Olga Chekhova was a stunning Russian beauty and a famous Nazi-era film actress who Hitler counted among his friends; she was also the niece of Anton Chekhov. After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev, to work for Soviet intelligence. In return, her family were allowed to join her. The extraordinary story of how the whole family survived the Russian Revolution, the civil war, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist Terror, and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union becomes, in Antony Beevor's hands, a breathtaking tale of compromise and survival in a merciless age.

As a single 51-year-old woman, Elizabeth McDonnell had given up hope of ever becoming a mother. When she was approved to adopt ten-year-old Lara, a sweet and caring girl, it was a dream come true. Elizabeth knew that that her new daughter had had a difficult past but when she found out that Lara had been abused, the extent of her emotional damage became clear. By the age of twelve, Lara was often out of control, hanging out with drug dealers in Oxford, disappearing for days. For the next five years Elizabeth put herself in danger to rescue her daughter time and time again, while battling the authorities who failed to give Lara the help she so desperately needed. She had no idea that her daughter was being trafficked by a sex ring. Because she refused to give up on Lara, today Elizabeth and Lara have a close and loving relationship. Deeply moving, You Can't Have My Daughter is the story of a mother determined to keep her promise to her daughter: 'I will always be there for you, whether you want me to or not'.

Lydia was 19 years old and enjoying university with a loving family and great friends when she became anorexic. The doctors told her that she would die. This is Lydia's account of what anorexia did to her, how it changed her and how it impacted on her family, friends and all her choices in life. Her story is told through letters and blogs that Lydia wrote at the best and worst of times, notes from her parent s and friends desperately trying to find a way through to her and doctors notes with the horrific exacting details. Lydia is now 23 and 'recovering'. She strongly believes that recovery is possible, and feels she is almost there. She wrote her book to explain her deepest thoughts and to explain the painful mental torture that she endured and overcame. And she wrote it in the hope that others suffering would relate to it, and that other families watching their loved ones will be touched and understand more deeply how an eating disorder really feels.

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.

It seemed like any other season on Everest.

Ten expeditions from around the world were preparing for their summit push, gathered together to try for mountaineering's ultimate prize. Twenty-four hours later, eight of those climbers were dead, victims ofthe most devastating storm ever to hit Everest. On the North face of the mountain, a British expedition found itself in the thick of the drama. Against all odds, film-maker Matt Dickinson and professional climber Alan Hinkes managed to battle through hurricane-force winds toreach the summit. In Death Zone, Matt Dickinson describes the extraordinary event that put the disaster on the front cover of Time and Newsweek. The desperate attempts of teams on the southern side of the mountain... fatal errors that led to the deaths of three Indian climbers on the North Ridge...and the moving story of Rob Hall, the New Zealand guide who stayed with his stricken client, and paid with his life. Based on interviews with the surviving climbers and the first-hand experience of having lived through the killer storm, this book tacklesissues at the very heart of mountaineering.

Death Zone is an extra- ordinary story of human triumph, folly and disaster.

Our stories are our survival centres on the continuity of Wiradjuri culture. It is a celebration of storytelling and the joys of life within an Aboriginal Australian community. Our stories offers an alternative to the commonly told stories of Aboriginal disadvantage. Using sport as a lens, the book brings to light the continued strength of Aboriginal culture. It places contemporary representations of Aboriginal people and communities into historical context and calls for readers to rethink what they know about Australian Indigenous communities. Bamblett places a high value on Wiradjuri storytelling and includes testimony from within the community. As a member of the Erambie community he has been given unparalleled access to stories and photographs. His love of community shines through.

Since first learning to handle a Winchester .22 as a kid, Dan Aadland has exulted in hunting-not as a sport but as a calling. In this book he takes readers to Montana's prairies and mountains in search of antelope, whitetail deer, moose, and the occasional upland bird as he vividly describes the rituals and camaraderie of hunting culture. In fifteen essays recounting a lifetime of adventures, Aadland spins tales of a hunter whose years have been enriched by pursuing game under Montana's big sky. He conveys the drama of stalking elk in deep snow, when sometimes just the chance at a shot is enough, and describes the tricks of bowhunting. He tells how hunting with horses was "the real deal" planting one's foot in the stirrup and sensing an affinity with great hunters of the past. Underlying his memoir is a deep respect for wildlife and appreciation for the West. Sometimes nostalgic, often humorous, Aadland's book recounts the highs and lows of the hunt while revealing why the pursuit of game remains so important to so many people. The Best of All Seasons depicts hunting as an essential part of the good life, suggesting that in our civilized age it yet remains a fundamentally natural act. In allowing readers a glimpse into that life, this book simultaneously shows that for Dan Aadland, fine writing comes just as naturally. Dan Aadland's writings about hunting have appeared in such publications as Montana Outdoors and Rifle. A former teacher who now breeds horses in Absarokee, Montana, he is the author of six other books, including Sketches from the Ranch: A Montana Memoir.

Memoirs of an Albanian emigrant in Australia.

Police spokesperson and former TV journalist McIntosh Polela has been on our screens for many years. But behind his seemingly unfazed demeanour, a troubled past haunts him. His parents disappeared when he was a little boy, leaving him and his sister Zinhle to suffer years of brutal abuse. When the truth of his parents' disappearance is revealed, the teenage McIntosh makes a fully functioning gun from found object which he keeps for the day when he finds his father. He knows that he must come face to face with the man who robbed him of his childhood. McIntosh has to confront his father about his mother's brutal death. How can he possibly forgive, when his father remains a remorseless brutal and heartless monster?

On 27 August 1979, Paul Burns's life changed for ever. Travelling through Warren Point in Northern Ireland when the IRA detonated two massive bombs, he was involved in a devastating explosion - eighteen soldiers were killed that day; Paul was one of only two who survived. Newly recruited to the Parachute Regiment, Paul was performing a tour of duty in Northern Ireland when a four-tonne truck in which he was travelling was destroyed by a massive IRA bomb. Eighteen of his friends and colleagues were killed in the Warrenpoint blast - the biggest single loss of life for the British Army during the Troubles. Paul barely survived. His body was broken. His left leg was amputated below the knee. His skin was burned down to the bone. Those who saw him wondered if it might not be kinder to let him die. At just eighteen, Paul thought his life was over. But he refused to be beaten. He had made a promise to himself that he would make up for the loss of his friends' lives by living his own life to the full. And just over five years later he was a member of the elite parachute display team, The Red Devils. In 1996 he entered the record books as a member of 'Time and Tide': the first ever disabled crew to sail around the world. Today he works as a disabled extra in tv and film - amongst his accolades he can count a role in Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator. His story is a remarkable tale of one man's determination to make the most of his life against the odds.

Those who had not discovered our truth had Satan in their hearts. We lived amongst them, but not with them, 'in the world, but not of the world'. We were special. We were the disciples of the Fellowship. When she was a child, Lindsey Rosa's every waking moment was governed by the rules of an extreme separatist sect. It controlled what she wore and what she ate; it forbade her to listen to music, to cut her hair, to watch television, to use a computer. The Fellowship said her family was special. Why would she believe otherwise? Then, when Lindsey was seven, her elder brother was caught listening to music and the family were expelled from the sect. But Lindsey's parents knew nothing but the ways of the Fellowship, so they remained in hope that they would be accepted and continued to make the family live by the sect's strict rules - cutting themselves off from their local community. But as Lindsey grew, so too did her awareness of a world outside. And, feeling increasingly isolated, she struggled with her own identity. Until finally she was faced with a devastating choice: to continue to live by the rules of the religious sect or to be brutally cast out and leave the family she loved behind forever.

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.

Everyone has secrets. Some you might whisper into a friend s ear, while others may stay locked inside you for years maybe even forever. It s those secrets that you tuck away that eventually control you. You may think you re okay, but really, your secrets can be tearing you apart from the inside out. Secret Survivors tells the compelling, true stories of people who have lived through painful secrets---things that they kept to themselves until they could no longer bear the pain alone. As you read their stories, you ll be drawn into their journeys towards healing, and you ll understand why it s so important to share your secret with someone else in order to start your own healing process. Read the stories of people, who as teens and young adults, dealt with issues like: *Date rape *Physical abuse *Cutting *Pornography addiction *Eating disorders *Incest *Drug and alcohol addiction *Abortion You may find a story that sounds similar to your own secret pain, or you may learn more about secrets that a friend or family member is dealing with. Whether your own story is represented in these pages or not, you ll feel a connection to the people in these stories, because we all have some kind of pain tucked away. But you don t have to feel alone in your pain anymore. After you read the stories of these survivors, you ll find the strength you need to share your own secret and start healing your heart and soul."

This fascinating book recounts the remarkable tale of a career UN official from Indonesia caught in the turmoil of international and domestic politics swirling around Cambodia during the tumultuous period after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Writing from his experience first as a member of the UN transitional authority and then as a personal envoy to the UN secretary-general, Benny Widyono re-creates the fierce battles for power centering on King Norodom Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge, and Prime Minister Hun Sen. A simultaneous insider and outsider, he also untangles the competing and conflicting agendas of the key international players, especially the United States, China, and Vietnam. He argues that great-power geopolitics throughout the Cold War and post-Cold War eras triggered and sustained a tragedy of enormous proportions in Cambodia for decades, ultimately leading to a flawed peace process. Widyono tells the inside story of the massive UN operation in Cambodia, the largest and most challenging in the organization's history to that time and long considered a model for UN operations elsewhere. He draws not only on his vantage point as part of the UN bureaucracy, but also as a local UN official in the rural Cambodian province of Siem Reap, the site of Angkor Wat. As a fellow Southeast Asian with no geopolitical axe to grind, Widyono was able to win the respect of Cambodians, including the once and future king, Norodom Sihanouk, whose decline after fifty years as his country's leading figure is vividly portrayed. Putting a human face on international operations, this book will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in Southeast Asia, the role of international peacekeeping, and the international response to genocide.

In Not Far Away, a semi-fictional memoir, Lois Beardslee gives a chilling acount of racism, particularly that leveled against Native women, in language that is supple, evocative, often comical, and always incisive. Her fictional heroine, the teacher Ima Pipiig (pronounced 'buh-BEEG'), endures humiliating insults from school administrators, fellow teachers, students, and callous neighbors. For years, she suffers in silence, believing that opposing bigotry would only fuel its caustic flames but then she begins to speak out. Scattered among the chapters chronicling Ima's experiences are essays and speeches written by the author herself, blurring the line between fiction and fact and creating a kind of resounding echo of resistance that is the author's response to racism.

"If all the ladies should know about spectroscopes and cathode rays, who will attend to the buttons and breakfasts?" "Asked of Wellesley astronomy professor Sarah Whiting by a male colleague in the 1880s."

"I agreed to read this manuscript as a favor. It was another chore in a week already overburdened by professional and personal duties. But I was riveted by the stories, the emotions, the glimpses into women's lives. Women like me and unlike me, with stories I identified with, and those I didn't. I read it in one afternoon, like fiction.Ifind that I know each of these women, most of whom I've never met. And hell, I'm proud of them."
--Jo-Anne Richards, University of the Witswatersrand

The Wits WonderWoman are a group of academics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. "Buttons and Breakfasts" is a collection of their writings and reflections on growing up in a man's world, and working in an environment peopled by male professors. There are journeys here from dusty township to dental school, from dropout to doctorate. There are testimonies of careers kept aloft through sexual harassment cases, pregnancies, cancer, marital breakup, and personal despair.

In these pages, the secret lives of women academics come to light the sacrifices they've made in their passionate commitment to their chosen discipline and to their students. Sometimes profoundly solitary, sometimes bolstered by the sisterhood, sometimes warrior-like and sometimes weeping, they've crossed borders and boundaries of the academic and the personal unknown. From moving tales of grandmothers and mothers to irreverent satires of university life, the pieces in this book offer an explicit counter-narrative.

The collection is eclectic and quirky, it is a book to dip into and savor in fragments. It will offer resonance for other academic women, cautionary and inspirational tales for young women planning a career, and some startling insights for men who wonder what women "really" are thinking. The collection includes a number of illustrations (including an academic board game) and a photo-essay capturing the mysterious and unseen spaces of university life.

"Margaret Orr" and "Mary Rorich" are professors at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). "Finuala Dowling" is a published poet and author of the novel "What Poets Need."

Looking back after half a decade, the ecstatic rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable comeback of Amazon.com can be viewed simultaneously as a paean to the internet age, a cautionary tale of heedless investment, and the consummate symbol of the unprecedented phenomenon that was American in the late 1990s. In 1996 James Marcus was hired as Amazon's 55th employee, giving him a ringside seat for observing how it was to be in the right place (Seattle) at the right time (the 90s) (Chicago Reader) inside a company that would come to represent for many the great optimism (and even greater disappointment) of the period. From the fascinating account of his first interview with Jeff Bezos to his description of the bizarre, Nordic-style company retreats, Marcus's tale brims with fascinating Amazoniana (Los Angeles Times). But more than that, in the tradition of the most noteworthy and entertaining memories of recent years, Marcus offers us a clear-eyed, first person account, rife with digressions of the larger cultural meaning throughout (Newsday).

Culture and Identity: Life Stories for Counselors and Therapists is a collection of autobiographical stories that explores themes of race/ethnicity, immigration/acculturation, religion, and social class. These engaging stories allow readers to understand the significance and influence of culture on identity development, sense of self, family relationships, interpersonal relationships, and life choices. As the storytellers reveal their real life struggles, readers will enhance their understanding of intra-group differences, increase their repertoire of clinical skills, and sharpen their multicultural competency. Each chapter contains a discussion of content themes, along with clinical applications, assessment questions, techniques, and interventions, as well as personal reactions evoked from the stories. Key Features: Offers autobiographical stories that help readers enhance their own clinical skills since the stories depict real clinical situations Includes theoretical content descriptions for each story to provide clinicians with a comprehensive array of themes they are likely to encounter in their clients' own histories Contains a clinical applications section for each chapter that gives readers practical ideas they can apply to clients Includes a valuable countertransference section that provides clinicians with personal reaction scenarios when working with clients Culture and Identity is a unique, easy-to-read book that demonstrates how cultural factors influence identity and life choices. It is an excellent textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on multicultural counseling focusing on diversity in the fields of Psychology, Counseling, Family Therapy, Social Work, and Human Services. In addition, it is ideal for many practicum and internship courses. A valuable resource for clinicians looking to further their understanding of cultural factors in clinical work, it will also be of interest to any professional in the mental health field who works with a diverse client population.

War, as the general said, is hell. But in a few it also brings out the best. Heroism and horror are the keynotes of this gripping new collection of war writing. From the Siege of Troy to the present day, The Mammoth Book of True War Stories includes battle analyses by celebrated historians, letters home by ordinary Gis, high-adrenaline memoirs by frontline combatants and memorable reportage by master chroniclers such as Ernest Hemingway and John Reed.

The stories told in this collection, though tragic for many, also illustrate the steadfast determination and courage of people in the face of misfortune and extreme distress. From the lesser-known weed outbreaks and tornadoes to the world-wide influenza outbreak in 1918 that devastated many Calgary families, these stories focus on the human side of these disasters. It may be a heroic individual or the collective response of a community, but what is truly remarkable in these stories is the human response to the world being turned upside down by famine and disease, by flood, fire, or rock slide, by wind and cold, by dynamite or gas explosions, or even by the seemingly mundane threat of weeds upon crops. It is the resolution to continue to fight and the persistence of the human spirit and its adaptability to challenges that is the true story of a century of development in western Canada.

These stories from the classroom show us what powerful teaching and learning really looks like. The story-tellers are highly qualified teachers, all of whom have achieved or are candidates for National Board Certification, and their tales have been woven into a compelling and moving narrative by expert teacher, trainer, and NBCT support provider Adrienne Mack-Kirschner. The stories invite us into our nation's classrooms, allowing us to witness essential learning moments in the lives of individual students and offering us examples of teaching and learning activities that are real, student centered, meaningful, and important. Bringing thematic unity to the stories are their links to the Five Core Propositions of accomplished teaching as defined by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The best of these stories transcend category, reaching all readers who think about and care about accomplished teaching and learning in today's classrooms.

How far will a father go to get back his only daughter? And how will he survive in a legal system that crushes those who can't afford to fight back? Mark Gillen has the storybook life other men dream of, complete with a beautiful wife and an adoring five-year-old daughter. Then his wife announces she s leaving him. And taking their daughter with her. The other man is a famous film director with unlimited funds and the keys to stardom and wealth for Paula. How can Mark begin to compete? But the most bitter blow comes when he is kept from seeing his daughter because of false charges . . . and a legal system ill-suited for finding the truth. Forged in the darkest valley Mark has ever walked through, his faith in God may ultimately cost him everything in the eyes of the family law system. But it is the one thing that can keep him sane---and give him the strength to fight against all odds for what matters most."