Other books that might interest you

• 

  Boudica - The Life of Britain's...

  Vanessa Collingridge

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An “intelligent and infectiously enthusiastic” biography of the Celtic queen and an analysis of her impact on British and feminist history (The Sunday Times).   Boudica has been mythologized as the woman who dared to take on the Romans to avenge her daughters, her tribe, and her enslaved country. Her immortality rests on the fact that she almost drove the Romans out of Britain, and her legend has become the reference point for any British woman in power, from Elizabeth I to Margaret Thatcher. As Boudica has become well known as an icon of female leadership and strength, the true story of her revolt against the Roman Empire has only become more distant until now.   Combining new research and recent archaeological discoveries, Vanessa Collingridge has written a major new biography on this shadowy and often misunderstood figure of ancient history. Boudica provides a detailed history of the Celtomania that has adopted Boudica as its earliest hero, and the nationalist and feminist causes that have also tried to claim her as their own. While tracking the origins and impact of the various versions of the Boudica legend, Collingridge unearths a historical woman who is far subtler but every bit as fascinating as the myths associated with her name.   “Deeply researched and powerfully explosive.” —Saga Magazine   “A compelling tale.” —Daily Mail

  Show book

• 

  A Dangerous Liaison - A...

  Carole Seymour-Jones

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The renowned biographer offers a tale of intellectual and romantic rivalry in this “dazzling portrait of Sartre and De Beauvoir’s relationship” (The Guardian).   Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were two of the twentieth century’s most prominent authors and philosophers, and the story of their decades-long relationship is one of the most famous literary romances of all time. From the corridors of the Sorbonne to the cafés of Paris’s Left Bank, Sartre and de Beauvoir were intimate rivals in both intellectual debate and sexual conquest.   In A Dangerous Liaison, Carole Seymour-Jones vividly describes how the beautiful and gifted de Beauvoir fell in love with the squinting, arrogant, hard-drinking Sartre. We learn about that first summer of 1929, filled with heated debates and dangerous ideas that led them to experiment with new ways of living. We hear how Sartre compromised with the Nazis and fell into a Soviet honey-trap. And, thanks to recently discovered letters written by the avowed feminist de Beauvoir, Seymour-Jones reveals the full story behind the couple’s philosophy of free love, including de Beauvoir’s lesbianism and her pimping of younger girls for Sartre in order to keep his love.

  Show book

• 

  Alice & Gerald - A Homicidal...

  Ron Franscell

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  True-crime master Ron Franscell tells the grisly story of Alice and Gerald Uden, a loving couple who murdered at least four people and lived happily ever after—while cops tried for decades to piece together a petrifying tale of murder and secrets. In 1974, Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband and dumps his body where it will never be found, then slips away and starts a new life. But when her new man's ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, Gerald fixes the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way...and they live happily ever after…that is, until 2013, almost forty years later, when somebody finds a dead man's skeleton in a place where Alice thought he'd never be found. This page-turner by bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they'd never be caught.

  Show book

• 

  Eastbound through Siberia -...

  Georg Wilhelm Steller

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “Traveling with Steller as he botanizes his way across Siberia is part wilderness adventure, part open air museum visit, and a valuable historical window.” —Erika Monahan, author of The Merchants of Siberia 
   
  In the winter of 1739, Georg Steller received word from Empress Anna of Russia that he was to embark on a secret expedition to the far reaches of Siberia as a member of the Great Northern Expedition. While searching for economic possibilities and strategic advantages, Steller was to send back descriptions of everything he saw. The Empress’s instructions were detailed, from requests for a preserved whale brain to observing the child-rearing customs of local peoples, and Steller met the task with dedication, bravery, and a good measure of humor. In the name of science, Steller and his comrades confronted horse-swallowing bogs, leaped across ice floes, and survived countless close calls in their exploration of an unforgiving environment. Not stopping at lists of fishes, birds, and mammals, Steller also details the villages and the lives of those living there, from vice-governors to prostitutes. His writings rail against government corruption and the misuse of power while describing with empathy the lives of the poor and forgotten, with special attention toward Native peoples. 
   
  “Not only showcases Steller the botanist but also reveals him as an admirable human being with a great sense of humor who managed to keep an upbeat attitude in the most trying circumstances.” —Eckehart J. Jäger 
   
  “What emerges is a remarkable window into life—both human and animal—in 18th century Siberia.” —The Birdbooker Report 
   
  “Adds fascinating details to the life of Steller and his travels and discoveries just before joining Bering in Kamchatka to set sail.” —Anchorage Daily News

  Show book

• 

  Raised by the Zoo - My Life With...

  Gerry Creighton

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  People have been enchanted by elephants for centuries. For Gerry Creighton, this fascination began at an early age. His father was a keeper at Dublin Zoo, and he instilled in Gerry a love and respect for animals. It wasn't long before Gerry followed in his footsteps, joining the zoo at 15, where he would spend the next 36 years.
  Joyful and life-affirming, Raised by the Zoo is the story of a life spent in service to elephants, and how by watching and listening to them – how they interact and care for each other, form relationships and teach the next generation – they can show us what it really means to be human.

  Show book

• 

  Farming Grace - A Memoir of Life...

  Paula Scott

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Sometimes your past must be plowed before your future can be planted… 
  Her great-great-grandma came to California in a covered wagon more than a hundred years ago, and her family has farmed in the Sacramento Valley ever since, but a life of farming was the last thing she wanted… until the day fate brings her back to the farm. 
  Nineteen-year-old Paula Scott leaves California when the almonds are in bloom for college in Reno, Nevada where cocaine, casinos, and her first honest-to-goodness boyfriend will break her farmgirl heart, but her story doesn’t end in the desert with a broken heart. 
  When life knocks us down, we get back up, we try again, we marry and maybe divorce, but in the midst of our down and dirty, raw and real, painfully ordinary lives, sometimes the extraordinary breaks through, and we see God. 
  Because God sees us.

  Show book