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  My Friend Michael - An Ordinary...

  Frank Cascio

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  Everyone knows Michael Jackson—the myth. This is the revealing true story of Michael Jackson—the man.To Frank Cascio, Michael Jackson was many things—second father, big brother, boss, mentor, and teacher, but most of all he was a friend. Though Cascio was just a few years old when he first met Jackson in 1984, at the peak of the pop star’s career, Jackson was at the center of his life for the next twenty-five years, allowing Cascio to observe firsthand the greatest entertainer the world had ever seen. In that time, he became the ultimate Michael Jackson insider, yet remained publicly silent about his experiences. Until now. In My Friend Michael, Cascio refutes the rumors, lies, and accusations that have accumulated over the years, providing a candid look at the Michael Jackson he knew for more than two decades. Offering an uplifting and definitive account of the legend, Cascio details how he grew up alongside Jackson, traveling the world with him on concert tours and eventually working for him. Through this lens, Cascio captures Jackson’s most private and tumultuous moments, while also setting the record straight on the entertainer’s notorious and misunderstood lifestyle—from his Peter Pan reality and his sexuality to the false allegations against him. As Cascio shows, there was a great deal more to Michael Jackson than the headlines about him have suggested. Cascio reveals his friend in all his complexity, bringing to light his passions and joys as well as his flaws and eccentricities. Including stories about Jackson that have never before been made public, Cascio creates a balanced, human look at the pop star, one that shows Jackson as the very real person he was—a lively friend with an endearingly juvenile sense of humor. What emerges is a clear-eyed yet deeply respectful portrait of Jackson—a man who was at times unremarkably average but also terribly scarred by his life in the spotlight. Packed with never-before-seen photos, anecdotes, and insights, My Friend Michael is a trove of Michael Jackson lore that both celebrates his life and redefines our understanding of the man behind the myth.

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  Shawn Thornton - Fighting My Way...

  Shawn Thornton, Dale Arnold,...

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  A refreshing memoir of battles and self-belief from one of the NHL's most revered enforcersShawn Thornton was an unlikely NHL success, to say the least. The Oshawa, Ontario, native was picked late in the OHL and later thought he was being pranked when the Toronto Maple Leafs called him to say he'd been selected in the seventh round of the 1997 NHL draft.After years spent working and maturing in the AHL, Thornton would go on to play fourteen seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, and Florida Panthers, winning two Stanley Cups along the way.For the first time, in this candid memoir, Thornton opens up about his life in hockey and beyond, from his early days as an unrated prospect to the leadership lessons he learned in the minors, from the most difficult on-ice brawls to the ecstasy of reaching the sport's most celestial heights.Fans will not want to miss this story of perseverance and finding one's own path.

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  The New Granta Book of Travel

  Albino Ochero-Okello

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  A collection of travel writing by some of the genre’s finest authors, from Paul Theroux to Sara Wheeler, voyaging from Mississippi to Malawi and Thailand.  The New Granta Book of Travel Writing represents a sea change in writers’ approaches to the craft. The 1980s were the culmination of a golden age, when writers including Bruce Chatwin, James Hamilton-Paterson and James Fenton set out to document life in largely unfamiliar territory, bringing back tales of the beautiful, the extraordinary and the unexpected.   By the mid 1990s, travel writing seemed to change, as a younger generation of writers appeared in the magazine, making journeys for more complex and often personal reasons. Decca Aitkenhead reported on sex tourism in Thailand, and Wendell Steavenson moved to Iraq as a foreign correspondent. What all these pieces have in common is a sense of engagement with the places they describe, and a belief that whether we are in Birmingham or Belarus, there is always something new to be discovered.</

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  Jane Austen's Best Friend - The...

  Zöe Wheddon

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  The book will take the form of a "recipe for friendship" as Martha Lloyd is best known for her housekeeping and recipe book.All fans of Jane Austen everywhere believe themselves to be best friends with the beloved author and this book shines a light on what it meant to be exactly that. Jane Austen's Best Friend: The Life and Influence of Martha Lloyd offers a unique insight into Jane's private inner circle. Through this heartwarming examination of an important and often overlooked person in Jane's world, we uncover the life-changing force of their friendship.Each chapter details the fascinating facts and friendship-forming qualities that tied Jane and Martha together. We will relive their shared interests, the hits and misses of their romantic love lives, their passion for shopping and fashion, their family histories, their lucky breaks, and their girly chats. This book offers a behind-the-scenes tour of the shared lives of a fascinating pair and the chance to deepen our own bonds in 'love and friendship' with them both.

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  Secret Naval Investigator - The...

  F. Ashe Lincoln

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  “[An] enthralling account of one of the least told important stories of WWII”: the role of the Department of Torpedoes and Mines Investigation Section (Firetrench).   In the lead-up to the Second World War, Ashe Lincoln, a junior barrister, had enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a Sub-Lieutenant. On the outbreak of war, he became determined to serve at sea and was posted to minelayers. But a mysterious midnight summons sent him hurrying from his ship to the Admiralty in London and a top-secret conference presided over by Winston Churchill.   Ashe Lincoln soon found himself pitting his wits against brilliantly skillful German scientists and technicians. These were the men Hitler had entrusted to devise secret underwater weapons sea mines and torpedoes of new and often unsuspected types to destroy Britain’s seapower and starve its population into surrender. The part that Ashe Lincoln played in this battle had been decided upon because he was a naval officer who combined legal training with a specialist knowledge in this particular aspect of naval warfare.   In time, Lincoln became a key figure in a small group in the Admiralty whose exploits have been almost forgotten. He found himself in extraordinary situations, including crouching on a bleak Scottish hillside dealing with the first parachute mine knowing that Goering had boasted that no-one would live to do this. His story is a remarkable blend of deductive enterprise and courage.  “Wonderful . . . This book was fascinating from start to finish. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Anyone with an interest in this field of warfare will find this book invaluable.” —Stand Easy

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  Joan Lady of Wales - Power &...

  Danna R. Messer

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  The first account of the life of the illegitimate daughter of King John of England and wife of Llwelyn the Great of Gwynedd. 
   
  The history of women in medieval Wales before the English conquest of 1282 is one largely shrouded in mystery. For the Age of Princes, an era defined by ever-increased threats of foreign hegemony, internal dynastic strife and constant warfare, the comings and goings of women are little noted in sources. This misfortune touches even the most well-known royal woman of the time, Joan of England (d. 1237), the wife of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd, illegitimate daughter of King John and half-sister to Henry III. With evidence of her hand in thwarting a full scale English invasion of Wales to a notorious scandal that ended with the public execution of her supposed lover by her husband and her own imprisonment, Joan’s is a known, but little-told or understood story defined by family turmoil, divided loyalties and political intrigue. 
   
  From the time her hand was promised in marriage as the result of the first Welsh-English alliance in 1201 to the end of her life, Joan’s place in the political wranglings between England and the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd was a fundamental one. As the first woman to be designated Lady of Wales, her role as one a political diplomat in early thirteenth-century Anglo-Welsh relations was instrumental. This first-ever account of Siwan, as she was known to the Welsh, interweaves the details of her life and relationships with a gendered re-assessment of Anglo-Welsh politics by highlighting her involvement in affairs, discussing events in which she may well have been involved but have gone unrecorded and her overall deployment of royal female agency. 
   
  Praise for Joan, Lady of Wales 
   
  “A seminal, original, and ground-breaking work of simply outstanding scholarship.” —Midwest Book Review

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