Publisher: Open Road Distribution
This memoir of the author’s brief sojourn working at a café and auberge in Corsica is populated with a questionable group of locals, fugitives, and escapists during the Algerian and Vietnam Wars.
There is no doubt that Napoleon Bonaparte has attracted legions of biographers over the last two centuries, documenting his endlessly fascinating life, associated with some of the most important and controversial events in history. A military general who became France’s first emperor, Napoleon’s single-minded determination for military expansion would change the world completely and revolutionize military training and organization. As such, Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military leaders the world has ever known. This biography considers a military commander whose military endeavors and sheer personality dominated Europe for over a decade.Show book
We strive for authenticity, but expediency often demands we suppress our true feelings.Dawn Downey struggles to find her genuine self, as she navigates her white surroundings. She wages an internal war, her intuition recognizing bigotry and her intellect wanting—needing—to deny it. At the end of any given day, she is angry. She is weary. She despairs.“You get to hopeless by sinking,” she tells us.“I sank through dreamlike images of shackles, chains, branding irons, whips, ropes, nightsticks, burning crosses, and fire hoses. Bloodhounds on my trail, police dogs at my throat. I crashed through all the places that are supposed to be safe: school yards, lunch counters, courthouses, and church basements. From nigger to nigra to colored to negro to black to african-american and back again. Strange fruit. Centuries-old images absorbed from textbooks. Civil rights marches flickering across the family television. Labels, passed down from one generation to the next, labels meant to hold me apart, the other.”When a family member transforms a racist artifact, the act of redemption explodes her self-concept. She re-examines old beliefs, and on the other side of hopeless, discovers her Black power. Downey prompts us to consider how we find our authentic selves in the heart of our discomfort.Show book
A former US Senator looks back on his eighteen-year career in Washington, his battle with cancer, and his life after politics. Citizen Mack: Politics, An Honorable Calling is former Republican US Senator Connie Mack III’s memoir, detailing his life in the world of Washington D.C. politics, and where that lead him afterwards. From his beginning as a member of the House of Representatives from Florida through the 80s, to his escalation to a Senator for the duration of the 90s, Mack offers an inside look into the political culture and climate of the nation as it closed out the twentieth century and progressed into the twenty first. Readers will experience a thorough and honest account of what the world of Washington looks like, from a man whom George W. Bush wanted as his running mate; who took part in the debate over one of the country’s most contentious Supreme Court Justice appointments; whose voice mattered when it came to deciding whether to remove President Bill Clinton from office, following his impeachment by the House. All this and more Mack recounts as a once-politician, now-citizen: Citizen Mack. Praise for Citizen Mack “Citizen Mack is the story of a life of public service—and a lot more. I was privileged to serve with Connie in the US Senate and can tell you his own service validates his belief that “politics is an honorable calling.” His leadership outside of politics—especially in the war on cancer—makes it equally clear that there is more to his life than politics.” —Joe Lieberman, Former US Senator “When I was diagnosed with cancer in 1995, then senator Connie Mack, whom I hardly knew, called me to say, “Don’t worry, Sam, I had the same thing, and I’m OK now—you will be too.” Can you imagine what that did for me? This wonderful man has helped people through a lifetime of selfless public service. Read his story, Citizen Mack, and consider how times have changed.” —Sam Donaldson, Former ABC News Anchor “A wonderful book about more than politics. It is also the story of how Senator Mack and his wife, Priscilla, survived cancer and how she shed her careful cloak of privacy, joined the fight, and became an inspiration and a force in the Race for the Cure.” —Nancy G. Brinker, Founder of Susan G. Komen and Promise Fund of FL, Global Cancer Advocate, Consultant, and Three-Time US AmbassadorShow book
Siddhartha, born the son of a Brahmin, was blessed in wealth, appearance, intelligence and charisma. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of an ascetic. He wandered as a shramana and searched for Gotama the Buddha. However, this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul. This popular book provides the listener with insight into the philosophy and thoughts that shape Siddhartha's path to enlightenment.Show book
Tony Chapman was born in Southampton in 1924. Aged 16 he watched with horror as the historic High Street of Southampton burnt to the ground in a firestorm caused by a heavy German bombing raid on the night of 30 November 1940. He vowed to join up and fight back. Tony joined the Navy.Within hours of being posted to his first Motor Gun Boat, Telegraphist Tony Chapman was involved in an epic Coastal Forces engagement when his flotilla took on a force of thirty E-boats. Although their unit of two MGBs sank three E-Boats, it was at a high cost. Half of Tony's shipmates were killed or injured.This was the start of an eventful and dramatic wartime service with these little warships. Tony's flotilla operated in the Mediterranean and Aegean where the Motor Gun Boats played a key role in this important but often neglected theatre.rnDaily life on these small ships is vividly described. The flotilla had a busy time showing the flag in the Levant and on combined operations in the Aegean with the Greek Sacred Regiment of Commandos. The culmination of their efforts was when Tony's boat, ML838, took the surrender of the Island of Kos in 1945.rnrnWritten from the perspective of one of the other ranks, War of the Motor Gun Boats fills an important gap in the literature of the Second World War.As featured in the North Devon Journal and Exmoor Magazine.Show book
According to The Waiter, eighty percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining twenty percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths. WAITER RANT offers the server's unique point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen bits of human grace transpiring in the most unlikely places. Through outrageous stories, The Waiter reveals the secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and how to keep him from spitting in your food. The Waiter also shares his ongoing struggle, at age thirty-eight, to figure out if he can finally leave the first job at which he's really thrived."The other shoe finally drops. The front-of-the-house version of Kitchen Confidential; a painfully funny, excruciatingly true-life account of the waiter's life. As useful as it is entertaining. You will never look at your waiter the same way again-and will never tip less than 20%." --Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential"I really enjoyed WAITER RANT. The book is engaging and funny, a story told from my polar opposite perspective. I will now do my best to act better as a Chef -- and I dare say, I'll never be rude to a waiter again, as long as I live."--John DeLucie, Chef of The Waverly InnShow book
