Biography > Giveaways

[close] Stemma Books, Ltd. is proud to present 5 autographed copies of debut author Jo Ann V. Glim's book BEGOTTEN: With Love for the goodreads May Giveaway!

This memoir will make you laugh... it will make you cry. It will make you laugh until you cry!

"My family is a writer's dream," Glim said, "Filled with remarkable characters but then every family has its share of dreamers and doers, cowards and cads, heroes and heroines. I hope after reading BEGOTTEN: With Love you will love my family as much as I do... warts and all. More than that, I hope you will love your family even more!" [close]

[close] The name of my book is:CAUGHT IN A WEB:Changed by Destiny. This is a true story of my life how I lived in horror from my stepmother when I was a child. I was in many relationships. I was looking for love and romance and I ended up being the spider's prey. This story tells how I was trapped in the web and how my life changed from what I had become. This is a book mostly to help young women and anyone else caught in some kind of horrible situation,that you feel you cannot escape. It is a story that will give you hope about your circumstances and instruct you to think about what choices you should make before you make them. Choices can become webs,because the consequences of those choices can be very difficult to undo,and sometimes those circumstances last a lifetime. It is a story that will give you some insight to your life and show you how to make the right choices. [close]

[close] Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the twentieth century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at the end of his life when he was living in poverty, Tesla still attracted reporters to his annual birthday interview, regaling them with claims that he had invented a particle-beam weapon capable of bringing down enemy aircraft.

Plenty of biographies glamorize Tesla and his eccentricities, but until now none has carefully examined what, how, and why he invented. In this groundbreaking book, W. Bernard Carlson demystifies the legendary inventor, placing him within the cultural and technological context of his time, and focusing on his inventions themselves as well as the creation and maintenance of his celebrity. Drawing on original documents from Tesla's private and public life, Carlson shows how he was an "idealist" inventor who sought the perfect experimental realization of a great idea or principle, and who skillfully sold his inventions to the public through mythmaking and illusion.

This major biography sheds new light on Tesla's visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.

W. Bernard Carlson is professor of science, technology, and society in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and professor of history at the University of Virginia. His books include Technology in World History and Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson and the Rise of General Electric, 1870-1900. [close]

[close] SIGNED COPY with dedication

In this his new, revised and updated edition of his comprehensive biography of Rider Haggard, Sydney Higgins uses both the mass of previously unpublished material he unearthed and the evidence contained in Haggard’s sixty-nine novels to show that the best-selling author left much more for posterity than he would knowingly have revealed to his millions of readers. Sydney Higgins discovered the identity of the woman with whom Haggard fell in love when he was a teenager. Although the affair was unconsummated and both married other partners, he believed that their love was eternal and they would be reunited after death. This love that haunted Haggard throughout his life, combined with feelings of guilt and disgust at his early sexual encounters, led him to believe that it was the fire of sex that destroyed the otherwise untarnished beauty of pure love. It is this belief that powered his vivid description of the transformation scene in She where the ‘most beautiful woman in the world’ who had lived for an eternity withers and dies in the flames immediately prior to marrying the man she had always loved.
Haggard, the ill-educated younger son of a blustering Norfolk Squire, was inspired by these secret inner feelings to write, in a golden five-year period that started when he was twenty-nine, five books that were the sensation of his age – “King Solomon’s Mines”, “Allan Quatermain”, “Jess”, “She” and “Cleopatra”. The last, he dedicated to his mother whom he always loved deeply and appears to have written to please her. Shortly after “Cleopatra” was published, she died. A few weeks later, Haggard finished “Nada the Lily” and that too was justifiably a great success. He was at the height of his success and at an age when many writers had just begun their careers but with his mother’s death he seemed to lose his inspiration and his obsession to write. He did not start another book for sixteen months. During the next twelve years, he did write another twenty-five novels but much time and effort were spent producing non-fiction books that are now all but forgotten although one at least, “A Farmer’s Year” is a charming and illuminating literary gem. For the rest of his life, writing novels became a way of earning money and his interests and quest for success were concentrated on agricultural research, politics, business and public service.
In his meticulously researched biography, D.S. Higgins explores the many mysteries of Haggard’s life, revealing a man more complex than had previously been understood and whose work is acknowledged as having influenced many writers including Rudyard Kipling, Henry Miller, C.S. Lewis and Graham Greene. [close]

[close] The Prince of Naples is a true story about a child prodigy living under the control of the violent and terrifying organised crime 'family' the Camorra. He is driven to an almost obsessive quest for revenge when the earthquake strikes in 1980, destroying the city, and his family and neighbours are all moved to live in aluminium housing in an unsanitary and crowded shanty town.

More than 40 billion euros in aid money flood into Naples after the quake, but the Camorra 'own' the construction businesses and the money is syphoned off to line their own pockets. The boy and the Naples people seem doomed to live indefinitely in rat-infested shanty towns while, just a few miles away, the Camorra and their accomplices live in luxury villas.

The boy's need for revenge grows along with his rage until he is driven to take actions that no ordinary child could conceive. Even though he is just 12 years old, he ends up getting deeply involved with the Camorra. The Prince of Naples is the story of his revenge and how he avoids capture because no one can imagine his violent and destructive actions are those of a schoolboy.

The boy is now a man and he lives outside Italy under an assumed identity.

PRESS REVIEWS:
"This is the true story of ‘The Prince’, a child prodigy who takes on the corrupt and terrifying Camorra, (the Naples Mafia) but there’s nothing they can do without a clue to the identity of their fearless enemy. No one suspects it’s The Prince who has the perfect disguise – he is 12 years old.

"If his youth isn't enough to waylay suspicion, The Prince also plays dumb, pretending to be just like any other kid - a device that provides the reader with that lovely stomach-squeezing type of excitement and hope that drives classic adventure novels, such as The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Count of Monte Cristo. The constant promise that his true identity will be revealed - that he is a genius and not the ordinary boy he's pretending to be - is a hook that makes this book unputdownable. The Prince of Naples has all the fuel that any good adventure needs." - THE HUFFINGTON POST

“This tale of a modern-day Robin Hood who takes on the Mafia is both shocking and astounding!" -NUTS Magazine

"I really like this book!" -THE SUN

“Crime biography at its best. This will become the story of the year” –NOW! Magazine

“This book reads like a Hollywood movie which makes it all the more incredible that it’s true!” -BEAUTIFUL Magazine
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[close] The Disciple is a compelling biography about Jesus’ birth, childhood and death. Simon Hay, after a life-altering encounter with spirit, revisits and remembers his past life as the disciple, Judas, and his role in Jesus’ life. Simon’s story will amaze and challenge 2000 years of belief. [close]

[close] Annie Chikhwaza grew up in Holland. In struggling to come to terms with her abuse as a child, she tried to commit suicide but was dramatically converted through the ministry of Brother Andrew. She then began to minister, first to the poor and marginalized on the streets of Amsterdam and then in the volatile townships of South Africa during the height of the apartheid era.

After surviving an abusive marriage and the turmoil and humiliation of divorce, she married a poor African pastor and went to Malawi to start an orphanage. Today Annie has nearly two hundred children in her care, many of whom are HIV positive, and she has built a small town called Kondanani ("Love one another"), which boasts a care facility, several children's homes, a nursery school, primary school, and farm. Kondanani is an oasis of love in a country with more than one million orphans. It has attracted the attention of the media around the world and a host of celebrities, including Madonna, who has adopted one of Kondanani's children.

Annie's story, told here for the first time, shares her many terrible trials: abuse, abortion, a broken back, attempted murder, the loss of everything she had built, attempted rape, and the death of her beloved husband. Her story might have been one of bitterness and anger; instead, Annie uses each trial to point to God's love for her and for every one of His creation. [close]

[close] Signed by the author copy!Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, War Horse, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Hobbit trilogy, Twelve Years a Slave, August: Osage County, The Fifth Estate; Hedda Gabler, After the Dance, Frankenstein; Hawking, To the Ends of the Earth, The Last Enemy, Parade’s End, and, of course, Sherlock. For most actors, these stellar cinematic, theatrical, and television events would be the highlights of a lifetime’s work. On Benedict Cumberbatch’s résumé they are only a few of many entries. Especially since 2010, his performances have garnered a plethora of best actor awards, both in the theatre (Evening Standard Theatre Award, Critics Circle Theatre Award, and Olivier Award), by playing the dual roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature in the National Theatre’s Frankenstein, and on television (Broadcasting Press Guild Award, Critics Choice Television Award, Crime Thriller Award, and TV Choice Award), by starring as the titular Holmes in the BBC’s Sherlock. Add these and other recent accolades to nearly a decade’s nominations and awards (such as the Golden Nymph as best actor in Hawking), and it’s easy to see why Benedict Cumberbatch is often hailed as the actor of his generation.
Cumberbatch’s body of work further includes indie films, radio plays and series, television documentaries, live dramatic readings, multimedia advertisements, and even the occasional stint as a fashion model. He often shares an intriguing perspective on his profession, as evidenced in sometimes controversial interviews. He has become so much in demand that online box offices crash when tickets for his performances go on sale, and, before a Cheltenham Literature Festival Q&A session, fans overwhelmed Twitter when so many responded immediately to a call for questions. Cumberbatch consistently is a top name on lists ranging from sex appeal to global influence. In 2012 he beat David Beckham in the former and U.S. President Barack Obama in the latter. Increasingly, part of Cumberbatch’s job involves the role of celebrity.
Benedict Cumberbatch is at a pivotal point in his profession, and his career trajectory—especially as documented in entertainment media—permits a closer examination of just what it means to be a celebrity or star in Britain or the U.S. and how an actor may be perceived very differently in London or Hollywood. This performance biography is an analysis of a man in transition from working actor to multimedia star, as well as the balance between actor and celebrity. It looks at what makes this actor so well suited to play one of popular culture’s iconic characters, Sherlock Holmes, and how Sherlock is so well suited to propel Cumberbatch toward greater global fame. [close]

[close] The culmination of over two years of intensive study, Priceless Stones beautifully merges the best of two worlds—academic scholarship and gut-level practicality. Citing two-hundred forty endnotes drawn from over fifty academic sources, Priceless Stones carries textbook-level credibility and invites the reader to pursue further research. At the same time, the language of Priceless Stones remains easily accessible to a wide spectrum of readers of all backgrounds. Uncommonly transparent, each page of Priceless Stones throws a window wide open into the life and heart of the author—incorporating into the narrative his personal successes as well as his failures.

Each daily message highlights one Old Testament verse or brief passage and focuses on one or more key words from the text of the Hebrew—the language in which the Old Testament was originally written. While drawing from Old Testament Scriptures, Priceless Stones is written through the prism of New Testament Christianity and the finished work of redemption which was accomplished through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each daily encouragement is reinforced by a concluding declaration and prayer. As an added bonus, appendices at the end of the book include a Scripture index and both Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew glossaries.

Prior to publication, Priceless Stones had already proven to be ideal for both individual and group study. Far from having a dogmatic tone, it is an encouraging volume, absolutely brimming over with a level of inspiration which lifts the reader above his or her present circumstances. It is the passion of the author to invite the reader to not only be acquainted with, but to personally experience, the amazing, incomprehensible, boundless love of God and to radically encounter Him on a deeply intimate level to such an extent that the reader is never the same again. [close]

[close] The dark and empty world of Renee becomes painfully clear and is suffered in silence no more. Lacking the love and support that Renee should have been given at home, Renee turns to drugs, shoplifting, and violence. Inspired by no one, Renee relies to her vivid imagination and fantasies of one day living a better life to stay alive. Suffocated by negativity and surrounded by the living dead, what will happen to Renee?

In this shocking page turning, unforgettable account of child abuse and neglect, Makaila Renee invites you on a journey that reveals the different ways children cope with the most desperate of circumstances. This heart-stopping memoir is for anyone who searches for the motivation to overcome the past.
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[close] Emir Abdel Kader (1808-1883) was an international celebrity in his own time, known for his generosity and kindness even towards enemies. Today he is recognized as one of the noblest leaders of the 19th century and a pioneer in interfaith dialogue. This fascinating biography of the heroic Arab who led the resistance to the French conquest of Algeria, endured betrayal and imprisonment, and in 1860, in Syria, saved thousands of innocent people from mob violence brings a vital message for our times. [close]

[close] Rose Heilbron QC (later Dame Rose Heilbron), was an English barrister, who became a world famous icon of the 1950s and 1960s. She was one of the two first women King's Counsel (later Queen's Counsel) in 1949 and the first woman Judge in England in 1956 when she became Recorder of Burnley. This biography, written by her daughter Hilary, also a barrister and Queen's Counsel, charts her rise to prominence and success against the odds, excelling as an advocate and lawyer and later as only the second female High Court Judge in a career spanning nearly 50 years. She broke down many barriers with a string of firsts in the legal profession. She became a pioneer for women at the English Bar and for women generally, championing many women's causes in an era when it was not fashionable to do so.

The biography highlights her role as an inspiring and successful defence advocate in many famous and fascinating cases as well as in cases of great legal importance. These include the Cameo murder case in 1950; the trial of Devlin and Burns for capital murder; the representation of the striking Liverpool Dockers in a case of national importance; the defence of the notorious London gangster, Jack Spot; and the representation, in an early anti-discrimination case, of the world renowned cricketer, Learie Constantine.

Also chronicled are her years as a High Court Judge and the wide range of other legal and non-legal activities she undertook as a result of her fame including her appointment by the government in 1975 to chair an Advisory Committee on Rape.

With the added insights and recollections of her daughter it portrays a multi-dimensional picture of the young and beautiful Rose Heilbron - barrister, judge, working wife and mother - who not only managed to combine these public and private roles in an era when to do so was extremely rare, but who did so with the combination of warmth, flair and determination which was to make her an internationally acclaimed role model for women.

Many people over the years have wanted to write about her: this is the first authorised biography. [close]

[close] The music legend who revived modern bluegrass music, Ricky Skaggs, gives a warm, honest, one-of-a-kind memoir of forty years in music—along with the Ten Commandments of Bluegrass, as handed down by Ricky’s mentor Bill Monroe; the Essential Guide to Bedrock Country Songs, a lovingly compiled walk through the songs that have moved Skaggs the most throughout his life; Songs the Lord Taught Us, a primer on Skaggs’s most essential gospel songs; and a bevy of personal snapshots of his musical heroes. For readers of Johnny Cash’s autobiography, lovers of O Brother Where Art Thou, and fans of country music and bluegrass, Kentucky Traveler is a priceless look at America’s most cherished and vibrant musical tradition through the eyes of someone who has lived it. [close]

[close] Lady Gaga's old friend and former DJ Brendan Jay Sullivan paints a vivid picture of the downtown scene from which she emerged. Brendan Jay Sullivan was an up-and-coming New York City DJ when he met Stefani Germanotta, then a struggling artist, in 2006. She was a go-go dancer who sewed her own outfits but had bigger ambitions—she wanted nothing less than to take over the music world. In this intimate portrait of the budding star who would soon catapult to fame and fortune, the author describes afternoons sitting with Gaga on the floor of her bare Lower East Side apartment, drinking wine from pint glasses and plotting out the pop stardom that awaited her.
Filled with stories of love and heartbreak among Gaga and Sullivan and their circle of aspiring musicians and per­formers, and set against the vibrant backdrop of the down­town bars and parties of the mid-aughts, Rivington Was Ours is both a love letter to New York and a glimpse behind the veil of one of the biggest musical icons of her generation. [close]

[close] Paul Wilson was 59 when he finally discovered the nature of the ''crime'' that led to his incarceration at age 7. Paul's dad knew there was only one way to survive cruel injustice. It took Paul more than half a century to learn.

Follow Paul's journey from a poverty-stricken bush home to a cold, harsh, children's home where he is abused by ''brides of Christ'', to foster homes, a boys' home, an army training school, and through an eventful adult life desperately searching for identity and acceptance, and nursing a burning thirst for revenge. How will he eventually avenge the wrongs?

A slightly fictionalized biography of a stolen Australian white child, this is a story you will read between tears and fits of rage, but it's a story that reassures us of the strength of the human spirit and the extraordinary power of family love. [close]

[close] In 1999, a Native American shaman hears the bones crying, longing for home. He and his reluctant granddaughter undertake a gritty road trip. They bounce in a ratty pickup from New Mexico to Boston to rescue the skeletons stolen nearly a century earlier from their family ruins, the ghost Pueblo of Pecos--a place of the Spanish Inquisition, where the Catholic Church once persecuted Indians.

Hollow-woman wants nothing to do with old family bones so Grandfather fashions an enchanted dreamcatcher to occasionally, hurl her to the past, so she can experience the harrowing history of her people, and come to appreciate her ancestors.

A magical, touching, historical novel of time travel, faith and hope, this digital book is enhanced with video and pictures through the book's website. Visit Return of the Bones Website to preview the videos and images. [close]

[close] Hi, I'm Jo.

The sole purpose of this book is to share with you a journey; this journey is the story of three people, Myself, Me, and I. You're probably thinking what? Isn't that just one person? I guess technically it is, however the journey I have been on to become the person I am today has been a far from easy one! Throughout the pages I will refer to Myself, Me and I often, so I guess I best try to explain them to help you understand.

Myself - is a person I called Annie. She was my eating disorder and came in to my life on September the 8th 1990 when I was 12. She stayed in my life for 18 years, 7 months and 6 days until I was 30. Me - is Joanne - the person I was for nearly thirty one years.

Joanne was a girl battling with so many issues that no one had a clue about. To the outside world she came across as confident and bubbly, with no care in the world. WRONG! This was a persona I used to protect myself from being anymore vulnerable and hurt than I already was; or so my screwed up logic would have me think.

I - is Jo, the person I am today. Jo is a 34 year old confident woman who REALLY is happy with her life!

So how did I get from Myself to I?

A HUG! From someone I hardly knew . . .

Four years ago a man walked in to my life and gave me a hug, just when I needed it most. This hug, this simple hug, changed the direction of my life completely, and sent me off on a new, much happier and more productive path.

On Thursday the 28th of June 2012, that man walked in to my life again and I felt compelled to tell him just how profound his hug had been. So I shared some of my journey with him.

This is my story. [close]

[close] Win a finished paperback copy of this true story of an intimate diary and scandalous trial that rocked Victorian England, by Kate Summerscale, bestselling author of THE SUSPICIONS OF MR. WHICHER.

"Youll find FIFTY SHADES OF GREY on beaches everywhere...but the story of Mrs. Robinson deserves a place on summer reading lists. She is pretty hot stuff." --Boston Globe [close]

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The memoir is fiction; the story is true.

One day in 1855 Lucy Lobdell cut her hair, changed clothes, and went off to live her life as a man. By the time it was over, she was notorious. The New York Times thought her worthy of a lengthy obituary that began ''Death of a Modern Diana...Dressed in Man's Clothing She Win's a Girl's Love.'' The obit detailed what the Times knew of Lucy's life, from her backwoods upbringing to the dance school she ran disguised as a man, ''where she won the love of a young lady scholar.'' But that was just the start of the trouble; the Times did not know about Lucy's arrest and trial for the crime of wearing men's clothes or her jailbreak engineered by her wife, Marie Perry, to whom she had been married by an unsuspecting judge.

Lucy lived at a time when women did not commonly travel unescorted, carry a rifle, sit down in bars, or have romantic liaisons with other women. Lucy did these things in a personal quest--to work and be paid, to wear what she wanted, and to love whomever she cared to. But to gain those freedoms she had to endure public scorn and wrestle with a sexual identity whose vocabulary had yet to be invented. Lucy promised to write a book about it all, and over the decades, people have searched for that account. Author William Klaber searched also until he decided that the finding would have to be by way of echoes and dreams. This book is Lucy's story, told in her words as heard and recorded by an upstream neighbor. [close]

[close] Found is a true story. It's a candid portrayal of a woman who came to the end of herself.

There have been many chapters in Lori’s life, but there was one that refused to close. When her world came crashing down around her she seeked answers. Set a task she takes up the challenge, leaving no stone unturned. All that was hidden is revealed forcing her to face some home truths. Little did she know what she signed up for and that it came at a high price.
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[close] In 1884, the notorious Mrs. Dr. Rebecca J. Keck sent her daughter to Vassar to raise the family’s social status; Cora Keck's unexpected educational opportunity opens a window to a turbulent era that greatly resembles our own. Raised in the gritty Mississippi River town of Davenport, Iowa, she could have walked straight out of a Susan Glaspell story, except everything in this amazing tale is true. In 2007, Cora’s great-granddaughter discovered a trove of diaries and photos that reveal the inner life of a spirited heroine who ultimately faced a stark life and death crisis that would force her to re-examine her doubts about her mother’s medical integrity. [close]

[close] In the tradition of LITTLE HEATHENS and ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN', THE DISTANCERS is a beautiful Midwestern family drama, about a time and a place long since vanished, where the author learned the value of family and the art of keeping one's distance. [close]