"Joe Nickell - once a carnival pitchman, then a magician, private detective, and investigative writer - has pursued sideshow secrets for years and has worked the famous carnival midway at the Canadian National Exhibition. For this book, he interviewed showmen and performers, collected carnival memorabilia, researched published accounts of sideshows and their lore, and even performed some classic sideshow feats, such as eating fire and lying on a bed of nails as a cinderblock was broken on his chest. The result of these varied efforts, Secrets of the Sideshows tells the captivating story of the magic, tricks - real or illusory - and performers of the world's midway shows."--BOOK JACKET.
Cottonwood, an Observation is based on the lifetime of a cottonwood tree and the things seen by him over an eighty-five-year period from 1842 until the end of WWI. He watches the development of the country around him, from pristine prairie, the time of the Buffalo and the Indian, through the settlement and development of a city nearly under his branches. Cottonwood becomes intimately involved in the lives of the main characters of the book from what he sees and hears from his point of observation above the Sweetwater River, in the developing state of Wyoming. He observes the wars of the era, the medical developments of those years, the passing of the Indian, the coming and the passing of the Pony Express. He watches as the telegraph, telephone, and the railroad come into his part of the world. He becomes intimately involved in the stories of those passing his post. He inspires introspection into our personal lives by his constant attempt to analyze the actions of human beings, their sometimes peaceful and sometimes deadly interactions with one another. He records the stories of the lives of those fleeing the confusion and discord of Europe as they search for opportunity in the New World. We watch, through the eyes of Cottonwood, as a woman in Appalachia struggles, with an iron will, to break the bonds and stereotyping of ignorant mountain women. Cottonwood observes as the love of two men bring salvation to an incorrigible Indian warrior. He watches as love heals the broken lives of two WWI survivors and catalogs those things he has seen, felt, and questioned. The fact that freedom, dreams, love, and courage overcome every obstacle is the true conclusion of Cottonwoods narrative. Cottonwood, the observer, makes us take a critical look at ourselves, our actions, our motives, and why we are here. Cottonwood, the book, makes us look at our nation and why this unique place called America and its God-given freedoms are here. He leaves us with the fervent hope that we will continue to deserve and appreciate those blessings and benefits that only Americans enjoy.
Explaining how the Holy Spirit communicates the words of God to Christians is ultimately key to understanding what a real relationship with Jesus is. The Christian who reads the Bible is first and foremost to be taught God's word by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Only then do we begin to realize that Bible teachers are those whose teachings we would merely consider and then ponder against the clear teaching of scripture. Many other questions which a person may have about what a relationship with Jesus is and is not will also be answered as a result of understanding Who the ultimate Bible teacher is and why.
This is the first in a series of nine satiric, comedic novels (The Eddie Devlin Compendium)that follow a gaggle of characters (Edward Temperance Devlin foremost among them) from the Stock Market Crash of 1929 through the Great Depression, World War II, the post-war years, the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, etc. to the Millennium and beyond. Books: Flacks (1973) Bringing Chesty Home (1948) Clyde Strikes Back (1963-64) Deadlines (1984-85) Old Tim's Estate (1929-35) Replevy for a Flute (1956) The Bloody Wet (1943-44) The Survivors (1999-2000) Wildcat Strike (1939)
Although foster youth have college aspirations similar to their peers, fewer than one in ten ultimately complete a two-year or four-year college degree. What are the major factors that influence their chances of succeeding? Climbing a Broken Ladder advances our knowledge of what can be done to improve college outcomes for a student group that has largely remained invisible in higher education. Drawing on data from one of the most extensive studies of young people in foster care, Nathanael J. Okpych examines a wide range of factors that contribute to the chances that foster youth enroll in college, persist in college, and ultimately complete a degree. Okpych also investigates how early trauma affects later college outcomes, as well as the impact of a significant child welfare policy that extends the age limit of foster care. The book concludes with data-driven and concrete recommendations for policy and practice to get more foster youth into and through college.
When Jesse Millette accompanied his cousin Harriet to a twenty-first birthday party at a mansion in the countryside north of London, he didn’t expect to start solving his next mystery while still wearing his tuxedo. The grand and elegant party of Emily Hawksridge quickly turns into a disaster as gunshots are fired and a hooded intruder lurks in the nearby woodlands. Jesse is soon plunged into a web of lies spun by the Hawksridge family, leading him to uncover a decades-old secret that could tear the family apart. With Harriet by his side, Jesse works through a series of clues left behind by the family’s patriarch Jim Hawksridge and faces several attempts on his life as the culprit tries desperately to get him off the case. In this mystery, Jesse must go back in time to discover a treasure hidden during World War Two and is forced to race against the clock to save the lives of Emily and Harriet.
