Out of the blue she went from a fit, healthy, fun-loving wife and mother of two, to not knowing what had happened. Or why.Rushed to hospital by ambulance, it was discovered Julie had a malignant brain tumour. Diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Advanced Melanoma, she was told to get her affairs in order because she didn't have long to live.After getting over the initial shock, Julie fought off the fear and started searching for hope. She found an American experimental drug trial, but was told there was only room for 70 patients and the numbers were full. Julie had promised her teenage daughters that she would find a way to 'fix it' so she refused to take no for an answer. Her tenacity paid off and she flew to Oregon and the Providence Cancer Center. She became PATIENT 71.Not everyone survives a cancer diagnosis. Julie is one of the lucky ones. She discovered that when you push the boundaries, refuse to give up and never lose sight of your goal... extraordinary things can happen.

    But in that year, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to "come out" as a homosexual. This exhibitionist with the henna-dyed hair was harassed, ridiculed and beaten. Nevertheless, he claimed his right to be himself—whatever the consequences. The Naked Civil Servant is both a comic masterpiece and a unique testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

    On the way to becoming a preeminent neonatologist and a successful entrepreneur—as well as parents and television stars—these two have faced prejudice, medical scares, and the uncertainty and daily pressures of life with special needs children. And even though they have dealt with fear, depression, hopelessness, and the urge to give up, they have found a way to persevere. Now they share their wisdom and encouragement with everyone who is facing their own challenges. Drawn from their most popular speaking presentation, Think Big is the inspirational guide for dreaming big, setting goals, and taking the steps to get there. Each section includes heartwarming anecdotes full of grace, humor, and wit plus a never-before-seen look inside their personal and professional lives. They have plenty of stories to tell and their unique approach to encountering life’s greatest difficulties will inspire a call to action in all of us.

    A light snow was falling as our family of six and a dog started out in our 1935 Ford. The tires were almost bald and there was a third of the steering wheel missing. The trailer behind was a modified shell of a travel trailer. It was loaded with the bare necessities to set up housekeeping nearly two thousand miles away. We were moving from Kanawha, Iowa to Yakima, Washington to seek our fortune picking fruit in the fruit-rich Yakima Valley.” UPHILL ALL THE WAY, a collection of sixty-seven short stories, is a first hand account of the life of the author’s family and their struggles through the Great Depression and World War II, and their eventual triumph. The circumstances they endured, some beyond their control and some created by the choices they made along the way, provided rich experiences for their family and does the same for the reader. The author’s father suffered ill health the last twelve years of his life. It was during this time that the author spent many hours with his father and heard, for the first time, several of the stories told in this book. After his father died, the author had many visits with his mother to get a better understanding of his parents’ lives before they were married and to clarify some of the things he remembered from his youth, taking notes and recording it all in the form of short stories. The end result is an unusual collection of poignant vignettes that draw the reader in and make the pages turn. More than 2,000 copies have been sold. Here are some comments from readers. * “UPHILL ALL THE WAY” By James Sloter. “Anyone who grew up in small-town Iowa and especially those who grew up right after the Great Depression will find something to relate to in James Sloter’s stories about the obstacles his parents overcame in raising their family in Iowa.” Ellen Heath, Homegrown Writing, The Des Moines Register and Tribune. “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested.” “OF STUDIES” ESSAYS II, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) “Thanks, Jim, for the copy of “UPHILL ALL THE WAY”. We are ‘digesting it’. The book signing was such fun—we’ll do it again for the sequel!” Claudia Warner, Administrator: Algona Public Library, Algona, Iowa “You asked me to tell you what I thought of your book “UPHILL ALL THE WAY”. You said that you rewrote each story several times to ‘make it flow’. Does it ever flow! WOW!” Betty Shipman, Corwith News editor, Corwith, Iowa “I just finished “UPHILL ALL THE WAY”. It was wonderful. I would like to buy ten copies for my book club.” Peg Williams, Minneapolis, MN “This check is for five more copies of your fascinating book. Thank you very much for the privilege of reading it.” Kent Ryerson, Norwalk, IA “I just finished reading your book. I enjoyed it so much.” Delores Huse, Pharr, TX “I enjoyed your book so much and am passing it around for all my family to read.” Maxine S., Dixon, IL “I hope your travels through Iowa and book-signings have been successful. I have finished your book—enjoyed it very much—it has us reminiscing about our own youth.” Pearl White, Sioux Falls, SD “Your book was interesting reading and factual, as I can really remember doing many of the things you mentioned doing in your childhood. The one difference though is that you were loved and you knew it.

    Some of his tales will seem far fetched, unless you're a cop and then you know that anything can happen - and just when you think you've seen it all, someone will surprise you.

    An unpopular war. A military and diplomatic team in disarray. Those are the challenges President Obama has faced as he attempts to make a success of U.S involvement in Afghanistan. They are also the challenges President Truman surmounted in the winter of 1950 as he began managing a war in Korea that risked becoming bigger and more costly. It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War: United States troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur came to the aid of the South Koreans after North Korea invaded. When Communist China entered the conflict on the side of the North Koreans, the crisis seemed on the verge of flaring into a world war. Truman was determined not to let that happen. MacArthur kept urging a widening of the war into China itself and ignoring his Commander in Chief. On April 11, 1951, after MacArthur had “shot his mouth off,” as one diplomat put it, one too many times, Truman fired him. The story of their showdown—one of the most dramatic in U.S. history between a Commander in Chief and his top soldier in the field—is captured in all its detail by David McCullough in his biography Truman, and presented here in a e-book called Truman Fires MacArthur (an excerpt of Truman, McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography), which was the headline carried in many newspapers around the country the next day. Truman Fires MacArthur will continue to ride the headlines. It will go on sale as an ebook just as the Rolling Stone profile that exposed General Stanley McChrystal’s insurrection and forced his resignation hits newsstands, and media coverage of the showdown continues to draw historical analogies between Truman and Obama.

    Then he caught a group of travellers stealing from his warehouse. A car chase, petrol bombing and court case later, and everything had changed.A marked man, Mike was forced to leave everything behind and move to the Peak District for a fresh start. But his old life was never far behind and when he fell for Rhoda, a Romany Gypsy, kin to the very people he was hiding from, he knew he wouldn't be safe for much longer . . .The Gypsy Code is a story of secret identity, revenge and forbidden love that's perfect for fans of Running with the Firm, Undercover and Soldier Spy.

    In her harrowing yet inspiring memoir, she tells her personal story of falling under the spell of her control-freak husband, suffering a decade of domestic violence, finding the strength to leave and then his despicable act of revenge. Denise endured agonising grief and heavy guilt, but she has slowly rebuilt her life without her beautiful boys – learning to live, love and trust again.This is her heartbreaking memoir.

    Then terminal cancer happened. The best doctors despaired. And Artie dared to look for a miracle. Artie had never put much stock in mysticism or miracles. But when his best friends bought tickets to fly with him to Croatia to the controversial shrine at Medjugorje where healings were known to happen, he dared it all. They found themselves in powerful ways sharing spiritually, even praying together, something they would have found very odd before. And when they came home Artie was healed—completely. The cancer was gone. The doctors at Mass General Hospital were astounded yet could offer no explanation. Six Months to Live relates not only Artie’s miraculous healing but his spiritual transformation and the hope and inspiration he offers to thousands who hear his story.

    This is the story of a surgeon in training and his adventures during the years of his residency.

    Fern, married and the mother of three boys takes us into her modern middle-class suburban Long Island world where one day she gets the "Big Idea" to learn the Chinese tile game called mah jongg. Weekly games provide the setting for deep-seeded friendships to form around the mah jongg table. These Monday gatherings become a source of support and strength for Fern as her husband is diagnosed with cancer. Fear, insecurity and potential heart-wrenching loss become challenges she must overcome. The author weaves the themes of destiny, faith, friendship, time and love throughout the story. Fern takes us on her journey around the mah jongg table, eastward to the seaport town of Greenport and through her husband's battle with cancer as she relies on faith, friendship and her personal relationship with God. Read this heartwarming story about the wonderful things that can happen when five women are destined to come together to play an old Chinese game, sitting around a table with 152 tiles, dice and a mah jongg card. Love always; love all ways, for time has no guarantees.

    I was also so chronically unfit that I couldn’t manage more than one flight of stairs without getting seriously out of breath. I was eating my way to a whole host of health problems and my knees were knackered. Now nearly four years on, I am over 80lbs lighter and a whole heck of a lot fitter. I’m now training to be a Personal Trainer so that I can help other people like me. This is why I have written this book. Along the way I learned a lot, and came up with some ideas of my own about how and why people lose weight….or don’t. This is my story.

    As soon as they drive across Andalusia, they fall in love with its rugged beauty, whitewashed villages, red geraniums, giant aloes, and endless olive trees. After weeks of visiting ruins and dilapidated sheds advertised as homes, they find a little stone cottage in a mountain valley in the middle of nowhere. Equipped with everything that a romantic soul desires: a patio shaded by grape vines, an ancient bay leaf tree, and a formidable oak in front of a long driveway, they fall in love with this property and decide to reform it into a guest house. With little foresight or planning, they exchange cushy expats lives for a life in the sun.Quite quickly, however, they find themselves battling cowboy builders, no electricity, a dry well, torrential rain storms, and a freezing cold winter without a roof over their heads. Through all these adventures, they develop relations with their neighbours who had lived in the valley for many generations. Puzzled by the strangers’ behaviour, the neighbours teach them about olive picking, and the cultivation of local vegetables. But primarily, they offer their endless generosity and insight into life in rural Andalusia.As they begin to settle in, financial problems confront our somewhat naïve couple. Without steady pay checks and construction bills piling up, their idea of the good life starts to fall apart. Written with a wry sense of honest humour, this story is filled with twists and turns that take the reader on a journey from a life where every day was monotonously repetitive to a place where every day presents a new challenge.

    Bright's stories in magazines like Salon, Playboy, and Bust have drawn cultish followings, and her books are national bestsellers. Mommy's Little Girl contains selected writing since the birth of Bright's now twelve-year-old daughter, Aretha. Challenging the idea that a woman cannot be a mother and sex goddess at the same time, this book positions Bright as a beacon of hope for women who feel that their days of openness about their sexuality must come to an end after they have a child. Bright describes how her daughter and her classmates have made her aware of how sexually charged children are these days, yet dangerously lack a proper education about their own bodies. From reminiscing on her role as "lesbian consultant" to the directors of The Matrix to her hilarious instruction for both men and women on how to ruin their sex lives in twelve easy steps, Bright's always provocative, often hilarious prose is sure to appeal to anyone with a heartbeat, and tops it off with the perfect end to perfect sex — a recipe for lustful cherry pie!

    Scott Fitzgerald.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “This book brings back marvelous memories of a very special time.”—Frank Sinatra Called “a living compendium of a hundred years of social history” by The New York Times Book Review, Peter Duchin has lived through tremendous highs and dismal lows. Orphaned by his glamorous parents, the Newport debutante Marjorie Oelrichs and the famous bandleader Eddy Duchin, he was raised in the privileged, old-money world of Averell Harriman, the diplomat and former governor of New York. He grew up to be one of America’s preeminent bandleaders, effortlessly entertaining and charming partygoers at thousands of society galas, from the White House to Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball. In Ghost of a Chance, he looks back on a life that another man may not have survived. And as he relates the frank, often surprising recollections of the many friends and famous figures who made up the strange family of his youth, Duchin chronicles the changing face of social life in America. Praise for Ghost of a Chance   “A tale told with wit and charm . . . It is a sprightly, engaging, and at times hilarious look back at a life spent in music, show business, and what used to be called society.”—The Boston Globe“A bittersweet gem of a book.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer“Peter Duchin’s glamorous story is about absent fathers, surrogate mothers, and dwelling on the edges of money and power in a tuxedoed world.”—Gay Talese“A great read.”—Frank Sinatra