A highly decorated captain in the U.S. Army, Luis MontalvÁn never backed down from a challenge during his two tours of duty in Iraq. After returning home from combat, however, the pressures of his physical wounds, traumatic brain injury, and crippling post-traumatic stress disorder began to take their toll. Haunted by the war and in constant physical pain, he soon found himself unable to climb a simple flight of stairs or face a bus ride to the VA hospital. He drank; he argued; ultimately, he cut himself off from those he loved. Alienated and alone, unable to sleep or bend over without pain, he began to wonder if he would ever recover.
Then Luis met Tuesday, a beautiful and sensitive golden retriever trained to assist the disabled. Tuesday had lived amongst prisoners and at a home for troubled boys, blessing many lives; he could turn on lights, open doors, and sense the onset of anxiety and flashbacks. But because of a unique training situation and sensitive nature, he found it difficult to trust in or connect with a human being—until Luis.
Until Tuesday is the story of how two wounded warriors, who had given so much and suffered the consequences, found salvation in each other. It is a story about war and peace, injury and recovery, psychological wounds and spiritual restoration. But more than that, it is a story about the love between a man and dog, and how together they healed each other’s souls.
Are you living the life you know you're meant to live? Dr. Carolle Jean-Murat wasn’t, until a national disaster called her home—both physically and spiritually. If you've ever been conflicted about the life you are living, this book will light your fire as to why you must “live close to the bones of who you really are.”
Born and raised in Haiti to a family of healers, US trained physician Carolle Jean-Murat came to be regarded as a world-class surgeon. But her success harbored a secret: in the operating room, she could quickly intuit the root cause of her patient’s illness, often times knowing she could help the patient without surgery. Dr. jean-Murat knew that to fellow surgeons, her intuition was best left unmentioned. But when the devastating earthquake hit Haiti and Carolle returned to help, she had to acknowledge the shaman she had become.
This mesmerizing story takes us inside the secret world of voodoo as a healing practice, and sheds light on why it remains a mystery to most and shunned by many.
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED what it's like to work in patient's homes as a private-duty nurse? Get ready for a rare inside view of ten of the most memorable cases from Nurse Meredith's 30-year career. She takes you on an unforgettable journey that will make you laugh, cry, surprise you, sometimes shock you, and ultimately enlighten you about a nurse's life, one that society typically takes for granted.
ON THE JOURNEY YOU WILL:
See the challenges and difficulties a home-care private-duty nurse goes through just to get to her patient's bedside.
Discover the various sources of the difficulties and challenges that sometimes seem like the front lines of war.
Navigate through the bullets, landmines, and roadblocks to provide the care that patients so desperately need and the author so desperately wants to give.
Feel the joys of triumph, and agonizing defeats, of Nurse Meredith.
Renew your spirit and appreciation of others.
Meredith V. Downes, RN has been a Registered Professional Nurse for more than 30 years. She has worked in hospitals where she was assigned to medical-surgical units, orthopedics, oncology, pediatrics, the ICU and the ER. She has worked in nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, as a jail nurse, and has worked on hundreds of cases as a private-duty home-care nurse.
Here, she offers you ten of her most memorable private duty home care cases...fasten your seat belts for an unforgettable journey!
Where there's smoke, there's fire ~ And she's igniting!
Like all children of well-meaning parents, Gina was raised under the impression she could be anything she wanted to be when she grew up. Her choice to become a firefighter lit the spark fueled by discrimination, and her own determination, which caused a backdraft in its wake. This is a story of one woman's journey of braving the flames, to ultimately rising from the ashes finding empowerment in a man's world. Join her on her journey as she not only changes a system but also shares her process of becoming a firegal, a force that is inextinguishable!
Gina Geldbach-Hall is an acclaimed motivational speaker, author, and coach with 25-years of emergency services experience from EMT and firefighter to battalion chief. She holds degrees in Fire Science Technologies, Fire Service Management and Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and Advertising. Gina is also a graduate of the Department of Homeland Security, National Fire Academy, Executive Fire Officer Program. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada where she values time with family, her two wonderful sons and friends. She continues to inspire leadership and service to help others ignite the flame of empowerment within themselves and those around them.
When author Tricia Spencer acquired 40,000 pieces of fan mail from the Rogers' estate, she discovered much more than typical fan adulation. Nestled amidst never-before-seen photos, poetry, art and songs were amazing personal Roy and Dale stories.
The 1990s letters were written when Roy and Dale began facing health challenges, and in spite of it being nearly a half a century beyond their Hollywood heyday, fans rallied to express just how much their American heroes had influenced and altered the paths of their lives. Additionally, Ms. Spencer invited Roy and Dale's children, family friends, western silver screen stars, western authors, and others to pen their own personal essays for the book. Elton John and Bernie Taupin's Roy Rogers song, the sketch art of stuntman and famed western artist, Walt LaRue, and memories shared by celebrity friends blend seamlessly with the expression and imaginative artistic creations of Roy and Dale's cherished fans.
Many words have been devoted to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, but never before have those words been gathered into the revelation that is The Touch of Roy and Dale. A book for all generations, it easily answers the question: What is a hero? Roy and Dale's greatest accomplishment was never their celebrity. As the collective voices of this book so poignantly, sometimes humorously, sometimes rawly, reveal, it was their uncommon and generous humanity that made them heroes.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book benefits Roy and Dale's charity, The Happy Trails Children's Foundation.
An all-American, midwestern farm girl, Jennifer Myers had worked hard toward a successful career as a dancer in Chicago. But just as her star was rising, she fell for the kingpin of a drug trafficking operation. Drawn to his life of excitement, she soon acquiesced to driving marijuana across the country, making easy money she stacked in shoeboxes and spent like an heiress.
Steeped inside moral ambiguity, she sought to cleanse her soul with the guidance of spiritual gurus and New Age prophets—to no avail. Only time in a federal prison made her face up to and understand her choices. It was there, at rock bottom, that she discovered that her real prison was the one she had unwittingly made inside herself and where she could start rebuilding a life of purpose and ethical pursuit.
Paramhansa Yogananda's classic Autobiography of a Yogi was more about the saints Yogananda met than about himself—in spite of the fact that Yogananda was much greater than many he described.
Now, one of Yogananda's few remaining direct disciples tells the untold story of this great spiritual master and world teacher: his teenage miracles, his challenges in coming to America, his national lecture campaigns, his struggles to fulfill his world-changing mission amid incomprehension and painful betrayals, and his ultimate triumphant achievement.
Swami Kriyananda's subtle grasp of his great guru's inner nature reveals Yogananda's many-sided and extraordinary greatness. This book includes many never-before-published anecdotes.
What song do you play when you’re being robbed at gunpoint?
What happens when a swanky Cabaret performance turns into a virtual vomit-fest?
And when you’re stuck on a frozen, high mountain pass with no way down—who gets eaten first: the drummer or the roadie?
These scenarios, plus many more, told by musicians, artists, and managers—in their own words—make up “Another Nightmare Gig from Hell.”
Presented by Nick Zelinger and Tammy Brackett, “Another Nightmare Gig from Hell” offers up the humorous, sometimes scary, mundane, and downright touching stories of what musicians encounter in the studio, on the road, plying their craft, and enduring another possible “nightmare.”
The terrifying legend of Count Dracula silently skulking through the Transylvania night may have terrified generations of filmgoers, but the tall, elegant vampire captivated and electrified a young Jane Congdon, igniting a dream to one day see his mysterious land of ancient castles and misty hollows.
Four decades later she finally takes her long-awaited trip—never dreaming that it would unearth decades-buried memories of life with an alcoholic mother, and trigger a life-changing inner journey. Unfolding in 18 days as she followed the footsteps of Dracula from Bucharest to the Carpathian Mountains and to the Black Sea, Dracula's legend becomes the prism through which she would revisit her childhood and finally lay claim to a happiness she had never known.
A memoir full of surprises, Jane's story is one of hope, love—and second chances.
The colorful and important story of the education of a young composer (the author as a young man) who has quit popular music and has begun to write his first symphony. No special knowledge of music or painting is required of the reader. In his teens, as a guitar playing prodigy, Webster Young was acquainted with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Baxter (Doobie Brothers), and John Kay (Steppenwolf). His life changed forever after he met, in the tumult of Berkeley in 1968, a brilliant expressionist painter, Kenneth Frantz, a follower of Carl Jung's psychology, who became his mentor. Young discovered a new basis for meaning in art and music that, even today, could have an important impact on the art world. Frantz's paintings are seen for the first time here in 14 illustrations. Young converted to writing neoclassical music and is now, thirty years later, the composer of 135 works, with symphonies, ballets, and operas to his credit. This is the memoir of his education after his conversion to classical music, full of important artistic ideas. It is also about the influences of people and places upon him - first, that of Kenneth Frantz the painter, and later, that of the city of Paris and the Juilliard School. A third of the book concerns the author's first time in Paris; the last third is about the Juilliard School and New York. 69 illustrations include paintings by Chagall, Rouault, Corot, and Kenneth Miller Frantz..
Home of the cheese steak, the movie Rocky, Independence Hall, TastyCakes and the Mummers.
It is a city of distinctive neighborhoods. The biggest, most interesting and colorful is South Philadelphia—where Dick Sheeran grew up.
Little did Dick know that one day he would be so lucky to see his by-line in the Philadelphia newspapers for eight years, hear his voice on Philly radio for five years, and see his face on television in the City of Brotherly Love every day for 30 years—all in his hometown.
He arrived in Africa in the middle of the night, unexpected and ill-prepared for the volatile Congo of the mid-1960s—police stops, political turmoil—a culture still reeling from colonial oppression. Plunged without experience into an assignment with meager resources and conflicting expectations, he came face to face with his strengths and his limits. With each Congo dawn came new obstacles and opportunities that demanded action. John Franz describes in this poignant memoir how he navigated the unique and exotic situations he faced with unexpected results. With wit and alacrity, he illustrates how the Congo turned an obligation of alternate service during the Viet Nam War into a crucible for a transformation that recreated his life.
It is extremely difficult to watch a loved one decline as dementia ravages his or her mind, robbing him or her of memory, thinking abilities, and judgment. In her touching memoir, I Will Never Forget, Elaine C. Pereira shares the sometimes heartbreaking and occasionally humorous story of her mother’s journey through dementia, as seen through the eyes of her little girl.
Pereira begins by offering entertaining glimpses into her own childhood and feisty teenage years. Through it all, Pereira shares how her mom’s unconditional love and creative parenting style helped mold an opinionated young woman into a resourceful adult who eventually would move mountains on her mother’s behalf. As Betty Ward slowly begins to wander down the dark and narrow corridors of Alzheimer’s, Pereira details her mother’s amazing ability to mask the truth until something as innocuous as a drapery rod suddenly launches a waterfall of events. As their roles shift and a new paradigm forms, Pereira transforms into a caregiver who blindly navigates dementia’s unpredictable haze while her mother orchestrates Houdini-like disappearances and surprisingly rallies to take charge of her own destiny.
I Will Never Forget shares a powerful, emotional story that can help people affected by dementia take comfort in knowing that they are not alone.
Few people then or now know about the clandestine war that the CIA ran in Vietnam, using the Green Berets for secret operations throughout Southeast Asia. This was not the Vietnam War of the newsreels, the body counts, rice paddy footage, and men smoking cigarettes on the sandbag bunkers. This was a shadow directive of deep-penetration interdiction, reconnaissance, and assassination missions conducted by a selected few Special Forces teams, usually consisting of only two Americans and a handful of Chinese mercenaries, called Nungs. These specialized units deployed quietly from forward operations bases to prowl through agendas that, for security reasons, were seldom completely understood by the men themselves. Hostage of Paradox is the first-hand account by one of these elite team leaders. Moore is a highly decorated former Green Beret sergeant whose operations led him and a few Chinese, with whom he could barely communicate by hand signals alone, through a labyrinth of excruciating close calls and multiple woundings, miles deep in the jungles of enemy-controlled wilderness. His descriptions of these little-known missions crackle with fearful immediacy and the vivid imagery that only someone who has lived the experience can summon. To read his words is to be transported to the shadows of a small, murky corner in military history.
At age twenty-six, author Michelle L. Whitlock thought she had it all: she was in the best physical shape of her life, she had a promising career, and she had a budding romance that looked like it could finally be the real thing. Then doctors informed her that she had HPV. Weeks later her worst nightmare became her reality: she was diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer.
In this memoir, Michelle narrates the story of her ordeal. She tells how she took charge of her healthcare and pursued an experimental surgery that treated the cancer while preserving her fertility. The surgery was a success, but just years later—a week after the love of her life proposed—Michelle discovered her cancer was back.
How I Lost My Uterus and Found My Voice follows Michelle as she wonders if she will live or die, have children, or enjoy sex again. This is one woman's story of falling in love, battling HPV and cervical cancer, facing sexual dysfunction, confronting her conflicting feelings about motherhood, and becoming her own best advocate. Inspirational and honest, this memoir tells the emotional story of love, loss, resilience, and survival.
While the story of the Negro Leagues has been well documented, few baseball fans know about the Japanese American Nisei Leagues, or of their most influential figure, Kenichi Zenimura (1900-1968). A talented player who excelled at all nine positions, Zenimura was also a respected manager and would become the Japanese American community’s baseball ambassador. He worked tirelessly to promote the game at home and abroad, leading goodwill trips to Asia, helping to negotiate tours of Japan by Negro League All-Stars and Babe Ruth, and establishing a 32-team league behind the barbed wire of Arizona’s Gila River Internment Camp during World War II. This first biography of the "Father of Japanese-American Baseball" delivers a thorough and fascinating account of Zenimura’s life.
Two Destitutes is a novel based on real life characters. Ismael is a beggar, a homeless vagabond that lives on the margin of society, surviving by the mercy of his fellow-man. Sergio Fabricio, the protagonist, is an ARMY gunner that served two tours of duty in the front lines of Afghanistan. Upon his return, after suffering incredible tragedies in the horrors of war, the gunner realizes that society in this country is not prepared to receive its ex-combatants; the skills he learned in the battle field are of little use in civilian society despite the fact that soldiers sacrifice so much for her. When the two characters meet, they become daily partners in misery, they share misfortunes and united live in the lowest level of need. They have reached a critical point in their life, a raw and painful existence without pretensions, trusting only in the fate and the hand of God. What did it take for him to control his destiny one more time, what happened that gave him back his will to live?
“ZASU PITTS IS THE FEMALE CHARLIE CHAPLIN.” ~ Director Dean Goodman
“What a wonderful treasure of information and anecdotes about one of the most beloved actresses in films. I loved her unique comedy, and had the privilege of seeing her perform live. Many thanks to Gayle Haffner for her untiring love and work!” ~ Ann B. Davis, Actress
“An astonishing collection of material - a feast for ZaSu fans! Haffner shows us the real-life ZaSu Pitts -- a fascinating story!” ~ Mike Brotherton, Founder of the ZaSu Pitts Film Festival, Parsons, Kansas
“Haffner imparts the breath of life to a favorite and almost forgotten legend, bringing us ZaSu’s full career and the personal life she deftly kept private and away from the press. ZaSu’s humanity will touch all who renew their acquaintance with this great star.” ~ Edd Bayes, Co-founder of the Gale Storm Appreciation Society
“Gayle Haffner gives a fascinating look at the life and career of one of cinema’s great, versatile actresses -- the actress who could steal scenes with a flutter of her hands will steal your heart with her story. This authorized biography is well written and painstakingly researched to give the reader the inside story of one of our national treasures.” ~ Ron Baker, Co-founder of the Gale Storm Appreciation Society
Sixty-five years after the end of WWII, author Alice M. Flynn, uncovers the story of her father’s role in the Battle of the Bulge, the challenges and dangers he faced as a Nazi POW and the Unforgettable memories that he would never escape. This action packed story is filled with touching stories of a heroic, patriotic and humble man who touched the hearts of everyone he knew.
From the Author: "Daddy's got AIDS". Those three words in a phone call from my brother devastated me. It was the worst news I could have ever imagined. Not Daddy. Not that loving 81 year old retired man out there on the farm.
"Doc" Montandon, a man of great character and the best man I have ever known, died from tainted HIV blood. In very good health, Doc was subjected to unnecessary exploratory surgery and was transfused with bad blood. To make matters worse, the incident was covered up and the gentle Texas farmer was not apprised of his condition. After he began suffering from the symptoms of AIDS, my father was refused admittance and help from the same community hospital where the evil deed was perpetrated.
The Accidental Anarchist is the true story of Jacob Marateck, an Orthodox Jew who was sentenced to death three times in the early 1900s in Russia -- and lived to tell about it. He also happened to have been my grandfather. The book is based on the diaries my grandfather began keeping in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War. That was when he decided that he needed to overthrow Czar Nicholas II...
The book is not only a first-person account of a period of time that changed history (The Russo-Japanese War, which resulted in Russia losing its superpower status, and Japan emerging as the first Asian nation to defeat a European nation; this was such a serious conflict that President Teddy Roosevelt won the first Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the War to an end), but it also illustrates what life was like for Jews in the Russian-occupied territories at a time when anti-Semitism was the official government policy. Yet despite circumstances that included poverty, starvation, the horrors of war and three death sentences, my grandfather recorded his experiences in a tone of remarkable humor and optimism, and those were what helped him survive.
Paul M. Kendel (SSG Ret.) deployed with his National Guard unit out of Georgia to Iraq in 2005 hoping to use his knowledge of that land to bridge the gap between American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. However, the realities of war crushed his idealism when his buddies began dying at the hands of the enemy six weeks after their arrival. Eventually, his ongoing concern for the Iraqi people alienated some of his comrades, and he felt the sting of growing conflict within himself.
Turning to the books on Buddhist teachings he had brought with him, he found solace in the written words, but he longed for more. On a whim, he emailed Shambhala International and requested assistance. An unexpected response and ongoing support from Buddhist teacher and meditation instructor Margot Neuman helped him to retain a sane and humble humanity in a situation that often plummeted into lethal insanity.
This book addresses the horrors of war from an extraordinary human perspective. SSG. Kendel did not lose his compassion in the face of grave risk, nor did he endanger fellow soldiers while he remained true to himself—rare feats in our violent world.
Mirror Mirror: A Collection of Memoirs and Stories, Stephanie Hart’s third book, is composed of a series of fast-paced vignettes that explore her childhood, youth, family, and ancestral background through a mix of real and imagined memories and events. She recounts and interprets the unique details of her own life, bringing to life the personalities and experiences of various relatives and friends in an intimate, heartbreaking, and often humorous manner. Her rich prose is evocative and poetic, yet highly accessible and engaging. Her story becomes a window into many lives, lives most readers will find reflected in their own personal narratives, encouraging them to revisit and re-imagine their own family backgrounds.
Seamlessly blending past and present, Stephanie takes us from Manhattan of the 1950s to Moscow and Odessa circa 1800s, where she imaginatively renders the lives of her grandparents and great grandparents, and then takes us into the twenty-first century. She bares her soul by inviting readers into her world: her magical and unsettling early childhood by the sea, her years spent as the only Jewish girl in a Presbyterian boarding school, her urban high school years during which conflict with her mercurial and charismatic mother reaches a crescendo, and the weight of her father’s anger and unrealized dreams press down upon her. While acknowledging the mirror of the past, she shows us the love and friendship reflected in her current life, celebrating the generative power of each moment to transform experience.
Mirror Mirror is beautifully enhanced with well-preserved photographs of Stephanie Hart’s family. These expressive images allow us to experience the climate of other times and places as if we had been there ourselves.
In 1946 Edward Rohs was left by his unwed parents at the Angel Guardian Home to be raised by the sisters of mercy. The Sisters hoped that the parents would one day return for him. In time they married and had other children, but Ed's parents never came back for him. And they never signed the legal papers so he could be adopted by another family.
Raised by the Church chronicles the extraordinary life of Ed Rohs, a bright, mischievous boy who was raised in five institutions of the Catholic orphanage system in postwar Brooklyn, New York, from infancy in 1946 until he was discharged as an adult in 1965.
Rohs was one of thousands of children taken in by Catholic institutions during the tumultuous post-WWII years: out-of-wedlock infants, children whose fathers had been killed in the war, and children of parents in crisis. Ed gives a brief history of each institution before describing that world—the Sisters and Brothers who raised him, the food, his companions, and the Catholic community that provided social and emotional support.
When Ed finally leaves the institution after nineteen years he has a difficult time adjusting. He slowly assimilates into "normal" life and determinedly rises above his origins, achieving an advanced degree and career success, working for years in child welfare and as volunteer strength coach for the Fordham University basketball team. He hides his upbringing out of shame and fear of others' pity. But as he begins to reflect on his own story and to talk to the people who raised him, Ed begins to see a larger story intertwined with his own.
With original research based on interviews with clergymen and nuns, archival data from the New York Archdiocese, and government records, Raised by the Church tells the social history of an era when hundreds of thousands of baby boomers passed through the orphanage system.
Through the story of one man, this book gives us a much-needed historical perspective on an American society that understood and acknowledged the community's need for a safe haven.
This book is a well-documented account of Rasputin as a healer, equal rights activist and man of God, and why he was so vilified by the aristocracy that their vicious rumors became accepted as history. For nearly a century, Grigory Rasputin, spiritual advisor to Russia's last Tsar and Tsarina, has been unjustly maligned simply because history is written by the politically powerful and not by the common man. A wealth of evidence shows that Rasputin was discredited by a fanatically anti-Semitic Russian society, for advocating equal rights for the severely oppressed Jewish population, as well as for promoting peace in a pro-war era. Testimony by his friends and enemies, from all social strata, provides a picture of a spiritual man who hated bigotry, inequity and violence. The author is the great-great niece of Aron Simanovitch, Rasputin's Jewish secretary.
Rabbi Joshua Chasan says: "The historian John Lukas speaks of history as the remembered past. Delin Colón characterizes her book Rasputin and the Jews as A Reversal of History. What she attempts to do is correct the widely held view of Rasputin as an evil man who committed the worst debaucheries, substituting instead a view of Rasputin as a humanitarian, a courageous defender of Jews and other people vulnerable in pre-revolutionary Russia. She identifies the sources of the negative views of Rasputin, making a good case for the need for us to see that there are a lot of ways of remembering the past.
At a time when George Orwell's prophesy of the world of 1984 rings very true, Ms. Colón does us all a great service in showing how false stories take on the face of truth and become our understanding of the history of a certain time and place. Aside from being a good read and an important contribution to Russian and Jewish history, Rasputin and the Jews prompts the reader to delve into her or his own personal memories, to consider and reconsider how they were shaped, why, and even by whom?"
When your heart gets broken, you can either stick around and suffer through it, or get yourself gone. Alyson Mead decided to move from New York to Los Angeles to take a job as a phone psychic after a bad breakup. But as she struggles so accept her gift, while dispensing love advice to daily callers, her own dating life proves to be less than glamorous. Searching for Sassy tells the true story of how a professional psychic healed her heart and got back on track, while learning to claim, appreciate, and develop her gifts. It's a rare and humorous behind-the-scenes look into this billion-dollar industry, in a way few have ever seen. Mead's path to healing may have been different than most. But this book is for anyone who's ever felt a little different, and maybe a tad challenged in the love department.
In the memoir Potato in a Rice Bowl, Peggy Keener shares her wacky misadventures as a sincere-though misguided-Minnesota housewife struggling to create normalcy for her family while living in Japan during the 1960s. Through charming vignettes, Peggy takes a look back at her bewildering foray into the Japanese culture after her husband accepts a military assignment in a country thousands of miles away from the small prairie town of Austin, Minnesota, where she was born and raised. The mother of three boys, Peggy chronicles how she managed to settle her disoriented family and flounce headfirst into the thorny, baffling culture while her husband was miles away on military missions. As she bungles through her boys' Japanese school, grapples with the eccentricities of her home and neighbors, and reconstructs the language to her liking, she somehow ends up as a personality on Japanese national television-all with the earnest hope of melding with her new country. In this humorous, irreverent, and even soul-searching collection of anecdotes, Peggy provides an entertaining glimpse into the enigmatic Land of the Rising Sun.
Welcome! This book is about changing your shoes—literally and figuratively! Kathy Andersen left Australia to take a “break” that turned into a journey of more than ten years. Changing her corporate high heels to hiking boots started Kathy on a journey where she would experience the power we each have to be our greatest self, and to live our greatest life. In Change Your Shoes, Live Your Greatest Life, each chapter of Kathy’s journey provides insights and guided reflections to give the reader tools to chart their own journey of discovery, and to make positive decisions for a purposeful life. Kathy reveals a journey that we can each take to live our greatest life, and enables each reader to embark upon their own journey as they turn each page. Among other things, Kathy’s journey enabled her to step into the darkness of a childhood filled with abuse and isolation, and to step out knowing we are each so much greater than the worst that happens to us. She discovers the gifts and treasures waiting for each of us in each moment, and that with them, we can rise above any obstacles and soar to our greatest heights. From traveling through some of the richest and poorest countries in the world, from remote villages, to shimmering cities, to wide open spaces, to ancient ruins, to sitting under the Bodhi Tree in India where the Buddha gave his first teaching, and even to the hallways of Harvard University, Kathy discovers worlds within, around, and beyond that take us on a journey to our greatest self. We each have within us everything we need to make the changes we need to step onto a path to our greatest self, and our greatest life. Our journey starts with a simple pause that allows us to unwrap all of the extraordinary gifts within us—the gifts of our limitless potential. There are no boundaries, only infinite possibilities. So come, change your shoes, embark upon a journey through this book. Immerse your self in all that is waiting for you in this moment, to venture to your greatest life! “This book is a rare inspiration.” Ronald A. Heifetz. Founder, Center for Public Leadership. Harvard Kennedy School.
In 1964, Edwin and Jean Armbruster left their home in the United States to raise their family in the Panama Canal Zone, a little known American territory in the Central America country of Panama. In Canal Zone Daughter, Judy (Armbruster) Haisten chronicles her unique childhood culminating to the crushing loss when former President Jimmy Carter signs treaties that effectively eliminates her –and fellow U.S. citizens’- former home. Charming, funny, and poignant, the author captures her remarkable American story in an exotic place and time.
Grade A Baby Eggs: An Infertility Memoir is an insider’s account of the hidden world of egg donation written by a clinical psychologist who battled infertility. Using the pen name Victoria Hopewell, the author shares personal experiences that are often heartbreaking and sometimes funny, capturing an informative and thoughtful journey through the process of IVF and egg donation. Victoria’s IVF and donor egg experience also becomes part of the riveting fabric of a newly blended family, which includes the author, her two daughters from a previous marriage and her husband, a once confirmed bachelor.
The unregulated market of donor eggs is a modern day wild carpet ride through the bazaar, with some women’s ova worth more than others, the internet offering a shop ‘til you drop egg market. Extraordinary and exceptional eggs fetch a higher price than ordinary or conventional, a magazine-ready model with high SATs and a successful prior donation yielding the highest price. Grade A Baby Eggs spotlights questionable practices in the donor egg marketplace and raises public awareness about the seamier side of egg donation. Grade A Baby Eggs: An Infertility Memoir also tackles ethical and legal issues regarding stem cell research poised to help older women make brand new eggs.
Engaging and timely, Victoria Hopewell’s instincts for information and humor make Grade A Baby Eggs: An Infertility Memoir a must-read for anyone dealing with this emotionally charged topic. Her very human story is chronicled in a singular memoir that speaks to 7.3 million couples in the U.S. whose eggs and sperm aren’t quite up to the task. Grade A Baby Eggs is a firsthand account that probes the always cutting edge media topic of IVF and the egg donor industry while never losing sight of the poignant and personal side of trying to get pregnant.
In this impressive and varied collection of creative essays, Matthias B. Freese jousts with American culture. A mixture of the author’s reminiscences, insights, observations, and criticism, This Mobius Strip of Ifs examines the use and misuse of psychotherapy, childhood trauma, complicated family relationships, his frustrations as a teacher and the enduring value of tenaciously writing through it all.
Freese scathingly describes the conditioning society imposes upon artists s and awakened souls. Whether writing about the spiritual teacher Krishnamurti, poet and novelist Nikos Kazantzakis, or film giants such as Orson Welles and Buster Keaton, the author skewers where he can and applauds those who refuse to compromise and conform.
The profound visceral truths in this book will speak to anyone who endeavors to be completely alive and aware.
Growing up in a prosperous neighborhood, B. Morrison was taught that poverty was a product of laziness and public assistance programs only rewarded irresponsibility. However, when her marriage soured, she abruptly found herself an impoverished single mother. Disowned by her parents and facing destitution for herself and her two small sons, she was forced to accept the handout so disdained by her parents and their world: welfare. This dramatic memoir tells how one woman finds and grasps the lifeline that ultimately enables her to become independent. B. Morrison is the author of a poetry collection entitled Here at Least, and is currently working on a novel.
Kiss Me Quick Before I Shoot is a memoir about magic: the magic of making films and the magic of finding true love. If you love movies and you're a romantic at heart, this is your dream book.
"For me, there is no more magical a professional endeavor than making films," says Guy Magar. With production work spanning over 100 credits from shorts to TV shows to feature films, Guy Magar's behind-the-scenes stories range from his first producer turning out to be a Mafia assassin, to shooting in Egypt for the original series Battlestar Galactica, to directing a grunting Mr. T on The A-Team, to almost decapitating a young Drew Barrymore, and coming close to derailing James Cameron's career (or slowing it down as he proved way too talented for anyone to alter his storied destiny!)
Kiss me quick before I shoot was Guy's welcoming catchphrase to his wife Jacqui whenever she visited on-set, seemingly always just before he rolled cameras. And so this book is also about a deeper magic, the magic of finding your soulmate, your life partner.
But then, out of the blue, after 26 years into their marriage, Jacqui was diagnosed with leukemia. Guy put his film career on hold and his entire 24-hour life focus became to find the right, new cutting-edge treatment to heal Jacqui.
This book is about daring to dream...and making dreams come true. Join Guy on a wild and thrilling rollercoaster ride as he shares the behind the curtain reveal of a Hollywood directing career, the intoxicating highs of finding and sharing true love, and the sweet triumph of survival and healing, all rolled into a unique and engaging memoir read which will become a favorite to curl up with (hot chocolate required) and to recommend to all your friends.
When the Body Says No ~ A Learn, Laugh, Love Story is a memoir that engages the reader with the same captivating flow, drama and suspense of a best-selling novel.
Author, Tracy A. Todd developed fictitious names as a veil of anonymity, which enabled her to narrate thirty years of living in an open, honest, intimate voice.
The story unfolds with a life-altering event that would have squelched the spirit of most, but not Tesh, a little school girl, with a big neurological problem.
You'll sit at her bedside when she's undergoing tests that no twelve-year old should have to experience. You'll dance with her as she celebrates a significant birthday, and you'll cry when...
This narrative provides a unique perspective of a remarkable life. Yes, there are medical challenges, struggles even, but they only add depth to the journey. The strength within the pages is the transparent expression of emotions in her relationships with family, friends, and health care professionals. Equally valuable is the endearing relationship that Tesh develops with herself that enables the reader and Tesh to evolve together; a growth that occurs from the inside out.
This book does not offer advice; instead, the memoir shares one woman's solutions to a myriad of life's conflicts.
The Modern Voice of an Irish Immigrant is author Imelda Cummins-DeMelkon’s fascinating account of her experience growing up in Ireland as one of twelve children, and the struggle for autonomy and independence that led to her choice of immigration to the United States.
The author speaks honestly of the conflicts she experienced as a child and the overzealous paternal control that dominated her young life. The reader follows the author’s journey as it weaves between her experiences in both countries. Ultimately, The Modern Voice of an Irish Immigrant shows us that through a deep commitment to personal growth, one can indeed emerge whole and able to enjoy a full and complete life.
Among the highly interesting topics the book explores are the changing face of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the United States, the uniform wish of immigrants to recreate the best of the culture they left behind, what it is to be a conscientious parent, the reality of ill and aging parents, and finally, the joy of the discovery of a life that is worth the often challenging effort.
