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  Wandering through Life - A Memoir

  Donna Leon

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  The internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her own adventurous life story as she enters her eightiesIn a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned. Following a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with frequent visits to her grandfather’s farm and its beloved animals, and summers spent selling homegrown tomatoes by the roadside, Leon got her first taste of the classical music and opera that would enrich her life. She also developed a yen for adventure. In 1976, she made the spontaneous decision to teach English in Iran, before finding herself swept up in the early days of the 1979 Revolution. After teaching stints in China and Saudi Arabia, she finally landed in Venice. Leon vividly animates her decades-long love affair with Italy, from her first magical dinner when serving as a chaperone to a friend, to the hunt for the perfect cappuccino, to the warfare tactics of grandmothers doing their grocery shopping at the Rialto Market.Some things remain constant throughout the decades: her adoration of opera, especially Handel’s vocal music, and her advocacy for the environment, embodied in her passion for bees—which informs the surprising crux of the Brunetti mystery Earthly Remains. Even as mass tourism takes its toll on the patience of residents,Leon’s passion for Venice also remains unchanged: its outrageous beauty and magic still captivate her.Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon poignantly confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with music, food, and her sharp sense of humor, Wandering through Life offers Donna Leon at her most personal.

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  Serial Killers - Biographies of...

  Kelly Mass

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  This book contains the following titles: 
  1 - Ted Bundy was one of the most infamous rapists and sexual predators, necrophiles, and murderers in the western part of the United States. Having been abused in his childhood and fed pornographic material from an early age, his crimes became more daring, violent, and vicious as he got a thrill from dismembering or sexually tormenting one victim after another. At the end of his life, after several escapes from prison, he was convicted and got the electric chair. Even then, despite his confessions, his manipulative ways seemed to have so much influence on the women he had dated, that many still proclaimed their love for him and were sad to see him leave this world. 
  2 - Al Capone was an infamous mob boss between the two world wars, in the city of New York and surrounding areas. His name and style have been emulated in movies. The mass shootings, tax evasion, and revenge on Italian murders in the mafia gangs on the United States east coast were so notorious that they have become iconic and stereotyped. How did Al Capone get the scars on his face? How did he manage to control so much of the gangs in the cities? How was he able to bribe the police, evade taxes, and become a terror for anyone who opposed him? And how did his life finally come to an end? 
  3 - Jack the Ripper was an unknown serial killer active in the mainly poor parts around the Whitechapel district of London in the year 1888. In both the criminal case files and modern journalistic books, the killer was referred to as the Whitechapel Killer and Leather Apron. He caused quite some havoc, going after some of the most impoverished neighborhoods and killing victim after victim, without ever being found. The British police was dumbstruck and carried out multiple investigations, coming up with various suspects but never able to pinpoint who did it or why.

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  Schizophrenia - A Brother Finds...

  Ronald Chase

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  A neuroscientist explores the biological bases of schizophrenia and tells the heartbreaking story of his own brother’s battle with the disease. 
   
  When bright lives are derailed by schizophrenia, bewildered and anxious families struggle to help, and to cope, even as scientists search for causes and treatments that prove elusive. Painful and often misunderstood, schizophrenia profoundly affects people who have the disease and their loved ones. Here Ronald Chase, an accomplished biologist, sets out to discover the facts about the disease and better understand what happened to his older brother, Jim, who developed schizophrenia as a young adult. 
   
  Chase’s account alternates between a fiercely loyal and honest memoir and rigorous scientific exploration. He finds scientific answers to deeply personal questions about the course of his brother’s illness. He describes psychiatric practice from the 1950s—when electroconvulsive shock therapy was common and the use of antipsychotic medications was in its infancy—to the development of newer treatments in the 1990s. Current medical and scientific research increases our understanding of genetic and environmental causes of the disease. 
   
  Chase also explores the stigma of mental illness, the evolution of schizophrenia, the paradox of its persistence despite low reproduction rates in persons with the disease, and the human stories behind death statistics. With the author’s intimate knowledge of the suffering caused by this disease, Schizophrenia emphasizes research strategies, the importance of sound scientific approaches, and the challenges that remain. 
   
  “A rare combination of family memoir and accessible explanation of the neuroscience, genetics, and the epidemiology of schizophrenia. I simply love this book.” —Patrick Tracey, PsychCentral

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  The Filthy Thirteen - From the...

  Richard Killblane, Jake McNiece

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  The true story of the 101st Airborne Division’s most notorious squad of combat paratroopers—the inspiration for the classic WWII film, The Dirty Dozen.   Since World War II, the American public has learned of the exploits of the 101st Airborne Division, the paratroopers who led the Allied invasions into Nazi-held Europe. But within the ranks of the 101st, one unit attained truly legendary status. Known as the Filthy Thirteen, they were the real-life inspiration for The Dirty Dozen.   Primarily products of the Dustbowl and the Depression, the Filthy Thirteen became notorious within the elite Screaming Eagles for their hard drinking and savage fighting skills. From D-Day until the end of the war, the squad’s heart and soul—and its toughest member—was a half Native American soldier named Jake McNiece. McNiece made four combat jumps, was in the forefront of every fight in northern Europe, yet somehow never made the rank of PFC.  The Filthy Thirteen offers a vivid group portrait of hardscrabble guys whom any respectable person would be loath to meet in a dark alley: a brawling bunch whose saving grace was that they inflicted more damage on the Germans than on MPs, the English countryside, and their own officers.

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  Lincoln's Last Hours

  Dr. Charles Augustus Leale

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  “I grasped Mrs. Lincoln’s outstretched hand in mine while she cried piteously to me, “Oh, Doctor! Is he dead?  Can he recover? Will you take charge of him? Do what you can for him. Oh, my poor husband!”
  A young Union Army Doctor, attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, is a witness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He is the first doctor to reach the President’s side in an attempt to save his life.  
  Dr. Charles Augustus Leale  details every moment of the tragedy, from forcing open the door of the Presidential box, his words with Mrs. Lincoln, his decision to move the President from the theatre, to the final moments of President Lincoln’s life. 
  This remarkable first person true narrative places the listener in the middle of the tragedy, from beginning to end.  It has been lost and forgotten for over a hundred years and was recently rediscovered and made public.
  Public Domain (P)2014 Andre Stojka et.al

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  Pavarotti - My World

  Luciano Pavarotti

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  In the world of opera, no figure in modern times loomed larger than the late Luciano Pavarotti, especially in his triumphant collaborations with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras as the Three Tenors. Pavarotti captured the imagination of audiences around the world. In this memoir, the Grammy-award winning legend shares both the fortunate and the regrettable events that marked his life, including his forays into popular music, his performances in China, and the boos he endured at La Scala. This behind-the-scenes look reveals the highs and lows of an international superstar whose impact was felt beyond the opera houses.

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