Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking

A tale of Catherine Cookson-esque tragedy and Northern grit, Pauline Prescott's life story will shock and amaze.

I'm just Janet. I have strengths, weaknesses, fears, happiness, sadness. I experience joy and I experience pain. I'm highly emotional. I'm very vulnerable. And, as anyone who knows me will testify, I'm extremely sensitive. I have lifelong patterns of behaviour that have caused me difficulty - patterns tough to break. Like everyone, I have talents, but with those talents have come challenges. This book is about meeting the challenges that face all of us. For more than three decades, I've struggled with yo-yo dieting. Some of my battles with weight have been very public. But most of it has been internal. Even at my thinnest, when my body was being praised, I wasn't happy with what I saw or how I felt about myself. Infused with stories from fans and friends, Janet offers a candid look into the causes and circumstances behind some of her well-documented weight issues. Far more than a celebrity fitness manifesto, this book is a searingly honest account of the most tumultuous times of her life - from being taunted as a young girl to her internal battles with her beauty and femininity and her desire to fit in. It has taken Janet most of her adult life to come to terms with who she is. True You illuminates the path Janet took in learning how to love herself and finally break free of the attitudes that brought her down.

"In-your-face anti-etiquette manual by a self-confessed 'recovering nice girl' ... an ironic blending of text and art, a nineties sensibility at work on a fifties agenda." -Globe and Mail

No Joke is a detailed examination of Todd Phillips’s Joker, one of the biggest global box-office hits of 2019. While his success was no doubt partly because of the association of its title character with the Batman superhero franchise, Joker is anything but a flashy superhero romp. It does explore the pathologies of its central character and suggest ways in which his life experiences might have driven him to become a supervillain, the arch-enemy of Batman. At the same time, the film leaves open the possibility that its “Joker” is not, in fact, the same as the one conventionally associated with Batman. In fact, the film leaves open many interpretive possibilities, in keeping with the complex work of postmodern art that it turns out to be. Joker also engages in extensive dialogues with a range of works from modern American culture, especially the films of the 1970s and 1980s, the period in which the action of Joker is set. Moreover, Joker is a highly political film that comments in important ways on American political history from roughly the beginning of the presidency of Richard Nixon through the end of the Trump presidency, with a special focus on the Reagan years. It also comments in more general and fundamental ways on the very nature of American society and American capitalism. All this, and more, is covered in M. Keith Booker’s analysis of one of the most talked-about films of recent years.

Frankie Mae Tyson was in love. She loved Michael Jackson for as long as she could remember, and she had always dreamed of meeting him. One day, while driving down the Santa Monica freeway, 20-year-old Frankie saw a large, flashy limousine. There wasn't a doubt in her mind; it was Michael Jackson. They flirted as they drove down the highway. Frankie Mae had never been a popular girl. In school, the boys had made fun of her, but Michael Jackson saw her picture in a vacant store window before he met her, and he saw the plain girl in a special light. He cared about her. She cared about him, and they were both successful in keeping their union secret from the world. He truly loved her. She had self-confidence after meeting Jackson, and she made it clear to him from the start that she did not want anything but his love. For many years, Frankie refused to accept Michael's attempts to free her from the ghetto. Michael and Frankie were careful to keep their relationship a secret from Oprah and the world, as Michael used doubles to cover for him when he was with his secret love, Frankie Mae. He even surprised her one day when, just hours before his famous Moonwalk on Motown 25, he attended her Security Guard of the Month Award ceremony. "As Michael watched me through a peephole that day, I was proud of him for always supporting me, and I was stunned to see the determination of opportunists and the media to bring Michael Jackson down." "When you love a man as much as I love Michael, death can be a surreal thing to go through. I am not going to take my life; I am going to live my life in memory of Michael Jackson. I am not worried, for he knows that I will be with him one day, as I promised."

Nineteen-year-old Emily Sheppard is losing her sanity. Ever since her mob king boyfriend, Cameron Hillard, abandoned her for her own good, Emmy has been attempting to move on with her charmed college student life as if nothing happened. Now rejected from the underworld and left grieving over Cameron’s alleged death, Emmy realizes she belongs nowhere. Worse yet, she is now keeping a dangerous secret. After just a short time with Emily, Cameron has lost control over his world. As he miserably attempts to return to what is left of his life and unravel the mess he has made of the underworld, Emily’s hate turns to desperation. She needs to kill the kingpins responsible for Cameron’s death before they come looking for her. As Cameron secretly observes Emily, he has no idea of the danger he has placed her in—or that it may already be too late for him to save her. Scare Crow is a tale of revenge, terror, and love as Emmy and Cameron embark on separate journeys to face enemies, correct past mistakes, and find their way to their destinies.

"Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head." Malcolm Gladwell Whenever you struggle with faith "" place your trust in Jesus: He is your Savior, Lord, Life-Giver, Protector, Provider, Counselor, Sustainer and Redeemer. He knows everything about you "" even details you don't know about yourself. Trust Him; affix your eyes on Him; He will show you the path to walk and He will point out the right road to follow. Excerpt from Charles Stanley's Everyday in His Presence Trust Him to fulfill His purpose for you "" He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5