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Books > Fiction > True stories > General
'An incredibly personal story ... sad, but unbelievably funny' - Claudia Winkleman, BBC Radio 2 Arts Show 'This memoir is gasp-out-loud, offensively funny, touching and a sure thing for anyone who likes David Sedaris - but with more Mormons' - Red At twenty-five, Dan left his 'spoiled white asshole' life in Los Angeles to look after his dying parents in Salt Lake City, Utah. His mother, who had already been battling cancer on and off for close to 15 years, had taken a turn for the worse. His father, a devoted marathon runner and adored parent, had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease which was quickly eroding his body. Dan's four siblings were already home, caring for their parents and resenting Dan for not doing the same. Home is Burning tells the story of Dan's year at home in Salt Lake City, as he reunites with his eclectic family -the only non-Mormon family of seven in the entire town - all of them trying their best to be there for the father who had always been there for them.
Living with the sea evokes a need to write about it, whether in poems, songs or prose. This book records a life spent upon the sea, from junior cadet to captain, and some of the reflections which at lonely times in the ocean's vastness seemed to have sprung from its depth. At first attracted by the escape from grammar school and the lure of visiting places with exotic names, it soon became apparent that the young cadet was no swashbuckler and would take some time to come to terms with the sea. But come to terms with it he did, albeit in a love/hate relationship, in which love ultimately won out.
The 37th Parallel tells the true story of a computer programmer whose investigations into alien activity lead him deep into a vast conspiracy stretching 3000 miles across America. Chuck Zukowski is obsessed with tracking down UFO reports, but this innocent hobby takes on a sinister urgency when he makes a horrifying discovery. As he traces a series of incidents across Utah, Colorado and Kansas, a pattern emerges: a horizontal line of unexplained activity stretching right across America, a line some are calling the 'UFO Highway' or the '37th Parallel'. His extraordinary journey takes him from El Paso to the Pentagon, into secret underground military caverns and Indian sacred sites. This terrifying account will keep you awake at night, pondering some of the biggest and most inescapable questions humanity faces: are we really alone in this vast universe? And if not, who are our neighbours?
Open, honest and upbeat, this book gives personal insight into both the ups and downs of an Asperger relationship. Seeking to challenge the bad press that people with Asperger Syndrome (AS) get as partners, Sarah and Keith tell their story of how they are making it work - and also how they got it wrong - with disarming frankness and humour. When Sarah and Keith met in 2003 neither knew much about Asperger Syndrome. Sarah thought Keith was `weird' and couldn't work out why; and Keith thought Sarah was obsessed with diagnosing him with something-or-other. Difficulties ensued that brought the relationship to an end. Slowly, however, they each built up their knowledge of AS and in the meantime developed a mutual understanding, mutual acceptance and a desire to be together again. This personal account is supplemented with professional knowledge and anecdotes gained from Sarah's work with adults with AS - a career which started as a result of her experiences with Keith. She swears that she didn't take her work home with her! It is inspiring reading for couples in Asperger relationships as well as for counselling professionals.
A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo is about natural history, travel in the tropics, life sciences, and adventure, with the environment always in mind. It chronicles the nine years the author spent with his family on that equatorial island. The book's humorous style never detracts from the focus on the science, the island of Borneo and its natural wonders. The story begins in 2007 on top of a garage in Taiwan, where the author kept a greenhouse filled with hundreds of carnivorous tropical pitcher plants. In August of the same year, he attended a conference on these plants in Borneo and met them in the wild for the first time. This triggered an obsession with the island's legendary rainforest fauna and flora, and he decided to move to Borneo with his family for easier access to the jungle. In a tone reminiscent of Bill Bryson, Douglas Adams, and Gerald Durrell - funny, self-deprecating, but always satisfying for the science-minded reader - A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo documents the Breuer family's adventures with Borneo's enormous biodiversity: flying snakes, venomous primates, parachuting frogs, pangolins, king cobras, orangutans, masters of mimicry and camouflage, the world's rarest lizard and the world's longest snake. And these are just a fraction of the life forms the reader will meet. Adventure lurks behind every trail bend: toddler-sized monkeys terrorize night hikers, bearded jungle pigs hunt stray dogs, a giant python almost gets stepped on, and other encounters of the 'not so funny when it happened' kind. The reader will also meet the people inhabiting the island, such as Asia's last rainforest nomads, quaint government officials, and former headhunting tribes that still proudly display their trophies above their fireplaces. Inevitably, the author's life in Borneo also led to first-hand insight into the island's environmental tragedy caused by decades of severe over-exploitation, a recurring topic throughout the book. A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo puts the reader in a front-row seat to marvel at nature's wonders in all their magnificence visiting places unknown and creatures unheard of; and it is also an invitation to consider the state of the planet, to take it seriously, and to act before it's too late.
#1 "NEW YORK TIMES" BESTSELLER
The first story in this book is Jackie Waldman's own - the self-described charmed life - until July 1991, when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It took years, but eventually she came to understand that a person with MS is only part of who she is. In this book, Waldman has collected stories of 24 men and women living with MS, who have extraordinary lives, and who have found the courage to do new things or old things in new ways.
She doesn't want this baby. She can't look after this baby. She will never be able to love this baby. Little Abby's life begins badly, then just gets worse. Now foster mum Louise and her family must help her deal with the truth of her past to give her the chance of a future. Abby's Story is the latest book in the series THROWN AWAY CHILDREN by author and foster mum Louise Allen.
**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD** 'A modern masterpiece' Guardian Uncovering the mystery of her mother's disappearance as a child: Laura Cumming, prize-winning author and art critic, takes a closer look at her family story. Autumn 1929 - a young girl is kidnapped from a beach. Five agonising days go by before she is discovered safe and well in a nearby village. The child remembers nothing of these events and at home, nobody ever speaks of them again. Decades later, Laura Cumming delves into the mystery surrounding her mother's disappearance. Examining everything from old family photos to letters, tickets and recipes, she uncovers a series of secrets and lies perpetuated not just by her family but by the whole community and in doing so unlocks a mystery almost a century old. 'A moving, many-sided human story of great depth and tenderness, and a revelation of how art enriches life' Sunday Times Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize Longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize
The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other nation. Mass Incarceration Nation offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors - historical, political, and institutional - that led to the current system of mass imprisonment. The book examines the causes and impacts of mass incarceration on both the political and criminal justice systems. With accessible language and straightforward statistical analysis, former prosecutor turned law professor Jeffrey Bellin provides a formula for reform to return to the low incarceration rates that characterized the United States prior to the 1970s.
The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other nation. Mass Incarceration Nation offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors - historical, political, and institutional - that led to the current system of mass imprisonment. The book examines the causes and impacts of mass incarceration on both the political and criminal justice systems. With accessible language and straightforward statistical analysis, former prosecutor turned law professor Jeffrey Bellin provides a formula for reform to return to the low incarceration rates that characterized the United States prior to the 1970s.
Meet the UK's most notorious football hooligans. Author Andrew Woods has come face-to-face with Millwall's most famous firm and now, for the first time, the Bushwackers reveal all about their bloodiest battles and fiercest rivalries - in their own words. But among the camaraderie, the battles of wits with the police and the exhilarating toe-to-toe run-ins with the opposition, this book also examines the history of hooliganism and why measures brought in to combat violence have failed. Packed with hilarious characters. shocking tales and plenty of excitement, no stone is left unturned in this journey into the dark side of football. With stories from the 1960s to the present day - including the infamous Luton riot of 1985, the 'Mad Season' of 2001/02 and the ongoing war with West Ham's ICF - No-one Likes Us, We Don't Care is the ultimate collection of tales from the terraces.
Over the last 20 years, New York City has been convulsed by enormous challenges: terrorist attack, blackout, hurricane, recession, pandemic. New Yorkers is a grand portrait of the irrepressible city and a hymn to the vitality and resilience of its people. Craig Taylor spent years meeting New Yorkers - rich and poor, old and young, native and immigrant - and getting them to share indelible true tales. Here are the voices of those who propel the city each day - subway conductor, nurse, bodega cashier, electrician who keeps the lights on at the top of the Empire State Building - as well as unforgettable glimpses of the city, from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade by a balloon handler to the Statue of Liberty by one of its security guards. New Yorkers captures the strength of the city that - no matter what it goes through - dares call itself the greatest in the world.
It has been ten years since Rachael Keogh was catapulted into the public consciousness, when a shocking image of her needle-ravaged arms - skin burnt from injecting heroin into her wasted veins - made front pages around the country. Desperate for help, she made a public appeal to get one of 27 detox beds in Ireland so that she could reclaim her life from the drugs that had ravaged it. What followed was an extraordinary story of grit and determination as she embarked on her recovery journey. Her story became an instant bestseller and has resonated with readers ever since. This edition contains a new introduction from Rachael where she reflects on her story and considers what has changed for her and in the drugs culture in Ireland over the last decade. 'The best book by far about the drugs explosion in Dublin' Irish Independent 'This book should be on the school curriculum' Evening Echo
Most people understand that what an emergency is and only call out the police, fire brigade or ambulance when they really need to. However, there is a weird minority who will dial 911 if they lose their keys, if their phone isn't working, if they need a lift home from a party or even if they have become hopelessly trapped in their own duvet! This hilarious collection of true stories brings together some of the world's most ridiculous emergency calls, including: - The woman who called the police because MacDonalds was out of Chicken Mcnuggets. - The priest who dialed 999 because WHSmiths at Manchester Airporte wouldn't let him use their toilet - The boy who called an ambulance because his poodle was looking sad. - The man whose watch read the same time for three hours who called the police to report that...wait for it...time was standing still - Then there was the man who had taken too much viagra...
Many women expect to become mothers but are childless through social rather than biological reasons - perhaps they haven't met the right person or they prioritised career or education earlier in life. Featuring international interviews by grief counsellor and researcher Lois Tonkin, this collection of first-person stories provides insight into the under-discussed situation of being childless by circumstance. Each story highlights the different aspects of being childless by circumstance, as women move through their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and beyond their ages of fertility. The book explores feelings of grief and loss, and also how women adapt positively to their changed life expectations, finding excitement in the alternative, rich and complex shapes their lives have taken.
The demonization, internment, and deportation of celebrated Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Dr. Karl Muck, finally told, and placed in the context of World War I anti-German sentiment in the United States. BEST CLASSICAL MUSIC BOOK RELEASE OF 2019 by Classical-music.com, the official website of BBC Music Magazine. 2019 SUMMER READS ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2019 BEST BOOK AWARD FINALIST in both the History and Performing Arts categories, sponsored by American Book Fest. 2019 SUBVENTION AWARD by the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. One of the cherished narratives of American history is that of the Statue of Liberty welcoming immigrants to its shores. Accounts of the exclusion and exploitation of Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth century and Japanese internment during World War II tell a darker story of American immigration. Less well-known, however, is the treatment of German-Americans and Germannationals in the United States during World War I. Initially accepted and even welcomed into American society at the outbreak of war, this group would face rampant intolerance and anti-German hysteria. Melissa D. Burrage's book illustrates this dramatic shift in attitude in her engrossing narrative of Dr. Karl Muck, the celebrated German conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who was targeted and ultimately disgraced by a New York Philharmonic board member and by capitalists from that city who used his private sexual life as a basis for having him arrested, interned, and deported from the United States. While the campaign against Muck made national headlines, and is the main focus of this book, Burrage also illuminates broader national topics such as: Total War; State power; vigilante justice; internment and deportation; irresponsible journalism; sexual surveillance; attitudes toward immigration; anti-Semitism; and the development of America's musical institutions. The mistreatment of Karl Muck in the United States provides a narrative thread that connects these various wartime and postwar themes. MELISSAD. BURRAGE, a former writing consultant at Harvard University Extension School, holds a Master's Degree in History from Harvard University and a PhD in American Studies from University of East Anglia. Support for thispublication was provided by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.
Embarking on motherhood was a very different affair in the 1950s to what it is today. From how to dress baby (matinee coats and bonnets) to how to administer feeds (strictly four-hourly if following the Truby King method), the childrearing methods of the 1950s are a fascinating insight into the lives of women in that decade. In A 1950s Mother, author, mother and grandmother Sheila Hardy collects heart-warming, personal anecdotes from those women who became mothers during this fascinating post-war period. From the benefits of 'crying it out' and being put out in the garden to gripe water and Listen with Mother, the wisdom of mothers from the 1950s reverberates down the decades to young mothers of any generation and is a hilarious and, at times, poignant trip down memory lane for any mother or child of the 1950s.
JOIN SAS LEGEND PHIL CAMPION AS HE SHARES HIS DEEPLY PERSONAL LIFE STORY, WARTS AND ALL In WHO DARES WINS Big Phil Campion reveals his chequered past, from terrible abuse suffered in a string of kids' homes to psychological abuse suffered at a top public school. Phil guides you through his soldiering career, from the so called "green army" to the brutal trial of SAS selection and all that followed. This includes years spent providing private military services across war-torn and risk-laden Africa; in between he was body-guarded the likes of Led Zep, Oasis, Kasabian, Dizzy Rascal and Pro Green. Phil takes you on his gripping, behind-the-scenes adventure acting as a roving reporter for Sky TV in Syria and Northern Iraq, more often than not under fire. Brave, riveting and truly revelatory, WHO DARES WINS is packed full of jaw-dropping stories to quicken the blood, while also telling of the psychological toll a life in conflict took on the author. 'One of the best first-hand accounts of life in combat ever written' Andy McNab on Born Fearless
'Compelling' The Daily Mail 'So many gripping moments... a real cracker' The Evening Standard The jaw-dropping and inspiring story of accidental queer icon Norman Scott (the hero of TV drama A Very English Scandal) and the part he played in one of the greatest political scandals of the 20th century. In October 1975 an assassin tried to murder Norman Scott on Exmoor but the trigger failed and he only succeeded in shooting Scott's beloved dog, Rinka. Scott subsequently found himself at the centre of a major political scandal and became an unlikely queer icon. But this was never his intention... He was born in 1940 into a poor, dysfunctional and abusive family. Aged sixteen he began an equestrian career, animals having been the one source of comfort in his childhood. By the age of twenty he had run into debts and had suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1960 Scott began a sexual affair with Jeremy Thorpe. By the time of the attempted assassination of Scott, Thorpe was married, leader of the Liberal Party and a figure at the heart of the establishment. He was embarrassed by their former relationship and wanted to cover it up. But he failed. The assassination attempt culminated in a sensational trial in 1979, where Thorpe was tried for conspiracy to murder. The press labelled Scott a madman and the establishment protected Thorpe, who was acquitted. Only recently has Scott's version of events been vindicated. An Accidental Icon tells a story that is inspiring and jaw droppingly unbelievable: it is the tale of the courage and survival of one man who took on the establishment
"Beautifully written, searingly honest, and deeply affecting ... when the book ended, I only wanted more" - Roxane Gay "Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody's Daughter will be a book of the year" - Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed "Truly a classic in the making" - John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars An Oprah book Throughout her adolescence, Ashley Ford doesn't know how to deal with the worries that keep her up at night. If only she could turn to her father for his advice and support. But he's in prison, and she doesn't know what he did to end up there. After being raped by her ex-boyfriend, Ashley desperately searches for her sense of self. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father's incarceration... and Ashley's world is turned upside down. Ashley embarks on a powerful journey to find the connections between who she is and what she was born into, discovering that, however much we might try to untether ourselves from a painful past, the ties that bind families together are the strongest ones of all. "Sure to be one of the best memoirs of 2021" - Kirkus Reviews "A heart-wrenching coming-of age story" - Time "Her coming-of-age story gets at how to both acknowledge and break away from what we're born into" - Cosmopolitan "A beautiful, delicate memoir... a journey toward true and powerful selfhood" - Elle
'Clear, dispassionate and selfless' Spectator 'Exhaustive in her research, tenacious in spotting errors, indignant in denouncing lies.' Guardian 'A compelling account of an extraordinary political scandal, written from inside the Stonehouse family'. Martin Bell ** The authoritative account of the infamous runaway MP, by his daughter ** On 20 November 1974, British Labour MP and Privy Counsellor John Stonehouse faked his death in Miami and, using a forged identity, entered Australia hoping to escape his old life and start anew. One month later his identity was uncovered and he was cautioned; the start of years of legal proceedings. In a tale that involves spies from the communist Czechoslovak secret service, a three-way love affair and the Old Bailey, John's daughter examines previously unseen evidence, telling the dramatic true story for the first time, disputing allegations and upturning common misconceptions which are still in circulation. The story was never far from the front pages of the press in the mid-70s, and yet so much of the truth is still unknown. A close look at the political dynamics of the time; paced like a thriller, it's time for the world to know the real John Stonehouse. 'No book before this has delved into this fascinating political scandal in so much detail and with empathy.' Reaction |
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