Publisher: Ale.Mar.
A profound advocate for willpower and rational deliberation, Arthur Schopenhauer believed that complete happiness and satisfaction are unobtainable. This essay from his final work, Parerga und Paralipomena (1851), examines how to discover the highest possible degree of pleasure and success, and suggests guidelines for experiencing life to its fullest.
Charles Townshend achieved international fame, as a captain, when he commanded the besieged garrison at Chitral (now Pakistan) in 1895. As a result, he became known as Chitral Charlie.Decorated by Queen Victoria and lionized by the British public, his passage up through the Army was assured and, in 1916, he was given command on 6th Indian Division and sent to Mesopotamia. Here he won a series of stunning victories as his ill-supported division swept all before it in a devastating advance up the River Tigris. He triumphed brilliantly at Kurna, Amara and Kut but then, against all the tenets of military common sense, he advanced up the River Tigris to take Baghdad. By now overreached, he was confronted by a determined Turkish foe. His Division was depleted and exhausted. Townshend withdrew to Kut, where he was besieged and forced into a humiliating surrender. The mistreatment of the British POWs by the Turks only added to Townshends shame.This fascinating and objective biography examines Townshends controversial conduct during and after the siege and assesses whether his dramatic fall from grace and popularity was fair.Show book
In a 45-year career as a personal manager, Hollywood agent, producer, and studio head, Bernie Brillstein learned how to survive and prosper in Hollywood. And in Where Did I Go Right?, Brillstein's street-smart, funny, and thoroughly human account of his life in show business, he shares those secrets. With his trademark wit and candor, Bernie speaks out about a number of celebrities and agents. He recounts with pride how he built his impressive stable of clients, discusses his feud with Mike Ovitz, and reveals how he felt after passing on the leadership of his company to his partner, Brad Grey. He also relates stories about Jim Henson, Gilda Radner, and Lorne Michaels during the early days of Saturday Night Live. In this engaging memoir of showbiz life, Brillstein demonstrates one can swim with sharks but doesn't have to be one as he takes us behind the scenes of such hits as The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and The Muppet Show.Show book
Friday the 13th was the last time she felt fully in control of all her limbs. At 1 a.m. on Saturday, her world as she had known it ended... She was fully awake and trying not to freak out at the thought of something foreign travelling up into her body to roam around inside her brain… Is there really a purpose to all this pain? She asked “Where is GOD when I'm suffering during the agonizingly long wait?” In this moving, revealing, and witty book Batchelor affirms that GOD is much smarter than we are. HIS timing is perfect. And HIS heart is totally loving. Delivered in lively, thoughtful and revealing prose. it is hard to miss Batchelor's faith statement and the truth of her loving FATHER who, in HIS infinite wisdom sometimes withholds in order to richly bless. She was caught with no way out than to confess what she believed GOD had told her… THIS IS A MUST-READ, LIFE-TRANSFORMING BOOK!Show book
A revealing chronicle of one chaotic year in the life of the rock guitarist and Hollywood resident, featuring celebrity photos and hilarious anecdotes. One day, Dave Navarro decided to open the doors of his house in the Hollywood hills to the chaos of the valley below. The only rule was, “Come in the house, you get in the photo booth.” The result is a diary, a sociology experiment, a documentary of Hollywood, and an exercise in exhibitionism: strippers, Kurt Loder, Marilyn Manson, pizza delivery boys, Rose McGowan, Keanu Reeves, record executives, Scott Ian, Billy Corgan, hookers, Flea, Billy Zane, drug dealers, Angelyne, Leonardo DiCaprio, the cleaning lady, Leif Garrett, Natalie Imbruglia, and everyone else who came into the house are all caught on film—whether zany, inebriated, naked, hamming it up, looking beautiful, or looking ugly, the photo booth tells no lies. Accompanying the strips are hilarious stories, musings, tell-all anecdotes, and other glimpses into the lifestyle of one of the most decadent rock stars of our time. This chronicle of a year in Navarro’s life is also a gritty portrait of his descent into drug use and self-destructiveness, and his struggle to find meaning. Don’t Try This at Home is a visual masterpiece, a celebrity exposé, and a shocking, hilarious and irresistible read.Show book
Stories are one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements. Whether written down or spoken they have an ability to capture our imagination and thoughts, and take us on incredible journeys in the space of a phrase and the turn of a page. Within a few words of text or speech, new worlds and characters form, propelling a narrative to a conclusion with intricate ease. Finely crafted, perfectly formed these Miniature Masterpieces, at first thought, seem remarkably easy to conjure up. But ask any writer and they will tell you that distilling the essence of narrative and characters into a short story is one of the hardest acts of their literary craft. Many attempt, but few achieve.Show book
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is presented as an autobiography of the title character (whose birth name is Robinson Kreutznaer)—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers, before ultimately being rescued. The story has been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra", now part of Chile, which was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. Despite its simple narrative style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. It is generally seen as a contender for the first English novel. Before the end of 1719, the book had already run through four editions, and it has gone on to become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning so many imitations, not only in literature but also in film, television and radio, that its name is used to define a genre, the Robinsonade. Famous works of the author Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe, Captain Singleton, Memoirs of a Cavalier, A Journal of the Plague Year, Colonel Jack, Moll Flanders, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress.Show book
