Book picks similar to
Jail Journal by John Mitchel
ireland
history
memoir
irish-history
Ruthless: A Memoir
Jerry Heller - 2006
In the battle of his life over the ragingly successful music label he had helped found, Ruthless Records, Heller had seen death threats, strong-arming, and beatings. Now the violence had come home when his enemies burglarized his house, jacked his Corvette, and left behind this sneering piece of graffito.Heller didn't get mad; he got even. "Ruthless" tells the explosive story of Jerry Heller's alliance with Eric Wright, aka Eazy-E, one of the legends of rap music and a founding member of N.W.A., "the world's most dangerous band." As a longtime music industry superagent, Heller had the skill and insight necessary to guide N.W.A.'s cometlike rise to the top of the charts. Along the way there were raucous nationwide tours, out-of-control MTV pool parties, and X-rated business meetings. Heller held on through the brutal shocks and reversals of the Ruthless Records era, which saw the label being targeted by the FBI, and its principal artists locked in bitter conflict, until a final turnaround placed Ruthless at the top of the heap once more. Always in the middle of the whirlwind were Jerry and Eazy, an odd-couple pairing that represents one of the deepest and most appealing stories in American music.You don't have to be an N.W.A. fan to love "Ruthless," Heller turns the music industry inside out, exposing its strange logic and larger-than-life personalities. "Ruthless" provides keen insight into the popular music scene, with an unforgettable portrait of its rollicking excesses, life-churning drama, and multimillion-dollar highs.
Country Girl
Edna O'Brien - 2012
O'Brien was undeterred and has since created a body of work that bears comparison with the best writing of the twentieth century. Country Girl brings us face-to-face with a life of high drama and contemplation.Starting with O'Brien's birth in a grand but deteriorating house in Ireland, her story moves through convent school to elopement, divorce, single-motherhood, the wild parties of the '60s in London, and encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars, and literary titans. There is love and unrequited love, and the glamour of trips to America as a celebrated writer and the guest of Jackie Onassis and Hillary Clinton. Country Girl is a rich and heady accounting of the events, people, emotions, and landscape that have imprinted upon and enhanced one lifetime.
The White Island
Stephen Armstrong - 2004
Its history reads like a history of pleasure itself. It is also a story of invasions and migrations, of artists and conmen, of drop-outs and love-ins. The Carthaginians established a cult to their goddess of sex there, and named the island after Bez, their god of dance. Roman centurions in need of a bit of down time between campaigns would go to Ibiza to get their kicks. And over the centuries, cultures around the Med have used the island either as a playground or a dump for the kind of people who didn't quite fit in back home, but who you'd probably quite like to meet at a party...This is the history of Ibiza, the fantasy island, framed by one long, golden summer where anything can happen - and it usually does.
Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage
Tim Robinson - 1986
Every cliff, inlet and headland reveals layers of myth and historical memory, and Robinson makes beautifully crafted observations about the habits of birds, plants and the humans who lived there and endured, leaving records in stone - on the walls, cairns and ancient forts - in story and in oral tradition.
One More Day Everywhere: Crossing 50 Borders on the Road to Global Understanding
Glen Heggstad - 2009
Three years later he set out into the world on his bike again, this time searching for truth on his own terms in a world that had become strangled by a climate of fear. Starting his trip in Japan, he traveled through Siberia, Mongolia, Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia, and Africa, stopping in more than 30 countries to deliver his message of the real United States, as he knew it. Unique stories and gritty adventure fill this quest for new sights and insights amongst extreme temperatures, knee-deep mud, bureaucratic roadblocks, health problems, and loneliness.
Bound For Distant Seas: A Voyage Alone to Asia Aboard the 28-Foot Sailboat Atom
James Baldwin - 2015
His story is seasoned by his adventures during his first circumnavigation in 1984-86 as told in Across Islands and Oceans. Alone with little money aboard Atom, his now engineless 28-foot sailboat, James embarks on his odyssey without the comforts and equipment most sailors consider essential. Challenging himself to live as closely with the sea as possible, the author sets sail in 1987 from Florida, bound for new adventures on the distant shores of Asia. He does not return home again for 15 years. In this paean to the sea and foreign lands, the author recounts the best and worst of life on the ocean, visits to far-flung islands, and adventures amid throngs of humanity in some of the world’s most densely populated cities. This unvarnished physical and philosophical saga includes encounters with dead-eyed bureaucrats, native angels of mercy, newly discovered WWII wreckage, fellow expat adventurers, rogues and misfits. The journey takes many unplanned turns as the author faces near misses with lurking dangers, hikes across islands, finds temporary employment ashore, and immerses himself in foreign cultures. Along the way he is tested by sea and society, and he ultimately discovers the priceless treasures of heart and mind that he seeks. James invites you to come aboard Atom for the journey of a lifetime.
Indus Journey: A Personal View of Pakistan
Imran Khan - 1990
Recently he set out to travel through Pakistan, revisiting those places that meant most to him along the great Indus river, from its delta on the Arabian Sea to its headwaters in the Himalayas, by way of the mysterious ruins at Mohenjodaro, the plains of Sind and the Punjab, the Khyber Pass, and his home town of Lahore. Imran’s amusing anecdotes and acute observations provide a unique insight into the richly varied life of Pakistan’s past and present; a life vividly portrayed by the superb colour photographs of Mike Goldwater. The result is a sumptuous personal view of Pakistan seen through the eyes of one of its most illustrious countrymen.
The Price of my Soul
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey - 1969
If its name was "Saint Somebody", they know you are a Catholic and you don't get taken on...'In vivid detail, she brings to life the situation which has focused world attention on the North of Ireland...the early marches, and then the shootings, the burnings, the barricades...how she went to America to help her people rebuild their homes...and how she feels today...
Wham! George & Me
Andrew Ridgeley - 2019
It is 1975, Watford, and two teenagers, George and Andrew, meet for the first time. Bonding over their love for singing, song writing and pop music, together they set out to follow an impossible dream. They didn't know it then, but they were taking their first steps towards forming Wham!, a band that was to become one of the biggest in the world.Wham! were the soundtrack of the 80s; whether it was choosing life or Live Aid, the decade of flamboyance and fun was a party that seemed like it would never end. But it had to stop somewhere - and that was in front of tens of thousands of tearful fans at Wembley Stadium in 1986.In Wham! George and Me, Andrew Ridgeley tells the story of Wham! - from the day they met to that iconic final concert. For the first time, he reveals what it was like being at the centre of a pop hurricane and talks of his love for and friendship with George. It's a story only he can tell.
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Mick: The Real Michael Collins
Peter Hart - 2005
Before his death at 31, he had fought in the Easter Rising, organized the IRA and out-spied British intelligence, negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and run the first independent government in Ireland. Peter Hart’s groundbreaking biography restores humanity to this mythical figure. Drawing on previously unknown sources, delving into Collins’s pre-revolutionary past, and assessing the methods—and the costs—of his rise to power, Mick reveals a man of often ruthless ambition, more politician than soldier, whose friendships went no farther than his interests. A work as thrilling as it is authoritative.
Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong
David Walsh - 2012
And it was.As early as Armstrong’s first victory on the Tour in 1999, The Sunday Times (London) journalist David Walsh had reason to think that the incredible performances we were seeing from Armstrong were literally too good to be true. Based on insider information and dogged research, he began to unmask the truth. Cycling’s biggest star used every weapon in his armory to protect his name.But he could not keep everyone silent.In the autumn of 2012, the US Anti-Doping Agency published a damning report on Armstrong that resulted in the American being stripped of his seven Tour victories and left his reputation in shreds. Walsh’s long fight to reveal the truth had been vindicated. This book tells the compelling story of one man’s struggle to bring that truth to light against all the odds.
On the Brinks
Sam Millar - 2003
Book acquired by Warner Brothers.This memoir divides comfortably between the North [of Ireland] and New York. Millar's vivid recollection of privations withstood during the blanket protest offers grim testimony to the limits of human endurance. Like others around him Millar would not be broken, even when political conviction was reduced to dogged resistance against a repressive prison regime. He then emigrated to New York, worked in illicit casinos. The American chapters unveil a gambling underworld run by New York's Irish gangs. The empire wasn't built to last but Millar eyed a much bigger prize. Teaming up with an associate to rob $7.2 million from the hitherto impregnable Brinks Security operation in Rochester. It was a daring and bloodless heist. “Brilliant."Irish Examiner“Michael Mann’s Heist meets Jim Sheridan’s In The Name of The Father, and you come close to what awaits you in On The Brinks. An unbelievably cool book.”Village Voice, New York"Brilliant. Powerful..."Irish Times“His memoir, On The Brinks, has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster…cool narration of a life on the edge…he has a distinctive style and a compelling story. With the right marketing, his book will become a bestseller.” Books Ireland
Redemption: From Iron Bars to Ironman
John McAvoy - 2016
Born into a notorious London crime family, his uncle Micky was one of the key players in the legendary Brink's-Mat gold bullion caper. John bought his first gun at 16 and carved out a lucrative career in armed robbery. At one point he was one of Britain's most-wanted men. It took two spells in prison and the death of a friend on a botched heist to change his path. During his second stint in jail he discovered a miraculous natural talent while serving life in the Belmarsh high security unit - where fellow inmates included Abu Hamza, the hook-handed extremist cleric, and the 7/7 bombers. John broke three world rowing records while still an inmate and since his release has become one of the UK's leading Ironman competitors. He aims to turn pro in 2016 after competing in the European championships in Frankfurt. Redemption is the ultimate story of sporting salvation.
Dead Man Running
Martin McGartland - 1999
Captured by the Provos, he escaped and was re-settled on the mainland, but later discovered that he had been deliberately sacrificed by MI5. The book also covers Martin McGartland's return back to Belfast to try and discover why MI5 had attempted to organise his execution. During his years in hiding he was arrested and taken to court many times on flawed charges brought against him by Northumbria Police. Eventually the Crown Prosecution Service, advised by Northumbria Police and MI5, ordered his trial for attempting to pervert the course of justice. The jury found Martin not guilty within 10 minutes after a 4 day trial. Both Northumbria Police and the CPS lied in Court in a desperate bid to win a conviction . Northumbria Police and the CPS even gave his name, new identity and his home address out in open court. As a direct result, the IRA tracked Martin down to his 'safehouse' and shot him six times. Northumbria Police, MI5 and the British State continue to cover up IRA involvement in Martin's attempted murder. Martin continues in his fight for truth and justice. Martin McGartland is also the author of bestselling FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING .
Ronan O'Gara: My Autobiography
Ronan O'Gara - 2008
He is a brilliant kicker both from the hand and at penalty goals, a sublime organizer of play from the out-half position, and a cool head in the pressure-cooker of club and international rugby. The list of the Cork man's achievements goes on and on: he is the leading points scorer in Irish rugby history, and one of the top ten in the world; the leading points scorer in the history of the Heineken Cup; and the first ever points and try scorer at the home of Gaelic sports, Croke Park. In his candid, illuminating autobiography, O'Gara tells the story of those many on-field successes, culminating in the glorious year of 2006 when his tactical prowess and will to win first helped guide Ireland to the Triple Crown in the Six Nations championship, then Munster to a memorable Heineken Cup victory over Biarritz at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. O'Gara kicked a perfect five out of five in the 23-19 win as Munster lifted the coveted trophy for the first time, sparking wild celebrations heard all the way back in Limerick and Cork. Yet as in any sporting career, there have been the setbacks as well, most notably Ireland's disappointing performance in the Rugby World Cup in France last year. O'Gara reveals what really went on in a divided dressing-room as a series of flat performances sent the Irish crashing out, while he personally had to deal with a series of front-page allegations about his private life. O’Gara has never been shy about the fact that he's fond of a drink and a bet, and he confronts his critics head on in this book. This is the unforgettable story of a rugby player at the top of his game, of a life lived to the full, and of a passionate and proud representative of the people of Cork and Ireland.