Reluctant Hero

Reluctant Hero

Author: Michael Benfante

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.

Published: 2011-08-11

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1616082852

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After nearly 10 years of conflicted silence, a celebrated 9/11 survivor describes what it was like for him living with memories of 9/11 for the past decade.


Reluctant Hero

Reluctant Hero

Author: Michael Benfante

Publisher: Skyhorse

Published: 2013-09-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781620872024

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On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Michael Benfante went to work, just like he had day after day, at his office on the eighty-first floor in the World Trade Center North Tower. Moments after the first plane struck, just twelve floors above him, Benfante organized his terrified employees, getting them out the office and moving down the stairwells. On his way down, he and another coworker encountered a woman in a wheelchair on the sixty-eighth floor. Benfante, the woman, and Benfante’s coworker then embarked on a ninety-six-minute odyssey of escape—the two men carrying the woman down sixty-eight flights of stairs out of the North Tower and into an ambulance that rushed her to safety just minutes before the tower imploded. A CBS video camera caught Benfante just as he got out of the building, and almost immediately, the national media came calling. Benfante sat on the couch with Oprah Winfrey, where she hailed him as a hero. Almost one year to the day after 9/11, Benfante got married and the woman in the wheelchair sat in the front row. That’s the storybook ending. But in the aftermath of 9/11, Benfante began a journey fraught with wrenching personal challenges of critical emotional and psychological depth in Reluctant Hero. Benfante shares the trappings of his public heroism, the loneliness of his private anguish, and the hope he finds for himself and for us. Because all of us—whether we were in the towers, in New York City, or someplace else—we are all 9/11 survivors.


The Reluctant Hero

The Reluctant Hero

Author: Adam Alexander Haviaras

Publisher: Adam Alexander Haviaras

Published: 2021-10-28

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1988309468

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Long ago, when gods and heroes walked the earth in triumph and tragedy, true love and epic deeds were set among the stars... In the city of ancient Corinth, Bellerophon grew up in the corridors of the palace, haunted by his father’s gruesome death, and distrusted and ignored by the rest of his own family. He now spends his life in the shadows of society, and that is how he prefers it. However, the Gods of Olympus have something more in mind for him. After a violent incident in the mountains, Bellerophon is banished from his home for all time. His path leads him to the court of an aged king in Tiryns where he is welcomed at first, but due to the spiteful queen, he is wrongly accused of another crime in a world that seems endlessly cruel. Dejected and uncaring of what happens to him and his hateful life, Bellerophon is sent across the sea to the court of King Iobates of Lykia. At the urging of his seer, the king welcomes Bellerophon as an honoured guest in his home, until he discovers the reason for his arrival. Seeking a way to be rid of Bellerophon, without violating the sacred laws of Zeus, King Iobates commands that he complete three impossible tasks to prove his innocence or bring about his death. With the world set against him, Bellerophon welcomes his imminent end. That is, until he meets the king’s daughter, Philonoe, the only person who has ever believed in him, and whose father has kept a dark secret from for many years. With the Gods and Lykia’s princess on his side, can Bellerophon prove his innocence and help save Lykia and its people? Will he finally accept the fate that the Gods have pressed upon him? Or will he succumb to the despair and hopelessness that have dogged him all of his life? Only by facing his deepest fears and a creature more terrible than any other of the Gods’ creation can Bellerophon truly succeed and become the hero he is meant to be... The Reluctant Hero is an epic retelling of the story of Bellerophon and the Chimera from Greek mythology. It is the fourth book in the Mythologia fantasy series by best-selling and award-winning author and historian, Adam Alexander Haviaras. If you enjoy books by Madeline Miller, Stephen Fry, Natalie Haynes or Jennifer Saint then you will love the Mythologia series. Read The Reluctant Hero today and witness the rise of one of the greatest heroes of the ancient world!


Willie Apiata VC

Willie Apiata VC

Author: Paul Little

Publisher: Penguin Books

Published: 2012-08-27

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780143010944

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'At 0900 on Sunday 01 July my CO handed me three letters to read. The first was from the Governor General, the second from the Prime Minister and the third was from the Minister of Defence. These letters informed me that I had been awarded the Victoria Cross for New Zealand (V.C.).' Cpl Bill (Willie) Apiata, V.C. Corporal Willie Apiata became the first New Zealander since the Second World War to be awarded the Commonwealth's highest military award for his actions with the NZ SAS in Afghanistan. From his early life in small town East Coast New Zealand to his actions in the deserts of Afghanistan, this is his story in his words. This book will not only establish the place of Corporal Apiata in New Zealand's history but will give an insight into the nature of a man who is truly a reluctant hero. While to most of us his actions seemed extraordinary and heroic, Corporal Apiata felt he was an ordinary Kiwi just 'doing his job'.


The Reluctant Hero

The Reluctant Hero

Author: Lorraine Heath

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Published: 2015-05-12

Total Pages: 89

ISBN-13: 1616507985

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What She Needs . . . Texas in the 1880s is a wild and lawless land, where a woman fending for herself is a rare breed. Andrea Jackson is just that. A woman who went against the grain by writing bestselling novels instead of marrying and staying at home. But with her muse, and her money dried up, she’s in desperate need of a hero. And Sheriff Matthew Knight has just the right material. Only He Can Give . . . Matthew doesn’t know what to make of the sassy, bright-eyed, temptress who insists on following him around. He’s nobody’s hero, and he doesn’t believe in fairy tales. What he is, is a man. With a man’s needs. And there’s something about the feisty, determined, vixen, he just can’t seem to shake . . . Previously published in My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys


A Reluctant Hero's Footsteps

A Reluctant Hero's Footsteps

Author: John R. Scales

Publisher: WestBow Press

Published: 2013-05

Total Pages: 109

ISBN-13: 1449796486

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In 2011, by chance I discovered the after-action reports of the 329th Infantry Regiment, my father’s World War II unit, on the Internet. An idea was born: use these to reconstruct my father’s path in Europe. I would take my three children, Richard, Mary, and Stephen, on a trip to retrace those footsteps. This book is about our travels, but it is much more. It documents the life of a man and his family, the history of a unit, and how, through research and luck, we were able piece together the story. As far as possible, I tell the tale of my father’s life with pictures and artifacts from that life. In parallel, I relate the history of the unit he joined in combat, inserting pictures where I can. In fitting all the records together with the trip itself, I discovered my father in new ways and built a memory for my children. In an appendix, I give you a guide as to how you can do this for your veterans as well.


Wombat, the Reluctant Hero

Wombat, the Reluctant Hero

Author: Christian Trimmer

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Published: 2023-03-21

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13: 1250324815

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A heartwarming and playful adventure that will inspire young readers to be a good neighbor and friend, based on the brave actions of the Australian wombat. Wombat liked her things just so. Everything had its place, and nothing was out of order. She couldn’t say the same about her neighbors. But that was their business, and Wombat didn’t concern herself with others’ business. When a very hot, dry summer causes dangerous fires in their neighborhood, a group of animals are desperate to find water and shelter. It will take the quiet heroism of a neighbor to provide resources and a cozy, cool, and safe burrow—a reluctant wombat who demonstrates the inspiring power of community. Wombat, the Reluctant Hero is inspired by the heroic and very real actions of the wombat, an animal that has helped other creatures survive droughts and wildfires in its native Australia. Author Christian Trimmer and illustrator Rachel Gyan celebrate this amazing mammal, who definitely has a thing or two to teach us about being a good neighbor.


The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Author: Mohsin Hamid

Publisher: Anchor Canada

Published: 2009-06-05

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 0307373355

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From the author of the award-winning Moth Smoke comes a perspective on love, prejudice, and the war on terror that has never been seen in North American literature. At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed, American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting. . . Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by Underwood Samson, an elite firm that specializes in the “valuation” of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York and the intensity of his work, and his infatuation with regal Erica promises entrée into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. For a time, it seems as though nothing will stand in the way of Changez’s meteoric rise to personal and professional success. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love. Elegant and compelling, Mohsin Hamid’s second novel is a devastating exploration of our divided and yet ultimately indivisible world. “Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services as a bridge.” —from The Reluctant Fundamentalist


Reluctant Hero

Reluctant Hero

Author: Phil Holmes

Publisher:

Published: 2010-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780956252647

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A local boy made good, Kirkstall-born John Holmes was Leeds Rugby League's longest serving player and he will forever be an icon at his beloved Headingley. This is the story of his illustrious career, as told by his brother and his nephew.