Book picks similar to
The Yellow Joss: And Other Tales by Ion L. Idriess


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Home is Forward: Hiking and Travel Adventures from Around the World


Gary Sizer - 2017
    No matter how much time he spends outside, it's never enough. Whether being thrashed by drill instructors at Parris Island or drenched by a squall in some high tundra, the same calming thought always prevailed: It’s good to be outside."Home is Forward" is much more than a collection of travel stories. As a prequel to "Where's the Next Shelter?" it answers the question of how someone can go from having a (somewhat) normal life to casting it all aside and wanting to go live in the woods. Hilarious, poetic and often thoughtful, "Home is Forward" is also a story about people. From ancient ruins to frozen volcanos, lessons are learned, friendships are forged, and on top of it all, love blooms. So if you yearn to visit far off lands, or simply love a well spun tale, you’re in the right place.

Dealing: The Cleveland Indians New Ballgame: Inside the Front Office and the Process of Rebuilding a Contender


Terry Pluto - 2006
    Granted unprecedented access to the team's top management and financial data, Pluto delivers an up-close account of how decisions were made to radically reshape the franchise. Indians fans grew accustomed to winning in the mid-1990s. They had an owner with deep pockets, a brand-new ballpark, and a team of high-priced all stars who delivered a division championship nearly every year. But that glorious ride ended with a jolt of reality after savvy owner Richard Jacobs sold the franchise at the top of the market in 2000. New owners Larry and Paul Dolan and new general manager Mark Shapiro faced a challenge: an aging team, a mounting payroll, and a shrinking budget. First they made mistakes. Then they made bold changes. Stars such as Manny Ramirez, Roberto Alomar, and Jim Thome were gone, replaced with roster of unproven youngsters and veteran rehab projects. Fans were alarmed and dismayed. Then, in 2002, Shapiro boldly predicted that the Indians would return to contend for the playoffs after just three years of rebuilding. Critics scoffed. Yet at the end of the 2005 season, the Indians were indeed back in contention, one tantalizing game away from a return to the playoffs. The core of an exciting young team was beginning to take shape, and Shapiro was voted American League Executive of the Year as his team won an impressive 93 games despite a payroll ranked in baseball's bottom five. How was it done? In his familiar clear writing style, Pluto carefully explains the manyrisky moves made by management and tells which ones have paid off, which ones haven?t, and why. This rare behind-the-scenes look at a modern front office will intrigue fantasy leaguers and fans fascinated by baseball dealmaking. It will be an eye-opener for Indians fans who may still be wondering, What happened to my team?

The Love that Remains


Susan Francis - 2020
    He is a gentle giant of a man, who promises Susan the world.Two years later they throw in their jobs, marry and sell everything they own, embarking on an incredible adventure, to start a new life in the romantic city of Granada, where they learn Spanish and enjoy too much tapas. In love, and enthralled by the splendour of a European springtime, the pair treasure every moment together.Until a shocking series of events alters everything.Susan Francis' memoir is riveting and remarkably honest and Susan Duncan said it was fearless and raw and an amazing read.

Fatal Descent: Andreas Lubitz and the Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 (Kindle Single)


Jeff Wise - 2015
    All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. In the ensuing days, a picture of the flight’s harrowing final moments began to emerge. Shortly after reaching cruise altitude, a 27-year-old first officer named Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit, took control of the plane and deliberately caused its descent. In Fatal Descent, journalist and aviation expert Jeff Wise travels to Lubitz’s hometown in Germany and pieces together a definitive and haunting portrait of the killer and the system he betrayed, revealing in heart-pounding detail how a lifelong super-achiever like Lubitz could have committed such an unthinkable act, what actually happened inside the cockpit, and whether current airline regulations leave us vulnerable to similar attacks in the future.Jeff Wise is a science journalist specializing in aviation and psychology. He is the author of the bestselling Kindle Single The Plane That Wasn’t There, about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. A licensed pilot of gliders and light airplanes, he also has stick time in powered paragliders, trikes, World War II fighter planes, Soviet jet fighters, gyroplanes, and zeppelins, as well as submarines, tanks, hovercraft, dog sleds, and swamp buggies. A contributing editor at Travel + Leisure magazine, he has written for New York, the New York Times, Time, Businessweek, Esquire, Details, and many others. His Popular Mechanics story on the fate of Air France 447 was named one of the Top 10 Longreads of 2011. His last book was Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger. A native of Massachusetts, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree at Harvard and now lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.Cover design by Kerry Ellis.

Paul O'Grady - The Biography


Neil Simpson - 2007
    He was a boxing champion as a boy. He became a dad as a teenager. He has been a barman in a brothel and spent his first years in London working as a carer to some of the capital's most at-risk kids.In this, the first major biography of the star, Neil Simpson reveals the extraordinary highs and the terrible lows of Paul's life. He explains: how Lily Savage was born as a way to make more money - and help Paul take his mind off the horrors he saw every day as a social worker; how tough it was for the 'blonde bombsite from Birkenhead' to break into the entertainment mainstream; and, why Paul decided to risk everything by throwing off Lily's wig and carving out a new career as himself.The depression, the private grief and the near fatal heart attacks that struck as Paul re-invented himself as the funniest and most successful chat show host in the country. Frequently hilarious and sometimes heart-wrenchingly sad, Paul O'Grady has always lived his life on a rollercoaster of emotions. Today he is a proud grandfather, a multimillionaire and a man loved by millions of devoted fans. This is his incredible story.

Onboard Hindi - Learn a language before you land


Eton Institute - 2014
    Learn the Alphabet and pronunciation as well as useful phrases in 8 categories, such as greetings, travel and directions, making friends to business and emergencies. Download, read and enjoy your vacation like never before.

Going Back: How a former refugee, now an internationally acclaimed surgeon, returned to Iraq to change the lives of injured soldiers and civilians


Munjed Al Muderis - 2019
    The book also detailed his early work as a pioneering orthopaedic surgeon at the cutting edge of world medicine. In Going Back, Munjed shares the extraordinary journey that his life-changing new surgical technique has taken him on. Through osseointegration, he implants titanium rods into the human skeleton and attaches robotic limbs, allowing patients genuine, effective and permanent mobility. Munjed has performed this operation on hundreds of Australian civilians, wounded British soldiers who've lost legs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a survivor of the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand. But nothing has been as extraordinary as his return to Iraq after eighteen years, at the invitation of the Iraqi government, to operate on soldiers, police and civilian amputees wounded in the horrific war against ISIS. These stories are both heartbreaking and full of hope, and are told from the unique perspective of a refugee returning to the place of his birth as a celebrated international surgeon.

Crossing the Line: How Australian Cricket Lost Its Way


Gideon Haigh - 2018
    Y’know, it's not within the spirit of the game.’ Steve Smith was not to know it at Cape Town on 24 March 2018, but he was addressing his last press conference as captain of the Australian cricket team. By the next day morning he would be swept from office by a tsunami of public indignation involving even the prime minister. In a unique admission, Smith confessed to condoning a policy of sandpapering the cricket ball in a Test against South Africa. He, the instigator David Warner and their agent Cameron Bancroft returned home to disgrace and to lengthy bans. The crisis plunged Australian cricket into a bout of unprecedented soul searching, with Cricket Australia yielding to demands for reviews of the cricket team and of itself to restore confidence in their ‘culture’. In Crossing the Line, Gideon Haigh conducts his own cultural review – ‘less official and far cheaper but genuinely independent’. Studying the cricket team across a decade of radical change, he finds an accident waiting to happen, and a system struggling to cope with self-created challenges, on the field and in the boardroom. And he wonders: is there even any longer a spirit of the game to be within? Crossing the Line is the first instalment in Slattery Media Group’s Sports Shorts collection, a new series of sports essays published as small-format books. Sports Shorts has been created as a home for ambitious, lively and engaging writing and journalism on sport—work of a scale and scope not suited to the confines of day-to-day journalism. Every instalment will illuminate or entertain, all the while fitting into your back pocket on the way to the game.

Gone with the Wine: Living the Dream in France's Loire Valley


Rosanne Knorr - 2003
    Along with her husband and pate-loving dog, Folly, they gain insights on the history, people, and daily life. Joyful reading for voyagers and armchair travelers alike!

From Here to Anywhere: 16 Days, 16 Countries, 16 Budget Flights: The Story of One Cheapskate and Zero Frills


Jason Smart - 2016
    The only proviso is that each new destination must be to a different country. From Here to Anywhere takes him on a madcap adventure through 16 European nations in just sixteen days. Along the way, he visits a place called Moss in Norway and sees the 'most depressing street in Europe' in Belgium. He wanders through a Syrian refugee camp in Belgrade, crosses a UN-protected border in Cyprus, smashes a bottle of beer in a Hungarian church and drinks some Guinness in Dublin, all the while battling airport queues, cheap coffee and his fellow passengers. Jason Smart is the published author of nine other travel books: The Red Quest Flashpacking through Africa The Balkan Odyssey Temples, Tuk-tuks and Fried Fish Lips Panama City to Rio de Janeiro Bite Size Travel in North America Crowds, Chaos, ColourRapid Fire Europe Meeting the Middle East

Where Is She?: Travel to Trauma: One Woman's Journey To Completely Losing Herself


Alyshia Ford - 2018
    Little did she know that her journey down under would take a dark turn which left her stranded 10,000 miles from home trying to piece back together the fragments of her now broken life. After working hard towards her dreams of becoming a clinical psychologist, Aly had a sudden realisation that there must be something more out there away from the books she had been burying her head into for the past 3 years. She decided to hang her degree on the wall and book a one-way ticket to Australia, a decision which would change her entire life. Through the relationships she made, the jobs she took and the landscapes she wandered, Aly reveals her full story for the first time. Behind her YouTube videos and blog posts remained a deep dark secret that she was never ready to share, until now.

Daughter of the Razor: An Australian True Crime Story


Maria Tinschert - 2016
    Before the age of 11 Maria was introduced to the world of prostitution by her mother who was in the sister hood of Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine.This story would of never have been told had it not been for another violent crime perpetrated on the now adult Maria many years later which led her to break the code of silence.Now 84 years of age Maria is an inspiring survivor who works every day of the year as a volunteer Community Care Counsellor helping others. Maria does motivational speaking on all aspects of her life, with the aim of inspiring people to take responsibility for their decisions and actions, no matter what unfortunate beginnings that anyone of us has endured.Daughter of the razor is a shocking story in itself - but it is an even greater story of survival. It is it is powerful and moving and tells of the triumph of the human spirit of a little girl in her rise out of depravity, sadism and debauchery. It is a story which has been an incredible lifetime in the making.Ralph James Solicitor Accredited Specialist--Criminal Law

That'd Be Right


William McInnes - 2008
    Both funny and insightful That'd Be Right is part memoir, part personal history of Australia over the last thirty years. It's a biographical trip told through sport, and families and William's own experiences. He writes: 'As with A Man's Got to Have a Hobby I weave in and around the events that have held such fascination for this country over the last thirty years or so, connecting them all with the progression of a life.' Some of these events would be considered momentous, some small and personal. And all are seen through William's eyes. They range from a day at the Melbourne Cup with his mother where too many champagnes and too few winners were picked; a swimming carnival early in the morning after a gloomy and long federal election the night before; watching truly surreal Grand Final moments in a pub with a group of odd and unknown bar companions. William also writes about a night at the cricket with his son, which shows how things can change and oddly come full circle.

A Dream Worth Living: Finding Strength in the Depths of Struggle Along the Continental Divide


Andy Amick - 2017
    In the span of a few hours, you can go from the brink of exhaustion in the worst possible conditions to an explosion of sunshine, amazing people, and breathtaking scenery.” On Friday the 13th, under a full moon and falling rain, Andy Amick completed the first day of the 2014 Tour Divide race. Even with a year of training and preparation, the the physical and mental challenges of the race pushed him further than he thought possible. During the 2700 mile race from Canada to Mexico, he climbed mountain after mountain, witnessed stunning sunsets, encountered the smiles and hospitality of countless people, crossed paths with a mountain lion, and rode through enough mud to last a lifetime. This is the story of one man’s dream to race the Tour Divide and his determination to reach the finish.

Land's End to John O'Groats: The ride that started it all


Sean Conway - 2012
    What followed was one of the most adventurous months of his life as he faced cold nights, rainy days and a lot of time on his own. "If I had not done this ride then I probably wouldn't be where I am today. Every adventure cyclist needs to cycle around Britain. There is just so much to experience." 46,000 words. 200 pages.