Other books that might interest you

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  27 Letters to My Daughter - a...

  Ella Ward

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  When death is dancing closer than you'd like, what becomes important? What do you need to tell your child? And how do you want to be remembered? A beautiful, tender, funny and poignant guide on how to really live, from a mother to her daughter. 
    
  Ella Ward comes from a long line of irrepressibly charming raconteurs, letter-writers, storytellers and people who 'quite like giving toasts at parties'. And so, a few years ago, when Ella was 36 years old, with a husband and a young daughter, and was told that she had a rare cancer and might die, she decided that death wasn't going to stand in the way of her mothering her child. 
  As Ella's treatment for her cancer began, she started drafting letters to her daughter. To tell her about life, love, death, the importance of cotton knickers and - above all - her family. The kind of people who weren't dissuaded by little things like cancer. Or war. Or loss. Or a charging elephant. 
  This is a story of what we inherit, and how we become ourselves. This is the story of a family - a glorious, funny, exotic and gutsy family - but it's really a story about how your attitude to life, can shape your life. A time-travelling memoir from one mother, and the generations that came before her - these are twenty-seven letters about the good, the bad, the magical and the whole damn thing. 
  Jaunty, brave, moving and immensely appealing, this is a gloriously endearing inspirational story in the tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Last Lecture ... although with slightly more dry martinis. 
  'Not many people write hilariously and beautifully about something really intense and life altering. [This book] takes you all the way from heartbreak to hilarity - it will be your best friend for a while.' Martha Beck, New York Times bestselling author of The Way of Integrity

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  A Tale of Two Cities (Illustrated)

  Charles Dickens

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  A Tale of Two Cities is an 1859 historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. In the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction, critic Don D'Ammassa argues that it is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed.

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  Charlie Watts Rolling Stone -...

  Geoffrey Giuliano

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  Charlie Watts June 2, 1941- August 24, 2021 
   
   
  A TRIBUTE FROM THE AUTHOR OF 'PAINT IT BLACK THE MURDER OF BRIAN JONES' 
  AND 'THE ROLLING STONES ALBUM', SQUID GAME STAR GEOFFREY GIULIANO 
   
  "I wanted to play drums because I fell in love with the glitter and the lights, but it wasn't about adulation. It was being up there playing." 
   
  "I hate leaving home. I love what I do, but I'd love to go home every night." 
   
  "It's been years and years and years I've been playing the drums, and they're still a challenge." 
   
  "I never had lessons. Used to try to play to records, which I hated doing. Still can't play to them." 
  Charlie Watts 
   
  Charlie Watts provided the foundation that underpinned the music of the Rolling Stones. The band became a by-word for rock 'n' roll excess but for Watts, playing with the Stones did not become the ego trip that drove Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. A jazz aficionado, Watts vied with Bill Wyman for the title of least charismatic member of the band; he eschewed the limelight and rarely gave interviews. And he famously described life with the Stones as five years of playing, 20 years of hanging around. 
   
  Charles Robert Watts was born on 2 June 1941 at the University College Hospital in London and was raised in Kingsbury, now part of the London Borough of Brent. His father was a lorry driver and Watts was brought up in a prefabricated house to which the family had moved after German bombs destroyed hundreds of houses in the area. A childhood friend once described how Watts had an early interest in jazz and recalled listening to 78s in Charlie's bedroom by artists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Charlie Parker.

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  Lighting Candles - A...

  David Leslie

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  When Manny McDonnell was twelve, he awoke to discover British troops surrounding his home in the toughest area of trouble-torn Belfast. Internment had begun and, encouraged by a fiercely Republican mother, he took to the streets with other school kids, throwing bricks, bottles and petrol bombs at soldiers. Jailed at fifteen for having IRA links, he became a unit commander leading deadly missions for the INLA before joining the IPLO, a group so vicious even the IRA ordered it to disband. But his decades of commitment to a free united Ireland turned to disillusion when bombs indiscriminately killed two little boys in mainland Britain. It was a wake-up call and, sickened by the way events were unfolding, McDonnell distanced himself from the Troubles and began to spend more time in Scotland with major gangland players Paul Ferris and Tam 'The Licensee' McGraw. Friendly with both, he then faced difficult choices when the two fell out and became bitter rivals and sworn enemies. Lighting Candles is an astonishing and horrifying exposé of one man's journey through the blood, bombs and bullets of the paramilitaries to the criminal activities of drug-smuggling gangsters. It is also a story of how, no matter what has gone before, it's possible to put the past behind you and begin again.

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  The Daughter of Lilith - From...

  Anatole France

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  François-Anatole Thibault was born on the 16th April 1844 in Paris, France, the son of a bookseller and bibliophile. 
  He studied at the Collège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, and after graduating joined his father in the bookstore, which specialised in works on the French Revolution.  Several years later he secured a position as cataloguer at Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre before being appointed librarian for the French Senate in 1876. 
  His literary career had begun as a journalist and as a poet before publishing his novel ‘Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard’ in 1881.  Praised for its elegant prose, it won him a prestigious prize from the Académie Française, which later elected him to its storied ranks. 
  His works were profound and thoughtful and often couched in surreal and outlandish expressions; whether penguins baptized by a near-blind Abbott transformed themselves into humans or of a guardian angel who becomes an atheist, his stories turned established thought into startling literature. 
  His short stories run in the same vein.  The premise may seem plausible but his distinctive style turns them into an individual viewpoint which invokes both discussion and admiration. 
  In his private life his relationships with women were often turbulent.  A Socialist, he was a fervent supporter of the Russian Revolution and the early years of the French Communist party. 
  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 but the following year his entire canon of works was placed on the prohibited list of the Catholic Church, which he thought of as a credit to his name. 
  Anatole France died on the 12th October 1924 in Tours.  He was 80.

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  Devil at His Elbow The: Book...

  Briefly Summaries

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  This is a concise summary and analysis of The Devil at His Elbow, by Valerie Bauerlein.
   
  It is not the original book and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Valerie Bauerlein.
   
  Ideal those seeking a quick and insightful overview.
   
  
  "The Devil at His Elbow" delves into the dramatic downfall of a prominent South Carolina legal dynasty. The narrative centers on a once-respected attorney whose life unravels following the tragic deaths of his wife and son. As investigations unfold, long-hidden secrets of financial misconduct, corruption, and a series of mysterious deaths come to light, revealing the dark underbelly of power and privilege in the Lowcountry. This gripping true crime account offers a meticulous exploration of the events leading up to the family's collapse, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of a case that captivated the nation.

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