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This is a memoir by two-time CrossFit Games champion, Katrin Davidsdottir.Dottir is two-time consecutive CrossFit Games Champion Katrin Davidsdottir's inspiring… and poignant memoir. As one of only two women in history to have won the title of “Fittest Woman on Earth” twice, Davidsdottir knows all about the importance of mental and physical strength. She won the title in 2015, backing it up with a second win in 2016, after starting CrossFit in just 2011.A gymnast as a youth, Davidsdottir wanted to try new challenges and found a love of CrossFit. But it hasn't been a smooth rise to the top. In 2014, just one year before taking home the gold, she didn't qualify for the Games. She used that loss as motivation and fuel for training harder and smarter for the 2015 Games. She pushed herself and refocused her mental game. Her hard work and perseverance paid off with her return to the Games and subsequent victories in 2015 and 2016. In Dottir, Davidsdottir shares her journey with readers. She details her focus on training, goal setting, nutrition, and mental toughness.
So that was it. You send your fiancé to the dry cleaners one day and he comes back gay. When… Kiri Blakeley realizes her ten-year relationship was built on lies, she screams. Then drinks. And spends the ensuing months in a foggy, new world of sexual encounters. This is her story of learning to love (whatever that means) again."A page-turner. . .you'll never look at your significant other quite the same again." --Jonathan Alpert, Metro's "No More Drama" columnist "A journey from devastation to renewal." --Alisa Bowman, author Project: Happily Ever After "Brutally honest, self-deprecating, emotionally-wrenching, and somehow still laugh-out-loud funny." --Kimberly Dawn Neumann, author of The Real Reasons Men Commit"A book you and your friends will be quoting, pondering, and rehashing." --Hannah Seligson, author of New Girl on the Job "Erica Jong meets Tucker Max. . .wickedly funny." --Judy Dutton, author of Secrets from the Sex LabFor ten years Kiri Blakeley was a writer for Forbes magazine, where she covered entertainment, fashion, lifestyle, technology, travel, wealthy people, and entrepreneurs. She graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Brooklyn.
This is the story that Disney would never tell you. What do you do when everything in your life falls… apart? If you're Chris Mitchell, you run away from home--all the way to Disney World, a place where no one ever dies--and employees, known as Cast Members, aren't allowed to frown. Mitchell shares the behind-the-scenes story of his year in the Mouse's army. From his own personal Disneyfication, to what really happens in the hidden tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom and what not to eat at the Mousketeria, it was a year filled with more adventure--and surprises--than he could ever have "imagineered." Funny and moving, Mitchell tracks his ascent through the backstage social hierarchy in which princesses rule, and his escapades in the "Ghetto" where Cast Members live and anything goes. Along the way, he unmasks the misfits and drop-outs, lifers and nomads who leave their demons at the stage door as they preserve the magic that draws millions to this famed fantasyland--the same magic that Mitchell seeks and ultimately finds in the last place he ever expected. Chris Mitchell is an action sports photographer and journalist who grew up in Los Angeles. He was a senior at UCLA when he started his first magazine, an inline skating publication, and sold it to Sports & Fitness Publishing. Within a few years, he was working on five magazines within The Surfer Group. He continues to work closely with a number of publications and websites, as well as event and TV production companies like ESPN, ASA Entertainment and Lifelounge. He is a recognized expert in action sports, and as such, has stunt coordinated dozens of productions, including Batman and Robin, Brink! and Airborne. He is also the Chairman of the International Inline Stunt Federation for the advancement of extreme skating as a healthy and safe activity. After spending a year working as a photographer at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, he moved back to Los Angeles, where he currently lives.
This is the true story of a thirty-something single man in New York.A man who is employed, decent, and horny.A… man hilariously combing his way through women in search of one who will make him stop searching. . .For the last four years, "This Dating Life" columnist Ron Geraci has chronicled his romantic (mis)adventures in the pages of Men's Health, offering readers a no-holds-barred look into one man's bare-naked dating life. His mission was simple: he dated whomever he could find in order to fill that month's dispatch and revealed everything--the good and bad, funny and catastrophic, triumphant and painful. The Bachelor Chronicles is Geraci's hilariously frank confession of his wild ride from struggling writer in the frenzied world of magazine journalism to his rise as the "male Carrie Bradshaw" with the scars to prove it.From the women he maniacally dated (lots) to the ones he enraged (even more) and enthralled (okay, you win some), Geraci's story careens through an insane New York City landscape that includes countless prospects, one lesbian, two therapists, a high-priced matchmaker, possible liposuction, incredible and not-so-incredible-but-at-least-frequent sex, dating addiction, destroyed relationships as an occupational hazard, blossoming alcoholism, porn, waking up in apartments where no sane man should find himself, perverse mating schemes, noble motivations, desperate loneliness, and the near-constant yearning for a stable life with one woman. Part cautionary tale, part dating survival guide, The Bachelor Chronicles is an emotionally naked, frequently hilarious peek into the male mind and modern romance by a guy honest enough to tell it like it is.
In the summer of 1969, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel carried out horrific acts of butchery on the orders… of the charismatic cult leader Charles Manson. At their murder trial the following year, lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi described the two so-called Manson Women as “human monsters.” But to anyone who knew them growing up, they were bright, promising girls, seemingly incapable of such an unfathomable crime.Award-winning journalist Nikki Meredith began visiting Van Houten and Krenwinkel in prison to discover how they had changed during their incarceration. The more Meredith got to know them, the more she was lured into a deeper dilemma: What compels “normal” people to do unspeakable things?The author’s relationship with her subjects provides a chilling lens through which we gain insight into a particular kind of woman capable of a particular kind of brutality. Through their stories, Nikki Meredith takes readers on a dark journey into the very heart of evil.
Not knowing what to do, I sat on the church steps and waited. As the gravity of my failure began… to well up in me, I began to cry. . .I Had Lost The Hearse!Funerals and the all the things that accompany them are traditionally somber, contemplative events in which the bereaved look to their undertaker to guide them through that most difficult of times. Of course, sometimes tradition gets thrown under the bus. From a dysfunctional family who turn their mother's wake into a full-blown riot, to funeral crashers looking for free meals, to a horse-drawn hearse taking the dearly departed for the ride of their afterlife, these accounts from actual undertakers will have you laughing, thinking, and gasping in disbelief. A literal graveyard of wild coincidences, slapstick humor, and touching moments, Over Our Dead Bodies explores the lighter side of the dead, the living, and the lone undertaker who has to make it all go as planned--even if it doesn't.
Fiddling suddenly seemed vitally important, even necessary, for me to learn. Perhaps it had to do with grief for my… mom's death, and with the fact that I was just starting to feel the inklings of a midlife crisis coming on. All I knew consciously, though, was that I had to learn it.After a chance encounter with fiddle music, Vivian Wagner discovered something she never knew she had lacked. The fiddle had reawakened not only her passion for music, but for life itself. From the remote workshop of a wizened master fiddle maker in the Blue Ridge Mountains to a klezmer band in Cleveland, from Cajun fiddle music in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans to a fiddle camp in Tennessee, Vivian's quest to master the instrument becomes a journey populated by teachers and artisans--and ultimately creates a community that fortifies her through an emotionally crushing loss. Intimate and enlightening, this is a story about the unique gifts of the fiddle, the redeeming power of music, the freedom of improvisation--and the importance of knowing that even though a song may reach its end, there's always a new tune to learn. . ."Charming, smart, lyrical and surprising. I recommend it to anyone--savage beast or not--who needs their soul soothed." --Suzanne Finnamore, international bestselling author of Split
Some say your previous cat chooses your new feline. If so, what in cat heaven's name was our beloved Cleo… thinking when she sent us a crazy cat like Jonah?Helen Brown swore she'd never get another cat after her precious Cleo died. But that was before a cute Siamese with an intense blue gaze wrapped her around his paw. Demonstrating the grace of a trapeze artist--and a talent for smashing anything breakable--Jonah seduced the household with his daredevil antics and heart-melting purr. With her son getting married, her daughter setting off on a potentially dangerous personal quest, and a recent brush with her own mortality, Helen faced a whirlwind of joys and challenges. Yet Jonah proved just the thing to ease the busy household's growing pains. Uplifting, witty, and wise, here is a story of love and family--four-legged members included. Don't Miss Helen Brown's Beloved Bestseller, Cleo"A buoyant tale, heartfelt and open." --Booklist"An absolute must." --Cat World"Even non-cat-lovers will be moved." --Good Housekeeping
During a fierce snowstorm, an abandoned and hungry animal howls at the back door of nature writer Hal Borland's farmhouse,… announcing the beginning of a transformational friendship Hal Borland and his wife Barbara have recently moved onto a hundred-acre farm in northwest Connecticut, where both hope to write and live in harmony with nature. From his New England home, Borland travels the country searching for material for his New York Times "outdoor editorials"--but soon nature comes searching for him, in the form of a miserable, half-starved, deeply trusting, black-and-white foxhound mutt that wanders onto the farm during a blizzard. The dog, Pat, becomes a member of the family and teaches Borland that, often, our most immediate connection to the natural world is through the animals we live with.
Styron's stirring account of his plunge into a crippling depression, and his inspiring road to recovery <P><P> In the summer… of 1985, William Styron became numbed by disaffection, apathy, and despair, unable to speak or walk while caught in the grip of advanced depression. His struggle with the disease culminated in a wave of obsession that nearly drove him to suicide, leading him to seek hospitalization before the dark tide engulfed him.<P> Darkness Visible tells the story of Styron's recovery, laying bare the harrowing realities of clinical depression and chronicling his triumph over the disease that had claimed so many great writers before him. His final words are a call for hope to all who suffer from mental illness that it is possible to emerge from even the deepest abyss of despair and "once again behold the stars." <P> This ebook features a new illustrated biography of William Styron, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Styron family and the Duke University Archives.
<P>Pearl S. Buck's groundbreaking memoir, hailed by James Michener as "spiritually moving," about raising a child with a rare developmental… disorder The Child Who Never Grew is Buck's candid memoir of her relationship with her oldest daughter, who was born with a rare type of mental retardation. <P>A forerunner of its kind, the memoir was published in 1950 and helped demolish the cruel taboos surrounding learning disabilities. Buck describes life with her daughter, Carol, whose special needs led Buck to send her to one of the best schools for disabled children in the United States--which she paid for in part by writing The Good Earth, her multimillion-selling classic novel. <P>Brave and touching, The Child Who Never Grew is a heartrending memoir of parenting. As Buck writes, "I learned respect and reverence for every human mind. It was my child who taught me to understand so clearly that all people are equal in their humanity and that all have the same human rights." <P> This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author's estate.
Three real-life accounts of the struggles of American soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan battlefields to, in two cases, US… military tribunals. Legion Rising: Surviving Combat and the Scars It Left Behind by Jeff Morris Follow Jeff through up-close, fast-paced accounts of the thrills and dangers of combat as a Platoon Leader in Iraq. Feel the weight of the gruesome and tragic loss of eight men whose lives were taken in the line of duty. Journey through his battle to face the scars and shadows that followed him long after his time serving in the military was over. Travesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lt. Clint Lorance by Don BrownThe Book That Won a Presidential Pardon! On July 2, 2012, three Afghan males crowded on a motorcycle and sped down a Taliban-controlled dirt road toward Lt. Clint Lorance&’s men. In a split-second decision, Lorance ordered his men to fire. When no weapons were found on the Afghan bodies, the Army prosecuted Lorance for murder. &“The most powerful case to date for the exoneration of imprisoned Army Lt. Clint Lorance.&” —Sun-Sentinel Saving Sandoval by Craig W. Drummond While deployed in Iraq, Sandoval, an airborne infantryman and elite sniper, was instructed to &“take the shot&” and kill an enemy insurgent wearing civilian clothes. Two weeks later, Army Criminal Investigation Command descended upon Sandoval&’s unit, trying to link Sandoval and others to war crimes, including murder. &“A revealing, real-life courtroom drama, reminiscent of A Few Good Men.&” —Hunter R. Clark, International Law and Human Rights Program and Drake University Law School
On February 1, 1960, Harry Scott, conscientious objector, psychologist, and mountaineer, was killed while climbing Mt. Cook. Thirty-five years later,… his son set out to look for him. Funny, moving, and beautifully written, this is the story of a father's absence, told partly through the rich and exciting mix of biography, autobiography, and intellectual and social history. HARRY'S ABSENCE is a passionately argued book about New Zealand, addressing the distinction between nationalism and love of country. Finally, it is a recovery, from death, of reasons for living.
Pure Terror. Real Courage.Jane Sandler had just kissed her husband goodbye as he left for work that morning. When he… pulled out of the garage, another man walked in unnoticed. Seconds later, as her three-year-old nestled by her side, Jane heard footsteps--and then saw an intruder wearing a black ski mask. He had a rope and a knife in his hands...This is the harrowing account of Jane's all-too real nightmare, told in her own words as part of a compelling narrative by award-winning, New York Times bestselling author M. William Phelps. It is also the true story of Jane's battle and will to survive, of how she fought back and learned to share her unspeakable ordeal to empower others--even as the remorseless murderer and rapist, known as the Original Night Stalker, went on to attack dozens more."Anything by Phelps is always an eye-opening experience."--Suspense Magazine"Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers."--Allison Brennan"An exceptional true crime writer."--Kathryn Casey
This memoir and literary travelogue from one of the UK's most esteemed novelists offers rare insight into Cold War-era Russia.… In 1967, seeking an escape from his writing life, bestselling British novelist Alan Sillitoe embarks on a road trip from England to Russia via Harwich and Finland in his sturdy Peugeot. During his teens, the author had a cartographic fascination with the Battle of Stalingrad, and decades later he is still armed with intricate maps of the country based on British military intelligence, including one of the road from Leningrad to Moscow to Kiev, which he drew himself. Also in tow are a prismatic compass, binoculars, and a shortwave radio receiver. However, despite being so well prepared, Sillitoe embarks with naiveté about the political precariousness of an Englishman in the eyes of the Soviet regime. After passing through the endless days of a Scandinavian summer and a prolonged stop at a border control checkpoint--with his maps hidden in a secret compartment of the car--Sillitoe arrives in Leningrad. There, he meets George Andjaparidze, a worldly and candid English student who has been assigned by the Writers' Union to serve as the author's guide and keep him out of trouble. Though Sillitoe would rather continue his journey solo, Andjaparidze grows on him, and they begin what will become a lasting friendship. As soon as the duo leaves Leningrad, adventures and misadventures ensue. En route to Moscow, Sillitoe and Andjaparidze end up racing a pack of middle-age men in German sports cars partaking in a Berlin-to-Moscow rally. Sillitoe and Andjaparidze's time in the capital is equally fast-paced, consisting of late nights fueled by vodka, impounded rubles, caviar breakfasts, erudite parties, and a pat on the back from a traffic cop for writing about the working class. A winding drive across western Russia and into Yugoslavia follows, replete with rebellious literature students, a speech on freedom, a visit to Tolstoy's estate, accusations of espionage, and a near-fatal run-in with a brigade of Red Army tanks. At last the writer and guide reach their destination: Kursk, that fateful place where a Soviet victory in 1943 turned back the Nazi tide. But the story continues long after the road trip ends. Back in England, Andjaparidze visits Sillitoe and the two are caught up in a controversy surrounding the defection of the Soviet writer Anatoly Kuznetsov. Written from the perspective of another trip to Russia forty years later (Sillitoe was invited in 2005 by the British Council to return to Moscow), this travelogue provides a rare and intimate look at the country's history, a compassionate understanding of its troubled ideology, and a frank portrayal of its undeniable lure.
In the dazzling global metropolis of Shanghai, what has it meant to call this city home? In this account—part microhistory,… part memoir—Jie Li salvages intimate recollections by successive generations of inhabitants of two vibrant, culturally mixed Shanghai alleyways from the Republican, Maoist, and post-Mao eras. Exploring three dimensions of private life—territories, artifacts, and gossip—Li re-creates the sounds, smells, look, and feel of home over a tumultuous century. First built by British and Japanese companies in 1915 and 1927, the two homes at the center of this narrative were located in an industrial part of the former "International Settlement." Before their recent demolition, they were nestled in Shanghai's labyrinthine alleyways, which housed more than half of the city's population from the Sino-Japanese War to the Cultural Revolution. Through interviews with her own family members as well as their neighbors, classmates, and co-workers, Li weaves a complex social tapestry reflecting the lived experiences of ordinary people struggling to absorb and adapt to major historical change. These voices include workers, intellectuals, Communists, Nationalists, foreigners, compradors, wives, concubines, and children who all fought for a foothold and haven in this city, witnessing spectacles so full of farce and pathos they could only be whispered as secret histories.
In this vivid memoir, Denis Guénoun excavates his family's past and progressively fills out a portrait of an imposing, enigmatic… father. René Guénoun was a teacher and a pioneer, and his secret support for Algerian independence was just one of the many things he did not discuss with his teenaged son. To be Algerian, pro-independence, a French citizen, a Jew, and a Communist were not, to René's mind, dissonant allegiances. He believed Jews and Arabs were bound by an authentic fraternity and could only realize a free future together. René Guénoun called himself a Semite, a word that he felt united Jewish and Arab worlds and best reflected a shared origin. He also believed that Algerians had the same political rights as Frenchmen. Although his Jewish family was rooted in Algeria, he inherited French citizenship and revered the principles of the French Revolution. He taught science in a French lycée in Oran and belonged to the French Communist Party. His steadfast belief in liberty, equality, and fraternity led him into trouble, including prison and exile, yet his failures as an activist never shook his faith in a rational, generous future.René Guénoun was drafted to defend Vichy France's colonies in the Middle East during World War II. At the same time, Vichy barred him and his wife from teaching because they were Jewish. When the British conquered Syria, he was sent home to Oran, and in 1943, after the Allies captured Algeria, he joined the Free French Army and fought in Europe. After the war, both parents did their best to reconcile militant unionism and clandestine party activity with the demands of work and family. The Guénouns had little interest in Israel and considered themselves at home in Algeria; yet because he supported Algerian independence, René Guénoun outraged his French neighbors and was expelled from Algeria by the French paramilitary Organisation Armée Secrète. He spent his final years in Marseille. Gracefully weaving together youthful memories with research into his father's life and times, Denis Guénoun re-creates an Algerian past that proved lovely, intellectually provocative, and dangerous.
One of Newfoundland's funniest and most beloved storytellers offers his cure for the Covid blues. Is there a more sociable… province than Newfoundland and Labrador? Or anywhere in Canada with a greater reputation for coming to the rescue of those in need?At this time of Covid, singer, songwriter and bestselling author Alan Doyle is feeling everyone's pain. Off the road and spending more days at home than he has since he was a child hawking cod tongues on the wharfs of Petty Harbour, he misses the crowds and companionship of performing across the country and beyond. But most of all he misses the cheery clamour of pubs in his hometown, where one yarn follows another so quickly "you have to be as ready as an Olympian at the start line to get your tale in before someone is well into theirs already." We're all experiencing our own version of that deprivation, and Alan, one of Newfoundland's finest storytellers, wants to offer a little balm.All Together Now is a gathering in book form--a virtual Newfoundland pub. There are adventures in foreign lands, including an apparently filthy singalong in Polish (well, he would have sung along if he'd understood the language), a real-life ghost story involving an elderly neighbour, a red convertible and a clown horn, a potted history of his social drinking, and heartwarming reminiscences from another past world, childhood--all designed to put a smile on the faces of the isolated-addled. Alan Doyle has never been in better form--nor more welcome. As he says about this troubling time: "We get through it. We do what has to be done. Then, we celebrate. With the best of them."
From his hardscrabble post-World War II childhood and coming of age in Ontario to Mad Men-era New York City and the creative… pinnacle of advertising, to the hallowed halls of Saturday Night Live and The New Yorker, Bruce McCall&’s personal and creative journey is stunningly honest, bittersweet, and, above all, inspiring. Beloved for his strikingly original and wickedly perceptive New Yorker covers (77 to date), as well as his many Shouts and Murmurs, Bruce is a rare double threat as an artist and writer. A Toronto high school dropout who is self-taught in both disciplines, his artistic world has captured the imagination of a loyal fan base for over forty years. Pulling no punches, How Did I Get Here? chronicles the evolution of his artistic genius as well as his journey from gifted childhood scribbler to passionate automobile enthusiast, a hobby that took him to the heights of the Detroit and Manhattan advertising worlds. His long-held passion for drawing and writing, which mostly lay dormant during his Mad Men days, reemerged later in life as he left the realm of advertising for the world of arts and letters, most notably at the National Lampoon, as a writer for Saturday Night Live in its first incarnation, and then of course at The New Yorker, as well as other Conde Nast magazines, such as Vanity Fair. His is an unorthodox life and career path, traversing through worlds that have now become iconic, giving us rich first-hand insight into Bruce's unique creative development and process, and providing a rare window into both the highs and the lows that define an artist's career and life. With wit, candor, and cover illustrations showcasing Bruce's storied career, Bruce McCall&’s memoir will charm his many fans and anyone who knows and loves the places and eras he describes so well.
A meditation on the trauma and possibility of searching for connection in a world that enforces bland norms of gender,… sexual, and social conformity. <P><P>When you turn the music off, and suddenly you feel an unbearable sadness, that means turn the music back on, right? When you still feel the sadness, even with the music, that means there's something wrong with this music. Sometimes I feel like sex without context isn't sex at all. And sometimes I feel like sex without context is what sex should always be. <P><P>The Freezer Door records the ebb and flow of desire in daily life. Crossing through loneliness in search of communal pleasure in Seattle, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore exposes the failure and persistence of queer dreams, the hypocritical allure of gay male sexual culture, and the stranglehold of the suburban imagination over city life. Ferocious and tender, The Freezer Door offers a complex meditation on the trauma and possibility of searching for connection in a world that relentlessly enforces bland norms of gender, sexual, and social conformity while claiming to celebrate diversity.