Based on true events this is a heartwarming story of how a beautiful wild Trumpeter Swan became known as Grace, inspired the town, and raised a fine family. One day while walking along the river birdwatchers saw a swan in trouble, they called the Department of Fish and Wildlife to come and help her. In this story, you will see how a whole town took an interest in her rehabilitation, and when Grace was eventually returned to the river something wonderful happened.
1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work as a “doffers” on their mothers’ looms in the mill. Grace’s mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she’s left handed and doffing is a right-handed job. Grace’s every mistake costs her mother, and the family. She only feels capable on Sundays, when she and Arthur receive special lessons from their teacher. Together they write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in Pownal. A few weeks later a man with a camera shows up. It is the famous reformer Lewis Hine, undercover, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. Grace’s brief acquaintance with Hine and the photos he takes of her are a gift that changes her sense of herself, her future, and her family’s future.
A "stunning" (Hanif Abdurraqib), "unputdownable" (Mary Karr) meditation on queerness, family, and desire. How do you know if you are transgender? How do you know if what you want and feel is real? How do you know whether to believe yourself? Cyrus Dunham’s life always felt like a series of imitations—lovable little girl, daughter, sister, young gay woman. But in a culture of relentless self-branding, and in a family subject to the intrusions and objectifications that attend fame, dissociation can come to feel normal. A Lambda Literary Award finalist, Dunham’s fearless, searching debut brings us inside the chrysalis of a transition inflected as much by whiteness and proximity to wealth as by gender, asking us to bear witness to an uncertain and exhilarating process that troubles our most basic assumptions about identity. Written with disarming emotional intensity in a voice uniquely his, A Year Without a Name is a potent, thrillingly unresolved meditation on queerness, family, and selfhood. Named a Most Anticipated Book of the season by: Time NYLON Vogue ELLE Buzzfeed Bustle O Magazine Harper's Bazaar
ONE OF BILLBOARD'S "100 GREATEST MUSIC BOOKS OF ALL TIME": The provocative transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! provides a searing account of her search for identity and her true self. It began in a bedroom in Naples, Florida, when a misbehaving punk teenager named Tom Gabel, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a headful of anarchist politics, landed on a riff. Gabel formed Against Me! and rocketed the band from its scrappy beginnings-banging on a drum kit made of pickle buckets-to a major-label powerhouse that critics have called this generation's The Clash. Since its inception in 1997, Against Me! has been one of punk's most influential modern bands, but also one of its most divisive. With every notch the four-piece climbed in their career, they gained new fans while infuriating their old ones. They suffered legal woes, a revolving door of drummers, and a horde of angry, militant punks who called them "sellouts" and tried to sabotage their shows at every turn. But underneath the public turmoil, something much greater occupied Gabel-a secret kept for 30 years, only acknowledged in the scrawled-out pages of personal journals and hidden in lyrics. Through a troubled childhood, delinquency, and struggles with drugs, Gabel was on a punishing search for identity. Not until May of 2012 did a Rolling Stone profile finally reveal it: Gabel is a transsexual, and would from then on be living as a woman under the name Laura Jane Grace. Tranny is the intimate story of Against Me!'s enigmatic founder, weaving the narrative of the band's history, as well as Grace's, with dozens of never-before-seen entries from the piles of journals Grace kept. More than a typical music memoir about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll-although it certainly has plenty of that-Tranny is an inside look at one of the most remarkable stories in the history of rock.
The Christian life is built on three seemingly unremarkable practices: reading the Bible, prayer, and fellowship with other believers. However, according to David Mathis, such “habits of grace” are the God-designed channels through which his glorious grace flows—making them life-giving practices for all Christians. Whether it’s hearing God’s voice (the Word), having his ear (prayer), or participating in his body (fellowship), such spiritual rhythms of the Christian life have the power to awaken our souls to God’s glory and stir our hearts for lifelong service in his name. What’s more, these seemingly simple practices grant us access to a host of spiritual blessings that we can only begin to imagine this side of eternity—and the incredible joy that such blessings bring to God’s children today.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling creators of I Am Enough comes an empowering follow-up that celebrates every child’s limitless potential. I Believe I Can is an affirmation for boys and girls of every background to love and believe in themselves. Actress and activist Grace Byers and artist Keturah A. Bobo return with another gorgeously illustrated new classic that’s the perfect gift for baby showers, birthdays, or just for reading at home again and again. My presence matters in this world. I know I can do anything, if only I believe I can.
Often life's greatest treasures are found in the most unlikely places. A Matter of Grace is the true story of a tiny dog and her gigantic influence on those she met along the way. Mattie's story is filled with humorous and touching accounts of her healing from deadly mange, living with the menagerie of animals on the farm, walking with her master on paths he fondly remembered, and bringing a message of hope and optimism to everyone she met from the barbershop to the mountains of Colorado to the pulpit. Mattie Grace stepped right out of a trash pile into an old man's heart. Vowing that the pain, suffering, and abuse she endured as a pup would never happen to her again, the man took her in as an orphan and adopted her as if she were his child. She was just a tiny package crammed to overflowing with energy, enthusiasm, excitement, curiosity, charm, and charisma. Mattie became the spark plug of the family and scattered love around everywhere, the way the wind scatters leaves. A Matter of Grace will warm your heart and convince you that life gives second chances. Marion Collier has spoken to thousands of people as a preacher, teacher, entertainer, and motivator. He has walked many paths-woodsman, athlete, honky-tonk musician, crop-duster, oil field worker, skilled marksman, farmer, evangelist, water manager, carpenter, animal lover, and storyteller extraordinaire. He has served at the heart of his community in North Louisiana and has many colorful stories to tell. He lives on his farm near Crowville, Louisiana, with his wife, seven mules, one horse, nine cats, three dogs, over one hundred fowl, and his pet rooster, Little Man. Marion graduated from Mississippi College and holds a Master's Degree in Theology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
The bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments reveals the life of one of the most notorious women of the nineteenth century in this "shadowy, fascinating novel" (Time). • A Netflix original miniseries. It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.
Every night of revival--1945 to 1956--the Evangelist and his family carried the mostly Appalachian folks to whom they ministered on up to a higher place. Worn down bodies in from the heat and dust of a sharecropper's cotton fields or unventilated rooms of the mill barely made it over to the local Pentecostal church house, to the shelter of a raised-up tent or bush arbor. But by the time they sang, shouted, and prayed in response to the Skondeen family's music and preaching, something shifted. In Hidden Biscuits, Audrey Skondeen Ward's memories come alive by way of her writing, as words, songs, and voices long silent are connected through a Deep South landscape.
Discrimination, ambition, assassination, love and tragedy shape this fast-paced tale about the lives of three men from different backgroundsduring the tumultuous period in South Africas history from the 1930s, through apartheid, to the first free election in 1994. The Order of Things weaves their gripping stories as conflicting political and social forces threaten the survival of each of them. Marius Strydomheir to a politically powerful Boer farmeris nurtured by the lore of the bitter battles of his people against the British. His boyhood playmate, Jeremiah Ngubeni, born to black labourers on the farm, is banished by Marius as a young man. The ambitious Neil Robertson, raised in England, leaves home to seek his fortune in Johannesburg. While doors open for the two white men, Jeremiah experiences a different South Africa. All three are tested by the order of things as each tries to forge his destiny.
