They Really Happened

As the title suggests, the stories in this book are incidents that actually happened in the lives of people. The stories fall into different categories such as unexplained phenomenon, bizarre happenings, spiritual, horror, mystery, going beyond human limit, and a host of others. All these incidents have reason or reasons as to why they happened and embedded in these true incidents are values and as such, these experiences must be told and shared with people of all ages, backgrounds and from different countries, which will go towards helping them in all spheres of life. The stories, written without tempering or changing facts to get readers attention, are all written with a different style where a lot of focus is given to plot, which unfolds gradually but quickly. The vocabulary used is simple, which facilitates understanding and uninterrupted reading and the sentences used are a combination of simple, compound, and complex sentences, which renders reading of this book pleasurable. If the intention is to find an interesting source to read or utilize leisure time beneficially, or improve English Language proficiency, then this book is a 'must-buy.'

For years Fallon Spring endured physical and sexual abuse at the hands of family members, starting at the age of 4. As an adult the legacy of abuse left her with little self-esteem and resulted in marriages that were even more abusive and damaging. Now, for the first time, she tells in her own words, the story of her life and how she was able to free herself from the control of her abusers. She also provides some resources for those suffering from abuse to get help.

The primary purpose of this project has been to leave a description of middle-class American life as experienced during the second quarter of the 20th century to those in my kinship system who were born decades later. This collection of autobiographical vignettes --for which I plead guilty of enhancing with fictitious dialogue in order to craft a story --provides a literary context for reconstructing the actual events, only segments of which are sequestered in memory. In other words, I am determined that in so doing I am involved as much in explanation as I am in entertaining. I am acutely aware of the fact that in this memoir a greater emphasis has been given to my pre-teen years. This imbalance was provoked by sage counsel to restrict the size of this book. Hence, a number of stories emerging from experiences occurring, and/or endured, throughout my high school and college years --indeed, a number sufficient for more than another book --were pulled from the manuscript, but not deleted from my computer. The dialogue in each story admittedly involves some fabrication. But the persons, the places, and the various features of each historical context are actual and true. Given my subsequent understanding of the personalities of those principally involved in each story, in crafting the scenarios I have not hesitated to propose what I believe might have been an approximation of what may well have been the actual dialogue. Ergo, although each story is not absolutely authentic from beginning to end, with respect to the centering experience in each case, YES, It ALL Actually HAPPENED! B.C.B.

A provocative new interpretation of the Adam and Eve story from an expert in Biblical literature. The Garden of Eden story, one of the most famous narratives in Western history, is typically read as an ancient account of original sin and humanity’s fall from divine grace. In this highly innovative study, Ziony Zevit argues that this is not how ancient Israelites understood the early biblical text. Drawing on such diverse disciplines as biblical studies, geography, archaeology, mythology, anthropology, biology, poetics, law, linguistics, and literary theory, he clarifies the worldview of the ancient Israelite readers during the First Temple period and elucidates what the story likely meant in its original context. Most provocatively, he contends that our ideas about original sin are based upon misconceptions originating in the Second Temple period under the influence of Hellenism. He shows how, for ancient Israelites, the story was really about how humans achieved ethical discernment. He argues further that Adam was not made from dust and that Eve was not made from Adam’s rib. His study unsettles much of what has been taken for granted about the story for more than two millennia—and has far-reaching implications for both literary and theological interpreters. “Classical Hebrew in the hands of Ziony Zevit is like a cello in the hands of a master cellist. He knows all the hidden subtleties of the instrument, and he makes you hear them in this rendition of the profoundly simple story of Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and their Creator in the Garden of Eden. Zevit brings a great deal of other biblical learning to bear in a surprisingly light-hearted book.”―Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography