True Survival

PRELUDE TO THE FIFTH VITAL Mike Majlak was a seventeen-year-old from a loving, middle-class family in Milford, Connecticut, when he got caught up in the opioid epidemic that swept the nation. For close to a decade thereafter, his life was a wasteland of darkness and despair. While his peers were graduating from college, buying homes, getting married, having kids, and leading normal lives, Mike was snorting OxyContin, climbing out of cars at gunpoint, and burying his childhood friends. Unable to escape the noose of addiction, he eventually lost the trust and support of everyone who had ever ...

October 8, 2017 sparked the Tubbs Fire: the most destructive California wildfire at that time. Entire communities were burned to the ground, and scores of people lost their lives. It was also the evening Armando and Carmen Berriz, Cuban immigrants, stayed at a friend's house in the Santa Rosa hills of northern California. While they slept, the Tubbs Fire advanced toward them. Armando and Carmen, in a frantic attempt to escape the flames, would spend seven hours sheltering in a swimming pool while the mountain burned around them.

As paramedic Kathy Harms navigates the devastation in the aftermath of the catastrophic 2005 Kashmir Earthquake as a first-time medical aid worker, she is confronted by the scale of suffering she observes in the region, and her own lack of experience in the area of humanitarian work.

The following authors and bloggers kindly answered questions posed by Stevie Turner regarding significant life experiences they had undergone. These events include sexual abuse, a near death experience, alcoholism, being diagnosed with cancer, depression, losing weight, getting married, being a mother to many children, being the daughter of a narcissistic mother, and many more! All proceeds will go to Cancer Research. Thanks to: Alienora Browning Sally Cronin Dorinda Duclos Scarlett Flame Bernard Foong Darlene Foster Janet Gogerty Debbie Harris Lucy V. Hay Miriam Hurdle Phil Huston Pamela ...

Take a humorous look at the tough world of selling real estate. This light-hearted book takes us on a roller-coaster journey of real estate agent Ronda Courtney as she navigates a challenging real estate career while her own life falls to shambles. As she picks up the pieces resurrecting her finances, relationships, and business, hilarity ensues. This triumphant story of the human spirit is uplifting and relatable to all working professionals who grind away in hopes of one day releasing those golden handcuffs.

On October 23, 2012, with Superstorm Sandy fast approaching, Captain Robin Walbridge made the fateful decision to sail the HMS Bounty from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida, believing the wooden ship, a replica of the original, famous Bounty, would fare better at sea than at port. He told the crew that anyone who did not want to come on the voyage could leave the ship and there would be no hard feelings. No one took the captain up on his offer, and this decision would have fatal consequences.

In pre-World War II Vienna, Lisa Jura was a musical prodigy who hoped to become a concert pianist. But when enemy forces threatened the city—especially its Jewish population—Lisa's parents were forced to make a difficult decision. They secured passage for only one of their three daughters through the Kindertransport, and chose to send gifted Lisa to London for safety. As she yearned to be reunited with her family where she lived in a home for refugee children on Willesden Lane, Lisa's music became a beacon of hope for all of her peers.

In 1976, Francis Beaumont spirited 11-year-old Kim Chown and her brother away from their mother to Africa, where he had taken a job as a university lecturer. There, behind a veneer of respectability, he terrorised and brutalised his own child, Kim, sexually and emotionally abusing her several times a day. Only aged 20 did Kim feel able to escape from him, descending into alcoholism, after her siblings and mother refused to help her seek justice. But after almost ending her own life, Kim fought back.

Full of action-packed experiences from world conflicts, this collection of war stories - some true, some not - tells tales of POWs surviving in Vietnam, World War II, and Cambodia. These stories of grit and strength put you in the middle of the action and will leave you with a respect for true war heroes. Beyond Survival is a journey into the invincible human spirit that unites heart and mind in a compelling and unforgettable experience.

Thomas Geve was just 15 years old when he was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp on 11th April 1945. It was the third concentration camp he had survived. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Thomas was separated from his mother and left to fend for himself in the men’s camp of Auschwitz I, at the age of 13. During the 22 months he was imprisoned, he was subjected to and forced to observe first-hand the inhumane world of Nazi concentration camps.

Penguin presents the audio edition of Prison: A Survival Guide, written by Carl Cattermole. Read by Carl Cattermole, Darcey Hartley, Julia Howard, Elliot Murawski, Lisa Selby and Adam Gallagher. The cult guide to UK prisons by Carl Cattermole - now fully updated and featuring contributions from female and LGBTQI prisoners, as well as from family on the outside.

Listen to this self-help book now.

What Secrets Does Your Legacy Hold? Bonnie shares her incredible story about the power of love, family, and legacy and how these helped her overcome the chaos that not only surrounded her in the Jim Crow south, but also boiled inside her own soul. Nana always told little Bonnie that she had the feet of a princess. Her small, perfect feet meant that she was something special. Nana also drilled into little Bonnie that the most important things she could have were an education and Jesus, because those are the only two things nobody could ever take away. Set in a middle class neighborhood in ...

Embark on a captivating journey into the lives and achievements of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the legendary explorers whose monumental expedition transformed our understanding of the American West. Renowned for their bravery, perseverance, and meticulous documentation, their story is a testament to the power of exploration and teamwork in the pursuit of discovery. Lewis and Clark were exceptional leaders and adventurers. Their insatiable curiosity, unorthodox methods, and ability to navigate and document uncharted territories made them some of the most influential figures in ...

All Roads Lead Home, Shipwrecked off the 7th Continent unveils an entertaining behind-the-scenes look at Lisa's life, world travels, and heroic, death defying journey on and off of the Explorer.

Both reckless and lucky, this serial survivor seeks meaning in a life full of brushes with death and passing glimpses of fame. The life-threatening accidents and mishaps come in many shades: from full-fledged out-of-body experiences, to near misses and close calls, to highway mishaps, dodging bullets, edgy adventures, stupid risks, fights and wars; sometimes just witnessing disaster, or knowing others not so fortunate to escape it. The narrator emerges with a guarded view of the shadowland of death, and brief tastes of the wonderland of stardom. Always coming back home again, chastised and ...

Sometimes the whole truth is the death of everything. Caroline Laner Breure was on holiday in Spain with her boyfriend when her skull was crushed. A year later, following starless months in a coma and painful rehabilitation, Caroline returned to her beachside apartment in Sydney, only to find that her home was not her home, her lover was not her lover and her friends were not her friends. Everyone and everything she'd loved had vanished. Physically broken and no longer able to trust her own mind, she painstakingly searched for clues to explain the cruel disparity between her past and present.

Middle-class, mid-career, and Midwestern, 20-something Emily Carpenter walks into a new job that isn't middle anything. In only slightly more time than it takes to get a passport, this brave adventuress finds herself thrust into a world of lavish luxury, corporate hijinks, and personal scandal. Jet-setting around the globe with her sociopathic boss, she discovers the line between right and wrong is generally negotiable, and almost always in a language other than English.

Nothing drowns out the sound of drowning.... The survivors of Titanic arrive in New York City on a rainy April morning, but being back on dry land doesn't end the terror, and for some of the passengers, the nightmares are just beginning. Having escaped her haunting past in Southampton, Meg Westmoreland knows she should be excited to start her new life in New York City as millionaire Charlie Ashton's fiancée. However, Titanic has scarred both of them, and part of her wants to escape into the night, to start her new life all over again. Meg knows she must find the strength to help Charlie ...

In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree poachers, law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels and Indigenous communities along the way.