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Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-Wop Singer (American Crossroads #51)
by Rubén Funkahuatl GuevaraA pioneer of Chicano rock, Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara performed with Frank Zappa, Johnny Otis, Bo Diddley, Tina Turner, and Celia Cruz, though he is best known as the front man of the 1970s experimental rock band Ruben And The Jets. Here he recounts how his youthful experiences in the barrio La Veinte of Santa Monica in the 1940s prepared him for early success in music and how his triumphs and seductive brushes with stardom were met with tragedy and crushing disappointments. Brutally honest and open, Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-Wop Singer is an often hilarious and self-critical look inside the struggle of becoming an artist and a man. Recognizing racial identity as composite, contested, and complex, Guevara—an American artist of Mexican descent—embraces a Chicano identity of his own design, calling himself a Chicano “culture sculptor” who has worked to transform the aspirations, alienations, and indignities of the Mexican American people into an aesthetic experience that could point the way to liberation.
Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counterculture
by Paul KrassnerUncensored, uncontained, and thoroughly demented, the memoirs of Paul Krassner are back in an updated and expanded edition. Paul Krassner, "father of the underground press" (People magazine), founder of the Realist, political radical, Yippie, and award-winning stand-up satirist, shares his stark raving adventures with the likes of Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey, Groucho Marx, and Squeaky Fromme, revealing the patriarch of counterculture's ultimate, intimate, uproarious life on the fringes of society.Whether he's writing about his friendship with controversial comic Lenny Bruce, introducing Groucho Marx to LSD, his investigation of Scientology, or John Kennedy's cadaver, no subject is too sacred to be skewered by Krassner. And yet his stories are soulful and philosophical, always authentic to his iconoclastic brand of personal journalism.As Art Spiegelman said, "Krassner is one of the best minds of his generational to be destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked-but mainly hysterical. His true wacky, wackily true autobiography is the definitive book on the sixties."
Confessions of a Rebel Debutante
by Anna FieldsA fond, funny Southern-fried memoir about growing up a proper young lady...or not. How does a North Carolina native go from being a tomboy with catfish guts on her overalls to becoming the next Scarlett O'Hara? Turns out, it's not so easy. Too smart, too tall, too fat, too different...Anna Fields was a dud at debbing. From tea parties to teased hair to where to hide mini bottles of liquor inside poufy crinoline ballgowns, Anna reveals all-in a hilarious, behindthe-scenes glimpse into Deb Culture, where for a Southern belle, "the proof is in the pouf." Unless, of course, she rebels...
Confessions of a Recovering Racist
by Emma Young George O’HareThe memoir of a dyed-in-the-wool racist forced to change his beliefs to succeed in the progressively changing times of twentieth-century America. This true story is about George O&’Hare and his upbringing in a segregated, White, Irish Catholic, Chicago neighborhood. As an adult moving up the corporate ladder at a time when America was transitioning from Jim Crow to Civil Rights, George was asked by his manager to join the Junior Chamber of Commerce, which often worked closely with a race of people he did not want to know and did not trust. Consequently, George was faced with a dilemma. How could he be a part of this organization and fulfill his hopes of corporate success given the beliefs and principles he was taught as a child and had embraced his entire life? The path George ultimately chose to follow shaped and changed his life forever. He met some of the most iconic African Americans in the country and became good friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, comedian Dick Gregory, Father George Clements, Muhammad Ali, State Senator Barack Obama, and many others. This compelling memoir is also an historical document, giving insight into the heart of America during one of the most momentous eras in history. It is a must-read for anyone willing to look at George&’s life, examine one&’s own, and decide like George what each of us can do in our own small world and for our nation.
Confessions of a Recovering Slut: & Other Love Stories
by Hollis GillespieConfessions of a Recovering Slut is the hilarious and often heartrending sequel to Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch, which concludes with Hollis Gillespie, the daughter of a missile scientist and an alcoholic traveling trailer salesman, at last finding a home of her own. Unfortunately that home just happens to be in one of Atlanta's most dangerous crack neighborhoods—but the place is bound to improve, right?Wrong. Gillespie is plagued by missing human torsos, murdered policemen, and a drug dealer who keeps setting fire to her neighbor's house—and all this after Hollis discovers that she is inexplicably (except, maybe, for all that acrobatic sex) pregnant. While the neighborhood might have been fine when she was a child-free urban pioneer, it's a nightmare for a mother with nothing but cake pans to bulletproof the baby's room. Gillespie must depend on her three best friends, Daniel, Grant, and Lary, to help her—although Lary makes it no secret that he hopes the paint fumes she inhaled early in her pregnancy will cause the baby to be born inside out—"that way it'll be easier to sell for parts.""Will Gillespie ever feel safe? No matter, she's still Hollis at heart—and, as Lary points out, if not safe, at least "safe from ever being normal."
Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series)
by Mark DriscollThis is the story of the birth and growth of Seattle's innovative Mars Hill Church, one of America's fastest growing churches located in one of America's toughest mission fields. It's also the story of the growth of a pastor, the mistakes he's made along the way, and God's grace and work in spite of those mistakes. Mark Driscoll's emerging, missional church took a rocky road from its start in a hot, upstairs youth room with gold shag carpet to its current weekly attendance of thousands. With engaging humor, humility, and candor, Driscoll shares the failures, frustrations, and just plain messiness of trying to build a church that is faithful to the gospel of Christ in a highly post-Christian culture. In the telling, he's not afraid to skewer some sacred cows of traditional, contemporary, and emerging churches. Each chapter discusses not only the hard lessons learned but also the principles and practices that worked and that can inform your church's ministry, no matter its present size. The book includes discussion questions and appendix resources. "After reading a book like this, you can never go back to being an inwardly focused church without a mission. Even if you disagree with Mark about some of the things he says, you cannot help but be convicted to the inner core about what it means to have a heart for those who don't know Jesus. "-Dan Kimball, author,The Emerging Church " will make you laugh, cry, and get mad school you, shape you, and mold you into the right kind of priorities to lead the church in today's messy world. "-Robert Webber, Northern Seminary
Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver: Did I Just Unfriend My Dying Mother?
by Ariel GoreWhen Gore&’s narcissistic mother is diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, she reluctantly moves with her girlfriend and their preschool-age son to New Mexico to help her. "We can do anything for a year," her girlfriend consoles her. But that year ends up pushing Gore to the edge of her sanity. In her new desert home, she faces an unfinished home renovation, New Age hospice nurses, and an intolerant mother who is fighting her death with every bone in her body and taking it all out on her daughter. At one point her mother kicks her out of her house, prompting Gore to "unfriend" her from Facebook. "Did I really just unfriend my dying mother?" she asks. In this macabre, and surprisingly hilarious tale, Gore--publisher of Hip Mama magazine-- confronts her mother&’s manipulation with unbendable loyalty for the last time.
Confessions of a Rock Guitarist
by Steve Lynch&“Confessions of a Rock Guitarist is a journey that you'll enjoy... Meeting and connecting with Steve was one of the powerful moments as a musician... His feel, touch, knowledge, enthusiasm and friendship are one that has made me the musician I am today.&” — John Shanks, Grammy Producer of the Year and Six-time Grammy Nominee, Songwriter & Guitarist (Bon Jovi)In Confessions of a Rock Guitarist, Steve Lynch recounts with humility and offbeat humor the struggles he endured growing up in the Pacific Northwest and, later, when he moved to LA to pursue his dream of becoming a professional musician. At the Guitar Institute, a fateful demonstration accelerates the course of Lynch's musical development, transforming him from a student into a master who created a cutting-edge style of his own. Lynch and his band, Autograph, quickly rise to international prominence during the heyday of '80s metal "hair bands." However, addiction, personnel changes, and the public's changing musical tastes threaten to derail his career. Throughout this memoir, Lynch reveals an innate curiosity that takes him around the world as a musician, educator, and seeker of spiritual truth. Illustrated with photographs from Lynch's long and illustrious career, Confessions of a Rock Guitarist is a transcendent record of one man's quest for artistic and personal fulfillment.
Confessions of a Rock N Roll Name Dropper: My Life Leading Up to John Lennon's Last Interview
by Laurie KayeRock reporter Laurie Kaye interviewed John Lennon just hours before he was murdered n 1980 outside New York's famous Dakota apartments and even ran into assassin Mark David Chapman (whom she refuses to cite by name) on the street outside, and here she recounts the story of that fateful night, the centerpiece of this memoir about the life of a SoCal girl with a troubled childhood who got to live out her dream by interviewing many of the most famous rock stars of the time. Name dropping? Well, they say it ain&’t bragging if you really did it and Laurie Kaye has really done it. These stories about so many culturally important people are exciting and illuminating. I read this book with pleasure and amazement. I know that you will dig it, too! Chris Frantz - Drummer/co-founder Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club; author of Remain in Love On December 8, 1980, twenty-something rock journalist Laurie Kaye entered the legendary Dakota apartments on Manhattan&’s Upper West Side to co-conduct an interview with her longtime idol, John Lennon. It was the last interview Lennon would ever give—just hours later, outside that same building, Lennon was shot dead by a twenty-five-year-old man (whom Kaye refuses to refer to by name) whom Kaye herself had encountered after finishing the interview and stepping outside onto the street. Kaye has beaten herself up ever since over her failure to recognize that the assassin—who blocked her path and harassed her with questions like &“Did you talk to him?&” &“Did you get his autograph?&”—posed a danger and should have been reported. Now, as we approach the forty-fifth anniversary of Lennon's death, Kaye reflects how she rose from teen runaway from a dysfunctional family to expatriate studying Balinese dancing in Indonesia to journalist, writer, and producer with credits including RKO Presents The Beatles/The Beatles from Liverpool to Legend (at the tender age of twenty-one) and the Lord of the Rings DVD release, plus interviews with such titans of the music industry as Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Talking Heads, The Ramones, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger, whom she put on hold so that he could listen to her newscast before getting down to business. But it was the day she shared a loveseat with John Lennon and watched him push his iconic granny glasses down the length of his nose and smile at her in agreement that remains indelibly etched in her mind—both the best and worst day of her life. Laurie Kaye began her career in radio at KFRC-AM San Francisco, for years one of the nation&’s greatest top 40 stations, where she started as an intern and worked her way up to on-air reporter and anchor. She wrote and coproduced numerous radio rock specials for RKO, including RKO Presents the Beatles (later expanded and retitled as The Beatles from Liverpool to Legend), and The Top 100 of the 70&’s before moving on to write Dick Clark&’s weekly radio countdown show and syndicated newspaper column. Kaye then moved on to television and film as a writer, producer, and casting director, where she still works today, handling both creative content and line producing for docuseries pilots. This book won a Writer&’s Digest Award the year it was released - 4th place in the Memoir/Personal Essay category of their annual writing competition! Front cover by Grammy-winning artist and director Mick Haggerty.
Confessions of a Second Story Man: Junior Kripplebauer and the K&A Gang
by Allen M. HornblumFrom the 1950s to the 1970s, from Bar Harbor to Boca Raton, the ragtag crew known as the K&A Gang robbed wealthy suburban neighborhoods with assembly line skills. It was hard to imagine a more unlikely crew of successful thieves, writes Allen Hornblum. [They were] two-fisted, beer-guzzling, ear- and nose-biting hoodlums from a blue collar section of Philadelphia called Kensington. The gang infuriated homeowners up and down the East Coast, while baffling police. Confessions of a Second Story Man follows the gang as they move in and out of homes, courtrooms, and prisons, and even go on the run. Hornblum describes the transformation of the K&A Gang from a group of blue collar thieves to their work in conjunction with numerous organized crime families and their role in making Philadelphia the meth capitol of the nation. It is a compelling read about a fascinating bunch of hoodlums.
Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower: Finding Answers in Jesus for Those Who Don't Believe
by Tom KrattenmakerAn award-winning USA Today columnist makes the case for how a Jesus freed from religion and politics meets the need for meaning and purpose in secular America. Tom Krattenmaker is part of a growing conversation centered at Yale University that acknowledges--and seeks to address--the abiding need for meaning and inspiration in post-religious America. What, they ask, gives a life meaning? What constitutes a life well led? In Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower, Krattenmaker shares his surprising conclusion about where input and inspiration might best be found: in the figure of Jesus. And Jesus, not only as a good example and teacher, but Jesus as the primary guide for one's life. Drawing on sociological research, personal experience, and insights from fifteen years studying and writing on religion in American public life, Krattenmaker shows that in Jesus, nonreligious people like himself can find unique and compelling wisdom on how to honor the humanity in ourselves and others, how to build more peaceful lives, how generosity can help people and communities create more abundance, how to break free from self-defeating behaviors, and how to tip the scales toward justice. In a time when more people than ever are identifying as atheist or agnostic, Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower is a groundbreaking and compelling work that rediscovers Jesus--and our own best selves--for the world of today.
Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
by M. E. ThomasAs M.E. Thomas says of her fellow sociopaths, we are your neighbors, co-workers, and quite possibly the people closest to you: lovers, family, friends. Our risk-seeking behavior and general fearlessness are thrilling, our glibness and charm alluring. Our often quick wit and outside-the-box thinking make us appear intelligent--even brilliant. We climb the corporate ladder faster than the rest, and appear to have limitless self-confidence. Who are we? We are highly successful, non-criminal sociopaths and we comprise 4% of the American population (that's 1 in 25 people!). Confessions of a Sociopath takes readers on a journey into the mind of a sociopath, revealing what makes the tick and what that means for the rest of humanity. Written from the point of view of a diagnosed sociopath, it unveils these men and women who are "hiding in plain sight" for the very first time. Confessions of a Sociopath is part confessional memoir, part primer for the wary. Drawn from Thomas' own experiences; her popular blog, Sociopathworld.com; and current and historical scientific literature, it reveals just how different - and yet often very similar - sociopaths are from the rest of the world. The book confirms suspicions and debunks myths about sociopathy and is both the memoir of a high-functioning, law-abiding (well, mostly) sociopath and a roadmap - right from the source - for dealing with the sociopath in your life, be it a boss, sibling, parent, spouse, child, neighbor, colleague or friend. As Thomas argues, while sociopaths aren't like everyone else, and it's true some of them are incredibly dangerous, they are not inherently evil. In fact, they're potentially more productive and useful to society than neurotypicals or "empaths," as they fondly like to call "normal" people. Confessions of a Sociopath demystifyies sociopathic behavior and provide readers with greater insight on how to respond or react to protect themselves, live among sociopaths without becoming victims, and even beat sociopaths at their own game, through a bit of empathetic cunning and manipulation.
Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen
by Julie Hines MabusIn the late 1960s, Patsy Channing, a stunningly beautiful young woman, was suspended from the venerable Mississippi State College for Women for breach of conduct. The resulting scandal reached all the way to the Columbus courthouse, and the press ate it up. But Patsy’s story starts long before that, living with a preoccupied and troubled mother in Memphis, Tennessee. As Patsy grows up, she buries the memories of her unspeakable childhood trauma and is determined to have a normal life. Music becomes her ticket out and a vehicle for the one thing she covets most—a chance to be crowned Miss America. In Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen, Julie Hines Mabus provides a peek into that world—a world struggling through the civil rights movement, reeling from the death of JFK, and cutting loose with the musical innovations from Memphis and Detroit. Patsy develops a close friendship with a guitarist at Stax Recording Studio, giving her firsthand exposure to the early Memphis Soul Sound created by such greats as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Sam & Dave. Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen opens and closes with the end of Patsy’s time at Mississippi State College for Women on that fateful spring morning in 1968 when she entered the Columbus courthouse. Patsy’s story, marked with tragedy and triumph, mirrors that of a growing and evolving South, where change never comes easy.
Confessions of a Special Agent: Wartime Service in the Small Scale Raiding Force and SOE
by Ernest Dudley Jack EvansMany are the tales of young men lying about their age to join the Army, yet Jack Evans sought far more at the age of just possibly just seventeen to act behind enemy lines as an agent of the Special Operations Executive.Evans had joined the RAF in 1940, despite being well under the legal age, and two years later was recruited into the SOE as a member of the Small Scale Raiding Force. Evans related his experiences with the SOE to author Ernest Dudley in the 1950s, in which he describes his training, including learning how to jump by parachute in preparation for an operation into France though he was withdrawn from the operation when his true age was disclosed. He then joined the SSRF, taking part in a number of raids upon Occupied France.Evans was then transferred to the Brandon Mission in Africa. This involved an eight-man team being parachuted into Tunisia to attack a railway line. In 1943 he was promoted to the rank of captain and parachuted into France, only to be captured by the Germans and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III for the remainder of the war.Evans suffered considerable mental trauma from his time behind enemy lines and his internment at the hands of the Germans and was unable to settle into normal civilian life. His astonishing story, written so soon after the end of the war, was considered in many respects to be ahead of its time.
Confessions of a Street Addict
by James J. CramerIn the most candid look at Wall Street since Liar's Poker, James J. Cramer, cofounder of TheStreet.com, radio and television commentator, and for years one of Wall Street's premier money managers, takes readers on a no-holds-barred tour of life on Wall Streetrevealing how the game is played, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt. Everyone on Wall Street knows Jim Cramer, and Cramer knows Wall Street better than anyone. For fifteen years he ran Cramer, Berkowitz, one of the Street's most successful hedge funds with a compounded annual return of 24% after all fees. In Confessions of a Street Addict he takes us from his fascination with the stock market as a middle-class kid in the Philadelphia suburbs to Harvard, where he began managing money. After an apprenticeship at Goldman, Sachs, Cramer set out on his own with his wife, Karen, the "Trading Goddess," as his partner. Cramer brilliantly describes the life of a money manager -- the frenetic pace, the constant pressure to outperform the market and other fund managers, and the shark-like attacks fund managers make as they circle a fund perceived to be in trouble. At the same time that he was managing money, Cramer was one of the best-known commentators on the financial markets. A former president of the Harvard Crimson, Cramer had been a newspaper reporter before he began managing money. While he was a fund manager, he wrote for SmartMoney and other publications, making him one of the first money managers to offer insight and analysis from inside the world of finance. With the rise of the Internet and online publishing, he co-founded TheStreet.com, the online financial Web site. In one of the most fascinating chapters in this book, Cramer takes us inside the IPO of TheStreet.com, where he found himself a knowledgeable but helpless onlooker as his own Web site came on the market at an unrealistically high price that it never reached again, a harbinger of the dot-com disasters that would soon haunt the stock market. Throughout the book Cramer is characteristically outspoken, outrageous, and candid about everyone, himself included. There has never been a high-wired, high-octane book about Wall Street like this one.
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS
by Richard YanceyTwelve years ago, Richard Yancey answered a blind ad in the newspaper offering a salary higher than what he’d made over the three previous years combined. It turned out that the job was for the Internal Revenue Service -- the most hated and feared organization in the federal government.So Yancey became the man who got in his car, drove to your house, knocked on your door, and made you pay. Never mind that his car was littered with candy wrappers, his palms were sweaty, and he couldn’t remember where he stashed his own tax records. He was there on the authority of the United States government.With "a rich mix of humor, horror, and angst [and] better than most novels on the bestseller lists" (Boston Sunday Globe), Confessions of a Tax Collector contains an astonishing cast of too-strange-for-fiction characters. But the most intriguing character of all is Yancey himself who -- in detailing how the job changed him and how he managed to pull himself back from the brink of moral, ethical, and spiritual bankruptcy -- reveals what really lies beneath those dark suits and mirrored sunglasses.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty inside the IRS
by Richard YanceyBeginning in the 1990s, Yancey worked for the Internal Revenue Service. At first he collected money from dilinquent taxpayers and was indifferent to the job, and then later he became more passionate as he worked to track down tax protesters. Soon he found that he was becoming obsessed with his job and began to feel isolated from everyone in his personal life.
Confessions of a Video Vixen
by Karrine SteffansPart tell-all, part cautionary tale, this emotionally charged memoir from a former video vixen nicknamed 'Superhead' goes beyond the glamour of celebrity to reveal the inner workings of the hip-hop dancer industry—from the physical and emotional abuse that's rampant in the industry, and which marked her own life—to the excessive use of drugs, sex and bling.Once the sought-after video girl, this sexy siren has helped multi-platinum artists, such as Jay-Z, R. Kelly and LL Cool J, sell millions of albums with her sensual dancing. In a word, Karrine was H-O-T. So hot that she made as much as $2500 a day in videos and was selected by well-known film director F. Gary Gray to co-star in his film, A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel. But the film and music video sets, swanky Hollywood and New York restaurants and trysts with the celebrities featured in the pages of People and In Touch magazines only touches the surface of Karrine Steffans' life.Her journey is filled with physical abuse, rape, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness and single motherhood—all by the age of 26. By sharing her story, Steffans hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticised industry and help young women avoid the same pitfalls she encountered. If they're already in danger, she hopes to inspire them to find a way to dig themselves out of what she knows first-hand to be a cycle of hopelessness and despair.UPDATE: As the music industry started to have its own reckoning with men who've behaved badly, even criminally, Confessions has been discussed in some quarters as an early warning bell, with Karrine as a feminist icon who shined a light when no one wanted her to and championed sex positivity before it was embraced. Now she talks about what it has been like to watch the tide turn and the lessons still to be learned.
Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst: A True Story of Inside Information and Corruption in the Stock Market
by Jennifer Reingold Dan ReingoldHere is the true story of a top Wall Street player's transformation from a straight-arrow believer to a jaded cynic, who reveals how Wall Street's insider game is really played.Dan Reingold was a top Wall Street analyst for fourteen years and Salomon Smith Barney analyst Jack Grubman's chief competitor in the red-hot sector of telecom. Reingold was part of the "Street" and believed in it.But in this action-packed, highly personal memoir written with accomplished Fast Company senior writer Jennifer Reingold the author describes how his enthusiasm gave way to disgust as he learned how deeply corrupted Wall Street and much of corporate America had become during the roaring stock market bubble of the 1990s.Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst provides a front-row seat at one of the most dramatic -- and ultimately tragic -- periods in financial history. Reingold recounts his introduction to the world of Wall Street leaks and secret deal-making; his experiences with corporate fraud; and Wall Street's alarming penchant for lavish spending and multimillion-dollar pay packages.Reingold spars with arch rival Grubman; fends off intense pressures from Wall Street bankers and corporate CEOs; and is wooed by Morgan Stanley's CEO, John Mack, and CSFB's über-banker Frank Quattrone.Reingold describes instances in which confidential deals are whispered days before their official announcement. He recalls the moment he learns that Bernie Ebbers's WorldCom was massively cooking its books. And he is shocked to have been an unwitting catalyst for a series of sexually explicit e-mails that would rock Wall Street; bring Jack Grubman to his knees; and contribute to the stepping aside of Grubman's boss, Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill.Some of Reingold's stories are outrageous, others hilarious, and many are simply absurd. But, together, they provide a sobering exposé of Wall Street: a jungle of greed and ego, a place brimming with conflicts and inside information, and a business absurdly out of touch with the Main Street it claims to serve.He shows how government investigators, headlines notwithstanding, never got to the heart of the ethical and legal transgressions of the era. And how they completely overlooked Wall Street's pervasive use of inside information, leaving investors -- even sophisticated professionals -- cheated. The book ends with a series of important policy recommendations to clean up the investing business.In the tradition of Liar's Poker and Den of Thieves, Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst is a no-holds-barred insider's account that will open the eyes of every investor.
Confessions of a Wall Street Insider: A Cautionary Tale of Rats, Feds, and Banksters
by Michael KimelmanAlthough he was a suburban husband and father, living a far different life than the "Wolf of Wall Street,” Michael Kimelman had a good run as the cofounder of a hedge fund. He had left a cushy yet suffocating job at a law firm to try his hand at the high-risk life of a proprietary trader - and he did pretty well for himself. But it all came crashing down in the wee hours of November 5, 2009, when the Feds came to his door-almost taking the door off its hinges. While his wife and children were sequestered to a bedroom, Kimelman was marched off in embarrassment in view of his neighbors and TV crews who had been alerted in advance. He was arrested as part of a huge insider trading case, and while he was offered a "sweetheart” no-jail probation plea, he refused, maintaining his innocence.The lion’s share of Confessions of a Wall Street Insider was written while Kimelman was an inmate at Lewisburg Penitentiary. In nearly two years behind bars, he reflected on his experiences before incarceration-rubbing elbows and throwing back far too many cocktails with financial titans and major figures in sports and entertainment (including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan, to drop a few names); making and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in daily gambles on the Street; getting involved with the wrong people, who eventually turned on him; realizing that none of that mattered in the end. As he writes: "Stripped of family, friends, time, and humanity, if there’s ever a place to give one pause, it’s prison . . . Tomorrow is promised to no one.” In Confessions of a Wall Street Insider, he reveals the triumphs, pains, and struggles, and how, in the end, it just might have made him a better person.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Confessions of a Yakuza
by John Bester Junichi SagaThis is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn’t a "good" life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world.In his low, hoarse voice, he describes the random events that led the son of a prosperous country shopkeeper to become a member, and ultimately the leader, of a gang organizing illegal dice games in Tokyo's liveliest entertainment area. He talks about his first police raid, and the brutal interrogation and imprisonment that followed it. He remembers his first love affair, and the girl he ran away with, and the weeks they spent wandering about the countryside together. Briefly, and matter-of-factly, he describes how he cut off the little finger of his left hand as a ritual gesture of apology. He explains how the games were run and the profits spent; why the ties between members of "the brotherhood" were so important; and how he came to kill a man who worked for him.What emerges is a contradictory personality: tough but not unsentimental; stubborn yet willing to take life more or less as it comes; impulsive but careful to observe the rules of the business he had joined.And in the end, when his tale is finished, you feel you would probably have liked him if you'd met him in person. Fortunately, Dr. Saga's record of his long conversations with him provides a wonderful substitute for that meeting.
Confessions of a Young Novelist (The Richard Ellmann lectures in modern literature)
by Umberto EcoUmberto Eco published his first novel, The Name of the Rose, in 1980, when he was nearly fifty. In these “confessions,” the author, now in his late seventies, looks back on his long career as a theorist and his more recent work as a novelist, and explores their fruitful conjunction. He begins by exploring the boundary between fiction and nonfiction—playfully, seriously, brilliantly roaming across this frontier. Good nonfiction, he believes, is crafted like a whodunnit, and a skilled novelist builds precisely detailed worlds through observation and research. Taking us on a tour of his own creative method, Eco recalls how he designed his fictional realms. He began with specific images, made choices of period, location, and voice, composed stories that would appeal to both sophisticated and popular readers. The blending of the real and the fictive extends to the inhabitants of such invented worlds. Why are we moved to tears by a character’s plight? In what sense do Anna Karenina, Gregor Samsa, and Leopold Bloom “exist”? At once a medievalist, philosopher, and scholar of modern literature, Eco astonishes above all when he considers the pleasures of enumeration. He shows that the humble list, the potentially endless series, enables us to glimpse the infinite and approach the ineffable. This “young novelist” is a master who has wise things to impart about the art of fiction and the power of words.
Confessions of an Air Ambulance Doctor
by Dr Tony BleetmanNote to customers: This book is also available under the title "You Can't Park There!: The Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor". 'People get into this work for "the juice", meaning the adrenaline rush, but they don't tell you about the other juices - the mud, blood, snot and grot.' Confessions of an Air Ambulance Doctor is the first ever behind-the-scenes account of life onboard an air ambulance. The first of its kind to carry doctors and surgeons who can take the hospital to the patient. Drug addicts, lorry crashes, open-heart surgery, stab wounds, headless chickens, mating llamas, and strip routines – it’s all in a day’s work for emergency doctor Tony Bleetman and his team. Whether they are landing in the middle of the M1 or at a maximum security jail, Tony and his crew Helimed 999 are the first on the scene in the most critical of emergencies. This gripping read will make you laugh, cry and marvel at the wonders of life (and death) in equal measure.
Confessions of an Air Craft Pilot: Including Tales from the Pilot’s Seat
by Terry TozerHow do you know if the airline you are planning to fly with is safe? What should you be worried about? Is it, Turbulence, lightning or that the pilots might be asleep while the aircraft flies on, on autopilot? Does a pilot’s life conform to the cliché; a life of foreign adventure with off duty hours spent by the pool in some tropical paradise surrounded by attractive members of the opposite sex? Or is it a life of commercial pressure to cut corners to keep the show on the road irrespective of the rules? Surely it can’t be true that the pilots have to jack up a 70 ton aircraft themselves and change a wheel when they get a puncture. Find out what really happened with the expert investigation into the only crash that Concorde had. This and other detective stories that puzzled investigators are analysed by the author and presented in a highly readable form. Your questions are answered by providing the reader with a fly in the cockpit view of a series of real flights. Some result in accidents and incidents that demonstrate what the priorities for good safety are. Others are experiences from the author’s own flying career in both passenger airline flying to long haul cargo, with its hidden world of global commerce, military operations and more. Finally, the author offers a suggestion that would offer the passenger an easy way of choosing safe airlines; it could be the answer to equate choosing a flight with choosing other life altering purchases that are already in place.
Confessions of an Alien Hunter
by Seth ShostakAliens are big in America. Whether they've arrived via rocket, flying saucer, or plain old teleportation, they've been invading, infiltrating, or inspiring us for decades, and they've fascinated moviegoers and television watchers for more than fifty years. About half of us believe that aliens really exist, and millions are convinced they've visited Earth.For twenty-five years, SETI has been looking for the proof, and as the program's senior astronomer, Seth Shostak explains in this engrossing book, it's entirely possible that before long conclusive evidence will be found.His informative, entertaining report offers an insider's view of what we might realistically expect to discover light-years away among the stars. Neither humanoids nor monsters, says Shostak; in fact, biological intelligence is probably just a precursor to machine beings, enormously advanced artificial sentients whose capabilities and accomplishments may have developed over billions of years and far exceed our own.As he explores what, if anything, they would tell us and what their existence would portend for humankind and the cosmos, he introduces a colorful cast of characters and provides a vivid, state-of-the-art account of the past, present, and future of our search for extraterrestrial intelligence.