Other books that might interest you

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  Through the Narrow Gate

  Karen Armstrong

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  In this highly personal account of an ex-nun’s transition from a cloistered, disciplined life, to a life in the world, confronting her human feelings and making her own decisions, Karen Armstrong discusses frankly and with humor her process of coping with the shifting values and lifestyles of the secular world. It is a revealing account of her discovery that the spiritual vocation can be an ever-changing journey into life. She is author of Beginning the World (St. Martin’s Press 1983) and Through the Narrow Gate (St. Martin’s Press).

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  Anatomy of Greed - The...

  Brian Cruver

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  Brian Cruver first entered the "Death Star," Enron's office complex, in March 2001. He was twenty-nine years old, an eager MBA ready to cash in as a new hire with one of America's most highly valued companies. But, from his first day-when his new boss warned him, "there was a mix-up in the hiring process," but that it was "no big deal...just think of it like you're adopted"-to his last, when he and his colleagues were given thirty minutes to leave the building, Cruver found himself enmeshed in a business cult that each day grew only more bizarre. 
   
  With dark humor and page-turning momentum, Cruver lays out firsthand: the giddy group-think nurtured by Enron's leadership, whose incessant cheerleading for the company's stock price rendered many Enronians unable to believe that they were routinely being spoon-fed lies; the "rank and yank" peer review process that fostered horse-trading among managers over which employees would be given poor evaluations; the traders who made dubious deals to ensure their own lucrative bonuses; and the sinister designs and funding of Enron's fraudulent off-the-books partnerships. As Cruver probes the sleazy escapades that Enron executives milked for personal gain, he introduces us, up close and personal, to such storied figures as Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, along with other important Enron personalities like Rebecca Mark; Lou Pai; Thomas White, George W. Bush's Secretary of the Army; Joe Sutton; the "Mr. Blue," a disillusioned Enron executive; and Cruver's trading floor neighbor, a machine he christened "Sherman the Shredder"-who was always working overtime. 
   
  Cruver's day-by-day chronicle, which includes a running stock ticker to show the trajectory of Enron's collapse, is instantly reminiscent of such bestsellers as Liar's Poker and Barbarians at the Gate. Told in a fresh, empathetic voice, Anatomy of Greed is brimming with grist for political pundits and comic relief for victims of corporate collateral damage. It is also the personal story of a young executive, a Houston native, whose dream job and dream company crashed around him in an avalanche of lies and greed. From the wreckage, this newly hardened veteran of the corporate wars has written a cautionary tale that our leaders must heed-or imperil us all to future disasters.

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  Cult Insanity - A Memoir of...

  Irene Spencer

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  Life for Irene Spencer was a series of devastating disappointments and hardships. Irene's first book, Shattered Dreams, is the staggering chronicle of her struggle to provide for her children in abject poverty and feelings of abandonment each time her husband left to be with one of his other wives. Irene was raised to believe that polygamy was the way of life necessary for her ticket to heaven. The hard knocks of her environment were just the beginning of Irene's shocking tale.In Cult Insanity, Spencer reveals the outrageous behavior of her brother-in-law Ervil—a self-proclaimed prophet who determined he was called to set the house of God in order—and how he terrorized their colony. Claiming to be God's avenger and to have a license to kill in the name of God, Ervil ordered the murders of friends and family members, eliminating all those who challenged his authority. Cult Insanity is a riveting, terrifying memoir of polygamist life under the tyranny of a madman.

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  Olivia de Havilland - Lady...

  Victoria Amador

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  “There is much more to de Havilland’s story than her role as Melanie Wilkes, and it’s all here . . . a treat for film fans” (Booklist).Two-time Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland is best known for her role as Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. She often inhabited characters who were delicate, elegant, and refined; yet at the same time, she was a survivor with a fierce desire to direct her own destiny on and off the screen. She fought and won a lawsuit against Warner Bros. over a contract dispute that changed the studio contract system forever. She is also noted for her long feud with her sister, fellow actress Joan Fontaine—a feud that lasted from 1975 until Fontaine’s death in 2013.Victoria Amador draws on extensive interviews and forty years of personal correspondence with de Havilland to present an in-depth look at her life and career.Amador begins with de Havilland’s childhood—she was born in Japan in 1916 to affluent British parents who had aspirations of success and fortune in faraway countries—and her theatrical ambitions at a young age. The book then follows her career as she skyrocketed to star status, becoming one of the most well-known starlets in Tinseltown. Readers are given an inside look at her love affairs with iconic cinema figures such as James Stewart and John Huston, and her onscreen partnership with Errol Flynn, with whom she starred in The Adventures of Robin Hood and Dodge City. After she moved to Europe, de Havilland became the first woman to serve as the president of the Cannes Film Festival in 1965, and remained active in film and television for another two decades.Olivia de Havilland: Lady Triumphant is a tribute to one of Hollywood’s greatest legends, tracing her evolution from a gentle heroine to a strong-willed, respected, and admired artist.

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  A Cold Eye - Notes from a Shared...

  Carlo Gébler

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  If the past is another country – what happens when we revisit it, one day a year?
  Carlo Gébler has done just that. Here is the story of Ireland – from the tail end of the Troubles to the Good Friday agreement, to the glory days of the Celtic Tiger to the recession to Brexit and on to the present, where, it appears, everything we thought we could take for granted is no longer a given.
  Drawing from journals he has kept for over four decades, Gébler stitches together days of his life into something bigger than his own lived experiences – a vivid patchwork history of the island over thirty-five years, capturing those sweeping changes in sharp, funny, slantwise pieces that will prompt readers to reflect on the strange process of how we got here.
  This intelligent and affectionate compilation, written in Gébler's sparkling prose, is a joy. Whether read from beginning to end or dipped into, it will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in the astonishing evolution of our island.

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  My Secret Life Vol 8 Chapter 7

  Dominic Crawford Collins

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  My Secret Life is an anonymously penned memoir written during a period from the 1840s to the 1880s by a wealthy and sex obsessed English gentleman who refers to himself simply as ‘Walter’. Part confessional, part investigative erotic journalism, it meticulously documents every detail of the author’s prolific sexual encounters, offering us in the process an eye and thigh opening account of life behind closed doors in the Victorian age.
  
  Women, in both mind and body, were the all consuming object of Walter’s interest. From early youth through to old age his quest for erotic discovery and adventure with them was never diminished.
  
  Unlike contemporary 19th century erotic texts, such as The Pearl, whose sole object was to titillate, Walter’s interest in his subjects did not end with the extinguishing of the carnal flame. His hunger to understand the circumstances and minds of the women he encountered is never upstaged by the sex. Their potted life histories, their most intimate desires and acts were shared with him and in turn meticulously recorded by him, written down verbatim while still fresh in his mind.
  
  The resulting poignant record of a lost era and the intimate moments of the women who inhabited it offer us a remarkable insight into the 19th century that cannot be gleaned from any other source.
  
  The complete unabridged text is being released as a fully scored audiofilm (an audio book with accompanying music soundtrack) by film composer Dominic Crawford Collins.
  
  VOLUME 8 CHAPTER 7
  "The dress is mine." • How to get it made up. • Sarah's advice. • Sarah's greed. • Change withheld. • The girl's disappointment. • Shilling seductions. • A maker promised. • Conditions of payment. • A strange cunt in the dark. • Funking and bolting. • A broken bottle. • Who was she? • Sarah's device. • Three in a bed. • An assault resisted. • Between thighs. • Virginity ruptured. • Baudy blasphemy. • A sore cunt. • Sanguinary proofs. • Second entry and first pleasure. • Three hours' felicity. • On the divine nature of human genitals. • The sanctity of copulation. • Phallic statues. • Wisdom, worship, and reverence. • I leave my shirt.

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