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  Top 10 Short Stories The - O...

  O Henry

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  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  O Henry perhaps the master of the American short story across his 600 works.  Slices of life, vignettes of narrative are told with verve and poise and words that simply flow as he wanders through society revealing characters and stories of instant appeal. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - O Henry - An Introduction 
  02 - O Henry - An Introduction 
  03 - The Gift of the Magi by O Henry 
  04 - After Twenty Years by O Henry 
  05 - Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen by O Henry 
  06 - The Furnished Room by O Henry 
  07 - The Last Leaf by O Henry 
  08 - The Ransom of Red Chief by O Henry 
  09 - Springtime A La Carte by O Henry 
  10 - The Social Triangle by O Henry 
  11 - Witch's Loaves by O Henry 
  12 - A Harlem Tragedy by O Henry

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  The Dark Story of Eminem

  Nick Hasted

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  The celebrated story of how Marshall Mathers went from school and low-paid jobs in his native Detroit to global superstardom, rehab and comeback. Nick Hasted’s revealing account also looks back at Eminem's most important relationships -with his mother, his teenage soul-mate Kim Scott, producer Dr. Dre and The Bass Brothers who guided and inspired him from the age of fourteen.

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  The Cairngorms - A Secret History

  Patrick Baker

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  A travelogue exploring the colorful history of the Scottish mountain range, by the author of The Unremembered Places.Cairngorms: A Secret History is a series of journeys exploring barely known human and natural stories of the Cairngorm Mountains. It looks at a unique British landscape, its last great wilderness, with new eyes. History combines with travelogue in a vivid account of this elemental scenery. There have been rare human incursions into the Cairngorm plateau, and Patrick Baker tracks them down. He traces elusive wildlife and relives ghostly sightings on the summit of Ben Macdui. From the search for a long-forgotten climbing shelter and the locating of ancient gem mines, to the discovery of skeletal aircraft remains and the hunt for a mysterious nineteenth-century aristocratic settlement, he seeks out the unlikeliest and most interesting of features in places far off the beaten track. The cultural and human impact of this stunning landscape and reflections on the history of mountaineering are the threads which bind this compelling narrative together.Praise for The Cairngorms“Perfect . . . full of ghosts of walkers past.” —Conde Nast Traveler“Describing a series of walks, Baker illuminates the bleak landscape, revealing the many stories linked to its ruined bothies, ancient gem mines and even haunted summits.” —FT Weekend“Exploring the Cairngorms has been a lifetime fascination for Patrick Baker and in this book he generously shares the results.” —Scotland Magazine“Packed with great stories and vivid descriptions.” —Scotland Outdoor

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  Exile on Front Street - My Life...

  George Christie

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  After forty years in the Hells Angels, George Christie was ready to retire. As president of the high-profile Ventura charter of the club, he had been the yin to Sonny Barger's yang. Barger was the reckless figurehead and de facto world leader of the Hells Angels. Christie was the negotiator, the spokesman, the thinker, the guy who smoothed things out. He was the one who carried the Olympic torch and counted movie stars, artists, rock musicians, and police chief captains among his friends.But leaving the Hells Angels isn't easy, and within two weeks of retirement, he was told he was "out bad"-blackballed by his fellow Angels, prohibited from wearing the club patch, and even told he should remove his Death Head tattoo.Now Christie sets out to tell his story. Exile on Front Street is the tale of how a former Marine gave up a comfortable job with the Department of Defense and swore allegiance to the Hells Angels. In this revealing, hard-hitting memoir, he recounts his life as an outlaw biker with the world's most infamous motorcycle club.

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  Erich von Manstein - Hitler's...

  Benoît Lemay

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  A selection of the Military Book Club: An “informative and objective” biography of a genius commander and a study of his loyalty to the Nazi cause (Library Journal).   To many close students of World War II, Erich von Manstein is considered the greatest commander of the war, if not the entire twentieth century. He devised the plan that conquered France in 1940 and led an infantry corps in that campaign. At the head of a panzer corps, he reached the gates of Leningrad in 1941, then took command of 11th Army and conquered Sevastopol and the Crimea. After destroying another Soviet army in the north, he was given command of the ad hoc Army Group Don to retrieve the German calamity at Stalingrad, whereupon he launched a counteroffensive that, against all odds, restored the German front. Afterward, he commanded Army Group South, nearly crushing the Soviets at Kursk, and then skillfully resisted their relentless attacks as he traded territory for coherence in the East.   Though an undoubtedly brilliant military leader—whose achievements, considering the forces at his disposal, rivaled of Patton, Rommel, MacArthur, and Montgomery—surprisingly little is known about Manstein himself, save for his own memoir and the accolades of his contemporaries. In this book, we finally have a full portrait of the man, including his campaigns, and an analysis of what precisely kept a genius like Manstein harnessed to such a dark cause.   A great military figure, but a man who lacked a sharp political sense, Manstein was very much representative of the Germano-Prussian military caste of his time. Though Hitler was uneasy about the influence he’d gained throughout the German Army, Manstein ultimately declined to join any clandestine plots against his Führer, believing they would simply cause chaos, the one thing he abhorred. Though he constantly opposed Hitler on operational details, he considered it a point of loyalty to simply stand with the German state, in whatever form. Though not bereft of personal opinions, his primary allegiances were, first, to Deutschland and, second, to the soldiers under his command, who’d been committed against an enemy many times their strength.   It is thus through Manstein that the attitudes of other high-ranking officers who fought during the Second World War, particularly on the Eastern Front, can be illuminated. This book is a “well-researched, convincingly reasoned analysis of a general widely considered one of WWII’s great commanders” (Publishers Weekly).   Includes photographs.

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  One Bright Moon - Winner of the...

  Andrew Kwong

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  Winner of the 2021 Michael Crouch Award, debut category of the National Biography Award: From famine to freedom, how a young boy fled Chairman Mao's China to a new life in Australia 
    
  Andrew Kwong was only seven when he witnessed his first execution. The grim scene left him sleepless, anxious and doubtful about his commitment as a revolutionary in Mao's New China. Yet he knew if he devoted himself to the Party and its Chairman he would be saved. That's what his teacher told him. 
  Months later, it was his own father on trial. This time the sentence was banishment to a re-education camp, not death. It left the family tainted, despised, and with few means of survival during the terrible years of persecution and famine known as the Great Leap Forward. Even after his father returned, things remained desperate. Escape seemed the only solution, and it would be twelve-year-old Andrew who undertook the perilous journey first. 
  This is the poignant, resonant story of a young boy's awakening – to survival, education, fulfilment, and eventually to a new life of freedom. 
  PRAISE 
  'An incredibly powerful book' Benjamin Law 
  '[A] moving family saga, shot through with yearning and hard-won joy' Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald 
  'This book will live on in your heart long after you've read the last page' Vicki Laveau-Harvie, author of The Erratics 
  'Heart-breaking, honest, personal, Andrew Kwong's moving journey from oppression to freedom is inspiring' Susanne Gervay, OAM, author 
  'A work of startling clarity ... reminiscent of Angela's Ashes' South China Morning Post Magazine 
  'Deeply moving ... The unique perspective of a child ... places One Bright Moon in the vicinity of Night, Elie Wiesel's pathbreaking memoir of his early life prior to and of his time in German concentration camps' Meenakshi Bharat, IIC Quarterly 
  'A few pages into this compelling memoir proves it was written by a master storyteller' Sharon Rundle, Australian Book Review 
  'A profoundly moving and spellbinding story that perfectly illuminates the terror of the times and the irrepressible yearning for something better' Carol Major, author and writing mentor 
  'One Bright Moon is extraordinary writing that encapsulates long-term hunger as a background feature of daily life in Mao's New China. In the foreground are images of adults and children populating the world of the pre-teenage boy with a photographic memory who would later write of them. The book is rich archival material for the study of China's social history' Mabel Lee, PhD FAHA, writer and translator 
  'Reading this memoir is a healing experience' Devika Brendon, author and editor  
  HarperCollins Australia 2022

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