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  Streetwise

  Mohamed Choukri

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  In his early twenties Choukri takes the momentous decision to learn to read and write, and joins a children's class at the local state school in Tangier. When not at school he hangs out in cafés, drinking and smoking kif. Some nights he sleeps in a doss-house, but mostly he sleeps in mosques or on the street. He befriends many 'lowlife' characters, while the café habitués help him with his Arabic and the local prostitutes take him home, providing some human solace. Choukri's determination to educate himself, and his compassion for those with whom he shares his life on the streets is heartfelt and inspirational. 'As a writer, he is in an enviable position, though he paid a high price for it in suffering.' -- Paul Bowles 'Choukri's irrepressible, ultimately indomitable spirit is most touching and human.' -- The Independent 'Choukri is a powerful teller of stories. His telling of oppression is vivid and remarkable.' -- Morning Star

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  Colour Me Father An Open Letter...

  Paolo Hewitt

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  On August 21st, 2015 at 10:30pm in an Archway hospital, my son Rafi Supino Arif came into my life. It was a momentous occasion, filled with all kinds of emotions. But as he started to grow, one thought kept repeating itself. Would I write about him, let alone record an audiointimate book on the experience of raising a son? 
  Then on his first birthday it was there that Rafi first heard applause and the look on his face hit something inside of me. Within a week I had begun writing Colour me Father. 
  After I had written about his birthday I then found myself writing about dreams, pigeons, Sister Patricia, (May God rest her soul) fatherhood, Wood Green and Robert De Niro, (who now owns a copy) and it became apparent to me that I should let the words flow, whatever came to mind. 
  I also saw that I was fulfilling a lifetime mission – that of paying homage, in my very very limited way, to a piece of literature that ranks as one of the finest in my mind – Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis. This is a letter that Oscar wrote to his boyfriend whilst serving his last year in Reading Gaol. (In the first year of his imprisonment the authorities refused to allow him to write and I think that one of the cruellest punishments ever heaped upon an artist.) 
  During the writing of Colour I only read De Profundis. I would start it finish it, start again. My thinking was that if just one per cent of its quality rubbed off on my work, then I would stand a chance of producing something very worthwhile. 
  My writing process was quite simple. In the morning when walking Rafi to a nursery session, I would plot out the book in my mind. I would then put those idea into a small Dictaphone that I have. Back home, I would write out those ideas and then on Saturdays I would head for the British Library where I would spend all day writing. 
  Sundays I would rest, Mondays the process would start the again 
  I think it my best work to date. I hope you do as well.

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  Riding Rockets - The Outrageous...

  Mike Mullane

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  On February 1, 1978, the first group of space shuttle astronauts, twenty-nine men and six women, were introduced to the world. Among them would be history makers, including the first American woman and the first African American in space. This assembly of astronauts would carry NASA through the most tumultuous years of the space shuttle program. Four would die on Challenger. USAF Colonel Mike Mullane was a member of this astronaut class, and Riding Rockets is his story -- told with a candor never before seen in an astronaut's memoir. Mullane strips the heroic veneer from the astronaut corps and paints them as they are -- human. His tales of arrested development among military flyboys working with feminist pioneers and post-doc scientists are sometimes bawdy, often hilarious, and always entertaining.  Mullane vividly portrays every aspect of the astronaut experience -- from telling a female technician which urine-collection condom size is a fit; to walking along a Florida beach in a last, tearful goodbye with a spouse; to a wild, intoxicating, terrifying ride into space; to hearing "Taps" played over a friend's grave. Mullane is brutally honest in his criticism of a NASA leadership whose bungling would precipitate the Challenger disaster. Riding Rockets is a story of life in all its fateful uncertainty, of the impact of a family tragedy on a nine-year-old boy, of the revelatory effect of a machine called Sputnik, and of the life-steering powers of lust, love, and marriage. It is a story of the human experience that will resonate long after the call of "Wheel stop."

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  Hero Found - The Greatest POW...

  Bruce Henderson

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  In February 1966, U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over "neutral Laos." He crashed deep in territory controlled by North Vietnamese army regulars and the communist Pathet Lao, who would eventually capture him and hold him prisoner in a fortified jungle prisoner-of-war camp.But German-born Dengler was no ordinary prisoner. Already a legend in the Navy for his escape and evasion skills-amply demonstrated during training in the California desert-he would initiate, plan, and lead an organized escape from the POW camp, becoming the longest-held American to escape captivity during the Vietnam War. Caught in a most desperate situation, imprisoned not only by the enemy but by the jungle itself, Dengler's heroic impulse was to not only get himself out but to free all the other POWs-Americans, Thai, and Chinese-some of whom had been held for years.In a surreal scene of brotherhood and celebration, Dengler returned to his aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger, six months after being shot down-emaciated and ravaged with strange tropical illnesses, but very much alive and joyous to be so-only two weeks before the ship was due to leave the Gulf of Tonkin and return home.Bruce Henderson served with Dengler aboard Ranger off the coast of Vietnam and here tells Dengler's complete story for the first time, drawing on extensive interviews with the intrepid pilot, his squadron mates, friends, and family, as well as declassified military archival materials, some now available for the first time, and personal letters and journals. Henderson's riveting account amply demonstrates why Dengler's story of unending optimism, innate courage, loyalty, and survival against overwhelming odds remains for his fellow flyers and shipmates the best and brightest memory of their generation's war.

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  I'm Walking as Straight as I Can...

  Geri Jewell

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  A candid memoir of building an acting career—and a happy life—with cerebral palsy: “It’s a joy to read this book” (Ian McShane).   Exposing real pain, unstoppable perseverance, and unquestionable faith in the human spirit, this autobiography offers a true glimpse beyond actress Geri Jewell’s public image as a one-dimensional hero. Born with cerebral palsy, Jewell made history when she became the first person with a disability cast in a recurring role on American television in The Facts of Life, and in the years that followed she experienced a string of other successes, including a performance at the White House and a role on HBO’s Deadwood. But along with such accomplishments, this personal story also depicts some of the less-than-rosy events that happened behind closed doors during her initial climb to fame—among them, her release from The Facts of Life; her manager’s embezzlement of the money she made on the show; and her struggle with chronic pain, despair, and a fear of revealing her true sexual identity.   Told with grace and humor, this inspirational narrative presents an honest portrayal of a woman who refused to give up when others kept knocking her down.

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  The Backwoods of Canada

  Catharine Parr Traill

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  The writer is as earnest in recommending ladies who belong to the higher class of settlers to cultivate all the mental resources of a superior education, as she is to induce them to discard all irrational and artificial wants and mere useless pursuits. She would willingly direct their attention to the natural history and botany of this new country, in which they will find a never-failing source of amusement and instruction, at once enlightening and elevating the mind, and serving to fill up the void left by the absence of those lighter feminine accomplishments, the practice of which are necessarily superseded by imperative domestic duties. To the person who is capable of looking abroad into the beauties of nature, and adoring the Creator through his glorious works, are opened stores of unmixed pleasure, which will not permit her to be dull or unhappy in the loneliest part of our Western Wilderness. The writer of these pages speaks from experience, and would be pleased to find that the simple sources from which she has herself drawn pleasure, have cheered the solitude of future female sojourners in the backwoods of Canada. Summary from book introduction

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