - One Family's Tale of Triumph After Tragedy


Tom Ray - 2017
    I have no idea if it is part of the dream, a hallucination, or reality. It talks of children, bringing news of a girl called Grace who loves me very much and a new baby boy called Freddie, who apparently needs me to get better... It stirs a part of me, even in my coma, reminding me that I'm thirty-eight and in love with the most beautiful woman in the world. It tells me that one third of me is gone but what's left is enough; that the thing is, above all, to survive.' When Tom Ray put his young daughter to bed one chilly December evening, he had everything he could ever want - the house of his dreams, a beautiful wife and a second baby on the way. By the next morning all of this was in jeopardy as Tom succumbed to the devastating illness that is sepsis.Starfish tells Tom and Nic Ray's truly inspirational story of their life before, during and after the illness which claimed Tom's lower arms, legs, and a portion of his face. Heart-breakingly honest and affecting, their story charts the devastating effects of Tom's illness, Nic's heroic struggle to cope and, ultimately, the love and hope that has held their family together in the ensuing years. A tragic yet beautiful tale of a couple whose love is tested to its limit after their perfect life falls apart in a single moment.

HIM: A True Story Of Love & Fear


Danielle Davis - 2020
     HIM is the true story of a life lived with domestic abuse. The author began writing her blog ‘I got flowers today’ in 2015, sharing her story with the world, with her sole aim to help others who were living with, or had experienced domestic abuse. This book shares not only her story, but through a collection of her blogs, takes a look at domestic abuse in general; how an abuser gains their victims trust, and then gradually, over time manipulates, takes control and by whatever abusive means necessary, ensures their victim chooses to stay rather than leave. I was his Princess. The children were pawns in his game of cat and mouse. He was our nightmare.

Lady Elect 3 (A Woman's Worth Book 4)


Nikita Lynnette Nichols - 2016
    As the first lady of Freedom Temple of God In Christ, Arykah has the weight of the congregation on her shoulders. She’s in counsel constantly teaching forgiveness but Arykah struggles to take her own advice and live the life of a preacher’s wife when she becomes face to face with someone that she thought she’d never see again, the very person that had scarred her for life. Will Arykah practice what she preaches or will she put her own faith to the test and open her heart to allow healing to come in?

Stanley's Coat


Peedie William - 2015
    I lived through and beyond horrific child abuse. This book tells of my brutal beginnings, starting when I was only four years old when my mother went in to hospital to have baby number three. My clothing was stripped off by my father, who hung me upside down naked on a hook on the inside of a cupboard door by the ankles. He beat me with his huge hands, then only took me down once I stopped screaming. He then plunged me into a pre prepared bath full of cold water, where I almost drowned. Even although he was holding me under the water, and I was thrashing about and fighting my young life, I could hear my drunken father laughing at me. My abuse and ridicule follows me through my school years, and has a major impact on my mental health. My family grew until I had six siblings all living with me in a two bedroom cottage. I was never acknowledged as a son by my violent father, I was the outcast, the one who brought shame to the family, and I was the devils child. This is the true story of a childhood lost, and the struggles to overcome the mental anguish afflicted on me throughout my young life. This story will take the reader on a painful journey as I move with my siblings around Scotland, from house to house, and school to school, always just evading the authorities who could have helped me. This story leaves nothing to the readers’ imagination. There are some lighter moments throughout the book which will make the reader laugh, but my story will make you wonder how I survived, and what does happen behind closed doors. Even although I am now over 60 years old, I often sometimes mourn my stolen childhood, it is like a limb has been pulled off, I can feel where it was supposed to be but it is just not there, it is a part of me which I will never get back, it was taken away without my consent and is now lost forever. Sometimes it just hits me out of nowhere, an overwhelming sadness and emptiness rushes over me. I get disheartened and I feel hopeless, sad, and hurt, and once again I feel numb to the world.

The Comeback: How Larry Ellison's Team Won the America's Cup (Kindle Single)


G. Bruce Knecht - 2016
    New Zealand needed just one more win. Oracle ultimately beat back the odds in what's been called the greatest comeback in sport. But was it? G. Bruce Knecht set out to investigate how Oracle turned things around and, most particularly, the source of extra horsepower that seemed to come from nowhere during the final races. What he discovered was that the team was using a sailing technique that was prohibited under the rules. The Comeback is a pulse-pounding account of Oracle's desperate stop-at-nothing campaign.G. Bruce Knecht, a former staff reporter and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, is the author of three books, including The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race. Larry Ellison was a major character in that book as well and it explains how his experience in the race led to his pursuit of the America's Cup. A sailor himself, Knecht raced across the Atlantic in 2005 on the yacht that broke the 100-year-old transatlantic race record.Cover design by Charles Rue Woods.

Finishing Off the Bottle: A Memoir of Addiction and Self-Discovery


Bruce Hidasch - 2018
    From stress and anxiety to real loss, booze was his magic elixir that made it all disappear. But the constant blackout nights brought with them even more trouble. Despite the perpetual cycle of drunken mistakes and continued escalation in drinking, he found new ways to rationalize his self-destructive behavior. Drinking was a part of who he was. And an existence without it seemed inconceivable. He takes you through a life where nights with missing pieces of time were the norm. And how there was a haze that overshadowed everything, even his happiest memories. He shares how far he fell before finally willing to change. And the long road back in recovery that required him to completely shift his perceptive in order to remain sober. He also explains what he discovered about the many reasons he drank so much for so long. And how he was ultimately able to come out better on the other side. This is a memoir about overcoming the grip alcohol can have on us. About learning to live life again after the bottle and facing the world with sober eyes. And finally discovering one’s true self. This is a story that will resonate with anyone who has struggled with addiction. And will give hope to those looking to change their lives for the better.

Ghosts and Shadows: A Marine in Vietnam, 1968-1969


Phil Ball - 1998
    At the time, he would have done anything to escape; only upon reflection years later did he realize that the self-confidence instilled in him by his drill instructors had probably saved his life in Vietnam. A few months after boot camp, Private Ball was shipped out to Vietnam, joining F Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, near Khe Sanh. As a grunt, in the vernacular of the Corps, Ball, like the other youths of F Company, did a difficult and deadly job in such places as the A Shau Valley, Leatherneck Square, the DMZ and other obscure but critical I Corps locales. His--their--fear of death mingled with homesickness. Little did they realize that the horrors of the Vietnam War--horrors that while in-country they often claimed did not even exist--would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

You'll Never Walk


Andy Grant - 2018
    He had a broken sternum, two broken legs, a broken elbow and shrapnel lodged in both forearms. He had a severed femoral artery, while sustaining nerve damage to his hands and feet as well as facial injuries. He had been blown up during a routine foot patrol in Afghanistan. Within days of coming to his senses, a doctor told Andy that because of the blast he would no longer be able to have children. You’ll Never Walk is his story. This is the tale of a Scouser who had to cope with losing his mum at the tender age of 12. The story of how a dream career in the Royal Marines descended into nightmare at the hands of the Taliban. The painstaking account of how he grew back six centimetres of shattered bone in his leg and learned to walk again. However, Andy wanted to run and push himself to the very edge of his limits and so he made a colossal decision. Against doctor’s advice and pleas from his father, he chose to have his leg amputated. The operation was a success, although there was a minor twist. Where once Andy’s treasured Liverpool FC tattoo had carried the message ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, surgery to create a stump removed a key word from the slogan. The scars of his amputation had been decorated with an ominous new motto, which read ‘You’ll Never Walk...’ Andy would walk again – he would do much more than that. Armed with a running blade he learned to run and play football, scaled mountains in South America and Italy and claimed two gold medals at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games. Through public speaking he brought hope to people right across the country. In 2016, he set his sights on a 10k below- the-knee-amputee world-record and completed the run in an unprecedented 37 minutes 17 seconds. And, most preciously of all, after every obstacle placed in his path, Andy became a father to a little girl.

Kisses From Nimbus: From SAS to MI6 An Autobiography


P.J. 'Red' Riley - 2017
    His is the story the establishment doesn’t want you to read.br>Captain P. J. “Red” Riley is an ex-SAS soldier who served for eighteen years as an MI6 agent. Riley escaped internment in Chile during the Falklands war during an audacious top-secret attempt to attack the Argentinian mainland. He was imprisoned in the darkness of the Sierra Leonean jungle, and withstood heavy fire in war-torn Beirut and Syria. In 2015, he was arrested for murder but all charges were later dropped. In this searing memoir, Riley reveals the brutal realities of his service, and the truth behind the newspaper headlines featuring some of the most significant events in recent British history. His account provides startling new evidence on the Iraq war, what Tony Blair really knew about Saddam Hussain’s weapons of mass destruction before the allied invasion, and questions the British government’s alleged involvement in the death of Princess Diana. Chaotic, darkly humorous and at times heart-wrenchingly sad, Kisses From Nimbus charts the harrowing real-life experiences of a soldier and spy in the name of Queen and country.

Spectre 07: Memoir of a Risk-Taker


Robert Reneau - 2019
    Air Force Lt. Col. (Ret) Bob Reneau began writing this story as his autobiography for his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and succeeding generations. However, he was convinced by many friends to turn it into book form for anyone. Bob has spent twenty-five years as an Air Force pilot. He was an original AC-130 pilot in Laos and Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. As an Airlifter flying the C-130, Bob was stationed and flew out of Sewart AFB, Tennessee, Evreux AB in France, Naha AB; Okinawa (now Japan), and Patrick AFB, Florida, where he flew Gemini Space Mission support. He was on top of all but one splashdown as telemetry and voice relay. Bob was also stationed at Ubon AB, Thailand, Rhein-Main, Germany, and Pope AFB, North Carolina. He flew all over Europe, Southeast Asia, North Africa, South Africa, Australia, and the United States. He has flown around the world two times, He was also a Reconnaissance and Special Operations pilot, logging over 8000 flying hours. He has served in most of the major air commands. His medals include the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, twelve Air Medals, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry (individual award), and many other awards and decorations. Bob hopes to leave more information for his progeny than his father did. Although he talked freely to his sons about his war experiences, Bob’s father neglected to mention them in his limited biography. He served as an unarmed chaplain during WWII. He went ashore onto Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion where his landing craft was blown out from under him. He made it onto the beach on a floating pontoon and served through many famous battles including the Battle of the Bulge, The Ardennes Forest and others. This is Bob’s interesting, funny, poignant, and informative story.

F-4 Phantom: A Pilot's Story


Robert Prest - 2017
    One of the best military aviaton memoirs ever written’ Rowland White, author of Vulcan 607 ‘I only have to think Speed, and I am at 600 knots in seconds. Think Height and I am gazing down from a eight-mile-high perch within one minute. Think Freedom and I am wrested away from a dank, cold world, cloudbase at 300 feet, through a brief shock of cloud to emerge into a golden blue world, another dimension, crystal clear for miles and miles’ Fighter Pilot. Robert Prest had never wanted to be anything else. And even as a boy he had set his sights on flying the awesome McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom. The big, twin-engined interceptor offered an irresistible combination of charisma, power and performance. Air combat, strike, gunnery, bombing and rocketry, the F-4 was jack-of-all-trades, master of most. From the lonely pursuit of Soviet intruders out over the North Sea and strength-sapping high-g dogfights, to maintaining Quick Reaction Alert on Germany’s Eastern border, ready to scramble Battle Flight at a moment’s notice, Prest and his fellow aviators stood toe-to-toe with a powerful opponent. But the defence of the West came at a cost, and comrades in arms would pay with their lives. No other book so vividly brings to life the high-pressure, high stakes, high-speed world of an RAF fighter pilot on the Cold War frontline. But it’s more than that. In capturing a sense of the wonder and magic of flying, Prest’s book ranks aviation classics from writers like Saint-Exupéry, Richard Bach, Cecil Lewis and Ernest Gann. ‘The best book I’ve ever read about flying fast jets for the Cold War RAF. Both thrilling and elegaic, F-4 Phantom makes poetry of complex, exacting world of the fighter pilot. This is as close as you’ll ever get to flying the Phantom yourself.’ Rowland White, author of Vulcan 607 ‘What First Light does for Spitfires and the Battle of Britain, Robert Prest does for the F-4 Phantom in RAF service … Superbly written.’ Royal Aeronautical Society Insight Perfect for fans of books like Skyfaring, Apache, First Light, Tornado Down, Fate is the Hunter or Sagittarius Rising