- Table View
- List View
Poirot and Me
by David SuchetFans of Murder on the Orient Express and all things Agatha Christie won't want to miss this charming memoir from David Suchet...In the summer of 2013 David Suchet filmed his final scenes as Hercule Poirot. After 24 years in the role, he played the character in every story that Agatha Christie wrote about him (bar one, deemed unfilmable) and felt it time to bid adieu to a role and a character that changed his life.In Poirot and Me, David Suchet tells the story of how he secured the part, with the blessing of Agatha Christie's daughter, and set himself the task of presenting the most authentic Poirot that had ever been filmed.David Suchet is uniquely placed to write the ultimate companion to one of the world's longest running television series. Peppered with anecdotes about filming, including many tales of the guest stars who have appeared over the years, the book is essential reading for Poirot fans all over the world.
Poirot and Me
by David SuchetIn the summer of 2013 David Suchet will film his final scenes as Hercule Poirot. After 24 years in the role, he will have played the character in every story that Agatha Christie wrote about him (bar one, deemed unfilmable) and he will bid adieu to a role and a character that have changed his life.In Poirot and Me, David Suchet tells the story of how he secured the part, with the blessing of Agatha Christie's daughter, and set himself the task of presenting the most authentic Poirot that had ever been filmed.David Suchet is uniquely placed to write the ultimate companion to one of the world's longest running television series. Peppered with anecdotes about filming, including many tales of the guest stars who have appeared over the years, the book is essential reading for Poirot fans all over the world.(P)2013 Headline Digital
Poison Candy: The Murderous Madam: Inside Dalia Dippolito's Plot to Kill
by Mark Ebner Elizabeth ParkerIn August 2009, former madam Dalia Dippolito conspired with a hit man to arrange her ex-con husband's murder. Days later, it seemed as if all had gone according to plan. The beautiful, young Dalia came home from her health club to an elaborate crime scene, complete with yellow tape outlining her townhome and police milling about. When Sgt. Frank Ranzie of the Boynton Beach, Florida, police informed her of her husband Michael's apparent murder, the newlywed Dippolito can be seen on surveillance video collapsing into the cop's arms, like any loving wife would—or any wife who was pretending to be loving would. The only thing missing from her performance were actual tears. ... And the only thing missing from the murder scene was an actual murder. Tipped off by one of Dalia's lovers, an undercover detective posing as a hit man met with Dalia to plot her husband's murder while his team planned, then staged the murder scenario—brazenly inviting the reality TV show Cops along for the ride. The Cops video went viral, sparking a media frenzy: twisted tales of illicit drugs, secret boyfriends, sex-for-hire, a cuckolded former con man, and the defense's ludicrous claim that the entire hit had been staged by the intended victim for reality TV fame. In Poison Candy, case prosecutor Elizabeth Parker teams with bestselling crime writer Mark Ebner take you behind and beyond the courtroom scenes with astonishing never-before-revealed facts, whipsaw plot twists, and exclusive photos and details far too lurid for the trial that led to 20 years in state prison for Dalia Dippolito.
Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking
by Jessica Mitford Jane SmileyJessica Mitford was a member of one of England's most legendary families (among her sisters were the novelist Nancy Mitford and the current Duchess of Devonshire) and one of the great muckraking journalists of modern times. Leaving England for America, she pursued a career as an investigative reporter and unrepentant gadfly, publicizing not only the misdeeds of, most famously, the funeral business (The American Way of Death, a bestseller) and the prison business (Kind and Usual Punishment), but also of writing schools and weight-loss programs. Mitford's diligence, unfailing skepticism, and acid pen made her one of the great chroniclers of the mischief people get up to in the pursuit of profit and the name of good. Poison Penmanship collects seventeen of Mitford's finest pieces--about everything from crummy spas to network-TV censorship--and fills them out with the story of how she got the scoop and, no less fascinating, how the story developed after publication. The book is a delight to read: few journalists have ever been as funny as Mitford, or as gifted at getting around in those dark, cobwebbed corners where modern America fashions its shiny promises. It's also an unequaled and necessary manual of the fine art of investigative reporting.
Poison for Breakfast
by Lemony SnicketWashington Post Bestseller A new stand-alone adventure—appropriate for all ages—by Lemony Snicket, one of the twenty-first century’s most beloved authors. In the years since this publishing house was founded, we have worked with an array of wondrous authors who have brought illuminating clarity to our bewildering world. Now, instead, we bring you Lemony Snicket. Over the course of his long and suspicious career, Mr. Snicket has investigated many things, including villainy, treachery, conspiracy, ennui, and various suspicious fires. In this book, he is investigating his own death. Poison for Breakfast is a different sort of book than others we have published, and from others you may have read. It is different from other books Mr. Snicket has written. It could be said to be a book of philosophy, something almost no one likes, but it is also a mystery, and many people claim to like those. Certainly Mr. Snicket didn’t relish the dreadful task of solving it, but he had no choice. It was put in front of him, right there, on his plate.
Poisoned: How a Crime-Busting Prosecutor Turned His Medical Mystery into a Crusade for Environmental Victims
by Alan Bell Jan SchlichtmannAfter years of prosecuting hard-core criminals, rising legal star Alan Bell took a private sector job in South Florida’s newest skyscraper. Suddenly, he suffered such bizarre medical symptoms, doctors suspected he’d been poisoned by the Mafia. Bell’s rapidly declining health forced him to flee his glamorous Miami life to a sterile “bubble” in the remote Arizona desert. As his career and marriage dissolved, Bell pursued medical treatments in a race against time, hoping to stay alive and raise his young daughter, his one desperate reason to keep going. He eventually discovered he wasn’t poisoned by a criminal, but by his office building. His search for a cure led him to discover the horrifying truth: his tragedy was just the tip of the iceberg. Millions of people fall ill and die each year because of toxic chemical exposures—without knowing they’re at risk. Stunned by what he discovered, Bell chose to fight back, turning his plight into an opportunity. Despite his precarious health, he began collaborating with scientists dedicated to raising awareness about this issue. Soon, he also found himself drawn back into the legal field, teaming up with top lawyers fighting for those who had already fallen ill. Both a riveting medical mystery and a cautionary tale, this book puts a human face on the hidden truths behind toxic dangers assaulting us in our everyday environments—and offers practical ways to protect ourselves and our children.
Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
by Stephen KinzerThe bestselling author of All the Shah’s Men and The Brothers tells the astonishing story of the man who oversaw the CIA’s secret drug and mind-control experiments of the 1950s and ’60s.The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer—the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace—including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the 1960s counterculture. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world.Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about U.S. clandestine operations, draws on new documentary research and original interviews to bring to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the twentieth century. Gottlieb’s reckless experiments on “expendable” human subjects destroyed many lives, yet he considered himself deeply spiritual. He lived in a remote cabin without running water, meditated, and rose before dawn to milk his goats.During his twenty-two years at the CIA, Gottlieb worked in the deepest secrecy. Only since his death has it become possible to piece together his astonishing career at the intersection of extreme science and covert action. Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale.
Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers
by Katy Lederer"The intricacies of family and the complexities of the games they play mingle wonderfully here in a memoir quite unlike any other."--George Plimpton, author of Truman Capote. Katy Lederer grew up on the bucolic campus of an exclusive East Coast boarding school where her father taught English, her mother retreated into crosswords and scotch, and her much older siblings played "grown-up" games like gin rummy and chess. But Katy faced much more than the typical trials of childhood. Within the confines of the Lederer household an unlikely transformation was brewing, one that would turn this darkly intellectual and game-happy group into a family of professional gamblers. Poker Face is Katy Lederer's perceptive account of her family's lively history. From the long kitchen table where her mother played what seemed an endless game of solitaire, to the seedy New York bars where her brother first learned to play poker, to the glamorous Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, where her sister and brother wager hundreds of thousands of dollars a night at the tables, Lederer takes us on a tragicomic journey through a world where intelligence and deceit are used equally as currency. Not since Mary McCarthy's Memories of a Catholic Girlhood has a writer cast such a witty and astringently analytic eye on the demands of growing up. An unflinching exploration of trust and betrayal, competition, suspicion, and unconventional familial love,Poker Face is a testament to the human spirit's inventiveness when faced with unusually difficult odds.
Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga
by Maureen CallahanIn just a two-year span, Stefani Germanotta, a struggling performer in New York's Lower East Side burlesque scene, has become the global demographic-smashing pop icon known as Lady Gaga. She is a once-in-a-decade artist, a gifted singer, composer, designer, and performance artist who mixes high and low culture, the avant-garde with the accessible, authenticity with artifice.Who is Lady Gaga? She is a twenty-five-year-old woman whose stage mantra--"I'm a free bitch!"--is the polar opposite of who she is offstage: isolated, insecure, and unable to be alone. She is an outrÉ artist who wanted to be a sensitive singer-songwriter. She is a woman who says no man can ever compete with her career, but who goes back and forth with the ex-boyfriend who said she was too ambitious. She claims not to care what people think, but spends her downtime online, reading what people have to say about her. She claims to be a con artist and utterly authentic. She is never less than compelling.Based on more than fifty original interviews with friends, employees, rivals, and music industry veterans, Poker Face is the first in-depth biography of the extraordinary cultural phenomenon that is Lady Gaga.
Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country
by Andy BellinA deep dive into the world of poker, Texas no-limit hold 'em style, with philosophical ruminations on the appeal of gambling in American culture. Journalist and semi-pro poker player shares his experiences with the game while providing useful tips. Includes info on Texas Hold'em, roulette, and Black Jack as well as advice on counting cards, reading body language, probability, and more.
Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare
by Philip ShortPol Pot was an idealistic, reclusive figure with great charisma and personal charm. He initiated a revolution whose radical egalitarianism exceeded any other in history. But in the process, Cambodia desended into madness and his name became a byword for oppression.In the three-and-a-half years of his rule, more than a million people, a fifth of Cambodia's population, were executed or died from hunger and disease. A supposedly gentle, carefree land of slumbering temples and smiling peasants became a concentration camp of the mind, a slave state in which absolute obedience was enforced on the 'killing fields'. Why did it happen? How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? Philip Short, the biographer of Mao, has spent four years travelling the length of Cambodia, interviewing surviving leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge movement and sifting through previously closed archives. Here, the former Khmer Rouge Head of State, Pol's brother-in-law and scores of lesser figures speak for the first time at length about their beliefs and motives.
Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare
by Philip ShortPol Pot was an idealistic, reclusive figure with great charisma and personal charm. He initiated a revolution whose radical egalitarianism exceeded any other in history. But in the process, Cambodia desended into madness and his name became a byword for oppression.In the three-and-a-half years of his rule, more than a million people, a fifth of Cambodia's population, were executed or died from hunger and disease. A supposedly gentle, carefree land of slumbering temples and smiling peasants became a concentration camp of the mind, a slave state in which absolute obedience was enforced on the 'killing fields'. Why did it happen? How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? Philip Short, the biographer of Mao, has spent four years travelling the length of Cambodia, interviewing surviving leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge movement and sifting through previously closed archives. Here, the former Khmer Rouge Head of State, Pol's brother-in-law and scores of lesser figures speak for the first time at length about their beliefs and motives.
Polar Region Explorers 2-Book Bundle: River Rough, River Smooth / Arctic Naturalist
by Anthony DaltonPresenting a special 2-book bundle of Anthony Dalton’s outstanding writing on Canada's polar regions, their history, and their greatest explorers. “Dalton does an excellent job … a very enjoyable read.”— Bios Newsletter Includes: River Rough, River Smooth Manitoba’s Hayes River runs over 600 km, from Norway House to Hudson Bay. Traditionally used for transport and hunting by the indigenous Cree, it became a major fur trade route from the 17th to 19th centuries. This is the account of the author’s journey on the Hayes in the company of modern-day voyageurs reliving the past. Arctic Naturalist J. Dewey Soper was the last of the great pioneer naturalists in Canada, and spent many years in the Arctic, where he discovered the breeding grounds of the blue goose and charted the final unknown region of Baffin Islands coastline.
Polar Wives: The Remarkable Women behind the World's Most Daring Explorers
by Jon Bowermaster Kari HerbertPolar explorers were the superstars of the "heroic age" of exploration, a period spanning the Victorian and Edwardian eras. In this engaging book, author Kari Herbert explores the unpredictable, often heartbreaking lives of seven remarkable women who married world-famous polar explorers.As the daughter of a pioneering polar explorer, Herbert brings a unique perspective to these stories of polar exploration. In her portraits of the gifted sculptor Kathleen Scott; eccentric traveller Jane Franklin; spirited poet Eleanor Anne Franklin; Jo Peary, the first white woman to travel and give birth in the High Arctic; talented and determined Emily Shackleton; Norwegian singer Eva Nansen; and her own mother, adventurer Marie Herbert, Karie Herbert blends deeply personal accounts of longing, betrayal, and hope with stories of peril and adventure.Herbert illuminates the essential role the women played in supporting, publicizing, defending, and even financing their husbands' expeditions. She follows these "polar wives" not only to the polar wastelands but through wartorn Macedonia, the lawless outback of Australia, and the plague-riddled ancient cities of the Holy Land.With extracts from previously unpublished historic journals and letters, Polar Wives brings together for the first time, the compelling stories of seven adventurous women.
Poles in the Battle of Britain: A Photographic Album of the Polish 'Few'
by Peter SikoraA pictorial history of the valiant Polish aviators who aided the RAF in the fight against the Luftwaffe.The Polish Air Force, which was created in Britain in the summer of 1940 from flying and ground personnel evacuated from Poland and then from France, proved to be one of the most successful formations to fight the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Overcoming the obstacles of language and operating in a foreign country, the Polish Air Force gained independent status, flying alongside the RAF rather than being a part of the RAF—and for the first time, the Polish Air Force became a separate air arm of the Polish Armed Forces.It’s said that 145 Polish pilots fought in the Battle of Britain, many of them experienced and battle-hardened. These men fought not only for the freedom of their own homeland but also for British people, of whom they often knew very little. The Poles were able to form four squadrons, two bomber and two fighter, that went into operations during the Battle of Britain. Many other Polish fliers were dispersed across the Fighter Command, joining various RAF squadrons. They all made a decisive impact, when they were needed the most, gaining the respect of their British colleagues and the British public.In this superb collection of photographs, the story of the Polish Few is told—from their hazardous journey from Poland to the UK to the great struggle for control of the skies above Britain during that memorable summer of 1940.
Police Surgeon
by Jennifer GrayIn Police Surgeon, Jennifer Gray weaves a lifetime of observations into poetry, drawing from her experiences as a doctor, forensic examiner, and keen observer of everyday life. Her poems move effortlessly between the deeply personal and the universal, capturing moments of quiet beauty, profound sorrow, and unwavering resilience. From the solemnity of a crime scene to the delicate act of nurturing nature, from the lingering scent of lilacs to the devastation in Haiti, Gray’s verse is unflinchingly honest. At times meditative, at times sharp and visceral, her poetry explores faith, memory, and the fleeting nature of life with striking clarity and compassion. A poignant and powerful collection that invites readers to reflect on the depths of human experience.
Policewoman: A Memoir
by Dorothy UhnakDorothy Uhnak&’s no-holds-barred memoir about her life as one of New York&’s finestThe &“original policewoman,&” Dorothy Uhnak was the first to write a procedural novel with a female cop as the protagonist. But before she turned her talents to fiction, Uhnak was a detective with the New York Transit Police. Policewoman chronicles her fourteen years on the force, where she was decorated twice for bravery. This insider&’s view of law enforcement takes you behind the scenes into a city that was a no-man&’s land of corruption, drugs, and violence. Uhnak recounts the hurdles facing a female cop during New York&’s tumultuous 1950s and &’60s, and the difficult adjustment to a new way of life once she gets her badge. She takes readers from firearms training to homicide scenes to interrogation rooms where detectives extract confessions. As gritty and relentless as Uhnak&’s novels, Policewoman is a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last, spellbinding page is turned. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy Uhnak including rare images from the author&’s estate.
Policing the Fringe
by Charles ScheidemanFrom the 1960s through the 1980s, RCMP Sergeant Charlie Scheideman spent much of his time patrolling the "dark corners of the Interior of British Columbia" where "the citizens would meet the modern criteria for redneck: if their veranda collapsed it would kill more than four dogs; they think 'harrass' is two words, and so on." Such places weren't much fun to police but they were full of characters, many of whom make their way into Charlie's entertaining book, Policing the Fringe. We meet Walter and Wilbur, two Hixon hillbillies who went on a bender and decided it would be fun to stagger out onto the Cariboo Highway with a rifle and hold up passing cars, which worked well enough until they held up a motorhome from Alaska that turned out to be better armed than they were. We meet Petre, the hard-working hermit who was cheated out of his savings by three slick-talking mining promoters and waited to take his revenge-with an axe.With wry humour and a policeman's eye for relevant detail, Scheideman recounts events that range from the ridiculous to the horrific to the tragic. Once he stopped a car in the Fraser Canyon driven by three normally responsible American fishermen, who on this occasion were careening wildly from one guard rail to another. Their defence? They had failed to allow for the added kick of Canadian beer. His most searing memory was of waiting for the embers of a burned house to cool enough so he could retrieve the bodies of two small victims while in a nearby house, party-goers kept right on partying. One of the most revealing accounts ever written about policing in small-town Canada, this book bristles with unforgettable stories about the author's 27 years working on the RCMP's front lines. It will give readers new respect for the men and women who patrol Canada's backroads-both because of the extremely taxing work they do and the good spirit with which they do it.
Policy Entrepreneurship and Elections in Japan: A Political Biogaphy of Ozawa Ichirō (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
by Takashi OkaOzawa Ichirō is one of the most important figures in Japanese politics, having held the positions of Chief Secretary of the Liberal Democrat Party and, after defection from the LDP, President of the Democratic Party of Japan. Ozawa has distinctive ideas that set him apart from the average Japanese politician, he believes in the concept of the independence of the individual, as opposed to the importance of the group, and as a policy entrepreneur he has had a huge impact on political change not only advocating but precipitating institutional change in a key political area – the election system. Using extensive interview data from key players in the political arena, this book examines Ozawa's struggle to normalize alternation in office between two competingpolitical parties – particularly significant given the results of the 2009 election which handed over power to the Democratic Party of Japan – and how he has used his entrepreneurial talents to precipitate and carry out institutional change. Not only a political biography, but also an in-depth analysis of the Japanese political and electoral systems, this book will be of huge interest to anyone interested in Japanese politics and electoral systems.
Policymaker's Journal: From New Delhi to Washington D.C.
by Kaushik BasuThis book charts the course of Kaushik Basu&’s career over seven years, as he moved out of the cloisters of academe to the frenetic world of policymaking, first in India as Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government and after that as Chief Economist at the World Bank in Washington.The Indian years were a period of high inflation, growth challenges (as the global financial crisis arrived in India), and also a remarkable growth recovery story, with India moving past China&’s GDP growth rate. There were corruption scandals breaking, causing widespread street protests, a lot of late-night decision-making, which one knew would rock the stock market the next day, and getting to know politicians who were outstanding as statesmen in the midst of all this, and also many who were not.The World Bank years weren&’t that close to actual policymaking, but nevertheless breath-taking in their scope. They ranged from interacting with policymakers in tiny remote countries like Samoa to gigantic nations with comparable heft, such as China. It entailed sitting down with leading researchers to compute and announce global numbers on extreme poverty and rankings on how easy it is to do business in different countries (fully aware that there would be calls from irate finance ministers as soon as these were published). And there was the handling of politics within the World Bank, which could actually be as enjoyable as any global economic problem!This book is a revised version of the diary that Kaushik Basu kept for seven years. Revised because he often wrote the diary in a hurry at the day&’s or even week&’s end. He has now inserted some reflections in retrospect, without altering any descriptions of what actually happened.
Polish Community of Chicopee, The
by Stephen R. JendrysikThe first group of Polish immigrants to come to Chicopee arrived in 1880. These Poles filled many of the manufacturing jobs in the city's two large textile mills. In less than 30 years from their arrival, this aggressive, self-assured group boasted more Polish-owned businesses than any other community in New England. The Polish Community of Chicopee chronicles an immigrant population that was fiercely dedicated to the ideals of free enterprise and democratic pluralism.
Polish Community of Gary, The
by John C. Trafny Dr Lance TrustyThe Polish Community of Gary is a vibrantly illustrated tale of the history of the Midwest's Steel City and its Polish-Catholic residents. It reveals the journey of hopeful and hard-working Polish immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s, established an ethnic community, and adapted to the American way of life. This fascinating photographic compilation of almost 200 images features various past and present residents of Gary. It examines the city's diverse ethnic groups and religious denominations, offering a glimpse of a life very different from that of today. Along with detailed captions, The Polish Community of Gary offers the rare chance to experience the history of Polish Gary, bringing its exciting past alive again. Author John Trafny traces the story of past trials, tribulations, and triumphs with skill, compassion, and an insider's eye.
Polish Eyewitnesses to Napoleon's 1812 Campaign: Advance and Retreat in Russia
by Jonathan North Marek Tadeusz LalowskiThe drama of Napoleon’s ill-fated invasion of Russia is captured through the letters and diaries of Polish soldiers who fought with the French.Napoleon’s invasion of Russia cost hundreds of thousands lives and changed the course of history. Europe had never seen an army like the one gathering in Poland in 1812—half a million men in brilliant uniforms and shimmering helmets. Six months later, it was the ghost of an army, frozen and horrified, retreating home.This illuminating volume tells the story of this epic military disaster from the viewpoint of the tens of thousands of Polish soldiers who took part. Some of them were patriots eager to regain independence for their country. Others were charmed by the glory of Napoleonic warfare or were professional soldiers who were simply doing their jobs.They all tell an unrivaled tale of ruthless battles, burning villages, numbing hunger, and biting cold. By the end the great army had been reduced to a pitiless mob and the Polish soldiers, who had set out with such hope, recalled it with horror.
Polish Memories
by Witold Gombrowicz Bill JohnstonAlthough Witold Gombrowicz's unique, idiosyncratic writings include a three-volume Diary, this voluminous document offers few facts about his early life in Poland before his books were banned there and he went into voluntary exile. Polish Memories-a series of autobiographical sketches Gombrowicz composed for Radio Free Europe during his years in Argentina in the late 1950s-fills the gap in our knowledge.Written in a straightforward way without his famous linguistic inventions, the book presents an engaging account of Gombrowicz's childhood, youth, literary beginnings, and fellow writers in interwar Poland and reveals how these experiences and individuals shaped his seemingly outlandish concepts about the self, culture, art, and society. In addition, the book helps readers understand the numerous autobiographical allusions in his fiction and brings a new level of understanding and appreciation to his life and work.
Polishing God's Monuments: Pillars of Hope for Punishing Times
by Jim AndrewsPolishing God's Monuments is the true story of a young woman and her devoted husband who face it all (and then some) as a baffling, mind-boggling illness hijacks their youth and shatters their dreams. Polishing God's Monuments blends straightforward theology with the account of this young couple's afflictions. A sober reality in the life of faith is that "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." God's people are buffeted in two ways: sometimes we suffer for the faith and other times we suffer with faith. Either way, our faith remains a work in progress. In the midst of troubles, our emotions can vacillate between hope and despair, submission and rebellion. Our understanding can alternate between moments of comprehension and times of total confusion. This book confronts these issues head-on and offers believers biblical perspective, practical direction, and sustaining hope.