Extraordinary Adventures Of An Ordinary Man

This book has two parts. The first part of this book will relate some of the many exciting and sometimes dangerous experiences that I encountered while living in the isolated and primitive bush country of North Western Ontario. The extreme cultural shock of moving from a home with hot and cold running water and central heating to a cabin with a coal oil stove for heat, a hand pump for cold water only located at the kitchen sink. The second part of the book relates to my life some 20 years later as I was employed as a sales manager for Philippine Airlines and later as a tour director and guide for tourists throughout the orient China and Southeast Asia

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of an American icon. The greatest movie star of the past 75 years covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his thoughts on Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, his greatest roles, acting, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward, his innermost fears and passions and joys. With thoughts/comments throughout from Joanne Woodward, George Roy Hill, Tom Cruise, Elia Kazan and many others. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME and Vanity Fair "Newman at his best…with his self-aware persona, storied marriage and generous charitable activities…this rich book somehow imbues his characters’ pain and joy with fresh technicolor." —The Wall Street Journal In 1986, Paul Newman and his closest friend, screenwriter Stewart Stern, began an extraordinary project. Stuart was to compile an oral history, to have Newman’s family and friends and those who worked closely with him, talk about the actor’s life. And then Newman would work with Stewart and give his side of the story. The only stipulation was that anyone who spoke on the record had to be completely honest. That same stipulation applied to Newman himself. The project lasted five years. The result is an extraordinary memoir, culled from thousands of pages of transcripts. The book is insightful, revealing, surprising. Newman’s voice is powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, always meeting that high standard of searing honesty. The additional voices—from childhood friends and Navy buddies, from family members and film and theater collaborators such as Tom Cruise, George Roy Hill, Martin Ritt, and John Huston—that run throughout add richness and color and context to the story Newman is telling. Newman’s often traumatic childhood is brilliantly detailed. He talks about his teenage insecurities, his early failures with women, his rise to stardom, his early rivals (Marlon Brando and James Dean), his first marriage, his drinking, his philanthropy, the death of his son Scott, his strong desire for his daughters to know and understand the truth about their father. Perhaps the most moving material in the book centers around his relationship with Joanne Woodward—their love for each other, his dependence on her, the way she shaped him intellectually, emotionally and sexually. The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man is revelatory and introspective, personal and analytical, loving and tender in some places, always complex and profound.

HIM AND METhis memoir is sub-titled "the extraordinary memoirs of an ordinary man" Born in Holland, the author has lived in six countries on three continents. The Simons family were caught in the tumult of the last century and emigrated no less than four times: in many ways they embody the 20th century migrant experience. Kosti Simons is a novelist, playwright, marine journalist and now biographer. He pioneered a coffee plantation in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, pioneered the Highlands Highway in P.N.G., pioneered the art of ferro-cement boat-building in Australia with a 38-foot yacht, pioneered the revival of a thousand year old pilgrimage road in the north of Spain (in 2010 it carried 250,000 pilgrims), and in 1993 founded a successful Passion Play in South-East Queensland, unique in this country as it has a purpose-built venue. It is still current.Appointed as the master of a coastal vessel in the islands at age nineteen, he has sailed in numerous Sydney-Hobart Races, cruised the Pacific islands, cruised extensively through the Mediterranean in his second yacht built in England, lived on his boat with his family in Barcelona Harbour for twelve years, sailed the Barrier Reef, managed Arts Council tours, and built a stone cottage with his wife. That is where he is now.The mainspring of this autobiography, and its justification, has been a lifelong search for the spiritual dimension to life. While always at least a nominal Protestant, at age fifty he underwent an epiphany at Lourdes in France. This sets the tone for Part 2 of this memoir, with visits to Vietnam and Russia and particularly Israel providing a fitting climax to his story. The writer has taken advantage of his playwriting experience to write dialogue emanating from the Lord Jesus Christ. The success of this book will no doubt hinge on this dialogue working¿ I commend the book to the reader.

"Call me Chick. I've been called Chick since I was six years old. If you call me Donald, I'll know you don't know me. In this story, I'll tell you how my life unfolded over the last eight decades: how I got that nickname; how I met and married the most beautiful girl in the world; and how I came to own and operate S & R sawmills in Surrey, British Columbia. By the end of this book, I'm pretty sure you'll know me well enough to call me Chick." --Chapter One Chick grew up on a chicken farm in Fort Rouge, Manitoba. It was the Great Depression and money was always tight, so he began his entrepreneurial career early, peddling eggs to the neighbours, jockeying for odd jobs and selling magazines. After a move to Vancouver, he set pins for a bowling alley, baled shavings and made his mill debut at fifteen straightening boards in the Youbou Mill on Vancouver Island. When the opportunity to buy a mill arose, Chick decided to take a chance. It was a good decision. After buying his first mill with Vic Rempel, their quality work earned them steady cuts, and they were able to buy more equipment, install electricity and expand. It wasn't all smooth sailing--Chick had to dive into the Fraser River to rescue a saw, douse a fire, deal with the fallout of the Asian financial crisis and adapt to growing environmental concerns--but S & R survived and thrived, consistently employing a workforce of over five hundred. Chick even came out of the lumber business with all ten fingers. It Can Be Done is also the lively story of Chick's personal life and includes tales of old-fashioned childhood escapades like trick-or-treating for potatoes and relocating neighbours' outhouses, as well as stories of other adventures: a motorcycle road trip ending with a night in jail because all the motels in town were full, and his decision to get a pilot's license after flying in a plane that was literally falling apart into his lap. Chick shares emotional milestones too: meeting his wife in an ice cream shop, family vacations on Gossip Island and, in later years, building Czorny Alzheimer Centre. Told with a great deal of humility and humour, It Can Be Done is the story of an honourable man, well-respected by his peers, and a history of over fifty years of evolution and change in the BC lumber business.