Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers -...

  Martin Popoff

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  pbi“Motörhead, remember me now, Motörhead, alright!”/b/i/p
  piLemmy, Phil, Fast Eddie and the Rise of Motörhead/i is the first book to celebrate the classic-era Motörhead lineup of Lemmy Kilmister, “Fast” Eddie Clarke, and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor. Through interviews with all of the principal troublemakers, Martin Popoff celebrates the formation of the band and the records that made them legends: iMotörhead/i, iOverkill/i, iBomber/i, iAce of Spades/i, iNo Sleep ’til Hammersmith/i, and iIron Fist/i. An in-depth coda brings the story up to date with the shocking recent deaths of Taylor and Kilmister./p
  pMotörhead comes to life in this book as bad-luck bad boys — doused in drink and drugs, most notably speed — incapable of running their lives right, save for Fast Eddie, who is charged with holding things together. Popoff also examines the heady climate of music through the band’s rise to prominence during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, with detailed reflection on Motörhead’s unique position in the scene as both originators and embattled survivors who carried on the renegade spirit of those times./p

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  To Be a Friend Is Fatal - The...

  Kirk W. Johnson

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  In January 2005 Kirk Johnson, then twenty-four, arrived in Baghdad as USAID's only American employee who spoke Arabic. Despite his opposition to the war, Johnson felt called to civic duty and wanted to help rebuild Iraq. 
   
  Appointed as USAID's first reconstruction coordinator in Fallujah, he traversed the city's IED-strewn streets, working alongside idealistic Iraqi translators—young men and women sick of Saddam, filled with Hollywood slang, and enchanted by the idea of a peaceful, democratic Iraq. It was not to be. As sectarian violence escalated, Iraqis employed by the U.S. coalition found themselves subject to a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and death. 
   
  On his first brief vacation, Johnson, swept into what doctors later described as a "fugue state," crawled onto the ledge outside his hotel window and plunged. He would spend the next year in an abyss of depression, surgery, and PTSD—crushed by having failed in Iraq.  
   
  One day, Johnson received an email from an Iraqi friend, Yaghdan: People are trying to kill me and I need your help. After being identified by a militiaman, Yaghdan had emerged from his house to find the severed head of a dog and a death threat. That email launched Johnson's mission to get help from the U.S. government for Yaghdan and thousands like him abandoned in Iraq. The List Project has now helped more than 1,500 Iraqis find refuge in America. To Be a Friend Is Fatal is Kirk W. Johnson's unforgettable portrait of the human rubble of war and a book that "redeems a measure of pride from a national episode full of tragedy and shame" (George Packer).

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  Plain Speaking - An Oral...

  Merle Miller

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  “Never has a President of the United States, or any head of state for that matter, been so totally revealed, so completely documented” (Robert A. Arthur).  Plain Speaking is the bestselling book based on conversations between Merle Miller and the thirty-third President of the United States, Harry S. Truman. From these interviews, as well as others who knew him over the years, Miller transcribes Truman’s feisty takes on everything from his personal life, military service, and political career to the challenges he faced in taking the office during the final days of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. Using a series of taped discussions from 1962 that never aired on television, Plain Speaking takes an opportunity to deliver exactly how Mr. Truman felt about the presidency, and his thoughts in his later years on his accomplishments and the legacy he left behind.   “The values of Plain Speaking, on the whole, are those of the highest form of political communication: the bull session. As with all good bull sessions, what is said here ranges widely in quality and seriousness, as one should expect when dealing with a complex man.” —The New York Times   “Plain Speaking has a nostalgic, downhome quality of good friends gossiping over the back fence, or saying their piece of a twilight eve rocking on the porch—and if those fellas back in Washington have their secret machines running, well, they won’t like what they overhear. Not one little bit.” —Kirkus Reviews

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  America’s Greatest Democratic...

  Charles River Editors

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  Woodrow Wilson’s presidency was monumentally consequential, but it is not without its critics, nor is the man himself. Even as Wilson has come to be viewed as one of America’s greatest presidents, perception of Wilson and his administration as racist have also taken hold. Despite being one of the early 20th century’s most forceful proponents of a globalized foreign policy, Wilson’s personal views and comments were ardently anti-immigration, and Wilson’s administration entrenched and expanded segregation in the federal government. 
  	For over a decade, President Roosevelt threw everything he had at the Great Depression, and then threw everything the country had at the Axis powers during World War II. Ultimately, he succumbed to illness in the middle of his fourth term, just before the Allies won the war. The new president, Harry Truman, had to usher America through victory in Europe in his first month and decide to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few months later, but the end of World War II produced only the first of many consequential decisions Truman would face during his nearly 8 years in office. As president, Truman would lay the groundwork for the next 50 years of American foreign policy, as the architect of Cold War containment, the man who signed off on the Marshall Plan, and the commander-in-chief during much of the Korean War. He would also be the president who finally integrated the military, a crucial step on the way to full civil rights for the country’s minorities.  
  Had Lyndon Johnson’s presidency included just his domestic agenda, he would have unquestionably been one of America’s greatest presidents. Unfortunately, as he was engineering a new social contract at home, he was ramping up American military participation in a tiny country thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia. For a man who accomplished so much at home, it’s ironic and tragic that his presidency and legacy were permanently marred by Vietnam.

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  Joining the Dots - An...

  Jonathan Ancer, Chris Whitfield

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  PRAVIN GORDHAN has been at the centre of many of the political storms that have torn through South Africa's political landscape. He has been investigated by the Hawks, fired as finance minister, accused of running a 'rogue unit' at SARS and come up against the public protector, to name a few.
  Seasoned journalists Jonathan Ancer and Chris Whitfield take a magnifying glass to someone at the centre of this tumultuous period to try to understand the man behind the public image. They go back to Durban in 1949, when Gordhan was born, tracing the significant events and influences that shaped his life and prompted him to become involved in politics as a pharmacy student.
  The authors interview former fellow activists to build a picture of the role Gordhan played in the struggle, including his detention and torture. It was during this time that he worked closely with Jacob Zuma, the man who would become president and Gordhan's nemesis and, on the back of a bogus intelligence report, fire him as finance minister.
  The book examines why President Cyril Ramaphosa's right-hand man has been dragged into major controversies and made enemies such as public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Julius Malema and many of those associated with corruption.
  Joining the Dots is an in-depth, insightful, gripping and satisfying read about a man who found the courage to stand up to the dark forces of state capture.

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  Beyond Limits - A Life Through...

  Steve McClure

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  Beyond Limits is the autobiography of Steve McClure, one of the world's top rock climbers. From his childhood encounters with the sandstone outcrops of the North York Moors right up to his cutting-edge first ascents such as Overshadow (F9a+) at Malham and Mutation (F9a) at Raven Tor, Steve explores his deep passion for climbing and how it has dictated and shaped his life. Introduced to climbing by his parents at an early age, Steve quickly progressed as a climber, developing a fascination with movement and technical difficulty. Rapidly reaching a high standard, Steve became torn between the desire to climb increasingly bold routes and his hesitant approach to danger, with a series of close calls forcing him to seriously question his motivations. Searching for a balance between risk and reward, he struggled to find his place as a climber. Having dropped out of the scene, a chance encounter led to his discovery of sport climbing. Free from fear, Steve plunged headlong into this new style and surged through the grades. Pushing everything else aside, he allowed climbing to take over his life. He reached world-class levels of performance, but once again found himself searching for a balance between risk and reward, yet this time the risk was of losing what is truly important in life. As he searches for what really makes him tick, his climbing comes full circle and returns to where it started - climbing for the love of it. Beyond Limits is the story of a climber and his obsessive exploration of the sport, of finding a true passion, taking it to the limits and attempting to delicately balance this passion against other aspects of life to give the greatest rewards.

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