“A compelling story of everyday courage” (Elizabeth Gilbert). Patty Chang Anker grew up eager to please and afraid to fail. But after thirty-nine years, she decided it was time to stop being a chicken. Motivated initially to become a better role model for her two kids, she vowed to master the fears that were choking the fun and spontaneity out of life. She learned to dive into a swimming pool, ride a bike, do a handstand, and surf. As she shared her experiences, she discovered that most people suffer from their own secret terrors—of flying, driving, heights, public speaking, and more. It became her mission to help others do what they thought they couldn’t and to experience the joy and aliveness that is the true reward of becoming brave. Inspired and inspiring, this book draws on Anker’s interviews with teachers, therapists, coaches, and clergy to convey both practical advice and profound wisdom. Through her own journey and the stories of others, she conveys with grace and infectious exhilaration the most vital lesson of all: Fear isn’t the end point to life, but the point of entry.
Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." My eyes racing over the words, my heart pounding harder, I'm still hitting the pipe. I can't wait to get done with this stuff. Today is January 10. I felt something unsettling that day. Guilt and shame are my constant companions. I want to stop, but I can't. I don't understand Lord. I really want to stop smoking. "You can't get out this way," Craig shouted at me, obvious disgust and frustration in his voice. "We'll go over the wall," I said, without turning around. Please Lord, don't let me smoke today.
Captivated by a 40-year-old mystery, hometown reporter Molly Martindale embarks on a quest for truth that plunges her into an icy nightmare of fear and uncertainty. A wheelchair-bound Viet Nam vet, cold and eerie faces from the past, a savvy old black man and a yellowed diary are her companions on a journey that threatens to wake sleeping ghosts from her own secret past. Bitter Secrets is an intensely human story set in a small Florida town. Intriguing secrets push the reader along as the heroine makes a heart wrenching search for clues to a lost family. Pictures of the lush southern landscape and varied characters all but speak aloud, including Dutch, her devoted Labrador retriever. It's a good read, richly blending plainly beautiful language from start to finish. Barbara Oehlbeck, poet and author of Mama: Root, Hog, or Die, The Sabal Palm and For the Love of Roses. Bitter Secrets by Patty Brant is a story of the old south with twists and turns, melancholy and ghosts from the past. In the vernacular of southern people through easy conversations over coffee, Patty spins a deepening mystery of violence and trauma that crosses generations. This is a mystery-lover's mystery with a touch of the paranormal that keeps the excitement high. D. K. Christi, Consultant, Speaker & Author of Arirang: The Bamboo Connection and The Ghost Orchid, www.dkchristi.com Bitter Secrets was a finalist in the 2013 Indie Excellence Book Awards.
There can be no greater worldly love than a mother's love, for a mother's love surpasses even time and eternity. The Struggle and Will to Survive is a tale of a mother's love for her son who was supposedly suffering from Shwarchman-Diamond syndrome. Her family's struggle regarding her son's condition is a heartbreaking journey that they all have to go through. This book aspires to bring hope to all families and individuals who may have to endure a similar case. It is never easy to care for a lov
In SECRETS OF THE TOAD – PLAY BALL, the second book of this series, Jake is all excited to start a new baseball season and resume his successful pitching position from last year. But with this new season comes a new coach who just happens to have a son who steps into that very same position. Jake quickly finds that he is no match for favoritism. In fact, things get so bad that Jake actually considers quitting baseball altogether. His sister, Emma, urges him to seek counsel from Tobias, the mystical toad. With some hesitation, Jake takes Emma's advice. Tobias soon sheds new light on Jake’s circumstance as he takes him on a magical journey of invaluable discovery. Book Review: “I love Jake. He’s a kid I’d like to take out for burgers and fries and hear his take on life. You’ve captured his sense of fun and his charm, and you’ve dug deeper into his sensitive side in a realistic way. Not easy to do with this kind of character. And of course, I love Tobias even more than I did in the first book, which says a lot.” -- Nancy Rue, Author
In her revealing bestseller Call Me Anna, Patty Duke shared her long-kept secret: the talented, Oscar-winning actress who won our hearts on The Patty Duke Show was suffering from a serious-but-treatable-mental illness called manic depression. For nearly twenty years, until she was correctly diagnosed at age thirty-five, she careened between periods of extreme euphoria and debilitating depression, prone to delusions and panic attacks, temper tantrums, spending sprees, and suicide attempts. Now in A Brilliant Madness Patty Duke joins with medical reporter Gloria Hochman to shed light on this powerful, paradoxical, and destructive illness. From what it's like to live with manic-depressive disorder to the latest findings on its most effective treatments, this compassionate and eloquent book provides profound insight into the challenge of mental illness. And though Patty's story, which ends in a newfound happiness with her cherished family, it offers hope for all those who suffer from mood disorders and for the family, friends, and physicians who love and care for them.
Urban redevelopment in American cities is neither easy nor quick. It takes a delicate alignment of goals, power, leadership and sustained advocacy on the part of many. Rebuilding the American City highlights 15 urban design and planning projects in the U.S. that have been catalysts for their downtowns—yet were implemented during the tumultuous start of the 21st century. The book presents five paradigms for redevelopment and a range of perspectives on the complexities, successes and challenges inherent to rebuilding American cities today. Rebuilding the American City is essential reading for practitioners and students in urban design, planning, and public policy looking for diverse models of urban transformation to create resilient urban cores.
Move past the obstacles and implement your new strategy Move is your guide to mobilizing your whole organization to take your business forward. Whatever your needed transformation may be: a new initiative, a new market, a new product, your fresh strategy is up against a powerful foe: an organization's tendency to stay very busy and completely engaged what it's already doing. This book shows you how to cut through resistance and get your team engaged and proactively doing the new thing! Author Patty Azzarello draws on over twenty-five years of international business management experience to identify the chronic challenges that keep organizations from decisively executing strategy, and to give you a practical game plan for breaking through. Leaders tend to assume that stalls in execution are inevitable, unchanging parts of the workplace—but things can change. At the heart of every execution problem is the fact that there simply are not enough people doing what the business needs. This guide shows you how to get your entire organization on board—remove the fear, excuses, and hurdles—and uphold the new pursuit against distractions and dissent. No transformation can succeed without suitable engagement from the whole organization, but building engagement can be difficult, uncomfortable, and tentative. This book shows you how to get it done. Get your organization to embrace and personally commit to the new work Remove obstacles and passive aggressive attacks that block progress Defend new strategic initiatives against short term pressures to revert to "business as usual" Sustain momentum and the desire to move forward Make sure no one is ever asking, 'Are we still doing this?' Inertia isn't just a law of the universe, it's a law in the workplace that can be a major obstacle to making things happen. The great thing about inertia is that it cuts two ways: a body at rest remains at rest, but a body in motion remains in motion. People love to finish things. Move shows you how to make successful execution the new norm—starting today.
Kathryn Haddad is a fortysomething, attractive, successful businesswoman in Macon, GA. She is happily married to fellow Harvard Business School graduate Stefan, and they appear to be the poster couple for Southern baby boomers. However, Kathryn finds herself in the classic triangle where she loves two men in different ways but chooses to remain with her husband. The book has been called "part spiritual fiction, part contemporary romance, part murder mystery -- all master storytelling in the best Southern writing tradition.
Take an epic journey based on the true life story of a Girl Scout troop leader and her daughter. As one of the Girl Scout’s most successful troop leaders, the author guides you through inspirational life stories about an amazing group of young women. She lends meaning to real character development, shares how growing pains can create powerful learning moments and how this group of girls found true purpose while having fun. The story begins with the author who is reluctantly drafted into Troop Leadership, surrounded by the demands of a busy family life and career. But as her work begins, the author finds joy and fulfillment by leading her girls through wild adventures and real-life struggles. The nostalgic stories are interwoven with girl escapades, rites of passage, and learning about life with a purpose through their eyes, staged in a small beach town on the island of Ohau. Take a heartwarming journey and see where this adventure leads you.
Have you ever been in the presence of someone, if only for a few minutes, who touched you so deeply that your life would never be the same? Who shared with you nuggets of wisdom and optimism for life in such a way that you would never forget? Kenneth George Old was such a man. As if serving as a missionary in Pakistan for thirty-three years wasn't extraordinary enough, God continued to use Ken even after he retired. Ken ministered through relationships, thought-provoking sermons, and even made-up stories for the children. Join Patty Old West in commemorating Ken's life—from a whirlwind romance to streams of visitors from around the world and the constant hand of God orchestrating a multitude of remarkable events. Ken's life was a kaleidoscope of activity. Wherever he went, whatever he did, he was able to reach out and touch others for God. Let Once Met, Never Forgotten share this same touch and leave you forever changed.
Finding Time for Your Self invites busy women and men to connect with deeper longings for self-fulfillment as they navigate the stressful demands of daily life. Thought-provoking reflections by the author are followed by practical exercises for a weekly study over a year of many aspects of life experience. Most of us feel scattered a lot of the time. Like the dismembered Egyptian god Osiris, we are spread out all over our personal world. Finding Time for Your Self offers help to bring ourselves back together again and learn how to re-member ourselves, not by withdrawing from the world but by being engaged right in the middle of our daily life. Fifty-two reflections on familiar life situations help the reader stay inwardly alive and present to meet life's many challenges to pause and reflect at any moment of the day. They are followed by practical exercises that offer day-by-day experiments to assist in finding a more balanced sense of ourselves in the midst of outer activity. The old Shaker song "It's a gift to be simple" tells us that the solution is in the turning, until "by turning, turning, turning we come round right." When we turn away for a short time from activities, goals and commitments and toward the inner self we discover a world that's just as active and full of surprises as the outer one. Turning our attention to the world within allows us to reconnect with that person who we essentially are, in the depths of our being.
The Star: The public saw her as a gifted child star: the youngest actor to win an Oscar for her role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker and the youngest actor to have a prime-time television series bearing her own name. The Nightmare: What the public did not see was Anna Marie Duke, a young girl whose life changed forever at age seven when tyrannical mangers stripped her of nearly all that was familiar, beginning with her name. She was deprived of family and friends. Her every word was programmed, her every action monitored and criticized. She was fed liquor and prescription drugs, taught to lie to get work, and relentlessly drilled to win roles. The Legend: Out of this nightmare emerged Patty Duke, a show business legend still searching for the child, Anna. She won three Emmy Awards and divorced three husbands. A starring role in Valley of the Dolls nearly ruined her career. She was notorious for wild spending sprees, turbulent liaisons, and an uncontrollable temper. Until a long hidden illness was diagnosed, and her amazing recovery recovery began. The Triumph: Call Me Anna is an American success story that grew out of a bizarre and desperate struggle for survival. A harrowing, ultimately triumphant story told by Patty Duke herself—wife, mother, political activist, President of the Screen Actors Guild, and at last, a happy, fulfilled woman whose miracle is her own life.
When someone loses someone they love, there is a period of grieving. If the death resulted in the loss of a close or significant relationship, the grieving can be really intense and cause us to blame ourselves or others and even God for the untimely death of our loved one. If that someone was your own child, the questions and what-ifs can be excruciating. If suicide was involved, the questions seem to never end, and guilt and shame can be debilitating. In our grief, we can lose sight of who God is. Based on Scripture, this book is an attempt to help those grieving see God and His character. The Trinity has different roles and characteristics they embody. Interweaved in each section are personal stories of loss and how the Trinity showed up during a time of the unimaginable loss of a child. After the death of my son, I struggled with praying and reading scriptures. I had a hard time focusing for any length of time, and I didn’t know where to begin reading. God took me on a journey by giving me a topic a day to explore in regard to His character and death, dying, and the care and comfort He has for us as we journey through this dark valley. No one’s journey is exactly alike. No one heals exactly in the same timeframe and way, but God is there with us, individually caring for us to help us find peace where we can continue our own journey till it is our own time to meet Him. We just need to be able to see and recognize Him along the way.
This original anthology of noir fiction set across the Big Easy includes new stories by Ace Atkins, Laura Lippman, Maureen Tan, and more. New Orleans has always the home of the lovable rogue, the poison magnolia, the bent politico, and the heartless con artist. And in post-Katrina times, it’s the same old story—only with a new breed of carpetbagger thrown in. In other words, it’s fertile ground for noir fiction. This sparkling collection of tales, set both before and after the storm, explores the city’s gutted neighborhoods, its outwardly gleaming “sliver by the river,” its still-raunchy French Quarter, and other hoods so far from the Quarter they might as well be on another continent. It also looks back into the city’s darkly colorful, nineteenth century past. New Orleans Noir includes brand-new stories by Ace Atkins, Laura Lippman, Patty Friedmann, Barbara Hambly, Tim McLoughlin, Olympia Vernon, David Fulmer, Jervey Tervalon, James Nolan, Kalamu ya Salaam, Maureen Tan, Thomas Adcock, Jeri Cain Rossi, Christine Wiltz, Greg Herren, Julie Smith, Eric Overmyer, and Ted O’Brien. A portion of the profits from New Orleans Noir will be donated to Katrina KARES, a hurricane relief program sponsored by the New Orleans Institute that awards grants to writers affected by the hurricane.
Some girls say no. Some boys don't listen. When Grace meets Ian, she's afraid. Afraid he'll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses Zac, the town golden boy, of rape, everyone turns against her. Ian wouldn't be the first to call her a slut and a liar. Except Ian doesn't reject her. He's the one person who looks past the taunts and the names and the tough-girl act to see the real Grace. He's the one who gives her the courage to fight back. He's also Zac's best friend.
A captivating memoir with recipes from a cook who’s traveled across the globe cooking, tasting, and enjoying good food. Patty Kirk has always loved food: eating it, cooking it, sharing it, talking about it. At six, she scrambled the last of the family’s vacation provisions over the campfire and concocted a delicacy—eggs with bacon and onions. Overnight she became the family cook and discovered a lifelong passion for cooking that accompanied her through decades of roaming and finally to the farm in Oklahoma where she now lives. Starting from Scratch narrates Kirk’s wanderings in the U.S. and abroad from a culinary perspective, sounding the spiritual, political, and emotional depths of Brillat-Savarin’s famous observation, “Tell me what you eat; I’ll tell you who you are.” In this candid and engaging food memoir—complete with recipes!—good food beckons from the past as well as the future: surrounding us, eluding us, drawing us, defining us.
More than 100 classroom activities to help children learn about and care for the earth Educate young children about the environment through experience and play. These activities encourage children to develop a sense of wonder, curiosity, and joy for nature. Each chapter focuses on a common and important environmental topic—from waste reduction and recycling to air quality, weather and climate change, and energy reduction—and provides information to help you present these topics to children in developmentally appropriate ways. Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth will help you excite children, engage families, and encourage your community to be green. Early Childhood Activities for a Greener Earth is a 2014 Teachers’ Choice Award for the Classroom winner!
Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child guides adoptive parents in promoting a child's emotional and social adjustment, from the family's first hours together through the teen years. It explains how to help an adopted child cope with the ''Big Change,'' bond with new parents, become part of a family, and develop a positive self-image that incorporates both American identity and ethnicity origins. Parents waiting to meet their adoptive children will appreciate Cogen's advice about preparing for the trip and handling the first meeting. The author's main focus, though, is the child's adaptation over the next months and years. Cogen explains how to deal with the child's ''mixed maturities''; how (and why) to tell the child's story from the child's point of view; how to handle sleep problems and resistance to household rules; and how to encourage eye contact and ease transitions and separations. The reassuring narrative tone and the breadth and depth of information make this the most substantive and accessible book available and an indispensable resource for parents who adopt, professionals who advise adoptive parents, and teachers of adoptive children
Engineer Edie Michaels loves her life--she has a good job, close friends, even a chance at romance with former soldier Beau Daniels. But she could lose everything if her secret comes out...that she's the German daughter of a devoted Nazi. And when her father sends spies to force her loyalty, everything Edie values is at risk. Time in a Nazi POW camp changed army medic Beau Daniels. When he discovers a letter of Edie's written in German, he can't help his suspicions. Is she truly the woman he's started to love? Or has she been the enemy all along? With Nazis on Edie's trail, the pair must fight for truth, for survival--and for love.
It’s 1953 in Southern California, Patty is five years old, and her mother hasn’t been home in two days. A police officer eventually arrives and takes Patty and her brothers to juvenile hall—their mother has been drinking again. Twenty-eight years later, Patty herself is an alcoholic mother to three children. Divorced and homeless, she soon realizes that she can’t support her children with her job cleaning houses, so she accepts the offer of a man who works at the gas station: she’ll have sex with him for money. For the next seventeen years, Patty lives a double life as a sex worker. Though she supports her family with the money she makes, she struggles to be the parent she wants to be, until she realizes she has become just like her own mother: an alcoholic who doesn’t give her children what they need. When Patty gets sober, her life begins to change. She finds healing through therapy, spirituality, community, and, most importantly, speaking the truth to her children. Powerful and insightful, Patty’s story is proof that we all are capable of healing ourselves—and that forgiveness can transform our lives completely.
Caroline Clayton still feels the pain and humiliation of betrayal years after her fiancé ran away with her bridesmaid the day before their wedding. That sickening cliché will never be repeated. Never. Beautiful, professional and independent, few have an inkling of how fragile she is except for Danny, the man she loves. Daniel Kavanaugh knows she’s perfect for him. He plans to spend the rest of his life with her, but her shield against heartbreak threatens to take marriage off the table. Here is guardian angel Matthew’s challenge. Daniel and Caroline have a destiny. Matthew hasn’t been able to accomplish that simple task for three earthly years. He takes a rare and radical step. Heaven, we have a problem.
After a tragic accident leaves Shelby Ryan permanently injured, she gives up all hope in happily-ever-afters. Shelby puts on a brave face while hiding her pain, but once she returns to school, everything changes. She starts receiving anonymous corny messages from a mysterious Prince Charming, and her nemesis, basketball star and bad boy, Sebastian, shows sudden interest in her. Hilarity ensues as Shelby tries to uncover Prince Charming's real identity and come to terms with her true feelings for the last boy on Earth she ever thought she'd fall for: Sebastian Freaking Birch. Will she be able to cope with the allure of the texting prince, or will Sebastian be the real-life prince in Shelby's fairytale?
A BABY TO CHERISH Home from the war, army nurse Thea Miller is determined to adopt her late sister's baby and begin a new life. But someone else has the same intentions--the town sheriff and Thea's old friend, Mack Worthington. Now, in order to keep her niece in the family, Thea must reach an agreement with him. Mack isn't sure Thea--whose actions once hurt him badly--is committed to baby Sarah. And a judge may never approve a single-parent adoption for either of them. But what if they got married? It would be a marriage in name only. Yet the more time Mack spends with Thea, the more he begins to believe their pretend family can become the real one they've both been longing for.
You already know about the Bunnies, now learn about the music that helped shape Playboy. Playboy—the magazine, the empire, the lifestyle—is one of the world's best known brands. Since the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953, two elements have been remarkably consistent: the first, is the celebration of the female form. The second, readers may be surprised to learn, is Playboy's involvement in the music scene. The playboy experience has never been just about sex, but about lifestyle. Hugh Hefner's personal passion for music, particularly fine jazz, has always been an essential component of that. Full of interviews with hundreds of people who were on the scene throughout the rise, fall, and on-going renaissance, Playboy Swings carries readers on a seductive journey. Farmer focuses on Playboy's involvement in the music scene and impact on popular entertainment, and demonstrates how the empire helped change the world by integrating television and festivals. Join Patty Farmer as she guides the reader through the first inception of the Playboy empire through the 1959 Jazz Festival, and club opening after club opening. With 60 pages of photos and a complete reference guide, readers will associate music, not just Bunnies, when thinking about Playboy after reading this enthralling look into the history of one of the world's most infamous brands.
It looks like someone left the door to the nether region open again, and reporter Molly Martindale has got another batch of otherworldly supplicants who need her help. Not long ago, Molly quite literally went to hell to help secure peace for her friend Dennis, who was born Buddy Parker in the 1920s in her beloved, adopted hometown of Oxbow, Florida. Oxbow has always felt charmed to Mollythat is, if she doesnt count the ghostly visitors who turn her world upside down or the recent return of her ex-boyfriend Greg Richards, who brings with him the scourge of illicit drugs and a burning need to get even with her. Molly is working on acquainting her best friend Dana with Denniss memory. He is the father Dana has never known but always resented. Molly must tread carefully, all too aware that she could easily lose her best friend in the process. Whats more, things heat up when Dana meets Glenn Morrison, the wheelchair-bound veteran Molly kind of thinks of as hers. But soon Molly finds herself threatened from all sides, as residents of hell plead for her help yet again. In this sequel to Bitter Secrets, only time will tell if she can deal with worldly and supernatural problems as she fights her newest unholy foesthe advent of drugs into her world, decades of lies involving the powerful St. Claire family, and the shadows of her past.
Join the journey as nine couples employ daring resourcefulness that leads them along the Underground Railroad in search of freedom and justice for all.
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