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  Gimp

  Mark Zupan

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  Mark Zupan was a college soccer star, out drinking one night with friends. Tired from the game and from a few too many beers, he decided to take a nap in the back of his best friend's pickup truck. Still asleep when the pickup started and drove away, he was suddenly jolted awake when the truck crashed. Mark was thrown into a canal and stuck for fourteen hours. When he was finally rescued, Mark discovered the terrible truth—he'd broken his neck and was likely a quadriplegic, facing life in a wheelchair and only limited use of all four limbs.  
  At first Mark's only goal was to walk again, and when that proved impossible he fell into a terrible despair, furious with himself and increasingly bitter. But through love, friendship, and an introduction to a new sport, Mark has gone on to create an existence that's truly exceptional. Now a Paralymic athlete (playing Quad Rubgy, aka "murderball"), Mark's memoir explains that in a way getting hurt was the best thing that ever could have happened to him. Inspiring, defiant, and revealing, GIMP will appeal not only to fans of Murderball, but also to anyone ready to be motivated by a story about triumphing over the odds. 
  Read by Mark Zupan

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  Whatever It Took - An American...

  Henry Langrehr, Jim DeFelice

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  Published to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape to freedom.  
   
  Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr, an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire, he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mère-Église. While many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning. 
  Kept for a week in the outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality—the so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand, needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued. 
  Awaiting him at home was Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory. Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return. 
  A tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.  
  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

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  John Paul Jones: The Life and...

  Charles River Editors

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  When the American Revolution began, the Continental Army sported numerous volunteers from Ireland, Scotland, virtually every European nation between France and Russia, and men from the northern and southern borders of the European continent. There are good reasons America doesn’t possess a constitutionally-confirmed national language, despite an English-speaking majority; among the early proposals for such a common language, German and French served as contenders, with the latter going on to become Western Europe’s official diplomatic language.  
  	Plenty of unusual characters came to the colonies to participate in the war, with many sporting dubious titles such as the Baron de Kalb, but perhaps none arrived in a more unique way than John Paul Jones, a Scottish sailor who had plenty of experience with British ships before a controversial row on one ship compelled him to flee to the colonies in 1775. As it turned out, he was arriving in Virginia just in time for more fighting, this time against the British. 
  	Despite his lofty sobriquet, Jones constantly found himself frustrated by people and events beyond his control during the Revolution, and it would take years before the aggressive commander could take the fight to the British. Through a murky system involving French ships, and an even murkier chain of events, Jones engaged the British in battle around the British Isles, and his aggression became the stuff of legend. While the British accused him of being a pirate, he was feted by the Americans and French during the war before joining the Russian navy after the war.  
  John Paul Jones: The Life and Legacy of the Revolutionary War Commander Dubbed the Father of the American Navy profiles one of the Revolutionary War’s most colorful figures. 

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  Glittering a Turd

  Kris Hallenga

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  Kris was living a totally normal life as a twenty-three-year-old: travelling the world, falling in love, making plans.However, when she found a lump in her boob and was told that it was not only cancer, but also incurable, life took on a completely new meaning. She was diagnosed at an age when life wasn't something to be grateful for, but a goddamn right.Little did Kris know it was cancer that would lead her to a life she had never considered: a happy one. From founding a charity to visiting Downing Street, campaigning at festivals to appearing on TV, and being present at the birth of her nephew; in the face of all the possible prognoses, Kris is surviving, thriving, and resolutely living.Glittering a Turd is more than just another cancer memoir; it's a handbook for living life to the fullest, shining a new perspective on survival and learning to glitter your own turd, whatever it might be. Kris has survived the unsurvivable for twelve years. Here, she begins to discover why.'This honest and beautiful book is a story of resilience and doing life your way' Fearne Cotton'With some extraordinary writing and brutal honesty, Kris' story never lingers on tragedy. Instead, we are offered humour, motivation and hope. It is a manifesto for how to be alive. It will leave you calm, hopeful and unafraid. A bold reminder to live your life your way. You'll be endlessly inspired by her perspective' Dawn O'Porter'A story of how a diagnosis of incurable cancer can compel you to live your life more vividly that you could have ever imagined. Kris's writing is frank and funny, the lightness of her tone in stark contrast with the graveness of her experience. By the end I wanted to give her a standing ovation. (After checking my boobs of course)' Annie Mac'Kris writes with such ease, sprinkling humour and glitter in all the right places. Glittering a Turd is the life-affirming boost we all need' Giovanna Fletcher

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  Live Through This - A Mother's...

  Debra Gwartney

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  With four young daughters and a miserably failed marriage, Debra Gwartney moves halfway across the country, to Eugene, Oregon, for a new job and what she hopes will be a new life for herself and her daughters. The two oldest, Amanda, 14, and Stephanie, 13, have a symbiotic relationship so intense they barely know where one begins and the other leaves off. They come to blame their mother for their family's dislocation, and one day the two run off together-to the streets of their own city, then San Francisco, then utterly gone. Live Through This-as emotionally wrenching and ultimately redemptive as David Sheff's Beautiful Boy-is the story of Gwartney's frantic effort to recover the beautiful, intelligent daughters she cherishes. The harrowing subculture of the American runaway, with its random violence, its horrendously dangerous street drugs, and its patchwork of hidden shelters-none of them interested in a parent's grief-is captured by Gwartney with brilliant intensity. Faced with the unraveling of the family she thought she could hold together through blind love, Gwartney begins the painful-and universal-journey toward recognizing her own flawed motivations as a mother. The triumph of Gwartney's story is its sensitive rendering of how all three, over several years, have dug deep for forgiveness and a return to profound love.

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  This Golden Fleece - A Journey...

  Esther Rutter

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  “A book about wool and sheep, the making of Scotland, England and farming, textile manufacture, folklore and, crucially, the essential craft of knitting.” —Janice Galloway, author of Jellyfish   Over the course of a year, Esther Rutter—who grew up on a sheep farm in Suffolk, and learned to spin, weave and knit as a child—travels the length of the British Isles, to tell the story of wool’s long history here.   She unearths fascinating histories of communities whose lives were shaped by wool, from the mill workers of the Border countries, to the English market towns built on profits of the wool trade, and the Highland communities cleared for sheep farming; and finds tradition and innovation intermingling in today’s knitwear industries. Along the way, she explores wool’s rich culture by knitting and crafting culturally significant garments from our history—among them gloves, a scarf, a baby blanket, socks and a fisherman’s jumper—reminding us of the value of craft and our intimate relationship with wool.This Golden Fleece is at once a meditation on the craft and history of knitting, and a fascinating exploration of wool’s influence on our landscape, history and culture.  “Wondrous.” —BBC Countryfile  “A yarn well told.” —The Irish Times  “A compelling literary journey through the social history of wool in the British Isles.” —Karen Lloyd, author of The Gathering Tide  “[Rutter’s] stops on her journey around Britain also knit together the past and the present, the social, historical and the personal, in an altogether engaging way.” —Books from Scotland

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