Otros libros que te pueden interesar

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  Benediction - From their pens to...

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on 24th September 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota into an upper-middle class family. Whilst his mother was pregnant with him, his two young sisters tragically died.  Fitzgerald once said this was when his destiny as a writer was ordained. 
  His intelligence and talent was recognised from an early age, with his first story, about a detective being published in the school magazine when he was just 13.   
  In 1913 he enrolled at Princeton but his devotion to his own literary pursuits resulted in him leaving and, rather bizarrely, joining the Army.  In 1918, stationed at Fort Sheridan near Montgomery, Alabama he met and became infatuated and then inseparable from Zelda Sayre.  Initially though she refused to marry him but with the success of ‘This Side of Paradise’, the fame and the flow of money enabled them both to begin a gilded life.  For them this was The Jazz Age.  For Fitzgerald he was already an alcoholic. 
  He continued to write with great mastery and the titles of his novels and many of his 164 short stories are household names.  The Great Gatsby, often cited as The Great American Novel was published to mixed reviews.  As America moved from the Great Depression to the slaughter of the Second World War his works and himself were seen as far too entwined with the decadent twenties. The world had moved on and he hadn’t.   
  Further tragedy was never far from his life. Zelda after years of erratic and now intolerable behaviour was committed to an institution in 1936.  His own sales began to decline and he became a hack for hire in Hollywood, dependent on increasing amounts of booze and the weekly pay check.  His drunken state had often resulted in arrest or hospitalisation, further imperiling his talents.   Despite his contribution to many MGM films he received only one credit. 
  The end came all too soon for one of America’s greatest ever writers.  On 21st December 1940, at only 44 years of age in Hollywood, F Scott Fitzgerald succumbed to a heart attack.

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  Homicide Is My Business - Luigi...

  Jerry Schmetterer, Michael...

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  The story of Luigi Ronsisvalle is an intimate look at the life of a professional killer. It is, in some ways, the story of all workingmen and women with ambition who never achieve their ultimate goal. But what makes Luigi unique is that, for him to achieve his goal, people had to die. His ambition, from when he was twelve years old, was to be a made man in the Mafia. He once told a presidential commission, "American child falls in love with baseball, I fall in love with Mafia." 
   
   
   
  Coauthor Michael Vecchione spent months interviewing the hitman about his life in the Sicilian and American Mafia, finally becoming his confidant. Those days, weeks, and months together brought Luigi to realize that, despite the concept of omertà—the code of silence ingrained in him from an early age—the road to a truly honorable life meant turning on those he once admired. 
   
   
   
  Luigi had done everything asked of him by his Mafia bosses. This included the murder of thirteen people. But unlike other hitmen, Luigi was denied the Mafia recognition he felt he deserved. Drawing on personal files, handwritten notes, and official sources, this book attempts to explain his complicated life. 
   
   
   
  Contains mature themes.

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  A Scene from the Ghetto of...

  Rainer Maria Rilke

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  René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke was born into a troubled marriage on the 4th December 1875 in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  His mother, having previously lost a baby girl, would dress the young boy up in girl’s clothing.   
  Later his father dispatched him to a military academy at age 10 but after a miserable 5 years the young Rilke left due to illness and instead entered first Prague and then Munich and finally Berlin university to study art history, philosophy and literature. 
  His initial forays into literature was in poetry.  His intense, mystical and lyrical style was much admired and over time inspired many in succeeding generations.    
  His short prose collection ‘Stories of God’, written in an impassioned burst over several nights was published in 1900 and offers a beguiling view of much of Rilke’s influences and outlook.  
  The following year he married the pioneering sculptor and artist Clara Westhoff.  The union produced one child, a daughter Ruth.   
  He lived in Paris for most of the Century’s first decade where he mixed with many great minds of the time.  Although he continued to write he also worked as a secretary to the sculptor, Rodin.   
  It was only after they settled in Switzerland in 1919 that his writing output was in full flow.  Here he wrote profusely in both German and French, which included much on his previous travels, his left-wing sympathies, his religious and existential thoughts, all part of a unique and consummate style. 
  From 1923 on, Rilke increasingly struggled with his health which was now in constant decline and often spent time rehabilitating at a sanatorium.   
  Rainer Maria Rilke died of leukaemia on the 29th December 1926 in Montreux, Switzerland.  He was 51.

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  For a Good Time - Surviving Sex...

  Patty Tierney

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  An alcoholic mother of three children, married, then divorced, then homeless, Patty Tierney lived a double life as a sex worker for 17 years. She looked for love in all the wrong places, saying “I love you,” when she was really saying, “Do you love me?” 
  Patty struggled to be the mother she knew her children needed, until she realized that she had become her own mother—the alcoholic mother who had abandoned her when she was five. 
  Healing through therapy, spirituality, community, and most importantly, speaking the truth to her children 25 years later, Patty’s mission is to help other mothers and anyone else who may be struggling, to help heal their past and transform their lives.

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  Backup is Three Hours Away

  Mark Tregellas

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  Embark on a gripping adventure with Mark 'Trigger' Tregellas in Backup is Three Hours Away, a true crime memoir chronicling nearly three decades of policing Victoria's remote coastal region. Trigger never knew what each shift would bring – tragedy, laughter, adventure, danger – sometimes all on the same day. 
   
  Trigger's personal journey, fuelled by a thirst for adventure and special forces training, led him to the frontline of policing. He faced life-threatening situations and earned commendation for his exceptional and courageous service, recognition that came at a personal cost. Through Trigger’s career he sustained severe injuries, including a broken spine, a gunshot wound to the face and PTSD. 
   
  Trigger delves into encounters with peril, unexpected twists, and heartbreaking moments, shedding light on the motivations that drive officers to willingly confront the unknown. Despite the physical and mental toll, his story is one of triumph, showcasing a resilient mindset honed through exhaustive training and the overcoming of life's challenges, including a brush with cancer. 
   
  Backup is Three Hours Away is a genuine portrayal of policing, from the unpredictable and humorous moments, to heart-wrenching tragedy. Trigger's narrative transcends the typical law enforcement tale, revealing indomitable human spirit and resilience – a powerful and inspirational testament to the highs and lows of a career dedicated to service.

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  Russian Short Story The - Volume...

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai...

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  The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length.  Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. 
   
  Perhaps an easier way to enjoy a wider selection of the Russian heritage, with its varied and glorious literary talents, is with the short story.  These gems sparkle and beguile the mind with their characters and narrative, exploring facets of society and the human condition that more Western authors somehow find more difficult to navigate, or to explore, explain and relate to.   
   
  The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own.  It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity. 
   
  In a land so vast it is unsurprising that it is a world almost unto itself. Cultures and landscapes of differing hues are packed together bound only by the wilful bonds and force of Empire. 
   
  The stories in this collection traverse the decades where one might be a serf under an absolute monarch, and the reality of that was pretty near to slavery, into an emancipation of sorts in the fields, or towns under the despotic will of landowners and the rich into the upheavals of Empire and then the overthrow of the ruling class and its replacement by the communists, who promised equality for all and delivered a society where the down-trodden remained the lowest yet vital cog of the state machine and its will.  
   
  Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced. 
   
  01 - The Russian Short Story - Volume 3 - An Introduction 
  02 - An Honest Thief by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  03 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 1 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  04 - The Crocodile. An Extraordinary Incident - Part 2 by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  05 - Bobok by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
  06 - How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials by Nikolai Schedrin 
  07 - Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy 
  08 - Aloysha the Pot by Leo Tolstoy 
  09 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy 
  10 - The Snowstorm - Part 1 by Leo Tolstoy 
  11 - The Snowstorm - Part 2 by Leo Tolstoy 
  12 - God Sees The Truth But Waits by Leo Tolstoy

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