A chance meeting with legendary Mountain Man, Jim Bridger at age 14 changed Jeffery's life. At age 16, he ran away from home to escape his drunken abusive father and fulfill a dream to become a Mountain Man. He was ill prepared for this life and would have died if not for Crow Medicine, a Shoshone his age who became his best, and only, friend. Young Fergus Kilcooley lost his mother and father in a Comanche a raid on the family homestead on the Brazos in Texas. His 16-year-old sister, Blair, was taken prisoner prompting the angry Irishman to set out to find her, bring her home, and kill as many Indians as possible in the process. Destiny brought them all together and Sprit valley became the perfect place to cure the hate in Fergus, the shame of Blair, and the loneliness in Jeffery.
A child of a typical 1950s suburb unearths her mother's hidden heritage, launching a rich and magical exploration of her own identity and her family's powerful Native American past.
Lance Delano, a ruthless millionaire businessman loses everything in the dot.com crash, except for an interest in a small, cash-strapped oil well drilling company owned by Montana wildcatter, Jeff Bishop, who has just discovered a vast new oilfield in the Canadian wilderness. Delano abandons Bishop in the wilds, leaving him to freeze to death in order to steal his company.Black Dog Running, a member of a lost tribe of Blackfoot Indians living high in the Rocky Mountains, finds Bishop unconscious and near death and takes him back to his people where, suffering memory loss, he is inducted into the tribe. Just prior to marrying Black Dog Running's daughter, Bishop regains his memory and escapes from the tribe, bent on tracking down Delano. He is pursued by Black Dog Running who is under orders to kill the white man to prevent the outside world from learning of the existence of the lost tribe and also to bring back absolute proof of Bishop's death.Helen Coffey, a Salt Lake City corporate public relations officer, is fired from her job after publicly criticizing corporate environmental vandalism. She joins the Sierra Club, working as an activist, trying to stop exploitation and degradation of Indian reservations by big business, taking her cause all the way to the U.S. Congress. With Bishop declared legally dead, Delano sells his company and in an underhanded deal buys oil leases in Great Spirit Valley, a sacred Indian site in Montana. It is there that Delano, Bishop, Black Dog Running and Helen Coffey ultimately collide: Bishop seeking retribution, Delano desperate to escape the wrath of the Indian nations, Black Dog Running reluctant to kill the white man who once was his friend and Helen Coffey, determined to halt Big Oil's insatiable greed.
A young woman, Lindsey Wei, graduates from high school in America and sets out to find her roots in China, questing for who she is and where her life path belongs. She discovers in herself a skill for martial arts and seeks the hidden knowledge of meditation. After three years of study in various martial styles and unveiling false teachers, she is finally led to the ancient Wudang Mountains. Here she meets a Daoist recluse, Li Shi Fu, who has renounced the world of the 'red dust' and long since retired into an isolated temple to cast oracles and read the stars. The coming together of these two extraordinary characters, master and disciple, begins a spiritual relationship taking the young adept on an unforgettable journey through the light and dark sides of modern China and deep into herself. Battling between earthly desires and heavenly knowledge, she makes the transformation into a dynamic and complete woman. A coming-of-age, personal account, the book describes the lived experiences of a profoundly sincere, bitter yet ultimately liberating female quest. It is written for anyone who ponders the true meaning of Chinese wisdom and the way of the Dao in the hope of discovering a deeper strength within themselves.
Soul initiation is an essential spiritual adventure that most of the world has forgotten — or not yet discovered. Here, visionary ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin maps this journey, one that has not been previously illuminated in the contemporary Western world and yet is vital for the future of our species and our planet. Based on the experiences of thousands of people, this book provides phase-by-phase guidance for the descent to soul — the dissolution of current identity; the encounter with the mythopoetic mysteries of soul; and the metamorphosis of the ego into a cocreator of life-enhancing culture. Plotkin illustrates each phase of this riveting and sometimes hazardous odyssey with fascinating stories from many people, including those he has guided. Throughout he weaves an in-depth exploration of Carl Jung's Red Book — and an innovative framework for understanding it.
“The most powerful spiritual healer, fixer, teacher on the planet.” —Oprah Winfrey In this companion volume to her bestselling book Acts of Faith, bestselling author and star of Iyanla: Fix My Life discusses the “valleys” that cause stress and imbalance for women and explains how women can cleanse their minds and promote a healthy foundation for living in the modern world. A Note from Iyanla Vanzant: Beloved friend, When this little book was first published many years ago, it became a beacon of light for many people who found themselves time and time again in one valley or another. Valleys are nothing new for any of us. Some of you may be in a valley right now, or, since you never know what’s around the corner, you may be on the brink of tottering into yet another valley. Or maybe you’ve just survived a valley that you swear you’ll never revisit—but guess what? That’s precisely the valley you’ll probably see again. And again. Being in a valley can be a lonely and bewildering experience. This book was written to help you feel less lonely by reminding you that you really aren’t ever alone since God is always by your side, but more important, you are always by your own side. No matter how dire the situation may seem, no matter how dark and bleak the valley may be, you have all you need within you to survive the valley—any valley. Even though you may not know how you got into the valley in the first place, you do know, deep inside yourself, how to get through and out and free. You just need a little faith in yourself and a little guidance to find that faith within yourself. When you are at your wit’s end, take this little book and let it guide you toward the ever-present but often elusive light at the end of the tunnel. Faith in the Valley is designed to help you find the light when you need it most—when you’re in that damn tunnel. When you’re most confused and in the dark and clueless as to how you got there (again!) and when you’re trying to figure out not just how to get out, but stay out. For good. Faith in the Valley has helped so many through so much that we felt it only fitting to issue this lovely gift edition to acknowledge the special place it holds in many hearts. Please share it with a friend who has served as your beacon in the past, or offer it to yourself as a reminder of the strength and wisdom you possess and can offer to others. Iyanla
An "ethnographic" novel that portrays life in California's Napa Valley as it might be a very long time from now, imagined not as a high tech future but as a time of people once again living close to the land.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY • The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. "Reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness." —Oprah Winfrey Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.
In the shadow of a rugged mountain range in the Philippines, lies San Ysidro, a rice farming community of tradition-bound residents determined to maintain their way of life that includes telling folklore tales around the campfire. More than two decades after a violent crime transforms San Ysidro forever, events begin to unfold as an ancient ritual, the Annako, demands revenge for the victims' souls. As the spirits stir, a mother, her daughter, and a newspaper reporter are drawn into the dark past and into a world where the line between reality and the supernatural is blurred. As all three are led on circuitous paths of mystery made worse by violent threats and political scandals, now only time will tell whether they will find answers and peace for the victims' souls. Voyage: Spirit of the Annako shares a mysterious tale about a horrific crime in a rural Filipino community and a vengeful ancient ritual with the power to reveal the truth.
Journey with Much-Afraid to new heights of love, joy, and victory! For the first time, this beloved Christian allegory is a mixed-media special edition complete with charming watercolor paintings, antique tinted photography, and meditative hand-lettered Scripture. As you read and connect with the story of Much-Afraid and her trials, the pages of this book come alive thanks to the plethora of special artwork. Hinds’ Feet on High Places, with more than 2,000,000 copies sold, is a story of endurance, persistence, and reliance on God. This book has inspired millions of people to become sure-footed in their faith even when facing the rockiest of life’s terrain. The story of Much-Afraid is based on Psalm 18:33: “He makes me as surefooted as a deer, enabling me to stand on mountain heights.” The complete Hinds’ Feet story is accented by 80 full-color paintings, photography, and hand-lettered Scripture.
