Publisher: Aiwass Books
Aleister Crowley's Diary of a Drug Fiend is one of the earliest and greatest of narcotic memoirs, and deserves to be mentioned alongside such addiction classics as Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Naked Lunch, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and Trainspotting.
What do you do when you feel like the ground you are standing on is crumbling? Jeanne Collins wasn’t always living with two feet in—but now she wants to share how she harnessed an abundance mindset to build the life she always wanted. In this memoir, Jeanne proves her mission statement: success requires perseverance and vulnerability. From the trials of childhood to the rush of romance; from the crush of heartbreak to the nervous excitement of two major pivots in her career—readers will relate to Jeanne’s honest and heartfelt insights on growing up, motherhood, love, and, yes, interior design. While she’s now found the balance and energy she long sought, it hasn’t always been easy. This is a story about overcoming an internal dialogue clouded by doubt and laying the foundation for a better future. A good life isn’t so different from a good home, after all—with skillful framing and mindful finishes, a holistic environment can be fostered inside and out. With heartfelt insights and hard-won lessons, Jeanne’s story is infused with a sense of love, abundance and hope. Jeanne’s philosophy strives to be one with the universe while staying grounded in what we can all control: trusting ourselves and committing to our personal blueprints. Hence feet, two of them in particular, planted firmly as the inspired designers of our own lives. To find out more about her journey, grab this book today!Show book
From the literary master and best-selling author of Townie, reflections on a life of challenges, contradictions, and fulfillments During bright summers in Louisiana, Andre Dubus III’s grandfather taught him that men’s work is hard. As an adult, whether tracking down a drug lord in Mexico as a bounty hunter or grappling with privilege while living with a rich girlfriend in New York City, Dubus worked—at being a better worker and a better human being. In Ghost Dogs, Dubus’s nonfiction prowess is on full display in his retelling of his own successes, failures, triumphs, and pain. In his longest essay, “If I Owned a Gun,” Dubus reflects on the empowerment and shame he felt in keeping a gun, and his decision, ultimately, to give it up. Elsewhere, he writes of a violent youth and of settled domesticity and fatherhood, about the omnipresent expectations and contradictions of masculinity, about the things writers remember and those they forget. Drawing upon kindred literary spirits from Rilke to Rumi to Tim O’Brien, Ghost Dogs renders moments of personal revelation with emotional generosity and stylistic grace, ultimately standing as essential witness to the work of living a good life and testimony to the art of the essay. “Andre Dubus III’s idea of an essay is tantalizingly simple: tell something important that happened to him—suddenly having big money and not knowing quite how to cope with that, loving his long-divorced parents, growing up poor and outlasting it, not loving his dog as much as he worries he should. Here is human life often cloaked in transporting mystery. Dubus possesses a rare and empathetic brilliance.”—Richard FordShow book
The story of a village, a doctor and her patients. Arriving in the small village of Killenaule, Co. Tipperary – husband and children in tow – Dr Lucia Gannon was a blow-in determined to build a practice that would provide solace for the sick, worried and confused. Journey with her as she builds a life in this tight-knit community. Meet the wily pensioner trying to pass an eye exam to continue her career as a dangerous driver; the lonely widower who needs someone to take the time to listen; the stressed teenager coping with an eating disorder and the frightened elderly woman who doesn't want to leave her home. Discover what it means to be the one people bring their problems to – problems that are not always medical, but still require discretion, kindness and a willingness to provide a listening ear to those on the tricky journey of life.Show book
‘Secrets Never to be Told’ is an extraordinary story, compellingly told, which unravels a century and a half of family secrets. It reveals how being born illegitimate shaped the lives of two women – one of them, the author. Starting with a letter revealing a mystery inheritance, the author goes on a five- year quest taking her from Victorian Cambridge to modern Vancouver. She uncovers how her cousin Jessie emigrated to Canada, one of thousands of female domestic servants exported as ‘surplus’ women before the First World War. Woven alongside the contemporary detective investigation on the trail of one immigrant’s untold story, is that of the author’s strange 1960s childhood of social isolation in a Midlands city, obsessed with a world seen through TV - and with the Beatles.Show book
“Jacoby writes with wit and vigor, affectionately resurrecting a man whose life and work are due for reconsideration” (The Boston Globe). During the Gilded Age, which saw the dawn of America’s enduring culture wars, Robert Green Ingersoll was known as “the Great Agnostic.” The nation’s most famous orator, he raised his voice on behalf of Enlightenment reason, secularism, and the separation of church and state with a power unmatched since America’s revolutionary generation. When he died in 1899, even his religious enemies acknowledged that he might have aspired to the US presidency had he been willing to mask his opposition to religion. To the question that retains its controversial power today—was the United States founded as a Christian nation?—Ingersoll answered an emphatic no. In this provocative biography, Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, restores Ingersoll to his rightful place in an American intellectual tradition extending from Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine to the current generation of “new atheists.” Jacoby illuminates the ways in which America’s often-denigrated and forgotten secular history encompasses issues, ranging from women’s rights to evolution, as potent and divisive today as they were in Ingersoll’s time. Ingersoll emerges in this portrait as an indispensable public figure who devoted his life to that greatest secular idea of all—liberty of conscience belonging to the religious and nonreligious alike. “Jacoby’s goal of elucidating the life and work of Robert Ingersoll is admirably accomplished. She offers a host of well-chosen quotations from his work, and she deftly displays the effect he had on others. For instance: after a young Eugene V. Debs heard Ingersoll talk, Debs accompanied him to the train station and then—just so he could continue the conversation—bought himself a ticket and rode all the way from Terre Haute to Cincinnati. Readers today may well find Ingersoll’s company equally entrancing.” —Jennifer Michael Hecht, The New York Times Book ReviewShow book
In this hard-hitting study of political power, award-winning journalist David Gordon studies the political downfall of Ian Paisley and his son and shines an uncompromising light on Northern Ireland's political elite. Ian Paisley, firebrand Ulster Protestant preacher and politician, spent forty years denouncing compromise as treachery. Then, in March 2007, he agreed a power-sharing pack with Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Provisional IRA. The historic deal earned him plaudits from around the world and the top job in Northern Ireland's new devolved administration. His beloved son Ian Junior took up a ministerial post by his side. Yet within a year, this proud family dynasty had crumbled and collapsed. First Ian Junior resigned as a minister, after months of controversy over his links to a property developer. Then Paisley himself announced his retirement — despite having made repeated pledges to serve a full four years in office. In this fantastic work of investigative journalism, award-winning journalist David Gordon pinpoints the structural flaws in the House of Paisley and exposes the murky underworld of Northern Irish politics. Editorial Reviews 'David Gordon … in a fine piece of investigative journalism, doggedly following his nose, taking advantage of freedom of information, and with good contacts in the DUP and Free Presbyterian Church (FPC), seeks to explain why Ian Paisley fell at what appeared to be the moment of triumph.' Maurice Hayes, Belfast Telegraph 'David Gordon details where the storm came from and why it was so damaging to father and son in The Fall of the House of Paisley. While some readers will — to be blunt — enjoy reliving the difficulties faced by such a pair of individuals, there's more to Gordon's fine book than schadenfreude.' William Scholes, Irish News 'Gordon's account is as sharp as a blade, cutting deep into the murky world of Stormont.' Fachtna Kelly and Julian Fleming, Sunday Business Post Agenda The Fall of the House of Paisley: Contents Introduction Chronology - Welcome to the House of Fun - The Ghost of Paisley Past - With God on our Side - Dodgy Foundations - Causeway for Concern - Junior in Bother - Senior in Bother - Land Deal Lobbying - Out with the Old - St Andrews Bombshell - Other People's Money - Surprise in Dromore - All Fall Down - Legacy Matters - Life after PaisleyNotesShow book
