An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey


John Stumbo - 2011
    You've stumped us all."They didn't see it coming.They would never be the same.You'll find their story...AuthenticPowerfulHumorousMovingInsightfulRivetingYou may even find it intersecting with your own story.John and Joanna Stumbo have been married twenty-eight years--some great, some not so great. They have three grown children--all great. Joanna grew up in Ohio and Florida and a few other places; John in Minnesota and Montana. They have spent their adult lives figuring out what it means to be pastor and wife in churches from Pennsylvania to Oregon. John has a lifetime love for most anything outdoors and athletic. Joanna loves family and home. John never planned on spending seventy-seven days in the hospital. Joanna never had aspirations of being a caregiver. Neither of them ever planned on writing a book such as this. They are both the better for the journey they've been on, confusing though it be.

Miracles from Heaven: A Little Girl, Her Journey to Heaven, and Her Amazing Story of Healing


Christy Wilson Beam - 2015
    One sunny day when she was able to go outside and play with her sisters, she fell three stories headfirst inside an old, hollowed-out tree, a fall that may well have caused death or paralysis. Implausibly, she survived without a scratch. While unconscious inside the tree, with rescue workers struggling to get to her, she visited heaven. After being released from the hospital, she defied science and was inexplicably cured of her chronic ailment. MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN will change how we look at the world around us and reinforce our belief in God and the afterlife.

The Vow


Kim Carpenter - 2000
    When she finally emerged from the coma, she recognized everyone in her life except her husband, Kim. Starting all over, they built a new love and dedicated their lives to each other all over again.

Leaving Cloud 9: The True Story of a Life Resurrected from the Ashes of Poverty, Trauma, and Mental Illness


Ericka Andersen - 2018
    Rick battled depression, anxiety, and PTSD as the chaos, neglect, and unpredictability of his childhood seemed to doom him to follow in his mother's footsteps.Well into adulthood, Rick stumbled through unemployment and divorce, using drugs and alcohol to numb the pain until he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Miraculously, though, he overcame the odds and today is a happy husband and father. How did this happen? Rick's answer is this: "It was the Lord."A message of hope to those who are drowning from an undeserved childhood, Leaving Cloud 9 speaks to millions who grew up poor, feeling ignored and hopeless, and who need the healing power of God. This indelibly American story conveys the steadfast love of Jesus and his power to deliver us from the most devastating of pasts.

Remembering Anita Cobby: The Case, the Husband, the Aftermath – 30 Years On


Mark Morri - 2016
    Five men were caught and, amid unprecedented scenes, jailed for life. For young reporter Mark Morri, the case was a baptism of fire. Told to 'find the husband', he despaired: Cobby had changed his name and disappeared. But the Daily Mirror found him, and Morri's interviews sent newspaper sales soaring. For nearly thirty years, Morri and Cobby kept in touch. In this book, John finally opens up, recounting how he and Anita fell in love, travelled the world, suffered the pain of her miscarriage, and how he still believes today that they are soulmates. He also explains why they were apart at the time of the murder. Weaving in chilling material from the autopsy police files, and interviews with the detectives who hunted down the killers, Mark Morri explores the ripple effects of the murder that still shocks a nation.

Boyhood with Gurdjieff


Fritz Peters - 1972
    Long out of print, this special hardcover reissue of Fritz Peters' account of his five years with G.I. Gurdjieff ranks among the classics of Gurdjieffian literature. Only 11 years old when his aunt, Margaret Anderson, brought him to the Prieuré in June 1924, he immediately became devoted to Gurdjieff. Within weeks, however, Gurdjieff suffered a near fatal car crash. During his recovery the young boy became his "chair carrier." Other tasks included mowing the château's great lawns, kitchen boy, waiter and gatekeeper. He also was to clean Gurdjieff's room, no small task as Gurdjieff delighted in wrecking it. Peters was among the few to whom Gurdjieff gave individual lessons on the teaching. An acute observer and talented writer, Peters' crisp images and scenes, often hilarious, give a rare look at what life was like at Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. Peters' interactions with Miss Madison (Ethel Merston), Rachmilevitch, and Gurdjieff's dog Philos, as well as A. R. Orage and Gertrude Stein are quite telling. Said the writer Henry Miller of Peters' book, "It's full of amazing anecdotes and the wisdom of life."

Unreliable Sources: How The Twentieth Century Was Reported


John Cody Fidler-Simpson - 2010
    With his new book he turns his eye to how Great Britain has been transformed by its free press down the years. He shows how, while the press likes to pretend it's independent, they have enjoyed the power they have over the events they report and have at times exercised it irresponsibly. He examines how it changed the world and changed itself over the course of the last hundred years, from the creation of the Daily Mail and the first stokings of anti-German sentiment in the years leading up to the First World War, to the Sun's propping up of the Thatcher government, and beyond. In this self-analysis from one of the pillars of modern journalism some searching questions are asked, including whether the press can ever be truly free and whether we would desire it to be so.Always incisive, brilliantly readable and never shy of controversy, "Lies Like Truth "sees John Simpson at the height of his game as one of Britain's foremost commentators.

Elizabeth Taylor, A Passion for Life: The Wit and Wisdom of a Legend


Joseph Papa - 2011
    It's my passion for life...my passion for passion that has made me never give up." -- Elizabeth TaylorFrom the time she appeared in National Velvet, the film that skyrocketed her to international fame at age twelve in 1944, until her death in 2011, Elizabeth Taylor's beauty, allure, and personal strength captivated the world. In a career that spanned more than sixty years, she brought her raw talent and magnetism to bear in now-classic films such as Father of the Bride, Suddenly, Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Giant, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Off screen, she lived just as passionately. That intensity brought her enormous joy and pain -- and notoriety, whether it was from her vast collections of extraordinary fine jewelry and art to her battles with addiction and ill health, from her internationally recognized humanitarian efforts on behalf of AIDS to her scandalous love affairs and seven highly scrutinized marriages.This anthology -- illustrated with more than 30 gorgeous images of the star throughout her career and personal life -- reveals the candor and honesty with which the actress led her extraordinary life. Here are Elizabeth's first-person reflections on her childhood, career, love and marriages, motherhood, beauty, aging, extravagances, charity, and sense of self. Whether witty or poignant, these words are always demonstrative of her generous, unapologetic, and fiercely determined nature, reflecting the essence of a great star and legendary modern woman.

In the Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual Discovery in Tibet


Matteo Pistono - 2011
     For nearly a decade, Matteo Pistono smuggled out of Tibet evidence of atrocities by the Chinese government, showing it to the U.S. government, human rights organizations, and anyone who would listen. Yet Pistono did not originally intend to fight for social justice in Tibet-he had gone there as a Buddhist pilgrim. Disillusioned by a career in American politics, he had gone to the Himalayas looking for a simpler way of life. After encountering Buddhism in Nepal, Pistono's quest led him to Tibet and to a meditation master whose spiritual brother is Sogyal Rinpoche, bestselling author of "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying." Pistono not only became the master's student but also couriered messages to him in Tibet from the Dalai Lama in India. This began an extraordinary, and ultimately vital, adventure. "In the Shadow of the Buddha" is a book about Tibet through the eyes of a devotee-a stranger hiding in plain sight. It's about how a culture's rich spiritual past is slipping away against the force of a tyrannical future. It's about how Tibetans live today, and the tenacity of their faith in the future in spite of dire repression and abuse. It's also about Pistono's own journey from being a frustrated political activist to becoming a practicing Buddhist mystic, a man who traveled thousands of miles and risked his own life to pursue freedom and peace. Watch a Video

Inside Parkhurst: Stories of a Prison Officer


David Berridge - 2021
    Riots. Cell fires. Medical emergencies. Understaffed wings. Suicides. Hooch. Weapons. It's all in a week's work at HMP Parkhurst.David Berridge has spent 28 years working as a prison officer, with 22 years at Parkhurst. A tough character with a big personality and a dark sense of humour, David has had to deal with it all - serial killers and gangsters, terrorists and sex offenders, psychopaths and addicts. Inside Parkhurst is his raw, uncompromising look at what really went on behind the massive walls and menacing gates of one of Britain's highest security prisons.David has been assaulted and abused, he has tackled cell fires and attempted suicides, riots and dirty protests; he has foiled escaped plans, talked inmates down from rooftop protests, witnessed prisoners setting fire to themselves, and prisoners ruthlessly murdering other prisoners. With this book he takes us inside this secret world for the first time. Thrown in at the deep end, David quickly had to work out how to deal with the most cunning and volatile of prisoners, and how to avoid their scams - and he's been doing this for nearly three decades. Reggie Kray, Gary Glitter, Robert Maudsley, Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and several senior IRA leaders were among David's most high-profile charges.With this raw, searingly honest account, he guides us around the wings, the segregation unit, the hospital and the exercise yard, and gives vivid portraits of the drug taking, the hooch making, the constant and irrepressible violence, and the extraordinary lengths our prison officers go to everyday. Divided into three parts - the first from David's early years on the wings, the second the middle of his career, and the third his disillusioned later years - David will use an episodic format to take readers to the heart of life inside and shine a light on the escalating violence, the lack of support for officers and the impact the government cuts are really having on the wings.Both horrifying and hilarious, David's book will shock, entertain and inspire in equal measure.

When Heaven is Silent: How God Ministers to Us Through the Challenges of Life


Ronald Dunn - 1994
    A simple but powerful book that helps readers develop the faith to see these trials as blessings, rather than curses, ministered by God.

The last German Empress


John Van der Kiste - 2014
    When they married in 1881, everyone expected that she would never concern herself with more than the traditional Prussian princess’s interests of Kirche, Küche, Kinder (church, kitchen, children). Yet within twenty years of his accession as William II, the last German Emperor, she would become in some ways the stronger character and steadying influence her increasingly neurotic and unstable husband required. This is the first biography of an often overlooked personality in modern history.

The Man Who Grew Two Breasts: And Other True Tales of Medical Detection


Berton Roueché - 1995
    At his death last spring, Roueche left behind seven new narratives that have never been published in book form. This book collects these works along with one earlier classic--all relating true tales of strange illnesses, rare diseases, and the brilliant minds who race to understand and conquer them.

Surviving the Dragon: A Recent History of Tibet Through the Looking Glass of a Tibetan Lama


Arjia Rinpoche - 2010
    In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family. In the years to come, Rinpoche survived under harsh Chinese rule, as he was forced into hard labor and endured continual public humiliation as part of Mao’s Communist "reeducation." By turns moving, suspenseful, historical, and spiritual, Rinpoche’s unique experiences provide a rare window into a tumultuous period of Chinese history and offer readers an uncommon glimpse inside a Buddhist monastery in Tibet.

The Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier: Part 1: Sections 1-42


David J. Ridges - 2004
    From beloved gospel scholar David Ridges, this valuable book contains the complete text of the Doctrine and Covenants, sections 1-42, including Brother Ridges's classic in-verse notes, and additional insights and commentary. Bring your family together and master latter-day scriptures with this helpful study companion.