Join us by the fireside of a legendary guesthouse in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, where fly fishermen gather each evening to tell stories of their exploits. Tales from The Angler's Retreat reveals a world of amiable obsession, as people from many backgrounds - united by fishing, companionship and the unusual beauty of the island of South Uist - take turns to tell their stories. Some tales may be tall. Many involve mishaps. Some are hilarious, others wistful. Together they offer unexpected insight into fishing, Scottish islands and how men behave when practising their passion.

This amusing insight into Cunard's legendary liners begins more than fifty years ago when Paul Curtis joined the original Queen Mary as entertainments officer. Over a Cunard high tea in the Queens Room, Paul recounts the stories of these iconic ships. Then, over a drink in the Red Lion, he shares the tales of the antics of both passengers and crews. The facts are delivered in vivid detail - some of them things you should know and an occasional peep at things you shouldn't. Simply turning these pages releases a sniff of the sea and a whiff of champagne. Paul has worked, travelled upon or photographed every Cunard Queen ever built. He has an offbeat sense of humour and a keen appetite for the ridiculous. A life at sea can do that to you.

We all dream of winning millions on the lottery and occasionally wonder just what we'd do if it actually happened. Joe Johnson was no different. The son of a rag and-bone man, he played the lotto for years 'just in case', and always had a hunch that he might get lucky. But when he first found out that his numbers had come up, he thought someone was pulling his leg - it turned out to be the moment that would change his destiny forever.Overnight, Joe went from practically penniless despair to living life in the fast lane with GBP 10 million to his name. From then on it was nothing but the best - the champagne, the cars, the country mansion and the girls - it looked like Joe had it all. But despite the jetset lifestyle there was one thing missing in his life - true love.Since his win, a string of intense yet failed relationships had hurt Joe (not to mention his wallet) very badly. A wiser (yet poorer!) man, Joe met and fell in head-over heels in love with Lisa, a beautiful blonde who took his breath away. This time around, he was determined not to be made a fool of, so to ensure Lisa would love him for who he was, not his bank balance, Joe hatched an incredible plan to test her love for him - he'd pretend to be broke and steel himself for her reaction on discovering that she had been deceived. What followed reads like a fairytale.The lengths to which Joe went to keep his secret are amazing - he even made Lisa pay the bills and took her on a holiday from hell to a cockroach-infested apartment! But the outcome of the tale was more sensational than Joe could ever have imagined..."A Whole Lotto Love" is a heart-warming and hilarious tale, and the story of Joe is one of the most astonishing you will ever read. It is perfect for lottery winners and non-lottery winners alike!

Many women become Horse Crazy as girls and never lose their admiration for the beauty and dignity and the wisdom and whimsicality of these remarkable creatures. Here, fifty women offer their stories of the path of equine wisdom and the benefits of a good relationship with a loving horse, from improved confidence (and yes, even firmer thighs) to reconnecting with the world after a period of grief. Includes such stories as: A wheelchair-bound woman overcomes her physical limitations, not only learning to ride but to compete - and win! - in dressage Pregnant for the first time, a mother to be watches a brood mare deliver a colt and gains the confidence to face the arrival of her own child A stresses out executive learns that a bored cow pony can teach her a thing or two One lovelorn woman finds she can learn a lot about men from watching horses

In This Common Secret Dr. Susan Wicklund chronicles her emotional and dramatic twenty-year career on the front lines of the abortion war. Growing up in working class, rural Wisconsin, Wicklund had her own painful abortion at a young age. It was not until she became a doctor that she realized how many women shared her ordeal of an unwanted pregnancy,and how hidden this common experience remains. This is the story of Susan's love for a profession that means listening to women and helping them through one of the most pivotal and controversial events in their lives. Hers is also a calling that means sleeping on planes and commuting between clinics in different states,and that requires her to wear a bulletproof vest and to carry a .38 caliber revolver. This is also the story of the women whom Susan serves, women whose options are increasingly limited. Through these intimate, complicated, and inspiring accounts, Wicklund reveals the truth about the women's clinics that anti-abortion activists portray as little more than slaughterhouses for the unborn. As we enter the most fevered political fight over abortion America has ever seen, this raw and powerful memoir shows us what is at stake.

When Jim Gordon set out to build a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, he knew some people might object. But there was a lot of merit in creating a privately funded, clean energy source for energy-starved New England, and he felt sure most people would recognize it eventually. Instead, all Hell broke loose. Gordon had unwittingly challenged the privileges of some of America's richest and most politically connected people, and they would fight him tooth and nail, no matter what it cost, and even when it made no sense. Cape Wind is a rollicking tale of democracy in action and plutocracy in the raw as played out among colourful and glamorous characters on one of our country's most historic and renowned pieces of coastline. As steeped in American history and local colour as The Prince of Providence as biting, revealing and fun as Philistines at the Hedgerow , it is also a cautionary tale about how money can hijack democracy while America lags behind the rest of the developed world in adopting clean energy.

A behind-the-scenes look at death in New York City. For almost a century, New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has presided over the dead. Over the years, the OCME has endured everything- political upheavals, ghastly murders, bloody gang wars, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and non-stop battles for power and influence-and remains the final authority in cases of sudden, unexplained, or violent death. Founded in 1918, the OCME has evolved over decades of technological triumphs and all-too human failure to its modern-day incarnation as the foremost forensics lab in the world, investigating an average caseload of over 15,000 suspicious deaths a year. This is the behind-the-scenes chronicle of public service and private vendettas, of blood in the streets and back-room bloodbaths, and of the criminal cases that made history and headlines.

I behave badly to set myself apart. To test myself. To push myself. To prove something. To shock someone. ... I behave badly because I can. That s how Ellen Sussman describes her mischievous endeavors. In this anthology of personal essays, she s invited twenty-five other bad girl writers to share their stories. Ann Hood lies; Mary Roach confesses. Erica Jong, the original bad girl, challenges her own claim to that fame. Caroline Leavitt marries and cheats. These pages bristle with danger. The writers dig deep bad behavior lies in their souls. And what they bring to the surface reveals telling truths about our psyches and our society.

NO FUTURE? 'It will never work.' 'They are just too different.' 'Sleep with a white man? No thanks.' 'Look at the state of him, those clothes ' Just some of the comments directed at Margaret and Bobby Smith during their ten-year marriage. Why? Because Bobby is a white, cider-bellied punk rocker and Margaret a black, Methodist, Nigerian. One Love is a book that shows the reality of inter-racial love. Through the eyes of Mr and Mrs Smith we see how two people can conquer prejudice, intolerance and hate. A hate that comes from both sides. Written from their dual perspective, they honestly debate the issues that affect those who marry out of their culture. The result is a book that challenges previously held views about multiculturalism. Taking their relationship as a starting point, our co-authors also explore wider issues such as: segregation, self-hate, sex and identity. Crucially, the book addresses the unique problems experienced by black women/white men partnerships. A mixture of social comment and personal experience, One Love shows the true level of prejudice that exists in modern day England. It delves into the underbelly of inter-racial relationships and discusses the pain, pleasures and pitfalls of such liaisons. It is a book to make you think differently about the world we live in. It is also a sign of hope.

What do 'Abu Sindi', 'Timothy Sean McCormack', 'Saro', and 'Commander Avo' all have in common? They were all aliases for Monte Melkonian. But who was Monte Melkonian? In his native California he was once a kid in cut-off jeans, playing baseball and eating snow cones. Europe denounced him as an international terrorist. His adopted homeland of Armenia decorated him as a national hero who led a force of 4000 men to victory in the Armenian enclave of Mountainous Karabagh in Azerbaijan. Why Armenia? Why adopt the cause of a remote corner of the Caucasus whose peoples had scattered throughout the world after the early twentieth century Ottoman genocides? Markar Melkonian spent seven years unravelling the mystery of his brother's road: a journey which began in his ancestors' town in Turkey and leading to a blood-splattered square in Tehran, the Kurdish mountains, the bomb-pocked streets of Beirut, and finally, to the windswept heights of Mountainous Karabagh. Monte's life embodied the agony and the follies bedevelling the end of the Cold War and the unravelling of the Soviet Union. Yet, who really was this man? A terrorist or a hero? "My Brother's Road" is not just the story of a long journey and a short life, it is an attempt to understand what happens when one man decides that terrible actions speak louder than words.

This book is a valuable resource for all of those seeking to understand the reality faced by millions of Americans whose plight rarely finds an informed and articulate voice such as that possessed by Ms. Mitchell. Though this penetrating journal is written over thirty years ago, her intimate experience with and intricate insights into the reality faced by an expanding American underclass are as relevant today as they were then. She sheds an informing and penetrating light on race relations, poverty, mothering, gender relations and many other pertinent issues. Foreword Magazine Book of The Year Bronze Winner: Family and Relationships, 2008. Indies Next Generation Book of The Year Award: Family / Parenting, 2008.

Sallyann J. Murphey and her husband did what a lot of us have dreamt of but never quite built up the courage to do. In 1990, Murphey, who was a successful BBC producer, and her husband, Greg, a commercial photographer, left their high stress, hectic life in Chicago and moved to a dilapidated 40-plus-acre farm in Brown County, Indiana, hoping to raise their daughter in a more natural and less stressful environment. In Bean Blossom Dreams, Murphey warmly and humorously details life on the family's farm. Though Brown County might not offer the idyllic country life they were expecting, Sallyann and Greg have realized through trial and error, laughter and tears, that they made the right decision to relocate. A delightful fish-out-of-water story

One Navy admiral called it"one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era." The U.S. Navy officially describes it an inexplicable accident. For decades, the real story of the disaster eluded journalists, historians, and the family members of the lost crew. But a small handful of Navy and government officials knew the truth: The sinking of the U.S.S. Scorpion on May 22, 1968, was an act of war. In Scorpion Down , military reporter Ed Offley reveals that the true cause of the Scorpion's sinking was buried by the U.S. government in an attempt to keep the Cold War from turning hot. For five months, the families of the Scorpion crew waited while the Navy searched feverishly for the missing submarine. For the first time, Offley reveals that entire search was cover-up, devised to conceal that fact that the Scorpion had been torpedoed by the Soviets. In this gripping and controversial book, Offley takes the reader inside the shadowy world of the Cold War military, where rival superpowers fought secret battles far below the surface of the sea.

How hard-living journalist Frank Robson fell under the spell of a small dog called Lucky. At eighteen months of age, Lucky, a cream-coloured terrier, was dropped off at a vet's clinic in Queensland, abandoned by his owners and suffering from ticks and other terrors. A week from being put down he was adopted by Frank Robson and his partner, Leisa. From the start, the fluffy new member of the household proved an enigma, displaying a twelve-snort vocabulary, an ability to climb trees (the better to chase parrots) and a disdain for suburbia. In this full-blooded account of a friendship between man and dog, Robson puzzles on the sentient being who trotted into his life and taught him about survival, mateship and the joys of an independent spirit.

There are some things that you can't really understand until they happen to you - and divorce is one of them. In this crazy time marked by emotional and financial upheaval, even the strongest, most optimistic women need the support of those who've been there. In this book, readers get the real deal on divorce - from the real women who lived to tell about it. Readers will laugh and cry along with: Ariana, whose abusive husband never allowed her to have a job, parlays her first job in retail into designing clothes for department stores nationwide; Carla, whose lazy ex tries to take the money her hard-working parents left to her - and gets his karmic due; and Michelle, who discovers her "compulsive" spending is easy to control once she rids herself of a philandering husband. In this book, thirty-five divorced women reveal the naked truth about what went wrong, why they got divorced and how they survived the transition. Most important, they learn that they, too, can survive this tumultuous time in their lives - only to emerge stronger, wiser and happier.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERChasing Daylight is the honest, touching, and ultimately inspirational memoir of former KPMG CEO Eugene O'Kelly, completed in the three and a half months between his diagnosis with brain cancer and his death in September 2005. It's haunting yet extraordinarily hopeful voice reminds us to embrace the fragile, fleeting moments of our lives: the brief time we have with our family, our friends, and even ourselves. Glimpse the strategies Gene embraced to accept and live the final stages of his life with vibrancy and calm - and what his preparations for death taught him about life.This paperback edition features a new foreword by his wife, Corinne O'Kelly and a readers' group guide and questions "A moving memoir" The Times "Challenging and thought-provoking" The Financial Times "[A] well-written and moving book." The Economist.com "Voicing universal truths not often found in business or how-to tracts...[O'Kelly] made a success out of his final mission."-Janet Maslin, The New York Times

On his 18th birthday, Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a congenital, progressive disease marked by night-blindness, tunnel vision and, eventually, total blindness. In this penetrating, nervy memoir, which ricochets between meditation and black comedy, Knighton tells the story of his fifteen-year descent into blindness while incidentally revealing the world of the sighted in all its phenomenal peculiarity. Knighton learns to drive while unseeing; has his first significant relationship--with a deaf woman; navigates the punk rock scene and men's washrooms; learns to use a cane; and tries to pass for seeing while teaching English to children in Korea. Stumbling literally and emotionally into darkness, into love, into couch-shopping at Ikea, into adulthood, and into truce if not acceptance of his identity as a blind man, his writerly self uses his disability to provide a window onto the human condition. His experience of blindness offers unexpected insights into sight and the other senses, culture, identity, language, our fears and fantasies. Cockeyed is not a conventional confessional. Knighton is powerful and irreverent in words and thought and impatient with the preciousness we've come to expect from books on disability. Readers will find it hard to put down this wild ride around their everyday world with a wicked, smart, blind guide at the wheel.

Greece, it has been said, is where art became inseparable from life. The country evokes a richly embroidered tapestry of images, from old monuments rife with history to idyllic isles of glass-blue sea and blinding-white stucco dwellings. Greece enchants its visitors with its beauty, tradition, and spirit. In this eloquent collection, women share firsthand experiences of the people, history, and landscapes of Greece. Their essays go beyond ordinary travelogue to capture the ways in which Greece has shaped lives and influenced decisions. In expressing their love for the country, these women share stories as visceral as they are poignant, as entertaining as they are endearing. Whether they are seasoned travelers or armchair adventurers, Greece aficionados or those just beginning to learn about the country, readers of this compelling collection will gain a better understanding of Greece and how experiences abroad can impact their lives.

From the author of the international bestseller "Zlata's Diary" comes a haunting testament to how war's brutality affects the lives of young people, spanning from World War I to the war in Iraq that continues today.

What is the experience of being an adopted person really like? An honest look at how adoption can affect the individual, families and partners. Claire Cashin was adopted. In her youth, she experienced many personal problems because her birth mother 'gave her away'. This led her in search of her biological mother. This is a true and very honest account of adoption, search and reunion. It examines in depth how adoption can affect the individual and their loved ones. It does not shy away from the reality of what a reunion can mean and how hard it can be at times, or indeed what joy it can add to peoples lives. The story describes in fascinating detail what the reality can be like for many adopted people and what challenges their families may face as they mature and wonder about the circumstances of their adoption. It attempts to offer advice to anyone considering searching for their own answers, from someone who has gone through the process, made the mistakes, learned some lessons along the way and is still smiling. This book describes the mistakes and triumphs she made along the way and how the news of a new birth family has affected her adopted family in Cork, and changed Claire forever. It gives hope and advice to families who wish to help and understand the dynamics involved in adoption and reunion.

"Blood Brothers" is M.J. Akbar's amazing story of three generations of a Muslim family - based on his own - and how they deal with the fluctuating contours of Hindu-Muslim relations. Telinipara, a small jute mill town some 30 miles north of Kolkata along the Hooghly, is a complex Rubik's Cube of migrant Bihari workers, Hindus and Muslims; Bengalis, poor and 'bhadralok'; and Sahibs who live in the safe, 'foreign' world of Victoria Jute Mill. Into this scattered inhabitation, enters a child on the verge of starvation, Prayaag, who is saved and adopted by a Muslim family, converts to Islam and takes on the name of Rahmatullah. As Rahmatullah knits Telinipara into a community, friendship, love, trust and faith are continually tested by the cancer of riots. Incidents - conversion, circumcision, the arrival of plague or electricity - and a fascinating array of characters - the ultimate Brahmin, Rahmatullah's friend Girija Maharaj, the workers' leader, Bauna Sardar, the storyteller, Talat Mian, the poet-teacher, Syed Ashfaque, the smiling mendicant, Burha Deewana, the sincere Sahib, Simon Hogg, and then the questioning, demanding third generation of the author and his friend Kamala - interlink into a narrative of social history as well as a powerful memoir. "Blood Brothers" is a chronicle of its age, its canvas as enchanting as its narrative, a personal journey through change as tensions build, stretching the bonds of a lifetime to breaking point and demanding, in the end, the greatest sacrifice. Its last chapters, written in a bare-bones, unemotional style, are the most moving as the author searches for hope amid raw wounds with a surgeon's scalpel.