Bound for the New World, an English father of seven dies at sea in 1650. Only the children fulfill their fathers dream in the beginning of the New London colonial settlement. While one descendant goes west to a settlement in Pennsylvania, the Revolutionary War further divides the family. One frontiersman becomes a Loyalist serving with the Butlers Rangers while most cousins fight for the Patriot cause. This narrative follows the Beebe family who survive the vortex of the Wyoming Valley Massacre (Pennsylvania) and its aftermath at the cost of the breadwinners own life. Mary Secord Beebe, mother of seven, escapes the oncoming reprisals of the Continental forces by fleeing to Fort Niagara, NY, British Headquarters. Starting over in a remote village within the Province of Quebec, Canada, one descendant returns to Pennsylvania and eventually homesteads in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Follow this intriguing story of an ordinary family living in extra-ordinary times.
This is the story of Condoleezza Rice that has never been told, not that of an ultra-accomplished world leader, but of a little girl--and a young woman--trying to find her place in a sometimes hostile world, of two exceptional parents, and an extended family and community that made all the difference. Condoleezza Rice has excelled as a diplomat, political scientist, and concert pianist. Her achievements run the gamut from helping to oversee the collapse of communism in Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union, to working to protect the country in the aftermath of 9-11, to becoming only the second woman--and the first black woman ever--to serve as Secretary of State. But until she was 25 she never learned to swim, because when she was a little girl in Birmingham, Alabama, Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor decided he'd rather shut down the city's pools than give black citizens access. Throughout the 1950's, Birmingham's black middle class largely succeeded in insulating their children from the most corrosive effects of racism, providing multiple support systems to ensure the next generation would live better than the last. But by 1963, Birmingham had become an environment where blacks were expected to keep their head down and do what they were told--or face violent consequences. That spring two bombs exploded in Rice’s neighborhood amid a series of chilling Klu Klux Klan attacks. Months later, four young girls lost their lives in a particularly vicious bombing. So how was Rice able to achieve what she ultimately did? Her father, John, a minister and educator, instilled a love of sports and politics. Her mother, a teacher, developed Condoleezza’s passion for piano and exposed her to the fine arts. From both, Rice learned the value of faith in the face of hardship and the importance of giving back to the community. Her parents’ fierce unwillingness to set limits propelled her to the venerable halls of Stanford University, where she quickly rose through the ranks to become the university’s second-in-command. An expert in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs, she played a leading role in U.S. policy as the Iron Curtain fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated. Less than a decade later, at the apex of the hotly contested 2000 presidential election, she received the exciting news--just shortly before her father’s death--that she would go on to the White House as the first female National Security Advisor. As comfortable describing lighthearted family moments as she is recalling the poignancy of her mother’s cancer battle and the heady challenge of going toe-to-toe with Soviet leaders, Rice holds nothing back in this remarkably candid telling.
In a time when everything feels different and scary, an ordinary child must learn how to navigate the world in the midst of a global pandemic. But even though times are tough, she learns that if we make sure to support one another as a family and a community, we can get through anything--together.
It's the summer of 1960 in Atkinson, Vermont. Maria Fermoyle is a strong but vulnerable divorced woman whose loneliness and ambition for her children make her easy prey for dangerous con man Omar Duvall. Marie's children are Alice, seventeen—involved with a young priest; Norm, sixteen—hotheaded and idealistic; and Benny, twelve—isolated and misunderstood, and so desperate for his mother's happiness that he hides the deadly truth he knows about Duvall. We also meet Sam Fermoyle, the children's alcoholic father; Sam's brother-in-law, who makes anonymous "love" calls from the bathroom of his failing appliance store; and the Klubock family, who—in contrast to the Fermoyles—live an orderly life in the house next door. Songs in Ordinary Time is a masterful epic of the everyday, illuminating the kaleidoscope of lives that tell the compelling story of this unforgettably family.
While her sisters were blessed at birth with exceptional skills, Princess Basil's "gift" is to be ordinary. But can a princess be ordinary? After escaping an unconventional kidnapping, Princess Basil finds herself far from her castle and must take fate into her own hands. She tracks down the fairy godmother who "blessed" her, and learns the solution to her ordinariness might be as simple as finding a magic ring. With an unlikely ally in tow, she takes on gnomes, a badger, and a couple of snarky foxes in her quest for a less ordinary life. Portland comics artist Cassie Anderson (Lifeformed) takes her webcomic to print in this tale of magical adventure, full of soul and humor for readers of all ages.
This illustrated children’s book celebrates the extraordinary potential of ordinary deeds—showing how one child’s act of kindness can change the world One ordinary day, Ordinary Mary stumbles upon some ordinary blueberries. When she decides to pick them for her neighbor, Mrs. Bishop, her thoughtful act starts a chain reaction that multiplies around the world. Mrs. Bishop makes blueberry muffins and gives them to her paperboy and four others—one of whom is Mr. Stevens, who then helps five different people with their luggage—one of whom is Maria, who then helps five other people—and so on, until the deed comes back to Mary.
Witty and thought provoking, two Vatican astronomers shed provocative light on some of the strange places where religion and science meet. “Imagine if a Martian showed up, all big ears and big nose like a child’s drawing, and he asked to be baptized. How would you react?” —Pope Francis, May, 2014 Pope Francis posed that question—without insisting on an answer!—to provoke deeper reflection about inclusiveness and diversity in the Church. But it's not the first time that question has been asked. Brother Guy Consolmagno and Father Paul Mueller hear questions like that all the time. They’re scientists at the Vatican Observatory, the official astronomical research institute of the Catholic Church. In Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? they explore a variety of questions at the crossroads of faith and reason: How do you reconcile the The Big Bang with Genesis? Was the Star of Bethlehem just a pious religious story or an actual description of astronomical events? What really went down between Galileo and the Catholic Church—and why do the effects of that confrontation still reverberate to this day? Will the Universe come to an end? And… could you really baptize an extraterrestrial? With disarming humor, Brother Guy and Father Paul explore these questions and more over the course of six days of dialogue. Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial will make you laugh, make you think, and make you reflect more deeply on science, faith, and the nature of the universe.
Soldiers go off to fight wars, but what happens to the women they leave behind? Over the span of two years, Roxanne Cibuzar located women who knew and loved men who served in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. She collected their untold stories and also asked about their “rules for life.” These amazing testaments are now compiled in Ordinary Women from Extraordinary Times. Katie, Corrine, Clara, Betty, and Loni are unique, ranging in age from sixty-seven to ninety-five. Their lives are history lessons on the unique eras in which they lived, but all their stories bring honor to the men who served to defend the United States. In the end, over the course of her interviews, Roxanne began to realize each woman’s life shared some common threads. Each woman had cultivated a heart for God. Their stories offer a glimpse into the past and into God’s faithful care, even amid turmoil, loss, and war.
Neomi Jean Hattisburg is a young Negro woman who comes of age during the 1930s. Her father, a railroad porter, and her mother, a domestic worker, instill in her a strong sense of faith and respect, however, she finds herself confused because of her appearance, (she looks White), and the way she is treated by Whites and Negroes as a result. When she falls in love with Moses Jackson, a young man she never noticed when they attended kindergarten through high school together, his focused plans to attend college and become an attorney to work for civil rights helps her gain clarity of her own. They make plans together to further their education and eventually marry. Their plans are interrupted by the outbreak of WWII and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Moses feels compelled to enlist in the Army Air Corps. As he goes through training with the 332nd Airborne unit, Neomi continues to save toward their dreams, working as a domestic worker in the home of a wealthy White family. One evening, while working late, Neomi is raped by the son of her employers. Overwhelmed by shame and unwarranted guilt, the discovery several weeks later that she is pregnant makes her decide that, in order to avoid bringing shame on Moses and her family, she must leave, and start a new life elsewhere. Knowing that it will be difficult to provide for herself and her child with employment available to Negroes, she decides to pass for White, and makes her way to Chicago, Illinois to start her new life. There, she obtains a job on the sales floor in a major department store and sets about living a White life, telling everyone her husband was lost in the war to explain her pregnancy. Over the next few years she works her way up to department head, and works hard to forget Moses. It is there that the son & heir to the department store chain discovers and takes an interest in her. They begin dating and eventually marry. The marriage is successful in that they truly love each other. Neomi finds herself living a lifestyle she could only have imagined, even though she must come to terms with her guilt over living a privileged life while her own people struggle for equality. The first child they have together looks just like her husband, and it only solidifies their marriage. However, when their second child is born, he is obviously a Negro, and Neomis false world falls to pieces. It is the journey Neomi must travel, the trials and tribulations her choices bring her to, and the faith that gets her through it all, that combine to make Ordinary Times: Extraordinary Measures a must read.
The decades after World War II were a golden age across much of the world. It was a time of economic miracles, an era when steady jobs were easy to find and families could see their living standards improving year after year. And then, around 1973, the good times vanished. The world economy slumped badly, then settled into the slow, erratic growth that had been the norm before the war. The result was an era of anxiety, uncertainty, and political extremism that we are still grappling with today. In An Extraordinary Time, acclaimed economic historian Marc Levinson describes how the end of the postwar boom reverberated throughout the global economy, bringing energy shortages, financial crises, soaring unemployment, and a gnawing sense of insecurity. Politicians, suddenly unable to deliver the prosperity of years past, railed haplessly against currency speculators, oil sheikhs, and other forces they could not control. From Sweden to Southern California, citizens grew suspicious of their newly ineffective governments and rebelled against the high taxes needed to support social welfare programs enacted when coffers were flush. Almost everywhere, the pendulum swung to the right, bringing politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to power. But their promise that deregulation, privatization, lower tax rates, and smaller government would restore economic security and robust growth proved unfounded. Although the guiding hand of the state could no longer deliver the steady economic performance the public had come to expect, free-market policies were equally unable to do so. The golden age would not come back again. A sweeping reappraisal of the last sixty years of world history, An Extraordinary Time forces us to come to terms with how little control we actually have over the economy.
