Since her father's death four years ago, Donna has gone through the motions of living: her friendships are empty, she's clueless about what to do after high school graduation, and her grief keeps her isolated, cut off even from the one parent she has left. That is until she's standing in front of the dead body of a classmate at Brighton Brothers' Funeral Home. At that moment, Donna realizes what might just give her life purpose is comforting others in death.
“Wise, vulnerable, and surprisingly relatable . . . funny in all the right places and enormously helpful throughout. It will change how you think about death.” —Rachel Held Evans, New York Times–bestselling author of Searching for Sunday We are a people who deeply fear death. While humans are biologically wired to evade death for as long as possible, we have become too adept at hiding from it, vilifying it, and—when it can be avoided no longer—letting the professionals take over. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde understands this reticence and fear. He had planned to get as far away from the family business as possible. He wanted to make a difference in the world, and how could he do that if all the people he worked with were . . . dead? Slowly, he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones was making a difference—in other people’s lives to be sure, but it also seemed to be saving his own. A spirituality of death began to emerge as he observed the family who lovingly dressed their deceased father for his burial; the nursing home that honored a woman’s life by standing in procession as her body was taken away; the funeral that united a conflicted community. Through stories like these, told with equal parts humor and poignancy, Wilde’s candid memoir offers an intimate look into the business of death and a new perspective on living and dying. “Open[s] up conversations about life’s ultimate concerns.” —The Washington Post “As a look behind the closed doors of the death industry, as well as a candid exploration of Wilde’s own faith journey, this book is fascinating and compelling.” —National Catholic Reporter “[A] stunner of a debut.” —Rachel Held Evans, author of Inspired
This New York Times bestselling book is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up your home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts and millions of hits per month on their blog YoungHouseLove.com, Sherry and John Petersik are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Packed with 243 tips and ideas—both classic and unexpected—and more than 400 photographs and illustrations, this is a book that readers will return to again and again for the creative projects and easy-to-follow instructions in the relatable voice the Petersiks are known for. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more.
America's preeminent makeup artist shares his secrets, explaining not only the basics of makeup application and technique but also how to use the fundamentals to create a wide range of different looks. 200 color photos & sketches.
In this volume, Alice Crosetto and Rajinder Garcha identify hundreds of resources-including books, Internet sites, and media titles-that will help educators, professionals, parents, siblings, guardians, and students learn about coping with the loss of a loved one and the grief...
A small-town embalmer's daughter lifts the shroud on the fascinating minutiae of dealing with the dead. Imagine rubbing shoulders with the dead for most of your life. As she picks the brain of her father for the most gruesome and thought-provoking secrets of his embalming career - from the drowned boy whose organs were eaten by eels to how to inject just the right amount of colour into a corpse's skin for that blushing look - the narrator must look her parents' deaths, and her relationship with them, straight in the eye. Quietly poetic, The Embalmer glimpses at something most would rather look away from.
Style, sex, and laugh-out-loud screw ups-nobody pens them like author Paul Chmielewski or lives them like Max Snow, the stylist-turned-amateur PI who has somehow managed to luck his way through two gritty Metro Detroit area adventures in-Murder to the Max and Mafia to the Max. When an opportunity to demonstrate his skill as a private investigator presents itself in the form of Special Agent Roland Whiting of U.S. Homeland Security, Max Snow reluctantly agrees to accept a position as stylist in a local funeral home chockfull of terrorists. Staying one step ahead of the bad guys, not to mention circling government sharks, puts Maxie's budding PI powers to their biggest test to date-a challenge made more complicated by the pair of sizzlin'-hot hit women who single-mindedly work to raise the bar on his already overactive libido. A sweet carnal coincidence? Max diligently digs for the truth-and although purported to set you free, it may also prove hazardous to his health.
The best of friends, Toots, Ida, Mavis, and Sophie have been there for each other through thick and thin . . . LIFE IS FULL OF SURPRISES Teresa “Toots” Amelia Loudenberry has her quirks, but no one would ever question her loyalty. So it’s no surprise when Toots decides to extend her stay in Charleston to help care for her ailing housekeeper. Though the Charleston air is drenched with azalea and honeysuckle, and there’s always a pitcher of sweet tea close to hand, the ladies have little time for relaxing. Ida’s new line of cosmetics is about to launch, and Toots, Mavis, and Sophie are relishing new careers as models. And Abby, Toots’s daughter, is getting hitched. In the middle of so much change, Toots is almost too busy to notice her own unexpected romance. After eight husbands, she’s sworn never to get involved again. But fate—and her friends—may have other plans. And every godmother, fairy or otherwise, loves a story that ends with happily-ever-after . . . Praise for Fern Michaels and The Godmothers Series “Whoever thought the ‘golden years’ were boring never met the Godmothers.” —RT Reviews “Michaels’ engaging version of the Golden Girls.” —Booklist
Murder in Pink Country By: Kassandra Torres In another dimension similar to ours, a sinister organization is attempting to erase all biracial humans from the face of the Earth. However, they didn’t count on Special Agent Penelope Pink and her team standing in their way. In Murder in Pink Country, Penelope is hot on their trail, closing in, and prepared to take them down.
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, let me hear you scream. Aislinn Cain and SCTU Team Alpha heads to Tallahassee, Florida to do battle with a serial killer unlike any they have ever faced before. The victims endure psychological as well as physical torture at the hands of this merciless murderer. The crimes are staged as hate crimes. However, Ace and Lucas agree that each death appears to be a form of punishment, creating doubts that hate is the true motive. Identifying and capturing this killer is the easiest part for Ace. Deciding if justice is being served is more difficult, as this killer doesn’t fit into the black and white morality, she has constructed for herself.
