Mama's Shoes

By the time Sylvia Richardson is eighteen, she has buried her parents; given birth to a daughter; and become a widow. It is 1942, and World War II has destroyed Sylvia's dream of dancing in red heels through life to the melody of a Hank Snow record. Instead, she is raising her daughter, Sassy, alone in the coal mining town she vowed to leave behind. By 1955, thirteen-year-old Sassy has been brought up on a stiff dose of Mama's lessons on how to be a lady-even though Mama drinks, smokes, and dates a myriad of men. But everything changes the day a woman accuses Sylvia of trying to steal her husband, forcing Sassy to come to terms with her Mama's harsh teen years. For Sylvia, only the support of kith and kin can rescue her from her mistakes. Spanning twenty years, Mama's Shoes is a haunting saga of love, despair, and forgiveness as a cadence of female voices weaves a spell of mountain lore and secrets, defines family as more than blood kin, and proves second chances can bring happiness. "An absolutely wonderful novel, its setting a beautifully realized small Appalachian coal town, its characters so vivid they're practically jumping off the page". -Lee Smith, author of Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger and The Last Girls

Literature & Fiction

Elswick, Rebecca D.

Contemporary

AbbottPress

White Coats

Wilson, Tenny

Genre Fiction

The Wishing Well

When Mark Faris first met Cate Greenway, he knew she was an angel. As a teenager hanging out with the neighborhood kids in 1970s Kansas City, Faris often went with his friends to Cate's house and enjoyed picnics next to the wishing well in her field. They found safety and love there, and Cate became a guiding light for them. Even after Faris moved to Minneapolis and started a new life, he never forgot Cate. But it was years later in 2009 that Cate became an even more important influence on his life. After decades of selfishness, combined with his wobbly faith, Faris was convicted of money laundering, mail fraud, and wire fraud. He was incarcerated in a federal prison and separated from his family and friends. It was in prison that Cate appeared to him in angelic form, pushing Faris to make faith, love, and service for God the highest priorities in his life. Chronicling the drowsy summer days under Cate's sprawling oak trees, his venture into the business world, and his renewal of faith in God, The Wishing Well is an honest look at Faris's life and how one special angel transformed it forever.

Faris, Mark

Biographies & Memoirs

Author Charles Ota Heller's early childhood in Czechoslovakia was idyllic, but his safe and happy world didn't last long, Three years after his birth, Germany forced an occupation of his country; afterward, most of his young life consisted of running and hiding. His life, just like those of the other youths who lived in Europe during the late 1930s and early 1940s, was shaped forever by the dangers, horrors, and unsettling events he experienced. In this memoir, Heller, born Ota Karel Heller, narrates his family's story-a family nearly destroyed by the Nazis. Son of a mixed marriage, he was raised a Catholic and was unaware of his Jewish roots, even after his father escaped to join the British army and fifteen members of his family disappeared. Prague: My Long Journey Home tells of his Christian mother being sent to a slave labor camp and of his hiding on a farm to avoid deportation to a death camp. With the war coming to a close, Heller tells of how he picked up a revolver and shot a Nazi when he was just nine years old. Heller, now an assimilated American, left the horrors of the past-along with his birth name-behind to live the proverbial American Dream. In his memoir, he recalls how two cataclysmic events following Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution brought him face-to-face with demons of his former life. On his personal journey Heller discovered and embraced his heritage-one which he had abandoned decades earlier.

Prague: My Long Journey Home: A Memoir of Survival, Denial, and Redemption

Heller, Charles Ota

Memoirs

For those who live on the go and have stress on the rise, Bolster Your Spirit is the perfect antidote. It is time to return to a balanced life where effort is supported by rest and rejuvenation. These beautiful postures will allow your body to open effortlessly, your mind to experience stillness, and your spirit to nourish both. These pages hold many possibilities for finding your way to harmony. The gentle postures are the keys to entering a new space where you are able to embrace and replenish your self and to Bolster Your Spirit. "Mana and Kathy are continuing to help others heal. This time it is for all who are tired, weary, and tense. The restorative poses described in this book, when practiced regularly, will ease your tensions, your breath and just make you feel dashed good" -Aadil Palkhivala, JD, CYT, AHSP, Yoga Master "Bolster yourself and bolster your yoga library with this easy-to-use restorative yoga manual. . . . The clear photographs and detailed instructions allow new students to develop their practice and feel safe and rejuvenated in the process. . . . Divine space is created in each pose; space for reflection, meditation, feeling and awareness" -Susan Hyman, physical therapist "How wonderful to have a book that teaches us how to use bolsters to aid relaxation and rejuvenation. This book supports health and wellness-physically and emotionally-which is much needed in today's busy, stressful world" -Letitia Cain, National Director of Naturopathic Medicine, Cancer Treatment Centers of America

Bolster Your Spirit

Triplett, Kathy

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Life brings its share of problems and needs. There are times when the church looks upon its leaders as if they have no problems, but leaders are far from exempt from difficulties. Author J. D. Miera Martinez has written Through It All to offer his thoughts on ministering to leaders and pastors. Some of the problems leaders face will cause them to analyze and reevaluate their spiritual callings. Only those leaders truly called to this spiritual life will endure this process of reevaluation to become God s vessels. On a deeper level, Martinez wonders why bad things sometimes happen to good people. There are people who are good and have a stronger spiritual life, but are plagued with bad things death, diseases, and misfortunes that have become part of their everyday lives. Martinez examines his own life in Through It All as he searches for its spiritual meaning. He has come to the conclusion that the Scripture, In the world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world, directs his life and has helped him to build the life that he was meant to live serving God and bringing the word and love of God to those around him.

Through It All: A Life Story of Defeats and Victories

Martinez, J. D. Miera

Religion & Spirituality

The Ghost Painter

Eccentric, world-famous Santa Fe artist Adelaide Moran, recently arrived in heaven, is obsessed with not having finished painting the masterpiece that she feels will be so different from all others that it will forever ensure her legacy in the history of art. Invading the dreams of her earthly assistant, Ramon Herrera, she elicits his help--and that of a Taos shaman and a psychic--to steal the soul of talented young New York painter Angelina Bonelli. Whisked to New Mexico and held prisoner as she is guided by Moran's ghostly hand painting on the masterpiece, Angelina struggles against dark, seemingly immovable forces to find her way back to the reclamation of her soul as an artist and woman. Her best friend, jazz singer Gabriella Burke, and a handsome Santa Fe photographer, Troy Lundberg, join forces in a race against time to rescue Angelina. Bonelli counts Moran as one of her favorite artists, but aches to honor her own artistic expression. Meanwhile, even in death, the spirit of Moran will stop at nothing to become as famous as Georgia O'Keeffe. Two painters, but only one set of hands ... and an art world that may be forever changed.

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Norden, Marilu

Thrillers & Suspense

The Romanov Stone

* Winner: 2013 IndieReader.com Discovery Award for General Fiction!!* Winner: 2013 Independent Publishers "IPPY" Award for Suspense/Thrillers!!On her deathbed, Kate Gavrill's mother finally tells her the truth: she is a direct descendant of Nicholas II, Russia's last tsar, and heir to a family fortune. But nothing is simple in the tragic history of the Romanov clan. To claim her birthright, Kate must find a fabulous, long-missing alexandrite given by Nicholas to his lover--her great-grandmother.Simon Blake, a respected New York gemologist, is Kate's companion as they criss-cross Europe in search of the legendary jewel. To succeed, however, the pair must overcome a master Colombian jewel thief; a blood-thirsty capo in the Ukrainian mafayia; and a sinister cleric trained in mind control. Simon Blake wants to find the stone as much as Kate does, but does he lust for the alexandrite or for the young woman by his side? For her part, Kate is driven by the need to atone for a mistake in her past; a guilt-ridden promise to her dying mother to restore their family name; and a desperate desire to make sense of her own history and very identity. She vows to find the Romanov Stone if it's the last thing she does.

Yeager, Robert C.

Into the Tornado of War: A History of the Twenty-First Michigan Infantry in the Civil War

In the summer of 1862, a group of volunteer soldiers joined the Twenty-First Michigan Volunteer Infantry in western Michigan. For the next two and a half years, these men saw extensive combat against the Confederacy in America's most brutal and bloody war. Drawn from hundreds of letters, diaries, and memoirs, Into the Tornado of War is the complete history of this Union regiment as seen through the soldiers' eyes. James Genco traces their movements from their first major battle at Perryville, Kentucky, through Tennessee, Georgia, and finally, the Carolinas. In addition to Perryville, the regiment was severely tested in the landmark battles of Stones River, Chickamauga, and Bentonville, and participated in Union General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea in November and December of 1864. As the war wound down in 1865, the regiment was part of the Union Army that cut its way through the Carolinas, ultimately finding itself in the forefront of one of the last major battles of the war. In a valuable contribution to the scholarship on the American Civil War, Into the Tornado of War paints a picture of the realities of the war through the words of real soldiers.

History

Genco, James

Americas

Thirteen-year-old Rodolfo Balao was in church listening to a solemn Mass when Japanese planes flew over his town in the Philippines and bombed the airfield. Just days after Rodolfo and his family evacuated to a farm high above Tuguegarao, the Japanese took over their town, razing and killing until nothing remained except memories. Rodolfo's family would not return home for six months. In his fascinating memoir, Rodolfo tells the striking, true story of his experiences in the Philippines during World War II. Through compelling vignettes, Rodolfo details how his family managed to survive despite their loss of freedom, the brutality of the Japanese officers, and the constant fear of execution. In the face of the chaos of war that enveloped their town, Rodolfo also shares joy-filled moments as he learned to dance and fell in love. After his family escapes once again, Rodolfo finds happiness in caring for his new horse, Pandy. But it is not long before a guerrilla officer demands the horse, forcing Rodolfo to bargain with his life, join the guerrilla group, and change his future forever. The deeply personal journey through war and its subsequent effects shared in My World War II Story is a worthy tribute and memorial for Rodolfo and all of those whose lives unwittingly became intertwined with the onset of an unforgettable war.

My World War II Story

Balao, Rodolfo

Community & Culture

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