Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Gather the Fragments - My Year...

  Maureen O'Brien

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  "Gather the fragments" are words spoken by Jesus. In this uplifting spiritual memoir read by the author, Maureen O'Brien's lyrical essays reflect on discovering wonder and God’s grace in what feels broken. Using the gospel tale of the miracle of the loaves and fishes as a lens, she intimately shares her story, and the moving stories of others. You are invited into this miracle: to find hope in your despair, to find the nearness of God within love, and to turn toward grace in a fragmented but still beautiful world. 

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  Under Water - How Holding My...

  Claire Walsh

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  'I needed to breathe. Not the short, shallow breaths that keep you alive … merely existing. I wanted that breath that starts deep down in your being and fills your lungs and limbs with life.'
  Claire Walsh spent her twenties living the life she thought she was supposed to live, all the while playing hide-and-seek with depression. In her thirties, finding herself single and living with her parents, she decided it was time to chart a different path.
  In Central America Claire discovered freediving, plunging up to 60 metres below the water's surface without the use of breathing apparatus. It taught her the power of breathwork, but more importantly it taught her how to find freedom in the present moment.
  Under Water is a candid and captivating story of what it's like to take part in one of the most dangerous sports in the world, and a reminder that sometimes all we need to do is take a deep breath.
  '20,000 leaues of sparkling adventure and tap-dancing prose.' Ruth Fitzmaurice, author of I Found My Tribe

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  The Yank - The True Story of a...

  John Crawley

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  1975: A young Irish-American man joins an elite US Marine unit to get the most intensive military training possible—then joins the Irish Republican Army, during the days of some of the bloodiest fighting ever in the Irish-British conflict. 
   
   
   
  In a powerful, brutally honest recounting of his experience, John Crawley details, first, the grueling challenges of his Marine Corps training, then how he put his hard-earned skills to use back in Ireland in service of the Provos. It is a story that will see him running guns with notorious American mobster—and secret IRA fundraiser—Whitey Bulger; running, under cover of night, from safe house to safe house in the Irish countryside, one step ahead of British troops; being captured, imprisoned, and being part of a mass escape attempt; fending off a recruitment offer from the CIA; and being one of the masterminds behind a campaign to take out London's electrical system. 
   
   
    
  Along the way, Crawley is blisteringly candid about the memorable people he worked with, including behind-the-scenes portrayals of revered IRA leader Martin McGuinness, and of the psychopathic Whitey Bulger, as well as others in the Boston IRA support network. There are vivid portraits of colleagues and enemies, and Crawley is unflinching in his commentary on IRA leadership and their tactics, both military and political.

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  Johann Sebastian Bach - A...

  Rick Marschall

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  Two-and-a-half centuries after his death, the complex life of composer Johann Sebastian Bach continues to fascinate. 
  Bach's colorful life was anchored in his belief that "music has been ordered by God's Spirit"?so much so that he began each composition by scrawling Jesu, juva (Jesus, help me) at the top of a blank page and concluded each with S.D.G. (short for Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory). Through the eyes of noted music and culture writer Rick Marschall, the intensely personal yet boldly public faith that earned Bach the nickname "The Fifth Evangelist" takes on fresh meaning. From a survey of Bach's family and its deep Christian roots to a behind-the-scenes look at how he crafted his masterpieces, this book paints a picture of an astonishing figure and his relationship with his God.   Marschall brings Bach's enduring music and influence to the postmodern world and to all who would draw inspiration from his relentless pursuit of divinely ordained creativity.   
  Appendixes are included in the audiobook companion PDF download. 

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  Bloody Mary - Mary Tudor the...

  Kelly Mass

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  Mary I, typically called Mary Tudor and called "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant challengers, ruled as Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 till November 17th, 1558. She is well recalled for her solid attempts to reverse the English Reformation, which started throughout her dad's reign, Henry VIII's reign.Her effort to return property taken at the time of the prior 2 reigns to the Church was generally blocked by Parliament, but at the time of her five-year rule, Mary had more than 280 spiritual dissenters burnt at the stake in the Marian persecutions. You might give excuses for her behavior, you might justify it by saying she may not have been much worse than other dictators and royalty around that time, but the fact of the matter is still that she murdered hundreds of people for religious and political reasons.Bloody Mary was cruel, cold, and from what we know, there was a cause for this. Let’s take a look at her life, her problems, and the way she handled them.

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  A Chameleon - From their pens to...

  Anton Chekhov

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  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on 29th January 1860 in Taganrog, on the south coast of Russia.  
  His family life was difficult; his father was strict and over-bearing but his mother was a passionate story-teller, a subject Chekhov warmed to. As he later said; ‘our talents we got from our father, but our soul from our mother’.  
  At school Chekhov was distinctly average. At 16 his father mis-managed his finances and was declared bankrupt. His family fled to Moscow. Chekhov remained and eked out a living by various means, including writing and selling short sketches to newspapers, to finish his schooling. That completed and with a scholarship to Moscow University obtained he rejoined his family. 
  He was able to help support them by selling satirical sketches and vignettes of Russian lifestyles and gradually obtained further commissions. In 1884, he qualified as a physician and, although it earned him little, he often treated the poor for free, he was fond of saying ‘Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.’ 
  His own health was now an issue as he began to cough up blood, a symptom of tuberculosis.  Despite this his writing success enabled him to move the family into more comfortable accommodation.  
  Chekhov wrote over 500 short stories which included many, many classics including ‘The Kiss’ and ‘The Lady with a Dog’.  His collection ‘At Dusk’ won him the coveted Pushkin Prize when was only 26.  
  He was also a major playwright beginning with the huge success of ‘Ivanov’ in 1887.   
  In 1892 Chekhov bought a country estate north of Moscow. Here his medical skills and money helped the peasants tackle outbreaks of cholera and bouts of famine. He also built three schools, a fire station and a clinic.  It left him with less time for writing but the interactions with real people gained him detailed knowledge about the peasantry and their living conditions for his stories.  
  His most famous work, ‘The Seagull’ was received disastrously at its premiere in St Petersburg. It was later restaged in Moscow to highlight its psychological aspects and was a huge success. It led to ‘Uncle Vanya’, ‘The Three Sisters’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard’.  
  Chekhov suffered a major lung hemorrhage in 1897 while visiting Moscow. A formal diagnosis confirmed tuberculosis and the doctors ordered changes to his lifestyle.  
  Despite a dread of weddings the elusive literary bachelor quietly married the actress Olga Knipper, whom he had met at rehearsals for ‘The Seagull’, on 25th May 1901. 
  By May 1904 with his tuberculosis worsening and death imminent he set off for the German town of Badenweiler writing cheerful, witty letters to his family and assuring them his health was improving.  
  On 15th July 1904 Anton Chekhov died at Badenweiler.  He was 44.

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