Book picks similar to
Straw Hats And Serge Bloomers by Eileen Elias
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Anne's Song
Anne Nolan - 2008
At the height of their fame, The Nolan Sisters were one of the biggest acts around, touring with Frank Sinatra, performing at the Royal Variety Performance and travelling around the world to play for their adoring fans.Surrounded by a bevy of loving sisters, two protective brothers and parents who wanted to see their children succeed, how could Anne Nolan's childhood have been anything but idyllic? And yet behind the fairytale script - the fame and glitz lay hidden a dark family secret that has, until now, never been told.Anne's story - which starts in her birthplace Dublin and moves to the Northern club scene of Blackpool - tells of this other life - one that had to remain hidden, one of fear and pain that has cast a terrible shadow over her entire life. After so many years of silence, she has decided the time has come to speak of the brutal truth behind the carefully cultivated image, that was The Nolans.
Mummy's Boy
Larry Lamb - 2011
'Mummy's Boy' is by turns heartrending as Larry recalls the relationship broken beyond repair with his father.
3rd Platoon, a Corpsman's Story of the Vietnam War
Keith Gum - 2020
Jump Wings And Secrets
Raymond Hunter Pyle - 2015
For some it was a war with loneliness, boredom, and endless fatigue. For others it was a war with unyielding jungle, mountains, and disease. For still others it was a war with terror and death and all of the above. And then there was the secret war fought mostly by Army Special Forces and Navy Seals. For these secret warriors, the war was seldom boring and always dangerous. The mountains and jungles of Laos and Cambodia were their playground, and disease, terror, and death stalked them on every mission. Sergeant First Class Ed Potter, returning for his third tour in-country with the 101st Airborne, was on a short tour, just six months this time. While in the states, he had passed the Special Forces selection battery and did well in all phases of the SF assessment course. He expected orders to the SF Q course in six months. In the meantime he expected to be placed in a platoon sergeant’s job with the 101st at Camp Eagle or Camp Evans. His first surprise came when the replacement battalion sent him for an interview with a Special Forces Major who asked him if he would be interested in working for MACV-SOG and training and leading an airmobile quick reaction force to support Special Forces recon teams operating out of FOB1 at Phu Bai. His second surprise came when the major wouldn’t tell him what MACV-SOG, or the FOB was, did, or where they operated until after he volunteered and signed a confidentiality agreement. Ed jumped at the chance to work with the Special Forces instead of waiting out his time in a regular airborne infantry unit. He wouldn’t be Special Forces, but he would be working for them with the potential to share in part of their missions and training. What could be better for an NCO waiting to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course at Fort Bragg? An hour after the interview, Ed found himself on a helicopter heading for headquarters 5th Special Forces at Nha Trang and the beginning of a short tour that would seem longer and more dangerous than anything he had ever experienced.
Damaged, A Baby's Cry and The Night the Angels Came 3-in-1 Collection
Cathy Glass - 2013
1 Sunday Times bestselling true story of Jodie. Only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass…What could cause a mother to believe that giving away her newborn baby is her only option? Cathy Glass is about to find out. A Baby’s Cry is a harrowing and moving memoir about tiny Harrison, left in Cathy’s care, and the potentially fatal family secret of his beginnings.When Cathy receives a call about a terminally ill widower terrified of leaving his son all alone in the world in The Night the Angels Came, she is wracked with sadness and indecision. Can she risk exposing her own young children to a little boy on the brink of bereavement?
Too Many Mothers
Roberta Taylor - 2005
Nanny Mary was the wily matriarch, who would do almost anything to survive, including stealing from her seven children. Her nerve, humour and sheer determination were also the glue that held the family together. Roberta was born to a father Roberta’s mother adored, but that she herself would never know.In this memoir, Roberta Taylor travels to the emotional heart of her childhood to reveal the lives led by the men and women who influenced her most in her formative years. Too Many Mothers is a portrait of an embattled family at war with itself and the outside world. From petty crime to pet monkeys, tender romance to emotional blackmail, illegitimacy, adoption and even murder, Roberta Taylor has written a bittersweet and ultimately unforgettable memoir of her early life.
A Boy's Own Dale: A 1950s childhood in the Yorkshire Dales
Terry Wilson - 2011
But it was on the Dales themselves that Terry came into his own. Whether he was 'out-fishing' the adults with his homemade rod, grouse-beating for the lady of the manor, helping to bring in the farmers' hay in exchange for rabbit shooting rights, or growing his own prize caulis, his idiosyncratic and inventive mind is only matched by his love of nature.
Told with affection, dry humour and a respect for the landscape and its people, through Terry's eyes we meet farmers, mill owners and 'gentlemen of the road'. Beautifully illustrated with newly-commissioned line-drawn illustrations by Don Grant, A Boy's Own Dale is a magical memoir of a long-lost world.
The Inn On The Marsh
Lena Kennedy - 1989
Talk of Dumb Lukey's crazed acts and the romance between Lucinda and Joe Lee, the Thames bargee. Talk of the Crimea and the terror of Napoleon.At the tavern, hard-headed Beatrice and her sister Dot care for their invalid father and for Lucinda, their pretty orphaned niece. The inn is their livelihood but village business is ever Beat's business too. And now some dark cloud has descended on them all . . .
Lily Tomlin: The Kindle Singles Interview (Kindle Single)
Tom Roston - 2015
Of course, the 75-year-old actress and comedian has been turning out unforgettable roles for the better part of five decades, from Ernestine, the condescending telephone operator on “Laugh-In,” to Violet Newstead, the secretary in “9 to 5.” In this wide-ranging, intimate and often hilarious Kindle Singles Interview, Tomlin covers all aspects of her extraordinary life and career, turning a drab Manhattan hotel room into a one-woman show with tales of her childhood in Detroit, her early years in New York, and the origins of her classic characters.Tom Roston is a veteran journalist and author of two previous Kindle Singles Interviews, with Ted Allen and Ken Burns. Roston began his career at The Nation and Vanity Fair, before working at Premiere magazine as a senior editor. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and his book, I Lost It At The Video Store, a filmmakers' oral history, will be published by The Critical Press in September. He lives with his wife and their two daughters in New York City.Cover design by Adil Dara.
My Life In The Wilderness: An Alaskan's Story
Robert L. Hilliker - 2016
As a young boy, the tales of Daniel Boone, Jim Bowie, and the stories of the Mountain Men who roamed the great Rocky Mountains in search of beaver struck a chord deep down inside that he could neither understand nor explain. They did, however, produce in him a strong desire to experience such a life for himself. In the following years, almost every decision he made was in accordance with an "inner compass" which pointed steadily to the Northwest. "To go into the wilderness, build a strong and warm log cabin with my own two hands, and hunt for my food. Trap fur-bearing animals to sell to the fur buyers for money to buy the things I couldn't produce myself, get my water from the creek, cut the firewood I would need to cook my food and to keep me warm through the long cold winters of the 'North Country,' could I do something like that?" This is his story
The Last American Homestead: Living Life In The Last Frontier
David Maranville - 2018
That first trip to America’s last frontier convinced him he would one day call the state home. With heartfelt honesty and inspirational enthusiasm, Maranville here tells the story of his transition from living within the contiguous forty-eight states to homesteading north of the Arctic Circle. After serving in the US Army in Vietnam as an aircraft mechanic, he decided to file for the grant of a homesite in the Alaskan wilds. Once he’d staked the land, he faced the challenge of fulfilling the five-year land-improvement requirements prescribed by the Homestead Act. While earning his homestead, he encountered new opportunities, amazing adventures—and frightening hazards. Working as a helicopter mechanic, he soon partnered with a helicopter pilot and they began the farthest North helicopter company, Sunshine Helicopters, out of Circle City, Alaska along the Yukon River. He built his family a log cabin in the wilderness along the picturesque banks of the Ambler River, where they confronted bears, extreme cold, dangerous working conditions, and rugged landscape—and survived a devastating flood. Yet the difficulties were worth it. At last, Maranville received one of the final patents granted under the Homestead Act before the act was discontinued.
Peggie
Lynda Page - 1994
At last she can save her family from financial ruin. Ever since Cyrus Crabbe stole her father Septimus's brake and claimed it as his own vehicle, Sep has dreamed of the day he would run a bus service for the villagers of Leicester to put the Crabbes out of business once and for all. It now looks like that day is in sight. But Cyrus Crabbe is a dangerous man, determined to stop the Cartwrights from succeeding. A wicked remark from his acid tongue forces Septimus to abandon his beloved brood, and as Sep's absence stretches from weeks to months, Peggie watches her mother sink into a deep decline. Peggie's brothers and sisters are used to heartache but when Billy is beaten black and blue and Cyrus's son Reginald turns his attentions to young Letty it seems that none of the family is to be spared... Peggie knows it's up to her to keep the business afloat and spirits raised. For no matter what obstacles are thrown her way she is determined to fulfil her father's dream.
I'll Give You Something to Cry About: A memoir of a daughter's struggle to survive a mother with paranoia, schizophrenia, and manic depression
Elizabeth Acker - 2016
Elizabeth is forced to become estranged from her father and struggles alone to create hope and meaning for her life while serving her mother like a slave. This book is a true account of a daughter's struggle to survive a mother with paranoia, schizophrenia, and manic depression.
Exodus, Revisited: My Unorthodox Journey to Berlin
Deborah Feldman - 2021
She was determined to find a better life for herself, away from the oppression and isolation of her Satmar upbringing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And in Exodus, Revisited she delves into what happened next--taking the reader on a journey that starts with her beginning life anew as a single mother, a religious refugee, and an independent woman in search of a place and a community where she can belong. Originally published in 2014, Deborah has now revisited and significantly expanded her story, and the result is greater insight into her quest to discover herself and the true meaning of home. Travels that start with making her way in New York expand into an exploration of America and eventually lead to trips across Europe to retrace her grandmother's life during the Holocaust, before she finds a landing place in the unlikeliest of cities. Exodus, Revisited is a deeply moving examination of the nature of memory and generational trauma, and of reconciliation with both yourself and the world.
The Making of a Country Lawyer: An Autobiography
Gerry Spence - 1996
The author, who has defended Karen Silkwood and Randy Weaver among others, recounts his life growing up in Wyoming and the tragic event that caused him become an attorney.