Book picks similar to
The Seeker of Stars by Emma Thingsted


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Emma and I


Sheila Hocken - 1978
    This is Sheila Hocken's own story. A story of a young blind girl who sets out to fight for the right to live fully and to see again. Sheila's account of the events and people that transformed her life is moving and inspiring. Sheila introduces Emma, her beautiful chocolate-brown labrador, whose devotion and intelligence as a guide dog are inspiring. We also meet Don, who brings romance into Sheila's life - through a radio program. And furthermore, Mr Shearing, the skilled surgeon who performs the miracle which gives Sheila a whole new world.

Anything to Declare?: The Searching Tales of an HM Customs Officer


Jon Frost - 2014
     In his time as a uniformed officer Jon seized presidential aircraft, a working tank, cars, lorries, boats and coffins; and uncovered wild animals, killer snakes, bush meat, animal porn, poisonous vodka, dodgy medicine, bootleg prescriptions, pirated pills, toxic alcohol, firearms, side-arms, swords, explosives, stolen gold, dirty money, blood diamonds, child pornography and every drug known to man and a few as yet unknown ones. And the dead? He searched them too. When you’ve confiscated everything from a suitcase full human hair to a live monkey hidden in the lining of someone’s overcoat, you know you can never return to a normal line of work. But then Jon went into undercover customs work, and things became really interesting . . .

THIS is Africa


Mat Dry - 2012
    THIS is Africa is a compilation of stories that defines the maxim "Truth is sometimes stranger, and more wondrous than fiction." From a place known for its continent-wide diversity, notorious for its dramatic turbulence, and beloved for its animals and untamed wildness, Mat Dry, brings his incredible true tales of living and working in Africa as a Safari Guide.

The Crocodile Who Swallowed The Sun


Bachar Karroum - 2020
    

Six Months to Live: The Dawn Rochelle Series, Book One (Lurlene McDaniel Books: 1)


Lurlene N. McDaniel - 2010
    Dawn Rochelle is about to face the toughest fight of her life—a fight she has to win. Otherwise, she has only six months to live.

Half A Brain: Confessions of a Special Needs Mom


Jenni Basch - 2020
    

Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism


Temple Grandin - 1995
    She also lectures widely on autism—because Temple Grandin is autistic, a woman who thinks, feels, and experiences the world in ways that are incomprehensible to the rest of us. In this unprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from the country of autism. Writing from the dual perspectives of a scientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country is experienced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach its boundaries to function in the outside world. What emerges in Thinking in Pictures is the document of an extraordinary human being, one who, in gracefully and lucidly bridging the gulf between her condition and our own, sheds light on the riddle of our common identity.

Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong


Bradley Trevor Greive - 2020
    Sam's personal message at the end of the book has resonated powerfully with readers - where, pulling no punches, she writes about what it is really like to face life in a wheelchair.In Sam Bloom, Sam tells her own story for the first time - how a shy but determined Australian girl became a nurse and travelled across Africa. How she fell in love with a like-minded free spirit, raised three boys and built a life together on Sydney's Northern Beaches. And then, in a single horrific moment, how everything changed. Sam's journey back from the edge of death and the depths of despair is so much more than an account of overcoming adversity. Sam's captivating true story - written by close friend, New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive, and featuring extraordinary photographs taken by Sam's husband, Cameron Bloom - is humbling, heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure. A triumph of raw emotion and incredible beauty, Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong is a truly unforgettable book.Penguin Bloom is soon to be a major motion picture starring Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln, Jacki Weaver and Rachel House.PRAISE FOR PENGUIN BLOOM 'A unique and remarkable insight into a family dealing with tragedy and finding their way through it with love, courage and hope' - Naomi Watts'a coffee-table book that will make hearts soar' - Daily Telegraph

The Sara Gruen Collection: Water for Elephants - At the Water's Edge - Ape House


Sara Gruen - 2016
    He meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her...2 - AT THE WATER'S EDGEA gripping and poignant love story set in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands at the end of the Second World War.'The only fault I can find with this book is that I've already finished it' Jodi Picoult'Truly enthralling' Scotsman'Breathtaking' Harper's Bazaar1945. After disgracing themselves at a high society party, spoilt young Philadelphia socialites Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off from the family without a penny. Ellis decides their salvation will be to hunt down the Loch Ness Monster, a venture his father very publicly failed at. So, oblivious to WW2 raging around them, they make their way to the Scottish Highlands, where Maddie has to face reality and decide just who the real monsters are.3 - APE HOUSE The New York Times bestseller.'If you love animals like I do, it's a must read' Ellen DeGeneres'Had me instantly enraptured' Dallas Morning News'Wildly entertaining' Booklist (starred review)These bonobos are no ordinary apes. Like others of their species, they are capable of reason and carrying on deep relationships - but, unlike most bonobos, they also know American Sign Language.Isabel Duncan, a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab, doesn't understand people, but animals she gets, especially the bonobos. Isabel feels more comfortable in their world than she's ever felt among humans . . . until she meets John Thigpen, a very married reporter who braves the ever-present animal rights protesters outside the lab to see what's really going on inside.When an explosion tears apart the lab, severly injuring Isabel and 'liberating' the apes to an unknown destination, John's human interest piece turns into the story of a lifetime.

Why Your Prescription Takes So Damn Long to Fill


Drugmonkey, Master of Pharmacy - 2010
    I call your doctors office and am put on hold for 5 minutes, then informed that your prescription was phoned in to my competitor on the other side of town. Phoning the competitor, I am immediately put on hold for 5 minutes before speaking to a clerk, who puts me back on hold to wait for the pharmacist. Your prescription is then transferred to me, and now I have to get the 2 phone calls that have been put on hold while this was being done. Now I return to the counter to ask if we've ever filled prescriptions for you before. For some reason, you think that "for you" means "for your cousin" and you answer my question with a "yes", whereupon I go the computer and see you are not on file. The phone rings..." That's part of the reason why your prescription takes so long to fill, and after almost 20 years of this, a question I was never quite able to answer loomed larger and larger each day: "Why did I get into this profession?" Cranky customers whose only questions seem to involve their insurance co-pays. Pointless paperwork. People begging for early narcotic refills. Staff cuts. That was my workday. The struggle to get people the medicine and information they needed seemed almost futile at times. Then one day I got the answer. It hit me like a ton of bricks while driving home one spring evening along the California coast. I was born again, but it had nothing to do with Jesus. It did have a lot to do with a little plastic motorcycle. And I did become the pharmacist who saved Christmas. I absolutely know now why I became a pharmacist. I still don't know why your co-pay is so high.

Hot Quit


Kathryn Roberts - 2013
    As a major player in the high-stakes world of corporate restructuring, she’s learned how to handle many different people and problems, but one thing she doesn’t know how to handle is a horse. Enter Jackson Morgan, a trainer who specializes in the Western event of cutting, in which a horse and rider work to separate a single cow from the herd. Alexandria hires him to teach her how to ride, so she can curry favor with Everett Covington, a crusty Texan whose trucking business Alexandria desperately needs to purchase in order to pull off a lucrative deal—and whose passion happens to be cutting horses.The consummate city slicker, Alexandria gamely goes about learning the sport of cutting, but things get complicated when she starts to fall for the cowboy who’s teaching her. Soon she discovers that in order to acquire the trucking company she’s been chasing, she’ll have to rein in her emotions.

The Road To Agra


Aimée Sommerfelt - 1959
    Lalu journeys to Agra to take his sister to a doctor, a journey of 300 miles.

The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It


Ricki Lewis - 2012
    Like something from a science fiction novel, doctors carefully injected viruses bearing healing genes into the DNA of Corey's eyes a few days later, Corey could see, his sight restored by gene therapy.THE FOREVER FIX is the first book to tell the fascinating story of gene therapy: how it works, the science behind it, how patients (mostly children) have been helped and harmed, and how scientists learned from each trial to get one step closer to its immense promise, the promise of a "forever fix," - a cure that, by fixing problems at their genetic root, does not need further surgery or medication.Told through the voices of the children and families who have been the inspiration, experimental subjects, and successes of genetic science, THE FOREVER FIX is compelling and engaging narrative science that tells explores the future of medicine as well as the families and scientists who are breaking new ground every day."

Sophie's Journey


Sally Collings - 2007
    A room of children, napping on mattresses in their childcare centre, waiting for Santa to arrive. It's a peaceful scene. Until a car crashes through the doors at head height, smashing into the midst of the sleeping children. the engine revs faster and faster; flames lick the ceiling.Incredibly, no child was killed at the Roundhouse Childcare Centre on 15 December 2003. But Sophie Delezio bears the legacy of that day written on her body. Sophie suffered third-degree burns to 85 per cent of her body in the fi re. She lost both feet, some fingers, and her right ear.Her survival was a miracle to many. two years later, the unthinkable happens: Sophie is hit by a car, and once again left with near-fatal injuries. Yet again, she defies the odds and survives.Sophie's Journey traces the path of this remarkable young girl. It is told through the words of friends and family, hospital staff, emergency workers and high-profile supporters. the voices of Sophie's parents, Ron and Carolyn, run through the story, describing the twists and turns of their journey so far.this book tells of a child's resilience, of the choice between life and death, and of a strength that prevails through suffering. Sophie Delezio has a message of hope for us all. this is her story.

The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son


Rupert Isaacson - 2009
    But when Isaacson, a lifelong horseman, rode their neighbor's horse with Rowan, Rowan improved immeasurably. He was struck with a crazy idea: why not take Rowan to Mongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected? THE HORSE BOY is the dramatic and heartwarming story of that impossible adventure. In Mongolia, the family found undreamed of landscapes and people, unbearable setbacks, and advances beyond their wildest dreams. This is a deeply moving, truly one-of-a-kind story--of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth to help their son, and of a boy learning to connect with the world for the first time.