Other books that might interest you

• 

  Lydia Litvyak: The Life and...

  Charles River Editors

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Altogether, the Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle in the history of warfare, and the Soviets’ decisive victory there is considered one of the biggest turning points in the entire war, and certainly in the European theater. Over the next two years, the German gains in Russia were steadily reversed, and the Red Army eventually began pushing west towards Berlin. Fittingly, the importance of Stalingrad was commemorated in several ways, from Churchill presenting Stalin with a “Sword of Stalingrad” to the Russians’ decision not to rebuild parts of the battle scarred city as a reminder of what happened there.  
  Partly out of dire circumstances and partly from a cultural worldview, it was the Soviet Union who first pressed female pilots into direct combat when Hitler invaded Russia. Ahead of Stalingrad, Stalin publicly declared that “women should be given the right to fly and fight for their country.” As a result, more than 800,000 women served in the Soviet military during the war years in hospitals, communication units, as road troops, anti-aircraft gunners, and snipers. 
  Of the Soviet female fighter pilots who fought the Nazis in the skies, led raids against ground targets, and stopped supply transports, the iconic Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak stands out as the most distinguished. The most productive and highly decorated of the Soviet Union’s female pilots, Litvyak was an expert aviator by the age of 14 and trained 45 pilots in the years leading up to the war, while still a teenager. She went on to serve in several of the elite air guard regiments, and she would be credited with numerous victories as the Soviets desperately tried to hold off the German onslaught around Stalingrad. The quirky and defiant Litvyak was described as a “silent modest beauty with a blonde shock of hair and blue eyes.” She “walked with a special gait, causing delight among others,” men in particular, and she tended to look neat at all times.

  Show book

• 

  The Archaeology of Loss - Life...

  Sarah Tarlow

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  My whole adult life, I have made a study of death.A stunning blend of the personal and professional, The Archaeology of Loss is Sarah Tarlow’s first memoir. An accomplished archaeologist, much of Sarah’s work is concerned with the ritual and belief behind the practice of grief. In 2012, she was awarded the Chair in Archaeology at the University of Leicester. But in the years that followed this appointment, Sarah’s husband, Mark, would begin to suffer from a progressive but undiagnosed illness, finally resulting in his inability to drive, to walk, to taste or to care for himself. Though Sarah had devoted her professional life to the study of emotion, of how we anticipate and experience grief, nothing could have prepared her for the realities of care-giving, of losing someone you love and the helplessness attached to both.A fiercely honest and unique memoir, The Archaeology of Loss describes a collective experience with an unflinching and singular gaze and will undoubtedly speak to listeners of The Salt Path and H is for Hawk. Told with humour, intelligence and urgency, this is an unforgettable experience.

  Show book

• 

  Somersaults: Through the Keyhole

  Mira Mack

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  There are somersaults and there are somersaults. Physically … no big deal. Lots of people can do them. This book is about the other kind of somersaults – through life. In this case, from a little girl plunked into the mid-fifties in socialist Czechoslovakia to a rebel at school with beliefs twisted and turned by social storms. Then in 1968, her family lives through morphing into socialism with a human face, the consequent invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies, and ultimately, the Russian occupation. And eventually, for many ordinary people, the reality of the so-called Velvet Revolution of 1989.When the girl grows into a young woman, she fights with traditions and old thinking. Plenty of humour, the discovery of limits, many sides of the same coin, the power of friendship, stepping into worlds of taboo, and challenging one’s own fear – every somersault has consequences. Intimate, funny, honest.If you enjoyed this audiobook, try listening to the sequel:  Czech Mate

  Show book

• 

  The Scandal of Father Brown

  G.K. Chesterton

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Another collection of G.K. Chesterton's ingenious, thoughtful, and lyrically written mystery stories featuring the unassuming little priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the mind and soul of criminals, thus understanding their motives. The stories are full of paradox, spiritual insight, and "Chestertonian fantasy," or seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In the title story, a beautiful (and married) rich woman has taken up with a distinguished poet and Father Brown, rather than reacting as expected, appears to be providing assistance.

  Show book

• 

  Raymond Williams: From Wales to...

  Hywel Dix, Elizabeth Allen,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Raymond Williams came from Wales, and was brought up in a working-class family. These facts of place and class are the start of a thread which runs throughout his life and work. In Raymond Williams: From Wales to the World his writing, whether theoretical, historical, critical or as fiction has been treated as a single whole, recognising that his ideas were interwoven as a literary and intellectual engagement with Wales and the world over several decades.
  This collection of essays, edited by Stephen Woodhams, serves to further engage and extend his ideas of class and society.

  Show book

• 

  Show and Tell - Healing From...

  Linda Litteral

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Linda Litteral is a survivor of incest and rape who used art to heal from the destruction to the body and spirit which comes from physical and sexual abuse. In this courageous memoir, Litteral shares the story of her abuse, spanning eight years of incest perpetrated by her grandfather, a rape she experienced in high school, and physical and verbal violence she suffered at the hands of her first husband. She offers an in-depth psychological profile of the effects of abuse, including silence, shame, invisibility, powerlessness, guilt, and difficulties with trust and identity. She also illustrates how the body remembers abuse through symptomatology like dissociation, anxiety, chronic illness, and other post-traumatic stress responses. 
  Yet Litteral has done more than survive her past—she’s found a way to thrive in the present. She generously catalogs all the healing modalities she has experienced in her decades of undoing the destruction of her past, including talk therapy, meditation, yoga, breathwork, Tai Chi, and somatic-based therapies like acupuncture, EMDR, sacral cranial therapy, and Thought Field Therapy. But it’s when Litteral discovers the power of creating and sharing her art that her healing journey begins in earnest. Accompanied by rich full-color images of her art in every chapter, Litteral shares stories about the creation of her pieces, their stunning symbology, and how they aided in her healing journey. Litteral is both an artist and an activist, a fierce champion for survivors, and an unabashed advocate for the healing power of art.

  Show book