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  Stilicho - The Vandal Who Saved...

  Siân Hughes

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  A military history of the campaigns of Stilicho, the army general who became one of the most powerful men in the Western Roman Empire. Flavius Stilicho lived in one of the most turbulent periods in European history. The Western Empire was finally giving way under pressure from external threats, especially from Germanic tribes crossing the Rhine and Danube, as well as from seemingly ever-present internal revolts and rebellions. Ian Hughes explains how a Vandal (actually, Stilicho had a Vandal father and Roman mother) came to be given almost total control of the Western Empire and describes his attempts to save both the Western Empire and Rome itself from the attacks of Alaric the Goth and other barbarian invaders. Stilicho is one of the major figures in the history of the Late Roman Empire, and his actions following the death of the emperor Theodosius the Great in 395 may have helped to divide the Western and Eastern halves of the Roman Empire on a permanent basis. Yet he is also the individual who helped maintain the integrity of the West before the rebellion of Constantine III in Britain, and the crossing of the Rhine by a major force of Vandals, Sueves, and Alans—both in A.D. 406—set the scene for both his downfall and execution in 408, and the later disintegration of the West. Despite his role in this fascinating and crucial period of history, there is no other full-length biography of him in print.

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  Basketball Junkie - A Memoir

  Chris Herren, Bill Reynolds

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  At basketball-crazy Durfee High School in Fall River, Massachusetts, junior guard Chris Herren carried his family's and the city's dreams on his skinny frame. His grandfather, father, and older brother had created their own sports legends in a declining city; he was the last, best hope for a career beyond the shuttered mills and factories. Herren was heavily recruited by major universities, chosen as a McDonald's All-American, featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story, and at just seventeen years old became the central figure in Fall River Dreams, an acclaimed book about the 1994 Durfee team's quest for the state championship.   
  Leaving Fall River for college, Herren starred on Jerry Tarkanian's Fresno State Bulldogs team of talented misfits, which included future NBA players as well as future convicted felons. His gritty, tattooed, hip-hop persona drew the ire of rival fans and more national attention: Rolling Stone profiled him, 60 Minutes interviewed him, and the Denver Nuggets drafted him. When the Boston Celtics acquired his contract, he lived the dream of every Massachusetts kid—but off the court Herren was secretly crumbling, as his alcohol and drug use escalated and his life spiraled out of control. 
  Twenty years later, Chris Herren was married to his high-school sweetheart, the father of three young children, and a heroin junkie. His basketball career was over, consumed by addictions; he had no job, no skills, and was a sadly familiar figure to those in Fall River who remembered him as a boy, now prowling the streets he once ruled, looking for a fix. One day, for a time he cannot remember, he would die. In his own words, Chris Herren tells how he nearly lost everything and everyone he loved, and how he found a way back to life. Powerful, honest, and dramatic, Basketball Junkie is a remarkable memoir, harrowing in its descent, and heartening in its return.

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  It's Only Rock 'n' Roll - 30...

  Jo Wood

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  From the former wife of the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist, “an interesting alternate view of the Stones legacy” (Publishers Weekly). 
   
  In this behind-the-scenes portrait of one of the biggest rock bands in history, Jo Wood comes clean about her three decades as the girlfriend and eventually the wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. This startlingly honest, laugh-out-loud memoir vividly describes life on tour, in the studio, at the legendary parties—and every raucous moment in between. 
   
  At the age of sixteen, Jo burst onto the British modeling scene and became a fixture at London’s most glamorous parties. A few years later, just twenty-two years old and a single mom, she met Ronnie Wood and her life changed forever. 
   
  Jo paints an astonishing picture of the sex, drugs, booze, groupies, and—above all—the fun that filled her thirty years within the Stones’ inner circle. She offers intimate portraits of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jerry Hall, and Patti Hansen and recalls the excitement of getting to know A-list celebrities like Kate Moss, Andy Warhol, Johnny Depp, and Slash. 
   
  Jo also opens up about her life with Ronnie: their love affair, the demands of being a mother by day and a wild child by night, and coping with Ronnie’s difficult behavior as his addictions consumed him. She reveals her heartbreaking account of what happened when Ronnie left her for an eighteen-year-old waitress, explaining how she was able to forgive and find new happiness. 
   
  Including photographs from Jo’s personal collection, It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll is a compelling piece of rock ‘n’ roll history from a woman with a backstage pass and front-row seat.

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  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

  Mark Twain

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  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived.Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid. Tom dirties his clothes in a fight and is made to whitewash the fence the next day as punishment. He cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He then trades the treasures for Sunday School tickets which one normally receives for memorizing verses, redeeming them for a Bible, much to the surprise and bewilderment of the superintendent who thought "it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises—a dozen would strain his capacity, without a doubt."Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get "engaged" by kissing him. But their romance collapses when she learns Tom has been "engaged" previously to Amy Lawrence. Shortly after Becky shuns him, he accompanies Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night, where they witness the murder of Dr. Robinson.

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  My Secret Life Vol 4 Chapter 7

  Dominic Crawford Collins

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  My Secret Life, the gargantuan erotic autobiography of a wealthy Victorian English gentleman has been described as 'the strangest book ever written'. Comprising one-hundred-and-eighty-four chapters and over one million words, the epic confessional describes in eloquent and explicit detail the exploits of a man (who refers to himself simply as 'Walter'), whose life was devoted to the pursuit of erotic adventure and carnal pleasure.Now for the first time in the history of this infamous erotic masterpiece, film composer Dominic Crawford Collins is producing a fully scored narration of the complete unabridged text. More 'audiofilm' than audiobook, each chapter and scene has its own unique musical accompaniment, reflecting the author's changing emotional landscape and offering the listener a truly immersive erotic audio experience.Vol. 4 Chapter VIIA big maid-servant. • A peep up from below. • Home late, dusty and stupid. • Chastity suspected. • Consequences. • Dismissed. • My sympathy. • The soldier lover. • Going to supper. • At the Café de l'E*r**e. • In the cab returning. • Wet feet. • On the seat. • Mutual grasping and gropings.

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  Winston S Churchill: The...

  Martin Gilbert

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  Volume three of this authoritative Churchill biography chronicles his years of triumphant leadership in the Admiralty during World War I.   Acclaimed British historian Sir Martin Gilbert continues the official biography of Sir Winston S. Churchill the eventful period between 1914 and 1916, with a full account of his achievements as first lord of the Admiralty during the Great War. These include Churchill’s efforts to prolong the siege of Antwerp, his support for the use of air power, and his part in the early development of the tank. It shows the forcefulness with which he argued for an offensive naval policy, first against Germany, then against Turkey.   Gilbert examines the political crisis of May 1915, during which the Conservative Party forced Asquith to form a coalition government. The Conservatives insisted that Churchill leave the center of war policymaking for a position of increasing political isolation. In the next seven months, while the Gallipoli campaign was being fought, Churchill served as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with no authority over military or naval policy.   Resigning from the cabinet in November 1915, Churchill was appointed lieutenant-colonel, commanding an infantry battalion in the trenches of the Western Front. In May 1916, he returned from the trenches, hoping to reenter political life, but his repeated attempts to regain his once-substantial influence were unsuccessful.  “A milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement . . . rightly regarded as the most comprehensive life ever written of any age.” —Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War  “The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written.” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times

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