Book picks similar to
A Pilgrim for Freedom by Michael B. Novakovic
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Family Secrets: The scandalous history of an extraordinary family
Derek Malcolm - 2017
The secret, though, that surrounded my parents’ unhappy life together, was divulged to me by accident . . .’ Hidden under some papers in his father’s bureau, the sixteen-year-old Derek Malcolm finds a book by the famous criminologist Edgar Lustgarten called The Judges and the Damned. Browsing through the Contents pages Derek reads, ‘Mr Justice McCardie tries Lieutenant Malcolm – page 33.’ But there is no page 33. The whole chapter has been ripped out of the book. Slowly but surely, the shocking truth emerges: that Derek’s father, shot his wife’s lover and was acquitted at a famous trial at the Old Bailey. The trial was unique in British legal history as the first case of a crime passionel, where a guilty man is set free, on the grounds of self-defence. Husband and wife lived together unhappily ever after, raising Derek in their wake. Then, in a dramatic twist, following his father’s death, Derek receives an open postcard from his Aunt Phyllis, informing him that his real father is the Italian Ambassador to London . . . By turns laconic and affectionate, Derek Malcolm has written a richly evocative memoir of a family sinking into hopeless disrepair. Derek Malcolm was chief film critic of the Guardian for thirty years and still writes for the paper. Educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, he became first a steeplechase rider and then an actor after leaving university. He worked as a journalist in the sixties, first in Cheltenham and then with the Guardian where he was a features sub-editor and writer, racing correspondent and finally film critic. He directed the London Film Festival for a spell in the 80s and is now President of both the International Film Critics Association and the British Federation of Film Societies. He lives with his wife Sarah Gristwood in London and Kent and has published two books – one on Robert Mitchum and another on his favourite 100 films. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television and a veteran of film festival juries all over the world.
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land
Toni Jensen - 2020
As an adult, she’s had guns waved in her face near Standing Rock, and felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. And she has always known that in this she is not alone. As a Métis woman, she is no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies of indigenous women, on indigenous land, and the ways it is hidden, ignored, forgotten.In Carry, Jensen maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language we use to speak about violence in America. In the title chapter, Jensen connects the trauma of school shootings with her own experiences of racism and sexual assault on college campuses. "The Worry Line" explores the gun and gang violence in her neighborhood the year her daughter was born. "At the Workshop" focuses on her graduate school years, during which a workshop classmate repeatedly killed off thinly veiled versions of her in his stories. In "Women in the Fracklands", Jensen takes the listener inside Standing Rock during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and bears witness to the peril faced by women in regions overcome by the fracking boom.In prose at once forensic and deeply emotional, Toni Jensen shows herself to be a brave new voice and a fearless witness to her own difficult history - as well as to the violent cultural landscape in which she finds her coordinates. With each chapter, Carry reminds us that surviving in one’s country is not the same as surviving one’s country.
The Point After: How One Resilient Kicker Learned There Was More to Life Than the NFL
Sean Conley - 2020
Embodying the spirit of the underdog, this is a moving tale of strength, determination, and spiritual grit."An amazing story! I devoured this book! This was so much MORE than a football story." - BOOKISHLY OVERDUE“The Point After is a page-turner. You don't have to be a real fan of football to fall in LOVE with this book. 5 stars!” - PICK A GOOD BOOKA vivid account of life in the NFL—and an inspiring story of everything that comes after.Against seemingly impossible odds, Sean Conley became the starting kicker for the University of Pittsburgh in his senior year. A year later, he suited up for the Detroit Lions. But when he joined the New York Jets soon after, Conley’s injuries caught up to him, and his lifelong dream came crashing down in a crisis of denial and fear.The Point After is an all-access look at the NFL, one of the most intense workplaces in sports. Conley describes pushing through pain at NFL training camps, surrounded by rookies, All-Pro veterans, and long-shot undrafted free agents, all hell-bent on staying in the game. He recounts the insecurities he dealt with on and off the field, and the despair that overtook him when his career ended.But while Conley thought life was over, it was just beginning.
The Pale-Faced Lie
David Crow - 2019
But as time passed, David discovered the other side of Thurston Crow, the ex-con with his own code of ethics, one that justified cruelty, violence, lies—even murder. Intimidating David with beatings, Thurston coerced his son into doing his criminal bidding. David’s mom, too mentally ill to care for her children, couldn’t protect him.Through sheer determination, David managed to get into college and achieve professional success. When he finally found the courage to refuse his father’s criminal demands, he unwittingly triggered a plot of revenge that would force him into a deadly showdown with Thurston Crow. David would have only twenty-four hours to outsmart his father—the brilliant, psychotic man who bragged that the three years he spent in the notorious San Quentin State Prison had been the easiest time of his life.Raw and palpable, The Pale-Faced Lie is an inspirational story about the power of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit.
The Housewarming (The Guesthouse on the Green Book 11)
Michelle Vernal - 2021
Settle in and enjoy your stay at O'Mara's, where stories abound, romance lurks and laughter sounds. Aisling O'Mara. She's married to a Ronan Keating look-a-like, and okay, he can't sing to save himself, but he does think the world of her. Her life would be perfect if it weren't for the fact Mother Nature hasn't seen fit to bestow a child upon them yet. The tick-tock of her biological clock is getting louder, and she's determined to make it happen. But at what cost?Ita Finnegan. O'Mara's Director of Housekeeping, wants to be happy. She's decided the key to finding happiness is to find love, and she's hatched a plan to meet her perfect match. But how can she expect someone else to love her when she doesn't like herself very much?Meanwhile, Mammy O'Mara is planning a quiet soiree with neighbours and family to introduce herself and Donal to the neighbourhood, but, somehow, it's morphed into the Howth House party of the year. Oh, and you're invited!
Nothing Left to Prove
Danny R. Smith - 2021
County Sheriff’s detective Danny R. Smith put his life on the line for twenty-one years. His career covered some of L.A.’s darkest hours: a crack cocaine epidemic, unprecedented gang warfare, a spike in homicides that stunned the nation, flames lighting the skies while gunfire rang through the nights during the Rodney King riots. There were deadly encounters: fights, pursuits, shootings, and a beating that left him unconscious. A confrontation with a murderous gangster in a dark alley, where only the miraculous malfunction of a fully automatic weapon saved his life. Hardened by the years spent on the streets and the hundreds of deaths and untold numbers of tragedies he would witness, Smith’s frustrations with a dysfunctional system weighed heavily, and his continued pledge to see justice for the victims came at an astronomical personal cost.In this no-holds-barred memoir, Smith reveals the shocking imagery of fallen colleagues, murdered children, gang warfare, and a Native American who was tortured and burned alive by skinheads. And through his unique insights battling PTSD and being forced to leave the profession he loved, his story will offer new insight into the aftermath of working in law enforcement.Nothing Left to Prove is by turns shocking, terrifying, poignant, and thought-provoking. It’s the very personal story of one man’s career and its effect on his life afterwards, unveiled through Smith’s masterful storytelling. If you think you know cops, if you love compelling true-crime stories, then you’ll love Danny R. Smith’s powerful narrative.
What Has He Done Now?: Tales from a North West Childhood in the 60s and Early 70s
David Hayes - 2016
This is incidental as it is about neither of those industries in particular. It is about the magic and wonderment of those days as seen through the eyes of a child – my eyes! It is about the days when imagination was the biggest plaything that we possessed. The days when a plastic football provided a whole summer's play. It is about the scrapes that I found myself in and the things that I observed around me, and how they made me feel. All the stories are true and I personally experienced every one of them. The names of the characters have been changed. The reason being that I have no idea of the whereabouts of many of the characters contained within my stories, so I have no way of asking them for their permission to include them in this book. Some have possibly passed away, and it would be unfair of me to mention them without their blessing. Anyone who knows me will know who they are though.
Small Town Ho: The Hilarious Story of Moving from the Big City to North Idaho
Duke Diercks - 2015
No Jobs. No friends. Just buckets of our own ignorance. Follow along in horror and hilarity as the family acclimates to the new small town way of life and the author bounces from jobs working in a school cafeteria to selling women’s clothing in a call center to opening a barbecue restaurant. Written in a smart, self-deprecating, salty style, Small Town Ho is all at once poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, full of the struggle of an ordinary family consisting of three boys, one big black lab, one assassin of a cat, and two very tired parents.
No Ordinary Dog: My Partner from the SEAL Teams to the Bin Laden Raid
Will Chesney - 2020
After the mission, only one name was made public: Cairo, a Belgian Malinois and military working dog. This is Cairo's story, and that of his handler, Will Chesney, a member of SEAL Team Six whose life would be irrevocably tied to Cairo's.Starting in 2008, when Will was introduced to the DEVGRU canine program, he and Cairo worked side by side, depending on each other for survival on hundreds of critical operations in the war on terrorism. But their bond transcended their service. Then, in 2011, the call came: Pick up your dog and get back to Virginia. Now.What followed were several weeks of training for a secret mission. It soon became clear that this was no ordinary operation. Cairo was among the first members of the U.S. military on the ground in Pakistan as part of Operation Neptune Spear, which resulted in the successful elimination of bin Laden.As Cairo settled into a role as a reliable "spare dog," Will went back to his job as a DEVGRU operator, until a grenade blast in 2013 left him with a brain injury and PTSD. Unable to participate in further missions, he suffered from crippling migraines, chronic pain, memory issues, and depression. Modern medicine provided only modest relief. Instead, it was up to Cairo to save Will's life once more--and then up to Will to be there when Cairo needed him the most.
Approaching Ali: A Reclamation in Three Acts
Davis Miller - 2015
Now, all these years later, the two friends have an uncommon bond, the sort that can be fashioned only in serendipitous ways and fortified through shared experiences. Miller draws from his remarkable moments with The Champ to give us a beautifully written portrait of a great man physically devastated but spiritually young—playing mischievous tricks on unsuspecting guests, performing sleight of hand for any willing audience, and walking ten miles each way to grab an ice cream sundae. Informed by great literary journalists such as Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, and Gay Talese, but in a timeless style that is distinctly his own, Miller gives us a series of extraordinary stories that coalesce into an unprecedentedly humanizing, intimate, and tenderly observed portrait of one of the world’s most loved men.
Heart of the Raincoast: A Life Story
Alexandra Morton - 1998
Proctor has always done the time-honoured work of generations of upcoast men—hand-logging, fishing, clam digging, repairing boats, beachcombing.But Billy eventually began to notice that the thriving runs of Pacific salmon, oolichans, and herring that he remembers from his early years were vanishing—some to near extinction—and he understood that it was time to take action.Heart of the Raincoast is the fascinating story of Billy Proctor’s life, and the wealth of knowledge and understanding that can only be gained from living in such close proximity to nature. The writing is funny, touching and honest—and offers an engaging insider’s view not only of the salmon, whales, eagles and independent people who populate Canada’s wild and lovely coastal rainforest, but on what we need to do to keep it as nature intended.
Keon and Me: My Search For The Lost Soul Of The Leafs
Dave Bidini - 2013
So it was for Dave Bidini in 1974, the last year Dave Keon played in Toronto. In a new grade in a new school, Bidini found himself the victim of a bully—a depredation he could understand only by thinking about what the Leafs dauntless captain went through game after game.Throughout his twenty-two-year career, Keon was only in one hockey fight, in his last game as a Leaf on April 22, 1974. It was on this day that the eleven-year-old Bidini decided to fight back, an occasion that the writer looks back on with breathtaking courage and honesty. But while Bidini would remain a blue-blooded Leafs fan into adulthood, Keon became estranged from the franchise with which he’d won four Stanley Cups, two Lady Byngs, and the first ever Conn Smythe Trophy in 1967.Told in two narratives—one from the point of view of the young Bidini growing up in Toronto in the early 70s and one from the perspective of the man looking for his absent hero—Keon and Me tells not only the story of a hockey icon who has haunted Toronto for decades, but of a life lived in parallel to Keon’s. It’s the story of cultural change, an account of the tribulations of the NHL’s most beloved (and most despised) franchise in the decades since Keon left under a cloud, and most of all, it is a story of growing up, with all the wisdom and sadness that imparts.Part ode to a legendary hockey player, part memoir, Keon and Me captures what we all cherish in the game we love and the importance of the innocence we cling to long after the cheers have faded.
The Boy Who Wanted Wings
James Conroyd Martin - 2016
As a Tatar and as a peasant, this is an unlikely quest. When he meets Krystyna, the daughter of the noble who owns the land that his parents work, he falls hopelessly in love. But even though she returns his love, race and class differences make this quest as impossible as that of becoming a hussar. Under the most harrowing and unlikely circumstances, one day Aleksy must choose between his dreams.
World War 2: Stories Of The Schutzstaffel: True Accounts Of Hitler’s Personal Bodyguards (World War 2, German War, World War 2 History, Irma Grese, Auschwitz, Waffen SS Book 1)
Cyrus J. Zachary - 2016
Not only was he hated by the whole world, even some of his own military commanders didn’t like him. Most leaders around the world rely on one, maybe two bodyguards to keep them safe. Even the President of the United States today has only one or two teams of security personnel; while there may be many men and women who take turns to protect their leader, the numbers are not as big as you would expect it to be. We will look at the origins of a number of bodies, such as the ‘Sturmabteilung’ or the SA, the Schutzstaffel (the SS) and the many other sub-sections of the SS such as the FBK, the LSSAH, etc., all of which were tasked with protecting Hitler. From the background, we will move on to individual accounts of men who served on these teams – they were Hitler’s personal bodyguards and some stayed with him until the very end. Humanity’s depraved nature came to fore with these men; despite having a master who was truly mad and ravenous for blood, they served him loyally. Was it because they were also as depraved as he was? Or were they afraid for their lives and did what they had to, to survive? We can only wonder... ===>>> Download this book today! <<<===
In Satan's Shadow
John Anthony Miller - 2016
British agent Michael York is sent to Berlin to solve the mystery of his predecessor’s death. A member of the Berlin String Quartet, four talented musicians, had offered the British Intelligence officer valuable information. But another member had betrayed him, and turned him in to the Gestapo. Each of the musicians has access to vital information and can easily be the one who betrayed York’s predecessor. York finds the quartet difficult to assess. Amanda Hamilton is lead violinist and a former Brit. Her husband is a German citizen, Manfred Richter, a high ranking Nazi. She could be the Gestapo informant, loyal to her husband even with his indiscretions. An amateur photographer, she has chronicled ten years of life in Germany, and is a favorite of Hitler. Erika Jaeger, second violinist, works in the logistics department of the War Ministry. Viola player Gerhard works as a draftsmen for the Armaments Department, with access to secret weapons. The last of the quartet, Albert Kaiser, has access to valuable information through highly-placed relatives. With the aid of a British master spy, Max, York works painstakingly to solve the riddle and gather information for the Allies. He must tiptoe through the streets of Berlin, always cautious, always aware, knowing that a child could betray him as easily as a grandmother. He approaches each member of the quartet, watching and waiting, probing their weaknesses and avoiding their strengths. As the months pass, he observes and assesses, learns their secrets, and evaluates their loyalties. Michael York must decide who is on his side, who is dangerous, and who is in danger. As the Gestapo slowly begins to close in on York, his friendship with Amanda blooms to romance and they plan their escape from Germany. Nothing can prepare him for the revelations that follow. John Anthony Miller is a world traveller. He is the author of To Parts Unknown, published in the fall of 2014. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.