Other books that might interest you

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  I Love You More Than You Know -...

  Jonathan Ames

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  “Utterly delightful” essays from the creator of the HBO’s Bored to Death reveal intimate details of his life as a famously neurotic New York writer (Brendan Halpin, Los Angeles Times).   Jonathan Ames has drawn comparisons across the literary spectrum, from David Sedaris to F. Scott Fitzgerald to P.G. Wodehouse, and his books, as well as his abilities as a performer, have made him a favorite on the Late Show with David Letterman. Whether he’s chasing deranged cockroaches around his apartment, kissing a beautiful actress on the set of an avant-garde film, finding himself stuck perilously on top of a fence in the middle of the night in Memphis, or provoking fights with huge German men, Jonathan Ames has an uncanny knack for getting himself into outlandish situations.   In I Love You More Than You Know, Ames once again turns his own adventures, neuroses, joys, heartaches, and insights into profound and hilarious tales. Alive with love and tenderness for his son, his parents, his great-aunt—and even strangers in bars—Ames looks beneath the surface of our world to find the beauty in the perverse, the sweetness in loneliness, and the humor in pain in essays that are “both poignant and silly—an irresistible mix” (John Dicker, Philadelphia Weekly).

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  Charlie - A Home Child's Life in...

  Beryl Young

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  The story of the 100,000 British children who came to Canada as child immigrants between 1870 and 1938 is not well known. Yet the descendants of these “Home Children” number over four million people in Canada today. The author is one of them. Charlie was her father.  Charlie is a compelling account of an English boy who is sent to an orphanage following the death of his father because his heartbroken mother is too poor to feed her children. Separated from his family, Charlie works his way out of poverty to eventually become a high-ranking member of the RCMP. Charlie’s story, like many others, is an inspiring part of our Canadian heritage, and will fascinate adults as well as children.

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  Jump into the Valley of the Shadow

  Dwayne T. Burns, Leland Burns

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  A paratrooper’s memoir of survival and close-quarters combat in WWII: “Well worth reading” (Flight Journal).   When Dwayne Burns turned eighteen, he decided he wanted to fight alongside America’s best. He joined the paratroopers and was assigned to the 508th Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. Little did he suspect that a year later he’d be soaring in a flak-riddled C-47 over Normandy, part of the very spearhead of the Allied drive to seize back Europe.   Burns landed behind German lines during the dark early hours of D-Day and gradually found other survivors of his division. The paratroopers fought on every side in a confused running battle through the hedgerows, finally making a stand in a surrounded farmhouse. With one room reserved for their growing piles of corpses, the paratroopers held their ground until finally relieved by infantry advancing from the beaches.   After being pulled out of Normandy, the airborne troops were launched into Holland as part of Montgomery’s plan to gain a bridgehead across the Rhine. This daytime jump was less confused than the nocturnal one, but there were more Germans than expected and fewer Allied forces in support. It was another maelstrom of point-blank combat in all directions, and though the 82nd achieved its objectives, the campaign as a whole achieved little but casualties.   The 82nd had hardly refilled with replacements when the Germans broke through the US front in the Ardennes. The 82nd’s paratroopers were put aboard trucks and hastened to stand in the way of the panzer onslaught. Passing through Bastogne, they went farther north to St. Vith, where the US 7th Armored and other divisions were reeling. The 82nd held its own with quickly assembled defense perimeters, allowing other units to escape. After beating off massive attacks by the German SS, the paratroopers were disgusted to hear that they, too, had been ordered to retreat. They didn’t feel they needed to, but Monty was determined to “tidy up the battlefield.” On January 3, they counterattacked through the freezing hills, sealing off the Bulge and pursuing the Germans back into the Reich.   In this work, Dwayne Burns, assisted by his son Leland (US Army, 1975–79), not only relates the chaos of combat but the intimate thinking of a young soldier thrust into the center of several of history’s greatest battles. His memories provide a fascinating insight into the reality of close-quarters combat.

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  Ties That Bind - Stories of Love...

  David Isay

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  In celebration of StoryCorps’ ten year anniversary, Ties That Bind goes to the heart of the project’s great mission, sharing stories that are a testament to family and to the diversity of American experience. From the story of one couple separated temporarily by divorce and then permanently by the tragedy of 9/11, to the amazing power of forgiveness shown by a mother toward her son’s repentant killer, these are moving, uplifting, real-life stories from everyday Americans, gathered by StoryCorps and heard on NPR’s Morning Edition. 
  This highlight edition features exclusive audio contents, including StoryCorps founder Dave Isay in conversation with NPR’s Scott Simon, as well as oral historian Studs Terkel’s memorable dedication of the StoryCorps booth in Grand Central Terminal. These moving, humanity-drenched, first-person accounts epitomize the strength of the ties that bind us to each other, against the pull of powerful forces. 

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  Murder Inc - The Mafia's Hit Men...

  Graham K. Bell

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  Beginning in the 1920s, an all-star team of goons, gunmen and garrotters transformed America's criminal landscape. Its membership was diverse; the mob recruited men from all ethnicities and religious backgrounds. Most were natives of the Big Apple, handpicked from the city's toughest neighborhoods: Brownsville, Ocean Hill, Flushing. So prolific were their exploits that the media soon dubbed this bevy of hired hands Murder, Incorporated. The brainchild of aging mob bosses, including Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, this ruthless hit squad quickly captured America's attention, making headlines coast to coast for over two decades. As for who these men were and how their partnership came to be, join author Graham Bell as he sheds light on this dark history of the Mafia's most notorious crime syndicate.

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  Vietnam - There & Back: A Combat...

  Jim "Doc" Purtell

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  In 1967, Jim Purtell left his small Midwestern town to join the US Army. He did so at a time when the country was pro-Vietnam and serving seemed an honorable thing to do. Little did he know that the tide would turn a mere six months later as drastically as it did.Vietnam - There & Back: A Combat Medic's Chronicle is a candid account of the time when he and several other combat vets found themselves conducting operations in the jungles of Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive.Purtell describes in gritty detail what it was like to live and fight with an infantry company only to return to anti-Vietnam sentiment so strong that he and his fellow veterans felt nobody cared about them or the sacrifices they made.

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