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Books > Fiction > True stories
"It didn't seem possible. Kitty Genovese had been viciously stabbed
to death in Kew Gardens on March 13, 1964, while her neighbors
heard her screams from their apartment windows and looked on
passively...Everyone from coast to coast, it seemed, including
President Lyndon Johnson, was weighing in on the failure of Kitty's
neighbors to respond to her screams for help. The incident opened
up a whole new phenomenon for students of social psychology to
explore and puzzle over: the Kitty Genovese syndrome."
'Combines elements of In Cold Blood and Black Hawk Down with
Apocalypse Now as it builds towards its terrible
climax...Extraordinary' New York Times Iraq's 'Triangle of Death',
2005. A platoon of young soldiers from a U.S. regiment known as
'the Black Heart Brigade' is deployed to a lawless and hyperviolent
area just south of Baghdad. Almost immediately, the attacks begin:
every day another roadside bomb, another colleague blown to pieces.
As the daily violence chips away, and chips away at their sanity,
the thirty-five young men of 1st Platoon, Bravo Company descend
into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality
-- with tragic results. Black Hearts is a timeless true story of
how modern warfare can make or break a man's character. Told with
severe compassion, balanced judgement and the magnetic pace of a
thriller, it looks set to become one of the defining books about
the Iraq War. 'Black Hearts is the obverse of Band of Brothers, a
story not of combat unity but of disharmony and disarray' Chicago
Sun-Times 'A riveting picture of life outside the wire in Iraq,
where "you tell a guy to go across a bridge, and within five
minutes he's dead."' Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Christmas is a time for joyful anticipation and celebration. Does
any creature manifest these attitudes better than a dog? Their
wagging tails and goofy smiles seem made for the season. Add in
breakable decorations, extra sweets in the house, and maybe a
little bit of snow and you've got a recipe for fun, laughter, and
togetherness. And that's just what you get with The Dog Who Came to
Christmas. This collection of true, feel-good holiday stories
celebrates the gift of dogs. It's the perfect companion for those
magical Christmas evenings in front of the fireplace with your
favorite canine companion. It also makes a heartfelt gift for
dog-loving friends. Contributors include Lauraine Snelling, Melody
Carlson, Amy Shojai, and many more.
The Sahara Desert, February 1962: the wreckage of a plane emerges
from the sands revealing, too, the body of the plane's long-dead
pilot. But who was he? And what had happened to him? Baker Street,
London, June 1927: twenty-five-year-old Jessie Miller had fled a
loveless marriage in Australia, longing for adventure in the London
of the Bright Young Things. At a gin-soaked party, she met Bill
Lancaster, fresh from the Royal Air force, his head full of a
scheme that would make him as famous as Charles Lindbergh, who has
just crossed the Atlantic. Lancaster wanted to fly three times as
far - from London to Melbourne - and in Jessie Miller he knew he
had found the perfect co-pilot. By the time they landed in
Melbourne, the daring aviators were a global sensation - and,
despite still being married to other people, deeply in love.
Keeping their affair a secret, they toured the world until the Wall
Street Crash changed everything; Bill and Jessie - like so many
others - were broke. And it was then, holed up in a run-down
mansion on the outskirts of Miami and desperate for cash, that
Jessie agreed to write a memoir. When a dashing ghostwriter Haden
Clark was despatched from New York, the toxic combination of the
handsome interloper, bootleg booze and jealousy led to a shocking
crime. The trial that followed put Jessie and Bill back on the
front pages and drove him to a reckless act of abandon to win it
all back. The Lost Pilots is their extraordinary story, brought to
vivid life by Corey Mead. Based on years of research and startling
new evidence, and full of adventure, forbidden passion, crime,
scandal and tragedy, it is a masterwork of narrative nonfiction
that firmly restores one of aviation's leading female pioneers to
her rightful place in history.
Henry Reid Farley is just twenty-eight years old on November 8,
1898, when he is elected Sheriff of Monterey County. Less than a
year later, Sheriff Farley lay in his grave. Now the citizens of
Salinas are out for revenge. Immediately after the sheriff's
murder, local gun stores open their doors in the dark of the night
to hand out weapons to several people intending to hunt down George
Suesser, the man responsible for the death of the youngest sheriff
ever in the history of the State of California. As cries for his
lynching echo throughout the streets of Salinas, Suesser is
discovered in a crawl space only eighteen inches wide deep in his
cellar. The angry citizens of Salinas demand swift justice. The
case against the accused is about to begin. Murder, Salinas Style:
Book Three shares a unique glimpse into the lives of both a
murderer and his victim while revealing the compelling history of a
California town, its citizens, and the violence that would become
its legacy.
The first book ever written about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by a
member of his personal staff-his former assistant, Paul
Letersky-offers unprecedented, "clear-eyed and compelling" (Mark
Olshaker, coauthor of Mindhunter) insight into an American legend.
The 1960s and 1970s were arguably among America's most turbulent
post-Civil War decades. While the Vietnam War continued seemingly
without end, protests and riots ravaged most cities, the Kennedys
and MLK were assassinated, and corruption found its way to the
highest levels of politics, culminating in Watergate. In 1965, at
the beginning of the chaos, twenty-two-year-old Paul Letersky was
assigned to assist the legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who'd
just turned seventy and had, by then, led the Bureau for an
incredible forty-one years. Hoover was a rare and complex man who
walked confidently among the most powerful. His personal privacy
was more tightly guarded than the secret "files" he carefully
collected-and that were so feared by politicians and celebrities.
Through Letersky's close working relationship with Hoover, and the
trust and confidence he gained from Hoover's most loyal senior
assistant, Helen Gandy, Paul became one of the few able to enter
the Director's secretive-and sometimes perilous-world. Since
Hoover's death half a century ago, millions of words have been
written about the man and hundreds of hours of TV dramas and A-list
Hollywood films produced. But until now, there has been virtually
no account from someone who, for a period of years, spent hours
with the Director on a daily basis. Balanced, honest, and keenly
observed, this "vivid, foibles-and-all portrait of the fabled
scourge of gangsters, Klansmen, and communists" (The Wall Street
Journal) sheds new light on one of the most powerful law
enforcement figures in American history.
Outlaw, gang member, and loving husband, Emmett Dalton remains a
significant figure in American Old West history. His scandalous
career of thievery included the ill-fated raid in Coffeyville,
Kansas. When the Dalton Gang attempted to rob two banks at once, a
deadly shootout ensued, leaving Emmett Dalton with more than twenty
gunshot wounds and a life sentence in the Kansas State
Penitentiary. This autobiography describes Dalton's everyday life
as an outlaw. In it, he recalls such adolescent memories as hearing
stories of the Younger gang, his first train robbery and feelings
of exultation, visiting his mother, and courting Julia Johnson-the
woman who would one day become his wife. Dalton also details the
preparations taken for the Coffeyville raid and the suspense that
hung in the air as they rode into town, revealing the gang's final
moments. In addition to presenting Emmett Dalton's accounts, this
pictorial memoir includes a foreword by Dalton authority Kith
Presland, who provides a peek into the mind of an outlaw.
The Mail and Guardian bedside book once again selects the best of
the paper's features over the last year to bring you an
unparalleled snapshot of South Africa (and Africa) in cross-section
- from Happy Sindane to Idi Amin, Ventersdorp to Luanda (via
Hollywood), in the company of the best journalists in the country.
The paper tackles the burning issues of the day - the Aids debate,
the oil scandal, and the question of whatever happened to Jimmy
Abbott. It pays tribute to giants of the struggle such as Nelson
Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and visits a big fat Afrikaner wedding.
Walapai (Hualapai), a language of the Yuman group (Hokan stock), is
spoken in Northern Arizona. The volume contains texts of various
genres - mythical tales, stories from everyday life, oral histories
- which were collected by the author in the late '50s and early
'60s. As in the case of Winter's earlier publications, the texts
are presented in a morphologically analyzed form and are provided
with full translations.
Shortlisted in Scotland's National Book Awards By the time she
reached her fifties, Catherine had experienced period pain,
childbirth, and early menopause, alongside love and laughter, a
career in journalism, and raising two daughters. Like many of her
peers, along the way she'd dieted, jogged, sweated, tanned, permed,
and plucked-always attempting to conform to prevailing standards of
"acceptable womanhood." But when a medical crisis comes along, she
can no longer pummel her body into submission and is forced to take
stock. From growing up on a farm where veterinarians were more
common than doctors, and where illness was "a nuisance," she now
faces the nuisance of a lifetime. One Body is the demystifying,
relatable, often hilarious, and sometimes hair-raising story of how
Catherine navigates her treatment and the emotions and reflections
it provokes. And how she comes to drop the unattainable standards
imposed on her body, and simply appreciate the skin she is in.
Many of the most famous escapes in history took place during the
Second World War. These daring flights from Nazi-occupied Europe
would never have been possible but for the assistance of a hitherto
secret British service: MI9. This small, dedicated and endlessly
inventive team gave hope to the men who had fallen into enemy
hands, and aid to resistance fighters in occupied territory. It
sent money, maps, clothes, compasses, even hacksaws - and in return
coded letters from the prisoner-of-war camps and provided
invaluable news of what was happening in the enemy's homeland.
Understaffed and under-resourced, MI9 nonetheless made a terrific
contribution to the Allied war effort. First published in 1979,
this book tells the full, inside story of an extraordinary
organisation.
A little girl is smuggled out of a Jewish ghetto. Two courageous
women. And an inspirational story of survival. In 1941 at the
height of World War II, in a Polish ghetto, a baby girl named
Rachel is born. Her parents, Jacob and Zippa, are willing to do
anything to keep her alive. They nickname her Lalechka. Just before
Lalechka's first birthday, the Nazis begin to systematically murder
everyone in the ghetto. Her father understands that staying in the
ghetto will mean certain death for his child. In both desperation
and hope, Lalechka's parents decide to save their daughter, no
matter the cost. Zippa smuggles her outside the boundaries of the
ghetto where her Polish friends, Irena and Sophia, are waiting. She
entrusts their beloved Lalechka to them and returns to the ghetto
to remain with her husband and parents - unaware of the fate that
awaits her. Irena and Sophia take on the burden of caring for
Lalechka during the war, pretending she is part of their family
despite the grave danger of being discovered and executed.
Holocaust Child is based on the unique journal written by Zippa
during the annihilation of the ghetto, as well as on interviews
with key figures in the story, rare documents, and authentic
letters. It is a story of hope in the face of terror.
Discover how $55 million in cryptocurrency vanished in one of the
most bizarre thefts in history Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story
of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All
tells the astonishing tale of the disappearance of $55 million
worth of the cryptocurrency ether in June 2016. It also chronicles
the creation of the Ethereum blockchain from the mind of inventor
Vitalik Buterin to the ragtag group of people he assembled around
him to build the second-largest crypto universe after Bitcoin.
Celebrated journalist and author Matthew Leising tells the full
story of one of the most incredible chapters in cryptocurrency
history. He covers the aftermath of the heist as well, explaining
the extreme lengths the victims of the theft and the creators of
Ethereum went to in order to try and limit the damage. The book
covers: The creation of Ethereum An explanation of the nature of
blockchain and cryptocurrency The activities of a colorful cast of
hackers, coders, investors, and thieves Perfect for anyone with
even a passing interest in the world of modern fintech or daring
electronic heists, Out of the Ether is a story of genius and greed
that's so incredible you may just choose not to believe it.
A Times Political Book of the Year 2022 A powerful and revelatory
eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its
desperate endgame, and the war's echoing legacy. Elliot Ackerman
left the American military ten years ago, but his time in
Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and, later, as a CIA
paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began
to close in on Kabul in August of 2021 and the Afghan regime began
its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict.
The official evacuation process was a bureaucratic failure that led
to a humanitarian catastrophe. Ackerman was drawn into an impromptu
effort to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and
American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These
were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's
longest war, but the success they achieved afforded a degree of
redemption: and, for Ackerman, a chance to reconcile his past with
his present. The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that
brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week
at its bitter end. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as
his lattice, Ackerman weaves in a personal history of the war's
long progress, beginning with the initial invasion in the months
after 9/11. It is a play in five acts with a tragic denouement. Any
reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war's
trajectory will find a trenchant accounting here. And yet The Fifth
Act is not an exercise in finger-pointing: it brings readers into
close contact with a remarkable group of characters, who fought the
war with courage and dedication, in good faith and at great
personal cost. Understanding combatants' experiences and sacrifices
demands reservoirs of wisdom and the gifts of an extraordinary
storyteller. In Elliot Ackerman, this story has found that
author.The Fifth Act is a first draft of history that feels like a
timeless classic.
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A Small Place
(Paperback)
Jamaica Kincaid; Preface by Jamaica Kincaid
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R291
R235
Discovery Miles 2 350
Save R56 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Antigua--a ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies and the author's birthplace--is the setting of a lyrical, sardonic, and forthright essay that offers an insider's eye-opening view of the lives and ways of her people.
Speak truth to power presents inspiring stories of courage by
remarkable men and women from nearly 40 countries. In searing
interviews conducted by noted activist Kerry Kennedy and with
incisive portraits by photographer Eddie Adams, these heroes speak
of their individual struggles on a variety of issues: from free
expression to children at war, from environmental activism to
religious self-determination, from sexual slavery to minority
rights. A play by the celebrated novelist Ariel Dorfman accompanies
the project and has been performed to acclaim in nine countries and
twenty major cities; an exhibition of photographs tours
internationally, and an educational curriculum for schools is
available in partnership with Amnesty International/USA and other
organizations.
A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington
Post bestseller. #1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen's
shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters
determined to survive their mother's house of horrors. After more
than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the
word mom, it claws like an eagle's talons, triggering memories that
have been their secret since childhood. Until now. For years,
behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington,
their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable
abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all,
Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far
less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn
into their mother's dark and perverse web, the sisters found the
strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that
culminated in multiple murders. Harrowing and heartrending, If You
Tell is a survivor's story of absolute evil-and the freedom and
justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for.
Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the
darkness that made them the resilient women they are today-loving,
loved, and moving on.
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