Britain's answer to Marley and Me-the hilarious and heartwarming international bestseller about learning to live with a troublesome dog. Like many first-time pet owners, London-based novelist Stephen Foster was upbeat as he began his search for a puppy to adopt. How hard can it be to take care of a dog, he thought-read a guidebook or two, buy a few supplies, and get on with it. But all the books and supplies in the world couldn't have prepared him for life with Ollie, a willful and moody adopted dog who quickly demonstrated his displeasure at the notion of being told what to do. Walking Ollie tells the funny and charming story of how a growling, skittish man and his equally growling, skittish dog broke each other in, came to see eye to eye, and decided to become best friends.
You are invited to enjoy some unforgettable walks with this playful, inquisitive Shih Tzu and, in the delightful process, discover a renewed focus on life and faith. You’ll chuckle at Ollie’s antics and suddenly realize you are identifying with his serendipitous discoveries in the neighborhood this happy boy calls home. Ollie, in his carefree daily treks, reveals to us that God resides even in the mundane. Set aside the concerns of your day, look a little closer, and you’ll find Him there.
I think I'd sleep a lot easier if I knew none of us would wake up tomorrow. Ollie's sister is missing. Searching Manchester in desperation, she finds all roads lead to Pomona - an abandoned concrete island at the heart of the city. Here at the centre of everything, journeys end and nightmares are born. Pomona premiered in 2014 and has subsequently become a much-produced and widely studied drama text. It is published here as a Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Dan Rebellato. The ancillary material is geared at students and includes: - an introduction outlining the play's plot, character, themes context and performance history - the full text of the play - a chronology of the playwright's life and work - extensive textual notes - questions for further study This play includes some strong language.
River Current is a story set in the 1950s small town of Westfall, Missouri. Ray, Lydia, Shane, and Sam-seemingly inseparable friends-share the joys and pains of growing up in an idyllic setting along the powerful and mysterious Current River. But all is not as it seems in the small town, as secret undercurrents run dark. Ray suffers at the hands of his abusive alcoholic father; they all suffer at the hands of The self-important, mean-spirited and bigoted deputy sheriff, Westley Culpepper; and they eventually despair as friendships and love crumble from betrayal, lies, and suspicions. One after another they all leave the town and each other behind, going their separate ways, vowing never to return. But eighteen years later, the town on the clear cold Current River that was the scene of some of their happiest childhood memories draws them back home. Some who return bring happiness, others bring the weight of the past that bears trouble for all. Lydia alone, with her luminous soul and forgiving heart, is strong enough to bring the friends to grips with their shared past and set the stage for the healing that must take place. The story is surprising, gratifying, and very memorable. Written in lyrical prose with irony and gentle humor, M. Lee Martin gives us a story of passion, hate, love and regret set against a beautifully described 1950s America.
In the rolling hills of southern Indiana, an elderly couple copes with the fear that their river bottom farm-- the only home they've ever known-- will be taken from them through an act of eminent domain so the river flowing through their land may be dammed to form a reservoir. Their son sinks deeper into troubles of his own, struggling to determine his place in a new romantic relationship and the duty he owes to his family's legacy.
This is the story of how, over a period of one hundred and ninety-two days, I was torn away from the life I knew and loved, and dragged down to the depths of despair; of how I endured enforced isolation and near-starvation at the hands of Somali pirates; and of how I made a choice to survive by any and all means that I could muster.In September 2011 Judith Tebbutt and her husband David set out on an adventurous holiday to Kenya. A couple for thirty-three years, they had first met in Zambia: Africa had played a major part in their life together. After a joyous week on safari in the Masai Mara, they flew on to a beach resort forty kilometres south of Somalia. And there, in the early hours of 11 September, tragedy struck them.Judith was torn away from David by a band of armed pirates, dragged over sea and land to a village in the arid heart of lawless Somalia, and there held hostage in a squalid room, a ransom on her head. There, too, she learned the terrible truth that the responsibility of securing her release now rested with her son Ollie. But though she was isolated, intimidated and near-starved, Judith resolved to survive - walking endless circuits of her nine-foot prison, trying to make her captors see her as a human being, keeping her faith at all times in Ollie. Powerful, moving and at times quite devastating, this is Judith Tebbutt's story in her own words. It is a memoir of the life she shared with her beloved husband, an unflinching account of the ordeal that overturned her world, and a testament to the inner resilience and familial love that sustained her through captivity.There is nothing so bad in life as to have no hope - to believe you have been defeated, to give in to that. Now that I found myself in confinement, four thousand miles from home under a hostile sky, I would not accept that fate for myself.
Tombs are sealed shut for a reason. Opening them can have terrifying consequences . . . John Tolworth is delighted when he is hired to help investigate a collection of mummified bodies found in the notorious Gold Tomb in Egypt. Not only is he intrigued by the work, but the collection is stored in an ancient castle in Devon, where John spent his childhood. He looks forward to revisiting the area, and to showing his family the place he grew up. But when John and his family arrive at Baverstock Castle, John starts to remember things. Things he had forgotten. What happened the last time he was there? And why is Philip Kemmis, the former owner of the castle, and John’s childhood companion, now a raving madman? As the mummified bodies begin to reveal their ancient secrets, John begins to think the unthinkable . . .
In almost 40 per cent of households in North America, dogs are kept as companion animals. Dogs may be man's best friends, but what are humans to dogs? If these animals' loyalty and unconditional love have won our hearts, why do we so often view closely related wild canids, such as foxes, wolves, and coyotes, as pests, predatory killers, and demons? Re-examining the complexity and contradictions of human attitudes towards these animals, Dog's Best Friend? looks at how our relationships with canids have shaped and also been transformed by different political and economic contexts. Journeying from ancient Greek and Roman societies to Japan's Edo period to eighteenth-century England, essays explore how dogs are welcomed as family, consumed in Asian food markets, and used in Western laboratories. Contributors provide glimpses of the lives of street dogs and humans in Bali, India, Taiwan, and Turkey and illuminate historical and current interactions in Western societies. The book delves into the fantasies and fears that play out in stereotypes of coyotes and wolves, while also acknowledging that events such as the Wolf Howl in Canada's Algonquin Park indicate the emergence of new popular perspectives on canids. Questioning where canids belong, how they should be treated, and what rights they should have, Dog's Best Friend? reconsiders the concept of justice and whether it can be extended beyond the limit of the human species.
Thanks to a gift from God, Ira Breitling has taken his followers off of Earth and colonized space. But Breitling's followers are slowly discovering their differences. So Ira takes his core followers beyond Planet America, but one follower, Mother Jones, has decided to stay behind and colonize America. A vast number of captives from the battle on Earth have been enslaved by Jones on America, and it only took a generation for racism and cruelty to set in. Summer Lund is a teenaged slave-girl on Master Rice's farm. Her mother, bearing Rice's child, fears that Summer will soon catch the eye of the slaveowner. After a vicious encounter with Master Rice's oldest son Washington, Summer flees the farm and learns of her people's past. Her journey will bring a new era to light, and change the course of Planet America. Meanwhile, after being duped by Fellowship members, Rey Mann has been marooned in a far-off frozen corner of Planet America. He must survive with no technology and only his own wits to protect him, living off the land for food and boiling ice and snow for water. His survival is fueled by a vow of vengeance toward the men who tricked him, but what he learns along his journey will bring him face to face with the God he now so vehemently denies. And a new force of darkness is on its way to America, hell-bent on destroying the entire planet. Continuing the exodus he began in Judgment Day, James F. David brings us new, exciting tales of faith and redemption and the benefits of adhering to the teachings of Christianity, even as Earth is destroyed and we begin to inhabit the far-reaching universe. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Lt. Oliver Miller’s passion for flying could prove fatal. Shot down while on a reconnaissance mission over Russia, he is near death in a Siberian work camp. His government has abandoned him and his family will never know his fate. Tamara Krasnov, the Soviet pilot who shot down Oliver, enlists the aid of her father, a high-ranking Soviet official. They have Oliver transferred to a minimum-security prison. The KGB convinces an embittered Oliver that the US had refused to repatriate him. Tamara recruits Oliver into the Russian Air Force, they become lovers and Oliver finds a new life in Russia. Oliver is recruited by the CIA and lives a life of intrigue during the Cold War and Vietnam War era. The haunting images of a chaotic, historical era are viewed through the sharp edged vision of a heroic American. The last chapter will leave you misty-eyed.
