Outros livros que poderiam interessá-lo

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  Breaking the Bombers - How the...

  Mark Shaw

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  ‘Mark Shaw is the foremost analyst of organised crime in SA.’ – Jonny Steinberg 
  At the dawn of the country’s brave new democracy, Cape Town was at war. Pagad, which began as a community protest action against crime, had mutated into a sinister vigilante group wreaking death and destruction across the city. Between 1996 and 2001, there were hundreds of bomb blasts – most infamously at the Planet Hollywood restaurant at the V&A Waterfront – and countless targeted hits on druglords and gang bosses. 
  The police scrambled desperately to respond. The new ANC government was shaken. Citizens of Cape Town lived in fear. Who could save the city? 
  Mark Shaw tells the incredible tale of how former foes – struggle cadres and the apartheid security apparatus – pulled together to break the Pagad death squads. Out of this crisis emerged the elite law enforcement unit, the Scorpions. 
  It is a story that has never been told in full. Now many involved have broken their silence about this pivotal chapter in South Africa’s history, which offers far-reaching lessons on how to deal with organised crime today.

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  Gin and Phonics: My journey...

  Clara Batten

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  ‘I was asked the other day what I thought the hardest part of parenting was. I’d have to say that it’s definitely the kids.’ 
  TikTok sensation Clara Batten has dedicated the last few years to seeking the answer to one of life’s most crucial questions: 
  Is it possible to raise and nurture two small humans without losing your bloody mind? 
  The good news is, now she’s found (some of) the answers and is sharing her secrets with the rest of us! In this riotous book, Clara reveals:when it’s acceptable to buy your kids lunch from a kebab shop.why a jar of pickled herrings from Waitrose is the ultimate guilty pleasure, nay necessity, for a sleep-deprived parent.how to finally pursue your acting ambitions in your forties (despite a toddler sh*tting on the stairs during a self-tape audition). 
  Most importantly, Clara shows us that no matter how much we adore our little treasures, life isn’t just about their A, B and bloody Cs. 
  In her latest work, GIN AND PHONICS, Clara Batten humorously delves into the intricacies of long-term family relationships. This new autobiography, with its candid take on marriage and parenting, is a top pick for readers. 
  For fans of Miranda Hart (I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You), Dawn French (The Twat Files), Crystal Hefner (Only Say Good Things), Katy Weitz (Undercover Copper), and Davinia Taylor (It's Not A Diet). 
  HarperCollins 2023

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  Sheridan Le Fanu - A Short Story...

  Sheridan Le Fanu

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  Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28th, 1814, at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots 
   
  The children were tutored but, according to his brother William, the tutor taught them little if anything. Le Fanu was eager to learn and used his father's library to educate himself about the world. He was a creative child and by fifteen had taken to writing poetry. 
   
  Accepted into Trinity College, Dublin to study law he also benefited from the system used in Ireland that he did not have to live in Dublin to attend lectures, but could study at home and take examinations at the university as and when necessary. 
   
  This enabled him to also write and by 1838 Le Fanu's first story The Ghost and the Bonesetter was published in the Dublin University Magazine. Many of the short stories he wrote at the time were to form the basis for his future novels.  Indeed, throughout his career Le Fanu would constantly revise, cannabilise, embellish and re-publish his earlier works to use in his later efforts. 
   
  Between 1838 and 1840 Le Fanu had written and published twelve stories which purported to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. Set mostly in Ireland they include classic stories of gothic horror, with grim, shadowed castles, as well as supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, together with madness and suicide. One of the themes running through them is a sad nostalgia for the dispossessed Catholic aristocracy of Ireland, whose ruined castles stand in mute salute and testament to this history.  
   
  On 18 December 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. The union would produce four children.  Le Fanu was now stretching his talents across the length of a novel and his first was The Cock and Anchor published in 1845. 
   
  A succession of works followed and his reputation grew as well as his income.  Unfortunately, a decade after his marriage it became an increasing source of difficultly. Susanna was prone to suffer from a range of neurotic symptoms including great anxiety after the deaths of several close relatives, including her father two years before.  
   
  In April 1858 she suffered an "hysterical attack" and died in circumstances that are still unclear. The anguish, profound guilt as well as overwhelming loss were channeled into Le Fanu’s work.  Working only by the light of two candles he would write through the night and burnish his reputation as a major figure of 19th Century supernaturalism. His work challenged the focus on the external source of horror and instead he wrote about it from the perspective of the inward psychological potential to strike fear in the hearts of men.  
   
  A series of books now came forth: Wylder's Hand (1864), Guy Deverell (1865), The Tenants of Malory (1867), The Green Tea (1869), The Haunted Baronet (1870), Mr. Justice Harbottle (1872), The Room in the Dragon Volant (1872) and In a Glass Darkly. (1872). 
   
  But his life was drawing to a close.  Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu died in Merrion Square in his native Dublin on February 7th, 1873, at the age of 58.  
   
  01 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - The Ghost and the Bone-Setter by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  03 - Sir Dominick's Bargain by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  04 - Dickon the Devil by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  05 - Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter by Sheridan Le Fanu 
  06 - An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street by Sheridan Le Fanu

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  The Memoirs of a Clumsy Potato -...

  Sami Hall

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  Welcome to the story of Sami – entrepreneur, blêrie influencer and social media content creator. Throughout her time on Earth she has constantly asked herself what she believes to be the most important question in her life: 'Why do these things always happen to me?'
  From almost manslaughtering her teacher's unborn baby, shattering her dad's dream of an athlete spawn and almost being murdered by a goose, she certainly has some stories to tell.
  In The Memoirs of a Clumsy Potato Sami Hall takes you through some of the life events – tough and challenging events – that changed her forever and shaped her into the weird, clumsy, constantly tired potato that we know and love.
  The road hasn't always been easy and there have been several obstacles along the way, but as Sami herself would tell you, it was all part of the journey and that her story is far from finished.
  Enjoy the funny, sad, weird and outlandish stories of Sami's life and take a glimpse into her mind while we explore the million things that cause her to break into lengthy and passionate rants – loadshedding, potholes, and cell signal to name a few, and also get some answers to the internet's most burning questions.
  Okay bye.

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  Twenty-Six Men and a Girl - From...

  Maxim Gorky

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  Alexei Maximovich Peshkov was born on 28th March 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. 
  Better known as Maxim Gorky he was orphaned at 11 and ran away from home at 12.  At 19 he had already attempted suicide and thereafter travelled, by foot, across the Russian Empire for 5 years. 
  His first book ‘Essays & Stories’ in 1898 was a sensation and so began a long career as an author of short stories, novels and plays.  Gorky saw writing as a moral and political act that would help to change the unjust world around him.  He was an ardent early advocate of the emerging Marxist movement and publicly opposed the Tsarist regime leading several times to his arrest.  
  In 1904 he began his own theatre but the censor banned every play and Gorky was forced to abandon the project. 
  But Gorky was a financially successful author, editor, and playwright and gave monies to political parties as well as for civil rights and social reform.  The brutal shooting of workers, which set in motion the Revolution of 1905, pushed Gorky more decisively toward radical solutions.  
  In 1906 he went to the United States to raise funds for the Bolsheviks. Those experiences including a scandal over travelling with his lover and not his wife deepened his contempt for the ‘bourgeois soul.’ 
  Gorky now moved to Capri in Italy, both for health reasons and to escape the increasingly repressive times in Russia.  
  An amnesty for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty saw him return to Russia in 1914. His politics remained close to the Bolshevik cause.  But soon, after the 1918 revolution, his essays referred to Lenin as a tyrant for his senseless arrests and repression.  He was soon appealing to the outside world for food aid after the catastrophic crop failure. 
  In October 1921 Gorky returned to Italy, now in Fascist hands, and settled in Sorrento until 1932.  His health worsened with the onset of tuberculosis. 
  He wrote several successful books there but now decided to find an understanding with the communist regime. Stalin invited him home and his return was hailed as a major propaganda victory.  He was decorated with the Order of Lenin, and a province, a park, and various streets re-named in his honour. 
  But he had his faults too.  In 1933, Gorky co-edited a book on the White Sea-Baltic Canal and denied even a single prisoner died during its construction, but thousands had. As well, knowing that some Nazis were homosexual, a phrase was attributed to him that said ‘exterminate all homosexuals and fascism will vanish’.  Although he was himself was quoting another he was decidedly homophobic. 
  With the increase of Stalinist repression in 1935 Gorky was placed under unannounced house arrest. 
  Maxim Gorky died on the 18th June 1936 from pneumonia.  He was 68. 
  Stalin and Molotov were among those who carried Gorky's urn of ashes at his funeral.

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  J Edgar Hoover and Allen Dulles:...

  Editors Charles River

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  No single figure in 20th century American history inspires such opposing opinions as J. Edgar Hoover, the iconic first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In his time, he was arguably the most powerful non-elected figure in the U.S. government. Serving under 8 presidents (and outliving 2 of them), he remains the longest-serving head of a major government office. In essence, Hoover died as he began - a civil servant, having been appointed by the Attorney General and serving at the pleasure of the president.  
  By the 1960s and 1970s Hoover the hero had become Hoover the villain.  Various exposes and investigations revealed a darker side to the legend, one that included serious violations of the civil liberties of individuals. Hoover’s G-Men, it was discovered, engaged in illegal break-ins and wiretaps of suspected subversives; they wrote fake letters that undermined the reputations of public individuals; they paid informants for information and push the groups they belonged to into committing illegal acts. It was alleged that Hoover led a personal vendetta against Martin Luther King, Jr., and the entire civil rights movement. Hoover, it was said, had stayed in office so long by gathering secret files of damaging information about politicians (including presidents). 
  To this day, Allen Dulles’ eight-year tenure in that office is the longest, and as one of the country’s leading experts in international law, intelligence, and spycraft, he became renowned for his unwavering anti-communist ideology and readiness to take decisive measures to counter what he perceived as a menace to American safety. As such, it would be Dulles who sanctioned many of the CIA’s most notorious operations, including the ousting of Iran's democratically elected government in 1953, spying and experimentation on American citizens, and the disastrous Bay of Pigs.

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