Download or read book Pull No Punches written by Judith Collins and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most anticipated political memoir of the year. A frank account from National MP Judith Collins of the highs and lows of a political life. From her humble beginnings as the youngest daughter of Labour-voting farming parents, Judith Collins has carved a path to almost the very top of New Zealand politics. Collins grew up in rural Walton, Waikato, on a dairy farm. At the age of 10 she entered politics, running for class president. She won. After a successful career as a lawyer, Collins became the MP for Papakura in 2002, alongside fellow new recruit John Key. When Key and National won office in 2008, Collins became the Minister for Police, Corrections and Veterans. Pull No Punches is the candid story of a determined Minister at the centre of New Zealand political life and of a woman who is always resilient in the face of adversity. Funny, forthright and fearless, Collins reveals what it is like to survive-and thrive-for two decades as a senior female politician.

Download or read book Pulling No Punches Poetry of Resistance written by William Gomes and published by William Gomes. This book was released on 2024-04-21 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Pulling No Punches: Poetry of Resistance," poet William Gomes delivers a powerful and moving collection that gives voice to the struggles, triumphs, and unbreakable spirit of those living on the margins. With a keen eye for social commentary and a deep well of empathy, Gomes shines a light on the harsh realities faced by many, while also celebrating the resilience and courage of those who persist against the odds. Through poems like "Beyond Confinement" and "Voices Unheard," Gomes invites readers into the lives of individuals navigating a society that often overlooks or diminishes them. With every line, he captures the quiet struggles and everyday acts of courage that so often go unnoticed, giving voice to the unheard and affirming the dignity of every life. Other works, such as "Beneath the Sheen" and "The Gears of Indifference," serve as a searing indictment of the systems and attitudes that perpetuate inequality and injustice. Through these verses, Gomes challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths and join the fight for a more compassionate and inclusive world. Even in the darkest moments, threads of hope and defiance run through this collection. In "Seeds of Change" and "Unsilenced," Gomes reminds readers of the transformative power of solidarity and the indomitable nature of the human spirit. These poems are not just about resistance, but also about resilience, empowerment, and the unwavering belief that a better future is possible. Urgent, unflinching, and ultimately uplifting, "Pulling No Punches" is a deeply personal journey that reflects the author's own experiences and those of the communities he is a part of. It is a call to action, a plea for empathy, and a celebration of the strength and beauty of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Step into these pages with an open heart and a willingness to listen deeply. Let these poems be a mirror, a window, and a doorway - a mirror to reflect our shared humanity, a window into lives and experiences that may be different from your own, and a doorway to a world of greater understanding, compassion, and unity. "Pulling No Punches" is not just a collection of poetry, but a testament to the power of words to inspire change and to remind us of our shared humanity. It is a must-read for anyone who believes in the fight for a society where every voice is valued, and every life is affirmed.

Download or read book No Punches Pulled Offences Outrages and Other Observations written by Bob Jones and published by . This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offences, Outrages and Other Observations: the best of Bob Jones' New Zealand Herald columns. Every week Bob Jones delivers an upper cut to the foibles, foolishness and outright fatuousness of contemporary life. In this collection of the best of his columns from the NZ Herald, he lines up the pious, the pitiful and the politically correct - and never pulls his punches. Uncompromising and unexpurgated, this is Sir Bob at his mosthonest and hilarious

Download or read book Pulling No Punches written by Steven Edwin Laffoley and published by . This book was released on 2013-07-10 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey called Sam Langford from Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, “The greatest fighter we’ve ever had.” And champion Jack Johnson stated he “he was the toughest little son-of-a-bitch that ever lived.” Celebrated New York boxing writer Hype Igoe said he was “the greatest fighter, pound for pound, who ever lived,” while New York sports writer Joe Williams said he “was probably the best the ring ever saw.” Langford was so good that many boxers refused to fight him, so good that he took bouts with bigger men just to get a match, so good that he once fought the greatest boxer of his age, Jack Johnson, who was forty pounds heavier and a good foot taller—and still went the distance. Yet, for all the ferocity of his talent, Sam Langford (1883-1956) could not outbox fistic fate. From his first bout in 1902 until his last a quarter century later, he battled boxing’s colour barrier that kept him from being world champion in three different weight classes. Still, he refused to be knocked down and relentlessly pursued a title shot until he was nearly forty. When, in 1923, he approached Jack Kearns, the manager of then heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, for a title bout, the wily Kearns looked over the nearly blind, well-past-his-prime boxer, and shook his head. “We were looking for someone easier,” he sighed. He was just that good. When Langford could no longer get his title shot, he retired from the ring in 1926 and soon faded from the public mind—until the serious compilers of lists that recognize boxing’s all-time greatest began including his name, and he found himself becoming a legend. His official record says he fought 250 bouts, but he remembered fighting more than 500. And he loved to talk about them all, loved the stories that shaped the contours of his life and loved the absolute truth and less-than-certain tales that wove themselves into his boxing legend. Of course, this was as it should have been, because for him, great boxing was as much about the battles’ tales as it was about the battles themselves. This is the story of Sam Langford.

Download or read book Pulling No Punches written by India Edwards and published by Putnam Publishing Group. This book was released on 1977 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book No Punches Pulled written by Bob Jones and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offences, outrages and other observations - the best of Bob Jones. Each week Bob Jones reaches from the pages of the NZ Herald to deliver an upper cut to the foibles, foolishness and outright fatuousness of contemporary life. In this unexpurgated collection of the best of his columns he lines up the pious, the pitiful and the politically correct - and never pulls his punches. This is Sir Bob at his most honest and hilarious.

Download or read book Ghosts of Manila written by Mark Kram and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-06-03 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Muhammad Ali met Joe Frazier in Manila for their third fight, their rivalry had spun out of control. The Ali-Frazier matchup had become a madness, inflamed by the media and the politics of race. When the "Thrilla in Manila" was over, one man was left with a ruin of a life; the other was battered to his soul. Mark Kram covered that fight for Sports Illustrated in an award-winning article. Now his riveting book reappraises the boxers -- who they are and who they were. And in a voice as powerful as a heavyweight punch, Kram explodes the myths surrounding each fighter, particularly Ali. A controversial, no-holds-barred account, Ghosts of Manila ranks with the finest boxing books ever written.

Download or read book The Book of Dirt written by Bram Presser and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘An immense work of love and anger, a book Bram Presser was born to write.’ Joan London They chose not to speak and now they are gone...What’s left to fill the silence is no longer theirs. This is my story, woven from the threads of rumour and legend. Jakub Rand flees his village for Prague, only to find himself trapped by the Nazi occupation. Deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, he is forced to sort through Jewish books for a so-called Museum of the Extinct Race. Hidden among the rare texts is a tattered prayer book, hollow inside, containing a small pile of dirt. Back in the city, Františka Roubíčková picks over the embers of her failed marriage, despairing of her conversion to Judaism. When the Nazis summon her two eldest daughters for transport, she must sacrifice everything to save the girls from certain death. Decades later, Bram Presser embarks on a quest to find the truth behind the stories his family built around these remarkable survivors. The Book of Dirt is a completely original novel about love, family secrets, and Jewish myths. And it is a heart-warming story about a grandson’s devotion to the power of storytelling and his family’s legacy. Bram Presser was born in Melbourne in 1976. His stories have appeared in Best Australian Stories, Award Winning Australian Writing, The Sleepers Almanac and Higher Arc. His 2017 debut novel, The Book of Dirt, won the 2018 Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction in the US National Jewish Book Awards, the 2018 Voss Literary Prize and three awards in the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards: the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and The People’s Choice Award. ‘The lyrical, impassioned and culturally rich prose of The Book of Dirt, and its moral force, bears echoes of such great Jewish writers as Franz Kafka (Presser inherited his grandfather’s copy of The Trial), Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Cynthia Ozick...It is a major book, and one for the times: while I was reading it, neo-Nazis in America brought fatal violence to Charlottesville, and, in Melbourne, neo-Nazis placed posters in schools calling for the killing of Jews to be legalised...The Book of Dirt is a courageous work, as necessary for us to read as it was for Presser to write.’ Saturday Paper ‘A beautiful literary mind.’ A.S. Patrić ‘Meet Bram Presser, aged five, smoking a cigarette with his grandmother in Prague. Meet Jakub Rand, one of the Jews chosen to assemble the Nazi’s Museum of the Extinct Race. Such details, like lightning flashes, illuminate this audacious work about the author’s search for the grandfather he loved but hardly knew. Working in the wake of writers like Modiano and Safran Foer, Presser brilliantly shows how fresh facts can derail old truths, how fiction can amplify memory. A smart and tender meditation on who we become when we attempt to survive survival.’ Mireille Juchau ‘The Book of Dirt is a grandson’s tender act of devotion, the product of a quest to rescue family voices from the silence, to bear witness, drawing on legend, journey and history, and shaped by extraordinary storytelling.’ Arnold Zable ‘A remarkable tale of Holocaust survival, love and genealogical sleuthing...A beautiful tale that will stay with the reader long after the book’s end.’ Books+Publishing ‘It’s hard not to be captured from the opening epigraph...[A] magnificent ode to all that is lost.’ Longin to Be ‘It is difficult to convey the breadth and nuance of this extraordinary work. It is a book about how history is made—and about who is allowed the privilege to remake it. There are echoes here of Sebald’s biting honesty and Chabon’s long and rewarding vignettes. An absolute pleasure to read.’ Readings ‘As in Sebald’s prose narratives, Presser’s novel inhabits and the dynamic region between fiction and non-fiction.’ Australian Book Review ‘An impressive and captivating story of remembrance, a journey into the past for the sake of deciphering our present.’ Dasa Drndic ‘In The Book of Dirt the fractured lines of memory create a gripping story of survival and love.’ Leah Kaminsky ‘I found Bram Presser’s The Book of Dirt impossible to forget. Penetrating, soulful, and surprisingly welcoming, it reminded me of my own ancestors and how easy it is to sidestep the past.’ Barry Scott, Australian Book Review, 2017 Publisher Picks ‘Presser blurs the boundaries of fact and fiction in a compelling way...A wonderful and original book, told in rich, lyrically beautiful prose that is laden with history and cultural meaning.’ Good Reading ‘A combination of homage, mystery, family history and a sepia-toned love story...The Book of Dirt is magnificent.’ ANZ LitLovers ‘A heartfelt and original attempt to bridge the ever-growing gaps between history, memory and silence...Its heart beats so earnestly, and so loud...What Presser has produced is a meditation on the ethics of storytelling, of the duties we owe to the people whose stories we tell, and to the people whose stories we don’t.’ Australian ‘Always surprising and beautifully complex, and both deft and sensitive in its handling of its intertwined narratives and materials. It is an incredibly affecting book, one that lingers long after reading—and a remarkably assured debut.’ Age ‘A gripping tale of survival and an absorbing novelisation of his family’s extraordinary lives...Presser fills in the gaps in his grandfather’s story with vivid character studies; together with poignant black and white snapshots, he brings them evocatively to life. His poetic narrative is a perfect foil for the silences of his forbears.’ Toowoomba Chronicle ‘The Book of Dirt is both a loving, honest portrayal of lives that would have been erased, and an incorporation of the broader lessons of their experience into contemporary mythology. It keeps the discussion about trauma, memory, and intergenerational acts of transfer alive for those generations that follow, that risk forgetting. It is a potent achievement for a debut novel.’ Sydney Review of Books

Download or read book My Mother s House written by Francesca Momplaisir and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the Best Books of the Year: Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Vulture • This uncompromising look at the immigrant experience, and the depravity of one man, is an electrifying page-turner rooted in a magical reality • “Impossible to stop reading” —Vulture When Lucien flees Haiti with his wife, Marie-Ange, and their three children to New York City’s South Ozone Park, he does so hoping for reinvention, wealth, and comfort. He buys a run-down house in a quickly changing community, and begins life anew. Lucien and Marie-Ange call their home La Kay—“my mother’s house”—and it becomes a place where their fellow immigrants can find peace, a good meal, and necessary legal help. But as a severely emotionally damaged man emigrating from a country whose evils he knows to one whose evils he doesn’t, Lucien soon falls into his worst habits and impulses, with La Kay as the backdrop for his lasciviousness. What he can’t begin to fathom is that the house is watching, passing judgment, and deciding to put an end to all the sins it has been made to hold. But only after it has set itself aflame will frightened whispers reveal Lucien’s ultimate evil.

Download or read book Lupe Wong Won t Dance written by Donna Barba Higuera and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My gym shorts burrow into my butt crack like a frightened groundhog. Don't you want to read a book that starts like that?? Lupe Wong is going to be the first female pitcher in the Major Leagues. She's also championed causes her whole young life. Some worthy...like expanding the options for race on school tests beyond just a few bubbles. And some not so much...like complaining to the BBC about the length between Doctor Who seasons. Lupe needs an A in all her classes in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who's Chinacan/Mexinese just like her. So when the horror that is square dancing rears its head in gym? Obviously she's not gonna let that slide. Not since Millicent Min, Girl Genius has a debut novel introduced a character so memorably, with such humor and emotional insight. Even square dancing fans will agree...

Download or read book My Life on the Line How the NFL Damn Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life written by Ryan O'Callaghan and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting account of life as a closeted professional athlete from gay NFL player O’Callaghan, against the backdrop of depression, opioid addiction, and the threat of suicide. “[O’Callaghan’s] story is one of beautiful vulnerability, and it further shows the importance of knowing you aren’t alone.” —Oprah Daily, recommended by Gayle King Ryan O’Callaghan’s plan was always to play football and then, when his career was over, kill himself. Growing up in a politically conservative corner of California, the not-so-subtle messages he heard as a young man from his family and from TV and film routinely equated being gay with disease and death. Letting people in on the darkest secret he kept buried inside was not an option: better death with a secret than life as a gay man. As a kid , Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. He was recruited by the University of California, Berkeley, where he spent five seasons, playing alongside his friend Aaron Rodgers. Then it was on to the NFL for stints with the almost-undefeated New England Patriots and the often-defeated Kansas City Chiefs. Bubbling under the surface of Ryan’s entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. When the league caught him smoking pot, he turned to NFL-sanctioned prescription painkillers that quickly sent his life into a tailspin. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time. Nearing the twilight of his career, Ryan faced the ultimate decision: end it all, or find out if his family and football friends could ever accept a gay man in their lives.

Download or read book Rethinking Possible written by Rebecca Faye Smith Galli and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Becky Galli was born into a family that valued the power of having a plan. With a pastor father and a stay-at-home mother, her 1960s southern upbringing was bucolic—even enviable. But when her brother, only seventeen, died in a waterskiing accident, the slow unraveling of her perfect family began. Though grief overwhelmed the family, twenty-year-old Galli forged onward with her life plans—marriage, career, and raising a family of her own—one she hoped would be as idyllic as the family she once knew. But life had less than ideal plans in store. There was her son’s degenerative, undiagnosed disease and subsequent death; followed by her daughter’s autism diagnosis; her separation; and then, nine days after the divorce was final, the onset of the transverse myelitis that would leave Galli paralyzed from the waist down. Despite such unspeakable tragedy, Galli maintained her belief in family, in faith, in loving unconditionally, and in learning to not only accept, but also embrace a life that had veered down a path far different from the one she had envisioned. At once heartbreaking and inspiring, Rethinking Possible is a story about the power of love over loss and the choices we all make that shape our lives —especially when forced to confront the unimaginable.

Download or read book I M Wright s Hard Code written by Eric Brechner and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get the brutal truth about coding, testing, and project management—from a Microsoft insider who tells it like it is. I. M. Wright's deliberately provocative column "Hard Code" has been sparking debate amongst thousands of engineers at Microsoft for years. And now (despite our better instincts), we're making his opinions available to everyone. In this collection of over 80 columns, Eric Brechner's alter ego pulls no punches with his candid commentary and best practice solutions to the issues that irk him the most. He dissects the development process, examines tough team issues, and critiques how the software business is run, with the added touch of clever humor and sardonic wit. His ideas aren't always popular (not that he cares), but they do stimulate discussion and imagination needed to drive software excellence. Get the unvarnished truth on how to: Improve software quality and value—from design to security Realistically manage project schedules, risks, and specs Trim the fat from common development inefficiencies Apply process improvement methods—without being an inflexible fanatic Drive your own successful, satisfying career Don't be a dictator—develop and manage a thriving team! Companion Web site includes: Agile process documents Checklists, templates, and other resources

Download or read book It Won t Be Easy written by Tom Rademacher and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tom Rademacher wishes someone had handed him this sort of book along with his teaching degree: a clear-eyed, frank, boots-on-the ground account of what he was getting into. But first he had to write it. And as 2014’s Minnesota Teacher of the Year, Rademacher knows what he’s talking about. Less a how-to manual than a tribute to an impossible and impossibly rewarding profession, It Won’t Be Easy captures the experience of teaching in all its messy glory. The book follows a year of teaching, with each chapter tackling a different aspect of the job. Pulling no punches (and resisting no punch lines), he writes about establishing yourself in a new building; teaching meaningful classes, keeping students a priority; investigating how race, gender, and identity affect your work; and why it’s a good idea to keep an extra pair of pants at school. Along the way he answers the inevitable and the unanticipated questions, from what to do with Google to how to tell if you’re really a terrible teacher, to why “Keep your head down” might well be the worst advice for a new teacher. Though directed at prospective and newer teachers, It Won’t Be Easy is mercifully short on jargon and long on practical wisdom, accessible to anyone—teacher, student, parent, pundit—who is interested in a behind-the-curtain look at teaching and willing to understand that, while there are no simple answers, there is power in learning to ask the right questions.

Download or read book The Titanic For Dummies written by Stephen J. Spignesi and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-01-05 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Titanic For Dummies paints the whole picture of the most famous maritime disaster. It examines the building of the ship, life onboard during its maiden voyage, tragic decisions made that fateful night, the discovery of the wreck, and the many controversies that have emerged in the century since the sinking. Information includes: Theories behind the reason for the sinking (does the blame lie with the watertight doors, bad rivets, or crew negligence?), and when and where the ship split in two. A detailed look at how the lack of lifeboats — and the chaos that resulted in lifeboats launching before they reached capacity — resulted in lives lost. A Titanic “Who’s Who” identifying notable passengers, including those who were famous before the tragedy and those who gained fame because of it. Current thinking about reports of shots being fired onboard, the details of Captain Smith’s death, Murdoch’s possible suicide, and the band’s last song. Findings from the Titanic hearings on both sides of the Atlantic. A recounting of Robert Ballard’s discovery of the wreck in 1985 and the ongoing debate over whether to salvage the wreck or let the ship remain as a memorial to those who perished. A glimpse of the most fascinating artifacts salvaged from the wreckage. The Titanic in pop culture: from Broadway to one of the most highest grossing movies in history (being re-released in 3D in 2012 to commemorate the 100th anniversary).

Download or read book Beyond Suffrage Women in the New Deal written by Susan Ware and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1981 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profiles women who achieved positions of national leadership in the 1930s under Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal administration.

Download or read book Lost and Found on Planet Dani written by Andrew Corwin and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2024-04-15 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An improbable adventure sprung from the true account of ‘wabah babi’, or ‘swine plague’, in the far eastern reaches of the Indonesian archipelago, bordering with Papua New Guinea. Home to the Dani people who live much as they have for the past 2000 years. The two leading characters, an American naval officer and ‘disease chaser’, and an Indonesian government doctor, undertake an arduous expedition to investigate the outbreak against a backdrop of a hostage-taking-crisies that has caught the world’s attention. Making for a story that could not have been dreamt up. Their journey takes on a fantastical turn, the stuff of fiction, when they find themselves fighting for survival in the remote jungle highlands. Their interactions with the Dani highlight the fragility and resilience of the human spirit. Theirs is an amazing trek treated with guile and humor. The author takes liberties in borrowing from factual accounts of reported events associated with a ‘very real’ and ongoing insurgency, adding authenticity and context to the narrative. He reveals himself by invoking images from the storied cinema and delving into tangents: passions revealed in primitive art and the 'natural world' - the sublime to grotesque, and beyond bizarre.