Subtitled "The Photographic Eye of Jack E. Thompson, Reflections Through A Special Lens is a tribute to the author's late father. Jack Thompson was a well-known photographer and newspaper editor in Parry Sound, Ontario. The author, Stephen Thompson, has assembled 50 of his father's black and white photographs of the rocks, clouds, trees, wind and water, and some birds, insects and plants, of the Parry Sound area on Georgian Bay. The photos of this collection date from 1952 to 2002 and were specially selected to represent the span of Jack's photographic career and to honour his own desire to publish a book of similar photographs. Reflections from the title reveals many of the photographic images in the book, since Jack was often looking for reflected images to complete the photographic tales of his compositions, to provide a hint of "the bigger picture." Reflections also describes Stephen Thompson's thoughts, interpretations, remembrances and analyses when revisiting his father's body of work. In addition to Jack Thompson's photographs, the author has included a selection of his own black and white images from the Carden plain and Haliburton areas of Ontario. As a special tribute to his father's generational influence, the author has also included a series of his son Alex's black and white photography. Alex Thompson is Jack Thompson's grandson and his selections come from the Gatineau, Quebec region.
Who is this woman? At every Toronto Blue Jays game, an elderly woman sits behind home plate, her story a mystery. When sports journalist Richard Dixon notices the reclusive woman, he finds himself enthralled, determined to uncover her identity. Marchesa di Mentone was twelve years old when her family was imprisoned in Italy during the second world war. After a miraculous escape, Marchesa finds herself an orphan, her parents and sister presumed dead. Her world changed forever, Marchesa leaves Italy behind to build a new life for herself in Scotland, cared for by distant relatives. Despite tragedy, Marchesa thrives, marrying the love of her life, Andy, and immigrating to Canada. However, when Andy’s health deteriorates, Marchesa knows she will face the painful sting of grief once more. Now alone in Toronto, Marchesa’s path is destined to cross with Richard’s. Their blossoming friendship emboldens Marchesa to revisit a past she thought too painful to excavate. In doing so, she may just recover something precious she thought long-lost in the destruction of war.
Robert E. Lee, Patriot to the End briefly summarizes the case for reading the historical record of the military service of General Robert E. Lee with fresh eyes. One can see, from that novel perspective, that General Lee subsumed his tactical military genius to the strategic goal of preserving the truly civil union of North and South in the United States of America. The author, Stephen Thompson, leads readers on a brisk tour through the highlights of General Lees record to provide a perspective for this briefs main historical point. This brief, Robert E. Lee, Patriot to the End, gives its readers a compact and digestible summary of a premise and its supporting argument that can lead to seeing an old yet unsettled conflict from a fresh point of view.
Jack Borden, an RCAF pilot, is in Halifax awaiting transport to England, and he meets Shelagh Pearson of the RCAF Women's Division also awaiting orders. A complicated whirlwind wartime courtship ensues. This is primarily Jack's story. Gaps between the Second World War and present day 2007 are filled and augmented via Jack's recollections of experiences as a Lancaster bomber pilot, wartime letters and flashbacks. Shelagh and Jack's daughters, Karen and Cassandra, are born shortly after the war. Shelagh continues to define her own course. Shelagh's covert involvement in cold war undercover activities, demands the family's return to post-war Scotland where Jack nurtures toddler Karen in a role reversal. Eventually Shelagh's prowess as a photographer returns them to Canada where Jack re-establishes himself in journalism. By 2007, Jack, alone without Shelagh, develops symptoms resembling dementia, perhaps Alzheimer's but daughter Karen, a physician, is never convinced. Jack’s grandson Jeremy and his friend, Roberto, both graduate students experiment with a cure. When Jack's dementia appears to ameliorate, Karen, unaware of unethical experimentation, arranges a revisit to Jack's former airfield. Lincoln Cathedral remains a bold foundational symbol that enfolds the plot.
Joe, Dilys and their son Sean are all outsiders in the small English town where they live. Joe because of insidious racism, Dilys because she suffers the remaining stigma of her alcoholic mother and mentally ill father, and Sean because he seems slow. As Dilys and Sean become increasingly and unhealthily co-dependent, Joe is pushed to periphery of their lives. So much so that when he vanishes, Dilys is neither surprised nor concerned. Then Joe's identical twin brother Neville arrives from Jamaica. Despite what Dilys tells him, he refuses to believe that Joe simply walked out on his family. And so he begins a painstaking investigation into Joe's disappearance. What he discovers changes him forever.
Stephen Thompson's brave story centres on the plight of Gabriel Powers, a man who finds himself in a hostel for addicts after the most frightening flight from Hackney and the world of crime he grew up in. For Gabriel to come to terms with his addiction, he must first confront his demons, and although his hostel worker and lover Marcia is there to help him, the journey to back to the wastelands of West London is harrowingly and brilliantly recreated. Painful, acutely honest and based on the author's own experiences, Toy Soldiers is a fine and brave debut by a brilliant new voice.
Not long after Indiana University had won the NCAA championship in 1981, a young man of twenty was hurriedly riding his bicycle in order to make it on time for a tennis tournament. He had plans for returning to the game after having been sidetracked with the "college life." Although he expected to attend graduate school, he was hoping to play professional tennis one day. He never made it to that tournament. A head-on collision with an automobile had crushed his dreams and also his neck, resulting in a cervical spinal cord injury. As he lay in the intensive care unit unable to move, he listened to music on his Walkman to distract him from his terrible predicament. His favorite tape, "The Lamb" by Genesis, seemed to help keep his attitude positive and hopeful. The following months are torturous and frustrating and he prays for a miracle; near-death experiences that seem too mysterious to comprehend show him that there is life beyond human existence. Then, after finally making it to the rehabilitation unit, he meets other young men in similar situations and they all struggle together to increase their functional abilities. In this rare and candid memoir, Stephen Thompson shares his many tribulations as he experiences new beginnings, both physical and spiritual, and strives for the ultimate goal of any spinal cord injury victim: to walk again.
Life today is often portrayed by a Òbigger, better and fasterÓ motto. While the constant access to people and information can create endless opportunities, it is can be accompanied by an increase---or overload---of stress. And when weÕre stressed, we lose sight of common sense solutions. Full of enlightening information, useful exercises and personal stories, "It Just Makes Sense" will show you how to create clarity, purpose, and harmony in all aspects of your life. Gain confidence in your decision-making. Support your relationships with clear communication. Maximize your energy in your daily routine. Learn how the power of common sense can support your goals and allow you to create a joyful, meaningful life.
Customer Royalty" a comprehensive outside-in business experience on Panera Bread Company's proactive customer service culture. Though this book provides an outside vantage point, aimed at learning "how to create customer excellence," the book will have the feel of an insider communicating about the company's success. Despite excessive enthusiasm, Stephen Thompson does offer insight into how a company can succeed by remaining focused on core values and commonsense approach towards customer experience. While there are no revolutionary conclusions, the author convinces that with a balanced combination of product innovation, customer oriented technology, employee focused leadership and corporate citizenship duties, a proactive customer centric environment can be formed. This book is not all about business success it's more on star sustainability. Keywords: Customer Service, Employee retention, Business Case, Loyalty marketing, Consumer behavior, Panera Bread
This inspirational and practical guide for conservatives combines stories from Lady Thatcher’s life with principles and strategies conservatives can apply to their challenges today. Nile Gardiner and Stephen Thompson outline the critical lessons conservatives can learn from Lady Thatcher on articulating conservative principles to a broader audience, cutting through bureaucratic messes to achieve goals, and standing up to aggressive regimes.
Everybody complains about politics, but does anyone do anything about it? Stephen L. Thompson's attempt to do something about it is to collect forty of his short stories with a political element into his Political Pies anthology. His stories are either politically neutral or equally condemning of the national parties. Instead of trying to sway you to one ideology or another, his goal is to just get people thinking about politics in the hopes a rose might grow out of all the political manure. Book excerpt - story "Is That How it Works?" "Next question." A middle-aged gentleman walked up to the microphone at the front of the auditorium. He cleared his throat, then said, "Senator, on the campaign trail you have often stated that the rich and powerful - both individual and corporate - should receive tax breaks because they are the job creators." "That's correct." The man took a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. "Sir, I've been unemployed for twenty months now." He held the piece of paper up so everyone could see it was a check. "This is the last of my life savings." He tossed the check up onto the stage about ten feet from the candidate. "I give it to you so that you - as the nearest I'll get to the rich and powerful - now have all of the money that matters to me. Now give me a goddamn job!
The lyrics to twenty-two beloved hymns have been adapted to express the unique view of one of God's most charming and challenging creatures. All are sung by an outstanding "Cats of Character", including the Wee Little Kittens, Catarotti, the Catler Brothers, and more. The music -- from Bluegrass to Zydeco, Comic Opera to High Church, Southern Gospel to Calypso -- is captured on a full-length CD that is included with the book. Delightful illustrations add to the enjoyment.
In the centuries preceding the American Civil War, the large wooden sailing ship was the mainstay of the world's navies. Then, in the spring of 1861, Stephen Mallory, secretary of the Navy of the Confederate States of America, issued a challenge to the United States Navy: the South was going to fight the numerically superior wooden Navy of the US in ironclad ships. The Union responded to the challenge with its own ironclad, the Monitor, but the South had the advantage of an earlier start. The Merrimac was designed and built to fight wooden ships; the Monitor was created to fight the Merrimac. The US Navy's urgent need for an ironclad led a naval review board to accept the proposed design of the Monitor after initially having rejected it. Manuscripts reveal how the board examined and turned down several proposals; they also describe how the Monitor's designer defended her against skeptics and how the construction of the vessel was organized and undertaken. The book describes the formation of a cartel of northeastern iron and shipbuilding industries that sought to monopolize the construction of blue-water ironclads. This investigation of the origin of the Monitor departs from earlier studies by focusing on the construction companies rather than on Ericsson and his most visible partners. The construction of the Monitor has never been thoroughly investigated. Most of the literature on the Monitor focuses either on Ericsson and his associates or on the dramatic meeting of the Monitor and the Merrimac; it generally ignores the actual building of the vessel. The few attempts to describe her construction contain numerous errors particularly with respect to the operation of her innovative turret.
A novel about the forgotten British Citizens. The narrator, a coma survivor, along with Diego Garcia native, Tarzan, conspires to gain back the British-controlled islands without violence. Sprinkled with humor, the story centers on lucid dreaming during the coma and the subsequent plot. It's a quick account of the Chagos islanders' quest to get back their Islands, which resembles a fresh David vs. Goliath. "Coma Story" a story of coma and of the forgotten - nothing more.
This new publication from the NSW Migration Heritage Centre traces the history of migration to this continent through a selection of 100 significant objects spanning a 60,000 year time frame. Researched and written by MHC curator Stephen Thompson, the book features objects from collections across the world that document the migration of people, technology and ideas to our shores.
Instilling Ethics casts a fresh light on both the historical sources and the contemporary issues of a major preoccupation of our time: ethics. Norma Thompson has compiled essays from prominent scholars in a wide-range of disciplines to address the problems, pretensions, and positive potentialities of ethical practices today. Instilling Ethics offers a new way of connecting today's ethics to the great ethical sources of the past— classical, medieval, and early modern—and presents a wise and witty critique of the current practice of 'professional ethics.
Jem, an aspiring playwright living in Notting Hill, has just been dumped by his girlfriend. He dreams of fame and acclaim but is still no closer to achieving either. And, just when he thinks things can't get worse, the career of his best friend and fellow playwright begins to take off . . . Set in London and Edinburgh, Meet Me Under the Westway is a painfully funny and acutely observed account of modern friendships and ambitions. Straight talking, fresh and extremely entertaining, Stephen Thompson's novel joyfully captures the relationships of the young(ish) and irresponsible.
aSome have entertained angels unawaresa (Hebrews 13: 2). The place is a small town called Oak Hill, Kentucky. It is June 1970, and the grandmother of Stephen Leighton voices her concerns about the neighbors across the road. Claire Leighton has long known of the animosity existing between the Leightons and the Briscoes in stories that have passed down through her ancestors. But this is a different situation. Lois Briscoe and her daughters have gone missing. Hugh Briscoe is under suspicion, but there is no evidence to convict him. Stephen Leighton begins dreaming answers to this puzzle, finding truth not only in the horrors of the Briscoe family, but in his own situation as well.
Stephen Thompson followed the University of Alabama basketball team for the 1999-2000 season, recording their practices and travels over a six-month period. Alabama Head Coach Mark Gottfried participated fully with Thompson, allowing complete access into the pressure cooker that is NCAA Division I basketball. Delving into the ups and downs of an emotionally draining season, Thompson builds his story around Assistant Coach Robert "Rah Rah" Scott, who was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer just weeks before the season began. Given only months to live, Scott chose to spend much of his diminishing time trying to help the young athletes find their way, both on and off the court. Part sports book and part eulogy to a good and courageous man, A Gift Before Dying examines the inner workings of college sports, and shows how a team pulled together when all fell apart.
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