I'm the klutzy, happy-go-lucky girl everyone loves. Except, I'm not. I'm not anywhere close to being happy. Oh sure, I force a big smile on my face and act all goofy. But it's just that. An act. And then Grayson walks into my life. Suddenly, those smiles start to feel real. Only Grayson has demons of his own. He's a soldier returning from war and he's got the scars to prove it. Maybe I can give him a chance. Maybe I can erase his scars. And maybe, as my best girl always says, Love will OUT. Assuming I don't screw it all up first.
Miss Suzy is a little gray squirrel who lives happily in her oak-tree home until she is chased away by some mean red squirrels. Soon she finds a beautiful dollhouse and meets a band of brave toy soldiers.
"Miz Suzie's Boy" is a remarkable book about a Negro boy, born into abject poverty during the Great Depression to a teenage mother. Hardships of the depression included shooting crows for meals and keeping hand-me-down shoes together with string and newspaper. Negroes in the town of West Munden, a few miles south of Norfolk, cared deeply for each other. Poverty was pervasive and the "old folks" talked incessantly about becoming millionaires, but children were unaware of the degree of how badly things really were. Together, families banded together to combat blatant racism and rise above the negative impact of the Ku Klux Klan. His early home training fostered a love of God, Country, and Family. He was taught to work hard, practice thrift, speak honestly and with integrity, maintain his individuality, and relentlessly pursue an education. Childhood was a happy time for Herman and he spent many hours playing with relatives, neighborhood children and "make believe" toys. Flora moved to an adjoining community, South Norfolk, when he was eleven, and made new friends. He joined the Boy Scouts and strictly lived by the Scout Oath and its precepts. This later helped to keep him mentally awake and morally straight. Friendship (puppy love) for a classmate hastened his efforts to enter the U.S. Army, as an under-aged youth with the hope of finding her in the Philippines. Flora entered the Army, trained at Aberdeen, Maryland and cavorted with prostitutes and pimps whenever he was granted leave. He journeyed overseas on a troopship with fifteen hundred soldiers. The boredom and tedium of the voyage was downplayed by the laughter, witty banter, and frequent exchange of incredible lies. Arriving overseas, he started his first job as a latrine orderly. Flora found the Army reasonably challenging, thrived, and became Acting First Sergeant of a medial detachment within months. Frequent interactions and frank discussions with long time career soldiers constantly reminded him of the need for a good education. He returned to Norfolk from the Army, finished his last year of high school and enrolled at Howard University. College was demanding of his mind and time during the week, and only the weekends were available for frolicking, football, fraternities, and girls. Beautiful young ladies consumed every spare moment until he identified and pursued "the one", a ministers' daughter. Together, they lovingly reared seven college educated, children. Herman pursued ownership of several businesses and finally decided to make his million dollars brokering real estate. He accepted an Executive Level position with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Minority Business Enterprise (OMBE) where he patiently assisted national minority businesses with their growth and expansion. In a very poignant letter sent from Africa to his grandchildren and other grandchildren of the world he reflected on several world problems. encouraged them to diligently educate and prepare themselves for the next century and never lose sight of God, goals and a good life.
A psychic and paranormalist takes readers on a ghostly tour of the historic city filled with southern charm—and southern spirits. Rumor has it that water—still or flowing—is a medium for paranormal activity. Residents of Greenville, South Carolina, have gathered at Falls Park on the river for generations, so it is no coincidence that this upstate city is teeming with spirits whose stories have yet to be told. From the aggressive spirits trapped in the 1920s grandeur of the Westin Poinsett Hotel to the moans of the wrongly accused Willie Earle, these ghosts have unfinished business. Watch as phantoms of children drift through the rows of Springwood Cemetery and discover what lurks behind the Tiffany stained-glass hallways of the Gassaway Mansion, as paranormalist and owner of Greenville Ghost Tours, Jason Profit, guides readers through the chilling past of this historic city with an entertaining collection of tales.
Suzie, a widow with two grown-up daughters, has made a success of her life – until, at a public event, she is faced by the man she last saw as a teenager, forty years ago. James, once a history student, is now an Anglican priest in Oxford, battling his own demons and trying to mend the sins of the past. When he says he wants to find the child Suzie gave up for adoption in the 1960s, her shock turns to fury. After what he did – and after such a betrayal – how dare he even ask? Determined to spell things out for James, Suzie has questions of her own. The answers change her perspective, but if she agrees to search for her adopted son, she must face her own guilt as well as fears that her son may, in turn, reject her. Over the succeeding months, she and James grow closer. The old attraction isn’t dead, and while desire battles with resentment on Suzie’s part, James is struggling with principle and belief. From rural Yorkshire to the tragic world of mother-and-baby homes, the past takes Suzie to the bright lights of London, life with her artist husband, and back to recent times in York. But only when she’s faced with death in the high Pennines, can she begin to heal; and only when James has laid the past to rest, can he begin to forgive himself.
This book provides a critical survey of the literature on the Vietnam War and is intended both for academic and general readers. Earlier works of this kind constantly recycled criticism of a half-dozen of the same works. In this study, the aim was to discuss a much greater number of works, including a few that have never been discussed. To appeal to non-academic readers, Lit-Crit jargon was kept to a minimum, and parallels with earlier works of war literature, especially those of the two world wars, were established.
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year Lilian Shang, a history professor in Maryland, knew that her father, Gary, had been the most important Chinese spy ever caught in the United States. But when she discovers his diary after the death of her parents, its pages reveal the full pain and longing that his double life entailed—and point to a hidden second family that he’d left behind in China. As Lilian follows her father’s trail back into the Chinese provinces, she begins to grasp the extent of her father’s dilemma—torn between loyalty to his motherland and the love he came to feel for his adopted country. As she starts to understand that Gary, too, had been betrayed, she finds that it is up to her to prevent his tragedy from endangering yet another generation of the Shangs. A stunning portrait of a multinational family, an unflinching inquiry into the meaning of patriotism, A Map of Betrayal is a spy novel that only Ha Jin could write.
