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Gettysburg: The Meade-Sickles Controversy
by Richard A. SauersThe book examines in depth the dissension among Federal generals that threatened the union's army ability to defeat the Confederacy.
Getting What You Deserve: The Adventures of Goldhawk Fights Back
by Dale GoldhawkFor 12 years Dale Goldhawk journeyed through the streets of Canada and into the hearts of thousands of Canadians. Written in Goldhawk’s punchy, to-the-point style, this book links his life as a journalist and advocate with those who were his clients. For the first time, he reveals the background battles and adventures he and his team had, as well as the stories of his clients and where they are today. The narrative paints a vivid picture of how working on Canada’s most original advocacy team changed their lives as journalists and Canadians.
Getting to the Heart of the Matter: My 36 Years in the Senate
by Senator Carl LevinRepresenting Michigan for thirty-six years in the U.S. Senate, Carl Levin, the longest-serving senator in Michigan history, was known for his dogged pursuit of the truth, his commitment to holding government accountable, and his basic decency. Getting to the Heart of the Matter: My 36 Years in the Senate is his story – from his early days in Detroit as the son of a respected lawyer to the capstone of his career as chair of both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Levin’s career placed him at the center of some of our nation’s most critical points in modern times: from the aftermath of the 1967 Detroit riots, to the Clinton impeachment, through 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the 2008 financial crisis. He met with numerous world leaders, including Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and China’s Jiang Zemin. Getting to the Heart of the Matter recounts Levin’s experiences, thoughts, and actions during these historic moments. Consisting of seventeen chapters, the book takes the reader through Levin’s early life in Detroit of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s where he met his wife, started a family, practiced law and served as the first General Counsel for the newly created Michigan Civil Rights Commission and the chief appellate defender for Detroit’s Legal Aid Office. Elected to the Detroit City Council in 1969, where Levin served for eight years including four as Council president, the book describes how his fight against the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s devastating housing practices in the neighborhoods of Detroit led him to run for the U.S. Senate with a pledge to make government work more effectively. Winning election six times, Levin had an illustrious career in the Senate where he challenged leaders in government and the private sector for the greater good of the nation. Levin describes how, as a Democrat, throughout his time in the Senate, he worked with Republican senators who often held different policy positions in order to find common ground to achieve national goals, and how he and his Senate staff searched for creative solutions to trade issues, support for the auto industry and manufacturing sector, U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and efforts to protect the Great Lakes and the environment, among many other issues. Levin’s hope in writing this memoir is that by sharing his deeply held beliefs about the responsibility of elected officials, the book will serve as a resource for people beginning a career in, or contemplating running for, public office. Readers with an interest in politics, history, facts, and perseverance will find kinship in this book.
Getting To Know The World's Greatest Artists: Michelangelo
by Mike VeneziaPresents a biography of Michelangelo
Getting to It
by Jones LoflinFrom Jones Loflin and Todd Musig, the authors of Juggling Elephants, comes Getting to It--a practical guide to sorting through the many priorities in your life, showing you how to carefully and consistently evaluate what your IT (Important Thing) should be, and how to get IT done. How busy are you? In the daily struggle to get it all done, what are you forgetting? Is your mind constantly racing with lists of all the things you could and should be doing? Does your day often feel like you're treading water in an ocean of rushes and deadlines, trying to keep from drowning while handling increasing work and life demands?Don't give up--help is on the way. You just have to find your It. The Important Thing. Define It. Plan It. Focus on It. Get excited about It. Identifying It isn't just the first step in the process of getting focused and heading in the right direction, it's every step. Getting to It Accomplishing the Important, Handling the Urgent, and Removing the Unnecessary provides the necessary tools to accomplish the important, handle the urgent, and get rid of the unnecessary. Want to enjoy a more fulfilling life? Get to It.
Getting to Grey Owl
by Kurt CaswellWriter, teacher, and adventurer Kurt Caswell has spent his adult life canoeing, hiking, and pedaling his way toward a deeper understanding of our vast and varied world. Getting to Grey Owl: A Man's Journey across Four Continents chronicles over twenty years of Caswell's travels as he buys a rug in Morocco, rides a riverboat in China, attends a bullfight in Spain, climbs four mountains in the United Kingdom, and backpacks a challenging route through Iceland's wild Hornstrandir Peninsula. Writing in the tradition of such visionary nomads as Hermann Hesse, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, Pico Iyer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Wordsworth, Caswell travels through wild and urban landscapes, as well as philosophical and ideological vistas, championing the pleasures of a wandering life. Far from the trappings of the everyday, he explores a range of ideas: the meaning of roads and pathways, the story of Cain and Abel, nomadic life and the evolution of the human animal, the role of agriculture in the making of the modern world, and the fragility of love.
Getting to Bartlett Street
by Joel Klein Carol Reich Joe ReichGetting to Bartlett Street is the inspiring story of Joe and Carol Reich--heroes in the education reform movement--how they built a school, changed the lives of many children, and helped redefine the system in the process. Joe and Carol Reich have spent the past three decades and a personal fortune to help underprivileged children access the same kind of high quality education that wealthier Americans enjoy. Yet few people even know who they are. In Getting to Bartlett Street, for the first time, Joe and Carol Reich tell the true story of how they started one of the first charter schools in the country in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Since the Reiches began their work, the charter movement has spread across the country like wildfire, offering children a way out of failing schools managed by byzantine bureaucracies through privately managed public schools accessible to all through a simple lottery. But when they first conceived of their school, Beginning With Children, no one had ever started an independent public school anywhere in the country. Getting to Bartlett Street is a tale that will astound and inspire supporters of education reform everywhere. Joe Reich and Carol Reich are the co-founders of the Beginning with Children Foundation which opened the first charter-like school in New York City in 1992. Joe Reich also founded Reich & Tang, a leading investment firm in 1970. Carol Reich is the former president of the Lexington Center (formerly the Lexington School for the Deaf).
Getting there
by Manjula PadmanabhanLate 1970s, Bombay. Manjula is in her twenties, struggling to earn a living as an author-illustrator. Then, a deceptively routine visit to a diet clinic and an encounter with two tall Dutch men turn her life inside out. Without much ado she speeds off on a Westward-bound spiritual quest, which involves cheating on her boyfriend, lying to everyone she loves and cutting off all ties with her safe, respectable, bourgeois Indian upbringing. In this picaresque travel memoir, novelist, cartoonist and award-winning playwright Manjula Padmanabhan looks back on her youthful misadventures in Europe. By turns funny and fierce, Getting There will touch anyone who has ever wanted to strip off their skin to waltz, however briefly, on the wild side.
Getting There: A Book of Mentors
by Gillian Zoe Segal“The highest achievers share some of their lowest moments, and there is much wisdom to be gained from those struggles. Captivating, thought-provoking.” —David Faber, CNBCThe path to success is rarely easy or direct, and good mentors are hard to find. In Getting There, thirty leaders in diverse fields share their secrets to navigating the rocky road to the top. In an honest, direct, and engaging way, these role models describe the obstacles they faced, the setbacks they endured, and the vital lessons they learned. They dispense not only essential and practical career advice, but also priceless wisdom applicable to life in general. Getting There is for everyone—from students contemplating their futures to the vast majority of us facing challenges or seeking to reach our potential.“Kudos to Gillian Zoe Segal for assembling this remarkable group of visionaries and helping them all tell their stories without filters or false bravado. Getting There is both empowering and illuminating.” —Piper Kerman, New York Times-bestselling author of Orange Is the New Black“Life-changing, real-world advice.” —Vanity Fair“Reading Getting There is like having an intimate, one-on-one talk with some of the world’s most fascinating and accomplished people. You will be taken aback by their honesty, entertained by their anecdotes, and, most of all, learn invaluable lessons about both business and life. This book is fantastic—you will not be able to put it down!”—JJ Ramberg, bestselling author of It’s Your Business“Somehow, Gillian Zoe Segal has gotten these leaders to share their stories in a unique, authentic, and revealing way.” —Robert Steven Kaplan, former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family, and Finding the Perfect Lipstick
by Molly RingwaldThe iconic Molly Ringwald shares intimate stories and candid advice in this fun, stylish, and sexy girlfriend's guide to lifeTo her millions of fans, Molly Ringwald will forever be sixteen. As the endearing and witty star of the beloved John Hughes classics Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink, Molly defined teenage angst, love, and heartbreak. While remembered eternally as the enviable high school princess Claire, or the shy, vulnerable Samantha, Molly has just celebrated her fortieth birthday. Facing a completely new, angst-inducing time in her life, she is embracing being a woman, wife, mother of three, actress, and best friend with her trademark style, candor, and humor.In Getting the Pretty Back, Molly encourages every woman to become "the sexiest, funniest, smartest, best-dressed, and most confident woman that you can be." She shares personal anecdotes and entertaining insights about the struggle to get through the murky milestones and identity issues that crop up long after the prom ends. Whether she's discussing sex and beauty, personal style, travel and entertaining, motherhood, or friendship, Molly embodies the spirit of being fabulous at every age, and reminds us all that prettiness is a state of mind: it's "the part of you that knows what you really want, that takes risks."Lavishly illustrated by Ruben Toledo, Getting the Pretty Back is sure to charm women of all ages with Molly's unforgettably personal, refreshingly outspoken take on life, love, and, of course, finding that perfect red lipstick. . . .
Getting Started: A Memoir of the 1950s
by William WeintraubWith letters from Mordecai Richler, Mavis Gallant, and Brian Moore, Getting Started is a wonderful memoir, a collection of extraordinary letters, and a brilliant recreation of a time when Canadian writers were set to make their mark in the world for the first time. Writer Brian Moore emigrated from Ireland to Canada in the late 1940s and found work at the Montreal Gazette, where he also found William Weintraub embarking upon a career as a freelance journalist. When he travelled to Paris, Weintraub saw an old friend and former Gazette writer, Mavis Gallant, who filled him in on the tribulations of the expatriate writer's life ("My room is enormous and the radiator very small indeed"). Gallant introduced Weintraub to another Montreal writer, Mordecai Richler, also pursuing a career as a novelist while living a gloriously Bohemian life. Weintraub joined Richler for a while in Ibiza (he later introduced him to Brian Moore), and later they kept in touch. ("Dear Bill: I got your highly unintellectual letter yesterday and it confirmed my suspicions that you slipped a chair under your arse in the Deux Magots as soon as you arrived in Paris and probably haven't moved since.")In these years, Gallant had her short stories published for the first time in the New Yorker, Moore methodically churned out money-making thrillers while working on The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and Richler wrote his first acclaimed book, The Acrobats. Weintraub, meanwhile, returned to Montreal, where he saw published his brilliant comic novel, Why Rock the Boat? William Weintraub weaves together his own memories of the 1950s with letters both to and from his literary colleagues. The letters and his recollections are always fascinating, often hilarious, and provide intimate insight into the lives and work of some of Canada's finest contemporary writers.
Getting Real
by Gretchen CarlsonA candid, funny memoir from the charismatic FOX News channel anchor and Miss America Pageant winner Celebrity news anchorwoman Gretchen Carlson shares her inspiring story and offers important takeaways for women (and men) about what it means to strive for and find success in the real world. With warmth and wit, she takes readers from her Minnesota childhood, where she became a violin prodigy, through college at Stanford and her in-the-trenches years as a cub reporter on local television stations before becoming a national news reporter. She describes her rise to anchor of The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson on FOX News channel as a testament to personal strength and perseverance. Carlson addresses the intense competitive effort of winning the Miss America Pageant, the challenges she's faced as a woman in broadcast television, and how she manages to balance work and family as the wife of high-profile sports agent Casey Close and devoted mother to their two children. An unceasing advocate for respect and equality for women, Carlson writes openly about her own struggles with body image, pageant stereotypes, building her career, and having the courage to speak her mind. She encourages women to strive for their goals, never give up, and always believe in themselves. In Getting Real, Carlson emerges as a living example of a woman not afraid to chase her dreams and embrace life fully.
Getting Real
by Gretchen CarlsonIn the wake of Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit against former Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, her memoir of her time at Fox—working alongside Megyn Kelly, Bill O’Reilly, Steve Doocy, and other prominent conservative news personalities—is more relevant than ever.In this candid memoir, celebrity news anchorwoman Gretchen Carlson shares her inspiring story and offers important takeaways about what it means to strive for and find success in the real world. With warmth and wit, she takes readers from her Minnesota childhood, when she became a violin prodigy, through attending Stanford and later rising to anchor of The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson on Fox News after working her way up from local television stations. Carlson addresses the intense competitive effort of winning the Miss America Pageant, the challenges she’s faced as a woman in broadcast television, and how she manages to balance work and family as the wife of high-profile sports agent Casey Close and devoted mother to their two children. An unceasing advocate for respect and equality for women, Carlson writes openly about her own struggles with body image, pageant stereotypes, building her career, and having the courage to speak her mind. Encouraging women to believe in themselves, chase their dreams, and never give up, Carlson emerges in Getting Real as a living example of personal strength and perseverance.From the Hardcover edition.
Getting Personal: Selected Writings
by Phillip LopateFrom the man whose name is virtually synonymous with the contemporary personal essay, "Getting Personal" is a rich and ambitious collection that spans Phillip Lopate's career as an essayist, teacher, film critic, father, son and husband. Lauded as one of America's foremost essayists, a writer who was instrumental in focusing attention on the form, Lopate here admirably demonstrates the obligation to be engaging as well as honest. Witty, insightful, deeply meditative and self-revelatory, with his characteristic candor and curmudgeonly charm, he explores himself, his life, his family, his religion, and his friends. Organized in six parts and spanning childhood to middle age, these twenty-eight essays tell two stories: the story of Lopate's life and the development of his career as a writer; these essays celebrate the impressive range of his talent. Whether Lopate is examining the perils of living above your landlord, the glorious sweep of the Hudson from the George Washington Bridge, the difficulty of teaching gloomy Chekhov to children, or the lamentable collection of parts that comprise the portrait of his body, he is always thoughtful, wonderfully skeptical, and eloquently engaging. "Getting Personal" stands not only as a guide to Lopate's writing career, but also as an intellectual autobiography, rooted in his experience as one of America's most beloved and respected writers. Lopate is known for his exquisite taste in others essays and a probing revelatory style of his own.
Getting Out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians
by Ralph WhiteA &“captivating&” (The Washington Post) true story of &“courage, resolve, and determination&” (Christian Science Monitor), author Ralph White&’s successful effort to save nearly the entire staff of the Saigon branch of Chase Manhattan bank and their families before the city fell to the North Vietnamese Army. In April 1975, Ralph White was asked by his boss to transfer from the Bangkok branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank to the Saigon Branch. He was tasked with closing the branch if and when it appeared that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese army and ensure the safety of the senior Vietnamese employees. But when he arrived, he realized the situation in Saigon was far more perilous than he had imagined. The senior staff members there urged him to evacuate the entire staff of the branch and their families, which was far more than he was authorized to do. Quickly he realized that no one would be safe when the city fell, and it was no longer a question of whether to evacuate but how. Getting Out of Saigon is an &“edge-of-your-seat&” (Oprah Daily) story of a city on the eve of destruction and the colorful characters who respond differently to impending doom. It&’s a remarkable account of one man&’s quest to save innocent lives not because he was ordered but because it was the right thing to do.
Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: the Inside Story of British Diplomacy
by Christopher MeyerOver the last five hundred years, Britain's power has waxed and waned: from the puny island nation of the sixteenth century, to the global superpower of the nineteenth century, to the more modest post-imperial status today of a major European power. But in these radically different circumstances, the wisdom of Lord Palmerston's observation has endured.Getting Our Way recounts nine stories from Britain's diplomatic annals over the last five hundred years, in which the diplomats themselves are at the centre of the narrative. It is an inside account of their extraordinary experiences, sometimes in the face of physical danger, often at history's hinge. Be it Henry Killigrew's mission to Edinburgh in 1572, Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna, Our Man in Washington and the Nassau Deal, or the handover of Hong Kong to China, we can see how Britain has viewed its interests in the world and sought to advance them.Some of these dramatic episodes record triumph, some failure, but all of them illustrate how the three pillars of the national interest - security, prosperity and values - have been the foundation of British foreign policy for half a century. Each story is illuminated by colourful anecdotes and insights drawn from Christopher Meyer's first-hand experience of international relations.Moreover, the book is a salutary reminder that foreign policy (what is to be done) and diplomacy (how it is to be done) begin and end with the national interest. And far from being the preserve of aloof aristocrats, the pursuit of our national interest is replete with intrigue, treachery, espionage, and danger - an extraordinary combination of high principle and low cunning, vice and virtue, all with the specific aim of 'getting our way'.
Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: the Inside Story of British Diplomacy
by Sir Christopher MeyerA highly informed insider's account of some of the 'honest men' as they sought, by fair means or foul, to get Britain its way in the world.GETTING OUR WAY recounts nine stories from Britain's diplomatic annals over the last five hundred years, in which the diplomats themselves are at the centre of the narrative. It is an inside account of their extraordinary experiences, sometimes in the face of physical danger, often at history's hinge. Be it Henry Killigrew's mission to Edinburgh in 1572, Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna, Our Man in Washington and the Nassau Deal, or the handover of Hong Kong to China, we can see how Britain has viewed its interests in the world and sought to advance them. Some of these dramatic episodes record triumph, some failure, but all of them illustrate how the three pillars of the national interest - security, prosperity and values - have been the foundation of British foreign policy for half a century. Each story is illuminated by colourful anecdotes and insights drawn from Christopher Meyer's first-hand experience of international relations. Moreover, the book is a salutary reminder that foreign policy and diplomacy begin and end with the national interest. And far from being the preserve of aloof aristocrats, the pursuit of our national interest is replete with an extraordinary combination of high principle and low cunning, vice and virtue, all with the specific aim of 'getting our way'.
Getting Open
by Tom Graham Rachel Graham CodyBill Garrett was the Jackie Robinson of college basketball. In 1947, the same year Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball, Garrett integrated big-time college basketball. By joining the basketball program at Indiana University, he broke the gentleman's agreement that had barred black players from the Big Ten, college basketball's most important conference. While enduring taunts from opponents and pervasive segregation at home and on the road, Garrett became the best player Indiana had ever had, an all-American, and, in 1951, the third African American drafted in the NBA. In basketball, as Indiana went so went the country. Within a year of his graduation from IU, there were six African American basketball players on Big Ten teams. Soon tens, then hundreds, and finally thousands walked through the door Garrett opened to create modern college and professional basketball. Unlike Robinson, however, Garrett is unknown today. Getting Open is more than "just" a basketball book. In the years immediately following World War II, sports were at the heart of America's common culture. And in the fledgling civil rights efforts of African Americans across the country, which would coalesce two decades later into the Movement, the playing field was where progress occurred publicly and symbolically. Indiana was an unlikely place for a civil rights breakthrough. It was stone-cold isolationist, widely segregated, and hostile to change. But in the late 1940s, Indiana had a leader of the largest black YMCA in the world, who viewed sports as a wedge for broader integration; a visionary university president, who believed his institution belonged to all citizens of the state; a passion for high school and college basketball; and a teenager who was, as nearly as any civil rights pioneer has ever been, the perfect person for his time and role. This is the story of how they came together to move the country toward getting open. Father-daughter authors Tom Graham and Rachel Graham Cody spent seven years reconstructing a full portrait of how these elements came together; interviewing Garrett's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, and digging through archives and dusty closets to tell this compelling, long-forgotten story.
Getting Off at Elysian Fields: Obituaries from the New Orleans Times-Picayune
by John PopeNo city in America knows how to mark death with more funerary panache than New Orleans. The pageants commemorating departed citizens are often in themselves works of performance art. A grand obituary remains key to this Stygian passage. And no one writes them like New Orleanian John Pope. Collected here are not just simple, mindless recitations of schools and workplaces, marriages, and mourners bereft. These pieces in Getting Off at Elysian Fields: Obituaries from the New Orleans “Times-Picayune” are full-blooded life stories with accounts of great achievements, dubious dabblings, unavoidable foibles, relationships gone sour, and happenstances that turn out to be life-changing. To be sure, there are stories about Carnival monarchs, great philanthropists, and a few politicians. But because New Orleans embraces eccentric behavior, there are stories of people who colored way outside the lines. For instance, there was the doctor who used his plasma to make his flowers grow, and the philanthropist who took money she had put aside for a fur coat to underwrite the lawsuit that desegregated Tulane University. A letter carrier everyone loved turned out to have been a spy during World War II, and a fledgling lawyer changed his lifelong thoughts about race when he saw blind people going into a Christmas party through separate doors—one for white people and another for African Americans. Then there was the punctilious judge who got down on his hands and knees to edge his lawn—with scissors. Because New Orleans funerals are distinctive, the author includes accounts of four that he covered, complete with soulful singing and even some dancing. As a popular, local bumper sticker indisputably declares, “New Orleans—We Put the Fun in Funeral.”
Getting Off: One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction
by Erica GarzaA courageous account of one woman’s unflinching and ultimately hopeful journey through sex and porn addiction.A fixation on porn and orgasm, strings of failed relationships and serial hook-ups with strangers, inevitable blackouts to blunt the shame – these are not things we often hear women share publicly, and not with the candor, eloquence and introspection Erica Garza brings to Getting Off. What sets this courageous and riveting account apart from your typical misery memoir is the absence of any precipitating trauma beyond the garden variety of hurt we’ve all had to endure in simply becoming a person ― reckoning with family, learning to be social, integrating what it means to be sexual. Whatever tenor of violence or abuse Erica’s life took on through her behavior was of her own making, fueled by fear, guilt, self-loathing, self-pity, loneliness, and the hopelessness those feelings brought on as she runs from one side of the world to the other in an effort to break her habits —from East Los Angeles to Hawaii and Southeast Asia, through the brothels of Bangkok and the yoga studios of Bali to disappointing stabs at therapy and twelve-steps back home. In these remarkable pages, Garza draws an evocative, studied portrait of the anxiety that fuels her obsessions, as well as the exhilaration and hope she begins to feel when she suspects she might be free of them. And yet there is no false or prepackaged sense of redemption here. Even her relationship with the man she will ultimately marry seems credibly, painfully rocky as it finds its legs with several false starts. Erica’s increasing sense of self-acceptance and peace by journey’s end feels utterly earned, and absent of recovery platitudes. In exploring the cultural taboos surrounding sex and porn from a female perspective, Garza offers a brave and necessary voice to our evolving conversations about addiction and the impact that Internet culture has had on us all.
Getting Lost
by Annie ErnauxThe diary of one of France’s most important, award-winning writers during the year she had a passionate and secret love affair with a Russian diplomat. Getting Lost is the diary Annie Ernaux kept during the year and a half she had a secret love affair with a younger, married man, a Russian diplomat. Her novel, Simple Passion, was based on this affair, but here her writing is immediate, unfiltered. <p><p>In these diaries it is 1989 and Annie is divorced with two grown sons, living outside of Paris and nearing fifty. Her lover escapes the city to see her there and Ernaux seems to survive only in expectation of these encounters, saying “his desire for me is the only thing I can be sure of.” She cannot write, she trudges distractedly through her various other commitments in the world, she awaits his next call; she lives only to feel desire and for the next rendezvous. When he is gone and the desire has faded, she feels that she is a step closer to death. <p><p>Lauded for her spare prose, Ernaux here removes all artifice, her writing pared down to its most naked and vulnerable. Getting Lost is as strong a book as any that she has written, a haunting, desperate view of strong and successful woman who seduces a man only to lose herself in love and desire. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
Getting Life: An Innocent Man’s 25-Year Journey from Prison to Peace
by Michael Morton“A devastating and infuriating book, more astonishing than any legal thriller by John Grisham” (The New York Times) about a young father who spent twenty-five years in prison for a crime he did not commit…and his eventual exoneration and return to life as a free man.On August 13, 1986, just one day after his thirty-second birthday, Michael Morton went to work at his usual time. By the end of the day, his wife Christine had been savagely bludgeoned to death in the couple’s bed—and the Williamson County Sherriff’s office in Texas wasted no time in pinning her murder on Michael, despite an absolute lack of physical evidence. Michael was swiftly sentenced to life in prison for a crime he had not committed. He mourned his wife from a prison cell. He lost all contact with their son. Life, as he knew it, was over. Drawing on his recollections, court transcripts, and more than 1,000 pages of personal journals he wrote in prison, Michael recounts the hidden police reports about an unidentified van parked near his house that were never pursued; the bandana with the killer’s DNA on it, that was never introduced in court; the call from a neighboring county reporting the attempted use of his wife’s credit card, which was never followed up on; and ultimately, how he battled his way through the darkness to become a free man once again. “Even for readers who may feel practically jaded about stories of injustice in Texas—even those who followed this case closely in the press—could do themselves a favor by picking up Michael Morton’s new memoir…It is extremely well-written [and] insightful” (The Austin Chronicle). Getting Life is an extraordinary story of unfathomable tragedy, grave injustice, and the strength and courage it takes to find forgiveness.
Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned, and What Millions of People Involved with Sociopaths Need to Know
by Mary Jo Buttafuoco"I think, every once in a while, about the life I should be living, the one I fully expected to be enjoying right about now. In the life I was supposed to have, my husband and I would be admiring the view from our waterfront home in the town where we were both born and raised. Good friends and neighbors would be next door, up the street, and all over the neighborhood. Our parents would live only blocks away, in our childhood homes. We'd be taking our grandchildren to the beach club on weekends, enjoying the fruits of our labors and looking forward to a peaceful retirement. That was the plan, anyway . . . but the whole world knows how that turned out."Mary Jo Buttafuoco's anonymous life as a suburban wife and mother in sleepy Massapequa, New York, on Long Island, ended in May 1992, when she was shot in the head on her own front porch by her husband's sixteen-year-old mistress. The 'Long Island Lolita' saga sparked a media frenzy that continues to this day. As the years passed and Mary Jo steadfastly stood by her man, Joey Buttafuoco, while he and Amy Fisher continued to make headlines, one question lingered in the minds of people everywhere: Why did she stay for so long? In Getting It Through My Thick Skull, Mary Jo finally answers that question fully and convincingly. The answer is simple, yet it took almost three decades of turmoil to discover for herself—she was married to a sociopath. Using her tragic and triumphant life lessons and never-before-told accounts of life with Joey, Mary Joe helps readers undrestand sociaopathic behavior and the emotional traps it springs on willing partners, and offers hope and help for the millions of people caught in the cycle of toxic relationships.In addition, readers will meet a new-and-improved Mary Jo, confident and at peace with her new life, and will be inspired by her comback. Through private details of the resiliency and rebuilding she has forged over the past seventeen years, Mary Jo shares for the first time: Her addiction to painkillers and her recovery through the Betty Ford Center Her overdue decision to leave Joey and start over again in California—3,000 miles from her support system Taking control of her physical, spiritual, and emotional health and learned to feel attractive and in control again Her highly controversial forgiveness of Amy Fisher The letters she recieved from both Amy and Joy, and her reactions to both How she found the courage to trust, believe, and find hope in a committed relationship once again The details of the new love in her life and the joys and challenges of raising a Brady Bunch—style family Includes a 16-page color insert from the Buttafuoco family album.
Getting into Guinness
by Larry OlmstedA fascinating mix of participatory journalism and history, Getting Into Guinness is the never-before told story of the bestselling copyrighted book of all time. Veteran reporter Larry Olmsted began a personal quest to break an existing world record, then to set another one, and soon he was fully immersed in the crazy and highly competitive world of record breaking. This is his behind-the-scenes report of the characters who created the famous record book and continue to make it wackier and wackier with every passing year. The enthralling 50-year history of the Guinness World Records is a story of phenomenal success, equally compelling failures, and extreme oddities. People all over the world strive to get into the book, often in the most unbelievable ways. Olmsted chronicles some of the funniest and most interesting Guinness record holders from a uniquely insider perspective: he himself is one of them. It all began with a gentleman's wager over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the grouse. The attempt to answer this question has sold more than 100 million books in dozens of languages and every corner of the globe. Today, there is heated competition for the record to hold the most records (currently held by Ashrita Furman, 114 records and counting), as well as classic curiosities that have lasted for decades (the tallest man in history is still Robert Wadlow, at 8' 11"). Interwoven into all of this is Olmsted's account of his own two successful recordsetting attempts, the first involving traveling halfway around the world with his golf shoes-"Greatest Distance Between Two Rounds of Golf on the Same Day"-and the second causing him to nearly lose his mind while playing the world's longest poker session. Why do people devote so much energy to get into the record book, often at great risk? Why do the most extreme fans devote their entire lives to this pursuit? Why is society so obsessed with records and record breaking? Why do Americans alone buy a million and a half copies of the famous book every year, propelling it to the top of the bestseller lists decade after decade? Why do readers of all generations remember the same record holding icons, the fattest twins, the longest fingernails, and the tallest man? After his own journey inside the world of record breaking, these are the questions Olmsted attempts to answer. In the tradition of the bestselling Word Freak-a mÉlange of travelogue, memoir, investigative journalism, and history-Getting Into Guinness is a must-read for anyone who has ever read Guinness World Records and wondered why someone would grow their fingernails for an entire lifetime.
Getting Good at Being You: Learning to Love Who God Made You to Be
by Lauren AlainaWith a little bit of country, a whole lot of faith, and a healthy dose of sass, award-winning singer-songwriter Lauren Alaina's debut book, Getting Good at Being You, invites you to take the road less traveled as you step right up to who God calls you to be.After years in the spotlight on American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, country music star Lauren Alaina has learned a thing or two about fighting self-doubt and feeling at home in her own skin. In Getting Good at Being You, Lauren shares stories about everything from lost loves to getting a nose ring to battling an eating disorder to grieving a loved one&’s death. Each story leads to practical tips, take-it-on-the-road strategies, and encouragement for your own personal and spiritual growth.In this book, you will be inspired to:speak to yourself with kindness and compassionchase the dreams that light your spirit on firecultivate rich relationships with family and friendsidentify self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviorsoffer forgiveness for yourself and othersThroughout the book, you will find:behind-the-scenes photos from Lauren's career in country music.lists, tips, and strategies to boost your self-confidence.prompts to help you dream big and run toward who you are.This beautiful book is a perfect gift forwomen who celebrate other womenbirthday celebrations or career promotionshigh school and college graduationsfans who want to know more about country music stardomEach of us deserves head-over-heels, can't-get-enough, shout-it-from-the-mountaintops self-love. By the final page of Getting Good at Being You, that's just the kind of confidence you'll have. As Lauren discovered, maybe life is getting good after all.