Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Dust and Light - On the Art of...

  Andrea Barrett

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  The celebrated National Book Award–winning writer's intimate exploration of how fact is transformed into fiction. 
   
   
   
  In this thoughtful collection of essays, Andrea Barrett draws from her experiences writing some of the most acclaimed historical fiction of our time to explore the mysteries and delights of the genre. Inspiration found in the past, she argues, can illuminate fiction, just as dust scatters light and makes the unseen visible. Delving into some of the largest questions in the genre—How does a writer find meaningful subject matter beyond the confines of their life? How are scraps of history transformed into a fully formed narrative?—Barrett explores how she came to create some of her beloved works and explores lessons gleaned from the work of such masters of historical fiction as Toni Morrison, Leo Tolstoy, Hilary Mantel, and Colm Tóibín. Candid and elegant, Dust and Light is the perfect book for anyone who loves reading fiction set in the past, as well as for anyone aspiring to write it.

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  All the Things We Never Knew -...

  Sheila Hamilton

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  Even as a reporter, Sheila Hamilton missed the signs as her husband David’s mental illness unfolded before her. By the time she had pieced together the puzzle, it was too late. Her once brilliant, intense, and hilarious partner was dead within six weeks of a formal diagnosis of bipolar disorder, leaving his nine-year-old daughter and wife without so much as a note to explain his actions, a plan to help them recover from their profound grief, or a solution for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt that they would inherit from him. 
  All the Things We Never Knew takes listeners from David and Sheila’s romance through the last three months of their life together and into the year after his death. It details their unsettling descent from ordinary life into the world of mental illness and examines the fragile line between reality and madness. Now, a decade after David’s death, Sheila and her daughter, Sophie, have learned the power of choosing life over retreat, let themselves love and trust again, and understand the importance of forgiveness. Their story will resonate with all those who have loved someone suffering from bipolar disease and mental illness.

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  Communist Daze - The Many...

  Vladimir A. Tsesis MD

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  Welcome to Gradieshti, a Soviet village awash in gray buildings and ramshackle fences, a home to a large, collective farm and to the most oddball and endearing cast of characters possible. 
  For three years in the 1960s, Vladimir Tsesis―inestimable Soviet doctor and irrepressible jester―was stationed in a village where racing tractor drivers tossed vodka bottles to each other for sport; where farmers and townspeople secretly mocked and tried to endure the Communist way of life; where milk for children, running water, and adequate electricity were rare; where the world’s smallest, motley parade became the country’s longest; and where one compulsively amorous Communist Party leader met a memorable, chilling fate. 
  From a frantic pursuit of calcium-deprived, lunatic Socialist chickens to a father begging on his knees to Soviet officials to obtain antibiotics for his dying child, Vladimir’s tales of Gradieshti are unforgettable. Sometimes hysterical, often moving, always a remarkable and highly entertaining insider’s look at rural life under the old Soviet regime, they are a sobering exposé of the terrible inadequacies of its much-lauded socialist medical system.

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  Forged in Fire

  Scott Ryder

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  Forged in Fire takes us inside the secretive world of the Australian commandos. 
   
  Garry made a report on the radio: 'I see around 200 women and children heading north up the valley.' Less than 400 metres below us, a steady stream of women and kids were hurrying away in single file. 
  'Where are all the men?' I asked Garry. 'Waiting for us,' he responded, with a look of concern I had not seen on his face before. My heart skipped a beat—we were on. 
   
  From the age of 12, Scott Ryder knew he wanted to join the army, and he signed up as soon as he could. After serving as a paratrooper and in East Timor with 3 RAR, he wanted more. He trained all summer and took the gruelling selection course for the commandos, earning the prized green beret on his second attempt. 
   
  Forged in Fire takes us inside the secretive world of the commandos. Ryder shares battlefield stories from his tours to Afghanistan, where his regiment saw some of the heaviest fighting Australian forces have experienced since the Vietnam War. After being seriously injured in a shocking Black Hawk helicopter crash in Kandahar, he was the only survivor to return to active service. 
   
  Frankly written, with self-deprecating humour, it reveals the qualities of strength and mental resilience that characterise special forces operators. 
   
  'Scott is not famous; his chest is not bedecked with the grandest tin and ribbon. His voice is from among us rather than up on high. And his account of the DNA of the commando, the lesser sung super-soldier, is all the better for it.' - from the foreword by Chris Masters, author of Flawed Hero

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  This Is Qatar: Anecdotes from an...

  M. Star

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  Ever wonder what it’s like to live in Qatar? Well M hadn’t. He couldn’t have even found it on a map... then found himself there.
   
  When M arrived in Qatar from London on his newly-minted expat assignment, he didn’t expect to be confronted with life’s most existential choices...so immediately.
   
  And he dragged his girlfriend-cum-wife too.
   
  “But I wanted to go to Singapore,” she said.
   
  “We got at least half-way there!”
   
  From job offer, to eloping in Las Vegas (because living together out of wedlock is haram), to having a kid - and back again, “TIQ” is a humorous, if not slightly exaggerated, acerbic account of an amateur expat’s trials and tribulations waaaay out of his depth in a country, frankly, he had never heard of.
   
  If you’re about to move to Qatar, or if you ever thought you wanted to visit (you KNOW you want to), TIQ will help you frame (and perhaps even answer) some non-trivial questions such as:
   
  - What would you choose with your marginal dollar - beer, or bacon?
   
  - Is it OK to eat your lunch on the toilet?
   
  - Who’s that scary voice on the radio every morning? and
   
  - Are traffic signs really just...guidelines?
   
  If you weren’t planning on moving to Qatar, or even visiting - the shock, laughs and jaw-droppingly ridiculous happenstances might just even move the needle (albeit slightly).
   
  Way back when M  got his Hebrew tattoo, his mom, like any good Jewish-American, said, “Well, now you’ll never be able to go to the Middle East.”
   
  M just scoffed and said, “Middle East? Me? Never.”
   
  Who’s laughing now?
   
  (And by the way: the answer is definitely never bacon.) 

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  Reacher - The Stories Behind the...

  Lee Child

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  After making his debut in The Killing Floor, Jack Reacher has quickly become one of the most popular―and most enduring―fictional heroes to emerge in the past half century. Now, his creator tells the stories behind the stories. 
   
   
   
  These are the origin tales of all of the Reacher novels written solely by Lee Child, chock full of colorful anecdotes and intriguing inspirations. One by one, they expand upon each novel and place it in the context not only of the author's life, but of the world outside the books. And taken together, they chart the rise of an action icon, from 1997's The Killing Floor to 2019's Blue Moon. An afterword by crime fiction expert and bookseller Otto Penzler considers the importance of the character and novels in the canon of contemporary crime fiction. 
   
   
   
  In addition to the essays, this collection also includes an original Reacher short story―the first new Reacher appearance entirely written by Lee Child since 2019. Entertaining and enlightening, Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories is a must-listen for fans of the Jack Reacher series and a capstone to any collection of this excellent author.

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