The Bitter Taste of Dying

The Bitter Taste of Dying

Author: Jason Smith

Publisher:

Published: 2015-05-15

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9781512156324

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In his first book, author Jason Smith explores the depravity and desperation required to maintain an opiate addiction so fierce, he finds himself jumping continents to avoid jail time and learns the hard way that some demons cannot be outrun. While teaching in Europe, he meets a prostitute who secures drugs for him at the dangerous price of helping out the Russian mafia; in China, he gets his Percocet and Xanax fix but terrifies a crowd of children and parents at his job in the process; and in Mexico, Smith thought a Tijuana jail cell would be the perfect place to kick his Fentanyl habit, but soon realizes that the power of addiction is stronger than his desire to escape it. The Bitter Taste of Dying paints a portrait of the modern day drug addict with clarity and refreshing honesty. With a gritty mixture of self-deprecation and light-hearted confessional, Smith's memoir deftly describes the journey into the harrowing depths of addiction and demonstrates the experience of finally being released from it. "Jason is a great writer who's clearly done the life-destroying research that I can relate to. This is the voice of a new generation of drug addicts." - Jerry Stahl, NY Times bestselling author of Permanent Midnight and Happy Mutant Baby Pills


The Bitter Taste of Dying

The Bitter Taste of Dying

Author: Jason Smith

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-06

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 9780996402019

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In his first book, author Jason Smith explores the depravity and desperation required to maintain an opiate addiction so fierce, he finds himself jumping continents to avoid jail time and learns the hard way that some demons cannot be outrun. While teaching in Europe, he meets a prostitute who secures drugs for him at the dangerous price of helping out the Russian mafia; in China, he gets his Percocet and Xanax fix but terrifies a crowd of children and parents at his job in the process; and in Mexico, Smith thought a Tijuana jail cell would be the perfect place to kick his Fentanyl habit, but soon realizes that the power of addiction is stronger than his desire to escape it. The Bitter Taste of Dying paints a portrait of the modern day drug addict with clarity and refreshing honesty. With a gritty mixture of self-deprecation and light-hearted confessional, Smith's memoir deftly describes the journey into the harrowing depths of addiction and demonstrates the experience of finally being released from it. "Jason is a great writer who's clearly done the life-destroying research that I can relate to. This is the voice of a new generation of drug addicts." - Jerry Stahl, NY Times bestselling author of Permanent Midnight and Happy Mutant Baby Pills


Based on a True Story

Based on a True Story

Author: Norm Macdonald

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2016-09-20

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0812993632

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Driving, wild and hilarious” (The Washington Post), here is the incredible “memoir” of the legendary actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran. When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre “one step below instruction manuals.” Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he emerged he had under his arm a manuscript, a genre-smashing book about comedy, tragedy, love, loss, war, and redemption. When asked if this was the celebrity memoir, Norm replied, “Call it anything you damn like.”


The Dying Ground

The Dying Ground

Author: Nichelle D. Tramble

Publisher: Villard

Published: 2001-03-10

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0375506535

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Billy: dead. Felicia: missing. None of the words made sense together, but the doom I'd expected announced itself. I felt iron in my mouth, like I'd gargled with pennies, a taste like blood, a bitter taste that always followed bad news. The setting is Oakland, 1989; the crack epidemic is at its height and turf wars are brewing. Maceo Redfield, currently on hiatus from college, is walking a fine line between respectability and involvement in Oakland's drug underworld. As he waits in the neighborhood barbershop, one of his closest childhood friends, Holly Ford, brings him the news of the murder of Billy Crane, the third member of their childhood trio and a successful drug dealer. Felicia, Billy's girlfriend and Maceo's true love, is on the run and suspected of setting up the hit. As he searches for Felicia and the answer to the mystery of Billy's murder, Maceo is drawn deeper into a world in which dealers, players, and interlopers, obeying a code of honor all their own, engage in a deadly game to capture the heart of Oakland. When Maceo uncovers the truth about Billy, the story builds to a terrifying and painful climax.


Bitter In The Mouth

Bitter In The Mouth

Author: Monique Truong

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1446499138

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Growing up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the '70s and '80s, Linda Hammerick knows that she is different. She has strong, almost paralysing associations between words and tastes; she doesn't look like everyone else; and she isn't popular at school. She finds her way through life with the help of her great uncle 'Baby' Harper, who loves her and loves to dance, and her best friend fat-thin-fat Kelly with whom she has been exchanging letters since they were seven. But then a tragedy and a revelation will make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.


The Bitter Side of Sweet

The Bitter Side of Sweet

Author: Tara Sullivan

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-06-06

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0147515092

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For fans of Linda Sue Park and A Long Way Gone, two young boys must escape a life of slavery in modern-day Ivory Coast Fifteen-year-old Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his younger brother, Seydou, can chop down in a day. The higher the number the safer they are. The higher the number the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home. Maybe. The problem is Amadou doesn’t know how much he and Seydou owe, and the bosses won’t tell him. The boys only wanted to make money to help their impoverished family, instead they were tricked into forced labor on a plantation in the Ivory Coast. With no hope of escape, all they can do is try their best to stay alive—until Khadija comes into their lives. She’s the first girl who’s ever come to camp, and she’s a wild thing. She fights bravely every day, attempting escape again and again, reminding Amadou what it means to be free. But finally, the bosses break her, and what happens next to the brother he has always tried to protect almost breaks Amadou. The three band together as family and try just once more to escape. Inspired by true-to-life events happening right now, The Bitter Side of Sweet is an exquisitely written tour de force not to be missed. “A gripping and painful portrait of modern-day child slavery in the cacao plantations of the Ivory Coast.”—The Wall Street Journal “A tender, harrowing story of family, friendship, and the pursuit of freedom.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review


The Lost Years

The Lost Years

Author: Kristina Wandzilak

Publisher:

Published: 2006-08

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780977761814

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This riveting memoir of survival and transformation reveals the brutal details of the worst that can happen to an ordinary family and how they triumphed over adversity. It describes the true story of a daughter's decline into alcohol and drug addiction, prostitution and homelessness, and her mother's attempts to rescue her yet protect herself and her other children. Written as a dual narrative, mother and daughter give their first hand accounts of the years lost to addiction and despair, and the subsequent recovery and reconciliation. formation reveals all the brutal details of the worst that can happen to an ordinary family and how they triumphed over adversity.


Ready Player Two

Ready Player Two

Author: Ernest Cline

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2020-11-24

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1524761338

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The thrilling sequel to the beloved worldwide bestseller Ready Player One, the near-future adventure that inspired the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST • “The game is on again. . . . A great mix of exciting fantasy and threatening fact.”—The Wall Street Journal AN UNEXPECTED QUEST. TWO WORLDS AT STAKE. ARE YOU READY? Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive—than even Wade dreamed possible. With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest—a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize. And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants. Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance. Lovingly nostalgic and wildly original as only Ernest Cline could conceive it, Ready Player Two takes us on another imaginative, fun, action-packed adventure through his beloved virtual universe, and jolts us thrillingly into the future once again.


The Taste of Cigarettes

The Taste of Cigarettes

Author: Jon Vreeland

Publisher:

Published: 2018-05-22

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9781925417685

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

After three decades of living in the sandy beach suburbs of Huntington Beach, Jon Vreeland's heroin addiction has finally destroyed his once promising music career, and estranged himself from his wife and his two daughters. Now Vreeland broods his daughter's absence while living in his old tour van that is broken down and parked on Atlanta Avenue, on the brink of downtown Huntington Beach. He and his brand new lover and longtime junkie, Zooey Leigh, live in the van and sell and shoot heroin, move from place to place, shift from crime to crime, rob the undeserving in their brazen attempt to escape their hypodermic reality and themselves. But no matter where they go or who they stay with, they always circle back to the shores of Huntington Beach, where the dark nights are their lonely playground. But Jon isn't meant for this life--he wants nothing more than to rid himself of this very real nightmare, and return to his estranged family and career. This is the story of how he began to get out.


At Peace

At Peace

Author: Samuel Harrington

Publisher: Grand Central Life & Style

Published: 2018-02-06

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1478917431

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The authoritative, informative, and reassuring guide on end-of-life care for our aging population. Most people say they would like to die quietly at home. But overly aggressive medical advice, coupled with an unrealistic sense of invincibility or overconfidence in our health-care system, results in the majority of elderly patients misguidedly dying in institutions. Many undergo painful procedures instead of having the better and more peaceful death they deserve. At Peace outlines specific active and passive steps that older patients and their health-care proxies can take to ensure loved ones live their last days comfortably at home and/or in hospice when further aggressive care is inappropriate. Through Dr. Samuel Harrington's own experience with the aging and deaths of his parents and of working with patients, he describes the terminal patterns of the six most common chronic diseases; how to recognize a terminal diagnosis even when the doctor is not clear about it; how to have the hard conversation about end-of-life wishes; how to minimize painful treatments; when to seek hospice care; and how to deal with dementia and other special issues. Informed by more than thirty years of clinical practice, Dr. Harrington came to understand that the American health-care system wasn't designed to treat the aging population with care and compassion. His work as a hospice trustee and later as a hospital trustee drove his passion for helping patients make appropriate end-of-life decisions.