Other books that might interest you

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  Italy’s Most Powerful Mafias:...

  Charles River Editors

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  The word “mafia,” Sicilian in origin, is synonymous with Italy, but Italy is home to several different mafias, with three being particularly notorious. While the Cosa Nostra of western Sicily is the most infamous, other powerful groups include the ferocious ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Camorra, the third-largest mafia, which is active in Naples and the Campania region. A “mafia” is loosely defined as a criminal organization that is interested in social, economic and political power, combining elements of a traditional secret society with those of a business, but further levels of nuance are necessary in order to understand these groups. In a general sense, this is because each mafia creates a myth about the development of the organization, which becomes like an unquestionable truth. In essence, part of what makes its members so completely loyal to it is also what makes outsiders so utterly afraid of it. 
  While all three mafias have initiation rituals dating to the 19th century, the oldest of the three belongs to the Camorra. The rituals date back to 1850, as the Camorra was taking shape in the prisons of southern Italy. In this simple but profound ritual, the new member was told to take an oath over crossed knives and then made to have a dagger fight with another man (either another possible initiate or a current member). However, the blades would be wrapped leaving just the point exposed, so that the only objective would be to draw a faint trace of blood, after which the fight would end. This ritual ceased in 1912, around the time that the Neapolitan Honored Society dissolved itself, and as it reconstituted itself in various formations over the course of the century, it never again returned to those more antiquated rituals. Instead, the group began to exist more as a loose network of criminals, all working for their own enrichment.

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  Heretics

  G.K. Chesterton

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  The Author Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th of May, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere "rollicking journalist," he was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtually every area of literature. A man of strong opinions and enormously talented at defending them, his exuberant personality nevertheless allowed him to maintain warm friendships with people--such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells--with whom he vehemently disagreed. Chesterton had no difficulty standing up for what he believed. He was one of the few journalists to oppose the Boer War. His 1922 "Eugenics and Other Evils" attacked what was at that time the most progressive of all ideas, the idea that the human race could and should breed a superior version of itself. In the Nazi experience, history demonstrated the wisdom of his once "reactionary" views. 
  Chesterton wrote several works of Christian apologetics, the best known of which are "Orthodoxy", "Heretics", and "The Everlasting Man". (Summary from Project Gutenberg)

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  Child of Earth and Starry Heaven

  L. Annette Binder

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  L. Annette Binder’s Child of Earth and Starry Heaven is a memoir of motherhood, memory and memory loss. It looks to mythology, science, poetry, history, and fiction to find beauty and meaning even as  Annette’s mother succumbs to Alzheimer’s disease. Sad and joyous, the book is a meditation on what makes us human. 
  Kirkus notes that, "The author writes with the probing lyricism of a poet... Readers will admire Binder's refusal of sentimentality, observant eye and determination to grasp answers that seem always on the verge of evaporation. An illuminating and moving meditation on dementia. (Our Verdict: GET IT.)" Foreword Reviews concludes that, “The prose is infused with love, exhibiting the grace Binder found in others and for herself...Despite the book's inevitable ending, there is no sense of tragedy to be found—only kinship.” James Brown, author of Apology to the Young Addict, calls the book "a hauntingly powerful work of the sort only the very best of writers may hope to achieve in a lifetime," while Harvard neuroscientist Daniel Schacter, author of The Seven Sins of Memory, calls it "an essential book that both moves and informs.”

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  The Bomb Doctor - A Scientist's...

  Selene Yeager, Kirk Yeager

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  This is not CSI. What you encounter as a true bomb detective—or "Bomb Doctor," as some in the FBI call me—are fields of twisted metal containing soot-covered fragments intermingled with human remains. You have carnage and chaos. As you wade into that sea of wailing sirens and screaming survivors awash with the stench of diesel fuel and decaying bodies, your job is to ferret out forensic clues in a type of macabre scavenger hunt to ultimately reconstruct the scene and the explosive device and determine what happened and what the bomb looked like before it was torn asunder. 
   
   
   
  The scavenger hunt can take months—or, in the case of the infamous Collar Bomber, seven painstaking years. The work is worth every second and every horrific image that etches itself into your brain because it helps prevent new horrors. Not all, obviously. We are not superheroes. But unlike shooters, who often just "snap" or seem to act out in random ways, bombers almost always have a story—one that follows an arc. 
   
   
   
  In The Bomb Doctor, my goal is to explain that arc, explode myths, reconstruct reality, and build an understanding of the reason and means behind the mayhem, as well as pull back the curtain on the investigative process that brings bombers to justice.

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  The Cold Fix - Drawing strength...

  Sara Barnes

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  'The cold water has given me the key to unlock myself within a place I didn't know existed: the community of cold water swimmers right around the world. What binds us all together is the cold and how it makes us feel: brave enough to tackle even the toughest of life's issues.'
  Having been a keen runner and cyclist all her life, in 2017 Sara Barnes was diagnosed with severe osteoarthritis and found herself facing major surgery and a future of limited mobility. Rather than obsessing about what she could no longer do, she decided to focus on what she could do and took to the water of the tarns, river pools and lakes in her home county of Cumbria. A new appreciation of being in nature and love of cold water swimming and immersion was born.
  In The Cold Fix, Sara takes the reader on an enthralling journey, from her first tentative steps into the water, to meeting other swimmers from around the world who share her passion and who can help her answer the question: what is it about cold water that proves irresistible to an increasing number of people?

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  Fry's Ties - The Life and Times...

  Stephen Fry

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  Anyone can wear a tie. All you need is a neck, a shirt, and a feel for color. 
   
  Discover the story of a gentleman’s most distinguished accessory. In this charming volume, the iconic actor and bestselling author Stephen Fry excavates his epic collection of neckties. From the traditional "egg and bacon" colors of the Marylebone Cricket Club, to the exuberant dalmatian  
  pattern of a 1980s Nicole Miller design, each tie tells a story. 
   
  The book includes an essay about Fry’s own necktie journey. Simply sit back and enjoy this informative and witty tour of history, culture, art, and design, peppered with amusing anecdotes.

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