Other books that might interest you

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  The Devil in the Belfry - From...

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Edgar Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on 19th January 1809. His father abandoned his family the following year and within a year his mother had died leaving him an orphan.   
  He was taken in by the Allan family but never formally adopted although he now referred to himself as Edgar Allan Poe.  His father alternatively spoiled or chastised him and tension was frequent over gambling debts and monies for his education.  His university years to study ancient and modern languages was cut short by lack of money and he enlisted as a private in the army claiming he was 22, it is more probable he was 18. After 2 years he obtained a discharge in order to take up an appointment at the military academy, West Point, where he failed to become an officer. 
  Poe had released his 1st poetry volume in 1827 and after his 3rd turned to prose and placing short stories in several magazines and journals.  At age 26 he obtained a licence to marry his cousin.  She was a mere 13 but they stayed together until her death from tuberculosis 11 years after. 
  In January 1845 ‘The Raven’ was published and became an instant classic.  Thereafter followed the prose works for which he is now so rightly famed as a master of the mysterious and the macabre. 
  Edgar Allan Poe died at the tragically early age of 40 on 7th October 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as ‘congestion of the brain’ or ‘cerebral inflammation’, common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism but the actual cause of death remains a mystery. 
  Poe is also one of a number of authors credited with inventing the detective genre with his Parisian sleuth C. Auguste Dupin.  He featured in three stories including the legendary ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’ and by sheer deduction, logic and a touch of Gallic arrogance revealed what was hidden to the rest of us.

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  Where's My Leg? - Book 1

  Florentia Morgan

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  When Flor Morgan mounts her Harley Davidson on what seems like an ordinary Wednesday, she is unaware that this will be her last ride for a decade.
   
  Flor’s journey is one for which she could never have been prepared.
   
  How does one move beyond a head-on motorway collision between a Skoda Fabia and a Harley Davidson?
   
  Who survives, and why?
   
  Flor is a survivor, a fighter. She battles not only to heal her physical wounds but also to overcome the mental and emotional scars that the path to recovery inflicts. Flor knew her recovery would be challenging, but she didn’t anticipate that the very systems meant to aid her would nearly be more lethal than the collision itself.
   
  Initially written to pave her way to healing, Flor now shares her story with the hope of helping others. She recounts her experiences as she has lived them: by finding the good and the humour in the everyday. After all, you can’t lose the plot if you’re laughing, right?

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  Why Patti Smith Matters

  Caryn Rose

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  Patti Smith arrived in New York City at the end of the Age of Aquarius in search of work and purpose. What she found—what she fostered—was a cultural revolution. Through her poetry, her songs, her unapologetic vocal power, and her very presence as a woman fronting a rock band, she kicked open a door that countless others walked through. No other musician has better embodied the “nothing-to-hide” rawness of punk, nor has any other done more to nurture a place in society for misfits of every stripe. 
   
  Why Patti Smith Matters is the first book about the iconic artist written by a woman. The veteran music journalist Caryn Rose contextualizes Smith’s creative work, her influence, and her wide-ranging and still-evolving impact on rock and roll, visual art, and the written word. Rose goes deep into Smith’s oeuvre, from her first album, Horses, to acclaimed memoirs operating at a surprising remove from her music. The portrait of a ceaseless inventor, Why Patti Smith Matters rescues punk’s poet laureate from “strong woman” clichés. Of course Smith is strong. She is also a nuanced thinker. A maker of beautiful and challenging things. A transformative artist who has not simply entertained but also empowered millions.

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  A Girl Worth More - The...

  Shannon Kyle, Joanne Phillips

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  Joanne Phillips’ ordeal began aged 13 when she was gang-raped in her bedroom by local boys. Following the trauma, she dropped out of school, was befriended by an older man and was forced into prostitution aged 16. 
   
  Over the next six years, she was raped by over 500 men, starved, beaten, and transported around the country to brothels. Forced to have sex with men from all walks of life including lawyers, stockbrokers, doctors, a parish councillor, Joanne was even made to have sex with her former school headteacher – who didn’t recognise her. 
   
  Every attempt to flee failed. Police warned her mother and stepdad she had chosen the lifestyle and even threatened to charge her parents with living off immoral earnings if they allowed her to move back. Escape seemed impossible, until one day she couldn’t take any more. 
   
  Just before her 21st birthday, Joanne eventually escaped her enslavement. After being left alone briefly in a London flat, where she was expected to work, she took a chance after finding a bag of money and a handgun. Fearing for her life, she fled into the night with nothing but a plastic bag of cash. After catching a train to Northern Ireland, she found her real dad and hid at his home from her pimp. 
   
  Desperate to readjust to normal life, she found a job and went on to study at university. But when she tried to explain to a new boyfriend about her past, he didn’t believe any of it was true, so she vowed to keep the abuse a secret – until years later, a conversation with one of her own teenage daughters changed her life...

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  Hands - The Power from up on High

  A Nyembo, D McKendi

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  It started when Joy's hands were small and his were large and mature. A touch here and a touch there, a hand here and a hand there. A life here, and a life that almost ended.  
  Some people say everything happens for a reason. But what could justify this? Joy decides she must share her story, her truth: Truth, Expressed, Dawn, Dusk, Incessantly Endures. That's TEDDIE! She hugs it tightly, the bear of her salvation.  
  In the most-high places, Joy's cry for help is heard. An invisible hand empties out the glass of misery and begins filling it with a new life. From then on, this invisible hand touches every part of her. Soon her life is about answering one question: Now my own hands, what will I do with them? 
  This is a story of victory against the odds, carried in the hand of love which reaches down from up high.

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  Too Hot - Kool & the Gang & Me

  George Brown

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  Growing up around music, young George was inspired to piece together a makeshift drum set and teach himself to play as he practiced in the dark, dank basement of his rundown New Jersey townhouse. 
   
   
   
  He soon joined forces with his friends to form a group called the Jazziacs, which then evolved into Kool & The Gang, a band that began charting hits while its members were still teenagers. By evolving their sound as musical tastes changed, the band was able to stay on the charts for decades, scoring twelve Top 10 hits in Funk, R&B, Pop, and Rock, and selling over seventy million albums while navigating the highs and lows of their career. 
   
   
   
  In Too Hot, drummer, keyboardist, and primary songwriter George Brown describes life in and out of the band, including a raucous life on the road as the band's popularity grew. He weathered the ups and downs of his musical career and navigated many challenges, including prescription drug addiction and depression. 
   
   
   
  George shares how his recent cancer scare, and subsequent treatment, compelled him to share his story, warts and all, to give listeners a glimpse into a band whose reputation was considered relatively tame, when in reality, it was exactly the opposite.

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