Olaedo is seventeen years old, tall, black, intelligent, and very beautiful. Her name personifies beauty. While others were created, she was moulded by God Himself on a Sunday when He was most happy and pleased. Born into an affluent family, she is the only daughter. Olaedo’s birth brings immense joy to her mother, who bore five sons before her. So when Olaedo arrived, she was a bundle of joy and a jewel of inestimable value. Her beauty is a blessing as well as a distraction. She finds it difficult to walk the streets and constantly receives embarrassing stares from admirers. Fights break out among those seeking her attention. She becomes the legendary tall and beautiful tree that can never hide itself in the forest. It is said that her charm and beauty would make a eunuch renounce his vow of celibacy. As the beautiful Olaedo grows up, and boys will not let her be, she is determined to remain chaste so she can become a nun. But her mother, who missed the opportunity of studying to be a lawyer, insists that her daughter must become a lawyer since she missed the opportunity herself.
This is the second volume of Kenneth Roy's magisterial trilogy on the history of Scotland since the Second World War. The first volume, The Invisible Spirit: A Life of Post-War Scotland 1945-75, was met with immediate acclaim. This new volume brings the story much closer to the present day and traces enthrallingly the social, political and cultural threads which lead directly to the Scotland we live in today. Along the way the author describes the oil boom in Shetland, Scotland's doomed campaign at the World Cup in Argentina, the Orkney child sex abuse scandal, the Lockerbie bombing, the massacre of schoolchildren and a teacher at Dunblane, the cloning of Dolly the sheep, and much more. Kenneth Roy uses his record of events to mount a searing critique of the Scottish body politic of the time and its key personalities and institutions. In sparkling, often very funny prose the country is anatomized in a way which will make uncomfortable reading for many current politicians and public office-holders today. The book culminates in a referendum and the inauguration of the new Scottish parliament. Echoes of present-day aspirations, antagonisms and concerns are all too evident.
"A Broken Journey" by Mary Gaunt. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
The third book in the Aletheia Adventure Series sees the return of Jack Merryweather and Timmy Trial from Book 1. Just before Christmas, Jack and Timmy find themselves in the land of Err, in the middle of a ferocious snowstorm. They are lost and alone, and courageously set out to find their friends who are part of the Christmas mission in the town of Broken. There are many dangers and troubles on their journey, and, at last, they are so fiercely attacked by the Meddlers of Err that they can go no further. But there is a purpose in their strange and broken journey: Jack and Timmy must take one more trek into danger to help someone who is badly broken. They really need rescuing themselves, so how can they rescue the lost? Do the two boys have the faith and courage to battle against the creatures of Err? And will they ever make it to safety in time for Christmas? Through the adventure, this book explores truth from the Bible. This book can be enjoyed on its own - without reading the rest of the series.
Each time I begin a book of travel I search for the reasons that sent me awandering. Foolishness, for I ought to know by this time the wander fever was born in my blood; it is in the blood of my sister and brothers. We were brought up in an inland town in Victoria, Australia, and the years have seen us roaming all over the world. I do not think any of us has been nearer the North Pole than Petropaulovski, or to the South Pole than Cape Horn—children of a sub-tropical clime, we do not like the cold—but in many countries in between have we wandered. The sailors by virtue of their profession have had the greater opportunities, but the other five have made a very good second best of it, and always there has been among us a very understanding sympathy ‘with the desire that is planted in each and all to visit the remote corners of the earth. Anybody can go on the beaten track. It only requires money to take a railway or steamer ticket, and though we by no means despise comfort—indeed, because we know something of the difficulties that beset the traveller beyond the bounds of civilisation, we appreciate it the more highly—still there is something else beyond comfort in life. Wherein lies the call of the Unknown? To have done something that no one else has done—or only accomplished with difficulty? Where lies the charm? I cannot put it into words—only it is there, the “something calling—beyond the mountains,” the “Come and find me” of Kipling. That voice every one of the Gaunts hears, and we all sympathise when another one goes.
Once upon a time, I viewed the Air Force as my personal entertainment and dating service. I was a hard-charging, well-paid, impeccably-educated, high-functioning, award-winning anesthetist and clinical instructor of anesthesia as well as an Air Force captain on my way to becoming a colonel in record time. Beyond that, I worked in a highly specialized area of the military, dabbling in the shadowy world behind the scenes in places some have never heard of, in situations that rarely make the nightly news. Known by important people, I was a guy who could "get 'er done" no matter what the order or mission at hand. On call twenty-four hours a day, I never knew when my next mission would be called. One moment in the operating room in San Antonio, the next on a plane bound for some unnamed location for reasons I wasn't privy to. Leaving my strict Baptist upbringing behind, I was living my dream of becoming a "hero," while fueling my ever burgeoning need for newness and more, sleeping my way around the world with no rules and no conscience.One woman, my childhood image of the "girl next door," changed all that. We met in the back anesthesia hallway at Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center. She, a mere first year anesthesiology resident. Me, a superstar staff nurse anesthetist. Despite her lowly position, she was clearly the kindest and sexiest woman I'd ever met. Within a month of our first date, I chose to forego my aspirations of military glory and "settle down." However, soon after Joan and I married, I felt trapped. Trapped by what I recognized as the mundane life of my parents. Trapped by Joan's desire to bear a child. Trapped to the point that I began fantasizing about her death. Then came the call. Twenty-five weeks into her pregnancy, Joan was diagnosed with leukemia. In the blink of an eye, I was transformed from my own personal cynosure to the husband of the pregnant lady with cancer, caretaker, guardian of my wife and daughter's lives, and reluctant chief decision maker on how to reconcile my desperate desire for her to live with her disdain for life support measures. This story depicts not only the battle against cancer faced by Joan and our unborn child, but also my own attempt to move past earlier misdeeds, desperately praying for a miracle, hoping that, despite my sins, God would deign to save the woman and child I loved. Written from the perspective of a former military true believer who turned his back on dreams of glory, chose love, and became a (hesitant) husband, then single father, Broken Road: A Widower' is similar to Nadia Bolz-Weber's Accidental Saints and Anne Lamott's Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace. It seeks to find goodness in the most unlikely of places and characters - me.
Restore your faith in love and family with one Army wife's courageous story of how she helped her husband recuperate from losing both of his legs while serving in Afghanistan. Paige received the phone call that every military wife prays will never come. Her husband, Army Sergeant Josh Wetzel, stepped on an improvised explosive device while patrolling in Afghanistan. The blast resulted in the immediate loss of his legs. His survival was uncertain, and in the days to come, this traumatic incident began an unbelievable journey of faith for them as a couple. Paige's vulnerability as she struggles physically, emotionally, and spiritually, will remind you of the power of commitment and love in the face of adversity. You will discover the bravery and grit of a woman who stood behind the battle lines but faced a battle of her own to save her marriage and her family. As a military wife, Paige had to come to terms with the priorities of the military: God, Country, and then Family.
Part metaphorical teaching story, part wrenching personal chronicle, this phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes tale is about men and money, love and work, mothers and daughters, and life and death. Learn how to put your personal puzzle together, and dare to claim the peace that you truly deserve.