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Books > Fiction > True stories
'Light is in us even if we have no eyes.' It is a rare man who can
maintain a love of life through the infirmity of blindness, the
terrors of war, and the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. Such
a man was Jacques Lusseyran, a French underground resistance leader
during the Second World War. This book is his compelling and moving
autobiography. Jacques Lusseyran lost his sight in an accident when
he was eight years old. At the age of sixteen, he formed a
resistance group with his schoolfriends in Nazi-occupied France.
Gradually the small resistance circle of boys widened, cell by
cell. In a fascinating scene, the author tells of interviewing
prospective underground recruits, 'seeing' them by means of their
voices, and in this way weeding out early the weak and the
traitorous. Eventually Jacques and his comrades were betrayed to
the Germans and interrogated by the Gestapo. After a fifteen month
incarceration in Buchenwald, the author was one of thirty to
survive from an initial shipment of two thousand.
Lawman or outlaw? Black-hatted "villains" and white-hatted "good
guys" of the Old West walk the streets of our imagination.
Hollywood draws a convenient line in the Western dirt,
differentiating between the two. But in reality, at times it was
difficult, if not impossible to distinguish who was who. Shadowy
faces roamed the West. When Outlaws Wore Badges explores the world
of lawman and outlaw wrapped into one person. At times the badge
speaks, other times-the gun. Living in the Old West was not easy.
Often, law and justice were left behind in the east, when men
migrated to the open lands of the West. Some men took advantage of
fluid regulations while others found themselves helping to invent
and enforce law and order. A few men did both.
'Extremely compelling' - THE GUARDIAN 'It's a fascinating read...
Buy the book! Buy the book!' - JO GOOD, BBC RADIO LONDON
'Searing... funny, eloquent and honest' - PSYCHOLOGIES
'Remarkable... I hope this book finds a wide readership' -
WASHINGTON POST 'A beautifully-rendered memoir' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'Often as chilling as Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, but also full of
so much inner and external turbulence that it reminded me at times
of The Bourne Identity and Memento. Readers will root for Lily,
even when she is attempting to run away from the realities and
sometimes authorities chasing her.' - HUFFPOST UK 'A harrowingly
honest memoir' - KIRKUS REVIEWS' Because We Are Bad is an
emotional, challenging read. Lily takes us deep into the heart of
the illness but she is also a deft writer, and even the darkest
moments are peppered with wit and wry observations.' - JAMES LLOYD,
OCD-UK As a child, Lily Bailey knew she was bad. By the age of 13,
she had killed someone with a thought, spread untold disease, and
spied upon her classmates. Only by performing a series of secret
routines could she correct her wrongdoing. But it was never enough.
She had a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and it came
with a bizarre twist. This true story lights up the workings of the
mind like Mark Haddon or Matt Haig. Anyone who wants to know about
OCD, and how to fight back, should read this book. It is ideal for
anyone who liked books by fellow OCD sufferers Bryony Gordon (Mad
Girl, Glorious Rock Bottom), Rose Cartwright (Pure), and David Adam
(The Man Who Couldn't Stop: The Truth About OCD). EXTRACT Chapter
1: Chesbury Hospital From the outside, Chesbury Hospital in London
looks like a castle that got lost and was plonked down in the wrong
place. It is long and white, with battlements and arched windows
from which princesses could call down, in the chapter before they
are saved. But it's not entirely believable. Where the portcullis
should be, there are giant glass doors. Walk through them, and you
could be in a five-star hotel. The man at reception wears a suit
and tie and asks if he can help, like he's going to book you a
table. A glass cupboard showcases the gifts sold by reception: bath
oils, rejuvenating face cream, and Green & Black's chocolate,
just in case you arrive empty-handed to see a crazy relative and
need an icebreaker. The walls, lampshades, window fittings, and
radiators are all a similar, unnameable colour, somewhere between
brown, yellow, and cream. A looping gold chandelier is suspended by
a heavy chain; the fireplace has marble columns. The members of
staff have busy, preoccupied faces-until they come close to you,
when their mouths break into wide, fixed smiles. Compared with the
Harley Street clinic, there is a superior choice of herbal teas.
When the police arrived after the escape, Mum cried a lot; then she
shouted. Now she has assumed a sense of British resolve. She
queries: 'Wild Jasmine, Purple Rose, or Earl Grey?' A nurse checks
through my bag, which has been lugged upstairs. She takes the razor
(fair enough), tweezers (sort of fair enough), a bottle of Baileys
lying forgotten in the handbag (definitely fair enough), and
headphones (definitely not fair enough). There would never be a
hanging: far too much mess. The observation room is next to the
nurses' station; they keep you there until you are no longer a risk
to yourself. It is 10th January, 2013, and I am 19. ABOUT THE
WRITER Lily Bailey is a model, writer, and mental health
campaigner. As a child and teenager, Lily suffered from severe
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). She kept her illness private,
until the widespread misunderstanding of the disorder spurred her
into action. She began campaigning for better awareness and
understanding of OCD, and has tried to stop companies making
products that trivialise the illness.
During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century a growing
number of ordinary citizens had the feeling that all was not as it
should be. Men who were making money made prodigious amounts, but
this new wealth somehow passed over the heads of the common people.
As this new breed of journalists began to examine their subjects
with scrutiny, they soon discovered that those individuals were
essentially "simple men of extraordinary boldness." And it was easy
to understand how they were able to accomplish their sinister
purposes: "at first abruptly and bluntly, by asking and giving no
quarter, and later with the same old determination and ruthlessness
but with educated satellites who were glad to explain and idealize
their behavior."[i] "Nothing is lost save honor," said one infamous
buccaneer, and that was an attitude that governed the amoral
principles and extralegal actions of many audacious scoundrels.
Relying on secondary sources, magazine and newspaper articles, and
personal accounts from those involved, this volume captures some of
the sensational true stories that took place in the western United
States during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. The
theme that runs through each of the stories is the general contempt
for the law that seemed to pervade the culture at the time and the
consuming desire to acquire wealth at any cost-what Geoffrey C.
Ward has called "the disposition to be rich."
------------------------------------------------------------ End
Notes Introduction [i]Louis Filler, Crusaders for American
Liberalism (Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch Press, 1964), 14.
In the digital era, the Internet has evolved into a ubiquitous
aspect of modern society. With the prominence of the Dark Web,
understanding the components of the Internet and its available
content has become increasingly imperative. The Dark Web:
Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is an innovative reference
source for the latest scholarly material on the capabilities,
trends, and developments surrounding the secrecy of the Dark Web.
Highlighting a broad range of perspectives on topics such as cyber
crime, online behavior, and hacking, this book is an ideal resource
for researchers, academics, graduate students, and professionals
interested in the Dark Web.
Now a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp A New York Times
Bestseller A Boston Globe Bestseller An ABA Indie Bestseller James
Whitey" Bulger became one of the most ruthless gangsters in US
history, and all because of an unholy deal he made with a childhood
friend. John Connolly a rising star in the Boston FBI office,
offered Bulger protection in return for helping the Feds eliminate
Boston's Italian mafia. But no one offered Boston protection from
Whitey Bulger, who, in a blizzard of gangland killings, took over
the city's drug trade. Whitey's deal with Connolly's FBI spiraled
out of control to become the biggest informant scandal in FBI
history. Black Mass is a New York Times and Boston Globe
bestseller, written by two former reporters who were on the case
from the beginning. It is an epic story of violence, double-cross,
and corruption at the centre of which are the black hearts of two
old friends whose lives unfolded in the darkness of permanent
midnight.
On the face of it, author Tim Daly was an unlikely candidate for
undercover agent. Not only had he lived in America for less than a
decade, but his strong Scottish accent was unintelligible to many
Americans. At age fiftythree, he should have been looking forward
to a peaceful retirement rather than a dangerous new career. But
when they approached him in 1985, US Customs knew that what he
lacked in youth, he more than made up for in experience.
In "The British Connection," Daly, a seasoned sailor, provides a
firsthand account of the extremely murky underworld of drug deals
in a variety of places, including Florida, the Cayman Islands,
Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Belize, and Venezuela as he worked as an
undercover agent for five years to help bust Central and South
American drug cartels. His detailed story tells how he played a
major role in operations involving thousands of kilos of cocaine
and thousands of pounds of marijuana. Daly recalls hobnobbing with
Colombian racketeers, setting up deals with Cubans in Miami and
elsewhere, meeting with senior members of the Medellin and Cali
Cartels in their own countries-and living to tell about it.
More than a thrilling memoir of action and adventure, "The
British Connection "exposes the chaos and treachery behind the war
on drugs from a man who transported drugs around the Carribean and
Latin America and mixed with the world's most powerful and ruthless
criminals.
On November 21, 1992, Thomas Monfils, an employee at the James
River paper mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, disappeared. After an
intensive search, his body was found the next evening, submerged in
a pulp vat. The police called it murder. In 1995, six of Monfils'
coworkers were wrongfully convicted of his death, the result of a
preordained theory and a reckless prosecution.
Highly detailed and meticulously researched, "The Monfils
Conspiracy" reveals the true story of a botched case that landed
six innocent men in prison. Through extensive interviews, court
documents, police reports, and other documentation, Denis
Gullickson and John Gaie present a powerful look at the troubling
events surrounding the death of Thomas Monfils and the
mistake-riddled investigation that followed.
Gullickson and Gaie trace the futile twenty-nine month
investigation between the time of Monfils' death and the
conviction, one pock-marked with dead end leads and overlooked
evidence. Using solid facts, they lay bare the weaknesses,
inconsistencies, and secrets in the prosecution's case and the
jury's erroneous rush to judgment. As recently as 2001, a federal
judge ordered the release of one of the men, citing a lack of
evidence, and further suggesting the original proof as unsound.
Fifteen years after Monfils' death and a dozen years after his
coworkers' convictions, "The Monfils Conspiracy" shatters the myths
surrounding this case and opens the door to justice-and the
truth.
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