I Learned It Through The Grapevine

When city boy turned country gent Todd Soltysiak planted a vineyard on his new rural property, he began to learn the secrets of how to care for vines. Over the course of fifteen growing seasons, he gradually came to understand the meaning of Jesus Christ’s final lesson to the disciples: “I am the vine and you are the branches.” With a deep love for Jesus, and through personal observations and often humorous stories, this simple grape farmer has shared the truths he’s unearthed to help us better understand how God works in the world—for God is crafting us into kingdom fruit-bearers in preparation for the spiritual harvest to come. In I Learned It through the Grapevine, Todd draws parallels between his real-world experience in the vineyard and the truths of Scripture. The story is actually three books in one, with in-depth discussions of Jesus’s final parable, a study guide to help readers uncover their role as Christians in the world, and practical tips for building and maintaining a fruitful vineyard.

I Heard It Through the Grapevine explores how rumors that run rife in African-American communities, concerning such issues as AIDS, the Ku Klux Klan and FBI conspiracies, translate white oppression into folk warnings, and are used by the community to respond to a hostile dominant culture.

A guide for anyone who enjoys drinking wine but panics when they find themselves standing in a wine aisle, faced with a vast expanse of bottles. Matt Skinner shares his passion and enthusiasm, guiding you through the basics of buying, drinking, storing and, most importantly, enjoying wine. Divided into chapters on shopping, drinking, eating and sleeping, this book covers everything you need to know about wine, from making sense of wine labels and understanding vintages to ordering wine questions, and many more. His refreshingly relaxed style is easy to read and understand, and his invaluable advice will arm you with knowledge for wine that will impress your friends and have you walking down that wine aisle with confidence.

Roni Jarrett was once in love with a high-rolling strip club owner who used her and abused her. He caused her to lose the job of her dreams, not to mention her self respect. With nothing left but her newfound faith in Christ and her old BMW, she hits the road and ends up where she started, in her old hometown. With a new job in an upscale beauty salon, and a position as music director for her church, she's doing all she can to live a life that's pleasing in the eyes of God. Unfortunately, other people's drama has a way of following Roni Jarrett and it follows her to her new life in Florida. When her best friend from childhood turns up dead in the streets, the local police behaves as if Roni may have had a hand in that death, and everything changes. Roni finds herself caught up in a dangerous maze of gossip and lies that could lead to her own destruction. The only man willing to help her, Police Chief Don Gillette, is a gorgeous hunk of a human being who makes Roni's heart pound, but his own reputation causes even more drama to enter her life. Roni is tested time and again as she struggles to understand what is happening around her. Her budding relationship with Don Gillette, a relationship that seems sent from God, may get caught in the wreckage too. Will Roni's newfound faith be able to withstand so many trials, and will Don Gillette turn out to be the love of her life or the worst thing that had ever happened to her?

A landmark in jazz studies, Thinking in Jazz reveals as never before how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner documents the lifetime of preparation that lies behind the skilled improviser's every idea. The product of more than fifteen years of immersion in the jazz world, Thinking in Jazz combines participant observation with detailed musicological analysis, the author's experience as a jazz trumpeter, interpretations of published material by scholars and performers, and, above all, original data from interviews with more than fifty professional musicians: bassists George Duvivier and Rufus Reid; drummers Max Roach, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Akira Tana; guitarist Emily Remler; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris; saxophonists Lou Donaldson, Lee Konitz, and James Moody; trombonist Curtis Fuller; trumpeters Doc Cheatham, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, and Red Rodney; vocalists Carmen Lundy and Vea Williams; and others. Together, the interviews provide insight into the production of jazz by great artists like Betty Carter, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker. Thinking in Jazz overflows with musical examples from the 1920s to the present, including original transcriptions (keyed to commercial recordings) of collective improvisations by Miles Davis's and John Coltrane's groups. These transcriptions provide additional insight into the structure and creativity of jazz improvisation and represent a remarkable resource for jazz musicians as well as students and educators. Berliner explores the alternative ways—aural, visual, kinetic, verbal, emotional, theoretical, associative—in which these performers conceptualize their music and describes the delicate interplay of soloist and ensemble in collective improvisation. Berliner's skillful integration of data concerning musical development, the rigorous practice and thought artists devote to jazz outside of performance, and the complexities of composing in the moment leads to a new understanding of jazz improvisation as a language, an aesthetic, and a tradition. This unprecedented journey to the heart of the jazz tradition will fascinate and enlighten musicians, musicologists, and jazz fans alike.

For Glenn Ruisdael, life isnt turning out quite the way he expected. At thirty-three, hes alone once more, living in the small town in Michigan where he was raised, chronically depressed and working a job thats below his abilities. He spends his days merely drifting along, drinking too much, and feeling like a failurebut things are about to change. His grandmother, Sandra, has died, leaving him and his estranged brother, Martin, very wealthy. He has also inherited keys to two private rooms at the family mansionone, the sole domain of his grandfather, and the other, that of his grandmother. As he explores these rooms and discovers the truth, he is forced to admit that idols all have their feet of clay. But he also comes to realize that saints can be found in the most unlikely of places. Checkered as his own past is, Glenn knows that the time has come to deal with his personal demons. He misses Gideon, his ex-lover in Minneapolis, an unconventionally spiritual man who challenged the core values by which hed been living. Glenn also realizes the time has come to try to reconnect with his brother. Martin, after all, is the only family he has left. Glenn knows he is at an important crossroads in life, and the path he chooses now will have repercussions reaching far into his future.

About the Book My Barefoot Days is a tender and deeply personal journey back in time to the childhood of William Tate as he grew up in the small town of Grapevine, Texas in the first half of the twentieth century. Before becoming mayor at age 30 and dutifully serving his hometown for forty-seven years, Tate was a bright-eyed child finding adventure on his family’s farm and on the pleasant streets of a blossoming Grapevine. This book is as much a memoir as it is a portrayal of the hope and unity of small-town America, and how close-knit communities such as Grapevine come to shape us as individuals. About the Author William D. Tate was born and raised in Grapevine, Texas. He received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting from North Texas State University and his juris doctor degree from the University of Houston. He served as city attorney and on city council in Grapevine before becoming mayor, a position he has held for the past forty-seven years. He is the longest serving mayor in Texas and the third longest serving mayor in the United States.