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  The Answer to the Riddle Is Me -...

  David Stuart MacLean

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  “A deeply moving account of amnesia that . . . reminds us how we are all always trying to find a version of ourselves that we can live with.” —Los Angeles Times On October 17, 2002, David MacLean “woke up” on a train platform in India with no idea who he was or why he was there. No money. No passport. No identity.   Taken to a mental hospital by the police, MacLean then started to hallucinate so severely he had to be tied down. He could remember song lyrics, but not his family, his friends, or the woman he was told he loved. The illness, it turned out, was the result of a commonly prescribed antimalarial medication he had been taking. Upon his return to the United States, he struggled to piece together the fragments of his former life.   In this “mesmerizing, unsettling memoir about the ever-echoing nature of identity—written in vivid, blooming detail,” he tells the harrowing, absurd, and unforgettable story of his journey back to himself (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl).   “[MacLean] is an exceedingly entertaining psychotic. . . . [A] raw, honest and beautiful memoir.” —The New York Times   “If bad things are going to happen, we are lucky when they happen to someone with the wit, humanity and sweetness—to say nothing of an eye for detail and a gift for pacing—that MacLean brings to this wrenching tale. . . . Readers who flip open the book will find MacLean, preserved between pages, goofy and serious, lost and found.” —Chicago Tribune   “[MacLean] writes eloquently about the bizarre and disturbing experience of having his sense of self erased and then reconstructed from scratch.” —The New Yorker

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  In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz -...

  Michela Wrong

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  Known as "the Leopard," the president of Zaire for thirty-two years, Mobutu Sese Seko, showed all the cunning of his namesake -- seducing Western powers, buying up the opposition, and dominating his people with a devastating combination of brutality and charm. While the population was pauperized, he plundered the country's copper and diamond resources, downing pink champagne in his jungle palace like some modern-day reincarnation of Joseph Conrad's crazed station manager.Michela Wrong, a correspondent who witnessed Mobutu's last days, traces the rise and fall of the idealistic young journalist who became the stereotype of an African despot. Engrossing, highly readable, and as funny as it is tragic, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz assesses the acts of the villains and the heroes in this fascinating story of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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  The Trauma Beat - A Case for...

  Tamara Cherry

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  A groundbreaking and thorough examination of the trauma caused by the media covering crimes, both to victims and journalists, from a respected journalist and victim advocateIn The Trauma Beat, an eye-opening combination of investigative journalism and memoir, former big-city crime reporter Tamara Cherry calls on her award-winning skills as a journalist to examine the impact of the media on trauma survivors and the impact of trauma on members of the media. As Tamara documents the experiences of those who were forced to suffer on the public stage, she is confronted by everything she got wrong on the crime beat.Covering murders and traffic fatalities to sexual violence and mass violence, Cherry exposes a system set up to fail trauma survivors and journalists. Why do some families endure a swell of unwanted attention after the murder of a loved one, while others suffer from a lack of attention? What is it like to have a microphone shoved in your face seconds after escaping the latest mass shooting? What is the lasting impact on the reporter holding that microphone? The Trauma Beat explores these issues with the raw, reflective detail of a journalist moving from ignorance to understanding and shame to healing.

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  Wellington: Waterloo and the...

  Rory Muir

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  The preeminent Wellington biographer presents a fascinating reassessment of the Duke’s most famous victory and his political career after Waterloo. The Duke of Wellington’s momentous victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo was the culminating point of a brilliant military career. Yet Wellington’s achievements were far from over. He commanded the allied army of occupation in France to the end of 1818, returned home to a seat in Lord Liverpool’s cabinet, and became prime minister in 1828. He later served as a senior minister in Robert Peel’s government and remained Commander-in-Chief of the Army for a decade until his death in 1852.   In this richly detailed work, the second and concluding volume of Rory Muir’s definitive biography, the author offers a substantial reassessment of Wellington’s significance as a politician and a nuanced view of the private man behind the legendary hero. Muir presents new insights into Wellington’s determination to keep peace at home and abroad, achieved by maintaining good relations with the Continental powers, resisting radical agitation, and granting political equality to the Catholics in Ireland. Countering one-dimensional image of Wellington as a national hero, Muir paints a nuanced portrait of a man whose austere public demeanor belied his entertaining, gossipy, generous, and unpretentious private self.

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  Blue: All Rise: Our Story

  Anthony Costa, Duncan James, Lee...

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  For the first time, more than 15 years after four boys from London were first thrown together to form what would go on to become one of the most successful and infamous groups of the boyband era, Lee, Antony, Duncan and Simon tell their full, no-holds-barred story in their own inimitable words. 
  Blue first rose to fame and mega-stardom in 2001. With 3 UK Number 1 Platinum-selling albums, 2 Brit Awards and 16 million records to their name, they quickly became the crushes of choice for the noughties generation. 
  But their tendency to say exactly what they think, wear their hearts on their sleeves and court controversy (usually unintentionally) has meant that they’ve rarely left the limelight, or public hearts and minds, since. 
  Blue: All Rise: Our Story is the boys’ intimate tell-all account charting the highs and the lows of their incredible career, the stories behind the headlines, and our favourite face-palm-worthy Blue moments. With explosive new reveals, never-before-seen photos, and all the latest updates – including Simon’s engagement and his struggle with depression, Lee’s brush with cancer, Duncan’s devastation at the passing away of his best friend, original It Girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and how Antony’s adapting to fatherhood all over again, this is the story every 2000s teen has been waiting for, from four lads who’ve come out the other side older, wiser and closer than ever. 
  In Blue, Antony Costa presents an autobiography that delves into the personal lives of the band members, their journey to the top of the pop music world, and their individual styles. The memoirs provide a unique insight into the different genres they explored as musicians. 
  nan

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  Letters on an Elk Hunt

  Elinore Pruitt Stewart

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  This is a sequel to Letters of a Woman Homesteader in which Elinore Rupert (Pruitt) Stewart describes her arrival and early years on a Burntfork Wyoming ranch in 1909-1913. The letters are written to her elderly friend, Mrs. Coney, in Denver. In the present collection of letters, Elinore describes a lively excursion on horseback and wagon into the Wyoming wilderness during July-October 1914. Her traveling companions are her husband “Mr. Stewart,” their three oldest children, and kind-hearted, opinionated neighbor Mrs. O’Shaughnessy. Mr. Haynes (organizer of the hunt) and his friend, Mr. Struble (the cheerful big man of the party) lead the group, and are also joined by physician Dr. Teschall, “a moving-picture man” Mr. Harkrudder, Professor Glenholdt seeking “the tip-end bone of the tail of a brontosaurus” and his students (“two geological fellows” who “talk of nothing but strata and formation”). Also joining the group is Mr. Murry with his tiresome accordion.Although some hunting is accomplished on the trip, the overarching focus of Elinore’s letters is on descriptions of awe-inspiring Wyoming scenery and the interesting people she encounters. With her familiar wit and wisdom, Elinore also writes of tragedies and romances she observes during her trip -- that is, whenever Elinore’s effort to observe is not thwarted by “the good mon” Mr. Stewart. In one letter Elinore complains to Mrs. Coney that “Mr. Stewart is the queerest man: instead of letting me enjoy the tableau [the reunion of two long-lost lovers], he solemnly drove on, saying he would not want any one gawking at him if he were the happy man. Anyway, he couldn’t urge Chub [the horse] fast enough to prevent my seeing and hearing what I’ve told you.”By the time the adventurers are homeward bound with their supply of elk meat, Elinore is homesick for her youngest child, Junior, at home with his grandmother; Mrs. O’Shaughnessy has taken in two young orphans; and quiet, young Mr. Haynes complains good-naturedly about having to travel along with a rolling nursery.Elinore’s letters capture an interesting transition point in history. People traveled by horse and wagon, there were cowboys and cattle stampedes, and medical care was rustic. At the same time, automobiles and modern medicine, archeology and motion picture making were entering the scene and war was commencing in Europe. (Note to more sensitive readers: Elk hunting is described in Chapters 7 and 8.) (Summary by Lynne Carroll)

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