Other books that might interest you

• 

  Running From Office -...

  Eoghan Murphy

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  'A wonderfully engaging, honest and witty portrait of the humiliations, idealism, nobility and banality of democratic life' - Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge'Wryly self-deprecating, but also informative and illuminating' - Matt CooperAs Ireland's Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy took on one of the toughest briefs in government, one that continues to be a challenge today. Looking back at his life in the build-up to parliamentary office and at his time in the cabinet, Eoghan brings a self-lacerating and deeply personal view of the life of a modern politician trying - and often failing - to make the positive change he hoped to deliver. Brutal and sometimes harrowing, Eoghan's tale is also surprisingly funny, though the humour is only ever at the author's expense. If, in the end, all political careers end in failure, why didn't anyone tell the author that? There are no heroes or villains here, just a person facing their own limitations as they navigate the unfamiliar world of campaigns, elected office and government responsibility.Bringing refreshing candour to the pressures and absurdity of politics, this book shows us who our politicians really are when there's nothing left to spin and no one there to spin it to.

  Show book

• 

  All the Ways Our Dead Still...

  Caleb Wilde

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  What if our dead remain with us? What if closure is not the goal? No matter what you believe about the afterlife, what if the hereafter intersects with the here and now? 
   
   
   
  Caleb Wilde, author of the acclaimed memoir Confessions of a Funeral Director, was a skeptic. The baffling stories people told him—deathbed visions of long-dead parents, visits from the other side—must be hallucinations or wishful thinking, he thought. But the more stories he heard, and the more he learned about non-Western understandings of body and spirit, the less sure he was. 
   
   
   
  All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak takes listeners on a lyrical and tender quest to encounter the hereafter. As Wilde picks up bodies, organizes funerals, and meets with grieving families in a small town in Pennsylvania, those who remain share with him—and us—what they experience in the thin places between life and death. Entwining these stories with his own as a sixth-generation funeral director, and with the findings of neuroscience and the solace of faith, Wilde creates a searching, reverent inquiry into all the ways our dead remain with us. In the process, he takes on prevailing dogmas about death: from a narrow Christian view of heaven and hell, to secular assumptions that death is the end, to pop-psychology maxims that say we all need "closure" after our loved ones die.

  Show book

• 

  Royalty - The 6 in 1 Historical...

  Kelly Mass

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This book focuses on the history of several kings and queens, which are the following: 
  Anne Boleyn: Her Execution for Treason, and Her Political and Religious Upheaval 
  Bloody Mary: Mary Tudor, the Queen Who Took on the Protestant Revolt 
  Charlemagne: King of the Franks, King of Lombardy, and Emperor of the Romans 
  Eleanor of Aquitaine: One of the Wealthiest and Most Influential Women in western Europe 
  Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France before the French Revolution 
  Queen Victoria: The British Monarch Who Ruled the Longest 
  Richard the Lionheart: The Famous King of England during the 12th Century

  Show book

• 

  A Grand Slam for God - A Journey...

  Burke Masters

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Burke Masters had the perfect game plan for his life: he was going to become a Major League Baseball player. As a star infielder for Mississippi State with a game-winning grand slam to help his team reach the College World Series, he was well on his way to the career of his dreams. But little did he know that his life-changing call would not be from a recruiter to join the Major Leagues—it would be from God to become a priest.   In this page-turning memoir, Fr. Burke takes readers on an intimate personal journey—from his childhood outside of Chicago, to his success in baseball, to his conversion to Catholicism, and finally, to his acceptance of his vocation. Amid severe doubt and personal loss, he learned to embrace his fundamental identity—not as an athlete, but as a beloved son of God and a spiritual father to God’s people. Fr. Burke’s story is a powerful reminder that God’s plan for us is so much greater than our own; that it fulfills our dreams in ways greater than we could have imagined; and that if we only have the courage to say yes, every moment is an opportunity for a grand slam for God. 

  Show book

• 

  Into the Dark - What darkness is...

  Jacqueline Yallop

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Can you remember the first time you encountered true darkness? The kind that remains as black and inky whether your eyes are open or closed? Where you can't see your hand in front of your face? 
   
  Jacqueline Yallop can. It was in an unfamiliar bedroom while holidaying in Yorkshire as a child, and ever since then she has been fascinated by the dark, by our efforts to capture or avoid it, by the meanings we give to it and the way our brains process it. 
   
  Taking a journey into the dark secrets of place, body and mind, she documents a series of night-time walks, exploring both the physical realities of darkness and the psychological dark that helps shape our sense of self. Exploring our enduring love-hate relationship with states of darkness, she considers how we attempt to understand and contain the dark, and, as she comes to terms with her father's deteriorating Alzheimer's, she reflects on how our relationship to the dark can change with time and circumstance. 
   
  Darkness captivates, baffles and appals us. It's a shifty thing of many textures, many moods, a state of fascination and of horror, an absence and a presence, solace and threat, a beginning and an end. Into the Dark is the story of the many darks that fascinate and assail us. It faces the darkness full on in all its guises and mysteries, celebrating it as a thing of beauty while peering into the void.

  Show book

• 

  Music in the Halls - The Heart...

  Bernard Jankowski

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Through vignettes, essays, snapshots, portraits, and poems, Music in the Halls reveals the inner workings of a high-poverty District of Columbia Public School. In it, Jankowski brings to light the visceral and emotional nature of childhood poverty and trauma and how it not only impacts a student’s ability to learn but also how it restricts their ability to live a full life. Uncovering the interwoven worlds of children and their parents, teachers and administrators, and the DCPS bureaucracy—all residing in close proximity to the nation’s capitol—Music in the Halls is not simply a tale of hard knocks; it is an exploration of how one man’s understanding and compassion can be transformed and expanded to encompass and embrace this world.

  Show book