Yesterday S Embers

On Thanksgiving Day, Douglas DeVore kissed his beloved wife good-bye, unaware that it would be the last time he'd see her -- or their precious daughter Rachel. Left with five kids to raise on his own, and already juggling two jobs to make ends meet, Doug wonders how he'll manage moment by moment, much less day after day, without Kaye's love and support. When Mickey Valdez, a daycare teacher, hears of the tragedy, she offers to lend a helping hand. After all, it isn't like she has a family of her own waiting for her at home. Her brothers are all happily married, but love seems to have passed her by. Then a spark ignites...but will the flame be too hot to handle?

"Life sometimes is hard. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There is pain. As a younger man I sought to avoid them and only ever caused myself more of the same. These days I choose to face life head on—and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the harder times are the friction that lets the worn and tired bits drop away. It's a good way to travel; eventually I will wear away all resistance until all there is left of me is light. I can live towards that end." —Richard Wagamese, Embers In this carefully curated selection of everyday reflections, Richard Wagamese finds lessons in both the mundane and sublime as he muses on the universe, drawing inspiration from working in the bush—sawing and cutting and stacking wood for winter as well as the smudge ceremony to bring him closer to the Creator. Embers is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of grief, joy, recovery, beauty, gratitude, physicality and spirituality—concepts many find hard to express. But for Wagamese, spirituality is multifaceted. Within these pages, readers will find hard-won and concrete wisdom on how to feel the joy in the everyday things. Wagamese does not seek to be a teacher or guru, but these observations made along his own journey to become, as he says, "a spiritual bad-ass," make inspiring reading.

A true collector's item, Nurturing Yesterday's Child offers an illustrated history of the care of children from early Greek, Roman and Egyptian times to the present -- a history that will inform you and touch your heart. There is much to fascinate a parent and particularly those with medical connections and interests. Dr. Theodore Drake (1891-1959), co-inventor of Pablum, collected feeding vessels, rattles and teethers, amulets, furniture, books, stamps, and coins during a lifetime of medical studies and practice in Canada and abroad. His collection encompasses some 3,000 artifacts, 1,500 rare books, 1,000 prints, 1,000 coins and medals, and all child welfare stamps up to the 1950s. Nurturing Yesterday's Child is a remarkable tribute to a remarkable man who showed the same amount of care and thoughtfulness when amassing this vast collection as he showed for the health of children throughout a long and distinguished medical career.

After the Grove Street fire, three people try to put their lives back together. Susan Marlowe discovers that her deceased husband had a secret and must struggle to forgive him for the sake of their sons. Andrea Morley must grieve in silence for her closest friend because he was someone else's husband. Hanover Falls fire chief, Peter Brennan bears the responsibility for the death of firefighters during the fire. Can he ever stop feeling like he could have prevented the tragedy?