Flying Lessons
Create Your New NormalFlying Lessons is an invitation for single moms to rediscover themselves and strengthen the bond with their young adult sons. This heart-centered guide equips you to transform the bittersweet moments of your separation into a journey of intention, completion, and new beginnings. Packed with practical methods, emotional insights, and real-life stories, Flying Lessons shows you how to shift from empty nest syndrome to empty nest freedom-so you and your son can both take flight into the lives you each envision.Empty nest parenting tips for single moms: build a lasting mother-son connectionMother-son communication pitfalls: avoid mistakes so your teen still enjoys your companyHormone harmony guide: navigate energy shifts and emotional resilience with science-backed adviceEmpty nest mindset rituals: transform syndrome into celebrationParenting closure strategies: complete unfinished chapters of your storySingle motherhood reinvention: rediscover passions and life purposeBegin your flight toward freedom--your new normal awaits.
Carrie's Journal
Journey beyond the diagnosis with cancer to explore loving your family through terminal illness, while also navigating the path of grief in loss.When Jerry Pierson discovered his late wife Carrie's college journal, he found more than youthful dreams and private reflections. He found the spark that would become this deeply personal tribute-a blend of her words and his own memories that paints a moving portrait of their life together. Through Carrie's voice, we meet a vibrant, courageous woman who faced cancer with strength, laughter, and an undiminished spirit.Honest, raw, and deeply human, this is a love story woven through the hardest of times, told with grace, humor, and unwavering devotion.Carrie's Journal is a true testament to love in its most enduring form.With the exploration of the joys of life and the trials that come with a loved one lost to cancer, Carrie's Journal becomes a guidebook for the millions of caregivers who feel isolated in their heartbreak.
Time and Patience
When Claudio Pettinaro collapsed onto the bathroom floor one winter morning, he had no idea his life was about to split in two-before the stroke, and after. What followed was a year defined by confusion, fear, emotional upheaval, and the slow, often painful work of rebuilding a life that had changed without warning.Time and Patience is Claudio's honest, unfiltered account of his first year of stroke recovery, told not by a doctor or medical expert, but by an ordinary man suddenly thrust into an extraordinary fight. From the chaos of the Emergency Department to the long, disorienting days on a neurology floor, from relearning how to move and speak to navigating the collapse of his marriage and the weight of loneliness, Claudio illuminates the realities most stroke survivors face but rarely voice. Yet throughout, there is hope. It flickers, disappears, returns, and ultimately leads him forward.More than a memoir, Time and Patience is a companion for anyone overwhelmed by the aftermath of a major health crisis. It offers reassurance that recovery is not linear, that frustration and fear are normal, and that a meaningful life after stroke is possible. Claudio's message is simple but vital: You don't have to walk this road alone.
Erasing The Five O'Clock Shadow
A middle-class Roman Catholic Italian, hockey player, avid drummer, and popular kid, Monica Miatello (formerly Chris) knew she was different from the age of five. But it was the late 1960s-a time when information about gender dysphoria was practically non-existent. As a result, although she had many friends, her childhood and teenage years felt lonely and isolating. That is, until she met Sandy.Falling in love and getting married weren't things Miatello ever thought would happen to someone like her. Both pharmacists, the couple moved to a small Ontario town of 900 people, purchased a pharmacy, and had two daughters. With Sandy's support, Miatello navigated the hills and valleys of her secret cross-dressing life, which ultimately led to her transition in the late 1990s.Her courageous journey from life as a man to embracing life as a woman couldn't have happened without transparency, honesty, and a patient willingness to educate those around her. It also required the support of people who accepted her authentic self, an openness to discovery, and the ability to trust others. And it would not have happened without humour, positivity, and the ability to laugh at-and love-herself.Heartwarming, emotional, and empowering, Erasing The Five O'Clock Shadow is a remarkable and inspiring personal story about transitioning and being transgender in an ever-changing world.
Stories From A Curious Life
Stories From A Curious Life will take you far beyond the ordinary. Through these pages, you'll follow one man's quest to live a life of purpose, exploration, and discovery. Todd Evans's journey began in the gritty neighborhoods of New York City and Cleveland, where he learned firsthand about resilience and struggle. His path took him to the halls of a religious seminary, into a soul-searching retreat in Switzerland inspired by Carl Jung, and onward to Czechoslovakia, where he sought to understand the tensions between East and West. In Switzerland, he pioneered a recreational therapy program in a psychiatric clinic before returning home to an America wrestling with its own identity - marked by Vietnam, the drug crisis, and shifting gender roles. Settling in rural California with his family, he founded a retreat center for those yearning for connection with nature. Outraged by U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua, he joined a protest that landed him in jail for a night - an experience that led him to help start a nonprofit building schools in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Join the author as he recalls a life emerging from a privileged life and finding joy in service to others.
Our Last Steps
Dani has written this book in a very honest way, about the effects of having a spinal injury, brain injury, losing a child and how to continue and maintain a life the best she can and the challenges she faces on a daily basis.Dani was an outgoing, confident person who enjoyed her life and travels. Meeting the love of her life and having a beautiful honeymoon baby... but tragedy lay ahead.This is one family's story of how they faced the loss of their only daughter and dealt with life-changing injuries. Whilst Dan had to face the possibility that he may lose both his girls.She now faces each day with courage, navigating pain, grief, and the impact of events that changed her world forever.All proceeds from "Our Last Steps" are being donated between "2Wish" & "Swanage Carnival", two organisations that mean a lot to the whole family.
Canyons
Some pain runs so deep, it echoes through the canyons of the soul.Emily stands on the edge-of a cliff, of her emotions, of her will to keep going. Her life has become a relentless cycle of fleeting highs and crushing lows. But when a message from her only lifeline, the elusive Curie, promises peace beyond this life, Emily begins to question everything-her pain, her purpose, and whether hope still exists. Canyons is a powerful, emotionally raw novel exploring the depths of mental health, friendship, and spiritual longing. With lyrical prose and haunting vulnerability, D. A. Busby invites readers into the storm of a woman's heart as she struggles to break free from despair and choose a different path-one that might just lead to healing. Prepare to be moved, shaken, and ultimately inspired.
The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture The Negro Patriot of Hayti
The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Negro Patriot of Hayti by The Rev. John R. Beard presents a detailed historical account of the remarkable leader of the Haitian Revolution. This biography chronicles Toussaint L'Ouverture's rise from enslavement to military and political leadership, highlighting his role in the struggle for freedom and independence in Saint-Domingue.Beard explores Toussaint's character, strategic leadership, moral convictions, and enduring influence on the abolition of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the first Black republic. The work reflects nineteenth-century historical scholarship while preserving the legacy of one of the most significant figures in Caribbean and revolutionary history.This book is essential for readers interested in Haitian history, abolition movements, Black leadership, revolutionary studies, and nineteenth-century biography.
A Sixty Year Butterfly Odyssey
Nobody can fail to be fascinated by butterflies: their beautiful colouring, intricate wing patterns, and, above all, the miraculous transformation from egg to larva to pupa and finally to the adult butterfly. Apart from the larvae of the Small and Large Whites nibbling your cabbage leaves, they do no harm, and they perform a useful service as pollinators. I was hooked from the age of 10 when I encountered these beautiful creatures in Epping Forest, Essex. Because their larvae generally feed on the leaves of various wild plants, to see the less common species, it is necessary to visit wild, unkempt areas of countryside. Such places have become more difficult to find as a result of increasing urbanisation and agricultural land use. Searches for the rarer species, in Switzerland and in the UK, took me to beautiful habitats: woodland, meadows, and hillsides. Just as rewarding has been meeting the many 'kindred spirits' during this long journey who share this fascination.
Atrocious Behaviour - Rebellion & Reckoning Inside the British Boarding School System
Atrocious behaviour tells the story of a girl's boarding school in the 1970s, where manners and obedience were core curriculum. A British Boarding school in the 1970s was a world of dormitory games, hidden contraband, and secret friends. It was also the story of their resultant punishments, school rituals and many small humiliations. While many have begun to write from the perspective of both examining the system and relating experience, this story also leads up to the drama of being expelled aged 10, the impact of the theatrical way this was handled, and learning to live with that experience in adult life After decades of sharing outrageous episodes of pint-sized rebellion, I gradually re framed the stories with new understanding both through a long career in teaching and raising two children myself. It begins with returning to the school (now long since reclaimed as a country house) 30 years later, with my husband and children, which turned out to be the beginning of new understanding of the impact of school culture on a child.
Brick walls and broken systems
At the age of 19 in the 1970s, Maxine Griffiths met three-year-old Don. He had been abandoned and placed in an horrific institution. Don's body was twisted with cerebral palsy; he had no words and no hope. And, when Don crept into Maxine's heart, he changed her life.To save Don from a cruel future in the Royal Derwent Hospital, the old mental asylum where people with disabilities lived, Maxine fought to rescue and foster Don. Sill young and single she took on Tasmania's conservative institutions, and became an advocate and pioneer for the rights of people with disabilities. She never took 'no' for an answer and helped Tasmania step out of its shocking past. Maxine had a shocking past of her own. Her own experience of family poverty, along with the trauma of family violence and abuse spurred her on to fight injustice to make a difference for others.Despite an interrupted education and leaving school after year ten, Maxine later became the CEO of various community organisations.Themes of loss and betrayal were threaded through Maxine's adulthood as she explored her sexuality and relationships. She did not want to be defined or labelled in any way and she didn't want that for Don either.Maxine saved Don's life and he saved hers. This deeply moving story is about survival and redemption and what motivates us to save others.
Shooting Up
"Powerfully moving...an extraordinary memoir." --George Stephanopoulos, political commentator and Good Morning America and ABC Sunday News anchor In the shadows of Madrid's most notorious drug slum, an American missionary family plants roots among heroin addicts and builds an unlikely church. Shooting Up is Jonathan Tepper's searing memoir of a childhood spent in San Blas, where syringes littered playgrounds and his closest friends were recovering junkies twice his age.When Elliott and Mary Tepper arrive in 1985 with their four young sons, San Blas is ground zero of Europe's heroin epidemic. While other children play soccer, Jonathan befriends bank robbers and former prostitutes. His heroes aren't athletes but men like Ra繳l and Jambri, charismatic ex-addicts who transform their lives through the revolutionary drug rehabilitation center the Teppers help found.What begins as eight men in an apartment becomes Betel, now one of the world's largest drug rehabilitation networks. But this isn't a story of institutional triumph. It's an intimate portrait of radical compassion amid the AIDS crisis, told through the eyes of a boy watching his parents choose the damned over the respectable, witnessing miracles and tragedies in equal measure.Tepper writes with unflinching honesty about the magnetic pull of the streets, the seductive danger of heroin, and the complicated love between broken people healing together. His prose--elegant yet raw--captures both the squalor of addiction and the stubborn persistence of grace. This is a memoir about choosing to see beauty in ruins, finding family among outcasts, and learning that the answer to suffering is always more love. It is a story of love and loss, but it is also a love letter to friends, family, and even learning. Part Angela's Ashes, part The Cross and the Switchblade, Shooting Up announces Tepper as a powerful new voice in memoir, one who transforms a harrowing childhood into an unforgettable testament to hope.
My Journey from Orthodoxy to Authenticity
From the moment of birth the soul is on a journey to return home to its origin. In this book Bruce Elisha records some poignant moments of that journey and provides the reader with the tools for making that journey. Used together, these tools create a synergy of movement towards that goal of total transformation to unconditional love, the state from which we all came. A work that has been a lifetime in the making is now in your hands to assist you in making your own journey back home.
When the Quiet Gets Too Loud
What happens when silence is no longer an option? In "When The Quiet Gets Too Loud-Breaking the Silence," Jenna Louise Denniss takes you on a deeply personal journey of resilience, courage, and healing. Through powerful storytelling, she breaks the chains of silence that have bound her and many others, sharing her truth in a way that is raw, honest, and profoundly moving. This memoir is more than a recounting of experience-it is a call to embrace self-expression, cultural identity, and the strength that comes from facing adversity head-on. Jenna's eloquent voice invites readers to witness the power of speaking one's truth and the healing that follows. If you seek a story that challenges, inspires, and resonates long after the last page, this book is for you. Journey with Jenna as she transforms silence into strength and proves that every voice matters.
A Sixty Year Butterfly Odyssey
Nobody can fail to be fascinated by butterflies: their beautiful colouring, intricate wing patterns, and, above all, the miraculous transformation from egg to larva to pupa and finally to the adult butterfly. Apart from the larvae of the Small and Large Whites nibbling your cabbage leaves, they do no harm, and they perform a useful service as pollinators. I was hooked from the age of 10 when I encountered these beautiful creatures in Epping Forest, Essex. Because their larvae generally feed on the leaves of various wild plants, to see the less common species, it is necessary to visit wild, unkempt areas of countryside. Such places have become more difficult to find as a result of increasing urbanisation and agricultural land use. Searches for the rarer species, in Switzerland and in the UK, took me to beautiful habitats: woodland, meadows, and hillsides. Just as rewarding has been meeting the many 'kindred spirits' during this long journey who share this fascination.
Serendipity
Serendipity is the unforgettable true story of a boy from small-town Pennsylvania who grows up to live several lives in one. From a childhood filled with close calls, mischief, and wide-eyed curiosity to the discipline and hardship of the U.S. Marine Corps, from the free-spirited hippie years of the 1960s to a long and meaningful career teaching students who are Deaf, John Reade's journey is shaped by the unexpected moments that changed his path.Told with humor, honesty, and a deep sense of gratitude, Serendipity reflects on family, luck, survival, and the strange ways life opens new doors exactly when you least expect it. Through danger, adventure, mistakes, and small miracles, Reade offers a heartfelt look at how unplanned discoveries can lead to purpose and transformation.More than a memoir of events, this is a story about paying attention to the moments that matter, the ones that guide us, toughen us, surprise us, and ultimately define who we become. Readers who enjoy inspiring life stories, military memoirs, coming-of-age journeys, and teacher narratives will be drawn to this engaging and deeply human account of a life lived fully.
From Boo, With Love
From Boo, With Love is an intimate collection of stories and verse from Richard W. "Boo" Turner, Sr., a World War II pilot, artist, Scout executive, devoted husband, and lifelong storyteller. Gathered here for the first time, these unpublished writings reveal a man whose extraordinary life was defined not by grand events alone, but by humor, service, faith, and unwavering love for his wife, Caroline, and their family.In these pages, Boo invites readers into moments big and small: boyhood adventures in Depression-era New York, family escapades across decades and states, lessons learned through parenthood, church life, Scouting, storms, friendships, and quiet acts of devotion. His poems, tender, spiritual, and reflective, trace the inner landscape of a man who walked through joy and grief with equal honesty.Heartfelt and lighthearted, From Boo, With Love preserves the voice of a man who believed deeply in gratitude, storytelling, and the everyday miracles of an ordinary-extraordinary life. This book is both a tribute and a gift: a legacy of memory, humor, faith, and love passed from one generation to the next.
A.D. Hope
The first biography of A.D. Hope, one of Australia's greatest poets.Alec Derwent Hope (1907-2000) was one of Australia's most acclaimed poets. His first collection was not published until he was forty-eight years old, mainly because of its sexual nature and fears of censorship, but its release cemented his reputation as the pre-eminent Australian poet of his time.This biography recounts Hope's early life in rural Tasmania, the influences of his education at Sydney and Oxford universities, his notoriety as a critic and wit in the 1940s and '50s, and his career as a poet and academic, which placed him at the centre of Australian literary life for over fifty years.Drawing on Hope's poetry, notebooks and surviving letters to friends, biographer Susan Lever examines the many contrasts and contradictions of Hope's life: a polite, softly spoken man with a savage wit; a professor who refused to confine himself to the narrow specialisations of the academy; an intellectual with an emotionally complex inner life who lived in an outwardly conventional way in ordinary Australian suburbia; a poet responding to the major cultural shifts of the twentieth century and concluding that the contemporary poet's task was the renewal of tradition.
Mjede
This novel takes the reader through the two factual experiences of the characters from 1999 and 2023. It shows the tension, fear, friendship, love and danger they faced during military operations alongside the tension, fear, love and anxiety they faced during diagnosis and treatment within the NHS.The book moves the focal character Stephen Harton through these two life changing events, altering between the decades, placing the reader firmly into Stephen's world, with a descriptive narrative that can place the reader there, as if they were with him.
Flying to Other Places
Flying to Other Places is a memoir where a teenage soldier comes home with various issues not immediately recognizable, causing him to spend the better part of his life trying to understand what happened. Noticing something in midlife, he begins a journey of reflections, revisiting his youth, the Vietnam War, the effect it had on how he lived his life, and in the end finally coming to an understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder and sacrifice.
Our Last Steps
Dani has written this book in a very honest way, about the effects of having a spinal injury, brain injury, losing a child and how to continue and maintain a life the best she can and the challenges she faces on a daily basis.Dani was an outgoing, confident person who enjoyed her life and travels. Meeting the love of her life and having a beautiful honeymoon baby... but tragedy lay ahead.This is one family's story of how they faced the loss of their only daughter and dealt with life-changing injuries. Whilst Dan had to face the possibility that he may lose both his girls.She now faces each day with courage, navigating pain, grief, and the impact of events that changed her world forever.All proceeds from "Our Last Steps" are being donated between "2Wish" & "Swanage Carnival", two organisations that mean a lot to the whole family.
A School of Their Own
As an Ivy League student in the 1960s, Michael Gross's optimistic perception of America was shattered. When appalling social inequality became immediate for him - first in the Deep South and later in the Navajo Nation - it struck a nerve.In his first case as a cub lawyer at a War-on-Poverty legal services office in Window Rock, Arizona, Gross was assigned to file a lawsuit to reopen a high school in Ramah, New Mexico. He would spend the next fifty years helping tribes achieve self-governance, a dream they chased through centuries of betrayal by the U.S. government.This is the story of the son of Holocaust survivors who forged an unlikely alliance with his Native clients: to educate their children, preserve their culture and language, and adapt to political and economic realities on their own terms."A School of Their Own is a vivid and important account of Mike Gross's remarkable half-century mission fighting for Navajo legal rights...full of fascinating and poignant stories, unforgettable portraits, and historic legal victories overcoming the dark legacy of boarding schools and forced assimilation."- Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author"A must-read for anyone curious about how the national tragedy of Native American boarding schools and forced assimilation came to a screeching halt, thanks to the people who ushered in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975."- Bobbie Greene Kilberg, former White House Fellow and President Emeritus, Northern Virginia Technology Council
Auschwitz #34207
NEW EDITION. NEW MATERIAL ABOUT JOEIn 1945 Joe walked out of a Nazi concentration camp. His story has never been told - until now.Shortly before dawn on a frigid morning in Radom, Poland, German soldiers forced twenty-one year-old Icek "Joe" Rubinsztejn onto a crowded, open-air truck. The next day, several around him were dead. From there, things got worse for young Joe-much worse. Joe arrived at Auschwitz on April 30, 1942. Now, in his nineties, Joe reveals how he survived several of the most notorious concentration camps when so many others perished. His is a remarkable narrative-a unique story of endurance, courage and faith.Barefooted when he was seized by the Nazis, Joe became one of New York's leading shoe designers-working with companies whose shoes were sought after by First Ladies and movie stars alike. Joe's story bears witness to the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. While the Nazis took everything else, they were unable to take his unassailable joy.Joe's story is one of discovering light in the darkest of places, an inspiration for us all.
Dancing out of the Dark
In Dancing Out of the Dark, Karin tells the story of a love that looked intoxicating, intelligent, and deeply connected-until it revealed itself as something far more dangerous. Drawn together by tango and late-night jazz clubs in Buenos Aires, she and Cem share a connection that feels almost fated. But beneath the rhythm and romance lies emotional manipulation, control, and a slow erosion of self.With unflinching honesty and lyrical insight, this memoir traces the anatomy of a narcissistic relationship-how charm disguises control, how silence becomes punishment, and how love can quietly turn into self-abandonment. Through memories of childhood conditioning, intimate relationships, and the seductive world of tango, Karin reveals how empathy, strength, and independence can paradoxically make a woman vulnerable to emotional abuse.This is not a story of revenge or diagnosis. It is a story of clarity. Of recognizing patterns. Of understanding that healing does not come from confrontation, but from reclaiming one's inner voice and dignity.Dancing Out of the Dark is for readers who have loved deeply, lost themselves quietly, and are ready to find their way back-step by step, breath by breath, into the light.
The Woman Who Wouldn't Quit
This powerful memoir chronicles Paula Aldis's extraordinary journey from receiving a type 1 diabetes diagnosis at twelve years old to becoming a woman of unshakeable resilience by sixty. Through decades of medical challenges, including leg amputation, multiple surgeries, kidney disease, cancer, and medical malpractice, Paula demonstrates that life's greatest struggles can become our most profound triumphs.From military base to base as a child, through marriage to a Navy serviceman, to raising two adopted children while managing debilitating health conditions, Paula's story is one of unwavering determination. She faced near-death experiences, fought a lengthy malpractice lawsuit, supported her son through schizophrenia, and rebuilt her marriage, all while maintaining her signature strength and humor.Written with raw honesty and deep faith, this memoir reveals how scars can become sources of strength, how prayer sustains through the darkest moments, and how purpose can be found in the midst of pain. Paula proves that when you can't change your circumstances, you can change how you rise above them. Her story will inspire anyone facing overwhelming challenges to find their own path from struggle to triumph.
The Goan Rhapsody
The book is a snapshot of Goa in the 80's and 90's from the perspective of the author. It talks about the everyday life of the average middle class Goan and is a re-telling of stories and recipes passed down through the generations of the author's family. Some recipes are family ones passed down to the author by his grandmother and mother, while other's are the author's own takes on some traditional classics.
The Essential... Harry Styles
Harry Styles' rise to mega stardom is undeniable.From boy band heartthrob to global pop phenomenon, Styles has dominated both the music and fashion worlds for over 15 years and continues to break creative boundaries, and produce absolute bangers.Beloved as much for his charisma as for his melodic vocals, Harry delivers hit after hit, and sells out stadiums the world over. Yet even with such wild success, he stays true to his humble roots.The Essential... Harry Styles is his inspirational story in full. A must for all harries!The Essential... series Celebrating the world's best-loved popular icons and cultural luminaries, these are The Essential guidebooks, packed with facts, quotes, photos and stories.
Faith Stronger Than Bullets
Faith Stronger Than Bullets is a raw and riveting testimony of survival, loss, and unshakable faith in the face of unimaginable tragedy.When a violent shooting shattered Kashe's world-taking the life of her boyfriend, the father of her three children and stepfather to another-she was left fighting for her own life. Surviving multiple surgeries, physical disfigurement, public scrutiny, and the crushing weight of shame, she faced not only the agony of grief but the frustration of a legal system that felt painfully unjust.But the bullets that tore through her body could not destroy what God was building in her spirit.Through every hospital room, courtroom disappointment, whispered doubt, and sleepless night, Kashe discovered a faith forged in fire. What began as desperate clinging became steadfast surrender. What felt like the end became the beginning of a life fully given to Christ.With unflinching honesty, Faith Stronger Than Bullets walks readers through trauma, injustice, motherhood in the aftermath of loss, and the slow, sacred rebuilding of hope. This is more than a survival story-it is a declaration that suffering does not get the final word.For anyone who has questioned God in the dark, wrestled with shame, or wondered how to move forward after devastation, Kashe's journey offers proof that faith-when rooted in Christ-can be stronger than bullets.
Falling Into Film
From the bombed-out streets of 1940s London to the dizzying heights of Superman's world, this first part of Paul's career is nothing short of extraordinary and reads like the most thrilling adventure film never made. Beginning as a photographic model and understudy to Sir Roger Moore in The Saint, he absorbed the technical and artistic skills that would make him one of the most respected stunt performers, coordinators, and 2nd unit directors in the film and TV world. His early work on The Avengers, The Prisoner, and the Beatles film, Help! led naturally into stunt work in the 1960s.His breakthrough came with The Dirty Dozen and A Bridge Too Far, launching a career spanning six decades. From Pinewood to Hollywood, Paul's helped shape cinema's most defining action sequences, across the industry's most coveted franchises - Bond, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and blockbusters including Superman II/III, Aliens and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.This is the beginning of the story behind the man and the stunt scenes that defined a generation of filmmaking. The adventure continues in books two and three.
The Goan Rhapsody
The book is a snapshot of Goa in the 80's and 90's from the perspective of the author. It talks about the everyday life of the average middle class Goan and is a re-telling of stories and recipes passed down through the generations of the author's family. Some recipes are family ones passed down to the author by his grandmother and mother, while other's are the author's own takes on some traditional classics.
Shadows in the Burmese Jungle
Often referred to as the Forgotten War, the Battle for Burma was fought in a geographically challenging and isolated region far from the major population centers of the time. But for the people who took part in it, the battle was a personal struggle to defend their homes from imminent Japanese invasion. Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Reginald Maddox was one such soldier.Born in Burma to a single mother, Patrick Maddox and his twin sister were adopted by the very doctor who oversaw their birth, Dr. Maddox. In 1941, Patrick enlisted in the Burma Rifles and was seconded to the Office of Strategic Services-Detachment 101. He spent the majority of the war behind enemy lines, using guerrilla warfare tactics to take down enemies in the hot, humid jungles.Part memoir and part autobiography, Shadows in the Burmese Jungle combines Patrick Maddox's personal diaries with military records and first-person accounts from fellow soldiers to convey the challenges, sacrifices, and dangerous environment faced during the famous Battle of Burma. A perfect book for World War II history enthusiasts, it chronicles the physical and psychological toll of war, the heroism and sacrifice demanded from both soldiers and civilians, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
The Rose and the Fire
compelling portrait of Alfred Holland, a highly respected Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, and his wife Joy.Drawing on rich archival material and intimate family recollection, Jonathan Holland brings scholarly skill and moral insight to bear on their shared journey of faith, leadership, loss and service. Sensitive but unflinching in its treatment of the Royal Commission's findings, this book is both a tribute and a testimony to character shaped by hardship, to faith tested in public and to the quiet strength of a marriage that endured.Jonathan Holland has told this remarkable story with grace and honesty.- Peter Kurti, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Independent Studies, and former Rector, St James King St, Sydney. Jonathan Holland is a retired Anglican bishop, and author of Anglicans, Trams and Paw Paws: the story of the diocese of Brisbane 1945-1980 and The Destiny and Passion of Philip Nigel Warrington Strong. He is a son, husband, father, and grandfather.
Where Traditions Meet
"Where Traditions Meet" will tell the story of how Israel baseball, and one man's vision and persistence, overcame all odds to reach the precipice of greatness in the small world of international baseball. "Where Traditions Meet" forges together the illustrious tradition of Judaism and Israel, with the legendary tradition of baseball. It shows that victory is not always inspirational, and that defeat is not always heartbreaking, but perseverance is crucial. Fight on and endure, to fight once again. As Yogi Berra once said, "Baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical."This book will provide the inside story of all the events, first-hand, from the establishment of the Israel Association of Baseball; the initial ineptness of our national teams; the first, last and only season of pro-ball, so far; the World Baseball Classic agony of defeat to Spain and ecstasy of victory over Great Britain; the visit to Israel that resulted in the documentary movie, "Heading Home"; shocking the world at the WBC in Korea and Japan; and the ultimate quest for gold through Bulgaria, Lithuania, Bonn and Bologna, to the covid tainted and delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo. The context of life in Israel, making Aliyah, fielding a team in the midst of missile attacks, and the Jewish identity and character of the players and coaches involved is explored and documented. "Where Traditions Meet" will tell my story, from my perspective and point of view, but will be supported by quotes, articles and material collected over the years - I have a house full of artifacts that will complement my recollections. This book will take the reader from the New York City diamonds of the 1960's to the land of milk and honey, a journey borne of Zionism and idealism. As reality hits and baseball grows from a hobby to a passion, the voyage continues and expounds, and the IAB, with 750 players, one true baseball field, and no federation office, finds itself squarely on the international baseball map, as one of only six countries to play baseball in the Olympic games. A miraculous achievement. "Where Traditions Meet" will appeal to people who love baseball, who love Israel, and who love a story of resolve, tenacity, and devotion, with a few timely hits thrown in.
Finding Simba
I have only been attracted to about five men in my life. They were all brave, adventurous, strong men and most of them had well-made bodies.They were practical and survivors. They knew how to look after their loved ones in times of danger but could be difficult in everyday life.They were very basic in their manner but knew how to put on the old charm when they wanted something or someone. I married the first one; the others I just looked at and hardly touched.Finding Simba is part 1: It is a story written by 96-year-old Letty Neal about falling in love in the 1940s, travelling to Uganda after the war, and sharing a life with her husband-a man the local tribes named Simba.
Called to Serve
How does the son of Canadian immigrants become a two-time Cabinet Secretary under President Ronald Reagan? Donald P. Hodel never expected to reach the heights of power-yet at every turn, service called.From young Republican activist to Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Interior, Hodel's journey exemplifies a life shaped by faith, integrity, and reluctant duty. With humility and candor, he shares the mentors who guided him, pivotal career moments, and the enduring love story with his wife Barbara.For history and political buffs, Called to Serve offers a refreshing look at an era when political leaders worked across the aisle, agreed to disagree, and still got along. In today's divided climate, Hodel's memoir reminds us when bipartisan cooperation wasn't just possible-it was how things got done.A testament to principled leadership and answering the call to serve.----------------------Don Hodel has written an insightful autobiography which includes a historical and three-dimensional look inside my father's administration where he served in two Cabinet Secretary roles. Don was and is a true Reaganite and I congratulate him on his memoir. Michael Reagan, Columnist and radio host; author, The City on a HillDon Hodel is a man of faith, family, and country. He has always been a strong but kind and thoughtful leader who sets an extraordinary example for those who know him and have worked with him. There is much to learn from someone who has led a full and good life, in public service and business, as his outstanding book accounts. I am honored to have worked with Don and to call him my friend. There is so much to learn from him and his outstanding book. I wholeheartedly encourage as many people as possible to read it and share it with family and friends. Mark R. Levin, Author and broadcaster; The Mark Levin Show (Westwood One); Life, Liberty & Levin (Fox News)
It's Not a Meal Without Bread
How does a family become American? What gets carried forward--and what gets left behind?In late June 2019, just days before renowned environmental anthropologist Stanton Green was set to leave for his final field season in Ireland, a throat cancer diagnosis stopped him in his tracks. Instantly, his best-laid plans went awry. Stanton found himself transported not to a hospital bed, but back through a century of family history. What began as a diary of dreams during chemotherapy blossomed into this profound memoir that he had been putting off writing for a decade. In It's not a Meal Without Bread, Stanton Green explores his family's 100-year journey through immigration, identity, and assimilation. With a storyteller's heart and a scholar's lens, he invites readers into the kitchens, temples, classrooms, and baseball fields that shaped his life-from the tenements of Brooklyn, to the dig sites of Ireland, to a cancer ward in Manhattan. Relive the humor and heart of a Jewish upbringing: the cultural imperative of Grampa David's proclamation that IT'S NOT A MEAL WITHOUT BREAD at every Sunday dinner, the wild stories of Uncle Hy in the Brooklyn underworld, and the journey of a young man who becomes an activist, an archaeologist, and a "baseball anthropologist."Stanton weaves together an intimate, anecdotal feast of a life lived with intention and love. This is a story of intergenerational connection, the great Jewish migration to America, and one family's assimilation from the tenements of the Lower East Side to the suburbs of Long Island. Ultimately, it is a testament to the enduring moral imperative to "heal the world," and the deep wisdom found when one looks back on a life well-loved-and, not least, one's life feast, served with bread.Part memoir, part love letter to family and culture, this is a story of connection across generations-and the healing power of remembering who we are. Green offers a powerful reflection on what it means to "become American"-and what we risk forgetting if we don't tell our stories.
Conversion Immersion
They met while working in jail. They crossed the street. They became Jewish.After more than sixty years as devoted Christians, a married couple finds themselves standing at an unexpected threshold, drawn not by doubt, but by curiosity, study, and an overwhelming sense of belonging.Filled with laugh-out-loud moments, poignant encounters with Holocaust survivors, Zoom Shabbat services during COVID, and the occasional awkward question about Jesus, this memoir is as entertaining as it is profound. It's a story about faith without fear, tradition without triumphalism, and love without conditions.Honest, provocative, and deeply hopeful, Conversion Immersion is not about changing religions. It is about changing how we understand God, each other, and our responsibility to heal the world. This book tells the surprising true story of two lifelong Christians who never planned to convert to Judaism, until they finally did.
Velcro Kisses
In this candid and compelling memoir, Susan Stirling shares her raw and honest journey involving religious childhood indoctrination, trauma bonding to prophecy and end-times theology, self-discovery, healing, and reclaiming her personal narrative. From moments of struggle to hard-won clarity, Susan offers a story of resilience, courage, and the power of determining and telling one's own truth. With compassion, she reflects on her journey, provides the insight she so desperately needed at major junctions in her life, and invites readers to reflect on their own stories and to give themselves the grace that wasn't offered to them. Thoughtful, inspiring, and deeply human, this memoir is for anyone seeking understanding, healing, and the strength to accept and reclaim their story. ABOUT THE AUTHORSusan Stirling has worn many hats over the years: daughter, sister, wife, and mother. She has been a business partner, coach, spiritual worker, and teammate, and sometimes all of them in the same week. She has walked alongside individuals finding their footing, couples navigating change, businesses chasing big dreams, and non-profits working to make a difference. Each connection has left its mark, shaping not just the work she did, but the person she has become. If there's one thing she's learned-it's that the journey changes you. Today, she works with individuals untangling their own complex histories-especially those navigating patterned self-abandonment, undue influence, or religious trauma. With a trauma-sensitive lens, as well as being a certified coach based on the neuroscience of human development, Susan help others discover the power of small steps, safe connections, and living from the inside out.
In the Space Between
Most of us don't leave because we're brave.We leave because staying would break something inside us.In In the Space Between, Jo Lensink explores the raw, human territory of transition-those seasons when a relationship ends, a job dissolves, a life unravels, or you realise the version of yourself you built no longer fits.Through intimate storytelling, lyrical reflection, and piercing honesty, Lensink writes about shame and people-pleasing, fear and courage, desire and curiosity, and the strange tenderness of starting again before you feel ready. These pages move through the things we run from, the longings that pull us forward, and the fragile middle where identity reshapes itself.Part memoir, part meditation, part companion for uncertain seasons, this is not a book of instructions. It is a mirror. A pause. A hand held out in the dark.Spanning personal narrative and poetry, In the Space Between speaks to anyone who has ever stood at the edge of change-heart racing, unsure whether they are escaping or evolving.It is for the leavers. The returners. The ones rebuilding quietly. The ones learning to trust themselves again.If you are here-uncertain, aching, becoming-this book is for you.
A Man of Exquisite Honour
From the trenches of World War I to the heart of revolutionary China, Harold J. Timperley bore witness to some of the most turbulent events of the 20th Century. As a foreign correspondent, he exposed the brutality of Japan's war in China, risking his life to document the horrors of the Nanking Massacre. As a propagandist for the Chinese government of the day, he helped shape global understanding of the conflict, and later as a diplomat, he walked the razor's edge between impartiality and conviction during Indonesia's fight for independence. In this meticulously researched biography, Brendan Cook unravels the complex legacy of a man revered by some and reviled by others-a man whose work influenced war crimes tribunals, challenged Western involvement in Asia, and helped to forge the modern Asian narrative. Drawing on personal letters, archival records, and eyewitness accounts, A Man of Exquisite Honour is a compelling portrait of a brilliant, difficult, and deeply principled figure whose life was defined by truth, justice, and sacrifice.
