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  Unspoken - A Father's Wartime...

  Tom McGrath

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  Growing up in Waterford, Tom McGrath never noticed the odd gaps in the stories of his parents' lives before he was born; it was only many years after they died that he uncovered the unspoken truths, which did so much to explain the people they had been.
  Here he tells the incredible true story of his father's conscription into the British Army, his escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland, his daring journey across Europe and subsequent recapture – and the devastating news that awaited him in England. Tom's research also led him to discover that his mother also carried a heartbreaking secret.
  In writing this book Tom not only recreated his father's nail-biting escape but also embarked on a journey of his own to reconnect with previously unknown family members in order to piece together an extraordinarily rare tale that encompasses memoir, family history, and the parallel stories, which were almost lost for ever, of his parents' lives of desperate hardship.

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  Dance or Die - From Stateless...

  Ahmad Joudeh

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  A Syria-born dancer offers his deeply personal story of war, statelessness, and the pursuit of the art of dance in this inspirational memoir. 
   
    
   
  Dance or Die is an autobiographical coming-of-age account of Ahmad Joudeh, a young refugee who grows up in Damascus with dreams of becoming a dancer. When he is recruited by one of Syria's top dance companies, neither bombs nor family opposition can keep him from taking classes, practicing hard, and becoming a Middle Eastern celebrity on a Lebanese reality show. Despite death threats if Ahmad continues to dance, his father kicking him out of the house, and the war around him intensifying, he persists and even gets a tattoo on his neck right where the executioner's blade would fall that says, "Dance or Die." 
   
    
    
  A powerful look at refugee life in Syria, Dance or Die tells of the pursuit of personal expression in the most dangerous of circumstances and of the power of art to transcend war and suffering. It follows Ahmad from Damascus to Beirut to Amsterdam, where he finds a home with one of Europe's top ballet troupes, and from where he continues to fight for the human rights of refugees everywhere through his art, his activism, and his commitment to justice.

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  The Last Jewish Gangster: The...

  David Larson

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  “A captivating and different kind of story” about the life of Bugsy Siegel’s godson, from the author “who captured his voice” (Nick Pileggi, author/screenwriter of Goodfellas and Casino). 
   
  In 1944 Brooklyn, newborn Michael J. Hardy is rejected by his mother so she can run with gangster Bugsy Siegel, Hardy’s godfather. Shirley Rook rose to the top of the criminal ranks. As the Queen of New York City crime, she laundered Mob money, ran the city’s largest bookmaking operation, and handed payouts to dirty cops, politicians, and judges. 
   
  To win his mother’s love and respect, Hardy became a fearless gangster. Throughout his career as a mercenary, he robbed banks and drug dealers alike, ran a kidnapping ring, and even became a hired gun. At his lowest, he ended up doing time for his mother’s counterfeiting operation in Mexico’s most dangerous prison. 
   
  Hardy’s criminal code of conduct combines elements of tough Ukrainian Jew and warm Southern Baptist, whether dealing with family and friends or fellow inmates during a combined twenty-six years spent in prisons and jails. He maintained this characteristic gregarious strength throughout his astonishing life in which Hardy was shot eleven times, committed fourteen hits for the Mob, twice wore wires for Rudy Giuliani to nab dirty cops, wrote a letter to JFK to get out of military prison, choked the Hillside Strangler, shared prison time with notorious criminals, and even spent ten years in Hollywood, cast in non-speaking roles in B-movies. 
   
  “A fascinating character study of an unapologetic criminal. David S. Larson masterfully weaves this tale in Michael Hardy’s own words, resulting in a powerful, inside story of a gangster’s life.” —Cathy Scott, Los Angeles Times-bestselling author

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  The Big Smoke

  Adrian Matejka

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  Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Award in Poetry—a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson 
   
   
   
  The legendary Jack Johnson (1878–1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers—and white America—to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka's third work of poetry, follows the fighter's journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka's book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson's complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.

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  Female Prisoners of World War...

  Nikki McDove

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  Do you remember the stories of those taken prisoner during WWII? Can you name any heroes from the war? How many of those names are of women? 
  So often, we remember war heroes as men completing great feats of strength on the battlefield, saving the lives of their fellow soldiers. There have been multiple books, films, and articles written about soldiers during WWII. Some are fictional, while some are based on true stories. From Saving Private Ryan to The Great Escape, the public is not at any loss for the stories of the trials that men faced during the Second World War.  
  The stories that are all too often forgotten are those of the women. These are true stories of female prisoners of war, courageous nurses taken prisoner while serving in the military to take care of those soldiers. They are the women who risked life and limb to do what they could to stop the spread of fascism.  
  Within the pages of this book lie the stories of five incredible women prisoners of war during World War Two. These women not only risked their lives in the line of duty, just as their male counterparts did, but they also faced horrific atrocities and risks directly tied to their gender.  
  These women are:  
  • A flight nurse whose plane was shot down over enemy lines only to completely confuse the German Army as to what to do with her. 
  • An American woman living in Germany who worked to infiltrate the Nazis to dismantle the system from the inside. 
  • The sole survivor of a mass murder of nurses only to have her own government silence her from telling her story.  
  • A feminist and political activist working to stop fascism and educate her fellow women, even while inside a concentration camp. 
  • A nurse who simply wanted to return to her post regardless of the torture she endured. 
  It is our duty to remember these women who survived war and honor them as the true heroines they were.

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  Everything She Touched - The...

  Marilyn Chase

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  This is the story of a woman who wielded imagination and hope in the face of intolerance and who transformed everything she touched into art. In this compelling biography, author Marilyn Chase brings Ruth Asawa's story to vivid life. She draws on Asawa's extensive archives and weaves together many voices to offer a complex and fascinating portrait of the artist. 
   
   
   
  Born in California in 1926, Ruth Asawa grew from a farmer's daughter to a celebrated sculptor. She survived adolescence in the World War II Japanese-American internment camps and attended the groundbreaking art school at Black Mountain College. Asawa then went on to develop her signature hanging-wire sculptures, create iconic urban installations, revolutionize arts education in her adopted hometown of San Francisco, fight through lupus, and defy convention to nurture a multiracial family. 
   
   
   
  ● Documents Asawa's transformative touch—most notably by turning wire—the material of the internment camp fences—into sculptures 
   
   
   
  ● Author Marilyn Chase mined Asawa's letters, diaries, sketches, and photos and conducted interviews with those who knew her to tell this inspiring story.

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