Shadow of the Titanic

Shadow of the Titanic
Author: Andrew Wilson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2012-03-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 145167158X

IN the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the icy waters of the North Atlantic reverberated with the desperate screams of more than 1,500 men, women, and children—passengers of the once majestic liner Titanic. Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, an even more awful silence settled over the sea. The sights and sounds of that night would haunt each of the vessel’s 705 survivors for the rest of their days. Although we think we know the story of Titanic—the famously luxurious and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America—very little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did they cope in the aftermath of this horrific event? How did they come to remember that night, a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town? Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, and diaries as well as interviews with survivors’ family members, award-winning journalist and author Andrew Wilson reveals how some used their experience to propel themselves on to fame, while others were so racked with guilt they spent the rest of their lives under the Titanic’s shadow. Some reputations were destroyed, and some survivors were so psychologically damaged that they took their own lives in the years that followed. Andrew Wilson brings to life the colorful voices of many of those who lived to tell the tale, from famous survivors like Madeleine Astor (who became a bride, a widow, an heiress, and a mother all within a year), Lady Duff Gordon, and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, to lesser known second- and third-class passengers such as the Navratil brothers—who were traveling under assumed names because they were being abducted by their father. Today, one hundred years after that fateful voyage, Shadow of the Titanic adds an important new dimension to our understanding of this enduringly fascinating story.

The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales

The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales
Author: Ruth Ann Musick
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1965-12-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780813101361

" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.

Supercoach

Supercoach
Author: Andrew Webster
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2011
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1742695078

Like most of the bouncers in town, Bobby Lee was an ageing boxer, but was as tough as they come. He was the muscle on the door at Thommo's, the illegal two-up game held in secrecy in Surry Hills in Sydney's inner city. It was owned by Joe Taylor - 'The Boss', as everyone called him. In May 1951, Bobby Lee was shot five times. He didn't survive. Jack Gibson got his job. 'Big Jack' was the original supercoach, but before that he was one of the toughest men in Sydney. It was there for all to see as a brutal front-row forward for Easts, Newtown and Wests during the 1950s and 1960s. As a coach, he was a revolutionary, adopting methods from American football and innovating heavily in his own right to win back-to-back premierships with Eastern Suburbs in 1974 and 1975, and then three with Parramatta from 1981 to 1983-giving the Eels their first ever premiership win. Yet behind his gruff exterior and trademark kangaroo fur coat was a generous and warm family man, whose life was changed forever by the death of his son Luke from a drug overdose. With the cooperation of Jack's family and friends, and unprecedented access to Jack's scrapbooks, journals and private photographs, Andrew Webster has written the definitive account of the 'Coach of the Century', Jack Gibson.

Anne of Windy Poplars

Anne of Windy Poplars
Author: L. M. Montgomery
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2015-04-24
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1473373913

This charming novel is the fourth book in the Anne of Green Gables series. 22 years old and away from home, the much-loved Anne Shirley has to find her own way in the world once more as she begins a new job in Windy Poplars. Beginning a new phase of her life, Anne has finally left the Cuthbert’s farm. Filled with romance and charming moral tales, the story is mostly told through the letters that Anne exchanges with her fiancé, Gilbert Blythe. The couple try to maintain their relationship while Gilbert begins medical school and Anne embarks on a new path as the principal of Summerside High School in Windy Poplars. Anne lodges in the cosy tower room of an old house, Windy Willows, belonging to Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty. Soon she makes fast friends with the women and their boisterous housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. But despite these new friends, Anne struggles to find her feet in the town. The ‘royal family’ of Summerside, the Pringles, keep a watchful eye on the new principal and make it very clear that she's not their first choice for the job. Will Anne be able to win the Pringles over? Can she and Gilbert keep their spark alive? Read & Co. Children’s has proudly republished this beautiful edition of Anne of Windy Poplars, now featuring an introductory author biography. This classic novel is not to be missed by lovers of Anne of Green Gables and those who wish to revisit their childhood as Anne commences the next stage of her life.

Pieces of Grace

Pieces of Grace
Author: Karen Gibson
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-03-13
Genre:
ISBN: 9781736826706

Grace believed she went from losing it all to having it all. In a desperate attempt to put her life back together, Grace, divorced and jobless, leaves Tucson to return to Chicago-a place she never planned to call home again. She also never planned to fall for Benjamin Hayward. Drawn into the fairytale existence of his power and wealth, Grace is unable to see what her family and friends see, and ignores the warning signs of Dr. Benjamin Hayward's dark side. Benjamin's secrets-the death of his mentally ill wife and the disappearance of his daughter-push Grace into an abyss deeper than the one that brought her home in the first place, and she risks losing even more. Pieces of Grace is a complicated story of relationships confused by undercurrents of mental illness. Readers find themselves hoping family and friends can carry Grace through her most difficult moments.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre
Author: Charlotte Bronte
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 494
Release: 2019-06-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9781076410535

Charlotte Brontë (April 21, 1816 - March 31, 1855) was an English novelist and the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels have become enduring classics of English literature.

When Scotland Was Jewish

When Scotland Was Jewish
Author: Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2015-05-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786455225

The popular image of Scotland is dominated by widely recognized elements of Celtic culture. But a significant non-Celtic influence on Scotland's history has been largely ignored for centuries? This book argues that much of Scotland's history and culture from 1100 forward is Jewish. The authors provide evidence that many of the national heroes, villains, rulers, nobles, traders, merchants, bishops, guild members, burgesses, and ministers of Scotland were of Jewish descent, their ancestors originating in France and Spain. Much of the traditional historical account of Scotland, it is proposed, rests on fundamental interpretive errors, perpetuated in order to affirm Scotland's identity as a Celtic, Christian society. A more accurate and profound understanding of Scottish history has thus been buried. The authors' wide-ranging research includes examination of census records, archaeological artifacts, castle carvings, cemetery inscriptions, religious seals, coinage, burgess and guild member rolls, noble genealogies, family crests, portraiture, and geographic place names.

The Lampshade

The Lampshade
Author: Mark Jacobson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2011-04-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781416566281

Few growing up in the aftermath of World War II will ever forget the horrifying reports that Nazi concentration camp doctors had removed the skin of prison ers to make common, everyday lampshades. In The Lampshade, bestselling journalist Mark Jacobson tells the story of how he came into possession of one of these awful objects, and of his search to establish the origin, and larger meaning, of what can only be described as an icon of terror. From Hurricane Katrina–ravaged New Orleans to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to the Buchenwald concentration camp to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, almost everything Jacobson uncovers about the lampshade is contradictory, mysterious, shot through with legend and specious information. Through interviews with forensic experts, famous Holocaust scholars (and deniers), Buchenwald survivors and liberators, and New Orleans thieves and cops, Jacobson gradually comes to see the lampshade as a ghostly illuminator of his own existential status as a Jew, and to understand exactly what that means in the context of human responsibility. One question looms as his search progresses: what to do with the lampshade—this unsettling thing that used to be someone?