Other books that might interest you

• 

  Sovok - (The Memoirs of a Liar)

  Kevin McKinney

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Sovok takes you on a front-row view of the transition from Soviet Union to liberated Russia, and her return back to today's tyranny. McKinney describes his interactions for over 20 years with dissidents, billionaires, mob bosses, presidents, bureaucrats, and political leaders, while he constantly breaks laws and bends rules, as do most of the people he works with. Sovok was described by one literary critic as "Jack Kerouac narrating the adventures of Thomas Pynchon's character, Tyrone Slothrop, only in Russia." For a less esoteric summary, a middle American went from washing dishes at a suburban Red Lobster to marrying a Soviet plutonium expert at the request of someone who was likely CIA. When US federal agencies threaten threaten him with prison sentences, the author proceeds to get embroiled in ever wilder escapades 
  By declaring itself to be the story a liar, the author prods the listener to question everyone and everything. Through personal anecdotes, a central theme of Sovok is that a network of loyal and moral friends can, and did, circumvent the world's strictest government regulations, defeat criminal syndicates, and make a lot of money while having more fun than most poor suckers know is possible.

  Show book

• 

  A Short History of Queer Parenting

  Kirsty Loehr

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  For straight couples, starting a family tends to be straightforward . . . For queer couples, not so much.But queer families have always existed—even Sappho, the OG lesbian, had a daughter. She named her Cleis, in honor of vaginas everywhere!Exploring the historic lives of queer parents like Oscar Wilde and the women of 'The Golden Orchid Society'—and guided by her own experience of reciprocal IVF—Kirsty Loehr provides another rollicking guide to the ups and downs of queer parenthood through the ages.

  Show book

• 

  1811 German Coast Uprising and...

  Editors Charles River

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  As the issue of slavery roiled the country, few people became as controversial or consequential as Nat Turner, who was one of millions of slaves in the South before the Civil War but ultimately led the nation’s most notorious slave uprising. In August 1831, Turner led a rebellion that terrorized Virginia for several days, killing dozens of whites and freeing slaves as his band moved from plantation to plantation. The Richmond Enquirer reported, “A fanatic preacher by the name of Nat Turner (Gen. Nat Turner) who had been taught to read and write, and permitted to go about preaching in the country, was at the bottom of this infernal brigandage. He was artful, impudent and vindicative, without any cause or provocation, that could be assigned.” Even after the uprising was put down, Turner evaded capture for a few months, and after he was captured, his “confessions” were taken down and published before he was executed. Virginia would put a total of 56 slaves to death for the uprising. 
  	While Turner’s rebellion remains famous today, a far larger uprising took place a generation earlier. In January 1811, hundreds of slaves in Louisiana attempted to make a new beginning for themselves or die trying. Armed with muskets, cane knives, and axes, and wearing stolen United States militia uniforms, they set out to conquer the city of New Orleans. The goal was to establish a free republic where slavery was outlawed and blacks had control over their own lives. Understandably discontented with their status and no longer willing to accept it, they were ready to engage in extreme violence to win their freedom. Despite being unsuccessful in overthrowing the system, the German Coast Uprising showed a level of organization, leadership, and coordination unseen before by slaves in America, and it was totally unexpected by white owners and officials, which made it a precursor to its much more famous successor. 

  Show book

• 

  Second Inaugural Address

  Ronald Reagan

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Because of extreme cold weather, Chief Justice Warren Burger administered the official oath of office in the White House on January 20, 1985. A public administration of the oath of office and the inaugural address were delayed until January 21, 1985, in the Capitol Rotunda.  
  On the 50th inauguration since George Washington’s, Reagan marvels at America’s growth and inventions, including journeying to the moon and back. “There are no limits to growth and human progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams.” Our values of faith, family, work, and neighborhood were restored “when our economy was finally freed from government’s grip”.  
  America supports "individual liberty, self-government, and free enterprise throughout the world…” We deal best with great challenges when we come “together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause.”  
  “We must never again abuse the trust of working men and women by sending their earnings on a futile chase after the spiraling demands of a bloated Federal Establishment.” “Freedom and incentives unleash the drive and entrepreneurial genius that are the core of human progress.” 
  “We must act now to protect future generations from government's desire to spend its citizens' money and tax them into servitude when the bills come due.” Though “our heritage is one of blood lines from every corner of the Earth, we are all Americans, pledged to carry on this last, best hope of man on Earth.” 
  Rather than relying on mutual assured destruction, we need “a security shield that will destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their target” and “render nuclear weapons obsolete.”  
  We are “one people under God, dedicated to the dream of freedom that He has placed in the human heart, called upon now to pass that dream on to a waiting and hopeful world.” 
  Audio recording courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. 
  AspenLeafMedia.com

  Show book

• 

  Think Like a Vegan - Embracing...

  Emilia A. Leese, Eva J....

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

   We all want to live more healthily and ethically. This book is not just for vegans; it's for anyone who is curious about veganism, its principles and what even non-vegans can learn from its practice. 
  According to reports, the number of vegans in the UK has more than quadrupled since 2014 and with the rise in plant-based foods and cruelty-free products showing no sign of stopping,  Think Like a Vegan  is a timely exploration of how vegan ethics can be applied to every area of our lives.
  Through a personal and often irreverent lens, the authors explore a variety of contemporary topics related to animal use. From the basics of vegan logic to politics, economics, love and other aspects of being human, each chapter draws you into a thought-provoking conversation about your daily ethical decisions that will open your eyes to a new way of living in a plant-powered world.

  Show book

• 

  Alchemy and Its Exponents

  Manly Palmer Hall

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Is the transmutation of base metals into gold possible? Is the idea one at which the learned of the modern world can afford to scoff? Alchemy was more than a speculative art: it was also an operative art. Since the time of the immortal Hermes, alchemists have asserted (and not without substantiating evidence) that they could manufacture gold from tin, silver, lead, and mercury. That the galaxy of brilliant philosophic and scientific minds who, over a period of two thousand years, affirmed the actuality of metallic transmutation and multiplication, could be completely sane and rational on all other problems of philosophy and science, yet hopelessly mistaken on this one point, is untenable. Nor is it reasonable that the hundreds declaring to have seen and performed transmutations of metals could all have been dupes, imbeciles, or liars. 
  Those assuming that all alchemists were of unsound mentality would be forced to put in this category nearly all the philosophers and scientists of the ancient and mediæval worlds. Emperors, princes, priests, and common townsfolk have witnessed the apparent miracle of metallic metamorphosis. In the face of existing testimony, anyone is privileged to remain unconvinced, but the scoffer elects to ignore evidence worthy of respectful consideration. Many great alchemists and Hermetic philosophers occupy an honored niche in the Hall of Fame, while their multitudinous critics remain obscure. 

  Show book