"In this candid memoir Basia lays bare the many vicissitudes of her youth and examines her tumultuous relationship with her mother; a dazzling, riotous and truly eccentric character with an explosive dark side. Following a bucolic childhood in rural Surrey among her extensive Polish family, Basia moved to London, living with her glamorous mother Camilla and a string of surrogate fathers. Abandoned to her own devices after Camilla’s remarriage, she quickly rose to become a teenage ‘it girl’ of high society, aspiring to marry into aristocracy. However, this was not to be, as an unplanned pregnancy and fall from grace led to her shelving any dreams of self-advancement and emigrating to Australia. Trapped in an unhappy marriage in a dismal and isolated suburb of Melbourne, her increasingly unhinged mother soon followed her and the situation deteriorated, leaving Basia surrounded by alcoholism, abuse and death while trying to protect her two young children. Following a narrow escape and lengthy custody proceedings, Basia’s story is one of redemption, as she has reclaimed the life that misfortune dispossessed and has been one of the leading lights of London society, and no stranger to the royal household, throughout the many years since."--Publisher's description.

"A father’s verbal and physical abuses ruin a son’s personality, relations, character and life. He turns to be an abuser to all he comes across. “A beater’s son will be a beater.” Hope Francis will be excused by the readers for all his rebellions and revolts. Can anyone find excuses for Stephen?!!. How do you assess Lucy the mediator?. This story is a mixture of reality and imagination that throws light on parenting. The facts about Ethiopia, its culture and tradition as well as descriptions of historical monuments of India are educative and informative."

On December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was one of a handful of men selected to skipper midget subs on a suicide mission to breach Pearl Harbor’s defenses. When his equipment malfunctioned, he couldn’t find the entrance to the harbor. He hit several reefs, eventually splitting the sub, and swam to shore some miles from Pearl Harbor. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on the beach by two Japanese American MPs on patrol. Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 of the Pacific War. Japan’s no-surrender policy did not permit becoming a POW. Sakamaki and his fellow soldiers and sailors had been indoctrinated to choose between victory and a heroic death. While his comrades had perished, he had survived. By becoming a prisoner of war, Sakamaki believed he had brought shame and dishonor on himself, his family, his community, and his nation, in effect relinquishing his citizenship. Sakamaki fell into despair and, like so many Japanese POWs, begged his captors to kill him. Based on the author’s interviews with dozens of former Japanese POWs along with memoirs only recently coming to light, The Anguish of Surrender tells one of the great unknown stories of World War II. Beginning with an examination of Japan’s prewar ultranationalist climate and the harsh code that precluded the possibility of capture, the author investigates the circumstances of surrender and capture of men like Sakamaki and their experiences in POW camps. Many POWs, ill and starving after days wandering in the jungles or hiding out in caves, were astonished at the superior quality of food and medical treatment they received. Contrary to expectations, most Japanese POWs, psychologically unprepared to deal with interrogations, provided information to their captors. Trained Allied linguists, especially Japanese Americans, learned how to extract intelligence by treating the POWs humanely. Allied intelligence personnel took advantage of lax Japanese security precautions to gain extensive information from captured documents. A few POWs, recognizing Japan’s certain defeat, even assisted the Allied war effort to shorten the war. Far larger numbers staged uprisings in an effort to commit suicide. Most sought to survive, suffered mental anguish, and feared what awaited them in their homeland. These deeply human stories follow Japanese prisoners through their camp experiences to their return to their welcoming families and reintegration into postwar society. These stories are told here for the first time in English.

In this deeply felt biography, Ashby Bland Crowder treats in near definitive fashion one of southern literature's unjustly neglected masters. In superb novels like Home from the Hill, The Ordways, and Proud Flesh as well as in the brilliant story collections The Last Husband and A Time and a Place, William Humphrey (1924--1997) created an imaginary East Texas Red River County, conjuring the speech and life rhythms of his native territory with artistic genius. Crowder's lyrical blending of biographical fact and incisive analysis corrects a mistaken view that Humphrey was among those writers mired in the pious cult of southern delusionary remembrance. From early short fiction set in a New York commuter village through late works of the Northeast, such as Hostages to Fortune and September Song, Humphrey allowed himself a psychic distance from the South that fueled an unsparing critique of its myths -- exemplified by the fierce deconstruction of Texas heroes found in his last novel, No Resting Place. In a poignant discussion of Humphrey's memoir, Farther Off from Heaven, Crowder demonstrates that the tragic death of his father led to Humphrey's overriding fictional themes of pain and inconsolable loss. Indeed, Crowder asserts that Humphrey failed to achieve literary renown in part because he evokes emotional experiences beyond what most people can endure. Humphrey's fiction derives its power from refusing to indulge in the false consolations of vanished people and history, from showing that living in the southern past is not living at all. Wakeful Anguish is among the first books about William Humphrey and will be greeted as one of the finest. Marshalling unpublished archival letters, interviews with persons who knew Humphrey at different stages in his life, and private correspondence and conversations between Humphrey and himself, Crowder achieves something rare in literary biography: a portrait that reveals both the sustained suffering in an author's life and work and his exultation in the triumph of his art.

Frank Bello, bassist with the legendary New York thrash metal band Anthrax since 1984, has sold over ten million albums, travelled the globe more times than he cares to count, and enthralled audiences from the world's biggest stages. His long-awaited memoir would be a gripping read even if its pages only contained stories about his life as a recording and touring musician. While those stories are indeed included--and will blow your mind--Bello also focuses on deeper subjects in Fathers, Brothers, and Sons. Once you've heard his life story, you'll understand why. Born into a family of five, Frank grew up in difficult circumstances. His father abandoned his wife and children, and Frank's mother moved heaven and earth to keep them fed and educated. Left with no male role model, Frank found inspiration in heavy metal bass players, following their example and forging a career with Anthrax from his early teens--first as a roadie, and then as the group's bass player. International stardom came Frank's way by the mid-to-late 1980s, when he was still in his early twenties, but tragedy struck in 1996 when his brother Anthony was murdered in New York. Although the case went to trial, the suspected killer was released without charge after a witness, intimidated by violent elements, withdrew his testimony. Two decades later, Frank is a father himself to a young son. Like many men who grew up without the guidance of a dad, he asks himself important questions about the meaning of fatherhood and how to do the job well. This is the wisdom which Fathers, Brothers, and Sons offers readers. Despite the emotive nature of these topics, Fathers, Brothers, and Sons is a funny, entertaining read. A man with a keen sense of humor and the perspective to know how surreal his story has been, Frank doesn't preach or seek sympathy in his book. Instead, he simply passes on the wisdom gained from a lifetime of turbulence, paying tribute to his loved ones in a way that will resonate with us all.