Journey Through Darkness

Many of us may live our lives without ever stopping to think What if I couldnt see? We hardly ever ask ourselves this question because, to say the least, we take or eyes for granted. I, like most people, had never thought about it until 11th January 2008. My mother came to wake me up that morning and asked what I was still doing in bed and confidently I replied, It is still dark outside Mum. She told me it was 8am and the sun was shining bright (a typical African morning!). I rubbed my eyes, opened them wider and yelled out, I cant see! I cant see! That was the beginning of a long journey through darkness.

New York Times bestselling author of Mindhunter John Douglas reveals more unique cases from his time as head of the FBI's elite Investigative Support Unit. In the #1 New York Times bestseller Mindhunter, John Douglas, who headed the FBI's elite Investigative Support Unit, told the story of his brilliant and terrifying career tracking down some of the most heinous criminals in history. Now, in Journey into Darkness, Douglas profiles vicious serial killers, rapists, and child molesters. He is straightforward, blunt, often irreverent, and outspoken, but takes pains not to glorify any of these murderers. Some of the unique cases Douglas discusses include: -The Clairemont killer -The schoolgirl murders -Richmond's First Serial Murderer -The brutal and sadistic murder of Suzanne Marie Collins -Polly Klaas' abduction and murder by Richard Allen Davis, -The tragedy that lead to the creation of Megan's Law With Journey into Darkness, Douglas provides more than a glimpse into the minds of serial killers; he demonstrates what a powerful weapon behavioral science has become. Profiling criminals helps not only to capture them, but also helps society understand how these predators work and what can be done to prevent them from striking again. Douglas focuses especially on pedophiles and child abductors, fully explaining what drives them, and how to keep children away from them. As he points out, "The best way to protect your children is to know your enemy." He includes eight rules for safety, a list of steps parents can take to prevent child abduction and exploitation, tips on how to detect sexual exploitation, basic rules of safety for children, and a chart, based on age, which details the safety skills children should have to protect themselves. In his review for Mindhunter in The New York Times Book Review, Dean Koontz said, "Because of his insights and the power of the material, he leaves us shaken, gripped by a quiet grief for the innocent victims and anguished by the human condition." Journey into Darkness continues this perilous trip into the psyche of the serial killer, but also offers a glimmer of hope that profiling may enable law enforcement to see the indicators of a serial killer's mind and intervene before he kills, or kills again.

When he learns that his pregnant wife has been spirited off to a distant city, William responds as any man might—he drops everything to pursue her. But as a fugitive slave in Antebellum America, he must run a terrifying gauntlet, eluding the many who would re-enslave him while learning to trust the few who dare to aid him on his quest. Among those hunting William is Morrison, a Scot who as a young man fled the miseries of his homeland only to discover even more brutal realities in the New World. Bearing many scars, including the loss of his beloved brother, Morrison tracks William for reasons of his own, a personal agenda rooted in tragic events that have haunted him for decades. Following up on his award-winning debut, Gabriel’s Story, David Anthony Durham presents another riveting tale, a brilliantly drawn portrait of America before the Civil War, and a provocative meditation on racial identity, freedom and equality.

The ramblings of a man still on a journey through the darkness created by the loss of his only child to opioids. This story is filled with the recovery of grief, the signs and symbols seen along the way, and the drive to develop a life worthy of seeing her again in the afterlife. Taking the stuff that happens to us and working to carry it along in the character of his being. A unique story with emotional heart felt writing. Just a guy, his loving and best friend in marriage of forty years, and how they worked together to manage life without their beautiful daughter.

Jeremy Kroeker is a Mennonite with a motorcycle. He doesn’t have a funny beard and he’s never even driven a buggy, but his family hails from the same Mennonite community that Miriam Toews fictionalized in A Complicated Kindness. From childhood through college, Kroeker attended Christian schools where he learned to think critically back to predetermined conclusions. Years later, when his faith begins to unravel, Kroeker stops short of tossing it all aside, choosing instead to leave every unanswered question hanging there on the edge of his mind. He might have gotten away with it, too, except for a drunken resolution that forces the issue of God back into his life. In the fall of 2007, Kroeker decides to ride his motorcycle across Europe and into the theocratic nation of Iran... a nation ruled by God. In the end, Kroeker finds himself on a forbidden visit to the holiest Muslim shrine in all of Iran. Once inside, invisible hands reach into Kroeker’s chest and rip from his heart a sincere prayer, his first in many years. And God hears that prayer. For before Kroeker can escape Mashhad, God steals into his hotel room one night to threaten him with death. At least, that’s one way to look at it. Throughout the narrative, Kroeker swings from dogmatic belief in God to overwhelming doubt before finally deciding that the key to approaching God is humility. He understands that uncertainty is not only an acceptable state of mind when considering the Divine, but it is necessary. He will always fear God. But who knows? Perhaps if he keeps riding, one of these days God will speak clearly. And that frightens him, too.

They left in the middle of the night—often carrying little more than the knowledge to follow the North Star. Between 1830 and the end of the Civil War in 1865, an estimated one hundred thousand slaves became passengers on the Underground Railroad, a journey of untold hardship, in search of freedom. In Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad, Jeanine Michna-Bales presents a remarkable series of images following a route from the cotton plantations of central Louisiana, through the cypress swamps of Mississippi and the plains of Indiana, north to the Canadian border— a path of nearly fourteen hundred miles. The culmination of a ten-year research quest, Through Darkness to Light imagines a journey along the Underground Railroad as it might have appeared to any freedom seeker. Framing the powerful visual narrative is an introduction by Michna-Bales; a foreword by noted politician, pastor, and civil rights activist Andrew J. Young; and essays by Fergus M. Bordewich, Robert F. Darden, and Eric R. Jackson.

This is the story of a bitter-sweet relationship between Ibona Olem and her daughter, the sensitive Sazel Huskin. The widowed Ibona sets up a bakery in Merville Market, but her ambitions for her daughter’s musical career grow with every ensuing year. When Sazel grows into a fine singer, both the mother and daughter decide to shift to Cechern, a bigger town with more opportunities. Sazel debuts at ‘Melody Mist’ and Ibona basks in her shadow. But, eventually, Ibona’s desires overwhelm her. What is it that makes Sazel turn away from her music? What draws her back to Merville? How does Rofised Lombatti, her co-actor, influence her decisions? Do Ibona and Sazel finally agree to disagree? Where does Sazel find her solace? What role does Vorin Gestow play in her life?