Unfinished Lives

In an extraordinary tale of love and forgiveness, Mark Spragg brings us this novel of a complex, prodigal homecoming. Jean Gilkyson has a history of choosing the wrong men. After yet another night of argument turned to violence with her boyfriend, Roy, Jean knows it's time to leave—if not for herself, then for her ten-year-old daughter, Griff. But the only place they can afford to go is Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean's family is dead and her deceased husband's father Einar wishes Jean was too. Of course, Griff knows none of this—only that here in Wyoming, with a grandfather she has never known and his crippled friend Mitch, she may finaly be able to find a home.

Over 13,000 Americans have been murdered in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries because of their sexual orientation and gender presentation. In Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memory of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims, Stephen Sprinkle puts a human face on the outrage and loss suffered when people die from anti-gay hatred. Beginning with new developments in the story of Matthew Shepard's murder in Laramie, Wyoming, Sprinkle tells the stories of fourteen representative LGBTQ victims whose lives were savagely cut short due to homophobia and transphobia. These are stories about people who could be your neighbor, classmate, co-worker, or friend-real, everyday people whose love was foreclosed, relationships brutally terminated, and future contributions stolen from us by outrageous, irrational hatred. Told lovingly yet unflinchingly, Unfinished Lives lifts the stories of these LGBTQ victims from undeserved obscurity, allowing their memory to live again. Relying on personal interviews and visits to the locations where these people lived, loved, and died, Sprinkle records the raw emotions, powerful movements for social change, and unexpectedly hopeful communities that arise from the ruins of those people whose only "offense" was to live as they were born to be. Part portraiture, part crime narrative, and part ethnography, Unfinished Lives is poised to change the conversation on hate crimes in the United States.

Over 13,000 Americans have been murdered in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries because of their sexual orientation and gender presentation. In Unfinished Lives: Reviving the Memory of LGBTQ Hate Crimes Victims, Stephen Sprinkle puts a human face on the outrage and loss suffered when people die from anti-gay hatred. Beginning with new developments in the story of Matthew Shepard's murder in Laramie, Wyoming, Sprinkle tells the stories of fourteen representative LGBTQ victims whose lives were savagely cut short due to homophobia and transphobia. These are stories about people who could be your neighbor, classmate, co-worker, or friend-real, everyday people whose love was foreclosed, relationships brutally terminated, and future contributions stolen from us by outrageous, irrational hatred. Told lovingly yet unflinchingly, Unfinished Lives lifts the stories of these LGBTQ victims from undeserved obscurity, allowing their memory to live again. Relying on personal interviews and visits to the locations where these people lived, loved, and died, Sprinkle records the raw emotions, powerful movements for social change, and unexpectedly hopeful communities that arise from the ruins of those people whose only "offense" was to live as they were born to be. Part portraiture, part crime narrative, and part ethnography, Unfinished Lives is poised to change the conversation on hate crimes in the United States.

Tony Allante grows up in the citys poolrooms, learning the language and behavior that make him cool and one of the guys. Mixing with his friends, he is able to become one of them while hiding the fear of having to fight to protect himself, the fear of knowing hes a chicken. As he completes high school and enters college, his desires for moving up sociallymarrying the right kind of girl, becoming a physician, earning enormous sums of money, moving out of the neighborhoodmake him realize that he must forsake his unsophisticated boyhood friends and blighted neighborhood, without getting hurt in the process. But not before he gets what he wants from them. Tony and his friends found The Phillipo Athletic and Social Club which is, in reality, an excuse for legally establishing a place to sell liquor and attract women. It is wildly successful, the club being filled every weekend with the loud, driving beat of their music, young women with the easy sexual mores of the late 60s, heavy drinking that seems a part of most young people growing up, and a desire to have a good time while the getting is good. Tony takes full advantage of the situation, drinking with the best of them and making it with as many women as he could during the summer before he goes off to college again to pursue his goal of becoming a physician and, ultimately, breaking his relationships with his past. But Tonys goals are confused after he meets Jill, a beautiful young woman who, though she doesnt meet his standards for the wife hed planned, tests Tonys blueprint and decisions for his future. Unwillingly and unwittingly, Tony finds himself falling hard and fast for Jill and even throws over Joanne for her, an act which has serious and unanticipated consequencesincluding murder and his being an unwitting causative factor in her own and a friends death. Tonys life doesnt work out the way hed planned. He doesnt marry the girl of his dreams, doesnt become wealthy, is unhappy in his work, and then, after 17 years, Jill calls him from out of the blue. What does it all mean for Tony? What should he do? What will he do? Is this a chance to redeem himself and his mediocre life? This is a story of young men and their women, healthy and full of life and its promises, of youthful sex and dreams, of the excesses committed while growing up and, finally, of how being untrue to yourself and others can ruin lives.

They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. Since the start of the war in Iraq, Marines like Major Steve Beck found themselves charged with a mission they never asked for and one for which there can be no training: casualty notification. In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen, the broken homes they have left behind, and one man's effort to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. But it is not a book about war, politics, or liberal vs. conservative. Achingly beautiful and honest, it is a book that every American-every human-can embrace.

Be the person you might never have become. There's still time left in "Your Unfinished Life,.". Self help book germane to finding happiness and achieving success, motivation, inspiration, kindness, service to others and making the most of the rest of your life. Includes summaries of two classic works on kindness by Jean Guibert and Frederick Faber from around the turn of the 20th century, with author commentary. Contains dozens of inspiring quotes from Marcus Aurelius, Mother Teresa, The Dalai Lama, George Foreman, Joel Osteen, David Shipler, Martin Seligman, Stephen Covey, Eckhardt Tolle and many others. Further sources of reference on happiness, kindness and gaining personal insight. Provides revealing insights to lead you to your highest and most fulfilled self, so your unplayed music won't die inside you. An excellent source for personal and library use that can benefit individuals and their communities. For anyone seeking happiness and a fuller life for themselves or others.

The biography of a radical young idealist, her determination to make a difference in the world, and her disappearance in 1976, revealing the human cost and undying legacy of Argentina’s descent into rightwing madness. It started with a coincidence — when Marc Raboy happened to discover that he shared a surname with a young left-wing Argentinian journalist who in 1976 was ambushed by a right-wing death squad while driving with her family. Alicia’s partner was killed on the spot, and their baby daughter was taken and placed in an orphanage. The child was ultimately rescued, but Alicia was never heard from again. In Looking for Alicia, Raboy pursues her story not only to learn what happened when the post-Perón government in Argentina turned to state terror but also to understand the lives of those who risked everything to oppose it. Author and subject share more than a surname and a distant ancestral connection; their lives were both marked by youthful rebellion, journalistic ambition, and the radical politics that were a hallmark of the ’60s and ’70s. Raboy reassembles Alicia’s story using family archives, interviews with those who knew her, secret diplomatic correspondence recently made public by the U.S. State Department, and transcripts from the trial of former Argentine security forces personnel involved in her disappearance. Examining Alicia’s and his own different choices and circumstances, he attempts to discover how their lives diverged — and what drives people like Alicia to face death in the pursuit of their ideals.

The diaries of a remarkable young woman who was determined to live a meaningful and happy life despite her struggle with cystic fibrosis and a rare superbug—from age fifteen to her death at the age of twenty-five—the inspiration for the original streaming documentary Salt in My Soul “An exquisitely nuanced chronicle of a terrified but hopeful young woman whose life was beginning and ending, all at once.”—Los Angeles Times Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of three, Mallory Smith grew up to be a determined, talented young woman who inspired others even as she privately raged against her illness. Despite the daily challenges of endless medical treatments and a deep understanding that she’d never lead a normal life, Mallory was determined to “Live Happy,” a mantra she followed until her death. Mallory worked hard to make the most out of the limited time she had, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, becoming a cystic fibrosis advocate well known in the CF community, and embarking on a career as a professional writer. Along the way, she cultivated countless intimate friendships and ultimately found love. For more than ten years, Mallory recorded her thoughts and observations about struggles and feelings too personal to share during her life, leaving instructions for her mother to publish her work posthumously. She hoped that her writing would offer insight to those living with, or loving someone with, chronic illness. What emerges is a powerful and inspiring portrait of a brave young woman and blossoming writer who did not allow herself to be defined by disease. Her words offer comfort and hope to readers, even as she herself was facing death. Salt in My Soul is a beautifully crafted, intimate, and poignant tribute to a short life well lived—and a call for all of us to embrace our own lives as fully as possible.