A guide for parents to encourage their children to take up and pursue musical abilities from early childhood through high school, providing detailed descriptions of different instruments, and offering tips and advice on getting and maintaining an instrument, helping a child remain motivated to practice and play, choosing and paying for a private teacher, and helping children deal with anxieties about performances.
With wry wit and touching humor, Louie Anderson, New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award–winning comedian currently starring in Zach Galifianakis’s Baskets, shares his journey of turning life’s challenges into joy, as well as plenty of wisdom he’s still discovering from his late mother. “I started out writing these letters to my mom, but a few friends said I should write a book. I said ‘okay’ because next to ‘we’ll see,’ ‘okay’ is as non-committal as you can get. But somehow, I stuck with it. I hope you like it. I hope that after you read it, you’ll write or call your own mom—and dad, sister, brother, cousin, nephew. Or have lunch with them. Or breakfast. It doesn’t have to be lunch. But do it now. Don’t wait like I did.” —Louie Louie Anderson has channeled his beloved mom, Ora Zella Anderson, in his stand-up routine for decades, but she died before seeing him reach his greatest heights, culminating in his breakout TV role as Christine Baskets, the mesmerizing character she inspired. Hey Mom is Louie’s way of catching her up on the triumphs, disappointments, and continuing challenges in life. Full of heartache, but also great hope, and of course—given Louie’s inimitable comedic voice—laugh-out-loud stories and his trademark observations on life’s many absurdities, Hey Mom shows a poignant side of Louie you may not know, and proves that he is one of the most nuanced and wide-ranging comics working today.
This heartwarming picture book reassures children that a parent’s love never lets go—based on the poignant lyrics of JJ Heller’s beloved lullaby “Hand to Hold.” “May the living light inside you be the compass as you go / May you always know you have my hand to hold.” With delightful illustrations and an engaging rhyme scheme, this book offers the promise of security and love every child’s heart longs to know. From skipping stones and counting stars to climbing trees and telling stories, every moment is wrapped snugly in the certain warmth of a parent’s presence and God’s blessing. With poignancy and joy, this bedtime read captures the unconditional love parents want their children to know but so often fail to express amid the chaos of daily life.
She wanted to die. God had other plans. Overwhelmed by wave after wave of emotional trauma, Kristen Anderson no longer wanted to live. One January night, determined to end her pain once and for all, the seventeen-year-old lay across train tracks not far from her home and waited to die. Instead of peace, she found herself immersed in a whole new nightmare. Before the engineer could bring the train to a stop, thirty-three freight cars passed over her at fifty-five miles per hour. After the train stopped and Kristen realized she was still alive, she looked around—and saw her legs ten feet away. Surviving her suicide attempt but losing her legs launched Kristen into an even deeper battle with depression and suicidal thoughts, as well as unrelenting physical pain—all from the seat of a wheelchair. But in the midst of her darkest days, Kristen discovered the way to real life and a purpose for living. For anyone struggling to find the strength to go on, the message of this heart-wrenching yet hope-building book is a clear and extraordinary reminder that even when we give up on life, God doesn’t give up on us. Includes notes of encouragement from Kristen and resources for suicide prevention.
Irreverent, thought-provoking, hilarious, and edgy: a collection of personal stories celebrating motherhood, featuring #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jenny Lawson and Jennifer Weiner, and many other notable writers. Listen to Your Mother is a fantastic awakening of why our mothers are important, taking readers on a journey through motherhood in all of its complexity, diversity, and humor. Based on the sensational national performance movement, Listen to Your Mother showcases the experiences of ordinary people of all racial, gender, and age backgrounds, from every corner of the country. This collection of essays celebrates and validates what it means to be a mother today, with honesty and candor that is arrestingly stimulating and refreshing. The stories are raw, honest, poignant, and sometimes raunchy, ranging from adoption, assimilation to emptying nests; first-time motherhood, foster-parenting, to infertility; single-parenting, LGBTQ parenting, to special-needs parenting; step-mothering; never mothering, to surrogacy; and mothering through illness to mothering through unsolicited advice. Honest, funny, and heart-wrenching, these personal stories are the collective voice of mothers among us. Whether you are one, have one, or know one, Listen to Your Mother is an emotional whirlwind that is guaranteed to entertain, amuse, and enlighten.
This is the compelling story of the experiences of three young women who attended the University of California at Berkeley and became caught up in the tumultuous changes of the Sixties. Davidson's honest and detailed chronicle reveals the hopes, confusion and disillusionment of a generation whose rites of passage defined one of the most contentious decades of this century.
In present-day Los Angeles, Caroline Martin has everything but the thing her soul craves most: a daughter. When she undergoes what is supposed to be a routine hysterectomy, she unwittingly aborts the little girl she’s always longed for, leaving the unborn baby’s soul in limbo. Sharing a hospital room with Caroline is a pregnant woman who’s just been shot by her boyfriend. Her unborn child is barely hanging on—and the soul of Caroline’s hovering baby cannot resist the overwhelming urge to rebirth via this unclaimed fetus. In the aftermath of these events, two engaging heavenly guides, working together through sensitive humans, struggle to find an alternate way to help Caroline and her would-be daughter forge the link that was always meant to be between them—before the child’s brutal father makes good on his vow to steal the girl and disappear with her forever. By turns comic and tragic, Rachael’s Return explores the concept of soulmates, the afterlife, reincarnation, and relationships that never die, even as it offers readers a glimpse of the mysteries that exist within the ordinary and challenges assumptions about the true nature of reality.
How do we hear God over the clamor and clutter of our busy lives? Sharon Jaynes, popular author and speaker, shares how men and women can listen to God's still small voice and experience His leading, peace, and strength daily--just by paying attention. All day long God speaks to believers through the Bible, prayer, creation, nature, and circumstances. The key is for people to recognize those gentle nudges and turn aside from the busyness to see the "burning bushes" in their own backyards. Listening to God Day by Day contains a treasury of stories highlighting "God moments" and reflecting on Scripture as it applies to life. As readers enjoy hearing how God is moving in the lives of fellow travelers, they will begin to recognize God's presence and voice as He works in and through them in amazing ways. Rerelease of Extraordinary Moments with God
The wheels of love are always turning at Black Cat Records. Things are just starting to settle down when two Texas sisters start to stir things up at the Vancouver record label. CEO Mary Timmons sets spirited country superstar Sara Daniels on a collision course with cocky rocker Chris Alex. Meanwhile, Brutal Strength's suave drummer, JR, has his head turned by pretty young intern, Samantha Daniels. Do all their highways lead to happiness or will the wheels fly off when the sisters' tragic past comes back to haunt them? Love Revolution is a rock star romance inspired by Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
