Massachusetts is a strange place, filled with strange tales. This collection of 21 flash fiction stories celebrates the things that make Massachusetts unique. A shipwrecked young man spends the night in a hut of refuge along the Cape. The clerk at a suburban comic shop experiences a superhero meet-cute. And of course, you can't forget your French toast supplies before a snowstorm! Rest Stop Stories collects all the short stories released on the podcast Rest Stop Stories between 2020 and 2021, now with new edits. Plus there's a brand new story exclusive to this collection.
On the challenging road of transformation, and the larger journey of life, we inevitably hit bumps that bruise our souls. Along the highway called holiness we encounter roadblocks and detours that fuel our frustration. When we are weary of the road, it's time to rest awhile. This book invites us to turn off on a rest stop that refreshes our souls, where we can "listen to those sacred stories of both pain and promise from our past, present and future that shape our lives and show us our destiny." Rest Stops for the Soul is filled with the language of the soul. It recounts formative stories of creation, incarnation and redemption from our faith tradition, mythic and folk stories, true life stories and original tales by the author that illuminate the trail of transformation. In addition, Joe Nassal, in his uniquely poetic style crafted in "the storyteller's sanctuary," offers abundant insight into this journey that God calls and impels us to undertake. Father Nassal guides us along the trail of transformation in which God surprises us, saves us and sustains us. He suggests how we carry on when we're "walking on empty," how ritual and a "carousel" humor in the midst of the three-ring circus we call life can help carry us home at last.
“What a box of tricks! This full-throttle thriller, dark and driving, rivals Agatha Christie for sheer ingenuity and James Patterson for flat-out speed. Swift, sharp, and relentless.” — A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window A brilliant, edgy thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath. A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do? On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers. Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate. Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her? There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one? Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape. But who can she trust? With exquisitely controlled pacing, Taylor Adams diabolically ratchets up the tension with every page. Full of terrifying twists and hairpin turns, No Exit will have you on the edge of your seat and leave you breathless.
Donald Leroy Evans was an American serial killer who allegedly killed over 15 people between 1970 and 1991 but confessed to over 60 murderers-mostly women-at rest stops and parks throughout 20 U.S. states. He was arrested after leading police to the body of a homeless ten-year-old girl, Beatrice Routh, who he had kidnapped in Mississippi, taken to Louisiana where he raped and strangled her to death, and then dumped her body in a shallow grave back in Mississippi. Evans pled guilty to the offense and then to an additional 60 murders (some reports state that the number was 72); however, authorities could not find any evidence corroborating his claims and, later, Evans admitted it was a hoax.
An entertaining inside story of how Reuben Freeds roadside eatery became the famous Red Apple Rest. The Red Apple Rest was a legendary restaurant open from the 1930s through the 1980s on New Yorks Route 17. Located midway between New York City and the resorts of the Catskill Mountains, the restaurant served as a whos who of entertainment luminaries. Elaine Freed Lindenblatt was born into restaurant royalty as the youngest child of the establishments founder, Reuben Freed. For her, the Red Apple was the family room across the roadone she shared with over a million customers every year. In this book fifty-plus years unfold in a series of lively vignettesenhanced with photos, memorabilia, and even a closely guarded recipeas she recreates what it was like to be raised in the fishbowl of a round-the-clock family operation. Stop at the Red Apple is at once an account of growing up in 1950s small-town America, a glimpse into the workings of a successful food operation, and a swan song to a glorious slice of bygone popular culture. Reading Stop at the Red Apple is like going down memory laneI was instantly transported to happy memories of driving up to camp. Bravo, Elaine, and bravo to her family for the Red Apple. Joan Nathan Stop at the Red Apple is a true story of an important Catskill vacation traditionfrom its embryonic stage until its terminal demise as told by the founders daughter. If you have been fortunate enough to enjoy the delicious food and warm hospitality, you will have many special memories rekindled. Should you not have had the chance to do so, the planning, hard work, and personal sacrifices the family made to create and maintain this landmark hospitality restaurant will fascinate you. I truly enjoyed my stop at the Red Apple, I know you will too. Elaine Grossinger Etess, Executive Vice President and Co-owner of Grossingers The life of Red Apple Rest founder Reuben Freed is the quintessential immigrant success story. His restaurant is an icon of the golden age of American motor travel and the heyday of the Catskill resorts and borscht belt entertainers. Lindenblatts book is entertaining, atmospheric, and poignant. To readers who didnt personally experience the Red Apple Rest, they will dearly wish that they had. Deborah Harmon, Executive Director, Tuxedo Historical Society In 1991, I had a hit Broadway show called Catskills on Broadway. At the opening of the show, we produced a seven-minute film about the Catskills, and the audiences would react to everything they saw on the screen but by far the biggest reaction came when, as part of the film, I drove up to the Red Apple Rest and took photographs of all the roadside signs 4 miles to Red Apple Rest, 2 miles to Red Apple Rest, and the Red Apple Rest. The audience was incredible when they saw those signs it brought them back to their youth. Freddie Roman, actor and producer
America through Transgender Eyes provides an opportunity for readers to look at American society through the eyes of transgender people at a time when movements for and against transgender people permeate socio-political discussions throughout the nation. This book provides readers with important insights into the beauty and struggle of transgender people, identities, experiences, and relationships. As political, religious, and scientific traditions update their arguments in relation to growing recognition of transgender lives and histories, America through Transgender Eyes offers an opportunity to visualize the way such traditions appear to some of the people often left out of them. As political battles about the rights of transgender Americans grow throughout the nation, this book provides an important introduction to this population for voters, leaders, activists, and scholars seeking to make sense of the shifting gender dynamics of contemporary America.
A collection of firsthand accounts from truckers who have driven all over the United States and have encountered strange and unusual phenomenons which can only be described as paranormal.
What is a family? How do families of choice develop? These questions permeate Via Chicago as ten people come together as a familial unit after each experiencing and (at least) beginning to recover from prior traumatic experiences. Ella and Linsk are a nonmonogamous couple who have helped one another heal and built an unconventional family together with Case, Kaisa, Reeves, Jo, Andrei, and Michelle over the course of a decade. As the novel begins, Mercury has just moved to Chicago to pursue graduate study when they begin a romantic relationship with Ella and a broader emotional engagement with the family. At the same time, Mercury is beginning to work through traumatic past experiences while Jo might have found love in the form of a new guy the family just calls Twitter Boy. As the novel progresses, we follow Mercury, Jo, and the rest of the family as each relates to their own and others’ traumatic experiences and bonds together over these and other shared aspects of their lives, desires, and goals. Via Chicago could be utilized in the teaching of sociology, families, romantic relationships, gender, sexualities, geography, urban studies, LGBTQIA studies, polyamory, trauma recovery, or narrative courses, or of course, it could be read entirely for pleasure.
Rest Stop Earth reveals, through a fictional detective story, a shocking, alternate version of the history of technology and the Space Race of the 20th Century. It challenges and explains the origins of mankind, ancient artifacts among us, and the secret war that's possibly being waged around us.
Rest Area 10 is a story of ordinary people having extraordinary experiences with a maintenance worker in a rest area that only exists while they are there. It moves Christ away of the Church and out of the Bible to exemplify His dynamic personality in connecting and correcting people's lives. It brings Him into everyday situations to answer questions and provide solutions to life's problems. It's emotionally intimate, spiritually intense, and physically exhilarating.
