What is "reality"? Tawnya Cooke reveals the real story behind the scenes of the controversial FOX reality show; The Swan. Utilizing the day to day journal she compiled in the many months of filming while she was a contestant on the The Swan, you will follow the day to day "routine" she encountered, along with the often times exciting world of reality TV! When 40 year old financial industry Compliance Officer Tawnya Cooke was chosen out of 250,000 women nationwide to be a "Swan" on the FOX Reality Show, THE SWAN, little did she know how very UNreal reality TV was. This book is her day to day journal and process from so called ugly duckling to becoming a beautiful "Swan." Throughout the often times surreal process she kept both her dignity and sense of humor. Tawnya was up against plastic surgeons who wanted to flex their Frankenstein muscles on her face and body, as well as executive producers of the show, who had no boundaries set up for these potential Reality stars. However, she stood her ground and in the end did things her way. This is Tawnya's widely anticipated memoir regarding a reality star's rise and fall and rise again, and the men and women who after five years still are an intricate part of her life!

A monumental work of history that captures the last days of the Third Reich as never before. Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany through more than 1,000 extracts from letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts, written by civilians and soldiers alike. Together, they present a panoramic view of four tumultuous days that fateful spring: Hitler’s birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler’s suicide on April 30, and the German surrender on May 8. An extraordinary account of suffering and survival, Swansong 1945 brings to vivid life the end of World War II in Europe.

Poetry. "War, mental illness, narcotics, sickness, incest and a deep passion for poetry were all a part of the Austrian poet Georg Trakl's short and tragic life (1887-1914). Biographical accounts have been few, vague and speculative. So little is clearly known about the man that much in this regard has been supplanted by what can be only assumed from the poet's substantial volume of work. The great German poet, Else-Lasker Schüler, who was a friend of the poet, wrote in her two line elegy: 'Georg Trakl died by his own hand in the war. / That was how lonely he was in the world. I loved him.' In BLUE SWAN, BLACK SWAN: THE TRAKL DIARIES, Stephanie Dickinson opens a new door, but not one into Trakl's psyche, rather from out of his psyche as if it were him relaying the incidents as they occurred in each particular moment and which these poems more than aptly provide. All is as if it originates from his mouth, from his dictation onto the pages of what is meant to be read as his unwritten diary. So powerful and precise is Dickinson's language that at times you cannot distinguish between what she says and what you imagine Trakl would have said. The intensity level is that analagous. Dickinson's intimacy with such a tragic poet's life acts to offer us Trakl himself speaking about something we never knew in such detail and which we the reader have only her to thank for sharing with us."--Paul B. Roth

In-depth biography of James Gilcrest Swan, the first to teach, and live among, the Makah Indians of Neah Bay, record their culture, and collect their artifacts for the Smithsonian Institution. Based largely on his previously unpublished diaries. -- Amazon.

Originally published: Australia: Giramondo, 2013.

Samantha may be falling for the beloved of the princess she is sent to save in this start to a “charming and humorous” (Kirkus Reviews) romantic trilogy. “Inventive, romantic, and downright delightful.” —Sarah J. Mass, author of Throne of Glass When the Princess of Nova accidentally poisons herself with a love potion meant for her crush, she falls crown-over-heels in love with her own reflection. Oops. A nationwide hunt is called to find the cure, with competitors travelling the world for the rarest ingredients, deep in magical forests and frozen tundras, facing death at every turn. Enter Samantha Kemi—an ordinary girl with an extraordinary talent. Sam’s family were once the most respected alchemists in the kingdom, but they’ve fallen on hard times, and winning the hunt would save their reputation. But can Sam really compete with the dazzling powers of the ZoroAster megapharma company? And just how close is she willing to get to Zain Aster, her dashing enemy, in the meantime. Just to add to the pressure, this quest is ALL OVER social media. And the world news. No big deal, then.

A seventeen-year-old girl in 1940's England spends an unchaperoned summer at a cottage in a seaside village, where a series of diaries by the cottage's most recent inhabitant, together with some intense personal experiences, open up her life to reveal her true wants and priorities.