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  Satan Is Real - The Ballad of...

  Charlie Louvin, Benjamin Whitmer

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  Get ready for one of America's great untold stories: the true saga of the Louvin Brothers, a mid-century Southern gothic Cain and Abel and one of the greatest country duos of all time. 
   
    
   
  The beautiful and tragic saga of the Louvin Brothers—one of the most legendary country duos of all time—is one of America's great untold stories. Charlie Louvin was a good, God-fearing, churchgoing singer, but his brother, Ira, had the devil in him and was known for smashing his mandolin to splinters onstage, cussing out Elvis Presley, and trying to strangle his third wife with a telephone cord. 
   
    
   
  The Los Angeles Times called them "the most influential harmony team in the history of country music," but Emmylou Harris may have hit closer to the heart of the matter, saying "there was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers." For readers of Johnny Cash's irresistible autobiography and Merle Haggard's My House of Memories, no country music library will be complete without this raw and powerful story of the duo that everyone from Dolly Parton to Gram Parsons described as their favorites: the Louvin Brothers.

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  A Rocky Road - Memoirs

  Abraham Levy, Simon Rocker

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  Born into the 300-year-old Jewish community in Gibraltar, Abraham Levy spent his early years, which coincided with the Second World War, on the island of Madeira before returning to "The Rock". There the family remained secure within a relatively observant community. By the age of eight he was attending synagogue for shacharit, or morning prayer, before school and became known as "the religious boy". He was determined to be a rabbi. Abraham Levy first went to a convent school, then a Jewish school, followed by a year with the Christian Brothers, before arriving at Carmel College in England. From the age of thirteen he spent some school holidays in Maida Vale and began to attend Lauderdale Road Synagogue. He went on to study for the rabbinate at Jews' College and, after receiving his Rabbinical Diploma, Lauderdale Road was to be the base for his work for almost sixty years.
  Over those many years, Abraham Levy, as Spiritual Head of the Sephardim in the United Kingdom, has had enormous influence on Jewish life. His deep sense of moderation, tolerance and reason have been consistent throughout his tenure and have brought him into contact both with leaders of different faiths and of the secular world alike. None the less, he has always held the view that each individual in the community is important and, to ensure a future for that community, the young have been central to his energies. He has been responsible for the expansion of a small but prominent Sephardi community in the UK and, crucially, the establishment of the Naima Jewish Preparatory School in London.
  Abraham Levy's deep faith and rare personal qualities were to bring about a remarkable gathering of leaders of the different sections of Anglo-Jewry: the ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox and Progressive movements attended a service to mark 350 years since the readmission of Jews to the UK. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, also attended and said: "... As the oldest minority faith community in this country, you show how identity through faith can be combined with a deep loyalty for our nation." But for Rabbi Levy the words that moved him most came from four children from the Naima JPS each of whom read a poem they had composed for the day. Abraham Levy's memoir is a testimony to a devotion to public life, to the community, and to the young in an increasingly secular and conflicted world.

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  Ir-rev-rend - Christianity...

  Greg Surratt

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  Ir-rev-rend (ir REV rund) noun1. a pastor who is somewhat critical of what is generally accepted or respected2. a pastor who is trying to make sense of life, love, the church and other confusing things from a slightly satirical point of view; an irreverent sense of humor.3. a "normal" guy pursuing GodWhatever you may think about the "typical" pastor, throw it out. Do they make bad decisions? Yes. Commit sin and experience severed relationships? Yes and yes. Pastor Greg Surratt is not perfect, and he unashamedly tells the stories that have strengthened his faith. He writes that the choice to follow Christ is never clean, is often scary, is usually clothed in mystery, and is always an adventure.For some people, God appears in dark, dirty, lonely, or just plain odd places. Greg found God while huddled under a grand piano, hiding from overzealous friends and family trying to accost him during an altar call at a Pentecostal revival. So began a life of sharing stories of God's endlessly creative and often surprising work and seeing God's transforming power in unexpected ways. Despite years of vocational ministry, Greg never underestimates the power of divine/human encounters in some of teh least "churchy' places on earth.Humorous, insightful, and challenging, IR-REV-REND is a revealing and joyous look at real-life Christian living. As Greg himself affirms, if God can use his missteps and blunders, God can use anybody's.

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  A Class Act

  Rob Beckett

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  ‘Pacy, witty and affectionate’ Guardian 
  Rob Beckett never seems to fit in. At work, in the middle-class world of television and comedy, he’s the laddie, cockney geezer, but to his mates down the pub in south-east London, he’s the theatrical one, a media luvvie. Even at home, his wife and kids are posher than him. 
  In this hilarious exploration of class, Rob compares his life growing up as a working-class kid to the life he lives now, trying to understand where he truly belongs. 
  Will he always be that fat kid who was told he’d never be a high-flyer? Why does he feel ashamed if he does anything vaguely middle class? Will he ever favour craft beer over lager? What happens if you eat 50 olives and drink two bottles of champagne? Why is ‘boner’ such a funny word? 
  In search of answers, Rob relives the moments in his life when the class divide couldn’t be more obvious. Whether it’s the gig for rich bankers that was worse than Matt Hancock hosting the GQ Men of the Year Awards, turning up at a swanky celebrity house party with a blue bag of cans from the offy or identifying the root of his ambition as a childhood incident involving soiled pants and Jurassic Park, Rob digs deep. 
  A Class Act is his funny, candid and often moving account of what it feels like to be an outsider and the valuable (sometimes humiliating) life lessons he’s learned along the way. 
  Rob Beckett, the Sunday Times bestselling author, continues to navigate the tumultuous waters of his personal relationships, both in his marriage and with his family. His humour, a constant in his life, serves as a beacon, guiding him through the complexities of his long-term journey in the world of entertainment. 
  For fans of Romesh Ranganathan (As Good As It Gets), James Acaster (Perfect Sound Whatever), Katherine Ryan (The Audacity), Sarah Millican (How to be Champion), and Lenny Henry (Rising to the Surface).

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  Influencing Hemingway - People...

  Nancy W Sindelar

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  Ernest Hemingway embraced adventure and courted glamorous friends while writing articles, novels, and short stories that captivated the world. Hemingway’s personal relationships and experiences influenced the content of his fiction, while the progression of places where the author chose to live and work shaped his style and rituals of writing. Whether revisiting the Italian front in A Farewell to Arms, recounting a Pamplona bull run in The Sun Also Rises, or depicting a Cuban fishing village in The Old Man and the Sea, setting played an important part in Hemingway’s fiction. The author also drew on real people—parents, friends, and fellow writers, among others—to create memorable characters in his short stories and novels.   In Influencing Hemingway: The People and Places That Shaped His Life and Work Nancy W. Sindelar introduces the reader to the individuals who played significant roles in Hemingway’s development as both a man and as an artist—as well as the environments that had a profound impact on the a

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  The Incest Diary

  Anonymous Anonymous

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  “In the fairy tales about father–daughter incest—‘The Girl Without Hands,’ ‘Thousand Furs,’ the original ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Donkey Skin,’ and the stories of Saint Dymphna, patron saint of incest survivors—the daughters are all as you would expect them to be: horrified by their father’s sexual advances. They do everything in their power to escape. But I didn’t. A child can’t escape. And later, when I could, it was too late.”Throughout her childhood and adolescence, the anonymous author of The Incest Diary was raped by her father. Beneath a veneer of normal family life, she grew up in and around this all-encompassing secret. Her sexual relationship with her father lasted, off and on, into her twenties. It formed her world, and it formed her deepest fears and desires. Even after she broke away—even as she grew into an independent and adventurous young woman—she continued to seek out new versions of the violence, submission, and secrecy she had struggled to leave behind.In this graphic and harrowing memoir, the author revisits her early traumas and their aftermath—not from a clinical distance, but from deep within—to explore the ways in which her father’s abuse shaped her, and still does. As a matter of psychic survival, she became both a sexual object and a detached observer, a dutiful daughter and the protector of a dirty secret. And then, years later, she made herself write it down.With lyric concision, in vignettes of almost unbearable intensity, this author tells a story that is shocking but that will ring true to many other survivors of abuse. It has never been faced so directly in an audiobook.

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