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On the Line: Life – and death – in the Metropolitan Police
by Alice Vinten'A warts-and-all memoir of an ex-cop from probationer days on. Fascinating' IAN RANKIN'A humane but unflinching look at the sharp end of contemporary policing' LUKE JENNINGS'I loved this book. Gritty and gripping, moving and shocking, this brilliant police memoir shows that life on the force really is different for girls' ERIN KELLY Welcome to London. Population: 8.7 million. And it's your job to keep them safe. A no-holds-barred account of life on the front line of policing, On the Line follows PC Alice Hearn throughout ten years in the Met, from rookie to constable. As she deals with violent criminals, heart-breaking domestic situations, petty crime, life, death, and everything in between, she builds up a portrait of a living, complex city, and what it means to look after it.'COMPELLING' Sunday Express 'EXTRAORDINARY' Mail on Sunday'I've never read such an authentic and interesting account of what it's like to be a female police officer' LOUISE VOSS'Deeply moving and inspiring' JANE CASEY'Alice Vinten is the real deal - all the thrills of a crime novel, only true' MEL MCGRATH 'Heartbreaking, funny and, most of all, honest' LISA CUTTS 'Compelling, honest and moving' LAURA WILSON
On the List: Fixing America's Failing Organ Transplant System
by Steve Farber Harlan AbrahamsTwo families came together in the waiting room of a Denver hospital on May 11, 2004, to await kidney transplants for loved ones. In the first operation, Gregg Farber, 32, a real estate executive, donated a kidney to his father, Steve, a 60-year-old Denver lawyer and power broker. In the second, Guatemalan refugee and landscaper Ernesto Delaroca, also 32, donated a kidney to his sister Sandra, 19, a restaurant worker. The stories of how the Farber and Delaroca families made their separate journeys to the operating room offers insight into the hazards and inequities of a cobbled-together system that each year leaves more than 98,000 gravely ill Americans on the waiting list for a life-saving transplant. Steve Farber's experience inspired him to write On the List with Harlan Abrahams. They examine the ethical, legal, political, and economic debates over organ transplant policies, expose the gray market for transplants in Third World countries, and propose solutions to one of the world's most pressing health issues. An informative and inspiring guide to those who face transplant operations, the book is also a call to reform a system that is truly, and fatally, flawed.
On the Meaning of Sex
by J. BudziszewskiWhat is the meaning of sex?Our society is obsessed with sex--and yet we don't understand it at all. Acclaimed philosopher J. Budziszewski remedies the problem in this wise, gracefully written book about the nature, meaning, and mysteries of sexuality. On the Meaning of Sex corrects the most prevalent errors about sex--particularly those of the sexual revolution, which by mistaking pleasure for a good in itself has caused untold pain and suffering.
On the Mound with...Curt Schilling (Matt Christopher)
by Matt Christopher Glenn StoutCurt Schilling has built his pitching career with three Major League Baseball teamst the Philadelphia Philies, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Boston Red Sox. Yet, he wasn't always considered major league material. Born with the natural ability to throw a screaming fastball. Schilling assumed he could ride his talent to the big leagues. But after a few years ping-ponging between the minors and the majors and from one team to another, Schilling realized that if he was going to succeed in baseball, he needed to change his attitude. And he did just that, with dramatically improved performances over the past several seasons. Schilling has become one of the most commanding and respected hurlers in the game. This exciting biography traces the life of one of baseball's superstars. For more information on the Matt Christopher Sports Bio Bookshelf, please turn to the last pages of this book.
On the Mound with...Greg Maddux: On the Mound with...
by Matthew F ChristopherProvides a fact-filled biography of Greg Maddux, covering the baseball superstar's life as a pitcher, his character as a player, and the special achievements of his career, such as winning four Cy Young Awards and six Gold Glove Awards.
On the Move
by Oliver SacksAn impassioned, tender, and joyous memoir by the author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: "Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far." It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life. With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions--weight lifting and swimming--also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists--Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick--who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer--and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.
On the Move: A Life
by Oliver SacksWhen Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: “Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far.” It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction, and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life.<P><P> With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions—weight lifting and swimming—also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists—Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick—who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer—and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.
On the Move: A Life
by Oliver SacksWhen Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: "Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far." It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction, and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life.With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions--weight lifting and swimming--also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists--Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick--who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer--and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.From the Hardcover edition.
On the Noodle Road
by Jen Lin-LiuA food writer travels the Silk Road, immersing herself in a moveable feast of foods and cultures and discovering some surprising truths about commitment, independence, and love. Feasting her way through an Italian honeymoon, Jen Lin-Liu was struck by culinary echoes of the delicacies she ate and cooked back in China, where she'd lived for more than a decade. Who really invented the noodle? she wondered, like many before her. But also: How had food and culture moved along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route linking Asia to Europe--and what could still be felt of those long-ago migrations? With her new husband's blessing, she set out to discover the connections, both historical and personal, eating a path through western China and on into Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, and across the Mediterranean. The journey takes Lin-Liu into the private kitchens where the headscarves come off and women not only knead and simmer but also confess and confide. The thin rounds of dough stuffed with meat that are dumplings in Beijing evolve into manti in Turkey--their tiny size the measure of a bride's worth--and end as tortellini in Italy. And as she stirs and samples, listening to the women talk about their lives and longings, Lin-Liu gains a new appreciation of her own marriage, learning to savor the sweetness of love freely chosen.
On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory
by Thomas HertogStephen Hawking&’s closest collaborator offers the intellectual superstar&’s final thoughts on the cosmos—a dramatic revision of the theory he put forward in A Brief History of Time.&“This superbly written book offers insight into an extraordinary individual, the creative process, and the scope and limits of our current understanding of the cosmos.&”—Lord Martin ReesPerhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. In order to solve this mystery, Hawking studied the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the math predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse—countless different universes, most of which would be far too bizarre to harbor life. Holed up in the theoretical physics department at Cambridge, Stephen Hawking and his friend and collaborator Thomas Hertog worked on this problem for twenty years, developing a new theory of the cosmos that could account for the emergence of life. Peering into the extreme quantum physics of cosmic holograms and venturing far back in time to our deepest roots, they were startled to find a deeper level of evolution in which the physical laws themselves transform and simplify until particles, forces, and even time itself fades away. This discovery led them to a revolutionary idea: The laws of physics are not set in stone but are born and co-evolve as the universe they govern takes shape. As Hawking&’s final days drew near, the two collaborators published their theory, which proposed a radical new Darwinian perspective on the origins of our universe. On the Origin of Time offers a striking new vision of the universe&’s birth that will profoundly transform the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove to be Hawking&’s greatest legacy.
On the Other Side -- To My Children: From Germany 1940-1945
by Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg Ruth EvansIn October 1940 Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg wrote the first of a series of letters to her children. It was never sent. She was in Hamburg and they were far away, 'on the other side', in Wales, the USA and Denmark. Nevertheless she continued to write throughout the war, and these 'diary-letters' grew into a remarkable journal describing daily life under almost constant bombing, the author's hopes and fears, the progress of the war she hated. Not expecting to survive, this journal was her testament to her children and grandchildren. She did survive, however, and the manuscript was put aside; it was discovered nearly thirty years later by her daughter, Ruth Evans. On the Other Side is a human document of great historical interest: an account by a cultured, liberal, anti-Nazi woman of the day-to-day destruction of a city and its people. Firmly rooted in Hamburg--her father had been Lord Mayor, her husband, Emil Wolff, was a distinguished professor at the University--and yet cosmopolitan in outlook, with strong cultural and family ties with 'the enemy', Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg offers a unique perspective. Her letters give a harrowing description of civilian life under the incessant bombardment of total war. We also experience the propagandist reporting of the war from the German press and public announcements, and the civilian reaction to the ebb and flow of the tide leading up to the final invasion of Germany's frontiers. We share her anxieties for her children, her sorrow as those close to her die, and most poignantly, her bewilderment as the city she loves is annihilated by a people--the English--she has always respected and admired. However, what remains in the reader's mind are the inspired human qualities of the author--her courage as she is forced continually to re-examine her ideals and convictions. her unshakeable belief in justice and man's humanity, and her wisdom and compassion which illuminate every page of these letters to her 'beloved, far-away children'.
On the Other Side of Freedom: Race and Justice in a Divided America
by DeRay MckessonFive years ago, DeRay Mckesson quit his job as a schoolteacher, moved to Ferguson, Missouri, and spent the next 400 days on the streets as an activist, helping to bring the Black Lives Matter movement into being. Now, in his first book, he draws on his own experiences – of growing up without his mother, with a father in recovery, of having a house burn down and a bully chase him home from school, of pacifying a traffic cop at gunpoint and being dragged out of a police station by his ankles, of determined activism on the streets and in the White House – to make the case for hope, for believing a better future is possible. It is a visionary&’s call to take responsibility for imagining, and then building, the world we want to live in.
On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope
by DeRay Mckesson"On the Other Side of Freedom reveals the mind and motivations of a young man who has risen to the fore of millennial activism through study, discipline, and conviction. His belief in a world that can be made better, one act at a time, powers his narratives and opens up a view on the costs, consequences, and rewards of leading a movement."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.From the internationally recognized civil rights activist/organizer and host of the podcast Pod Save the People, a meditation on resistance, justice, and freedom, and an intimate portrait of a movement from the front lines.In August 2014, twenty-nine-year-old activist DeRay Mckesson stood with hundreds of others on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to push a message of justice and accountability. These protests, and others like them in cities across the country, resulted in the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, in his first book, Mckesson lays down the intellectual, pragmatic, and political framework for a new liberation movement. Continuing a conversation about activism, resistance, and justice that embraces our nation's complex history, he dissects how deliberate oppression persists, how racial injustice strips our lives of promise, and how technology has added a new dimension to mass action and social change. He argues that our best efforts to combat injustice have been stunted by the belief that racism's wounds are history, and suggests that intellectual purity has curtailed optimistic realism. The book offers a new framework and language for understanding the nature of oppression. With it, we can begin charting a course to dismantle the obvious and subtle structures that limit freedom.Honest, courageous, and imaginative, On the Other Side of Freedom is a work brimming with hope. Drawing from his own experiences as an activist, organizer, educator, and public official, Mckesson exhorts all Americans to work to dismantle the legacy of racism and to imagine the best of what is possible. Honoring the voices of a new generation of activists, On the Other Side of Freedom is a visionary's call to take responsibility for imagining, and then building, the world we want to live in.
On the Other Side of the Mountain: Memories and lessons from our sons who did not return from the Andes
by María del Perrier Pérez del CastilloThe story of the young people who did not return from the tragedy of the Andes in 1972. On Friday 13 October 1972, a plane carrying 45 Uruguayans crashed in the Andes Mountains. 72 days later, 16 survivors returned home. This marked a turning point for all of them and for the families of those who did not come back. This book takes us into the intimate lives of these families and the passengers who remain in the mountains, exploring the years before the accident, the birth of a brotherhood and a community around the rugby team that organised the trip, the day of the accident, the subsequent search for survivors, and the process undertaken by the families to overcome their grief through the Nuestros Hijos library, which was founded by the mothers of many of those young boys who did not return from the Andes. This is a personal, vivid narrative in the voice of Claudia, one of the sisters of Marcelo Pérez del Castillo, the rugby team captain and main promoter of the trip, showing that the story begins long before the fateful accident. In this unique work, we learn for the first time who those boys really were through the eyes of their relatives. María del Carmen Perrier Pérez del Castillo, a niece of Marcelo, reconstructs the story of those young people and families who, with courage and faith, continue to teach us from the mountains.
On the Outside Looking Indian
by Rupinder Gill"There's a phenomenon in Amish culture called Rumspringa, where Amish adolescents are permitted to break free from their modest and traditional lifestyles to indulge in normally taboo activities. They dress how they want, go out if and when they please, smoke, drink and generally party like it's 1899. At the end they decide if they will return and join the Amish church."I am 30 years old. I wore my hair in two braids every day until I was 12. I dressed more conservatively than most Amish, barely left my house until I was 18 and spent the last 12 years studying and working hard on my career like a good little Indian girl. The time has come; you are witness to the dawning of my Indian Rumspringa, a Ram-Singha if you will. But instead of smoking and drinking Bud Lights in a park while yelling 'Down with barn raising!' I plan to indulge in a different manner -- by pursuing everything I wish had been a part of my youth. Things I always felt were part of most North Americans' adolescent experience. I will learn to swim, go to summer camp, see Disneyworld, take dance lessons, have sleepovers and finally get the pet I longed for my whole life."This is the story of the ultimate New Year's resolution, more akin to a new life resolution. Will it all be fun? Will my friends and family support my walk down memory-less lane? Will it all matter in the end? I don't know yet but much like my young Rumspringaed-out counterpart, I will decide whether or not there is any going back."From the Hardcover edition.
On the Outside Looking Indian: How My Second Childhood Changed My Life
by Rupinder Gill"There's a phenomenon in Amish culture called Rumspringa, where Amish adolescents are permitted to break free from their modest and traditional lifestyles to indulge in normally taboo activities. They dress how they want, go out if and when they please, smoke, drink and generally party like it's 1899. At the end they decide if they will return and join the Amish church. "I am 30 years old. I wore my hair in two braids every day until I was 12. I dressed more conservatively than most Amish, barely left my house until I was 18 and spent the last 12 years studying and working hard on my career like a good little Indian girl. The time has come; you are witness to the dawning of my Indian Rumspringa, a Ram-Singha if you will. But instead of smoking and drinking Bud Lights in a park while yelling 'Down with barn raising!' I plan to indulge in a different manner -- by pursuing everything I wish had been a part of my youth. Things I always felt were part of most North Americans' adolescent experience. I will learn to swim, go to summer camp, see Disneyworld, take dance lessons, have sleepovers and finally get the pet I longed for my whole life. "This is the story of the ultimate New Year's resolution, more akin to a new life resolution. Will it all be fun? Will my friends and family support my walk down memory-less lane? Will it all matter in the end? I don't know yet but much like my young Rumspringaed-out counterpart, I will decide whether or not there is any going back. " From the Hardcover edition.
On the Outskirts of Normal
by Debra Monroe"If On the Outskirts of Normal were a country song, Lucinda Williams would sing it."-The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionIn a small town where mothers with careers are rare, let alone a white mother who's adopted a black baby, Debra Monroe confronts her past in order to make a life for her daughter, and rebuilds a half-ruined cabin and her sense of what makes a family.Debra Monroe is the author of four books of fiction. She teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University.
On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined
by David RobertsBy the time David Roberts turned twenty-two, he had been involved in three fatal mountain climbing accidents and had himself escaped death by the sheerest of luck. Anyone who has ever wondered why mountaineers take the risks that they do will be moved and enlightened by On the Ridge Between Life and Death, as will anyone who appreciates vivid, dramatic storytelling and an unflinchingly honest self-examination of a lifetime spent pursuing a dangerous pastime.
On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed
by Marion JonesFor more than a decade, Marion Jones was hailed as the “the fastest woman on the planet.” At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, she became the first woman ever to win five medals at one Olympics. That same year, the Associated Press and ESPN named her Athlete of the Year. She was on the cover of Vogue and Time. She seemed to have it all—fame, fortune, talent, and international acclaim. Now she is a convicted felon.The trouble started in 2003 when she lied to federal agents about her use of a performance-enhancing drug and her knowledge of a check fraud scam. In 2007, no longer able to live with the lies, she admitted the truth. In a sad end to what seemed like a storybook career, she was stripped of her medals, and her track-and-field records were wiped from the books.She was incarcerated at Carswell federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas—a prison known for its violence and abuse. While there, she kept herself in shape and her sanity intact by running on a dirt track and a treadmill in the prison’s improvised weight room. But her imprisonment was not the end for Marion Jones. In fact, it marked a new beginning. She is now using her story to change the lives of people the world over and inspire others who, like her, face obstacles that seem insurmountable.On the Right Track is the candidly told story of how Marion came to grips with her lies and the consequences of her actions, and how she found meaning in all of it. What she tells her children and has now applied to her own life is that when you make a mistake, you admit it, you accept the consequences, you move on, you make the wrong a right. She teaches her children and others to take a break and pause before making impulsive and potentially harmful decisions.At the heart of this book are real issues that we all face: learning to grow through pain; making decisions that will help us far into the future; overcoming failure and discouragement; and applying practical principles that point the way to personal and spiritual breakthrough.
On the Road Less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom
by Glenn Plaskin Ed HajimA powerful story touched with family trauma, deprivation, and adversity balanced by a life of hard work and philanthropy!On the Road Less Traveled is the inspirational story of Edmund A. Hajim, an American financier and philanthropist who rises from dire childhood circumstances to achieve professional success and personal fulfillment. At age three, Hajim is kidnapped by his father, driven from St. Louis to Los Angeles, and told that his mother is dead. His father soon abandons him in order to seek employment—mostly in vain—leaving his son behind in a string of foster homes and orphanages. This establishes a pattern of neglect and desertion that continues for Hajim&’s entire childhood, forever leaving its mark. From one home to another, the lonely boy learns the value of self-reliance and perseverance despite his financial deprivation and the trauma of being an orphan. As time passes, Hajim displays a powerful instinct for survival and a burning drive to excel. A highly motivated student and athlete, he earns an NROTC college scholarship to the University of Rochester; serves in the United States Navy; works as an application research engineer; then attends Harvard Business School, where he finds that the financial industry is his true calling. So begins his rapid ascent in the corporate world, which includes senior executive positions at E. F. Hutton, Lehman Brothers, and fourteen years as CEO of Furman Selz, growing the company more than tenfold. He also creates a happy and abundant family life, though he never forgets what it means to struggle. At age sixty, he is reminded of his painful past when a family secret emerges that brings the story full circle.
On the Road With Charles Kuralt
by Charles KuraltThe pages of ON THE ROAD tell us why Charles Kuralt is one of this nation’s best journalists. He is eloquent and understanding, refreshing and in-focus. Mr. Kuralt sets the scene, then steps aside and lets his subjects do the talking. The voices ring true. His stories give us glimpses into America that make us feel good about ourselves, no mean feat these days.
On the Road and Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius
by Charlie Harmon Harold Hal" PrinceA celebratory, intimate, and detailed look at the public and private life of Leonard Bernstein written by his former assistant. Foreword by Broadway legend Harold Prince.Leonard Bernstein reeked of cheap cologne and obviously hadn't showered, shaved, or slept in a while. Was he drunk to boot? He greeted his new assistant with "What are you drinking?" Yes, he was drunk.Charlie Harmon was hired to manage the day-to-day parts of Bernstein's life. There was one additional responsibility: make sure Bernstein met the deadline for an opera commission. But things kept getting in the way: the centenary of Igor Stravinsky, intestinal parasites picked up in Mexico, teaching all summer in Los Angeles, a baker's dozen of young men, plus depression, exhaustion, insomnia, and cut-throat games of anagrams. Did the opera get written?For four years, Charlie saw Bernstein every day, as his social director, gatekeeper, valet, music copyist, and itinerant orchestra librarian. He packed (and unpacked) Bernstein's umpteen pieces of luggage, got the Maestro to his concerts, kept him occupied changing planes in Zurich, Anchorage, Tokyo, or Madrid, and learned how to make small talk with mayors, ambassadors, a chancellor, a queen, and a Hollywood legend or two. How could anyone absorb all those people and places? Because there was music: late-night piano duets, or the Maestro's command to accompany an audition, or, by the way, the greatest orchestras in the world. Charlie did it, and this is what it was like, told for the first time.
On the Road and Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius
by Charlie HarmonCelebrating Leonard Bernstein's centenary with an intimate and detailed look at the public and private life of the Maestro written by his former assistant. Foreword by Broadway legend Harold Prince."An affectionate portrait of an eminent musician who was driven by demons." —Kirkus Reviews "Harmon’s personable and warm account of what it was like to work for one of the twentieth century’s musical giants casts new light on Bernstein and his world." —Booklist "This multifaceted perspective gives readers plenty of salacious gossip paired with insight into Leonard Bernstein’s remarkable artistic achievements later in life." —Library Journal On the Road is a colorfully written, unforgettably entertaining and unputdownable book, and is available just in time for LB’s 100th birthday. Unreservedly recommended. —Fanfare Magazine Leonard Bernstein reeked of cheap cologne and obviously hadn't showered, shaved, or slept in a while. Was he drunk to boot? He greeted his new assistant with "What are you drinking?" Yes, he was drunk. Charlie Harmon was hired to manage the day-to-day parts of Bernstein's life. There was one additional responsibility: make sure Bernstein met the deadline for an opera commission. But things kept getting in the way: the centenary of Igor Stravinsky, intestinal parasites picked up in Mexico, teaching all summer in Los Angeles, a baker's dozen of young men, plus depression, exhaustion, insomnia, and cut-throat games of anagrams. Did the opera get written?For four years, Charlie saw Bernstein every day, as his social director, gatekeeper, valet, music copyist, and itinerant orchestra librarian. He packed (and unpacked) Bernstein's umpteen pieces of luggage, got the Maestro to his concerts, kept him occupied changing planes in Zurich, Anchorage, Tokyo, or Madrid, and learned how to make small talk with mayors, ambassadors, a chancellor, a queen, and a Hollywood legend or two. How could anyone absorb all those people and places? Because there was music: late-night piano duets, or the Maestro's command to accompany an audition, or, by the way, the greatest orchestras in the world. Charlie did it, and this is what it was like, told for the first time.
On the Road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe
by Michael Kandel Andrzej StasiukAndrzej Stasiuk is a restless and indefatigable traveler. His journeys take him from his native Poland to Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Moldova, and Ukraine. By car, train, bus, ferry. To small towns and villages with unfamiliar-sounding yet strangely evocative names. "The heart of my Europe," Stasiuk tells us, "beats in Sokolow, Podlaski, and in Husi, not in Vienna." Where did Moldova end and Transylvania begin, he wonders as he is being driven at breakneck speed in an ancient Audi--loose wires hanging from the dashboard--by a driver in shorts and bare feet, a cross swinging on his chest. In Comrat, a funeral procession moves slowly down the main street, the open coffin on a pickup truck, an old woman dressed in black brushing away the flies above the face of the deceased. On to Soroca, a baroque-Byzantine-Tatar-Turkish encampment, to meet Gypsies. And all the way to Babadag, between the Baltic Coast and the Black Sea, where Stasiuk sees his first minaret, "simple and severe, a pencil pointed at the sky." A brilliant tour of Europe's dark underside--travel writing at its very best.
On the Road to Mandalay
by Randle Manwaring"The fascinating book features the life story of Dr Randle Manwaring,focusing particularly on his Regiment's fight to capture Burma towards the end of WW2As one of the founding Officers of the RAF Regiment, the author helped train and set up the Regiment from its inception in 1942.He saw active service with the Regiment in Burma, where the Regiment particularly distinguished itself but suffered heavy losses. Randle was present at the Japanese surrender in Rangoon and took the Swords from the Japanese Generals as they surrendered.The end of the War saw a return to a very different life requiring different skills. Guided by his strong Christian beliefs, Randle established a successful career in the City in Insurance Broking."