Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps

Many self-help books promise a magical leap from rags to riches, but this book is different. Evelyn Cross went from being a homeless single mother to a professional woman steeped in success. Today, she owns a home, drives a new car, and has all the trappings of a put-together woman. In this book, she emphasizes the value of hard work, noting that we’re not all born with a special gift—and we’re not all destined to become celebrities, sports heroes, or business tycoons. With hard work, however, you can: • make the most of the cards you’re dealt; • create a plan to achieve goals; • identify the work you want to do; • spend your money wisely. You can act today to overcome obstacles and live a happy, healthy productive life. You can be a success! Make smart decisions, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and walk down a path that leads to success with the wisdom in Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps.

Set in New Zealand, "Pull Yourself Up By Your Booty Boot Straps?" is about a child who wonders what the phrase means. He eventually learns that the only way to "pull yourself up" is with family and friends who are always there when needed. This heartwarming book affirms over and over that your family and friends are always there to lend a helping hand.

As I am writing this I realize some of the stories are a little fare out, might be difficult to believer, but I assure you they are all true, and I lived them. I used only first names to protect both the guilty, and innocent. I also vaguely de-scribed locations, and companies for the same reasons. I’m about to reach my 86th birthday, have been retired for over 20 years, and I doubt if anyone men-tioned is still alive. I started this book at the encouragement, and support of my Daughter to preserve the life of us old timers, who grew up in a world far different from what we have now. The amount of news, and information I am exposed to in one day now is about equal to what I was exposed to in a year when I was 8 years old, and World War 2 started. My story is not unique, it is only one of many, some far more interesting, and they’re disappearing rapidly as we pass on. I encourage these old timers to write them down or record them. But be prepared for as you write your life stories your going to almost relive them, your going to have time to think about them, when at the time you didn’t. Your views, and values may have change with time, and are now different. As I look back over my life I have had many successes, and failures. Your failures you remember, they hang around your neck forever, and influ-ence your life without you being aware of it. Your successes you soon forget, and assume that’s the way life’s supposed to be. The only successes I can take pride in is those of my Children, both of them have been immensely successful-ly, they both have traveled, and worked throughout the world. I and my Wife Pat have been blessed. I hope you enjoyed my life.

As President Barack Obama outlined his promise for change during the presidential campaign, he made effective use of proverbs and proverbial phrases, and invented many quotable epithets that have all the makings of future proverbs. This book examines how Obama's natural and authentic reliance on traditional metaphors enhances his impressive rhetoric, rather than reducing it to mere sound bites. Proverbs, with their often colorful metaphors, add expressiveness and emotion to his communications, giving people the opportunity to follow his pragmatic or philosophical arguments through common language. No matter the subject, Obama's prose contains metaphorical language that makes his rhetoric and oratory universally accessible. This book contains detailed analyses of the proverbial rhetoric in Obama's books Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006). A section looks at his proverbial language in 229 speeches, news conferences, interviews, and radio addresses, and the final section presents in-depth studies of his seven most significant addresses. It includes a comprehensive contextualized index of 1714 proverbial texts found within the writings and speeches from Obama's political beginnings to his memorable inaugural address.

One of the Best 5 Books of 2014 — Esquire "I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time. Well, not this book, because I never imagined that the book I was waiting for would be so devastatingly smart and funny, so consistently entertaining and unflinchingly on target. In fact, I would like to have written it myself – if, that is, I had lived Linda Tirado’s life and extracted all the hard lessons she has learned. I am the author of Nickel and Dimed, which tells the story of my own brief attempt, as a semi-undercover journalist, to survive on low-wage retail and service jobs. Tirado is the real thing." —from the foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed We in America have certain ideas of what it means to be poor. Linda Tirado, in her signature brutally honest yet personable voice, takes all of these preconceived notions and smashes them to bits. She articulates not only what it is to be working poor in America (yes, you can be poor and live in a house and have a job, even two), but what poverty is truly like—on all levels. Frankly and boldly, Tirado discusses openly how she went from lower-middle class, to sometimes middle class, to poor and everything in between, and in doing so reveals why “poor people don’t always behave the way middle-class America thinks they should.”

Race, class, and hormones combine and combust when a Harvard freshman and his two friends attempt to join the staff of the Harpoon, the school's iconic humor magazine. Around Harvard Square is the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Youth/Teens)! Around Harvard Square has been named a 2020 Honor Book by the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People "A smart, satirical novel about surviving the racial and cultural tensions ratcheted up in the elite Harvard hothouse. Farley has created a marvelously engaging and diverse set of characters, at the center of which is a nerdy Jamaican American with a philosophical bent and his cohort of oddballs struggling to win a spot on Harvard's brainy humor magazine, which provides a springboard for Farley to dive into the ethics of comedy, among other subjects." --National Book Review, included in Monday's 5 Hot Books "For anyone who likes satire, this quick-witted tale...catches a bundle of truths about a very particular and powerful corner of our world." --New West Indian Guide "Around Harvard Square [is] C.J. Farley's fun novel about an exceptional Jamaican student-athlete facing class and race issues to get a spot on an elite Harvard University humor magazine." --New York Daily News, included in CaribBeat column "C.J. Farley's Around Harvard Square is a witty and artful narrative of a society on the crossroads of change...A must read." --The Gleaner (Jamaica) Included in the American Booksellers Association's ABC Best Books for Young Adult Readers 2019! Included in Publishers Weekly's Spring 2019 Children's Announcements Included in Rich in Color's Six Books to Kickstart April "In his new novel, Around Harvard Square, Farley writes about a scandal strikingly similar to how Singer helped parents and coaches allegedly exploit athletic programs of schools like Yale, Georgetown, and USC." --Fox 5 (New York) "This former Lampoon editor, journalist, and now satirical novelist, has lots of insight into the discrepancies around race and gender that remain present in the comedy industry." --CityLine (WCVB-TV Boston) "Around Harvard Square brings social commentary to college life, approaching the issues in a humorous attitude...Farley makes the injustices more tangible to a younger audience who may be future students at such institutions, and he shows how little progression has been made in the educational system regarding institutional racism." --Prism Review Tosh Livingston, superstar student-athlete from small-town USA, thinks he's made it big as a rising freshman at Harvard University. Not so fast! Once on campus, he's ensnared in a frenzied competition to win a spot on Harvard's legendary humor magazine, the Harpoon. Tosh soon finds that joining the Harpoon is a weird and surprisingly dangerous pursuit. He faces off against a secret society of super-rich kids, gets schooled by a philosophy professor who loves flunking everyone, and teams up with a genius student-cartoonist with an agenda of her own. Along the way, Tosh and his band of misfit freshman friends unearth long-buried mysteries about the Ivy League that will rock the Ivory Tower and change their lives forever...if they can survive the semester. With its whip-smart humor and fast-paced narrative, Around Harvard Square will appeal to readers of all ages interested in exploring the complicated roles that race and class play in higher education.

Lies are powerful. God’s Truth is stronger. Graphic novel meets meaty Bible teaching in Lies Boys Believe, helping boys identify lies and replace them with Truth so they can stand firm in a fractured world. Jason and Erin Davis—parents to four boys—use witty storytelling and playful graphics to present solid biblical truth to combat the most common lies boys believe. With easy-to-read chapters, this book focuses on ten core lies: Loving God Is for Girls God is Mad at Me It’s Not My Fault No One Needs to Know About My Sin I Can’t Control My Temper It Doesn’t Matter What I Watch Reading the Bible Isn’t for Me . . . and more. Through the Davis’ fictional and humorous stories, your son will begin to trade the lies he’s believed for the truth God intends. He will learn to swim upstream against the tides of deception and be equipped to recognize future lies as he develops a passion for knowing and living God’s Word. Join him in the battle by using the accompanying tool: A Parent’s Guide to Lies Boys Believe. This companion resource invites you to critically examine the lies boys believe, discover how to strengthen and encourage your son, and employ creative and practical tools for ongoing discussion.

Everyone faces challenges at some time, but some are everywomans nightmare. Losing a marriage, home or business can seem insurmountable. So does coping with the death of a beloved spouse or facing cancer. Portrayed in this book are courageous women who have dealt with these nightmares and managed to not just survive, but found untapped strength that enabled them to pull themselves up and beyond. In each case, these women believed the sources of their salvation were faith, family and friends. Their stories will give hope to anyone who has faced or is facing adversity and show that they, too, can prevail. At the end of each chapter are Boot Kickersgems of wisdom gleaned from the womens stories. They can be printed from the Bootstraps website, www.bootstrapsbook.com to inspire you in trying times.