New Memoirs

Whether you know it as the ‘succulent Chinese meal’ video, or ‘democracy manifest’, chances are you have seen the video of baritone larrikin Jack Karlson getting arrested outside a Brisbane Chinese restaurant in 1991. The Guardian called it ‘perhaps the pre-eminent Australian meme of the last 10 years’. When Karlson called crime writer Mark Dapin out of the blue, though, Dapin hadn’t heard of him. But there was enough that intrigued him about this theatrical outlaw to continue the conversation. Over the following months emerged a dark and complex past.

What you are about to read is a hodgepodge of stories--true stories--of my youth during pre-Civil Rights Era Alabama; my career as a field geologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; my second home near Taos, New Mexico; and some odd stories, including the love of sailing; and toward the end, some "off the wall" essays wrapping up this unique tome of laughs, tears, and adventures!

There are countless paths to follow when seeking spiritual guidance, but thousands of years of theology and religion cannot replace the premier example that Jesus himself set for us. In A Portrait of Jesus, best-selling writer Joseph Girzone recaptures the truth of Jesus that is presented to us in the Gospels and gives a compelling vision of the person Jesus' contemporaries must have known.

For over twenty-five years, actor Jassa Ahluwalia described himself as 'half Indian, half English'. His fluent Punjabi always prompted bewilderment, medical staff questioned the legitimacy of his name, and the world of casting taught him he wasn't 'the right kind of mixed-race'. Feeling caught between two worlds, it wasn't long before Jassa embarked on a call to action: we need to change how we think and talk about mixed identity.

After decades as a long-haul trucker, Finn Murphy left the road and settled in Boulder County, Colorado. Before long he noticed that many of his neighbors were captivated by the prospect of vast riches in “the Hemp Space.” When hemp was legalized, after eighty years in federal exile, Colorado became the center of a hemp growing and processing boom. Figuring he’d harvest some of that easy money, Murphy bought a thirty-six-acre farm. What could go wrong? Well, pretty much everything…

A prominent New Jersey doctor and members of a notorious outlaw motorcycle gang transform the doctor's office into a drug ring, pumping thousands of highly addictive opioid pain pills onto the streets in exchange for cash. Everything was going smoothly until one person discovered their plan: the doctor's wife. When she threatened to divorce him, the doctor's unholy alliance with his partners in crime turned deadly, and the doctor hired a hitman to kill her.

In A CASTILIAN ADVENTURE former teacher Jane Holden relates the story of her move to northern Spain. At fifty-seven she feels that life may be passing her by, so she decides to put her Spanish studies into practice and sets off on an open-ended trip in order to immerse herself in another culture. Starting in Madrid and intending to tour Castile and León, she soon decides to go with the flow and allow new friendships to influence her eventual destination. This amusing and informative account is a must-read for all those interested in the possibilities Spain offers away from the crowded coast.

No topic is too taboo or off limits, from the sexual assaults she suffered as a child to the exhibitionism displayed and multiple abortions she had as an adult. Garland weaves the seedy and secretive world of a sex addict with her words, removing the erotic and replacing it with the reality of what it means to live a double life: lying to and cheating on the ones you love.

"Candy Jones" was the stage name of Jessica Wilcox who became famous as a model and "pinup girl" in the early 1940s. Her story seems too bizarre to be true. One of America's most famous models, brainwashed by the CIA? Yes, it is another example of truth being stranger than fiction. The story begins with Candy's wedding to Long John Nebel, New York's most successful radio talk-show host. During the wedding, and regularly thereafter, Candy's personality would seem to shift. She would suddenly change from her affable, self-effacing self to a brusque, aggressive "stranger".

The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.

In Calvin Trillin's antic tales of family life, Alice was portrayed as the wife who had "a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day" and the mother who thought that if you didn't go to every performance of your child's school play, "the county would come and take the child". Now, five years after her death, her husband offers this loving portrait of Alice Trillin off the page.

This compelling counter-narrative to the familiar story of the Puritans combines a rich understanding of the period with a close reading of early texts to bring the contentious Morton to life. This volume sheds new light on the tumultuous formative decades of the American experience.

They called it Satan's Circus, a square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the 20th century, murder was so common in the vice district that few people were surprised when the loudmouthed owner of a shabby casino was gunned down on the steps of its best hotel.

Thomas Keneally has been observing, reflecting on and writing about Australia and the human condition for well over 50 years. In this deeply personal, passionately drawn and richly tuned collection, he now turns inwards to reflect on what has been important to him, drawing on a lifetime of engagement with the great issues of our recent history and his own moments of discovery and understanding.

Seen through the eyes of a native son Maurice M. Martinez, PhD, in this firsthand account of survival on a deep-South landscape speaks to the elan vital of a multiethnic, multicultural American. Once upon a time, in the Land of Epidermis, in a place called the 7th Ward in New Orleans, there lived a group of marginalized Americans known as gens de couleur libres (free persons of color).

Born into one of the wealthiest families in America - he was the youngest son of Standard Oil scion John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the celebrated patron of modern art Abby Aldrich Rockefeller - David Rockefeller has carried his birthright into a distinguished life of his own.

The work of Commander Valiant Thor and his Venusian associates was obviously of great importance in helping mankind through a difficult time. What we will ultimately do with the many concepts that Thor gifted Tesla, Keith, Cooper, Barker, and others is, of course, still up in the air. But, so far, so good.

Who Killed My Father rips into France’s long neglect of the working class and its overt contempt for the poor, accusing the complacent French - at the minimum - of negligent homicide. The author goes to visit the ugly gray town of his childhood to see his dying father, barely 50 years old, who can hardly walk or breathe: “You belong to the category of humans whom politics consigns to an early death.” It’s as simple as that.

In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.

Ray Walker had a secure career in finance until a wine-tasting vacation ignited a passion that he couldn't stifle. Ray neglected his work, spending hours poring over ancient French winemaking texts, learning the techniques and the language, and daydreaming about vineyards. After Ray experienced his first taste of wine from Burgundy, he could wait no longer. He quit his job and went to France to start a winery - with little money, a limited command of French, and virtually no winemaking experience.