A compelling account of the shocking scandal, this examination details the events that culminated in a respected official becoming the first Australian former superior court judge to be imprisoned. Marcus Einfeld, a former Federal Court judge and human rights champion, and his old friend Teresa Brennan, an exuberant, U.S.-based academic, had spent years building careers that exuded success. In 2006, Einfeld was caught speeding, but instead of paying a small fine, the former judge told the court that Brennan had been driving his car. In reality, she had been dead for three years. Through a chain of events that at times seemed exceedingly unlikely, Einfeld's lie was exposed with unimaginable consequences. His world, and virtually every honor he had earned, rapidly disappeared. And, his old friend Brennan, who had died in suspicious circumstances, was suddenly, posthumously, attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. This is the remarkable story of two outstanding Australians who lived large, and, ultimately, have been bound by tragedy.

In Remarkable People, Dan Walker, the host of BBC1's Breakfast, recounts inspiring stories of the courage and selflessness of people he has met throughout his career. An uplifting tonic for the darkness and negativity of recent times. We live in an age of anxiety, besieged by bad news and uncertainty. But Dan Walker, the host of BBC1's Breakfast and Football Focus, is determined to shine a light onto stories of selflessness and compassion that seldom make the headlines. In the course of his professional life, Dan has encountered many inspiring stories of bravery and kindness. In Remarkable People, he recounts tales of incredible humanity, empathy, compassion, and a steely determination to transform lives, restore trust, renew hope. Remarkable People is the perfect book for these challenging times; an escape from the negativity of our everyday news cycle, and a tribute to courage and positivity.

This inspiring collection of real life stories captures the struggles and successes of nine remarkable deaf adults and parents of deaf children. Each story offers a candid insight into the world of deafness - the highs and lows. Five parents describe their experiences in dealing with the diagnosis and embracing the challenges of raising a deaf child in a hearing world. Five deaf adults describe their own journey with hearing loss and paint an honest picture of the struggles and barriers they have encountered being deaf in a hearing world. Each story illustrates that deaf people can BE, DO and HAVE anything they want in this world and that nothing is impossible. All provide specific strategies they have used to tackle barriers related to early intervention services, education, or issues within the family and community, employment and adulthood. An invaluable resource for families of deaf and hard of hearing children and professionals working in the deafness field.

Conjoined twins have long been a subject of fantasy, fascination, and freak shows. In this first collection of its kind, Millie-Christine McKoy, African American twins born in 1851, and Daisy and Violet Hilton, English twins born in 1908, speak for themselves through memoirs that help us understand what it is like to live physically joined to someone else.
" Conjoined Twins in Black and White "provides contemporary readers with the twins' autobiographies, the first two "show histories" to be republished since their original appearance, a previously unpublished novella, and a nineteenth-century medical examination, each of which attempts to define these women and reveal the issues of race, gender, and the body prompted by the twins themselves. The McKoys, born slaves, were kidnapped and taken to Britain, where they worked as entertainers until they were reunited with their mother in an emotional chance encounter. The Hiltons, cast away by their horrified mother at birth, worked the carnival circuit as vaudeville performers until the WWII economy forced them to the burlesque stage. The hardships, along with the triumphs, experienced by these very different sister sets lend insight into our fascination with conjoined twins.

In the bestselling tradition of Seabiscuit, the extraordinary true story of the world's most famous racehorse, and the rogue who owned him.
Epsom Downs racetrack, 3rd May, 1769: a chestnut with a white blaze scorches across the turf towards the finishing post, leaving his rivals in the dust. Awestruck, his spectators know they are in the presence of greatness.
This is a vivid portrait of high society and low life, of passionate sport and ferocious gambling. It's the story of Eclipse's owner, an adventurer who made his money through roguery and gambling -- a rank outsider who went on to become a national celebrity -- and of his horse, which went on to become the undisputed champion of horse racing; founded dynasties that dominated the bloodstock market in every country where Thoroughbreds raced; and whose influence was such that ninety-five percent of horses racing today are Eclipse's male-line descendants.

What on earth would make someone decide to put their whole life up for sale... on eBay? When Ian Usher decided that it was time to leave the past behind and move on to the next chapter of his life, that is exactly what he did. The results were surprising, entertaining and challenging. However, the auction was only the beginning of the adventure. What does someone do when they have sold their life? Well, just about anything they like really Armed with a list of 100 lifetime goals, and a self-imposed timeframe of 100 weeks, Ian embarked on what could truly be described as the journey of a lifetime - a global adventure spanning six continents, two years, and almost every emotion. From the amazing highs of achievement, happiness and love, to the terrible lows of disappointment, loneliness and despair, come along and enjoy the rollercoaster ride of life, as experienced by one traveller who is simply looking for a new start.

"Wasting Libby" chronicles decades of neglect by state and federal agencies, which allowed the Grace corporation to reap millions in profits from the largest vermiculite mine in the world, while knowingly exposing generations of Montana residents to fatal levels of asbestos-contaminated dust. Libby's story, which culminates in the 2009 criminal trial of the corporation's executives, is ultimately the tale of the families who fought Grace for justice, who refused to sacrifice their dignity even as they lost their lives.

With an introduction by actor and environmentalist Jeff Bridges.

Andrea Peacock is the co-author, with Doug Peacock, of "The Essential Grizzly."

On a Sunday night during Homecoming weekend in 1999, Neenef Odah lured his ex-girlfriend, Maggie Wardle, to his dorm room at Kalamazoo College and killed her at close range with a shotgun before killing himself. In the wake of this tragedy, the community of the small, idyllic liberal arts college struggled to characterize the incident, which was even called "the events of October" in a campus memo. In this engaging and intimate examination of Maggie and Neenef's deaths, author and Kalamazoo College professor Gail Griffin attempts to answer the lingering question of "how could this happen?" to two seemingly normal students on such a close-knit campus. Griffin introduces readers to Maggie and Neenef-a bright and athletic local girl and the quiet Iraqi-American computer student-and retraces their relationship from multiple perspectives, including those of their friends, teachers, and classmates. She examines the tension that built between Maggie and Neenef as his demands for more of her time and emotional support grew, eventually leading to their breakup. After the deaths take place, Griffin presents multiple reactions, including those of Maggie's friends who were waiting for her to return from Neenef's room, the students who heard the shotgun blasts in the hallway of Neenef's dorm, the president who struggled to guide a grieving campus, and the facilities manager in charge of cleaning up the crime scene. Griffin also uses Maggie and Neenef's story to explore larger issues of intimate partner violence, gun accessibility, and depression and suicide on campus as she attempts to understand the lasting importance of their tragic deaths. Griffin's use of source material, including college documents, official police reports, Neenef's suicide note, and an instant message record between perpetrator and victim, puts a very real face on issues of violence against women. Readers interested in true crime, gender studies, and the culture of colleges and universities will appreciate "The Events of October."

Fifteen-year-old Sara and her beautiful sister, Rachel, are too young to legally drive a car--but are approaching spinsterhood in Utah's secret polygamist Blood of the Lamb community. Having long since reached the "age of preparedness," they will soon be married off to much older men chosen by the hidden sect's revered Prophet.

As Sara, chosen to become her uncle's fifth wife, grows more distraught over her impending incestuous marriage, she begins to scrutinize the faith she has followed blindly her entire life. But for Rachel, who will be married to one of the many powerful community leaders vying for her hand, disobeying the Prophet means eternal damnation. Her friendship with the newest member of the community, the young and handsome Luke, starts as an attempt to save his agnostic soul, but ends with the pair falling helplessly in love. When Rachel is forbidden to see him, her absolute faith in the Prophet is severely tested.

When Rachel's future husband is finally announced, violence erupts, and the girls must find the strength to escape the only life they have ever know...before it's too late.

Claire Avery has woven a stunning tale that could be ripped from today's headlines. Shocking and empowering, "Hidden Wives" is a page-turning debut that will stay with the reader.

Beginning on Valentine's Day, 1981, when twelve-year-old Todd Domboski plunged through the earth in his grandmother's backyard in Centralia, Pennsylvania, The Day the Earth Caved In is an unprecedented and riveting account of the nation's worst mine fire. In astonishing detail, award-winning journalist Joan Quigley, the granddaughter of Centralia miners, ushers readers into the dramatic world of the underground blaze. Drawing on interviews with key participants and exclusive new research, Quigley paints unforgettable portraits of Centralia and its residents, from Tom Larkin, the short-order cook and ex-hippie who rallied the activists, to Helen Womer, the bank teller who galvanized the opposition, denying the fire's existence even as toxic fumes invaded her home. Like Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action, The Day the Earth Caved In is a seminal investigation" "of individual rights, corporate privilege, and governmental indifference to the powerless.

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.

For Anyone Who's Ever Been a Teenager Who's teenage years weren't terrible? Remember the scary older kids? The sadistic gym teacher? The smelly kid who sat next to you in science class? Your first fumbling kiss? That time you threw up in the cafeteria? Your first attempt at putting on a condom? The period that arrived unexpectedly? That awful fight with your parents? The first time you got drunk? That note you wrote that you shouldn't have written? The day you forgot to zip your fly? That monster zit? When, you wondered, would it all end? In When I Was a Loser, John McNally, author of the novel America's Report Card, assembles twenty-five original essays--often hilarious, sometimes tenderhearted, always evocative--about defining moments of high school loserdom. Brad Land, Julianna Baggott, Owen King, Johanna Edwards, and many more fresh, talented writers explore their own angst, humiliation, heartache, and other staples of teen life. These essays perfectly capture what it was like to be in high school: to experience so many things for the first time, to assert independence while desperately trying to fit in, to feel misunderstood and unable to articulate the wild swings between heartbreak, anger, and euphoria. One writer recalls how his grandmother helped him with his home perm in preparation for the Senior Class picture; another recounts her discovery, sometime after hitting puberty, of the power she held over boys and men, while at the same time she felt herself at their mercy; a third remembers the casual cruelties visited on him by the cooler kids, and the cruelties he, in turn, inflicted on kids below him on the social ladder. Utterly candid and compulsively readable, these essays conjure up and untangle those raw and formative years. The writers cringe and laugh at the teenagers they were, but at the same time, they honor their adolescence and the way it shaped their lives. Because, in truth, beneath the layers of adult respectability, we all still carry a little bit of our teenage selves around with us.

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!

Only in real life do we find coincidences so unbelievably farfetched that the names are changed to safeguard those who wish to remain anonymous. A nationally renowned Japanese artist falls in love with an uncouth South African businessman. He promised her the world and flew her to Johannesburg, only to lock her up as a sex slave and to work as a servant in the flat of his mistress. This is the heartrendering story of proposed marriage, heartache, extreme abuse, violence and eventual solace, set against the background of cultural taboos and apartheid pitfalls. Naka Pillman is known for being an adventurous traveller. In 1963 she took her eleven-year-old daughter on a 6 000 km journey from Cape Town to Cairo. Alone in Afghanistan she wore a chador and followed the Buddhist route through the foothills and valleys of the Hindu Kush mountain range up to the sacred lakes of Bandi Amir to explore the ancient artworks in the cold Bamiyan caves. In Teheran she had an unfortunate misunderstanding with the police and lived through the adventure of spending time in an Iranian jail! There she discovered their use of a woollen zip, which idea she took to Pennsylvania and taught to the Amish. She is the author of numerous articles published in educational and art magazines, and specialises in the research of unusual art expression. She is a founder member of the Museum of Man and Science. Presently she lives in George. She is 90 years old.

By Philip Clements

ISBN: 9781847471024
Published: 2007
Pages: 150
Key Themes: Christianity, manic depression, bi-polar disorder

Description

This book is the description of an Anglican priest's experience of manic depression. His illness is powerful and dehabilitating yet, through his faith and with a lot of determination, Philip avoids becoming overwhelmed and manages to live and achieve against all odds and expectations. In this book, Philip Clements adds his own personal testimony, a record which is also an account of aspects of his ministry as an Anglican priest and the effects of the illness on his work. This well-written and uplifting account puts manic depression in a new light and reveals how the church deals with the mentally ill

About the Author

Philip Clements was born in 1938 in Aldershot, Hampshire, he now lives near Sandwich, in Kent. Philip has devoted his life to his faith and following the completion of a degree in theology became an ordained Anglican priest. Now retired, Philip is a writer and broadcaster. He has had four books of poetry published and is currently writing his second novel. He is a regular features on BBC Radio 4 and local BBC radio where he is involved in programming discussing spirituality and mental health. He is Chaplain of St Bart's Hospital in Sandwich and works tirelessly for local churches and charitable organisations.

The long-intertwined communities of the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation and the bordering towns in Sheridan County, Nebraska, mark their histories in sensational incidents and quiet human connections, many recorded in detail here for the first time. After covering racial unrest in the remote northwest corner of his home state of Nebraska in 1999, journalist Stew Magnuson returned four years later to consider the larger questions of its peoples, their paths, and the forces that separate them. Examining Raymond Yellow Thunder's death at the hands of four white men in 1972, Magnuson looks deep into the past that gave rise to the tragedy. Situating long-ranging repercussions within 130 years of context, he also recounts the largely forgotten struggles of American Indian Movement activist Bob Yellow Bird and tells the story of Whiteclay, Nebraska, the controversial border hamlet that continues to sell millions of cans of beer per year to the "dry" reservation. Within this microcosm of cultural conflict, Magnuson explores the odds against community's power to transcend misunderstanding, alcoholism, prejudice, and violence."Like all good stories, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder spins against the way it drives. Even as the people of Sheridan County despise, scorn, exploit, assault, and kill one another, their lives, like objects slipping out of control, become more and more inseparable. Indians and whites coexist and, against all odds, somehow get along, sharing space they really don't want to share. This countercurrent is the source of the many unexpected stories Magnuson brings forth." --Pekka Hamalainen, from the foreword

Based upon conversations recorded by a French journalist, this book mixes autobiographical reflections with a critique of the contemporary state of the Middle East. It tells the stories of many individuals working for peace and of his own work, especially with children and students of the school and college he has founded. Fr Elias Chacour, author of the bestselling books Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land, is the Archbishop of Galilee. Seeing the lack of educational opportunities for Palestinian youth, he created a school open to all local children which opened in the early 1980s. The Mar Elias Educational Institution and now caters for 4,500 students, representing all major religions and ethnicities in Israel. Fr Chacour has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times and has received other prestigious peace awards.

"Meetings On The Edge" is a travel memoir by a once-frustrated journalist for the BBC, who took the plunge and abandoned a ten year career to follow her dream to become a mountaineer. This book explores the impact of a solitary journey as well as unexpected encounters with fascinating people along the way. The different natural environments mirror the demands of an evolving quest. The many lessons of nature's classroom are against a background of adventure, discovery and considerable personal risk. Like all quests, the incidental insights and surprising events challenge the romantic idea of adventure. Stories from Alaska, the Pacific North West, the Himalaya and New Zealand's Southern Alps are interwoven into the central adventure of traversing the French and Spanish Pyrenees alone.Tales to highlight include encountering a naked and all too aroused flasher far off the beaten track, a colourful relationship with Nepal's most famous civilian, a film star, two weeks after the royal massacre, and summiting Denali, North America's highest peak, while the expedition dwindled from 9 to just 4 due to life-threatening illness and mishap. But it was after a chance meeting with a wise Maori man and a solitary encounter with a 2000 year old Kauri tree in an ancient forest, that the author experiences an epiphany: that a restless, goal-driven life is not the most fulfilling. This book ends in the foothills of the Pyrenees, where the freedom she has experienced is in marked contrast to the security-conscious existence of those living there. The electric gates, fencing and hedgerows project a community in fear of those very open spaces which had broadened her horizons.

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.

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.

"I am about to share here a story about stars that dance. . . . If the very thought of seeing stars dance piques your curiosity at some deep level of your soul, then pay attention to what follows, for the walk to the Field of Stars, to Santiago de Compostela, is a journey that has the power to change lives forever."
- from the introduction

"Pilgrimage" is a strange notion to our modern, practical minds. How many of us have walked to a distant holy place in order to draw nearer to God? Yet the pilgrimage experience is growing these days in various parts of the world.

Seeking to take stock of his life, Kevin Codd set out in July 2003 on a pilgrimage that would profoundly change his life. To the Field of Stars tells the fascinating story of his unusual spiritual and physical journey on foot across Spain to Santiago de Compostela, the traditional burial place of the apostle James the Greater. Each brief chapter chronicling Codd's thirty-five-day trek is dedicated to one or two days on the road. Codd shares tales of other pilgrims, his own changes of perspective, and his challenges and triumphs along the way - all told with a disarming candor.

Seen through the eyes of a Catholic priest who honors the religious worldview that originally gave rise to these medieval odysseys, "pilgrimage" comes to life and takes on new meaning in these pages.

'My heart has reshaped a thousand broken pieces, and for every moment I still want to heal him there are a thousand when I know he's perfect, exactly as he is'. This book will challenge your heart and change your views. Set between the summers of 1998 and 2005 in Cardiff, "Blue Sky July" is the true story of Nia, whose son Joe suffers a devastating brain injury. Through her intimate day-by-day musings, the book explores the impact of the tragedy on Nia's home life, love life, friendships and connection to the world, as the most extraordinary relationship unfolds between herself and Joe. Lyrical, inspiring and utterly compelling, Nia Wyn's powerful yet acutely sensitive account of her experiences will make an indelible impression on all who read it. A testament to the power of a mother's unconditional love for her son, "Blue Sky July" is a book that deserves to be read by everyone.