Life Isn't Always a Bed of Roses is a collecting of poems that deal with life and its many facets. From soft palatable verse to raw chunks of pseudo reality the poems take you on a journey across the barriers of realms seldom visited by most. Although it falls in the genre of poetry it is actually humanistic verse for the common folk. Hopefully youll laugh a little, maybe even cry a little but most of all it should make you think about life from a number of different viewpoints.
Rose Chan, “Queen of Striptease” at just 27 years old, enthralled men young and old in the heyday of cabaret in 1950s Malaya. Her accidental shot to fame, thanks to a wardrobe malfunction in which her bra snapped, catapulted her into the limelight. In No Bed of Roses, Cecil Rajendra pens an account of her life — her childhood in Soochow, China, and then in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, her five marriages and personal struggles, how she circumvented the colonial decency laws that forbade nudity, and finally her fight with cancer that took her life in 1987 at the age of 62.
'I have all the money in the world with which I can buy whatever I prophesised but not what I need and that is peace' Young Lord Jack Harold of the Westminster, a noble and handsome lad. A well-mannered gentleman in the eyes of all the well known but seemingly struggles with himself and people around him. Unusual events of his life haunts him to the point where his sins start reflecting through his own shadow. The only solution to this unbearable anxiety is...Death.
Written with compassion, intelligence and insight, A Bed of Red Flowers is a profoundly moving portrait of life under occupation and the unforgettable story of a family, a people and a country. "The picnic of the red flower" is a traditional time of celebration for Afghans. One of Nelofer Pazira's earliest memories is of people gathering in the countryside to admire the tulips and poppies carpeting the landscape. It is the mid-1970s, and her parents are building a future for themselves and their young children in the city of Kabul. But when Nelofer is just five the Communists take power and her father, a respected doctor, is imprisoned along with thousands of other Afghans. The following year, the Russians invade Afghanistan, which becomes a police state and the center of a bloody conflict between the Soviet army and American-backed mujahidin fighters. A climate of violence and fear reigns. For Nelofer, there is no choice but to grow up fast. At eleven, she and her friends throw stones at the Russian tanks that stir up dust and animosity in the streets of Kabul. As a teenager she joins a resistance group, hiding her gun from her parents. Her emotional refuge is her friendship with her classmate Dyana, with whom she shares a passion for poetry, dreams and a better life. After a decade of war, Nelofer's family escapes across the mountains to Pakistan and later to Canada, where she continues to write to Dyana. When her friend suddenly stops writing, Nelofer fears for Dyana's life. With lyrical, narrative prose, A Bed of Red Flowers movingly tells Pazira's haunting story, as well as Afghanistan's story as a nation.
In Salvation and Sovereignty, Kenneth Keathley asks, “What shall a Christian do who is convinced of certain central tenets of Calvinism but not its corollaries?” He then writes, “I see salvation as a sovereign work of grace but suspect that the usual Calvinist understanding of sovereignty (that God is the cause of all things) is not sustained by the biblical witness as a whole.” Aiming to resolve this matter, the author argues that just three of Calvinism’s five TULIP points can be defended scripturally and instead builds on the ROSES acronym first presented by Timothy George (Radical depravity, Overcoming grace, Sovereign election, Eternal life, Singular redemption). In relation, Keathley looks at salvation and sovereignty through the lens of Molinism, a doctrine named after Luis Molina (1535-1600) that is based on a strong notion of God’s control and an equally firm affirmation of human freedom.
What happens when a former Zen Buddhist monk and his feminist wife experience an apparition of the Virgin Mary? “This book could not have come at a more auspicious time, and the message is mystical perfection, not to mention a courageous one. I adore this book.”—Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit Before a vision of a mysterious “Lady” invited Clark Strand and Perdita Finn to pray the rosary, they were not only uninterested in becoming Catholic but finished with institutional religion altogether. Their main spiritual concerns were the fate of the planet and the future of their children and grandchildren in an age of ecological collapse. But this Lady barely even referred to the Church and its proscriptions. Instead, she spoke of the miraculous power of the rosary to transform lives and heal the planet, and revealed the secrets she had hidden within the rosary’s prayers and mysteries—secrets of a past age when forests were the only cathedrals and people wove rose garlands for a Mother whose loving presence was as close as the ground beneath their feet. She told Strand and Finn: The rosary is My body, and My body is the body of the world. Your body is one with that body. What cause could there be for fear? Weaving together their own remarkable story of how they came to the rosary, their discoveries about the eco-feminist wisdom at the heart of this ancient devotion, and the life-changing revelations of the Lady herself, the authors reveal an ancestral path—available to everyone, religious or not—that returns us to the powerful healing rhythms of the natural world.
I've called my book No Bed of Roses because I've had a lot of pricks in my bed in my life.' No Bed of Roses is an intimate, often horrifying account of an abused girl's transformation into a powerful Madam, and the subsequent collapse of her empire.
A Beauty and the Beast tale set during America's Gilded Age "I may be a monster, Miss Tate, but I am not a beast." His new secretary looked unconvinced. How could he blame her? His mask had her trembling like a frightened rabbit. Yet what lay beneath was far worse. The sight of his face had already killed one young woman. He well understood Miss Tate's fear. If only she understood his. Because as disturbing as she found his gruesome appearance, he was far more terrified of her beauty. Heir to a wealthy robber baron, Jonathan Nashe had every advantage money could buy until a tragic fire left him horribly disfigured. Now he lives secluded in his isolated country mansion, his scientific research his only solace. When declining health threatens to rob him of even this small comfort, Jonathan is forced to choose between his work and his privacy. Reluctantly, he hires a secretary. Though distasteful, sacrificing his privacy soon proves the least of his concerns; he never expected to sacrifice his heart as well.But Isabelle Tate guards the secrets of her past as vigilantly as Jonathan hides the scars beneath his mask. Can they confess their growing love for one another knowing that to bare their deepest feelings, they must also bare their deepest shame?
He was just another walk-on player--who became part of one of the most extraordinary teams in college football history. During his four years with the University of Wisconsin Badgers, Chris Kennedy experienced the team's transformation from mediocrity to Rose Bowl glory under coach Barry Alvarez. In this intimate, candid memoir, Kennedy shares a behind-the-scenes account of the thrills and frustrations of the college athlete. His story will touch the hearts of Badger fans and everyone who ever chased the dream of becoming Number One.
In a hidden canyon of the Sierra Madres in Mexico, Zafiro Talavera is the caretaker of her grandfather's once-fearsome band of outlaws, and the task is not easy. She is constantly watching out for bounty hunters and other desperados searching for the loot her grandfather has hidden away. Equally daunting is coping with the eccentricities of the decrepit Talavera Gang. Zafiro's most fervent dream is of living in a normal town with a normal family. Then into her carefully guarded "fortress" comes a mysterious, wounded man known only as Sawyer. Has he come to steal her gold or her heart? She enlists Sawyer to teach her men to be the outlaws they once were so they can defend themselves against the evil bandit sworn to steal Zafiro away from them. Sawyer resists the task of teaching a drunk, a deafman, and a codger who believes himself to be St. Peter how to ride and shoot. But when the threat finally comes, Sawyer and the men rally, defeat the enemy and save Zafiro. Paisley is a master comedienne. This delightful story has characters that will make you laugh out loud and a love story that will give you goosebumbs.
