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Books > Fiction > True stories > General
At age 28, Frances Kermeen gave up her life in California to follow
her dream of owning an inn - little did she realize that she was
being drawn to her destiny. In the eight years that Frances owned
the Myrtles Plantation, she was confronted by phenomena's far
stranger than just ghosts - incredible encounters that blew away
her core beliefs. But not only did she have spiritual adventures,
she also had her real life to deal with: betrayal, the infidelity
of her spouse, the tragic loss of friends, rape, racism, and death
threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Join Frances as the explosive ending
to this real-life drama erupts and her past and present converge
into one catastrophic event Frances's journey is the stuff of the
very best ghost stories - only these events are as real as the
Myrtles Plantation itself.
Women around the globe are buying and consuming alcohol at alarming
rates never seen before. But is it doing us any favours? Is it
really that treat or reward that we deserve? Lotta Dann thinks not.
In The Wine O'Clock Myth, Lotta takes an in-depth and eye-opening
look at women's drinking habits. Written through the lens of her
own story and her work in the field of addiction and recovery,
Lotta explores the privileged position alcohol holds in our
society, the way the liquor industry targets women and the damaging
'Wine Mum' social media culture. She reveals the damage alcohol is
causing to women: physically, emotionally and socially; and the
potential reasons why so many women are drinking at harmful levels.
And she talks to a number of brave women who share detailed,
intimate stories about their personal relationships with alcohol.
Stories that are at times brutal and heartbreaking, but also
inspiring and heart lifting. The Wine O'Clock Myth is a powerful,
important book that may well change the way you think about alcohol
forever.
Enter the world of Professor Peter Smith. I have lived a full,
exciting, and unique life. In my youth I lived a conundrum. My
rebellious nature drew me my away from my academic studies into the
world of punk rock; a very different world to that which I normally
inhabited. Some might say I was a middle-class, aspiring academic.
However, during the late 1970s I threw myself into the maelstrom of
crazy, manic, dangerous concerts full of young, disillusioned,
punks and skinheads, many of whom saw me as an outsider. One
extraordinary night, in a small pub in Whitby, my girlfriend and I
witnessed a performance by Sex Pistols which shook me to the core
and changed my worldview of music forever. From then on, we were
caught up in a whirlwind of punk rock, seeing the Clash, the
Damned, the Jam; all the early punk bands during 1976 and 1977. It
was a magical, explosive and sometimes scary journey. Amidst a sea
of punks, my long hair stood out, attracting trouble and tempting
danger. We managed to avoid many fights, pint glasses flying
around, and running a gamut of skinheads waiting for us outside.
Life was dangerous, wired, scary yet fun, fun, fun. Despite this
crazy youth I grew up to become an internationally renowned
academic and Professor. Then one night I fell down the stairs and
in an instant my life changed forever. I broke my neck and I am now
paralysed from the neck downwards. However, I continue to go to
gigs, work and live a full life. This book is a cathartic
reflection of my days as a punk! I hope you enjoy joining me on my
journey through a strange life mission.
"After years of battling uncontrollable addiction, I have achieved
the supposedly impossible: complete freedom from craving." Dr.
Olivier Ameisen was a brilliant cardiologist on the staff at one of
America’s top teaching hospitals and running his own successful
practice when he developed a profound addiction to alcohol. He
broke bones with no memory of falling; he nearly lost his kidneys;
he almost died from massive seizures during acute withdrawal. He
gave up his flourishing practice and, fearing for his life,
immersed himself in Alcoholics Anonymous, rehab, therapy, and a
variety of medications. Nothing worked. So he did the only
thing he could: he took his treatment into his own hands. Searching
for a cure for his deadly disease, he happened upon baclofen, a
muscle relaxant that had been used safely for years as a treatment
for various types of muscle spasticity, but had more recently shown
promising results in studies with laboratory animals addicted to a
wide variety of substances. Dr. Ameisen prescribed himself the drug
and experimented with increasingly higher dosages until he finally
reached a level high enough to leave him free of "any "craving for
alcohol. That was more than five years ago. Alcoholism claims
three hundred lives per day in the United States alone; one in four
U.S. deaths is attributable to alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs.
Baclofen, as prescribed under a doctor’s care, could possibly free
many addicts from tragic and debilitating illness. But as long as
the medical and research establishments continue to ignore a cure
for one of the most deadly diseases in the world, we won’t be able
to understand baclofen’s full addiction-treatment
potential. "The End of My Addiction "is both a memoir of Dr.
Ameisen’s own struggle and a groundbreaking call to action—an
urgent plea for research that can rescue millions from the scourge
of addiction and spare their loved ones the collateral damage of
the disease.
Harry de Leyer first saw the horse he would name Snowman on a truck
bound for the slaughterhouse. The recent Dutch immigrant recognized
the spark in the eye of the beaten-up nag and bought him for eighty
dollars. On Harry's modest farm on Long Island, he ultimately
taught Snowman how to fly. Here is the dramatic and inspiring rise
to stardom of an unlikely duo. One show at a time, against
extraordinary odds and some of the most expensive thoroughbreds
alive, the pair climbed to the very top of the sport of show
jumping. Their story captured the heart of Cold War-era America-a
story of unstoppable hope, inconceivable dreams, and the chance to
have it all. They were the longest of all longshots-and their win
was the stuff of legend.
Perfect Prey relates how author Liz Cole was victimized by an
online career con artist and how she turned the tables to expose
the con man on national television. Much of this book is written as
a real time journal, taking readers inside the world of Liz Cole
and her suitor, an ex-convict and predator. About the Author and
Perfect Prey: Recently divorced, with low self-esteem, Liz Cole
turned to online dating and met a charming Irishman in reality, a
Quebec man with a criminal record who preyed on her and vanished.
Cole then set out to track him down. She found past victims and
learned of the man s lengthy periods of incarceration before
finding and publicly humiliating him in a national TV
confrontation, also featured on U.S. website www.love fraud.com
Every year across North America an average 1.1 million people
divorce. Many of these people join countless singles and also
children in turning to the Internet for friendship, love and
romance. But online con artists are finding fertile ground in
attracting unsuspecting prey. The problem is only likely to get
worse given the following statistics: 74% of single North Americans
have explored online dating (8 million people) 31% of N. American
adults (70 million) know someone who used dating websites 26% of N.
American adults (58 million) know someone who has dated online 2.2
million of us met their spouse online 2.8 million single N.
Americans pay for dating sites; multi-million-dollar industry 30%
of 18-24-year-olds worry about being stalked online for good
reason. 32% of online teenagers have been contacted by complete
strangers online. Liz Cole learned the hard way how easy it can be
to be taken in by online fraud artists and she provides valuable
advice. This is your opportunity to learn from her experience to
protect yourself and your loved ones. Her fascinating story can
save you from becoming the next online victim.
'Raw, unflinching, incredibly brave' - BBC Woman's Hour 'Visceral
and gripping' - Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun My name is Liz,
and I am the partner of an alcoholic. Coming Clean is a searingly
honest memoir of loving an alcoholic - both through the heaviest
drinking years and into recovery. When Liz Fraser's partner fell
into a catastrophic vortex of depression and alcoholism, Liz found
herself in a relentless hailstorm of lies, loneliness and fear,
looking after their young child on her own, heartbroken, mentally
shattered and with no idea what was happening or what to do. As she
and her family moved between Cambridge, Venice and Oxford, she kept
the often shocking truth entirely to herself for a long time,
trying in vain to help her partner find a path to sobriety, until
she herself finally broke from the trauma and started to speak out
- only to find she was one of hundreds experiencing similar things,
also living in silence and fear. Part diary, part travel journal
and part love letter, Coming Clean is the true story of addiction
of many kinds, mental collapse and heartbreak. Above all, it offers
a voice of deep human compassion, strength and hope for recovery. I
hope that in sharing this story it might change the way addiction
is talked about and understood from both sides, encourage open,
trusting and supportive dialogue between addicts and those their
addiction affects, and provide some solace and help for those who
need it - as I did.
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