A respected journalist describes the abuse he suffered at the hands of a close family relative, the effect this had on his formative years and how he overcame the anger and self-doubt it left behind.

"To Soften the Blow is a powerful true story that will change the way you look at loss, stress, and trauma. At seven-years old Lynnie Vessels steps out of the bathtub to discover her father has just shot her mother with a shotgun across their dining room table. Literally standing naked in her mother's blood throughout the ensuing horror, she is magically transported into the loving eyes of her younger sister. Simultaneously, her older sister uses words to convince her maniacal father to put down the gun. In those moments, the author comes to understand the miraculous power of eye contact and words. Going back into the second grade, she unknowingly suffers from severe posttraumatic stress. She remains silent about her ordeal until at fourteen she meets a principal who turns her life around. From there she sets out on a path to study the undeniable power of using eye contact and words in resolving conflicts. Mahatma Gandhi said, "The only demons are those running around in our own minds and that is where our battles must be fought." This is no ordinary story of triumph over troubles. Lynnie Vessels details her battles with her demons in the most instructive way a book has yet to do. As a warrior replaces the victim in her, she comes to understand the spiritual implications of violence. Reading this, you will, too. Ironically, this is one of the most uplifting stories you may ever read."--P. [4] of cover.

Romance can lurk where you least expect it. Even in the depths of the Irish countryside. Political reporter Finola McGee is not the romantic type. She leads with her chin, shoots from the hip and takes no prisoners. When living on the edge loses its appeal, she escapes Dublin to run the local newspaper in a small Tipperary town. An easy job, friendly neighbours, lovely countryside, and fresh air-what's not to like? But the rural bliss doesn't last longer than a weekend. Finola soon finds herself mixed up in a hornet's nest of conspiracies. And when Hollywood rides into town, a certain heartthrob adds a further twist to an already complicated romance...

BLOW is the unlikely story of George Jung's roller coaster ride from middle-class high school football hero to the heart of Pable Escobar's Medellin cartel-- the largest importer of the United States cocaine supply in the 1980s. Jung's early business of flying marijuana into the United States from the mountains of Mexico took a dramatic turn when he met Carlos Lehder, a young Colombian car thief with connections to the then newly born cocaine operation in his native land. Together they created a new model for selling cocaine, turning a drug used primarily by the entertainment elite into a massive and unimaginably lucrative enterprise-- one whose earnings, if legal, would have ranked the cocaine business as the sixth largest private enterprise in the Fortune 500. The ride came to a screeching halt when DEA agents and Florida police busted Jung with three hundred kilos of coke, effectively unraveling his fortune. But George wasn't about to go down alone. He planned to bring down with him one of the biggest cartel figures ever caught. With a riveting insider account of the lurid world of international drug smuggling and a super-charged drama of one man's meteoric rise and desperate fall, Bruce Porter chronicles Jung's life using unprecedented eyewitness sources in this critically acclaimed true crime classic.

“One of the most original and influential people of the twentieth century to me and many others.” —Alexander McQueen With a career spanning thirty years in fashion, as an influential voice at Vogue, Tatler, and The Sunday Times Magazine—as well as a legacy as one of the industry’s kingmakers for discovering Philip Treacy, Alexander McQueen, Sophie Dahl, and Hussein Chalayan—Isabella Blow had been a pillar of couture culture until her suicide in 2007 left the fashion world mourning one of its finest friends and patrons. Blow by Blow is a captivating journey through Issie’s life, a one-of-a-kind look at her unforgettable impact on the fashion world, and a moving exploration of her inspiring and ultimately tragic tale.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Times Editor’s Choice | A Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of the Year The Inspiration for the HBO Original Documentary South to Black Power From journalist and New York Times bestselling author Charles Blow comes a powerful manifesto and call to action, "a must-read in the effort to dismantle deep-seated poisons of systemic racism and white supremacy" (San Francisco Chronicle). Race, as we have come to understand it, is a fiction; but, racism, as we have come to live it, is a fact. The point here is not to impose a new racial hierarchy, but to remove an existing one. After centuries of waiting for white majorities to overturn white supremacy, it seems to me that it has fallen to Black people to do it themselves. Acclaimed columnist and author Charles Blow never wanted to write a “race book.” But as violence against Black people—both physical and psychological—seemed only to increase in recent years, culminating in the historic pandemic and protests of the summer of 2020, he felt compelled to write a new story for Black Americans. He envisioned a succinct, counterintuitive, and impassioned corrective to the myths that have for too long governed our thinking about race and geography in America. Drawing on both political observations and personal experience as a Black son of the South, Charles set out to offer a call to action by which Black people can finally achieve equality, on their own terms. So what will it take to make lasting change when small steps have so frequently failed? It’s going to take an unprecedented shift in power. The Devil You Know is a groundbreaking manifesto, proposing nothing short of the most audacious power play by Black people in the history of this country. This book is a grand exhortation to generations of a people, offering a road map to true and lasting freedom.

From the co-author of Grazing in the Grass Until the Snow Came, which became the Hollywood biopic Blow, starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, comes this spiritual guidebook of dynamic lifestyle shifts for radical change and eternal happiness. Behind the scenes of the movie, the real players, and the inside story of the game. How the Medellin Cartel rose to riches and fame, then crumbled behind addiction, jealousy, envy, and greed. The story of a path, a path with twists, turns, and dark alleys taken by Mirtha, which led to major crossroads in her life. Learn about the outcomes of the decisions she made at these crossroads, and the strength it took to come to those decisions. Recovery from Blow readers can expect honesty and humility from someone who was there and survived by making the choice to leave the Cartel, the lifestyle, and the money. A choice not many people in the same position would make. A total transformation of life that took choosing the path to the light instead of the path to darkness. If she can do it, so can you.