Other books that might interest you

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  Dr J - The Autobiography

  Karl Taro Greenfeld, Julius Erving

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  “A terrific memoir by a man worthy of one.” — Sports IllustratedAn honest, unflinching self-portrait of the basketball legend whose classy public image as a superstar and a gentleman masked his personal failings and painful losses, which he describes here—from his own point of view—for the very first time.For most of his life, Julius Erving has been two men in one. There is Julius, the bright, inquisitive son of a Long Island domestic worker who has always wanted to be respected for more than just his athletic ability, and there is Dr. J, the cool, acrobatic showman whose flamboyant dunks sent him to the Hall of Fame and turned the act of jamming a basketball through a hoop into an art form. In many ways, Erving’s life has been about the push and pull of Julius and The Doctor.It is Dr. J who has stories to tell of the wild days and nights of the ABA in the 1970s, and of being the seminal figure who transformed basketball from an earthbound and rigid game into the creative, free-flowing aerial display it is today. He has a long list of signature plays - he’s famous for winning the first dunk contest in 1976 with a jam on which he lifted off from the foul line, and he made a miraculous layup against the Lakers on which he soared behind the backboard before reaching back in to flip the ball in on the other side, with one hand. He inspired a generation of dunkers, including Michael Jordan, to express their improvisational talents.But Julius wasn’t always as graceful and in control as Dr. J. Erving had a pristine image throughout his career and early retirement, but he was far from a perfect man. Here he gives detailed accounts of some of the personal problems he faced -- or created -- behind the scenes, including the adulterous affair with sports writer Samantha Stephenson, which led to the birth of his daughter, professional tennis player Alexandra Stephenson.Though his marriage survived that infidelity, the death of Erving’s 20-year-old son Cory in 2000 in a tragic accident proved too much for the union to bear. Erving paints a raw, heartbreaking picture of the dissolution of his marriage, as his wife Turquoise began to blame him for his refusal to be paralyzed by grief for as long as she was. Their intense arguments came to a head when Erving stepped out of the shower one day to find his wife holding a lamp in one hand and a vase in the other, ready for a physical confrontation. “I knew somebody was going to get hurt, and it wasn’t going to be me,” he says. He packed a suitcase and he and Turquoise never lived under the same roof again.Erving’s story is a tale of the nearly perfect player and the imperfect man, and how he has come to terms with both of them. It will appeal to readers on a sports level and on a human one.

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  Leaders - Profiles in Courage...

  Robin Knight

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  Leaders collects in one place for the first time the remarkably personal and distinct stories from Pangbourne College of the courageous men and women in war and peace – accounts that are in danger of being forgotten today. Based on original research and neglected first-person accounts, it covers the period 1917-2020, with a particular emphasis on World War II, the Cold War, the Falklands War and contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Leaders documents the courageous and singular actions during a century of peacetime, as well as profiling the outstanding Second World War heroes Mike Cumberlege, David Smiley, and GTS 'Peter' Gray. A chapter recounting amazing exploits in the world of international sport adds a separate dimension to the book. Authored by a former foreign correspondent and leading corporate writer, with a Foreword by a leading naval historian, the book has a global dimension and perspective. This is reinforced by the author's years of investigatory work, his experience covering wars and his long-standing knowledge and understanding of the context.

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  Unpromised Land An

  Leon Gettler

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  In the 1930s, in the wake of the Nazi ascendancy in Germany, a wave of vicious anti-Semitism swept Europe, as Jews became outcasts in their own lands. As they clamoured to escape persecution, the world turned a blind eye to their plight. One man, Isaac Steinberg, had a vision of leading his people from the holocaust to a new paradise on the other side of the world. His enthusiastic and resolute efforts to realise his vision left large cracks in the smug Anglo-centrism that guarded his unpromised land. This lively account of the little-known Kimberley Jewish settlement scheme provides a fascinating insight into a series of events that came very close to changing the course of Australian history.

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  The Pursuit of Happyness - The...

  Chris Gardner, Quincy Troupe

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  The rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street—the basis for the major motion picture starring Will Smith. 
   
  At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city’s working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, “HO-tels,” soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station. 
   
  Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city’s invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district. 
   
  More than a memoir of Gardner’s financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family’s cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream. 
   
  “Gardner is honest and thorough as he solidly depicts growing up black and male in late twentieth-century urban America . . . a quality African-American/business memoir deserving a wider audience than its niche-market elements might suggest.” —Publishers Weekly

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  The Ragged Edge - A US Marine’s...

  Michael Zacchea, Ted Kemp

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  At a time when the United States debates how deeply to involve itself in Iraq and Syria, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Zacchea, USMC (Ret.), holds a unique vantage point on our still-ongoing war. Deployed to Iraq in March 2004, his team's mission was to build, train, and lead in combat the first Iraqi army battalion trained by the US military. Zacchea tells a deeply personal and powerful story while shedding light on the dangerous pitfalls of training foreign troops to fight murderous insurgents. The Ragged Edge is the first American military memoir out of Iraq or Syria that features complex Arab and Kurdish characters and that intimately explores their culture and politics in a dispassionate way. Zacchea's invaluable lessons about Americans working with Arabs and Kurds to fight insurgency and terrorism come precisely when such wartime collaboration is happening more than at any time in U.S. history.

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  Drug Hell

  Paul Murphy, Kimmo Harjula

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  The book "Drug Hell" is a true story of the former drug addict, and criminal, Kimmo Harjula. His hell began when he was only seven years old. His parents were alcoholics, and he was continually beaten and sexually assaulted throughout his childhood. To survive, he began to sniff glue, smoke hash and drinking alcohol. His life became a crazy mess, filled with drugs and serious crime, which lasted for over thirty years. He was placed in forty-six foster homes before the age of eighteen and spent fourteen years in prison. He finally found a way out of his misery through therapy, and today, he is completely drug-free and works as a therapist to help other abuses become free of addiction.

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