Other books that might interest you

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  And Then Came the Blues - My...

  Katrina Brownlee

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  After being shot ten times by her fiancé and left for dead, Katrina Brownlee miraculously survived and became a decorated NYPD detective, a mentor, and founder of a nonprofit support group for at-risk women. 
    
  ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, in the United States, an average of twenty-four people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, and one in three women have experienced some form of domestic violence. One of those women was Katrina Brownlee, who as a twenty-two-year-old mother of two experienced hell at the hands of her then-fiancé. He was a law enforcement officer—a group two to four times more likely than the general population to be abusive, and who are known for protecting their own. During his dangerous outbursts, Brownlee would call the police for help, only to see the cops turn their backs on her when her abuser flashed his badge. On a cold January morning in 1993, her fiancé shot her ten times and left her for dead. 
    
  Brownlee could have been just one more of the eleven females killed per minute worldwide by a loved one. Instead, miraculously, she survived. Through hard work, faith, and perseverance, she recovered from her injuries and found a path through her trauma. She decided to become a police officer to help others in her situation, to be the “good cop” who had not been there for her when she had needed saving. 
    
  In 2021, she retired from a highly decorated twenty-year career with the NYPD. As the founder of a support group for at-risk young women, Young Ladies of Our Future, Brownlee decided that the time had come to tell her story—the whole story—of self-empowerment, of healing generational trauma, and of turning pain into hope for herself and her community. 
    
  “And Then Came the Blues is a gripping memoir of resilience, justice, and redemption. I was incredibly moved by Katrina Brownlee’s unflinching honesty and inspired by her tenacity. She has written a riveting tale that reminds us that triumph after trauma is possible.”—Bernice L. McFadden, author of Sugar

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  The Last Jewish Gangster: The...

  David Larson

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  “A captivating and different kind of story” about the life of Bugsy Siegel’s godson, from the author “who captured his voice” (Nick Pileggi, author/screenwriter of Goodfellas and Casino). 
   
  In 1944 Brooklyn, newborn Michael J. Hardy is rejected by his mother so she can run with gangster Bugsy Siegel, Hardy’s godfather. Shirley Rook rose to the top of the criminal ranks. As the Queen of New York City crime, she laundered Mob money, ran the city’s largest bookmaking operation, and handed payouts to dirty cops, politicians, and judges. 
   
  To win his mother’s love and respect, Hardy became a fearless gangster. Throughout his career as a mercenary, he robbed banks and drug dealers alike, ran a kidnapping ring, and even became a hired gun. At his lowest, he ended up doing time for his mother’s counterfeiting operation in Mexico’s most dangerous prison. 
   
  Hardy’s criminal code of conduct combines elements of tough Ukrainian Jew and warm Southern Baptist, whether dealing with family and friends or fellow inmates during a combined twenty-six years spent in prisons and jails. He maintained this characteristic gregarious strength throughout his astonishing life in which Hardy was shot eleven times, committed fourteen hits for the Mob, twice wore wires for Rudy Giuliani to nab dirty cops, wrote a letter to JFK to get out of military prison, choked the Hillside Strangler, shared prison time with notorious criminals, and even spent ten years in Hollywood, cast in non-speaking roles in B-movies. 
   
  “A fascinating character study of an unapologetic criminal. David S. Larson masterfully weaves this tale in Michael Hardy’s own words, resulting in a powerful, inside story of a gangster’s life.” —Cathy Scott, Los Angeles Times-bestselling author

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  Frida Kahlo Her photos

  Pablo Ortíz Monasterio

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  When Frida Kahlo, died, her husband Diego Rivera asked the poet Carlos Pellicer to turn the Blue House into a museum that the people of Mexico Could visit to admire the work of the artista.
  
  Pellicer selected those of Frida's paintings which were in the house, along with drawings, photographs, books, and ceramics, maintaining the spaces just as Frida and Diego had arranged them t olive and work in. The resto f the objects, clothing, documents, drawings, and letters, as well as over 6.000 photographs collected by Frida in the course of her life, were put away in bathrooms converted into storerooms.

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  Same Ground - Chasing Family...

  Russell Wangersky

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  “Read him.” — George Elliott Clarke, author of I & I and George and Rue
  		 
  An award-winning author goes looking for the meaning of family and belonging on a glorious wild-goose-chase road trip across middle America
  		 
  Wangersky’s great-great-grandfather crossed the continent in search of gold in 1849. William Castle Dodge was his name, and he was 22 years old. He wrote a diary of that eventful journey that comes into the author’s hands 160 years later. And typically, quixotically, Wangersky decides to follow Dodge’s westward trail across the great bulging middle of America, not in search of gold but something even less likely: that elusive thing called family.
  		 
  What ensues becomes this story, by turns hilarious and profound, about a very long trip — by car, in Wangersky’s case, and on mule and foot in Dodge’s. Interweaving his experiences on the road with Dodge’s diary, the author contemplates the human need to hunt for roots and meaning as he — and Dodge — encounter immigrants who risk everything to be somewhere else, while only glimpsing those who are there already and who want to hold onto their claim in the stream of human migration.
  		 
  Same Ground is a story about what time washes away and what persists — and what we might find, unexpectedly, if we go looking.

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  The Deadly Path - How Operation...

  Keelin MacGregor, Peter J. Forcelli

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  Pete Forcelli was a highly respected federal agent in New York City, where he made an impact on violent crime by successfully targeting some of the city's most violent street gangs by using federal racketeering and continuing criminal enterprise statutes in conjunction with federal prosecutors. In early 2007, he was promoted to a supervisory position in Phoenix and quickly discovered that federal prosecutors were not charging criminals for violating federal firearms laws, even in instances where they knew guns were being trafficked to ultra-violent drug cartels. 
   
   
   
  When those very same prosecutors spoke about possibly indicting John Dodson, a special agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious, Forcelli stepped forward and contacted Congress. Forcelli became a whistleblower himself, detailing how federal prosecutors in Arizona not only failed to prosecute gun traffickers, but allowed a man who was making hundreds of hand grenades for the Sinaloa Cartel to continue his operations unabated for years. At that moment, those prosecutors and officials from the Department of Justice came after him, leading to a nearly four-year battle for Forcelli to clear his name. 
   
   
   
  This book provides his insider's account of the scandal that stands as one of the worst stains on federal law enforcement.

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  Beyond Hope - A powerful story...

  Bariz Shah

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  A powerful story of how one man didn't let other people define him 
    
  'Bariz gifts us his truth-telling, delivered with unwavering optimism.' Matt Brown, author of She Is Not Your Rehab 
  'Beautifully written. Takes us right inside a young person's life and is ultimately uplifting in the way they take control of that life.' Kathryn Ryan, RNZ Nine to Noon  
   
  At age 18, Bariz Shah ended up in an Auckland prison. As an Afghan migrant who was deeply affected by 9/11, Bariz spiralled from schoolyard fights into crime and drugs - until prison made him rethink the story of his life. 
  Years later, in Christchurch, Bariz had turned everything around when a terrorist walked into the local mosque and took the lives of 51 people in his community. Driven by a new purpose, Bariz and his wife Saba raised money to return to Afghanistan and establish 51 small businesses in honour of those they lost.  
  In this memoir about finding self-belief, belonging and positive change, Bariz's story reminds us that we always have the power to change ourselves for the better. 
  'The book is sensitive and insightful about how pain comes into a life and how it lasts.' Phillip Matthews, The Press 
  'Extraordinary. A powerful story of redemption and hope.' Hon Lianne Dalziel CNZM, former Mayor of Christchurch 
  'Bariz has been through adversity and emerged with love, care and kindness. He shows that nothing is impossible.' Meng Foon, Race Relations Commissioner 2019-2023  
  HarperCollins Australia 2024

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