Memoirs Of A Midnight Flower

Listen to the sounds of yesteryear as you travel back in time on a journey through the 1950's, which would be unimaginable to those of us who never lived through it. Based on the inspirational true story of some of life's unbelievable twists of fate, and the bittersweet reflections of a youngster growing up in the '50s, whose life had been touched by tragedy that could have taken many different paths. As the veil of secrecy is slowly lifted and removed, you'll become aquatinted with the guardian angels that are placed here on earth to protect, and watch over us. Witness the awakening of an understanding that began when a ten-year-old child, survives from a spiritual death with the help of a valiant spirit who guides her through life, and into a spiritual journey of acceptance. Finally, journey on a spine-chilling ride in the "Phantom Car of German Church Road," to one of the most horrific murders in Chicago's history, and even after four decades, still remains undiminished in its brutality and horror, as it mesmerized the entire city, of the unsolved murders of two teenage sisters who were last seen near the Brighton Park Theater, on the evening of December 28, 1956.Credit for graphic: Carol Jon, design by Rebecca D. Brown

"One day, you're sure to become the Queen of France." In 18th Century Paris... Nicole, a maid, and Jeanne, a socialite, are the best of friends. Nicole's one wish is for the beautiful and clever Jeanne to become the Queen of France, as predicted by a fortune-teller. However, since she's of common birth, Jeanne is scorned by members of the peerage. Unperturbed, Nicole somehow manages to get an invitation to the upcoming masked ball, and both of them sneak in... Do they have a chance at actually meeting Louis XV, the King of France...!? This memoir details the life of the first commoner to be taken as courtesan to a King of France. A tale of romance with connections to both Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution!!

A powerful exploration of grief and resilience following the death of the author's son that combines memoir, reportage, and lessons in how to heal Everyone deals with grief in their own way. Helen Macdonald found solace in training a wild gos­hawk. Cheryl Strayed found strength in hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. For Carol Smith, a Pulitzer Prize­ nominated journalist struggling with the sudden death of her seven-year-old son, Christopher, the way to cross the river of sorrow was through work. In Crossing the River, Smith recounts how she faced down her crippling loss through reporting a series of profiles of people coping with their own intense chal­lenges, whether a life-altering accident, injury, or diag­nosis. These were stories of survival and transformation, of people facing devastating situations that changed them in unexpected ways. Smith deftly mixes the stories of these individuals and their families with her own account of how they helped her heal. General John Shalikashvili, once the most powerful member of the American military, taught Carol how to face fear with discipline and endurance. Seth, a young boy with a rare and incurable illness, shed light on the totality of her son's experiences, and in turn helps readers see that the value of a life is not measured in days. Crossing the River is a beautiful and profoundly moving book, an unforgettable journey through grief toward hope, and a valuable, illuminating read for anyone coping with loss.

Hawthorne delivers an exquisitely illustrated picture book about the Saguaro cactus which grows in the Sonoran desert in Arizona and its flower, which blooms only one night a year. Full color.

In The Flower That Stood Alone, Debbie Pearson shares her heart-wrenching and inspiring story of surviving sexual assault and rape, shame and self-loathing, poverty, drug abuse, and loneliness tragic circumstances stemming from a lifetime of parental neglect, abuse, and abandonment. Hers is a true survivor story, and a poignant reminder that with determination, strength, courage and the willingness to ask for help and work for a better outcome, anything is possible."

A daughter returns home to the Navajo reservation to retrace her mother’s life in a memoir that is both a narrative and an archive of one family’s troubled history. “A candid and achingly fractured memoir of [Geller’s] mother, her family, her Navajo heritage and her own journey to self-discovery and acceptance.”—Ms. SHORTLISTED FOR: The Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, The Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Esquire, She Reads When Danielle Geller’s mother dies of alcohol withdrawal during an attempt to get sober, Geller returns to Florida and finds her mother’s life packed into eight suitcases. Most were filled with clothes, except for the last one, which contained diaries, photos, and letters, a few undeveloped disposable cameras, dried sage, jewelry, and the bandana her mother wore on days she skipped a hair wash. Geller, an archivist and a writer, uses these pieces of her mother’s life to try and understand her mother’s relationship to home, and their shared need to leave it. Geller embarks on a journey where she confronts her family's history and the decisions that she herself had been forced to make while growing up, a journey that will end at her mother's home: the Navajo reservation. Dog Flowers is an arresting, photo-lingual memoir that masterfully weaves together images and text to examine mothers and mothering, sisters and caretaking, and colonized bodies. Exploring loss and inheritance, beauty and balance, Danielle Geller pays homage to our pasts, traditions, and heritage, to the families we are given and the families we choose.

"One day, you're sure to become the Queen of France." In 18th Century Paris... Nicole, a maid, and Jeanne, a socialite, are the best of friends. Nicole's one wish is for the beautiful and clever Jeanne to become the Queen of France, as predicted by a fortune-teller. However, since she's of common birth, Jeanne is scorned by members of the peerage. Unperturbed, Nicole somehow manages to get an invitation to the upcoming masked ball, and both of them sneak in... Do they have a chance at actually meeting Louis XV, the King of France...!? This memoir details the life of the first commoner to be taken as courtesan to a King of France. A tale of romance with connections to both Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution!!