Books from the Attic

Books from the Attic

Alice Taylor

Cultural / Ireland / Autobiography / Memoir

Alice Taylor takes a look back at the well-used schoolbooks she used in her youth in the 1940s and 1950s. Flicking through the pages of the books and recalling poetry and prose she learned at school, Alice reminisces about these texts, how she related to them and how they integrated with her life on the farm and in the village. In her warm, wise way, Alice reflects on poems and stories on topics ranging from birds, trees and nature to fairy tales and legends, and ties them in with her own knowledge and memory of traditional country life. Containing the text of the poems that readers will remember from their own school days, and evocatively illustrated with photographs of the school books and Alice's notes on them, as well as nature, flora, fauna and objects associated with schools of old, this is a reminder of childhood days and a treasure trove of memory.
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Richardson Scores Again

Richardson Scores Again

Basil Thomson

Crime / Memoir / History

In the hall he found the body of his maidservant, Helen Dunn, aged about fifty, lying on the floor near the telephone. She had bled profusely from a wound in the head and her body was cold.Richardson's second case begins with a murder and robbery at a quiet house in Laburnum Road, and goes on to include an escaped parrot and a seemingly perfect crime which threatened a scandal to shock all England.Follow with Detective-Sergeant Richardson the fantastic story of an antiquarian's nephew, a pseudo policeman, and a stolen car...search with him for a man wanted for murder...another who fainted at a political meeting...the Treasury note which, because of the name written on it, was a warrant of death. Packed with clues, excitement and humour, this mystery will be certain to thrill and satisfy even the most ardent devotee of detective fiction.Richardson Scores Again was first published in 1934. This new edition, the first in many decades, includes a new...
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Deathstalker Rebellion d-2

Deathstalker Rebellion d-2

Simon R. Green

Nonfiction / Autobiography / Memoir

At the heart of the galaxy-spanning tyrannical Empire lies Golgotha, the planet of the Iron Throne. Once it was impregnable. Now . . . the Iron Bitch may have made a fatal mistake. In outlawing Owen Deathstalker, she has awakened a lust for revenge in a quite man - and unwittingly created a focus for a galaxy full of hatred for her loathsome rule. At last the espers and clones, the AIs and the freak, the innocent and the damned have someone to lead them in rebellion . . .
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Saved by the Salsa

Saved by the Salsa

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

Junior architect Lacey Rogers welcomes the opportunity to work with Jack Dalton, the firm's golden boy, that is, until her hormones can't resist his charm and spectacular looks. How can she keep her mind on their design project when her most potent designs are on him? Jack Dalton has always worked alone. Now he's got a partner. Is he losing his touch? To make matters worse, he can't take his eyes off the petite designer. If he can't find some way to cool his jets, he won't be able to keep his hands off her either. But on the dance floor, their mutual resistance melts as their bodies meet in the vibes of the Salsa. Can the dance keep them collaborating after the music ends?
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Above the Star

Above the Star

Alexis Marie Chute

Fantasy / Memoir / Art

When Archie goes in search of his missing son, Arden, in the Spanish Canary Islands, he stumbles upon a higher mission: to save his ailing fourteen-year-old granddaughter, Ella. Using a portal-jumping device called the Tillastrion, Archie and a strange creature, a Bangol named Zeno, are transported—along with a cruise ship full of people, including Ella and her mother, Tessa—to a magnificent yet terrifying island in another realm, a place called Jarr-Wya, where Archie hopes to locate Ella's cure. On Jarr-Wya, the Bangols battle the Olearons—creatures made of fire—and the evil Millia sands for control of Jarr-Wya. When Ella is captured by the Bangols, her wit and resourcefulness emerge as she fights against all odds, and against all manner of creatures, to survive. Meanwhile, Tessa, must confront her long-buried secrets, broken marriage, and a confusing new love triangle, all while navigating the mysterious island in search of her daughter. And unbeknownst...
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Because We Are Bad

Because We Are Bad

Lily Bailey

Nonfiction / Autobiography / Memoir

Written with the indelible power of Girl, Interrupted, Brain on Fire, and Reasons to Stay Alive, a lyrical, poignant memoir by a young woman about her childhood battle with debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder, and her hard-won journey to recovery.By the age of thirteen, Lily Bailey was convinced she was bad. She had killed someone with a thought, spread untold disease, and ogled the bodies of other children. Only by performing an exhausting series of secret routines could she make up for what she'd done. But no matter how intricate or repetitive, no act of penance was ever enough.Beautifully written and astonishingly intimate, Because We Are Bad recounts a childhood consumed by obsessive compulsive disorder. As a child, Bailey created a second personality inside herself—"I" became "we"—to help manifest compulsions that drove every minute of every day of her young life. Now she writes about the forces beneath her skin, and how they ordered,...
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Earnest

Earnest

Kristin von Kreisler

Fiction / Memoir / Nonfiction

"Von Kreisler takes us deeper into the powerful connections between humans and animals."--Jacqueline Sheehan From the bestselling author of An Unexpected Grace comes a richly insightful novel of matters of the heart--both human and canine--in an uplifting story of love, loyalty, and new beginnings... Earnest. It's the perfect name for a sweet, eager-to-please yellow Labrador retriever. Anna and her boyfriend Jeff fall for him the minute they see those guileless eyes gazing up from behind his gate at Seattle's Best Friends Shelter. In no time at all, they're a pack of three, with Earnest happily romping in their condo on Gamble Island.During the day, Earnest keeps Anna company in her flower shop, located in a historic gingerbread Victorian on the island's main street. Anna hopes to buy and restore the house, once owned by her beloved grandmother. But when that dream is threatened by Jeff's actions, Anna's trust is shattered. For so...
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Dancer from Khiva, The

Dancer from Khiva, The

Bibish

Cultural / Asia / Autobiography / Memoir

In a narrative that flows like a late-night confession, Bibish recounts her story... Born into an impoverished family in a deeply religious village, Bibish was named 'Hadjarbibi' in honour of her grandfather's hadj, his pilgrimage to Mecca. But her holy name could not protect her when, at the age of eight, she was brutally abused, and left for dead in the desert. Bibish's tenacity helped her survive the attack - she instinctively knew to keep her experience a secret rather than risk further punishment. But soon her love for dancing - prohibited by Islamic custom - resulted in her being beaten, victimized, and ostracized from her family and her community. Despite all this, Bibish secretly cultivated her own dreams of freedom - of dancing, of raising a family, and of escaping to tell her story to the world. The Dancer from Khiva is testament to Bibish's extraordinary resilience and spirit: the harrowing and ultimately inspiring story of a woman who risked everything.
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American Gun

American Gun

Chris Kyle

Memoir / Firearms

Chris Kyle—fallen hero and #1 bestselling author of American Sniper —reveals how ten legendary guns forever changed U.S. history. At the time of his tragic death in February 2013, former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the top sniper in U.S. military history, was finishing one of the most exciting missions of his life: a remarkable book that retold American history through the lens of a hand-selected list of firearms. Kyle masterfully shows how guns have played a fascinating, indispensable, and often underappreciated role in our national story. “Perhaps more than any other nation in the world,” Kyle writes, “the history of the United States has been shaped by the gun. Firearms secured the first Europeans’ hold on the continent, opened the frontier, helped win our independence, settled the West, kept law and order, and defeated tyranny across the world.” Drawing on his unmatched firearms knowledge and combat experience, Kyle carefully chose ten guns to help tell his story: the American long rifle, Spencer repeater, Colt .45 revolver, Winchester rifle, Springfield 1903 rifle, Thompson sub-machine gun, 1911 pistol, M1 Garand, .38 Special police revolver, and the M-16 rifle platform Kyle himself used as a SEAL. Through them, he revisits thrilling turning points in American history, including the single sniper shot that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War, the firearms designs that proved decisive at Gettysburg, the “gun that won the West,” and the weapons that gave U.S. soldiers an edge in the world wars and beyond. This is also the story of how firearms innovation, creativity, and industrial genius has constantly pushed American history—and power—forward. Filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, Chris Kyle’s American Gun is a sweeping epic of bravery, adventure, invention, and sacrifice.
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