The years climbed up every ladder to accomplish toward the next job, since I accepted its limits, until I couldn't be persuaded against the career in law enforcement. I was perfectly suited in the State Prison System, but I knew more than its pay. Imprisonment was on both sides of the wall and I jumped in with both feet. I grew desperate for more! I was aging, facing the final years, but I couldn't have known what was already planned. DOC's tenure dangled its carrot to strive forward retirement, as if the sentence was over, and I found freedom.
Sparky Anderson managed the Detroit Tigers and the Cincinnati Reds through 26 seasons; he is the only manager to pilot World Series championship teams in each league, the only one to win 100 games during a season in each, and the only manager to lead two different franchises in total victories. Yet he remains a regular guy with simple tastes and unaffected values. This book alternates Anderson's first-person observations and bits of inspiration with the biographic narrative of longtime Tigers PR director Dan Ewald.
An autobiographical portrait of UCLA basketball coach John Wooden highlighting his career and personal life and insights on how his top players shaped and changed the NBA.
In the course of his storied career as a manager, agent, and producer, Shep Gordon has worked with—and befriended—some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, from Alice Cooper to Bette Davis, Raquel Welch to Groucho Marx, Blondie to Jimi Hendrix, Sylvester Stallone to Salvador Dalí, Luther Vandross to Teddy Pendergrass. He is also credited with inventing the “celebrity chef,” and has worked with Nobu Matsuhisa, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Roger Vergé, and many others. In this wonderfully engaging memoir, the captivating entertainment legend recalls his life, from his humble beginnings as a shy, unambitious kid growing up on Long Island to his unexpected rise as one of the most influential and respected personalities in show business, revered for his kindness, charisma—and fondness for a good time. Gordon shares riotous anecdotes and outrageous accounts of his freewheeling, globe-trotting experiences with some of the biggest celebrities of the past five decades, including his first meeting with Janis Joplin in 1968, when the raspy singer punched him in the face. Told with incomparable humor and heart, They Call Me Supermensch is a sincere, hilarious, behind-the-scenes look at the worlds of music and entertainment from a consummate Hollywood insider.
Moving, funny devotions crafted for every day by moms who know the drill When women take on the role of mom, they take on a hundred other titles as well: healer, comforter, chef, teacher, cheerleader—and less flattering things like disciplinarian, ruiner of fun times, and chief worrier. In the middle of juggling all those roles, finding room to spend time alone seeking God can seem insurmountable. Moms Michelle Medlock Adams and Bethany Jett understand the struggles—and the joys. They've pulled together their own experiences with the crazy world of parenting as well as the most requested, most talked about topics on mommy blogs. Their research nailed down what moms really want to talk about. And then they created a devotional that speaks straight to the heart of the mommy life. They Call Me Mom is a lighthearted, transparent take on the real-life ups and downs mothers face through all stages of parenting. Whether mom just brought home her first baby or she has several kids and zero time, she'll find relatable words and helpful encouragement in these pages. And with one devotion for every week of the year, it's easy to fit in a few minutes with God in the middle of a full parenting life.
Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop and watching action films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies. Sporting American clothes and dance moves, he became known around Mogadishu as Abdi American, but when the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab rose to power in 2006, it became dangerous to celebrate Western culture. Desperate to make a living, Abdi used his language skills to post secret dispatches, which found an audience of worldwide listeners. Eventually, though, Abdi was forced to flee to Kenya. In an amazing stroke of luck, Abdi won entrance to the U.S. in the annual visa lottery, though his route to America did not come easily. Parts of his story were first heard on the BBC World Service and This American Life. Now a proud resident of Maine, on the path to citizenship, Abdi Nor Iftin's dramatic, deeply stirring memoir is truly a story for our time: a vivid reminder of why America still beckons to those looking to make a better life.
In the year 2000 I thought I had life pretty much figured out, at least for a guy who had spent the last 16 years paralyzed and permanently confined to a wheelchair. As the survivor of a horrific car accident at age 19, I had rolled through some pretty rough territory, enduring not only hostile physical landscapes, but hostile attitudes of those around me as well. I was tougher than most, or so I thought; but all of that changed the day I became a step parent. It is the year 2000, and I have become the Master of my disabled realm: I can pop up and down steep curbs in my wheelchair and make it look like childs play. I can disassemble and pack my wheelchair into my car in under 30 seconds flat. I can swim 1000 yards non-stop in under thirty minutes using only my arms for propulsion. I can push on these wheels longer and harder than anybody, all day long, for as long as I need to without uttering a single complaint. Yet how in the world am I going to change the diaper of this kicking, screaming two year old that Ive been left alone with for the first time? How on earth am I supposed to chase this tender Kindergartener up the stairs after he has just made off with my $200 pair of Oakley sunglasses? And what will I do the day they figure out that they can take me out of action completely by tipping me over backwards in my wheelchair? They Call Me Wheels is my story, how I fell in love with my future wife Elizabeth and virtually overnight became a wheelchair-bound stepparent to her two young sons, Josh and Ben; embarking upon the most arduous, terrifying, and at the same time the most extraordinary and satisfying adventure Ive had yet to experience. Wheels (the nickname given to me by the cocky, disbelieving cronies of Elizabeths ex husband) chronicles a three year span where I literally roll slap-dash and headlong into the unknown; at times Im frustrated, foiled and ready to throw in the towel, but in the end I am actually beginning to believe that I just might be making a difference in the lives of my newly acquired family - that is, until its my turn to give Josh the dreaded Puberty Talk.
A CBC BOOKS MUST-READ NONFICTION BOOK FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH Nominated for the Toronto Book Award Smartly dressed and smiling, Canada’s black train porters were a familiar sight to the average passenger—yet their minority status rendered them politically invisible, second-class in the social imagination that determined who was and who was not considered Canadian. Subjected to grueling shifts and unreasonable standards—a passenger missing his stop was a dismissible offense—the so-called Pullmen of the country’s rail lines were denied secure positions and prohibited from bringing their families to Canada, and it was their struggle against the racist Dominion that laid the groundwork for the multicultural nation we know today. Drawing on the experiences of these influential black Canadians, Cecil Foster’s They Call Me George demonstrates the power of individuals and minority groups in the fight for social justice and shows how a country can change for the better.
Daniel Hernandez helped save the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and his life experience is a source of true inspiration in this heartfelt memoir, “an absorbing eyewitness view of a shocking event wrapped in a fluent, engaging self-portrait” (Kirkus Reviews). “I don’t consider myself a hero,” says Daniel Hernandez. “I did what I thought anyone should have done. Heroes are people who spend a lifetime committed to helping others.” When Daniel Hernandez was twenty years old, he was working as an intern for US Representative Gabrielle Giffords. On January 8, 2011, during a “Congress on Your Corner” event, Giffords was shot. Daniel Hernandez’s quick thinking before the paramedics arrived and took Giffords to the hospital saved her life. Hernandez’s bravery and heroism has been noted by many, including President Barack Obama. But while that may have been his most well-known moment in the spotlight, Daniel Hernandez, Jr., is a remarkable individual who has already accomplished much in his young life, and is working to achieve much more. They Call Me a Hero explores Daniel’s life, his character, and the traits that a young person needs to rise above adversity and become a hero like Daniel. “His story is inspiring not only for his bravery during the shooting, but also for his commitment to education advocacy and public service, including his appointment to Tucson’s Commission on LGBT issues and election to the local school board. Photos of Hernandez with family, friends, colleagues, and political figures are included” (Publishers Weekly).
