Unspoken Farewell

Amanda Bechtel's story is the fictionalized account of the true life experiences of a United Methodist missionary nurse to Mozambique. She learns about life under secret police surveillance as she studies Portuguese in Lisbon. Once Amanda arrives in Mozambique, she must decide about her future after being deported by the Portuguese government. After she's reassigned to Rhodesia, the district health officer quarantines the hospital during a cholera epidemic. Later news reports about conditions in a Rhodesian "protected" village prompt missionaries to visit the site. Film smuggled out of the country eventually provides evidence to defend missionary colleagues accused of subversive activity and treason. On Amanda's return to Mozambique, arrest and torture of Protestant clergy heighten safety concerns at the hospital. Renewed fighting thwarts her amorous involvement with a colleague turned freedom fighter. Jonna-Lynn K. Mandelbaum grew up in eastern Pennsylvania and went to Philadelphia's Methodist Hospital School of Nursing for a diploma in nursing. From there she went to Lebanon Valley College to earn a bachelor's degree prior to her appointment as a United Methodist missionary nurse to Mozambique. On her return from Africa she worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner in the inner city and earned a master's degree in public health from The Johns Hopkins University. She wrote THE MISSIONARY AS A CULTURAL INTERPRETER to earn a doctorate in education from Georgia State University. While she has taught nursing in the United States and held various clinical nursing positions international health was the dominant focus of her professional career. She developed and implemented educational programs for both undergraduate and continuing education programs for physicians, nurses, midwives and other health professionals in southeast Asia and central and eastern Europe. Now retired, she resides in northern New Mexico with her husband and two dogs. To find out more visit www.jonna-lynn.com

In assembling Gildersleeve's writings-- autobiographical, Richmond Examiner newspaper editorials, and Southern essays, Briggs (classics and humanities, U. of South Carolina) brings to light the reflections of a U. of Virginia classics scholar during the Civil War. His classical rhetoric lends a novel twist to his loyalist but critical views on the South's "Good Cause," in chastising the Confederate administration as well as critics of slavery and Yankee poet "sinners" against the English language. Includes a few bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

First published in 1924, Memoirs of a Positivist is both an autobiography of the author and a history of the English Positivist movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It especially elaborates on the influence of the Positivist movement in the religious life of people and the manners in which scientific reasons were sought for religious beliefs. This book will be of interest to students of philosophy, religion and history.

Whispers of the Soul, Time, and Nature is a poignant collection of poems that explores the intricate dance between human emotions, nature's wonders, and the passage of time. Each poem in this anthology delves into themes such as the enduring power of love, the bittersweet nature of memories, the complex relationship between humans and the environment, and the introspective journey of life. The poems are varied in their settings and perspectives, ranging from the lament of an ancient oak witnessing the changes of time, to the hopeful unity of humans with the earth in "Embrace of Unity". "The Bounty of the Earth" celebrates the nurturing power of soil, while "Echoes of the Empty Road" paints a melancholic picture of a once-vibrant road now abandoned. The book blends the beauty of nature with human experiences, offering a rich tapestry of imagery and emotion.

William Cumming began as a self-taught artist who grew up in Tukwila, a small town outside Seattle. In 1937, at the age of twenty, he met Morris Graves, who was at that time working in Seattle for the Federal Art project of the Works Progress Administration. Through Graves he soon became part of the circle of friends who came to be known as the Northwest School of artists: Mark Tobey, then nearing fifty, the patriarchal leader of the group; Kenneth Callahan and his wife Margaret, a writer and critic who became Cumming's particular mentor; Guy Anderson, Lubin Petric, and others. He has taught for many years at the Art Institute of Seattle and Cornish College of the Arts. "Bill Cumming is at once an exceptional and successful regional artist and one of the most erudite, perceptive, and entertainingly cantankerous characters in this part of the world. [He] tells what it was like to be an artist in the Great Depression, tells tales out of school about such international luminaries as Mark Tobey and Morris Graves, tells how the Northwest School (of which he was the youngest member) developed, tells about the early success -- and ultimate failure -- of the Communist movement in the Far West, and shows how the political, economic, and cultural events of a half-century affected the life of a region and of its creative minority. Cumming is a natural raconteur, equipped with more literary wit and charm than most professional writers." -- Tom Robbins "Besides being one of the Northwest's best painters, Bill Cumming has certainly had a knack for being, historically speaking, in the right place at the right time. Beyond being good local history, hisSketchbookis a moving, sometimes chillingly perceptive, and certainly fascinating glimpse into the nature of artists themselves." -- Wesley Wehr