Other books that might interest you

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  Lost Fatherland - Europeans...

  Iryna Vushko

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  How the demise of the Habsburg Empire, postwar sovereignty, and new diplomatic frontiers shaped the nature of citizenship, identity, and belonging across Europe 
   
   
    
  This book is a collective portrait of twenty-one key statesmen who came of age during the Habsburg Empire. They include the cofounder of Austro-Marxism and the Austrian republic's first foreign minister, the cofounder of the European Union after the Second World War, the founder of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and Mussolini's ambassador to Vienna. Some survived the First World War and the resulting geographical divisions in their homelands, and some went on to serve in politics and governments throughout Europe. 
   
   
    
  Taken together, the stories of these men offer listeners a window on broad issues of European history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—chiefly, how an imperial heritage, a shared vision of statehood and nationalism, and a commitment to peaceful conflict resolution helped establish enduring loyalty and unity despite the geographical fault lines resulting from the war. As Iryna Vushko explains, their stories also offer an increasingly nuanced understanding of the achievements and failures of the Habsburg Empire.

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  No Scrap Left Behind - My Life...

  Teralyn Pilgrim

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  Teralyn Pilgrim had no idea the environmental and economic impact of food waste, or that she could save $100 a month by being waste free. But when a story of hungry children fills her with unbearable guilt, she decided to make a change to the way her family approached mealtime. Despite finicky kids and a skeptical husband, Pilgrim turned her feelings of guilt into action and created a zero-food waste kitchen. 
   
   
   
  Pilgrim began her journey by defining food waste with Rule #1: the Hungry Kid Test—would you throw something edible away with a hungry child watching? If the answer is yes, it can go in the compost. If the answer is no, then it's time to get creative. 
   
   
   
  Narrating her trials and errors—emphasis on errors—Pilgrim invites listeners to her table, where leftover food is a personal challenge to reduce waste, save money, and guard against squandering natural resources. Things get tricky when she discovers a five-year-old fish in her freezer, accidentally buys the grossest fat-free cookies in the world, and finds her dog is as picky as the kids. Addressing myths about how being waste-free is too hard (it's not) and whether expiration dates mean anything (they don't), Pilgrim teaches listeners clever ways to be resourceful while also offering a broader look at why food waste matters and the global effects of this massive problem.

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  European Imperialism in China:...

  Editors Charles River

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  During the 15th century, China had become economically and technologically advanced compared to civilizations in Europe at the time, and its fleet, which had reached a total of 3,500 ships, was unmatched by any other world power. Nevertheless, after conducting several trade expeditions with the massive fleet, the Chinese ships were either burned in the docks or left to rot. With that, China began to revert to the xenophobic policies of its past and reduce its presence in other lands. By 1525, the largest naval fleet in the world had essentially been destroyed or dismantled by China itself.  
  While China was in the process of isolating itself from the rest of the world, the European explorers were beginning to discover new lands, such as North America and South America. Among the countries doing the most exploring during this time were the Portuguese. The Portuguese had reached India in 1498, and by 1509 they had established part of their empire in India. This allowed the Portuguese to have a base of operations to further expand east into Asia. In 1511, the Portuguese captured the large spice trading center of Malacca in Malaysia, and like their base in India, Malacca allowed the Portuguese to have a foothold, thereby providing access to China and Southeast Asia. 
  The location of Macau was beneficial and strategically chosen by the Portuguese, as it was in close communication with Guangzhou and connected via a river system. In contrast to their earlier dealings with the Chinese, the Portuguese attempted to appear more humble and comply with the wishes of the Chinese rather than with force. As it turned out, the policy, in conjunction with increased European activities in the region, would help the Portuguese Empire hold on to Macau even as its fortunes dwindled everywhere else across the world.

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  Czech Glory Hole Massacre

  Haely Bare

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  After a brutal assault in NYC, Haely moves to San Francisco to try and reinvent herself. Unfortunately, she isn’t prepared to teach in the men’s county jail, and all the inmates know it. Drawn into a reckless romance with Ghost, a charming but calculating burglar she meets inside, Haely's obsession with uncovering his disturbing secrets thrusts her into a waking nightmare of drugs and violence, from which she may not survive. 
  Meanwhile in Prague, frat boy Otto Tepidstein grapples with the emotional fallout of having been cheated on. His quest for unattainable justice leads him down a Kafka-esque rabbit hole into Prague's gritty underworld of sexual depravity. There he has a chance encounter with Milka, a phlebotomist seemingly out of place in the world of sex work. 
  When an unsettling video surfaces on a porn site, depicting unspeakable acts, the twisted connections between these four troubled souls leads each one to their own irreversible fate. 
  In this lurid tale, based on true events, we discover that no matter our backgrounds, we all stand on the brink—one poor choice away from an abyss of self-destruction from which there is no return. As Nietzsche said, "sometimes you stare into the hole, and sometimes the hole stares back."

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  Freedom Riders The: The History...

  Editors Charles River

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  After a 1960 Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia, bus segregation was made illegal on new grounds: it violated the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, by regulating the movement of people across state lines. With this victory in hand, the Freedom Rides of 1961 began. Organized primarily by a new group – the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) – the Freedom Rides followed the same guidance that inspired the Montgomery Boycott and the Greensboro Sit-Ins – non-violent direct action. The purpose of the Freedom Rides was the test the Supreme Court's decision by riding from Virginia to Louisiana on integrated busses. This was notably the first major Civil Rights event that included a large segment of white participants.  
  	Mobs in places like Birmingham and Montgomery firebombed buses and brutally beat the Freedom Riders, sending dozens to the hospital. Mob violence, orchestrated by the KKK and their segregationist allies, erupted endlessly throughout the summer. White activists, who were viewed by the Ku Klux Klan as betraying their race, took the worst beatings of all.  
  	Both black and white Northerners had participated in the Freedom Rides, and civil rights activists sought other ways to harness their energy and activism in 1963. After the Freedom Rides, civil rights leaders initiated voter registration drives that could help register black voters and build community organizations that could help make their votes count. The momentum generated by the Freedom Rides and the following activism would lead to the famous March on Washington and eventually the passage of a historic civil rights bill in 1964. 

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  Cult A Love Story - Ten Years...

  Alexandra Amor

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  For fans of Educated, Captive, and Leah Remini's Troublemaker comes the gripping true-life story of one young woman's accidental journey into a cult. And her escape a decade later. 
  It's rarely obvious when a group is a cult. Most cults don't advertise themselves as such: they are groups of people who look and act just like you and me. Not dangerous. Not deranged. At least, not at first. 
  The slide toward complete control of your personality, your thoughts, and your life is slow and virtually unnoticeable. Until it's too late. 
  In this award-winning memoir, Alexandra Amor shines a light on cults so that others might learn from her heartbreaking experience. Amor gracefully and sensitively explains how ordinary and intelligent people get seduced into joining cults, why they stay despite the emotional and psychological abuse, and what the long process of recovery looks like once someone leaves a cult. 
  Amor's transparency about her decade-long involvement with a Vancouver, Canada cult makes this powerful and gripping book an excellent resource for those wanting to know more about how the mind control of a high demand spiritual or religious group works. 
  "This excellent memoir reveals how a charismatic, manipulative spirit medium can use love for God and neighbor as a hook to drag a small group of devotees into her cynical web of impossible goals for self-perfection. After a heroic struggle for insight, Alexandra Amor was one of the cult members who broke the abusive spell." Joesph Szimhart, Cult Information Specialist

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