Other books that might interest you

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  A Very Short Romance - From...

  Vsevolod Garshin

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  Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin was born on 14th February 1855 in what is now Dnipro in the Ukraine, but then part of the Russian Empire. 
  After attending secondary school he studied at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute.  
  Wars between and on behalf of Empires were a regular feature of the decades then.  Garshin volunteered to serve in the Russian army at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877.  
  He began as a private in the Balkans campaign and was wounded in action.  By the end of the war, in 1878, he had been promoted to officer rank.  
  By now Garshin, having previously published some articles and reviews in newspapers, wished to devote himself to a literary career.  The decision made he resigned his army commission. 
  His time as a soldier provided rich experiences for his early stories. His first ‘Four Days’ was related as the interior monologue of a wounded soldier left for dead on the battlefield for four days, face to face with the corpse of a Turkish soldier he had killed, gained him early admiration as an author of note.  
  He wrote perhaps only 20 stories, but their influence was immense, although in these more modern times he is barely remembered and lives in the more prolific shadows of others.  His characters are superbly worked into stories that come alive in the intensity and reality of his prose.   
  Garshin’s most well-known story is ‘The Red Flower’, also known as ‘Scarlet Blossom’ and is easily amongst the first rank of stories dealing with mental health issues.  
  Despite early literary success, he himself experienced periodical bouts of mental illness.   
  In one such bout Garshin attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself down the stone stairs leading into his apartment building.  Although not immediately fatal, Vsevolod Garshin died as a result of his injuries in a St Petersburg hospital on 5th April 1888.  He was 33.

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  A Slav Soul - From their pens to...

  Alexander Kuprin

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  Alexander Kuprin was born in Narovchat, Penza in Russia on 7th September 1870. 
  At 3 his Father died and he and mother moved to Moscow. By 10 he was enrolled at the Second Moscow Military High School and there his interest in literature began. The Alexander Military Academy followed and two years later he was a sub-lieutenant and posted to an Infantry Regiment for a further four years. 
  Despite his duties he was a now a keen writer and published his first short story at this time. His military duties also garnered him experiences for his breakthrough work ‘The Duel’.  Leaving the military he left for Kiev to work for local newspapers.  He continued to publish both stories and novels and by 1901 he was in St Petersburg becoming part of a group that included Chekhov, Ivan Bunin, Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andreyev.  
  In the years that followed further controversial works and acclaim followed.  His comments on the regime meant he was also put under secret police surveillance.   
  As World War I erupted, Kuprin opened a military hospital but was then given command of an infantry company in Finland. He was soon discharged on grounds of ill health.  
  The October Revolution saw him praise Lenin, but he warned that the Bolsheviks threatened Russian culture and might cause further widespread suffering to the peasants.  As Civil War raged he took his family to Helsinki and then on to Paris. 
  Exile saw his talents decline further and his succumbing to alcoholism. He became lonely and withdrawn. The family's poverty increased his malaise.   
  In May 1937, the Kuprin’s returned to Moscow.  He now saw his work published but wrote almost nothing new.  In 1938 his health rapidly deteriorated.  Already suffering from a kidney problems and sclerosis, he had now developed cancer of the oesophagus.  
  Alexander Kuprin died on 25th August 1938.

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  Elon Musk - Risking it All

  Michael Vlismas

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  In 2022 Elon Musk - one of the richest and best-known people on earth - made headlines worldwide with his bid to buy Twitter, and he is often in the news for his entrepreneurial exploits and his controversial tweets. Who is this boundary-pushing billionaire with grand plans of inhabiting Mars, and what lies at the heart of his vision? Why is he so utterly unafraid of risk? 
   
  As an awkward Pretoria schoolboy who loved comics and science fiction, Musk's early years and singular family background were crucial in forming his stellar ambitions. Journalist and author Michael Vlismas, who attended the same high school as Musk, knows well the environment that shaped him and offers new insights into Musk's development, including his troubled relationship with his father. 
   
  Tracing his remarkable life, from his South African childhood to his move to Canada at 17 and then to the US - where Musk made millions out of PayPal and built Tesla and SpaceX into two of the world's most famous companies - this is the revealing new story of a man driven to preserve the optimism he sees in humanity and find a future for humans 'out there among the stars'.

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  Funky - My Defiant Path Through...

  Ben Askren

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  One of the most dominant college wrestlers in history, Ben Askren became a folk hero during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, before going on to become a multiple time MMA champion and one of the sport's biggest stars. 
   
   
   
  Here, in Funky, this record-breaking wrestler and polarizing UFC fighter shares how he came to dominate opponents while blazing a trail through competitors in unprecedented ways. Not blessed with natural athleticism, he revolutionized folkstyle wrestling by innovating his own technique, which earned him the famous nickname, "Funky." 
   
   
   
  What ensued was an improbable takeover of combat sports by a firebrand who defied tradition, becoming the University of Missouri's first ever national champion while twice winning the prestigious Dan Hodge trophy. Now, Askren opens up about how he bucked convention, how he used his wrestling base to seize the world of cage-fighting, and how he eventually forced UFC president Dana White to end their decade-long public feud via a historic trade. 
   
   
   
  Love him or hate him, win or lose, Ben Askren showed what determination means by staying true to one of his earliest revelations on the mats:  "I was never going to let anybody outwork me."

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  The Headmaster - Frank L Boyden...

  John McPhee

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  "It was a delight to re-read and record The Headmaster. My Deerfield days came back to me in a great rush. ... So much of Mr. Boyden's teaching focused on what boys needed to grow up to be adults in society, with a particular emphasis on giving back to the community.” —Edoardo BalleriniStarting in 1902 at a country school that had an enrollment of fourteen, Frank Boyden built an academy that has long since taken its place on a level with Andover and Exeter. Boyden, who died in 1972, was the school's headmaster for sixty-six years. John McPhee portrays a remarkable man "at the near end of a skein of magnanimous despots who...created enduring schools through their own individual energies, maintained them under their own absolute rule, and left them forever imprinted with their own personalities." More than simply a portrait of the Headmaster of Deerfield Academy, it is a revealing look at the nature of private school education in America. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

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  Life in the Confederate Army -...

  William Watson

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  Life in the Confederate Army is a firsthand account of a Confederate State Army solider William Watson. The book was written shortly after the war and it chronicles author's army life.Watsonjoined the local Rifle Volunteers, and when the Civil War broke out enlisted in the Confederate Army. As a sergeant in the 3rd Louisiana Infantry the author served in a number of military campaigns with the regiment. He was an eye witness and participant of Oak Hills, Pea Ridge and Beechgrove battles.

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