Other books that might interest you

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  Rock and Roll Children - An 80's...

  Sean Frazier

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  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... it was the 80's! 
  A fictionalized retelling of somewhat real events about a boy and his band. We didn't have any money, we didn't think we had a future, all we had was the music. A coming of age tale in the era of spandex, big hair and Reganomics.

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  Gypsy Jane - The Life as the...

  Jane Lee

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  Gypsy Jane stood toe-to-toe with some of the most dangerous men in the land and won. Her blood-soaked march through the criminal ranks is a unique tale of villainy in modern Britain.  In a murky world where shootings and stabbings were part of daily business, Jane never forgot her Gypsy blood and stayed loyal to a personal honour code which always gave her the edge. 'If today is the day I die, it's a good day to die,' she would tell herself in the full knowledge that every day of her violent life could well be her last.  During a terrifying journey that began as a 14-year-old armed robber, she has been shot four times, served three jail terms and lived to tell her extraordinary story of mayhem, betrayal and violent retribution.

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  We Rise - Speeches by...

  Michelle Obama, Barbara Jordan,...

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  This rare compilation includes memorable speeches delivered by celebrated African American women from both the past and present. Spanning decades and elucidating the fight for equality, these speeches not only represent important moments of Black history but reveal the struggle from a female perspective. The live recordings in this captivating collection are preceded by a short biography that introduces each speaker. The speeches featured in this compilation:
  
  Mary McLeod Bethune: "What American Democracy Means to Me" (1939) Fannie Lou Hamer at the Democratic National Convention (1964) Shirley Chisholm: "The Black Woman in Contemporary America" (1974) Barbara Jordan: "Who Will Speak for the Common Good?" (1976) Rosa Parks at the Million Man March (1995) Condoleezza Rice at the Republican National Convention (2000) Cynthia McKinney: Green Party Presidential Nomination Speech (2008) Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention (2008)

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  Interview with Serial Killer...

  Aileen Wuornos

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  Aileen Carol Wuornos (February 29, 1956 - October 9, 2002) was an American serial killer. Between 1989 and 1990, while engaging in street prostitution along highways in Florida, Wuornos shot dead and robbed seven of her male clients. She claimed that her victims had either raped or attempted to rape her, and that the homicides were committed in self-defense. Wuornos was sentenced to death for six of the murders and was executed in 2002 after spending more than ten years on Florida's death row. The following recordings are from prison interviews, including the day before her execution.

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  The Ghost in the Cupboard Room -...

  Wilkie Collins

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  Wilkie Collins was born on 8th January 1824 in Marylebone, London.  
  The family moved several times in his early years before, at 12, they travelled to France and Italy for 2 years where the sights and atmosphere made a deep and lasting impression on him. 
  He resumed his education at Mr Cole’s private boarding school in Highbury, Islington.  Here, he began his literary career under unusual circumstances: the school bully would give him no peace until he had been told a bedtime story.  This ‘little brute’ helped create one of England’s greatest writers.  
  On leaving school, in 1841, he became a clerk at a tea merchant before, 2 years later, publishing his first short story.  However, his first novel was rejected and remained so during his lifetime.  
  A brief stint at Lincoln’s Inn to please his father and to acquire a steady income was halted by his father’s death.  Collins then wrote and published his fathers’ memoirs.  He then completed his legal education though he would never practice.  
  In March 1851, he was introduced to Charles Dickens and there now started a period of sustained literary output and a remarkable lifelong friendship.  His stories were published in Dicken’s magazines, and he toured with Dicken’s theatrical before the two of them travelled to the Continent. 
  By the early 1860’s worrying signs of ill-health appeared with rheumatic gout.  As it worsened, he sought respite and cures in German spa towns and gave up writing to help his recuperation. 
  His personal life had become very complicated.  He was living with the widowed Caroline Graves and conducting an affair with a much younger Martha Rudd.  With the serialised release of ‘The Moonstone’ and vicious attacks of gout Caroline left him and married another.  Collins was now prescribed opium and was soon its lifelong dependent.  Martha bore him two children and with the return of a now divorced Caroline Graves he now divided his time between the two women. 
  In 1874 he set aside writing to tour North America on a reading tour. 
  Throughout his later years he continued to write and publish.  In all 30 novels, 14 plays, 60 short stories and over a 100 non-fiction essays as well as many more collaborations with Dickens. 
  In 1884 the Society of Authors elected him as it’s Vice-President. 
  Wilkie Collins died from a paralytic stroke on September 23rd, 1889, in London. He was 65.

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  Captain Robert Falcon Scott: The...

  Editors Charles River

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  The golden age of polar exploration of the Northern and Southern continents did not reach its zenith until the turn of the 20th century, and national rivalries abounded between the major seafaring nations of the world. Where past explorers made glancing journeys to Antarctica, the superior technology of the coal engine, various new survival materials, and even the motorcar opened new possibilities for more daring treks. Backed by governments, banking organizations, and great newspapers, a small group of restless adventurers assaulted the polar continents with the intent of reaching and marking the exact locations of Earth’s northern and southernmost points.  
  More than any other country, Britain staked its national pride on being the first to reach the poles. Britain made its first and finest statement for actually reaching the South Pole in the first years of the 20th century, even as the dangers of the Antarctic, including scurvy, dehydration, and hypothermia, were well known to all major explorers. They also understood that even the most incidental detail of an expedition going amiss could spell doom for all parties involved. The era was universally dubbed the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and some of the explorers who were involved became household names around the world, including British explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. However, one name above all others has become associated with this period: Robert Falcon Scott. Widely referred to as “Scott of the Antarctic,” Captain Scott became an icon of tenacity in the face of incredible adversity, and his final expedition to the South Pole lives on as an example of the nobility of the human spirit, even in the face of utter disaster. A monument to Scott’s persistence still stands at Observation Point, inscribed with the last line of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

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