Other books that might interest you

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  Burmese Looking Glass - A Human...

  Edith T. Mirante

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  “Burmese Looking Glass is a contribution to the literature of human rights and to the literature of high adventure.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review   As captivating as the most thrilling novel, Burmese Looking Glass tells the story of tribal peoples who, though ravaged by malaria and weakened by poverty, are unforgettably brave. Author Edith T. Mirante first crossed illegally from Thailand into Burma in 1983. There she discovered the hidden conflict that has despoiled the country since the close of World War II. She met commandos and refugees and learned firsthand the machinations of Golden Triangle narcotics trafficking. Mirante was the first Westerner to march with the rebels from the fabled Three Pagodas Pass to the Andaman Sea. She taught karate to women soldiers, was ritually tattooed by a Shan sayah “spirit doctor,” lobbied successfully against US government donation of Agent Orange chemicals to the dictatorship, and was deported from Thailand in 1988.   “A dramatic but caring book in which Mirante’s blithe tone doesn’t disguise her earnest concern for the worsening conditions faced by the Burmese hill tribes.” —Kirkus Reviews

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  All of Us Together in the End

  Matthew Vollmer

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  Matthew Vollmer’s family memoir shimmers with wonder and enchantment and begins with the death of his mother from early-onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Soon after, flashing lights and floating orbs appear in the woods surrounding his family’s home in rural North Carolina, where his widowed father lives. Formative memories of having been raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church resurge in Vollmer’s mind, hastening self-reexamination and reckoning. He corresponds with a retired geology professor about “ghost lights,” which supposedly occur more in North Carolina than any other American state. He scrolls TikTok. He contacts an eccentric shaman who lives in Spain to have transcendental psychotherapy administered over Zoom. And then Jolene emerges, a woman endeared for decades to Vollmer’s father, holding secrets to their family’s past. Amidst the turmoil and loneliness of the pandemic, All of Us Together in the End is a poignant and often humorous investigation into belief set in a time where it seems people will believe anything. It is an elegiac affirmation of the awesome, strange, otherworldly ways our loved ones remain alive to us, even when they are out of reach.

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  Ben Hecht - Fighting Words...

  Adina Hoffman

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  A vibrant portrait of one of the most accomplished and prolific American screenwriters, by an award-winning biographer and essayist.He was, according to Pauline Kael, "the greatest American screenwriter." Jean-Luc Godard called him "a genius" who "invented eighty percent of what is used in Hollywood movies today." Besides tossing off dozens of now-classic scripts — including Scarface, Twentieth Century, and Notorious — Ben Hecht was known in his day as ace reporter, celebrated playwright, taboo-busting novelist, and the most quick-witted of provocateurs. During World War II, he also emerged as an outspoken crusader for the imperiled Jews of Europe, and later he became a fierce propagandist for pre-1948 Palestine's Jewish terrorist underground. Whatever the outrage he stirred, this self-declared "child of the century" came to embody much that defined America — especially Jewish America — in his time.Hecht's fame has dimmed with the decades, but Adina Hoffman's vivid portrait brings this charismatic and contradictory figure back to life. Hecht was a renaissance man of dazzling sorts, and Hoffman — critically acclaimed biographer, former film critic, and eloquent commentator on Middle Eastern culture and politics — is uniquely suited to capture him in all his modes.

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  Dirty Dealing - Grosso v...

  Jeffrey Allan Grosso

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  When a young screenwriter goes online to check out the promotional website for a new poker movie called Rounders, he's shocked to discover how similar it is to a screenplay he wrote a few years earlier and submitted to a number of studios. When he later sees the Miramax-produced film in theaters, he is astonished by the number of overlapping elements—the protagonist playing Texas Hold 'em to pay his way through college while deceiving the girlfriend who believes he's quit, the loss of everything he has in a single hand of high-stakes Hold 'em, a character named "Worm," and many other commonalities that form the foundation of what will become his lawsuit against Miramax. He leaves the theater that day feeling that not only has the studio stolen his script, but his life, which had encompassed years of professional poker playing that informed the screenplay he hoped would open the door to a writing career in Hollywood.Against all odds, he proceeds to take on Miramax and the Hollywood system with the help of an ingenious lawyer. Jeffrey Grosso simply has to prove how it could have happened and convince a judicial system that often favors studios over writers that he's a victim of intellectual property theft, which results in a ten-year landmark legal battle against Hollywood's most notorious studio.

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  On This Day: May 1

  Kurt Heintz

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  On This Day: May 1. Daily podcast of historical and noteworthy activity on this calendar day. May Day holiday; labor holiday; Occupy Wall Street; meaning of "mayday"

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  Party Lounge: The Ride Is Over!

  Captain Marky Mark

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  California knows how to party, and when it comes to entertaining people—from celebrities’ birthday bashes to prom celebrations—Captain Marky Mark, the founder of PartyLounge Transportation, California’s first State Licensed Motor Home Limousine Company, is the man. Prepare yourself for a real treat, discover the Golden State as you've never seen it before, and enjoy the ride!  
  In this delirious collection of short stories packed with humor and mind-blowing twists, he shines as a storyteller and takes you on a fun journey across California on his party buses. Based on real-life events, the book will introduce you to the people who drove them and the people who rode them. You will be treated like royalty by the waitresses, aka the Party Dolls. You will run into illegal party buses, but all will end well. To make the adventure even more exciting, you will even get on a TV show.  
  The audiobook version includes exclusive bonuses such as a brand new chapter and interviews with some of the people who made those party buses such a fun and unique experience.

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