Other books that might interest you

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  Yakety Yak I Fought Back - My...

  Carol Gardner

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  If you don't know who Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carl Gardner is, you should. The story of the lead tenor of pioneering vocal group The Coasters is brought to life in this audiobook. Telling the story of their rise to fame and laying bare the barriers that not only The Coasters but all black artists through the 1950s and 60s faced, it's a must for any music fan.

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  The Partnership - Five Cold...

  Philip Taubman

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  Offering a clear analysis of the danger of nuclear terrorism and how it can be prevented, The Partnership sheds light on one of the most divisive security issues facing Washington today. Award-winning New York Times journalist Philip Taubman illuminates our vulnerability in the face of this pressing terrorist threat—and the unlikely efforts of five key Cold War players to eliminate the nuclear arsenal they helped create. Bob Woodward calls The Partnership a “brilliant, penetrating study of nuclear threats, present and past,” and David Kennedy writes that it is “indispensable reading for all who would understand the desperate urgency of containing the menace of nuclear proliferation.”

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  Coincidence or Destiny? -...

  Phil Cousineau

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  “A delightful reflection of our communal experience of moments that defy rational explanation” from the bestselling author and award-winning filmmaker (NAPRA ReView). 
   
  The pricking anticipation of a phone call seconds before ringing, the premonition dream of birth exactly nine months before, the chance meeting that opens a new career path, the eerie realization of a loved one’s death half a world away . . . From Jung to Einstein, across boundaries of culture and time, people have recognized the potential for synchronicity to reveal a hidden order to seeming random events, and to offer a glimpse of one’s destiny. 
   
  In Coincidence or Destiny? bestselling author Phil Cousineau shares more than eighty stories of coincidence, some simple, and some so extraordinary they challenge our belief system. Coincidence or Destiny? threads together what the author calls “sly winks of fate” from ordinary individuals around the world, to well-known scholars such as Larry Dossey and Huston Smith to famous movies such as Casablanca, each story demonstrates how meaningful coincidences can profoundly change and guide people’s lives. 
   
  “Many things happen to us in life that are fraught with meaning. Amazing coincidences that become turning points in the road. Happenstance events that suddenly become pieces of the puzzle of our lives. Put them together, and you may find an answer to why things are the way they are. [Coincidence or Destiny?] is a wonderful collection of such times.” —Gannett News Service

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  Never Fear - Reliving the Life...

  Ian Strathcarron

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  In Never Fear – Reliving the Life of Sir Francis Chichester Ian Strathcarron follows in the footsteps and wakes of Sir Francis's life of adventure, adversity and triumph. Born in 1901 into a troubled childhood in rural Devon, he suffered through the sadism of the English public school system, then in 1918 left for New Zealand where he made his first fortune. There he took up flying and in 1930 became one of the first aviators to fly from London to Sydney. After being the first solo flyer across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand to Australia, he set off to circle the world, only to crash, nearly fatally, in Japan.
  After serving in the RAF in the Second World War, he took up sailing at the age of fifty-four and in twelve years became the most famous yachtsman in the world. Along the way there are struggles and triumphs, climaxing in being knighted with Sir Francis Drake's sword in Greenwich. Ian Strathcarron, himself an aviator, yachtsman and adventurer, follows him all the way, comparing what Sir Francis found then to what he finds now, meeting the descendants of the people who played important parts in his life and getting under the skin of what made the man, the man.

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  CIA’s Most Controversial...

  Charles River Editors

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  Though it might be hard to believe, the Americans did not have a covert operations organization when they joined World War II, and like the British, it took them some time to realize it could be a powerful tool. As a result, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was not established until June 13, 1942, six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, during World War II, all the hard work in the United States led to the growth of the OSS into an organization with over 13,000 staff and 40 offices scattered across the world. Its purposes were initially similar to that of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, including espionage, sabotage, and intelligence assessments, but with time and experience, it expanded to include economic, psychological, and guerrilla warfare, as well as counter-intelligence work. And of course, it would all chart a path for the early days of America’s most famous intelligence agency, the CIA.  
  The agency has done some good things, and it has inarguably done some bad things. Naturally, people tend to remember the most controversial operations, from CIA-funded revolutions to the Bay of Pigs and domestic experiments such as the mysterious Project MK-Ultra. Many decisions were made, either by the agency or by those elected to give the agency direction, in the raw emotions of the Cold War, and this also colored many of the decisions. Regardless, well after Allen Dulles’ tenure as the CIA’s director, investigations uncovered the facts that the CIA did not merely operate overseas, but also conducted several operations against American citizens, which Dulles both knew about and approved.  
  This book looks at the operations that continue to fascinate, confuse, and disgust modern society, from the people who managed the operations to the results.

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  Playing The Field - Why Sports...

  Charles C. Euchner

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  “Details how owners . . . have shamelessly played cities against one another to get sweetheart deals for their stadiums.” —Sports Illustrated 
   
  Can a sports franchise “blackmail” a city into getting what it wants—a new stadium, say, or favorable leasing terms—by threatening to relocate? In 1982, the owners of the Chicago White Sox pledged to keep the team in Chicago if the city approved a $5-million tax-exempt bond to finance construction of luxury suites at Comiskey Park. The city council approved it. A few years later, when Comiskey Park was in need of renovation, the owners threatened to move the team to Florida unless a new stadium was built. A site was chosen near the old stadium, property condemned, residents evicted, and a new stadium built. “We had to make threats,” the owners said. “If we didn't have the threat of moving, we wouldn’t have gotten the deal.” 
   
  Sports is not a dominant industry in any city, this book points out, yet it receives the kind of attention one might expect to be lavished on major producers and employers. In Playing the Field, Charles Euchner examines the relationships between Los Angeles and the Raiders, Baltimore and the Colts and the Orioles, and Chicago and the White Sox, arguing that, in the absence of public standards for equitable arbitration between cities and teams, the sports industry has the ability to steer negotiations in a way that leaves cities vulnerable. He reveals what lies behind this leverage—and what that says about the urban political process.

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