HALFWAY TO DAMASCUS

Bestselling soccer biographer Luca Caioli tackles his most controversial subject yet—Barcelona's record signing of Luis Suárez. When in late September 2013 Suárez, a Liverpool player at the time, returned from a landmark ten-match ban for biting an opponent, one in a long line of high-profile misdemeanors, it seemed unlikely that he would ever win over his critics. In the months that followed, he scored an astonishing thirty-one times, propelling Liverpool back into the Champions League following a four-year absence. The World Cup in Brazil followed, but Uruguay's Suárez saw his action-packed tournament curtailed after just two games, two goals, and one moment of madness. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Luca Caioli

Sultana is a Saudi Arabian princess, a woman born to fabulous, uncountable wealth. She has four mansions on three continents, her own private jet, glittering jewels, designer dresses galore. But in reality she lives in a gilded cage. She has no freedom, no control over her own life, no value but as a bearer of sons. Hidden behind her black floor-length veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband, her sons, and her country.Sultana is a member of the Saudi royal family, closely related to the king. For the sake of her daughters, she has decided to take the risk of speaking out about the life of women in her country, regardless of their rank. She must hide her identity for fear that the religious leaders in her country would call for her death to punish her honesty. Only a woman in her position could possibly hope to escape from being revealed and punished, despite her cloak and anonymity. Sultana tells of her own life, from her turbulent childhood to her arranged marriage--a happy one until her husband decided to displace her by taking a second wife--and of the lives of her sisters, her friends and her servants. Although they share affection, confidences and an easy camaraderie within the confines of the women's quarters, they also share a history of appalling oppression's, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations; thirteen-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age, young women killed by drowning, stoning, or isolation in the women's room, a padded, windowless cell where women are confined with neither light nor conversation until death claims them. By speaking out, Sultana risks bringing the wrath of the Saudi establishment upon her head and the heads of her children. But by telling her story to Jean Sasson, Sultana has allowed us to see beyond the veils of this secret society, to the heart of a nation where sex, money, and power reign supreme. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Jean Sasson

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior is the new global soccer superstar, already acclaimed as "the next Pelé." He is the player everyone wants to watch in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, his home country. Luca Caioli reconstructs Neymar's life and career through exclusive private access to his friends, family, coaches, teammates, advisors, and fans. This is the first book about a new world soccer icon. Luca Caioli is the best-selling author of the biographies Messi and Ronaldo. A renowned Italian sports journalist, he lives in Spain corresponding for SKY Italia and Corriere della Sera. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Luca Caioli

Brief Summary In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Obama called "the audacity of hope.” The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a different brand of politics—a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the "endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of "our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces—from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media—that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment. At the heart of this book is Barack Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats—from terrorism to pandemic—that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy—where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, and members of the Senate is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus. A public servant and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Barack Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes—"waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.” " ISBN:2147483647 Author:Barack Obama

4 August, 2012. Super Saturday. On the most electric night in the history of British sport, Mo Farah braved the pain and punishment to seize Olympic gold in the 10,000m - and in the process went from being a talented athlete to a national treasure. Seven days later, Mo seized his second gold at the 5000m to go where no British distance runner has gone before. Records have tumbled before him: European track records at 1500m, 5000m indoors, and 10,000m; British track records at 5000m, 3000m indoors and 10k on the road have all fallen to Mohamed 'Mo' Farah: the boy from Somalia who came to Britain at the age of eight, leaving behind his twin brother, and with just a few words of English, and a natural talent for running. His secondary school PE teacher Alan Watkinson spotted his potential and began easing this human gazelle towards the racetrack. In 2001 Mo showed his promise by winning the 5000m at the European Junior Championships. Soon he was smashing a string of British and European records. He began living with a group of elite Kenyan runners, following their strict regime of run, sleep, eat and rest. Mo was determined to leave no stone uncovered in his bid for distance-running glory. After a disappointing Olympics in Beijing Mo took the bold decision to relocate to Portland, Oregon to work under legendary coach Alberto Salazar. The results were emphatic as Mo took silver at the 10,000m and then raced to gold in the 5000m at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu. Even better would soon follow at London 2012. TWIN AMBITIONS is much more than an autobiography by a great Olympic champion. It's a moving human story of a man who grew up in difficult circumstances, separated from his family at an early age, who struggled to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles and realise his dream. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Mo Farah

"Winston Churchill attracted far more criticism alive than he has since his death. He was, according to Evelyn Waugh, 'always in the wrong, surrounded by crooks, a terrible father, a radio personality'. To others, he was the saviour of the nation, even of Western civilization, 'the greatest Briton' who ever lived. Whatever one's view, Winston Churchill remains splendidly unreduced. He also remains enormous fun--a cartoonist's and caricaturist's dream on the one hand, one of the most powerful and successful statesmen in modern history on the other. Globally famed for his role as a leader during the Second World War, this study resists the temptation to conflate Churchill's post-war career with Britain's demise on the international stage. Nor does it endorse the notion that Churchill became an anachronism as he lived and continued to work, at a prodigious rate, through his seventies and eighties. As well as being Britain's most celebrated politician and war leader, Winston Churchill was a Nobel Prize-winning author. He was one of the most prolific writers of his age and his accounts of the momentous events through which he lived have indelibly marked the way in which modern British history has been conceptualized. Uniquely endowed with talent, energy and determination, Winston Churchill was, as a close wartime colleague put it, 'unlike anyone you have ever met before'. Ashley Jackson describes the contours and contradictions of Churchill's remarkable life and career as a soldier, politician, historian, journalist, painter, amateur farmer and homemaker. From thrusting subaltern to high-flying politician, Cabinet outcast to elder statesman, this is the eternally fascinating story of Winston Churchill's appointment with destiny"--Publisher's description, p. [2] of dust jacket ISBN:2147483647 Author:Ashley Jackson