Other books that might interest you

• 

  Liberty's Torch - The Great...

  Elizabeth Mitchell

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “Turns out that what you thought you knew about Lady Liberty is dead wrong. Learn the truth in this fascinating account.” —O, The Oprah Magazine   The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, a powerful symbol of freedom and the American dream. For decades, the myth has persisted that the statue was a grand gift from France, but now Liberty’s Torch reveals how she was in fact the pet project of one quixotic and visionary French sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Bartholdi not only forged this 151-foot-tall colossus in a workshop in Paris and transported her across the ocean, but battled to raise money for the statue and make her a reality.   A young sculptor inspired by a trip to Egypt where he saw the pyramids and Sphinx, he traveled to America, carrying with him the idea of a colossal statue of a woman. There he enlisted the help of notable people of the age—including Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph Pulitzer, Victor Hugo, Gustave Eiffel, and Thomas Edison—to help his scheme. He also came up with inventive ideas to raise money, including exhibiting the torch at the Philadelphia world’s fair and charging people to climb up inside. While the French and American governments dithered, Bartholdi made the statue a reality by his own entrepreneurship, vision, and determination.   “By explaining Liberty’s tortured history and resurrecting Bartholdi’s indomitable spirit, Mitchell has done a great service. This is narrative history, well told. It is history that connects us to our past and—hopefully—to our future.” —Los Angeles Times

  Show book

• 

  A Man and His Mountain - The...

  Edward Humes

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist tells the story of the self-made billionaire who built the Kendall-Jackson empire from nothing into the biggest selling brand of premium wines in the U.S. 
   
  Jess Stonestreet Jackson was one of a small band of pioneering entrepreneurs who put California's wine country on the map. His life story is a compelling slice of history, daring, innovation, feuds, intrigue, talent, mystique, contrarianism, and luck, offering a unique window on the elegant, adventurous, and cut-throat worlds of Jackson's two passions: wine and horseracing. Time after time his decisions would be ignored, derided, then finally envied and imitated, as whole industries watched him become a billionaire and tried to keep up. He reinvented himself at mid-life, and became founder and CEO of Kendall-Jackson. The empire he constructed endures and thrives even after his death in 2011. In A Man and His Mountain, Edward Humes brings us the no-holds barred tale of the brilliant, infuriating, successful man who seemed to win more than his share by staying far ahead of the pack.

  Show book

• 

  An Alien Sky - The Story of One...

  Sean Feast, Andy Wiseman

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The legendary RAF bomber who survived the infamous Stalag 3 POW camp recounts his WWII experiences in this military memoir. Growing up in Berlin just as Adolf Hitler was coming to power, Andrew Wiseman escaped to Poland with is family when he was thirteen. He later made his way to England where he joined the Royal Air Force, training first as a pilot and then as an air bomber in South Africa. Joining No. 466 squadron, he flew Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers in a handful of operations before being shot down in Occupied France. Wiseman spent the next year as a prisoner of war in Nazi prison camp Stalag Luft III, where he used his knowledge of Russian, Polish and German to act as a camp interpreter. Taking part in the prison break known as the Great Escape, Wiseman acted as a scrounger for the X committee who dug the tunnel. Moved from camp to camp, he was one of those forced into the Long March when the Germans attempting to escape the Russian advance. He later played a key role in avoiding bloodshed when the Russians refused to allow British and Norwegian prisoners to return home—a role for which he was later recognized by the King of Norway. Co-written with the acclaimed aviation historian Sean Feast, Andrew Wiseman’s wartime memoir is a vivid chronicle of courage, service and survival through the Second World War.

  Show book

• 

  Aleister Crowley: The Life and...

  Editors Charles River

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!  
   how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how  
   express and admirable! in action how like an angel!  
   in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the  
   world! the paragon of animals!” - William Shakespeare. Hamlet 
  	Any work about the mercurial Aleister Crowley is better off being labeled a “story” than a “biography” thanks to the impossibility of being sure that anything one reads about him is true. The basic recorded facts, including birth date, educational records, and published works, are reliable indicators that can be likened to stars guiding a lost desert traveler if the sky is clear. For the rest, one is wandering in the wilderness. He has been labeled a Satanist, a sociopath, a drug addict, a murderer, and, not to put too fine a point on it; “the wickedest man on earth” by several prominent newspapers. He has also been hailed as the prophet of the New Age charged with bringing about the spiritual awakening of humanity, a brilliant writer, an intrepid mountaineer, a heroic MI6/MI5 agent, and a gifted magician. He even launched his own religion, called Thelema, which persists to this day. 
  	As such, a story about Aleister Crowley must include a timeline of important events in his life, at least as accurately as possible, while examining the several characteristics and aspects of his life and work that make him so influential. Once reviled and discarded by all but his most fervent followers, Crowley’s writings reemerged as the subject of serious scholarship in the 1990s.  
  	Aleister Crowley: The Life and Legacy of the Notorious Cult Leader and Novelist profiles one of the 20th century’s most colorful and controversial figures. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Crowley like never before.

  Show book

• 

  People Are Like That - True...

  Teri Garr

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Submitted by readers of Catholic Digest, here are dozens of original accounts of true incidents that illustrate the compassion and kindness of which we all are capable. These real-life stories demonstrate the instinctive goodness of people and provide inspirational signposts of the humanity we all share. Listeners to this treasury will find these stories heartwarming, faith-affirming, and spiritually nourishing.

  Show book

• 

  50 Dates in 50 States - One...

  M.L. Brocklehurst

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  After an unexpected tragedy, a young woman drops everything to travel the world, find love, and practice her unique brand of positivity.   Have you ever wanted to escape the daily grind and set out on an adventure of a lifetime? That's what Melanie did when, hitting rock bottom after the death of her soul mate, she quit her job, sold her house and set out across the United States looking for love.   Melanie makes you laugh and cry as she shares her hopes, fears, and most humiliating moments on a journey that changes her life. Part travelogue, part romp, and part how-to guide, Melanie captures the crazy and hilarious ups and downs of internet dating while travelling alone in a foreign land. Along the way she also instructs as well as inspires, providing a clear formula to achieve positive change that anyone can follow.   By turns joyful and melancholy this wise and funny author will inspire and uplift you in this honest, humorous, and beautifully written memoir.   “A unique and exciting book that is part travelogue, part romp, and part how-to coach yourself happy.” —Marla Martenson, Author of Excuse Me, Your Soul Mate is Waiting

  Show book