SOMETHING TO STAND THE RAIN
SOMETHING TO STAND THE RAIN

Author: T. J. King, Ph.D.

Publisher: Trafford Publishing

Published: 2013-10

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1490716084

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Something to Stand the Rain is a biographical memoir that celebrates the often unrecognized worth of individuals beneath the radar of fame. At a time in our nation when faith in its leadership is at a low ebb, the components of a good man are laid out for review before being illustrated in the life of a man named David Dionisi, someone who rose to wealth as corporate executive before surrendering it to lift up those less fortunate than himself. Youthful longing to be a paratrooper carries him beyond a pancake landing without benefit of parachute from which, miraculously, he walks away. Military service as an intelligence officer ends when conflicting with love for the woman he marries. Though he rises rocket-like in the corporate world, his affluence leaves him dissatisfied. Moved to overwhelming compassion by the suffering of the poor and needy, he decides to devote his savings and his talents to their aid. Among the benefactions born of the foundation he launches are an orphanage in Africa--and a writing career. This emerges from realization that one of the most effective ways to lift the impoverished from their plight rests in the exposure of its unrecognized root causes.

Shouting at the Rain
Shouting at the Rain

Author: Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0147516773

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From the author of the New York Times bestseller Fish in a Tree comes a compelling story about perspective and learning to love the family you have. Delsie loves tracking the weather--lately, though, it seems the squalls are in her own life. She's always lived with her kindhearted Grammy, but now she's looking at their life with new eyes and wishing she could have a "regular family." Delsie observes other changes in the air, too--the most painful being a friend who's outgrown her. Luckily, she has neighbors with strong shoulders to support her, and Ronan, a new friend who is caring and courageous but also troubled by the losses he's endured. As Ronan and Delsie traipse around Cape Cod on their adventures, they both learn what it means to be angry versus sad, broken versus whole, and abandoned versus loved. And that, together, they can weather any storm.

Go Ahead in the Rain
Go Ahead in the Rain

Author: Hanif Abdurraqib

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2019-02-01

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1477318445

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A New York Times Best Seller 2019 National Book Award Longlist, Nonfiction 2019 Kirkus Book Prize Finalist, Nonfiction A February IndieNext Pick Named A Most Anticipated Book of 2019 by Buzzfeed, Nylon, The A. V. Club, CBC Books, and The Rumpus, and a Winter's Most Anticipated Book by Vanity Fair and The Week Starred Reviews: Kirkus and Booklist "Warm, immediate and intensely personal."—New York Times How does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib digs into the group’s history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. The result is as ambitious and genre-bending as the rap group itself. Abdurraqib traces the Tribe's creative career, from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective known as the Native Tongues, through their first three classic albums, to their eventual breakup and long hiatus. Their work is placed in the context of the broader rap landscape of the 1990s, one upended by sampling laws that forced a reinvention in production methods, the East Coast–West Coast rivalry that threatened to destroy the genre, and some record labels’ shift from focusing on groups to individual MCs. Throughout the narrative Abdurraqib connects the music and cultural history to their street-level impact. Whether he’s remembering The Source magazine cover announcing the Tribe’s 1998 breakup or writing personal letters to the group after bandmate Phife Dawg’s death, Abdurraqib seeks the deeper truths of A Tribe Called Quest; truths that—like the low end, the bass—are not simply heard in the head, but felt in the chest.

Send Down the Rain
Send Down the Rain

Author: Charles Martin

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Published: 2018-05-08

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0718084764

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Can two people brought together by desperate circumstances help one another heal, and maybe even begin a new life? New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin’s Send Down the Rain answers the questions of what it means—and what level of sacrifice it takes—to truly love someone. Allie is still recovering from the loss of her family’s beloved waterfront restaurant on Florida’s Gulf Coast when she loses her second husband to a terrifying highway accident. Devastated and losing hope, she shudders to contemplate the future—until a cherished person from her past returns. Joseph has been adrift for many years, wounded in both body and spirit and unable to come to terms with the trauma of his Vietnam War experiences. Just as he resolves to abandon his search for peace and live alone in a remote cabin in the Carolina mountains, he discovers a mother and her two small children lost in the forest. A man of character and strength, he instinctively steps in to help them get back to their home in Florida. There he will return to his own hometown—and witness the accident that launches a bittersweet reunion with his childhood sweetheart, Allie. When Joseph offers to help Allie rebuild her restaurant, it seems the flame may reignite—until a forty-five-year-old secret begins to emerge, threatening to destroy all hope for their second chance at love. Send Down the Rain will take you on a journey that spans the sweltering migrant worker routes of south Florida, muddy battlefields of Vietnam, thickets of northwest North Carolina, and the idyllic shores of America’s most beautiful beach (Cape San Blas). At the story’s center lies the question: What does it mean—and what level of sacrifice does it take—to truly love someone? Praise for Send Down the Rain: “Charles Martin understands the power of story and he uses it to alter the souls and lives of both his characters and his readers.”—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author Full-length, stand-alone novel Includes discussion questions for book clubs Also by bestselling author Charles Martin: The Mountain Between Us, Chasing Fireflies, When Crickets Cry, and The Letter Keeper

Radical Compassion
Radical Compassion

Author: Tara Brach

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-12-31

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0525522824

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One of the most beloved and trusted mindfulness teachers in America offers a lifeline for difficult times: the RAIN meditation, which awakens our courage and heart Tara Brach is an in-the-trenches teacher whose work counters today's ever-increasing onslaught of news, conflict, demands, and anxieties--stresses that leave us rushing around on auto-pilot and cut off from the presence and creativity that give our lives meaning. In this heartfelt and deeply practical book, she offers an antidote: an easy-to-learn four-step meditation that quickly loosens the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs. Each step in the meditation practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) is brought to life by memorable stories shared by Tara and her students as they deal with feelings of overwhelm, loss, and self-aversion, with painful relationships, and past trauma--and as they discover step-by-step the sources of love, forgiveness, compassion, and deep wisdom alive within all of us.

After the Rain
After the Rain

Author: Alexandra Elle

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Published: 2020-10-13

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1797202200

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In After the Rain, celebrated self-care storyteller Alexandra Elle delivers 15 lessons on how to overcome obstacles, build confidence, and cultivate abundance. Part memoir and part guide, Elle shares stirring stories from her own remarkable journey from self-doubt to self-love. This soulful collection is filled with illuminating reflections on loss, fear, bravery, healing, love, acceptance, and more. • Readers follow along her journey as she transforms challenging experiences—a difficult childhood, painful romantic relationships, and single parenting as a young mom—into fuel for her career as a successful entrepreneur and author driven by purpose and pasion • Filled with Elle's signature candor and warmth • Includes empowering affirmations and meditations for readers to practice in their own lives After the Rain is a soulful guide to help you embrace all the beauty, love, and opportunity life has to offer. • Presented in luminous package with a foil case and gold accents • A beautiful gift for anyone on the path to self-discovery, and an uplifting reminder that there is always sunshine after the rain • Perfect for the friend who loves meditating, self-care, journaling, or seeking personal transformation and empowerment • Great for those who loved Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist, 100 Days to Brave by Annie F. Downs, and anything written by Brené Brown, Rupi Kaur, Rachel Hollis, and Elizabeth Gilbert

Don't Tempt Me
Don't Tempt Me

Author: Lori Foster

Publisher: HQN Books

Published: 2016-07-26

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1460394364

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Moving to a new town offers a new chance for love in this contemporary romance series opener by a New York Times–bestselling author. Jason Guthrie has no time for entanglements—between helping his widowed brother and teenage nephew and getting his hometown back on its feet, his days are spoken for. But his nights are another story . . . And when his lovely new neighbor, Honor Brown, reluctantly accepts his help in remodeling her house, Jason finds himself wishing his handyman skills could knock down the defenses she keeps building around herself. Martial arts teacher Sullivan Dean knows real danger when he sees it—even when it takes the form of the gorgeous blonde helping her friend move in across the street. After putting his wayward past behind him to focus on teaching control to troubled kids, Sullivan has learned to avoid party girls like Lexie Perkins. But Sullivan can’t seem to keep his hands off the real woman behind that flirty charm—or keep his heart from landing at her feet . . . Praise for Don’t Tempt Me “I would definitely suggest putting this in your TBR pile. Not only do you get double the dose of romance, but there are quite a few hotties in this book to ogle and swoon over.” —Under the Covers Book Blog

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Author: George Saunders

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2021-01-12

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1984856049

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Town & Country, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, Thrillist, BookPage • “[A] worship song to writers and readers.”—Oprah Daily For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.