Book picks similar to
Jambo: a Gorilla's Story by Richard Johnstone-Scott
animals
non-fiction
primatology
biography
Grandad's Girl
Emma Louise - 2018
He told me it was normal. I wanted to believe him. Emma’s grandad was kind and loving, so when she was 11 and he started abusing her, she didn't understand what was happening. He convinced her that what he did to her was normal, and that their relationship was special – but then manipulated her into having sex with another man. Over the next seven years, Emma’s grandad sold her to over two hundred men, and forced her to keep the shameful secret. This is her true story of survival.
Dear Olivia: An Italian Journey of Love and Courage
Mary Contini - 2014
Sharing some of the recipes that they brought over, the tomatoes, the garlic, the sausage, the wine, this is a mouthwatering memoir of family and food. It is also a brilliant evocation of life between the wars, a triumphant story of survival against all the odds, that captures the sights and smells of Italian life and culture, at home and abroad.
A Genesis in My Bed: The Autobiography
Steve Hackett - 2020
As with his music, Steve has written a highly detailed, entertaining and embracing tome that charts his life in full, but with a firm emphasis on his years with Genesis that saw the band’s meteoric rise to become one of the most successful British bands of all time.Steve talks candidly about his early life, his time with Genesis, and his personal relationships with the other four band members, with great insight into the daily goings on of this major rock band.Naturally A Genesis In My Bed also regales stories of Steve’s career since leaving Genesis and the many different journeys that it has taken him on. With his flair for the creative, and a great deal of levity, A Genesis In My Bed is a riveting read. Indispensable for Genesis fans but also essential for general music lovers and avid readers of autobiographies full of heartfelt and emotive tales.
Miles Davis: The Playboy Interview
Miles Davis - 2012
It covered jazz, of course, but it also included Davis’s ruminations on race, politics and culture. Fascinated, Hef sent the writer—future Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Alex Haley, an unknown at the time—back to glean even more opinion and insight from Davis. The resulting exchange, published in the September 1962 issue, became the first official Playboy Interview and kicked off a remarkable run of public inquisition that continues today—and that has featured just about every cultural titan of the last half century.To celebrate the Interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have culled 50 of its most (in)famous Interviews and will publish them over the course of 50 weekdays (from September 4, 2012 to November 12, 2012) via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Here is that first Interview with Miles Davis.
Backcountry Lawman: True Stories from a Florida Game Warden
Bob H. Lee - 2013
Follow dedicated wildlife officers as they use their wits and skills in the pursuit of poachers and wildlife law violators.”—Tom Mastin, forester and managing broker, Mossy Oak Properties Legacy Realty Services “Lee recounts his amazing and challenging career as a Florida game warden with wit, wisdom, and careful attention to detail. You will travel with him as he boats the St. Johns River, walk beside him as he wades past resting alligators, and listen for that gunshot on a cold Putnam County night.”—Jeff Hahr, former patrol supervisor, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission In the underbelly of Florida, hardened poachers operate in the dark, out of sight and away from residents who sleep soundly through the night. But poachers are not the only midnight hunters. In the state’s public wilderness tracts, cattle ranches, and water courses, wildlife thieves are stealthily and silently tracked. Most people have never imagined the often dicey, comical, and sometimes bizarre job of a Florida game warden. Backcountry Lawman tells what it’s like to catch an armed poacher in the act—alone, at night, without backup or a decent radio to call for help. These stories describe the cat-and-mouse games often played between game wardens and poachers of ducks, turkeys, hogs, deer, gators, and other species. Few people realize that “monkey fishing”—electrocution of catfish—had the same outlaw mystique in the rivers of Florida as moonshining once did in the hills of Georgia and Tennessee. With thirty years of backcountry patrol experience in Florida, Bob Lee has lived through incidents of legend, including one of the biggest environmental busts in Florida history. His fascinating memoir reveals the danger and the humor in the unsung exploits of game wardens.Bob H. Lee spent over three decades as a water patrol officer on the St. Johns River and a land patrol lieutenant in Putnam, St. Johns, and Flagler counties. Before retiring in 2007, he taught man-tracking classes through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
A Day in the Life of a 911 Dispatcher
Jonathan Parsons - 2013
Throughout the shift, the dispatcher is faced with stabbings, robberies, medical calls, fights, and a variety of other calls. There is no telling what the next call will bring. Some of the calls faced by the dispatcher are heinous, some are tragic, and some are a complete waste of time.You will get to see what life is really like for a 911 dispatcher. While some of the details have been modified to protect the identity of those involved, this books was inspired by true and actual calls handled by a 911 dispatcher.Warning: This book contains some adult language and topics.
The Dogs Who Came to Stay
George Pitcher - 1995
Capturing the wonderful and wise changes wrought in human and canine lives as they try to learn each other's ways, this endearing memoir is a love story with a difference. Photos.
Our Zoo
June Mottershead - 2014
Unlike other zoos that owe their existence to philanthropists, explorers or big game hunters, Chester Zoo was the brainchild of one working-class man with a dream he had nurtured since he was a boy: to build a zoo without bars.June Mottorshead was four years old when her father, George, moved his family to Upton, two miles out Chester, to begin the process of turning his dream into a reality. With no other children around to play with - her sister Muriel was 10 years older - June's friends became the animals. Her closest companion was an orphaned chimpanzee which her sister hadshe hand reared, and for six years the two were inseparable. June soon became the poster girl for Chester Zoo and photographs of her cuddling lion clubs, head-butting a goat or opening the beak of a pelican soon graced the front pages of British newspapers. She was 13 when war was declared on 1939 and, with the backbone of the staff headed for the front, it fell to June to take over as head keeper. Keeping the zoo running while the war waged was no easy task. Despite rationing the animals had to be fed and all of them - penguins, elephants, leopards, tigers, lions, kangaroos and polar bears - needed to be moved into secure locked quarters inside as soon as the air raid siren sounded.June, now in her eighties, is the guardian of her family's legacy and here in Our Zoo, she tells
Still Standing: The Autobiography of Kerry Katona
Kerry Katona - 2012
She has hit rock bottom and here, for the first time, Kerry shares how bad it's really been.But this incredible story of survival charts Kerry's rise out of the mire of addiction, depression and bankruptcy. She has brought her life and health back from the brink of total collapse and has become a happy single parent and working mother of four.
Stephen Stills: Change Partners: The Definitive Biography 2016
David Roberts - 2019
During his six-decade career, he has played with all the greats. His career sky-rocketed when Crosby, Stills & Nash played only their second gig together at Woodstock in 1969. With the addition of Neil Young, the band would go on to play the first rock stadium tour in 1974. Stephen Stills is the only person to have been inducted twice in one night into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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
Breakdown: The Inside Story of the Rise and Fall of Heenan Blaikie
Norman Bacal - 2017
When it collapsed in February 2014, lawyers across Canada and the business community were stunned. What went wrong? Why did so many lawyers run for the exit? How did it implode? What is it that holds professional partnerships together?This is the story of the rise and fall of a great company by the ultimate insider, Norman Bacal, who served as managing partner until a year before the firm's demise. Breakdown takes readers into the boardroom offices during the heady growth of a legal empire built from the ground up over 40 years. We see how after a change of leadership tensions erupted between the Toronto and Montreal offices, and between the hard-driving lawyers themselves. It is a story about the extraordinary fragility of the legal partnership, but it's also a classic business story, a cautionary tale of the perils of ignoring a firm's culture and vision.Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USJAX-NONE<!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment--><!--EndFragment-->
The Reluctant Farmer of Whimsey Hill
Bradford M. Smith - 2016
That is what troubles animal-phobic, robotics engineer Smith who just got married. He learns that his bride’s dream is to have a farm where there are lots of animals and she can rescue ex-race horses to retrain and find them new homes. But according to a Meyers-Briggs Personality Test that they took for fun, their marriage is doomed. There is only one problem: the newlyweds took the test after the wedding. Whether Smith is chasing a cow named Pork Chop through the woods with a rope, getting locked in a tack room by the family pony, being snubbed by his wife’s dog, or unsuccessfully trying to modernize their barn using the latest technology, the odds are stacked against him. It seems like everything with four legs is out to get him. Will the animals win, forcing Smith to admit defeat, or will he fight to keep his family and the farm together? Enjoy the true, warm, and frequently hilarious stories of Smith’s journey along the bumpy road from his urban robotics lab to a new life on a rural Virginia farm.
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
Tracking the Wild Coomba: The Life of Legendary Skier Doug Coombs
Robert Cocuzzo - 2016
Arguably the greatest adventure skier to ever live, Doug Coombs pioneered hundreds of first descents....