Other books that might interest you

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  Distance in our blood

  Marc Rogatschnig

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  Still grappling with his father's disappearance as a young boy, Marc is unexpectedly invited to join him on a year-long overland journey from Europe to South Africa. As the world counted down to 2000, estranged father and son set out from Austria on temperamental Ukrainian sidecar motorbikes — the first to cross the hemispheres this way. 
  It was a journey of grit and daring, tested by the roads, laws and climates of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. But the real distance to close was the one between Hans and Marc — the unspoken pain and the past that had come between them, and the hope that this reunion might finally heal it. 
  It took Marc fifteen years to write this raw, true story of a broken boyhood, a tragic reunion of estranged men, and the distance between father and son. Harrowing at times, life-affirming throughout — a road trip which never truly ended. 
  An epic journey to heal a broken relationship

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  Behind the Scenes - The Dramatic...

  Angela John

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  Philip Burton (1904-95) is best remembered as the schoolmaster responsible for training and transforming his pupil Richard Jenkins into Richard Burton, world-famous star of stage and screen. Together they produced a remarkable symbiosis. The stage-struck Philip Burton was present behind the scenes for the rest of the actor's life, intervening at crucial moments to ensure consummate stage performances in, for example, Coriolanus, Hamlet and Camelot. This biography, drawing upon a number of previously unseen sources, provides a fresh angle on this compelling story. And by placing Philip Burton's story centre stage, a remarkable figure also emerges in his own right. In a life that virtually spanned the twentieth century, he demonstrated resilience and transatlantic triumph against the odds.
  
  Like his best-known protégé, he was born into an impoverished south Wales mining family. Alongside teaching, he acted, wrote and produced plays and in 1945, with wireless at its height, he became a BBC radio producer. He worked on almost 200 radio programmes, encouraging newcomers and producing work by Dylan Thomas. He wrote scripts for the fledgling television and penned its first 'soap.' Reinventing himself in the mid-1950s, Philip Burton moved to the United States where, after dabbling in the film industry and working as a theatre director, he became the inspirational first director of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. He took American citizenship and travelled across the States, delivering sparkling Shakespearean lecture-recitals. He published five books, living in Key West, Florida from the 1970s. Philip Burton died in 1995 aged ninety, his expertise and encouragement having enabled numerous aspiring actors and writers to flourish on both sides of the Atlantic.

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  Exemplary Couple An - Saint...

  Valentina Di Marco

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  An Exemplary Couple tells the inspiring story of St. Gianna Molla’s marriage to Pietro, and her heroic act of love for her baby, Gianna Emmanuela Molla. Valentina Di Marco’s extensive study of their lives draws heavily from the many letters Gianna and Pietro wrote to each other. This book was first published in Italian and is now published in English with the help of St. Gianna and Pietro’s youngest child. Within these pages, their lives are chronicled from their courtship, engagement, and marriage to their parenting years. You will get a glimpse of how their love for each other grew as they encouraged each other in striving for holiness and a greater love of God. Valentina also shares new details of Pietro’s life as he endeavored to provide for his family during a difficult time in Italy’s history and to faithfully support Gianna through her illness and the decision to save their baby.  
  When reading the lives of the saints, it is often easy to feel that the virtue and sanctity of these holy men and women are somehow out of reach for someone in our present times. However, St. Gianna and Pietro Molla’s story has the opposite effect. Through this book, you will find the simple, yet holy life of a couple devoted to the true call of the marriage vocation: to help each other get to Heaven.  
  As the Church Militant, we have a duty to fight for a culture of life in a society that has widely accepted a culture of death through the rejection of the sanctity of marriage, the family, and the sanctity of life itself. To effectively rally against this rejection of Truth, we must arm ourselves with the virtues exemplified by the saints; learning from St. Gianna Molla and her husband Pietro is a sure way to promote a culture of life. 

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  Eyes Shut Mouth Closed

  Jey Linh Tran

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  This is the true story of my two-year journey to escape Vietnam, seven years after the end of the Vietnam War. At just nine years old, I was a naive village boy, knowing little beyond the only home I had ever known. Along with 27 others—including my father and older sister—I set sail on a small, overcrowded fishing boat, embarking on a perilous voyage that would ultimately lead me to America. The journey was marked by immense hardship, uncertainty, and sacrifice. Our family was torn apart. My mother and two younger siblings remained in Vietnam, separated from us for 15 long years before we were finally reunited. The pain of that separation shaped me in ways I could never have imagined. Though I did not endure it alone, I learned to transform hardship into resilience, using each challenge as a stepping stone toward a better future. Along the way, strangers—some of whom I will never forget—offered help in ways I could never have expected. My father's courageous decision to flee with my sister and me was driven by hope—a belief in the promise of greater opportunities and a brighter future. But even after reaching America, our struggles were far from over. We battled language barriers, cultural isolation, and economic hardship, fighting to rebuild our lives from nothing. And after years of longing, we finally pieced our family back together. I invite you to join me on this journey—a story of perseverance, hope, and the unbreakable human spirit. Through these pages, I seek to honor the voices of the countless Vietnamese "boat people" who perished at sea, never reaching their destination. In sharing my experiences, I hope to inspire others to keep moving forward, to grow stronger with each challenge, and to uplift those who can no longer speak for themselves. No matter the obstacles, we must press on, turning pain into purpose and hardship into hope.

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  Wu - The Chinese Empress Who...

  Jonathan Clements

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  Empress Wu Zetian (624-705 AD) was the only woman to be the sovereign ruler of imperial China. A teenage concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong, she seduced his son while the emperor lay dying. Recalled from a nunnery as part of an intricate court power-game, she caused the deaths of two lady rivals, before securing her enthronement as the Emperor Gaozong's consort. She ruled in the name of her husband and two eldest sons, presiding over the pinnacle of the Silk Road, before proclaiming herself the founder of a new dynasty. Worshipped as the Sage Mother of Mankind and reviled as the Treacherous Fox, she was deposed aged 79, after angry courtiers murdered her two young lovers. The subject of countless books, plays, and films, Empress Wu remains a feminist icon and a bugbear of Chinese conservatism. Jonathan Clements weighs the evidence of her life and legacy: so charismatic that she could rise from nothing to the height of medieval power, so hated that her own children left her tombstone blank.

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  The Man Behind the Cane -...

  Paul Quigley

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  In 1856, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks assaulted Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the United States Capitol, defending his family's honor and the rights of slaveholders. In beating Sumner unconscious, Brooks fueled a nationwide clash over slavery that ended in civil war.Southern historian Paul Quigley brings Brooks to life more vividly than ever, revealing how his personal struggles shaped the fateful decision to attack Sumner. Raised in the slaveholding culture of honor and scarred by missed opportunities for glory in the Mexican-American War, Brooks came to believe in the redemptive power of violence. Quigley uses Brooks's life to examine the deeper currents propelling the United States to the brink of destruction. Brooks's story reveals the increasingly fraught relationship between words and violence. With the caning, Brooks sparked an ominous national debate over the righteousness of bloodshed in a polarized nation.Examining enduring issues of masculinity, honor, and free speech, The Man Behind the Cane shows how words and violent behavior became perilously entangled in the fight over slavery and casts new light on the origins of the Civil War—and the ongoing dangers of political violence in our own time.

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