E-Reads adds another gem to its reissue program of the works of Emily Hahn, the amazing New Yorker journalist, traveler and adventurer.  The book is No Hurry to Get Home.

Originally published in 1970, under the title Times and Places:A Memoir, this book is a collection of twenty-three articles from The New Yorker published between 1937 and 1970. Well-reviewed upon first publication, the book was republished under the current title in 2000 with a foreword by Sheila McGrath, a long-time colleague of hers at The New Yorker, and an introduction by Ken Cuthbertson, author of Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves and Adventures of Emily Hahn.

One of the pieces in the book starts with the line, “Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that as a reason why I went to China.” Hahn was seized by a wanderlust that led her to explore nearly every corner of the world. She traveled solo to the Belgian Congo at the age of twenty-five. She was the concubine of a Chinese poet in Shanghai in the 1930s–where she did indeed become and opium addict for two years. For many years, she spent part of every year in New York City and part of her time living with her husband, Charles Boxer, in England. Through the course of these twenty-three distinct pieces, Emily Hahn gives us a glimpse of the tremendous range of her interests, the many places in the world she visited and her extraordinary perception of the things, large and small, that are important in a life.

Several of Hahn’s books are among the most popular published by E-Reads.  You can see them on her author page, and there are more to come.

RC

Volume by autobiographical volume, E-Reads is bringing out e-book editions of many beloved Tristan Jones accounts of life at sea. The latest is Seagulls in My Soup, a hilarious collection of adventures by a master story teller. Join Jones aboard his converted lifeboat cruising the Balearic coast with his one-eyed, three-legged dog Nelson and a prim Bishop’s sister named Sissie. Oh – and stay belowdecks when the machineguns open fire.

After a boyhood at sea and a young manhood dodging U-boats in the North Atlantic in World War II, Jones succeeded in setting a number of sailing records, then retired to write about them. For the last few years of his life, he retired to Phuket, Thailand aboard his cruising trimaran. He was as salty as a sailor can be, and an incomparable spinner of yarns.

Read an excerpt of Seagulls in My Soup here, then download the e-book. E-Reads has ten of Tristan Jones’s memoirs in e-book format - get them all.

If you’d like to read a personal account of my years as Tristan’s literary agent, you can access it here.

RC

EMT Rescue puts you right in the cab of Pat Ivey’s ambulance, and if you can’t hang onto your hat it’s not likely you’ll hang onto your lunch as her squad races to treat a gunshot victim, rescue a driver trapped in a totaled car, or apply first aid to a child suffering a seizure. Ivey, a former cardiac technician with a Virginia volunteer emergency team and now teaching her hard-won lessons to others, recounts the true stories of courageous, compassionate men and women like herself whose inspiring efforts stopped the clock and snatched countless people from the jaws of death.

Ivey’s unflinching eye for drama and detail vividly bring to life the tales of heroism that have long gone unsung.

Reader response to EMT Rescue has been so positive that we’re rushing into print Ivey’s other book, EMT: Beyond the Lights and Sirens. Look for it here in the coming months.

- Richard Curtis

Ralph Helfer, the greatest animal wrangler in Hollywood history, has lions, tigers, bears and other great beasts literally eating out of his hand. Applying his unique principles of Affection Training, he has trained such fierce and famous creatures as Gentle Ben, Modoc the world’s greatest circus elephant, Zamba the movie lion and Clint Eastwood’s orangutan sidekick Clyde to strike terror into the hearts of cowering actors — until the director yelled “Cut!” Then they became as tame as house pets. Indeed, some of them actually were his house pets and cuddled like kittens with Helfer, his wife and daughter.

In Beauty of the Beasts: Tales of Hollywood’s Wild Animal Stars, Helfer profiles many of his animal actor friends and shows how his technique of tender loving care subdued hearts and fangs over a career spanning thousands of movies and television shows. His “clients” have garnered eighteen “Patsy” awards — Picture Animal Top Star of the Year.

- Richard Curtis