Other books that might interest you

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  Until the Last Pickle - A Memoir...

  Yuliya Patsay

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  Born to a Jewish mother and Ukrainian father during the final years of the Soviet Union, Yuliya Patsay grew up believing bread lines were a fun way to spend an afternoon, drafts caused pneumonia, and that Lenin was everyone’s benevolent grandpa.  After trading pickled herring and Soviet winters for San Francisco fog and year-round produce (the real American dream!) she found herself occupying two parallel universes: the first grounded in her Soviet roots and the second in her burgeoning ‘Amerikanskiye’ beliefs.Irreverent, nostalgic and vulnerable, Until the Last Pickle, is a memoir replete with remembrances, anecdotes, and exactly 18 recipes. It’s an exploration of identity and belonging — at once, deeply personal and broadly relatable — told through the lens of one family’s “totally average” immigration journey.

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  Inspiration An - From their pens...

  George Gissing

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  George Robert Gissing was born on November 22nd, 1857 in Wakefield, Yorkshire.  
  He was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield. Gissing loved school. He was enthusiastic with a thirst for learning and always diligent.  By the age of ten he was reading Dickens, a lifelong hero. 
  In 1872 Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College. Whilst there Gissing worked hard but remained solitary. Unfortunately, he had run short of funds and stole from his fellow students. He was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, expelled and sentenced to a month's hard labour in 1876. 
  On release he decided to start over.  In September 1876 he travelled to the United States. Here he wrote short stories for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. On his return home he was ready for novels. 
  Gissing self-published his first novel but it failed to sell.  His second was acquired but never published. His writing career was static.  Something had to change.  And it did. 
  By 1884 The Unclassed was published.  Now everything he wrote was published. Both Isabel Claren-don and Demos appeared in 1886. He mined the lives of the working class as diligently as any capitalist. 
  In 1889 Gissing used the proceeds from the sale of The Nether World to go to Italy. This trip formed the basis for his 1890 work The Emancipated. 
  Gissing's works began to command higher payments. New Grub Street (1891) brought a fee of £250.  
  Short stories followed and in 1895, three novellas were published; Eve's Ransom, The Paying Guest and Sleeping Fires. Gissing was careful to keep up with the changing attitudes of his audience.  
  Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed as suffering from emphysema. The last years of his life were spent as a semi-invalid in France but he continued to write. 1899; The Crown of Life. Our Friend the Charlatan appeared in 1901, followed two years later by The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft. 
  George Robert Gissing died aged 46 on December 28th, 1903 after catching a chill on a winter walk.

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  Milner - Last of the Empire...

  Richard Steyn

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  Alfred, Lord Milner was a brilliant public servant and one of Britain's most celebrated – or notorious – empire-builders, who left an indelible imprint on the history of South Africa.
  Sent to southern Africa to bring President Paul Kruger's obstreperous Boers to heel, Milner was primarily, though not solely, responsible for the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), a conflict that marked the beginning of the end of the British Empire. In the aftermath of the war, a determined Milner set out to reconstruct the former Boer republics, but his policies stoked resentment among Afrikaners, particularly in respect of language and education. He left behind a coterie of young administrators, the so-called Kindergarten, who contributed significantly to the unification of South Africa and the fostering of imperial ideals through the Round Table Movement.
  In this biography, the first by a South African, Richard Steyn argues that Milner's reputation should not be defined by his eight years' service in South Africa alone. Despite his controversial stance on the issue of Irish Home Rule, Milner's legendary administrative ability made him the obvious choice for War Secretary in Lloyd George's five-man War Cabinet, and Milner did much to shape the Allied victory in the First World War.
  If his personal qualities and beliefs made him the wrong man to send to South Africa, where he failed to accomplish the over-ambitious goals he set himself, he was the right man in a far greater international conflict.

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  Penalty Strike - The Memoirs of...

  Alexander V Pyl'cyn

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  A WWII Soviet officer recalls leading a battalion of convict-soldiers in this rare firsthand account of a Red Army penal unit. Alexander Pyl’cyn was eighteen years old when he was drafted into the Red Army in 1941. He went on to serve with great distinction, earing the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War, and the Order of the Red Star for his actions during the war. As the commander of a penal battalion on the Eastern Front, he led an unruly band of convict-soldiers, Gulag prisoners, and former Soviet POWs deemed untrustworthy.   Relegated to the most difficult and dangerous assignments, Pyl’cyn’s unit was called up to break through the enemy’s defenses. He led his penal unit through the Soviets’ massive offensive in the summer of 1944, the Vistula-Oder operation into eastern Germany, and the bitter assault on Berlin in 1945. Though his men suffered massive casualties, and he himself withstood multiple wounds, he survived the war to tell this incredible story.

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  Far Horizons - A journey from...

  Aaron Tait

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  In the hours after September 11, 2001, Aaron Tait deployed to war as a seventeen-year-old military officer.  
  This is the story of what happened next.  
  Far Horizons is a globe-spanning coming-of-age memoir of a fighter turned peace-seeker on a vibrant journey of transformation, adventure and love, set against backdrops of the Iraq War, Africa and the world beyond. Fresh and introspective, it will lead you to exploring not only the far corners of the world but also the uncharted aspects of yourself. 
  “A captivating adventure that blends wanderlust, passion, and the kind of love that changes everything.” 
  Nina Karnikowski - Author of The Mindful Traveller  
  ‘A globe-trotting tale of discovery and redemption, Aaron’s raw honesty shines in his search for what it means to live a good life.’  
  Mark Isaacs – Author of The Kabul Peace House

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  Pageboy - A Memoir

  Elliot Page

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  This program is read by the author.#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"Searing, deeply moving, and incredibly poignant... This isn’t simply a book on what it means to be trans, it’s about what it means to be human." —Alok Vaid-Menon"Actor Elliot Page, who starred in the movie JUNO, gives an emotional, intimate performance of his gorgeous memoir... He narrates these memories with an openness that will make listeners feel like they're right there with him. It's the quiet rawness of his voice that makes this audiobook so moving. This performance hardly feels like a performance at all. If you listen to one celebrity memoir this year, make it this one."- AudioFile"...the longer you listen the less chronology matters to the overall portrait that emerges: of a lifelong fighter who still, thanks to stubborn prejudices and reactionary policy decisions, has much to fight for."- The New York Times NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK by Salon, The Week, Elle, Bustle, and more.Full of intimate stories, from chasing down secret love affairs to battling body image and struggling with familial strife, Pageboy is a love letter to the power of being seen. With this evocative and lyrical debut, Oscar-nominated star Elliot Page captures the universal human experience of searching for ourselves and our place in this complicated world.“Can I kiss you?” It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he’d carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back.With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare.As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do. Until enough was enough.The Oscar-nominated star who captivated the world with his performance in Juno finally shares his story in a groundbreaking and inspiring memoir about love, family, fame — and stepping into who we truly are with strength, joy and connection.A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

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