Other books that might interest you

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  A Scent of Heaven

  Nkechi Ani Igwe

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  A Scent of Heaven is food for the soul lost in the dark night of the soul. This body of poems heals the wounds of the hopeless on every level-- many have found freedom in this text. Written as an ekphrastic text, the cover met Igwe with the telling of her story, and the stories of her people. These words are a radically honest approach to the altar of the soul, and the words invite you to join in this recounting of the body, mind and Spirit. Written by a living ancestor for other living ancestors--those who are wading the deep and dark at the bottom of the sea, here they found me a bit of me. This work is heavily influenced by Igwe's spiritual journey and her life existing between cultures: a quintessential, Nigerian brand of Christianity and her forays into the world of Odinani and ancestral veneration.

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  Italian Hours

  Henry James

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  Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of "Italian Hours" by Henry James. This audiobook transports you to the picturesque landscapes and vibrant cities of Italy. With James' evocative prose and keen observations, you'll embark on a sensory journey through the art, culture, and history of this captivating country. The narrative offers a rich exploration of the intersection between travel, literature, and personal reflection. Through its vivid descriptions and cultural insights, it provides a window into the beauty and complexity of Italy, making it an ideal choice for those who crave a literary travel experience.

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  Tough Crowd - How I Made and...

  Graham Linehan

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  'A must-read. Funny and utterly compelling' Jonathan Ross
  Having cut his teeth in music journalism, Graham Linehan became the finest sitcom writer of his generation. He captured the comedy zeitgeist not just as the co-creator of Father Ted but also with The IT Crowd and Black Books, winning five Baftas and a lifetime achievement award.
  Then his life took an unexpected turn. When he championed an unfashionable cause, TV commissioners no longer returned his emails, showbiz pals lost his number and his marriage collapsed.
  In an emotionally charged memoir that is by turns hilarious and harrowing, he lets us into the secrets of the writing room and colourfully describes the high-octane atmosphere of a sitcom set. But he also berates an industry where there was no one to stand by his side when he needed help.
  Bruised but not beaten, he explains why he chose the hill of women and girls' rights to die on – and why, despite the hardship of cancellation, he's not coming down from it any time soon.

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  A Legend of Old Egypt - From...

  Boleslaw Prus

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  Aleksander Głowacki who wrote under the nom de plume Boleslaw Prus was born on 20th August 1847 at Hrubieszów in the Kingdom of Poland, at that time, controlled by the Russian Empire. 
  At three his mother died and then at nine his father.  Female relatives helped raise him but at 15 he joined the Polish uprising against the might of Imperial Russia.  Wounded on the battlefield, arrested and imprisoned, he was later released into the care of a relative and resumed secondary school and then Warsaw University but poverty forced him to leave after two years.  At some point he developed agoraphobia which often caused problems. 
  In 1869, he enrolled in the Forestry Department at Puławy but was soon sacked and so he began a system of self-education that led to work as a newspaper columnist on a wide-ranging series of topics that eventually became the ‘Weekly Chronicles’ and spanned 40 years. 
  With his finances now stabilized he married and then adopted his late brother-in-law’s son.  
  It seems he had doubts as to the scale of his talents and early on adopted the name ‘Boleslaw Prus’ for both his journalistic and literary offerings. 
  His work as a short-story writer met with much acclaim. He wrote several dozen of them, originally published in newspapers and ranging in length from micro-story to novella. His keen observation of everyday life and sense of humor are evident in them.  
  During his career he also wrote novels. After ‘Pharoah’, in 1895, he embarked on a four-month journey taking in Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg, Rapperswil in Switzerland, where he stayed for two months, and his final destination, Paris.  Here his agoraphobia was so bad he couldn’t cross the Seine.  
  However, his writing continued and in 1911 his novel ‘Changes’, though uncompleted, began to be serialised.  It was never finished. 
  Boleslaw Prus died on 19th May 1912, at his Warsaw apartment.  He was 64.  A National Hero, thousands attended both his funeral service and interment.

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  Freddie Flintoff: Coming Home -...

  Andrew Flintoff

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  THIS AUTUMN'S MUST-HAVE AUTOBIOGRAPHY'A split-second decision is all it takes. A decision that can change the course of a cricket match. Maybe even the course of your life.'In Coming Home, Freddie Flintoff zeroes-in on the crucial moments that made him - some highly celebrated, others less well-known, away from the cameras, but all pivotal in shaping the man he is.As a boy, growing up in Preston, Fred fell in love with the game of cricket. It gave him his route through life; out on the pitch he felt at home. Through his eyes we see him picking up a bat for the first time, his early years on the field; that incredible performance to win the Ashes against the Aussies in 2005; face-downs with rivals; run-ins with the media; the doctors telling him he can't continue to play. On and off the pitch, in and out of the spotlight, Fred tells the whole story.After retiring, Fred thought he'd left the game behind, relaunching himself in the world of entertainment, but following the car crash that turned his life upside down, it was cricket to which he returned.Coming Home is a reflection on a unique life, a story like no other, and a love letter to the game that made him. Honest, open, reflective and funny, like the man himself, this is Freddie Flintoff, in full, in his own words.

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  Twenty-Six Men and a Girl - From...

  Maxim Gorky

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  Alexei Maximovich Peshkov was born on 28th March 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. 
  Better known as Maxim Gorky he was orphaned at 11 and ran away from home at 12.  At 19 he had already attempted suicide and thereafter travelled, by foot, across the Russian Empire for 5 years. 
  His first book ‘Essays & Stories’ in 1898 was a sensation and so began a long career as an author of short stories, novels and plays.  Gorky saw writing as a moral and political act that would help to change the unjust world around him.  He was an ardent early advocate of the emerging Marxist movement and publicly opposed the Tsarist regime leading several times to his arrest.  
  In 1904 he began his own theatre but the censor banned every play and Gorky was forced to abandon the project. 
  But Gorky was a financially successful author, editor, and playwright and gave monies to political parties as well as for civil rights and social reform.  The brutal shooting of workers, which set in motion the Revolution of 1905, pushed Gorky more decisively toward radical solutions.  
  In 1906 he went to the United States to raise funds for the Bolsheviks. Those experiences including a scandal over travelling with his lover and not his wife deepened his contempt for the ‘bourgeois soul.’ 
  Gorky now moved to Capri in Italy, both for health reasons and to escape the increasingly repressive times in Russia.  
  An amnesty for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty saw him return to Russia in 1914. His politics remained close to the Bolshevik cause.  But soon, after the 1918 revolution, his essays referred to Lenin as a tyrant for his senseless arrests and repression.  He was soon appealing to the outside world for food aid after the catastrophic crop failure. 
  In October 1921 Gorky returned to Italy, now in Fascist hands, and settled in Sorrento until 1932.  His health worsened with the onset of tuberculosis. 
  He wrote several successful books there but now decided to find an understanding with the communist regime. Stalin invited him home and his return was hailed as a major propaganda victory.  He was decorated with the Order of Lenin, and a province, a park, and various streets re-named in his honour. 
  But he had his faults too.  In 1933, Gorky co-edited a book on the White Sea-Baltic Canal and denied even a single prisoner died during its construction, but thousands had. As well, knowing that some Nazis were homosexual, a phrase was attributed to him that said ‘exterminate all homosexuals and fascism will vanish’.  Although he was himself was quoting another he was decidedly homophobic. 
  With the increase of Stalinist repression in 1935 Gorky was placed under unannounced house arrest. 
  Maxim Gorky died on the 18th June 1936 from pneumonia.  He was 68. 
  Stalin and Molotov were among those who carried Gorky's urn of ashes at his funeral.

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