Eula’s stardust—spirit—has been waiting for her father to return to their old farmhouse so she can learn why he didn’t rescue her, her brother, and their mother. Dying of cancer, her father Duane, finally returns. He wants to pass away with his guilt and remorse of not being able to rescue his family and, more importantly, his secret shame over the way he dealt with his mixed race relationship. Retha, a nurse specializing in end of life care, works to help him overcome his regrets. In the process, each realize their secrets and their families are intertwined. In this touching and deeply layered story of race, prejudice and love, an Eastern white pine tree—named Memory—presides over the front yard and proves to be a generational refuge.
Connecting the dots. Looking backward to look forward. Personal discovery. Acceptance. Rejection. Change. Love. Family. These are the themes of essays, poems and short stories by Bill Mathis who writes of the people he meets along the path while walking his dog, the lessons in life those interactions bring to mind. A poem about a young soldier who died in Viet Nam, another about God being a baseball or a sixteen-inch softball. Fiction about missed opportunities between a father and his gay son, their guilt and reconciliation. A humorous trip to Romania ends in awe at how his traveling companion escaped a totalitarian life. With humor and thought, Bill explores his surroundings, contemplates his past, and looks to the future. Whatever the future may be, it will be the way things are…
Josh and Andres unexpectedly inherit an old rooming house in Chicago. Each discovers they have a long and deep history with the place. Thrilled to have a home of their own, plus a place for Andres to make and sell his art, the two are challenged to turn the place into a community art center. The challenge becomes more personal as each deals with their own backgrounds, family issues and differing personal interests. Tough decisions are made about their new/old home, relationship with their fathers, and their conflict over starting a family. The neighboring family and new friends play a key role as they bring the art center to fruition, move into a new personal home, and begin a non-DNA family.
Six fascinating and touching diaries are discovered in an old rooming house that detail the lives of the owners and tenants spanning over a century of change in Chicago’s Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood. An unwed pregnant teen shows up; a teen from Paris, France appears, the result of a relationship during World War I; the first Mexican in the neighborhood is given a room and eventually inherits the place, his diary describes his young life running the streets in Tijuana, Mexico and how the rooming house served undocumented AIDS clients. The matriarch leaves a long-hidden diary that details her undisclosed life of brothels. Filled with love, life and family secrets, The Rooming House Diaries prove DNA does not always make a complete family.
Shaw Skogman, a taciturn, successful farmer, erupts and attempts to kill his wife and son by firing a shotgun at them. Shaw ends up with a severe leg wound but chooses to die rather than accept a lifesaving amputation. His wife and family learn more shocking things about him as they discover the separate life he led in plain sight. Elderly farmers and their spouses died. Was it of natural causes? How did he acquire so much land? What was the relationship between him and Melvin, his nervous right-hand man? Shaw’s first wife committed suicide—or did she? What roles do a gay undertaker, a closeted sheriff, and two gay teens play in discovering the answers? Finally, what secrets did his second wife have?
Bill is a story of the author's life as he has lived it. He is a boy who has experienced life as a member of a family that was poor but faithful to one another. He has gone through boyhood and into manhood, living life to the fullest and experiencing two marriages and two divorces and with the honor of having a son born on his birthday by his second wife. His son continues to make his life worthwhile with each passing day.
The Gaither Homecoming videos have reintroduced the power of hymns and gospel music to millions around the world. In fact, more Homecoming videos were distributed in the year 2000 than any other product in the world. Now the Gaithers have created their most special video yet-teaming up with Billy Graham to celebrate the songs that have surrounded his crusades throughout more than fifty years. This moving tribute has been captured in a keepsake gift book that will be released at the same time as the video. Filled with quotes and remembrances from Billy and Ruth Graham, Bill and Gloria Gaither, George Beverly Shea, Cliff Barrows, Jake Hess, Michael W. Smith, Andrea Crouch, Ray Boltz, and many others, this book will hold a special place in the hearts of all Homecoming and Billy Graham fans.
George Cory and Douglass Cross wrote just one hit song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." They were unknown before they wrote it--and were unknown after it became a standard. Their lives were a tangle. They eked out a meager living in San Francisco and Brooklyn for 15 years before Tony Bennett serendipitously came across the song, which had languished. His recording revived his career and made the songwriters rich. Wealth didn't beget happiness. The duo broke up. Cross drank himself to death. Cory died from drinking as well (widely believed to be a suicide). In 2016, San Francisco dedicated a monument to the city's official song in front of the iconic Fairmont Hotel--a statue of Tony Bennett.
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