Download or read book A Pocketful of Happiness written by Richard E. Grant and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-08 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the bravest, strongest, funniest memoirs I’ve ever read.” —Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry “A moving and entertaining celebration of life and love." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Academy Award–nominated actor Richard E. Grant’s memoir about finding happiness in even the darkest of days. Richard E. Grant emigrated from Swaziland to London in 1982, with dreams of making it as an actor. Unexpectedly, he met and fell in love with a renowned dialect coach Joan Washington. Their relationship and marriage, navigating the highs and lows of Hollywood, parenthood, and loss, lasted almost forty years. When Joan died in 2021, her final challenge to him was to find a “pocketful of happiness in every day.” This honest and frequently hilarious memoir is written in honor of that challenge—Richard has faithfully kept a diary since childhood, and in these entries he shares raw detail of everything he has experienced: both the pain of losing his beloved wife, and the excitement of their life together, from the role that transformed his life overnight in Withnail and I to his thrilling Oscar Award nomination thirty years later for Can You Ever Forgive Me? Told with candor in Richard’s utterly unique style, A Pocketful of Happiness is a powerful, funny, and moving celebration of life’s unexpected joys.

Download or read book Just drink the bleach surviving one year of Covid Lockdown and False news written by tudor lomas and published by tudor lomas, Jemstone Books. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions died, health-care systems were overwhelmed and our deepest values challenged. The pandemic of 2020-21 took us to the edge, it destroyed our way of life and it undermined trust. On 8th March 2020 I shut myself away (a Brit in Amsterdam) before anyone else we know (we had co-morbidities and didn't want to die!) I searched for help from the victims of Spanish flu. I didn’t find much so I wrote this warts-and-all 'lived experience' for my young grandson, so he'd know what we went through and how the world changed -- the chaos, the confusion, the fear and the frequent stupidities. The chapter titles summarise the shifting story of surviving the virus, the lockdown and the destabilising torrent of false-news. It’s a day by day running journal of what happened, what we got wrong and what it means to us now, written with the author's young grandson in mind! Thirty-one chapters covering the key 15 months to mid-summer 2021. . . . "vivid, gripping first-hand account; essential reading" -- Jonathan Burton . . . . "upbeat, lively; philosophical reflection of a pivotal year!" -- Dr Kit Byatt . . . . "The structure and chapter outline are brilliant and enticing" -- Steve Richards . . . . "extremely readable and profound" -- Joanna Czechowska . .

Download or read book Delayed Rays of a Star written by Amanda Lee Koe and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An NPR Best Book of the Year A dazzling debut novel following the lives of three groundbreaking women--Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Leni Riefenstahl--cinema legends who lit up the twentieth century At a chance encounter at a Berlin soirée in 1928, the photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captures three very different women together in one frame: up-and-coming German actress Marlene Dietrich, who would wend her way into Hollywood as one of its lasting icons; Anna May Wong, the world's first Chinese American star, playing bit parts while dreaming of breaking away from her father's modest laundry; and Leni Riefenstahl, whose work as a director of propaganda art films would first make her famous--then, infamous. From this curious point of intersection, Delayed Rays of a Star lets loose the trajectories of these women's lives. From Weimar Berlin to LA's Chinatown, from a bucolic village in the Bavarian Alps to a luxury apartment on the Champs-Élysées, the different settings they inhabit are as richly textured as the roles they play: siren, victim, predator, or lover, each one a carefully calibrated performance. And in the orbit of each star live secondary players--a Chinese immigrant housemaid, a German soldier on leave from North Africa, a pompous Hollywood director--whose voices and viewpoints reveal the legacy each woman left in her own time, as well as in ours. Amanda Lee Koe's playful, wry prose guides the reader dexterously around murky questions of identity, complicity, desire, and difference. Intimate and clear-eyed, Delayed Rays of a Star is a visceral depiction of womanhood--its particular hungers, its oblique calculations, and its eventual betrayals--and announces a bold new literary voice.

Download or read book The Plague Year written by Lawrence Wright and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower, and the pandemic novel The End of October: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid-19—its origins, its wide-ranging repercussions, and the ongoing global fight to contain it "A book of panoramic breadth ... managing to surprise us about even those episodes we … thought we knew well … [With] lively exchanges about spike proteins and nonpharmaceutical interventions and disease waves, Wright’s storytelling dexterity makes all this come alive.” —The New York Times Book Review From the fateful first moments of the outbreak in China to the storming of the U.S. Capitol to the extraordinary vaccine rollout, Lawrence Wright’s The Plague Year tells the story of Covid-19 in authoritative, galvanizing detail and with the full drama of events on both a global and intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where a first round of faulty test kits lost America precious time . . . inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger’s early alarm about the virus was met with confounding and drastically costly skepticism . . . into a Covid ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from the town of Little Africa, South Carolina . . . into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs . . . into Broadway’s darkened theaters and Austin’s struggling music venues . . . inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how the virus and vaccines function—with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaccination movement. And in this full accounting, Wright makes clear that the medical professionals around the country who’ve risked their lives to fight the virus reveal and embody an America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential. In turns steely-eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, unexpectedly comical, and always precise, Lawrence Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew.

Download or read book HONEST written by Lucien Young and published by Quercus. This book was released on 2023-10-19 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *The memoirs of Boris Johnson, complete and unabridged, including all the great material he had to take out for being either too incendiary or too obviously made up* Ghostwritten by Lucien Young, while Boris was sunbathing on a donor's private island. Offering a comprehensive account of his meteoric rise (and even more meteoric fall) we follow Boris from Eton and the Bullingdon club, via stints in journalism and as London mayor, before finally making it into Number 10 via slick and sophisticated campaign tactics such as lying and hiding in a fridge. It will outline in bonce-combusting detail the up and downs - but mostly ups! - of his tenure in Downing Street, from Getting Brexit Done and battling the Wizards of Woke, to nearly dying because he shook too many hands. This is BoJo as you've never seen him before.

Download or read book These Precious Days written by Ann Patchett and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays. "The elegance of Patchett’s prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike." —Publisher's Weekly “Any story that starts will also end.” As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart. At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.” When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks’ short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable woman—Tom’s brilliant assistant Sooki—with whom she would form a profound bond that held monumental consequences for them both. A literary alchemist, Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: engaging and moving pieces that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant with emotion and rich in insight. Turning her writer’s eye on her own experiences, she transforms the private into the universal, providing us all a way to look at our own worlds anew, and reminds how fleeting and enigmatic life can be. From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark—and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

Download or read book Elton John written by Gillian G. Gaar and published by Motorbooks International. This book was released on 2024-01-30 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This re-release of Elton John at 75 (2022) celebrates the rocker’s life in a beautifully produced retrospective detailing 75 key releases and life events.

Download or read book Peachey Letters written by Sandra Peachey and published by Ecademy Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author takes a voyage through the past, the present, the players, and the ponderings of her lifeNsending love letters all along the way. Can letters change a life? They have already changed the life of the author and touched the hearts of the thousands of people around the world who have read her blog.

Download or read book My Part Time Paris Life written by Lisa Anselmo and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poignant, touching, and lively, this memoir of a woman who loses her mother and creates a new life for herself in Paris will speak to anyone who has lost a parent or reinvented themselves. Lisa Anselmo wrapped her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who was a defining force in her daughter’s life—maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hadn’t built a life of her own, and struggles to find her purpose. Who is she without her mother—and her mother’s expectations? Desperate for answers, she reaches for a lifeline in the form of an apartment in Paris, refusing to play it safe for the first time. What starts out as a lurching act of survival sets Lisa on a course that reshapes her life in ways she never could have imagined. But how can you imagine a life bigger than anything you’ve ever known? In the vein of Eat, Pray, Love and Wild, My (Part-time) Paris Life a story is for anyone who’s ever felt lost or hopeless, but still holds out hope of something more. This candid memoir explores one woman’s search for peace and meaning, and how the ups and downs of expat life in Paris taught her to let go of fear, find self-worth, and create real, lasting happiness.

Download or read book I Love Jesus But I Want to Die written by Sarah J. Robinson and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Download or read book The Genius Factor How to Capture an Invisible Cat written by Paul Tobin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-04-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every Friday the 13th, 6th-grade genius Nate Bannister does three not-so-smart things to keep life interesting. This time, he taught a caterpillar to read, mailed a love letter, and super-sized his cat Proton before turning him invisible. Now Proton is on the loose, and Nate and his new friend Delphine must reverse the experiment before the cat crushes everything and everybody in town. As if that's not enough, the Red Death Tea Society, known for its criminal activity, killer tactics, and tea-brewing skills, is plotting against Nate and Delphine. The dynamic duo must use their creativity, courage and friendship to save the day. Paul Tobin blends wacky humour and chaotic high jinks in this rip-roaring, action-packed middle-grade debut;perfect for fans of David Walliams and Tom Gates.

Download or read book The Good Hawk Shadow Skye Book One written by Joseph Elliott and published by Walker Books Us. This book was released on 2020 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Agatha is a Hawk, brave and fierce, who patrols the high walls of her island home. She takes pride in her duties, though some in her clan whisper that she has only been given them to keep her out of the way, because of the condition she was born with. Jaime, thoughtful and anxious, is an Angler, but he hates the sea. To make matters worse, he's been chosen for a duty that has been outlawed by the clan for generations: to marry. The elders won't say why they have promised him to a girl from a neighboring island, but there are rumors of approaching danger. When disaster strikes and the clan is kidnapped, it is up to Agatha and Jaime to travel across mainland Scotia, a land devastated by a mysterious plague, where forgotten magic and dark secrets lurk in every shadow..."--Page [2] of cover.

Download or read book SOAP STAR written by Nicola Charles and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-16 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicola Charles Autobiography

Download or read book The Mad and the Bad written by Jean-Patrick Manchette and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An NYRB Classics Original Winner of the French-American Foundation Translation Prize for Fiction Michel Hartog, a sometime architect, is a powerful businessman and famous philanthropist whose immense fortune has just grown that much greater following the death of his brother in an accident. Peter is his orphaned nephew—a spoiled brat. Julie is in an insane asylum. Thompson is a hired gunman with a serious ulcer. Michel hires Julie to look after Peter. And he hires Thompson to kill them. Julie and Peter escape. Thompson pursues. Bullets fly. Bodies accumulate. The craziness is just getting started. Like Jean-Patrick Manchette’s celebrated Fatale, The Mad and the Bad is a clear-eyed, cold-blooded, pitch-perfect work of creative destruction.

Download or read book The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus written by Ayşe Osmanoğlu and published by Ayşe Osmanoğlu. This book was released on 2020-05-30 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brothers bound by blood but fated to be enemies. Can their Empire survive or will it crumble into myth? Istanbul, 1903. Since his younger brother usurped the Imperial throne, Sultan Murad V has been imprisoned with his family for nearly thirty years. The new century heralds immense change. Anarchy and revolution threaten the established order. Powerful enemies plot the fall of the once mighty Ottoman Empire. Only death will bring freedom to the enlightened former sultan. But the waters of the Bosphorus run deep: assassins lurk in shadows, intrigue abounds, and scandal in the family threatens to bring destruction of all that he holds dear… For over six hundred years the history of the Turks and their vast and powerful Empire has been inextricably linked to the Ottoman dynasty. Can this extraordinary family, and the Empire they built, survive into the new century? Set against the magnificent backdrop of Imperial Istanbul, The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus is a spellbinding tale of love, duty and sacrifice. Evocative and utterly beguiling, The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus is perfect for fans of Colin Falconer, Kate Morton and Philippa Gregory. "A richly woven carpet of a book." Historical Novel Society "With intelligence and sensitivity, Ayşe recreates the dramatic story of our family." Kenize Mourad, author of the international best-seller Regards from the Dead Princess

Download or read book The Broken Raven Shadow Skye Book Two written by Joseph Elliott and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "After their escape from Norveg, Agatha and Jaime return with their clan to the Isle of Skye to find that their enclave is now in the hands of the treacherous people of Raasay. They find tenuous shelter with another clan, but disaster soon strikes when the terrifying shadow creatures known as sgàilean escape their magical prison and wreak havoc across the island. Now Agatha and Jaime must call on old and new allies to fight this threat. In the meantime, a ship from Norveg sails for the court of King Edmund of Ingland, where a dangerous alliance is forming, and Sigrid, a girl with an extraordinary memory, works to free herself from the clutches of a cruel king. All three protagonists must summon their particular powers to save the island from the horde of dark creatures and foil the plans of two vengeful monarchs."--

Download or read book Vic Lee s Corona Diary written by Vic Lee and published by Frances Lincoln. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vic Lee's Corona Diary is an exquisitely illustrated graphic novel-style memoir chronicling the dramatic events around the global spread of the coronavirus.