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In a Single Bound: Losing My Leg, Finding Myself, and Training for Life
Sarah Reinertsen - 2009
Touching, funny, and honest, In a Single Bound is the story of how a feisty little girl from Long Island became one of the world’s most famous disabled sports figures.
The Lotus Still Blooms: Sacred Buddhist Teachings for the Western Mind
Joan Gattuso - 2008
Eastern wisdom traditions are often baffling for Western minds – where to begin in uncovering the often complicated steps, precepts, concepts and ideas? Aimed at people who are curious about Buddhism and want a basic book that will help them to understand – and apply – Buddhist principles in their life, The Lotus Still Blooms is a practical book that goes through all of the major Buddhist principles, step-by-step, and then shows how to apply them to our busy, hectic lives. Filled with Joan Gattuso’s trademark delightful stories and warmth, as well as exercises to help readers begin using the principles right away, this is a book that will be a welcomed new introduction to this exciting spiritual tradition.
The Torment Of Others / The Mermaids Singing
Val McDermid - 2004
The scene matches in every detail a series of murders two years ago-murders that ended when irrefutable forensic evidence secured the conviction of a deeply disturbed young man named Derek Tyler.But there's no way Tyler could have killed the latest victim. He's been locked up in a mental institution since his trial, barely speaking a word. So is there a copycat?All his years of experience tell top criminal psychologist Dr. Tony Hill that there isn't-but that would make the murders literally impossible. While Hill tries to crack Tyler, DCI Carol Jordan and her team must mount a desperate undercover operation to trap the murderer-a decision that will have terrible consequences.The Mermaids Singing:This was the summer he discovered what he wanted--at a gruesome museum of criminology far off the beaten track of more timid tourists. Visions of torture inspired his fantasies like a muse. It would prove so terribly fulfilling.The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. Even for a seasoned professional, the series of mutilation sex murders is unlike anything he's encountered before. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Hill's own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer's motives. It's also made him the perfect victim.A game has begun for the hunter and the hunted. But as Hill confronts his own hidden demons, he must also come face-to-face with an evil so profound he may not have the courage--or the power--to stop it...
The Rooms of Heaven
Mary Allen - 1999
This book is all that and more." --Chicago TribuneIn the tradition of Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted and Caroline Knapp's Drinking: A Love Story, Mary Allen tells a riveting love story that explores the uncharted territory between passion and addiction, grief and madness, this world and the next.When Mary Allen falls in love with Jim Beaman, she doesn't know he has a drug problem, but she does sense demons and angels around him, like "a disturbance in the air, a sound just beyond the register of human hearing." And when Jim--discouraged and depressed, struggling with his addiction--kills himself a year into their relationship, Allen is unable to let him go. In her desperate attempts to recover from the loss, she uses a Ouija board and automatic writing to pull back from reality into the dark recesses of her mind, where she believes she can find him. The result is a mesmerizing trip across the boundaries between this world and the afterlife, a journey that leads her to the brink of insanity and ultimately back to herself.
Tragedy At Honda (Annotated)
Charles A. Lockwood - 2018
Navy destroyers ran into Honda's fog-wrapped reefs.*Includes annotations.*Includes original photographs from the Honda Disaster.
Sweet Home Carolina
T. Lynn Ocean - 2006
She is enjoying life in the fast lane when, all of a sudden, she's put in charge of her firm's annual pro bono project.
Her assignment: to devise a plan for revitalizing the coastal town of Rumton, South Carolina. Years of declining population, lack of industry, and a poor economy threaten to leave Rumton broke and hopeless. But Jaxie doesn't "do" small towns, much less know how to pull off saving one.
She arrives in Rumton to discover that the lack of shopping and day spas is the least of her worries. There isn't even a hotel, and she must bunk down with an old man named Pop in an even older house. Determined to succeed---if only to get back home as quickly as possible---Jaxie sets out to meet the townsfolk and work on a plan.
Just when she decides that Rumton is dreadfully uneventful---and her coworker is painfully boring---things heat up pretty quickly. It turns out that there is an interesting man beneath his ever-present suit and tie, after all. And there is much more to Rumton than meets the eye.
A charismatic businessman arrives on the scene offering to buy up land---a development that Jaxie feels is too coincidental. A town resident is murdered, an intriguing history of piracy is uncovered, and a massive storm brews offshore. Although Jaxie is surrounded by danger, she hunkers down to complete the assignment she started, and in the process, she learns a thing or two about life and love.
Advance Praise for T. Lynn Ocean and Sweet Home Carolina "City girl meets small town in T. Lynn Ocean's captivating Sweet Home Carolina. Sassy, sexy, sunny, and sure to please."---Carolyn Hart, author of Dead Days of Summer "A sassy city girl who's allergic to small towns suddenly finds herself living and working in one, the perfect setup for a great story. Jaxie Parker's adventures and misadventures make this a hilarious and highly entertaining book not to be missed!" ---Cassandra King, author of The Same Sweet Girls "Take one sophisticated ad executive, drop her in the middle of a small Southern town, and get ready for surprises galore. Sweet Home Carolina mixes memorable characters, great humor, small-town Southern culture, history, and mystery for a delightful romp of a read."---Emyl Jenkins author of Stealing with Style "T. Lynn Ocean's novels give us characters to root for and laugh with. In Sweet Home Carolina, it's the spunky and intelligent Jaxie Parker who rethinks her career path after pushing a strappy Cole Haan sandal into a pile of horse dung, in the middle of a town that's in the middle of nowhere.… A fun and entertaining read."---Susan Reinhardt, author of Not Tonight, Honey, Wait 'Til I'm a Size 6
Fat Bald Jeff: A Novel
Leslie Stella - 2001
When her boss, the repulsive Coddles, heaps another new project on her department -- with no additional remuneration naturally -- she decides she's had enough. She spends her days battling with her roommate, Val Wayne Newton, about whether Black Sabbath or Neil Diamond will occupy the turntable and her nights beating her overeager suitor, Martin Lemming, away from the door of her boudoir. When she discovers a piece of vile pornography in Coddles's dry cleaning, she has the means to retaliate. Meanwhile, Fat Bald Jeff, the tech-support guy who has to cope with her mechanical self-sabotage, turns out to be even more disaffected than she, and they hatch the ultimate plan to give the pigs some of their own medicine. With a surreal wit and a keen eye that bring to mind Lily Tomlin set loose in Dilbert-world, Fat Bald Jeff is a sharp satire and a paean to the petty humiliations of workers everywhere.
Fringe Florida: Travels among Mud Boggers, Furries, Ufologists, Nudists, and Other Lovers of Unconventional Lifestyles
Lynn Waddell - 2013
If you’re looking for the outer orbits of America, come to Florida, and if you seek the Sunshine State’s funky-drumbeat fringe, you can do no better than Lynn Waddell.”—Tim Dorsey, New York Times best-selling author “Waddell takes readers to Florida’s wild side, where strippers, swingers, bikers, exotic animals, and carnies enjoy sun-kissed lives in America’s strangest state.”?Trevor Aaronson, author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism “Lynn Waddell’s riveting you-are-there reporting lives at the intersection where Florida’s wacky subcultures and seamy undersides meet up. When you read this book, make sure you’re standing over carpet—that way you won’t hurt your jaw from dropping it so many times.”—Craig Pittman, author of The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Beautiful Orchid “A fast, fascinating read. Waddell delivers ten surprising subcultures you might not dare visit on your own.”?Lyn Millner, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityFlorida has a titillating underbelly that few tourists ever see. Beyond the theme parks and the beaches lies a periphery most residents know about but—out of decorum or discomfort?prefer not to discuss. In Fringe Florida, Lynn Waddell explores the exotic, sensational, and sometimes illicit worlds of the oddest state in the nation.Waddell takes the reader on a colorful journey to meet the most unconventional of Floridians in unbelievable and spectacular places. At Fetish Con, she befriends furries and pony girls. She travels to Cassadaga, the oldest active Spiritualist community in the South, where trained mediums converse with the dead, and to the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, where one can eat a hot dog while watching a reenactment of the Crucifixion. She interviews the founder of the Leather & Lace Motorcycle Club, a Daytona Beach-area grandmother who hosts the club’s annual gathering, welcoming scores of lady bikers to camp out on the lawn of her subdivision home. At an Animal Amnesty Day outside Busch Gardens, Waddell meets exotic reptile owners who give up their beloved-but no-longer-manageable pets and others who vie to take home the cast-offs.If you’ve ever wanted to parade around on a pimped-out swamp buggy amidst a couple thousand beer-swigging mud boggers or fall asleep with a python hissing in your ear, been tempted to bring a Capuchin monkey in a stroller to a Little League game, or contemplated sitting on the beach waiting to be picked up by a UFO but couldn’t quite bring yourself to such extremes, Fringe Florida is for you.
The Cast Iron Shore
Linda Grant - 1996
But on the worst night of Liverpool's blitz she uncovers a secret that leaves her disorientated and eventually leads her to the very edge of America and a final choice)
Tragic Hollywood, Beautiful, Glamorous And Dead
Jackie Ganiy - 2013
What really happened to Natalie Wood aboard The Splendor that cold November night? Was Jayne Mansfield really decapitated? Just how decadent were the days of the silent movies? Maybe you think you've heard it all? Trust me, you haven't! Chock full of new details, shocking photos and even a segment on haunted Hollywood, you've never seen a book quite like Tragic Hollywood. Read about the unbelievable thing that happened to Errol Flynn AFTER he was dead. Find out why Sharon Tate is said to haunt her Cielo Drive Neighborhood to this day. You will not be able to put this book down! These stories are delivered with a wit and poignant observation that will leave you saying "WOW"
Upgraded to Serious
Heather McHugh - 2009
Utilizing medical terminology and iconography to work through loss and detachment, McHugh’s startling rhymes and rhythms—along with her sarcastic self-reflection and infectious laughter—serve as antidotes to the sufferings of the world. Being “upgraded to serious” from critical condition is a nod to the healing powers of poetry."Not to Be Dwelled On"Self-interest cropped up even there,the day I hoisted three insteadof the ceremonially called-for twospadefuls of loamonto the coffin of my friend.Why shovel more than anybody else?What did I think I’d prove? More love(mud in her eye)? More will to work?(Her father what, a shirker?) Christ,what wouldn’t anybody giveto get that gesture back?She cannot die again; and Ido nothing but re-live.
A Wake For The Dreamland
Laurel Deedrick-Mayne - 2015
It is a Canadian summer in 1939 and Robert and Annie’s love has blossomed, even as the inevitability of the boys joining up means separation and the first of many losses. Fearing he might not return, Robert makes William promise to take care of Annie. Every arena of their lives is infiltrated by the war, from the home front to the underground of queer London to the bloody battlefields of Italy. Even in the aftermath, in the shadow of The Dreamland, these friends fight their own inner battles: to have faith in their right to love and be loved, to honour their promises and ultimately find their way “home.”
This Side Up
Amy Mangan - 2018
An inspiration to us all.” –Southern Living
This Side Up: The Road to a Renovated Life is a home and garden editor’s story of a life constantly under construction, none by design. Written with candor, humor and grace, Amy Mangan shares her own home tour, but this one deftly sheds light on job loss, financial shame, home displacement, marital discord, illness and caregiving. Faced with one crisis after the next, Amy discovers how to cope, hope and rebuild, finding a new way home to a stronger way of life.