Other books that might interest you

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  An Unexpected MP - Confessions...

  Jerry Hayes

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  Some people enter politics because they want to make the world a better place. Then there are those with welldeserved inferiority complexes who want status, power and position. Few believe me, but I entered the House of Commons purely by accident.' High virtue in high office? Not a chance, says Jerry Hayes. No staid autobiography or dry political memoir, An Unexpected MP takes you on a raucous and salacious romp through Westminster, the media and public life. In this no-holds-barred exposé, Jerry Hayes shows exactly why people were so surprised when he became an MP - from the duty policeman who told him to bugger off when he rolled up on his first day, to the Iron Lady herself, who looked with a steely eye on his cheerful chutzpah. And, as the perfect antidote to the holier-than-thou, whiter-than-white ways of the current crop of politicos, the shameless - and shamelessly entertaining - Hayes makes a brilliant tour guide to the strange country that is Parliament, taking gleeful swipes at left and right alike. Full of tall tales of unspeakable debauchery on a tsunami of alcohol, An Unexpected MP is a thundering account of the offbeat lunacy of Westminster and Fleet Street.

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  The Sack of Panamá - Captain...

  Peter Earle

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  The maritime historian shares “an intensely engaging account” of the notorious privateer Captain Morgan and his war on Spain's Caribbean colonies (Booklist).Captain Henry Morgan's capture of the city of Panamá in 1671 is considered one of the most audacious military operations in history. In The Sack of Panamá, Peter Earle sheds new light on the legendary raid and the man behind it. With meticulous research—including a thorough examination of the Spanish records—Earle vividly narrates the battles that made Morgan an icon of 17th century piracy.Morgan's raid was the last in a series of brutal attacks on Spanish possessions in the Caribbean, all sanctioned by the British crown. Earle recounts the five violent years leading up to the raid, then delivers a comprehensive account of Morgan's march across enemy territory, detailing the experiences of the Spanish victims as well as those of Morgan and his crew.The also reveals how Morgan's raid influenced the political and diplomatic hostilities between Madrid and London. With a wealth of colorful characters and international intrigue, The Sack of Panamá is a painstaking history that doubles as a rip-roaring adventure tale.

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  Legacy of Luna - The Story of a...

  Julia Butterfly Hill

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  “A hero of the environmental movement . . . records a courageous act of civil disobedience that places her squarely in the tradition of Thoreau.” —Publishers Weekly 
   
  On December 18, 1999, Julia Butterfly Hill’s feet touched the ground for the first time in over two years, as she descended from “Luna,” a thousand-year-old redwood in Humboldt County, California. 
   
  Hill had climbed 180 feet up into the tree high on a mountain on December 10, 1997, for what she thought would be a two- to three-week-long “tree-sit.” The action was intended to stop Pacific Lumber, a division of the Maxxam Corporation, from the environmentally destructive process of clear-cutting the ancient redwood and the trees around it. The area immediately next to Luna had already been stripped and, because, as many believed, nothing was left to hold the soil to the mountain, a huge part of the hill had slid into the town of Stafford, wiping out many homes. 
   
  The twenty-five-year-old never planned to become what some have called her—the Rosa Parks of the environmental movement. She never expected to be honored as one of Good Housekeeping’s ”Most Admired Women of 1998” and George magazine’s “20 Most Interesting Women in Politics,” to be featured in People magazine’s “25 Most Intriguing People of the Year” issue, or to receive hundreds of letters weekly from young people around the world. Although her brave vigil and indomitable spirit have made her a heroine in the eyes of many, Julia’s story is a simple, heartening tale of love, conviction, and the profound courage she has summoned to fight for our earth’s legacy.

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  Disassembly Required - A Memoir...

  Beverly Willett

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  After a small-town southern girl turned New Yorker watches her American Dream implode, she musters the courage to begin again—resurrecting the powerful woman her daughters had glimpsed during their family's darkest times. 
   
   
   
  A raw and riveting memoir, Disassembly Required invites listeners along, moment by gut-wrenching moment, on one woman's journey from betrayal and devastation to resilience and recovery. From learning of her husband's affair, to family court, to life as a single mother, Beverly Willett perseveres in resisting injustice, the loss of her family unit, and the sale of the beautiful Brooklyn Brownstone her family had called home. 
   
   
   
  Willett knows selling her house will require taking inventory of her possessions; she does not realize it will require taking inventory of herself. But as she surrenders her hopes for a life that hasn't turned out the way she imagined, the world opens back up. And Willett leaps toward it, embracing uncertainty. 
   
   
   
  Disassembly Required is a story of quiet struggle and persistence. Unflinchingly honest in its examination of the discomforts of change, it celebrates the opportunities for transformation.

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  A Dictionary of American...

  Michael W. Simmons

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  A Dictionary of American Presidents Vol. 1: Presidents 1-24 George Washington to Grover Cleveland offers an introductory glimpse into the background, upbringing, education, and political agendas of every American president from the years following the Revolutionary War to the end of the 19th century and Reconstruction. The first in a two-volume collection, this book offers the reader the opportunity to trace the development of the United States and the office of the Presidency from its inception in 1789 to the brink of the 20th century. This lively, informative examination of the people and events that shaped the first one hundred years of the American presidency answers the question: what sort of person does it take to shepherd a new nation from its rocky, tumultuous beginnings, to an era of increasing international prestige and geographical expansion? 
  From the Founding Fathers and the Era of Good Feelings, to the Civil War and the Gilded Age, from Virginia plantations to log cabins on the western frontier, from self-taught lawyers to storied military heroes, from the Bill of Rights to the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution: the story of the American presidency is neither more nor less than the story of the American nation.

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  Fire

  Sebastian Junger

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  For readers and viewers of The Perfect Storm, opening this long-awaited new work by Sebastian Junger will be like stepping off the deck of the Andrea Gail and into the inferno of a fire burning out of control in the steep canyons of Idaho. Here is the same meticulous prose brought to bear on the inner workings of a terrifying elemental force; here is a cast of characters risking everything in an effort to bring that force under control. 
  Few writers have been to so many desperate corners of the globe as has Sebastian Junger; fewer still have provided such starkly memorable evocations of characters and events. From the murderous mechanics of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone to the logic of guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan and the forensics of genocide in Kosovo, this new collection of Junger's nonfiction will take you places you wouldn't dream of going to on your own.

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