'I stood up. A miracle had happened. I could walk. It was as if I was born again.' With a heart full of prayer, Marion Carroll journeyed to Knock in the west of Ireland. For 17 years, Multiple Sclerosis had ravaged her body so utterly that this reluctant pilgrim travelled on a stretcher. Then, at the Mass, an unimaginable miracle. Marion rose, pain-free, to walk, talk and see once more. Thanks to this wondrous blessing, Marion has transformed - in her 'own small way' - the lives of countless others. Her ministries share her rock-like faith and devotion to God. They testify to the power of ordinary people to listen, to care, to inspire. Nearly 30 years later, the Catholic Church officially recognised Marion's cure as a proclaimed miracle. Here, with warmth, grace, humility - and down-to-earth Irish humour - she tells of her life 'before' and 'after'. Marion's powerful, uplifting story is unique. It shines a light on love, hope and a remarkable relationship with God.

'Callaghan's portrayal of a city under siege is many-layered and brilliantly told' Sunday Times Iraq, 2014As ISIS laid terrible siege to Mosul, a zoo on the eastern edge of the Tigris was kept open against all odds. Under the stern hand of the zookeeper Abu Laith, whose name - loosely translated - means Father of Lions, its animals faced not only years of occupation, but starvation and bombardment by the liberating forces. Father of Lions is the story of Mosul Zoo: of resilience and human decency in the midst of barbarism. 'Father of Lions captures, with heartbreaking poignancy, the human cost of these conflicts' Josie Ensor, Middle East Correspondent for the Daily Telegraphy 'Through the story of a man who loves both lions and life, Louise Callaghan shows how humour and defiance can counter cruelty' Lindsey Hilsum, author of In Extremis

Over 16 million copies sold worldwide 'One of the most remarkable books I have ever read' Susan Jeffers One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.

The First International Bank of Grenada will go down in history as one of the biggest banking swindles of all time. Aided and abetted by a corrupt government, Van Brink and his satraps lured hundreds of innocent investors to place their savings in a bank he claimed "had a vision." With evangelical zeal he preached the gospel of his bank, playing upon the religious and charitable aspect but also promising outlandish returns on investments.

From Oregon to Nauru, to Grenada, to Uganda, Van Brink left a trail of financial misery behind him.

"One Big Fib" is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the shady world of offshore banking.

Teachers are the vital life bloods of our school, inspiring, nurturing and motivating their students. Never has this been more evident than during the Covid-19 pandemic, where teachers have risked their own health and wellbeing to ensure that no child was left behind, either face to face or online. Yet teachers do not live at school. They have rich and exciting lives that their students may know nothing about. This book explores the human side to educators, by revealing their experiences and their personal stories; what has made them into the teachers they are today. From the tragic to the exciting, teachers have such amazing stories to share and their passion and commitment shines out from every page. With contributions from a daughter of the teacher who lost her life at Dunblane to the first black head teacher in Inner London Yvonne Connolly as well as the amazing Rita Pierson from the US who has inspired so many teachers. By reading their stories we can appreciate how extraordinary their lives and their contributions to education are. With contributions from Kierna Corr, Kyle Kiser, Marco Cimino, Toni Charlesworth, Ash Lucas, Julie Cassiano, Drew Povey, Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Brett Bigham, Allen Tsui, Michelle Alker, Dan Whittaker, FreakyHoody, Natalie Scott, Adam Henze, Jess Mahdavi-Gladwell, Luke Haisell, Lesley Douglas, Gwen Mayor, Debbie Buchanan, Maureen McDevitt, James Atkin, Katherine Birbalsingh, Hugh Ogilvie, Victoria Hewett, Penny Rabiger, Joe Gibbs, Helena Jockel, Yolana Wassersug, Caroline Riggs, Rachael Maddocks, Christine Owen, Sue Rogers, Kate McAllister, John Clifford, Dan Morrow, Rita Pierson, Sarah Dearden, Caroline Spalding and Mathew Milburn.

The riveting New York Times bestseller by award-winning columnist Howie Carr--now with a stunning new afterword detailing Whitey Bulger's capture. For years their familiar story was of two siblings who took different paths out of South Boston: William "Billy" Bulger, former president of the Massachusetts State Senate; and his brother James "Whitey" Bulger, a vicious criminal who became the FBI's second most-wanted man after Osama Bin Laden. While Billy cavorted with the state's blue bloods to become a powerful political force, Whitey blazed a murderous trail to the top rung of organized crime. Now, in this compelling narrative, Carr uncovers a sinister world of FBI turncoats, alliances between various branches of organized crime, St. Patrick's Day shenanigans, political infighting, and the complex relationship between two brothers who were at one time kings. As the film Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, hits theaters, take a deeper dive into the story of the Bulgers, and their fifty-year reign over Boston with Howie Carr's The Brother's Bulger.

No reader of this book will be more surprised than was the public by the truly bizarre beliefs and benthic depths of the evil (the Supreme Court s repeated word, evil) encountered in this longest murder investigation in Pennsylvania s history thirteen years. Over fifty state troopers, eighteen FBI agents, and numerous local police departments were involved as this longest investigation began when the naked body of Susan Reinert was found, obviously sexually abused, a strap-on sexual device lying near her corpse. Her body was found stuffed in the tire well of her Plymouth Horizon and left with the liftgate open. A midthirties female, just five feet tall, round hips that resembled a glistening white soccer ball, according to witnesses that passed by the open liftgate, not knowing it was a corpse. Susan Reinert was a teacher in the English department in the elite, upper-middle class, Upper Merion Senior High School, located fifteen miles north of Philadelphia. In that same English department was William Bradfield Jr. a six-foot-three, former Haverford College wrestler from a Main Line family; his father, was the vice president of Western Electric. As the head of the teachers union, Bradfield wielded power that he was not afraid to use to protect his fellow teachers and to sexually exploit those that appealed to him. He developed a small cult of three other teachers in the English department, and an eighteen-year-old beauty, prom-queen type, high school student from one his classes. The cult was called the VAMPZ, Valaitis and Pappas, males, the other three females all three servicing Bradfield every which way a female could. Bradfield was a close friend of the famous poet Ezra Pound from whom he absorbed a weird psychological viewpoint developed by a famous Frenchman, named Remy de Gourmant. After studying corpses, de Gourmont deduced that the brain fluid was related to the semen. Ejaculation of semen produced stimulation of the brain fluid, which produced increased creativity according to de Gourmont Suffice it to say Bradfield, driven to be creative, became very promiscuous, and, with his position as teachers union president, helped many single women and men. Yes, men too, a strap-on works on both sexes. Bradfield, a strapping hunk, was able to and strapped all he could from eighteen to eighty. If they had trouble walking, he d carry them. Susan Reinert tried to stop Bradfield s promiscuity with her required marriage plan plus an inheritance of close to a million dollars, a nice bundle along with her body. He decided to do away with the body and keep Susan Reinert s inheritance, blaming the high school principal, Jay Smith, for Reinert s murder and the murder of her two children. Enter the justice people, Pennsylvania s Attorney General and Pennsylvania State Police detectives. After Susan Reinert s body was found, they also found Bradfield s sexual involvement with Susan Reinert that he tried to deny and to cover up. With all the publicity that surrounded the murders of Reinert and her two children, including New York and California, plus the sex angle and strange sex philosophy, famous cop-books author, Joseph Wambaugh, got interested and came to the King of Prussia-Valley Forge area to write the story called the Main Line Sex Murders by some, the Valley Forge Murders by others. Wambaugh met secretly with the investigators and promised them money, $50,000 plus hero parts, provided they arrested Principal Jay Smith as well as Bradfield for the murders. Without Jay Smith, there would be no story. No book. No movie. No moola. The detectives framed Smith so they could get the money and so the book would be written. The frame-up of Principal Jay Smith was hidden for twelve years. Also hidden was the secret Wambaugh Agreement involving the investigators. At a sensational hearing before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the details were thrashed out between Smith s attorney and the attorneys

Their crimes span the globe but one thing unites them: they are sixteen of the twentieth century's most notorious serial killers.

In this well-researched volume, find out their motives and what made them tick. Walk the path of investigators who broke cases and listen to the words spoken from the killers mouth.

All of them made their communities tremble in fear. They include:

● Johann Otto Hoch, who moved to America from Germany in the 1890s and married a string of women. Instead of being the man of their dreams, he became their worst nightmare.

● Fritz Haarmann, "The Vampire of Hanover," killed dozens of young male vagrants and prostitutes from 1919 to 1924 in Germany.

● Bla Kiss, a Hungarian serial killer, killed young women and tried pickling them in giant metal drums.

● Robert Hansen, who began killing prostitutes in Alaska around 1980. He'd let them flee in the wilderness before hunting them down with a knife and rifle.

Learn about these and other serial killers. Find out what motivated them to lead such horrible lives and how they were finally brought to justice in "Depravity: A Narrative of 16 Serial Killers."

AUTHOR BIO:
Dr. Harvey Rosenfeld is an English professor at City University of New York and Pace University. He has written several books and is the founding editor of Martyrdom and Resistance, a bimonthly that focuses on the Holocaust, which he served as editor for more than three decades.

When Lynda Lustig met Louie Milito, she was a sixteen-year-old high-school dropout with a taste for adventure and an agonizing childhood. When they were married two years later, he was not yet a "made man" in the powerful Gambino crime family. Louie was a hairdresser who dabbled in petty thievery. But Lynda was so happy to be out of her domineering mother's loveless house. And over the years, she was willing to forgive her husband for anything: his violent rages, his frequent absences, his shady associates, and the blood on his hands. For twenty-four years Lynda Milito remained loyal to this charming and dangerous criminal -- her children's father and close friend of crime boss John Gotti and underboss Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. But in 1988, Louie Milito disappeared, murdered by the very people he had always trusted to protect him.

A crime story, a family story, a love story, "Mafia Wife" is the shockingly intimate, brutally honest tale of a survivor -- and of the life she lived in the dark bosom of the underworld.

My friend Sue and I had spent so much time together we felt like sisters. We had made so many plans for our future, as young girls do. We would graduate from school, get married, have a career, children and we would be lifelong friends sharing those moments together. Part of that dream had already come true. Sue was a year older than myself. I went to her graduation and was so proud of her. She had just got an apartment with her boyfriend. I was halfway through my senior year. We went Christmas shopping at the mall. But by January 16, 1980, my friend Sue went missing. When I graduated Sue wasn't there. Then I got my first apartment, still no Sue. I would hear nothing about what happened to Sue for 15 years. Now I will try to fill in the blanks that I have learned over the years. And the surprising shocker after 33 years. Because of the sensitive nature of this book I will be using the pen name Crystal Clary. Since most of the information that I'm sharing with you was unknown to me at the time I decided to write this book in Omniscient: so you as the reader will be able to see all and know all.

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.

This eye-opening book uses the case of Ted Bundy to show how a case against a serial killer is investigated, how problems common to such cases are overcome, and how the prosecution team marshals and presents the evidence at trial. The Last Murder: The Investigation, Prosecution, and Execution of Ted Bundy follows the facts and circumstances of Kim Leach's disappearance and the investigation and prosecution of Ted Bundy in rough chronological order, from Bundy's escape from a Colorado jail in 1977 to his execution at Florida State Prison in 1989. It provides an inside look at the intricacies and complications of this historic case that spanned many states and jurisdictions, documenting how unselfishness and dogged determination were key to solving the case. The story is told from the vantage point of one intimately involved in both the investigation and prosecution of the criminal, clearly showing how friction between agencies can impede the investigation and how cooperation can expedite a solution. The book emphasizes the important role played by circumstantial evidence and forensic science, explores the impact of pervasive publicity upon such an investigation, critiques the investigation and prosecution of Bundy, and offers suggestions on how-and how not-to deal with "celebrity killers" in the future. Major figures in the investigation and prosecution vetted the descriptions of events in which they were involved Extensive newspaper clippings, the prosecution trial brief, the FDLE case file, and portions of the actual trial transcript served as sources of reference for the book Illustrated with photographs of evidence, crime scene diagrams, and charts demonstrating the relationship of various items of evidence

The first full account of the Slenderman stabbing, a true crime narrative of mental illness, the American judicial system, the trials of adolescence, and the power of the internetOn May 31, 2014, in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, two twelve-year-old girls attempted to stab their classmate to death. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier's violence was extreme, but what seemed even more frightening was that they committed their crime under the influence of a figure born by the internet: the so-called "Slenderman." Yet the even more urgent aspect of the story, that the children involved suffered from undiagnosed mental illnesses, often went overlooked in coverage of the case.Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls tells that full story for the first time in deeply researched detail, using court transcripts, police reports, individual reporting, and exclusive interviews. Morgan and Anissa were bound together by their shared love of geeky television shows and animals, and their discovery of the user-uploaded scary stories on the Creepypasta website could have been nothing more than a brief phase. But Morgan was suffering from early-onset childhood schizophrenia. She believed that she had seen Slenderman long before discovering him online, and the only way to stop him from killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice: Morgan's best friend Payton "Bella" Leutner, whom Morgan and Anissa planned to stab to death on the night of Morgan's twelfth birthday party. Bella survived the attack, but was deeply traumatized, while Morgan and Anissa were immediately sent to jail, and the severity of their crime meant that they would be prosecuted as adults. There, as Morgan continued to suffer from worsening mental illness after being denied antipsychotics, her life became more and more surreal.Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime story and a search for justice.

Trailblazer, superstar, activist, and spy: Alice Marble was a true American icon.

At seventeen, Alice Marble has no formal tennis skills and no coach. What she does have is an ability to hit the ball as hard as she can and a strong desire to prove herself. With steadfast determination and one sacrifice after another, Alice plays her heart out on the courts of the rich and famous, at national tournaments, and—the greatest of them all—at Wimbledon, rising to be one of the top-ranked players in the world.

But then her world falls apart.

With the outbreak of war with Germany, Alice’s tennis career and life come to a screeching halt, and for the first time, she is forced to confront who she is without tennis. As she seeks to understand her new place in the world and how she can aid in the war efforts, a telegram arrives with devastating news from overseas. Heartbroken and lost, she feels like she can only watch as the war wreaks havoc in every area of her life.

Alice is given the chance to fight back when the US Army sends her a request: Under the guise of playing in tennis exhibition games in Switzerland, she would be a spy for them. Alice aches for nothing more than to avenge what the war has taken from her and to prove herself against this new opponent. But what awaits her might be her greatest challenge yet.

From her start as a promising athlete with worn-out shoes to her status as a glamorous international star, Alice Marble’s determination to control her own life and destiny fuels a story of achievement, discipline, loss, and love.

Jenni L. Walsh’s Ace, Marvel, Spy brilliantly showcases the life of Alice Marble, a real-life tennis sensation known for her extraordinary talent and indomitable spirit. This fast-paced and action-packed historical novel spans multiple international settings and is enhanced by discussion questions that prompt readers to reflect on Alice’s challenges and triumphs, making it an ideal choice for book clubs.