Publisher: AB Books
For more than 2,000 years, the fables of the Greek slave known as Aesop have entertained readers with their wise reflections on human nature and their insightful, often witty "morals."
In Death on the River, best-selling true crime author Diane Fanning recounts a tragic kayak accident that left one man dead — and his fiancee arrested for his murder.A dream getaway. A real-life nightmare....It seemed like the perfect romantic afternoon: a kayaking trip for two on the Hudson River. But it ended in tragedy when beautiful, blonde Angelika Graswald called 911 to report that her fiance, the handsome and athletic Vincent Viafore, had fallen into the choppy frigid waters. Authorities assumed it was an accident. But when the bereft bride-to-be posted videos of herself doing cartwheels on social media — shortly before Vincent's body was found — suspicions of murder rose to the surface....After hours of questioning, Angelika made several shocking admissions. She said she felt "trapped" and fed up with Vincent's "demanding" sexual lifestyle: the nightlife, the strip clubs, the threeways."I wanted him dead," she had said, even though she insisted that she didn't kill him.But as more lurid details emerged — including a $250,000 life insurance policy — a killer question remained: Did Angelika remove the plug of her fiance's boat...and knock away his paddle as he sank?Show book
In a New York Times op-ed, actress Angelina Jolie disclosed she had a preventative double mastectomy because she carries a greater genetic risk of developing breast cancer. Gwen Ifill talks with genetic counselor Beth Peshkin of Georgetown University and Dr. Kenneth Offit of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center in New York.Show book
Mike and his wife, Barbara, moved to Lincoln, Illinois, in 1972. The town of 17,000 was charming, friendly, and safe. As employees of Lincoln College, a small, private junior college, they quickly grew to enjoy the subtle pleasures of small-town living. Then the campus was hit with a series of burglaries and a student disappeared. Finally, the murders began. This is Mike Hartnett’s personal story, memories that have taken him more than forty years to write. This is not a true crime exposé or a who-dunnit mystery. This is simply a story about one man on the periphery of a series of events that devastate a community for a time. It is a story about the guilt that lingers and the questions that remain. About the Author: Mike Hartnett was a retired high school English/Speech teacher and business journalist (magazine columnist and editor and newsletter publisher), winning awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. He led a memoir-writing group for the Douglas County Senior Citizen Center and was a co-leader of a men’s writing group at the Douglas County Jail. Mike is the co-author of a play, Worthy of the Name, which was presented at Chicago’s Cultural Affairs Center, and a collaborator of a readers’ theater production, Prose & Cons, Voices From Behind Bars.Show book
Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. Between the Russian Empire and Europe warily sits Ukraine. Her own history has been brush stroked either by periods of independence or under the oppressive yoke of other more powerful and belligerent neighbours. It’s authors, almost always cited as ‘Russian’, or from ‘Little Russia’ are diverse and brilliant. Some of them stayed, some moved to other lands but always their works harbour part of their Ukrainian souls despite the ever-changing territorial borders. 01 - The Top 10 - The Ukrainians - An Introduction 2 - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol 3 - The Shades, A Phantasy by Vladimir Korolenko 4 - Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov 5 - A Witches Den by Helena Blavatsky 6 - The Informer by Joseph Conrad 7 - The Signal by Vsevolod Garshin 8 - The General's Will by Vera Jelihovsky 9 - The Blind Ones by Isaac Babel 10 - The Revolutionist by Mikhail Petrovich Artzybashev 11 - Dethroned by Ignaty PotapenkoShow book
Three years ago, John Schwartz, a national correspondent for The New York Times, got the call that every parent hopes never to receive: His thirteen-year-old son, Joe, was in the hospital following a suicide attempt. Mustering the courage to come out to his classmates, Joe had delivered a tirade about homophobic and sexist attitudes that was greeted with unease and confusion by his fellow students. Hours later, he took an overdose of pills. After a couple of weeks in the hospital and in the locked ward of a psychiatric treatment center, Joe returned to his family. As he recovered, his parents were dismayed by his school's inability to address-or reluctance to deal with-Joe's needs. Determined to help their son feel more comfortable in his own skin, Schwartz and his wife, Jeanne, launched their own search for services and groups that could help Joe know he wasn't alone. In Oddly Normal, Schwartz writes of his family's struggles within a culture that is changing fast-but not fast enough. Interweaving his narrative with contextual chapters on psychology, law, and common questions, Schwartz shares crucial lessons about helping gay kids learn how to cope in a potentially hostile world. From buying rhinestone-studded toddler shoes to creating a "Joseph manual" for Joe's teachers; from finding a hairdresser who stocks purple dye to fighting erroneous personality disorder diagnoses, Oddly Normal offers a deeply personal look into one boy's growing up. Joe, far happier today than he was three years ago, collaborated on this work.Show book
Lady Gaga's old friend and former DJ Brendan Jay Sullivan paints a vivid picture of the downtown scene from which she emerged.Brendan Jay Sullivan was an up-and-coming DJ in New York City when he met Stefani Germanotta, then a struggling artist, in 2006. She was a go-go dancer who sewed her own outfits but had bigger ambitions—she wanted nothing less than to take over the music world.In this intimate portrait of the budding star who would soon catapult to fame and fortune, the author describes afternoons sitting with Gaga on the floor of her bare Lower East Side apartment, drinking wine from pint glasses and plotting out the pop stardom that awaited her.Filled with stories of love and heartbreak among Gaga and Sullivan and their circle of aspiring musicians and performers, and set against the vibrant backdrop of the downtown bars and parties of the mid-aughts, Rivington Was Ours is both a love letter to New York and a glimpse behind the veil of one of the biggest musical icons of her generation.Show book
