Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Unknown Battle of Midway -...

  Alvin Kernan

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  “A memoir and more . . . Kernan brings this maritime battle superbly to life. . . . And he narrates the air assault in gripping detail” (The Wall Street Journal).   The Battle of Midway is considered the greatest US naval victory, but behind the luster is the devastation of the American torpedo squadrons. Of the 51 planes sent to attack Japanese carriers only 7 returned, and of the 127 aircrew only 29 survived. Not a single torpedo hit its target.   A story of avoidable mistakes and flawed planning, The Unknown Battle of Midway reveals the enormous failures that led to the destruction of four torpedo squadrons but were omitted from official naval reports: the planes that ran out of gas, the torpedoes that didn’t work, the pilots who had never dropped torpedoes, and the breakdown of the attack plan. Alvin Kernan, who was present at the battle, has written a troubling but persuasive analysis of these and other little-publicized aspects of this great battle. The standard navy tactics for carrier warfare are revealed in tragic contrast to the actual conduct of the battle and the after-action reports of the ships and squadrons involved.   “An incisive and laconic writer, Kernan knows his facts and presents them with deep feeling. A World War II must-read.” —Booklist   “I read The Unknown Battle of Midway in one sitting. It is a momentous piece of work, reeking of the authenticity of carrier warfare as experienced by the flight crews.” —Sir John Keegan, author of A History of Warfare   “An emotionally powerful story, not merely one of war but of its lasting effects.” —The Times Literary Supplement

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  Trusting to Learn Through an...

  Eileen Kusakabe

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  Have you ever wondered what it really means to surrender all to God? In her memoir, Eileen Kusakabe describes her years of growing up in Hawaii, feeling despised because of her Caucasian heritage.As the youngest latchkey child with an unstable father, she wonders if even God despises her for all of her failings. Trudging through adulthood, she hears a message of God's design for a life of significance. Frustrated and fearing she missed her chance, she gets on her knees and gives her life to God. All of it. His unwanted response leaves her fighting for her life.

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  Dimestore - A Writer's Life

  Lee Smith

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  In her first work of nonfiction, Lee Smith deploys the wit, wisdom, and graceful prose for which she is beloved to conjure her early days in the small coal town of Grundy, Virginia--and beyond.  
  For the inimitable Lee Smith, place is paramount. For forty-five years, her fiction has lived and breathed with the rhythms and people of the Appalachian South. But never before has she written her own story. Set deep in the rugged Appalachian Mountains, the Grundy of Lee Smith's youth was a place of coal miners, mountain music, and her daddy's dimestore. It was in that dimestore--listening to customers and inventing life histories for the store's dolls--that she began to learn the craft of storytelling. Even though she adored Grundy, Smith's formal education and travels took her far from Virginia, though her Appalachian upbringing never left her.  
  Dimestore's fifteen essays are crushingly honest, always wise, and superbly entertaining. Smith has created both a moving, personal portrait and a broader meditation on embracing one's heritage. Hers is an inspiring story of the birth of a writer and a poignant look at a way of life that has all but vanished.

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  The Elements - A Widowhood

  Kat Lister

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  'Powerful, humane and deeply affecting, Lister's wise and truthful writing makes this essential reading for anyone touched, and utterly confused, by grief.' Sali Hughes
  'The must-read memoir'Red
  What does it mean to become a widow at 35?
  
  In her mid-thirties Kat Lister lost her husband to brain cancer. After five years of being a wife and one of being a carer, in love and in and out of hospitals, she became a widow.
  
  In the year following his death Kat seeks refuge in stories of grief and widowhood, but struggles to find a language that can make sense of her experience and the physicality of bereavement. Instead, she turns to the elements - fire, water, earth, air - on her quest to come to terms with her grief, to inhabit her body again, and to find out who she is now.
  The Elements is a story of love, pain, hope and, ultimately, transformation.

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  My Lion's Heart - A Life for the...

  Gareth Patterson

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  Environmentalist, independent researcher and author, Gareth Patterson has spent his entire adult life working tirelessly for the greater protection of African wildlife and, more particularly, for that of the lion. Born in England in 1963, Gareth grew up in Nigeria and Malawi. From an early age he knew where his life's path would take him - it would be in Africa, and his life's work would be for the cause of the African wilderness and its wild inhabitants. His is an all-encompassing African story. From his childhood in West and East Africa to his study of a threatened lion population in a private reserve in Botswana to his work with George Adamson, celebrated as the 'Lion Man' of Africa, we witness Gareth's growing commitment to his life's mission. This is nowhere more evident than in his account of his life as a human member of a lion pride, experiencing life and death through its eyes, as he successfully rehabilitated three famous orphaned lion cubs back into a life in the wilds. At considerable risk to his own personal safety, he exposed the sordid canned lion 'industry' in South Africa, bringing this shameful practice to international attention. After moving to the Western Cape he took up the fight for the African elephant, notably the unique endangered Knysna population, and published his astonishing findings in his 2009 book The Secret Elephants. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the stressful nature of his work, Gareth suffered a massive physical and mental breakdown in his forties, which he discusses here for the first time with an openness that underlines his courage. Lesser men might have been broken, but his 'lion's heart' fought back and he ultimately overcame his illness. Gareth Patterson's long-awaited autobiography is a moving account of one man's single-minded dedication to the preservation of Africa's wildlife. It is also a stark reminder that if the human race does not want to lose Africa's priceless wild heritage, there is no time to waste. 'The lion is my totem animal, and this is the story of my life in Africa, for the lion.'

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  My Inventions

  Nikola Tesla

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  Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system, the successful system in the "War of Currents" and the Tesla coil. Nikolas Tesla's patents and theoretical work helped form the basis of wireless communication and radio. He is also known for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments in New York and Colorado Springs, experiments in X-rays, and his ill-fated attempt at intercontinental wireless transmission in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project. 
  Tesla's achievements and his abilities as a showman demonstrating his seemingly miraculous inventions made him world famous. He made a great deal of money from his patents, but he also spent a lot on numerous experiments over the years. In the last few decades of his life, he ended up living in diminished circumstances as a recluse in a series of New York City hotel rooms, occasionally issuing unusual statements to the press. Because of his pronouncements and the nature of his work over the years, Tesla gained a reputation in popular culture as the archetypal "mad scientist". He died penniless and in debt on 7 January 1943.

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