No matter how charred or distorted the fragments, we can always uncover inklings of the Gospel, which can then lead people to God. Through this evocative collection of essays, Father Robert Barron finds those "seeds" in today's most popular films, books, and current events. How do Superman, Gran Torino, and The Hobbit illuminate the figure of Jesus? How does Bob Dylan convey the prophetic overtones of Jeremiah and Isaiah? Where can we detect the ripple of original sin in politics, sports, and the Internet culture? Finding the "seeds of the Word" requires a new vision. This book will train you to see.

    In this, we are rich. We begin with abundance. But while much is written about our city these hard days, it is typically meant to explain Detroit to those who live elsewhere. Much of this writing is brilliant, but our anthology, this anthology, is different: it is a collection of Detroit stories for Detroiters. Through essays, photographs, poetry, and art, this anthology collects the stories we tell each other over late nights at the pub and long afternoons on the porch. We share them in coffee shops, at church social hours, in living rooms, and while waiting for the bus. These are stories addressed to the rhetorical “you”—with the ratcheted up language that comes with it—and these are stories that took real legwork to investigate. We may be lifelong residents, newcomers, or former Detroiters; we may be activists, workers, teachers, artists, healers, or students. But a common undercurrent alights our work that is collected here: we are a city moving through the fire of transformation. We are afire.Featuring essays, photographs, poetry, and art by Terry Blackhawk, Grace Lee Boggs, John Carlisle, Desiree Cooper, dream hampton, francine j. harris, Steve Hughes, Jamaal May, Tracie McMillan, Ken Mikolowski, Marsha Music, Shaka Senghor, Thomas J. Sugrue, and many others.

    My name is Virginia, although I live in Georgia... Atlanta, to be precise. Two years ago I happily clutched my degree in Hospitality Management, smug with the knowledge that I would always have job security because no matter what, people would always travel, right? And then the pandemic happened. It's hard to complain about losing my job in the midst of so much tragedy, but it came on the heels of a bad breakup, and being partially abandoned by my jet-setting parents. I was shook.Thank goodness the economy is starting to reopen, but because so many hotels have closed permanently, there are three people for every hospitality job available, and I don't have enough seniority to even warrant an interview. So when I heard of an opening at a historic hotel in Midtown that's allegedly haunted, I showed up in person to beg for the job. I naively told the eccentric owner I'd do anything... and that's how I wound up being an Elevator Girl.What's an Elevator Girl? Stay tuned, friends, for the story. There are ghosts, an unsolved murder, and some of the most oddball guests imaginable. Oh, and the mind-bending secret I stumbled upon in the basement. In between I spend a LOT of time riding up and down, wondering where my life went wrong and how I can get off this ride._________________This ELEVATOR GIRL, Part 1 novella is a month's worth of daily segments: JULYThe Part 1 novella is JULY, Part 2 is AUGUST, Part 3 is SEPTEMBER, Part 4 is OCTOBER, Part 5 is NOVEMBER, part 6 is DECEMBER.(In total there are 6 parts to ELEVATOR GIRL.)Don't miss out on this charming, funny story--download a sample now and see for yourself!

    Throughout the year, Goldstein asks weighty questions that would stump a person less seasoned. For example: What is it about a McRib that drives people crazy? Can we replace extending an olive leaf with extending an olive jar? How much wisdom can we glean from episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter? His friends and family, many of them known through their appearances on WireTap, weigh in with hilarious results as Goldstein eats, sleeps, and watches bad TV all the way to his date with destiny.

    As he wanders the land year upon year, Raymo gathers the revelations embedded in the geological and cultural history of this wild and ancient place. "When I called out for the Absolute, I was answered by the wind," Raymo writes. "If it was God's voice in the wind, then I heard it." In poetic prose grounded in a mind trained to discover fact, Honey from Stone enters the wonder of the material world in search of our deepest nature.

    

     Let me test my presumption with a preview of four these ‘old’ stories. If I told you there was once a west coast sex cult with dozens of young girls, single ladies, and married women, who all fornicated with one well-endowed “prophet,” and he occasionally found it necessary to carry-out bondage S&M sessions here and there, you may not be surprised at all. But what if that sex cult began in 1903 and ended in 1906 with a couple of murders and suicides, does that sound like anything you have read about before? Or, how about a cheater who murders his inconvenient wife, disassembles her over a fifteen hour period, then puts her bones in the same stove he cooks breakfast for his sons before sending them off to school? If that doesn’t surprise you, perhaps the ending will–but you’ll have to find out for yourself. In ‘The Dandy and the Squire,’ a smooth-talking peacock from Kentucky visits his northern ‘cousins,’ and charms three of the women into his bed. He’s a big time operator who talks fancy, dresses fancy, and tells great stories of his days as an adventurer, riverboat gambler, and sharp-minded deal maker. He’s so smooth, he’s able to murder the patriarch’s son, make him look like the bad guy, and marry the boy’s tender-hearted sister before the Yankees get wise to his lies. Good thing, too, because he had also talked the father into giving him the family farm. Chapter Five is the stranger-than-fiction story of ‘Shoebox Annie.’ During the early 20th Century, this trollish-looking woman introduced her freakish-looking son to a life of crime. Their decade’s long spree of lyin’, cheatin’, and stealin’ led them to become America’s first mother and son team of serial killers. They were so good at disposing of bodies, none of their four victims have ever been found. If ‘old’ stories sound boring to readers of contemporary true crime, I hope this book will change minds, and fully reveal just how wicked and decadent our ancestors were. And deadly. Volume II in the Vintage True Crime Stories series is a wrecking ball that smashes to pieces that phrase, “The Good Old Days.” Maybe you will believe me when you get to the last page.

    Including case histories and stories, the book recounts such events as her mother's death, and her own near-death experience and epiphany of cosmic consciousness.

    KENNEDY, VINCE LOMBARDI , DOROTHY DAY, FULTON SHEEN, AND ANDY WARHOL HAVE IN COMMON? They’re all Catholics who have shaped America. In this page-a-day history, 365 inspiring stories celebrate the historic contributions of American men and women shaped by their Catholic faith. From famous figures to lesser-known saints and sinners, The American Catholic Almanac tells the fascinating, funny, uplifting, and unlikely tales of Catholics’ influence on American history, culture, and politics. Spanning the scope of the Revolutionary War to Notre Dame football, this unique collection of stories highlights the transformative role of the Catholic Church in American public life over the last 400 years.Did you know…• The first immigrant to arrive in America via Ellis Island was a 15-year-old Irish Catholic girl?• Al Capone’s tombstone reads “MY JESUS MERCY”?• Andrew Jackson credited America’s victory in the Battle of New Orleans to the prayers of the Virgin Mary and the Ursuline Sisters?• Five Franciscans died in sixteenth-century Georgia defending the Church’s teachings on marriage?• Jack Kerouac died wanting to be known as a Catholic and not only as a beat poet?• Catholic missionaries lived in Virginia 36 years before the English settled Jamestown?

    So her best friends devise a plan to help her out: she can hire their gorgeous new flatmate Gib to pose as her doting new fiancé! It sounds perfect – except Gib’s not all he seems… The Blind-Date Proposal Kate Savage has landed herself with the boss from hell – he may be gorgeous, in a brooding sort of way, but he’s on her case 24/7! Kate’s friends try cheering her up by arranging for her to go on a blind date. Only when Kate arrives she’s horrified to discover that her mystery man is Finn McBride – her boss! A Whirlwind Engagement Josh and Bella have been friends for years, but suddenly Bella is starting to see her Josh in a very different light – she’s falling in love! Worse, she’s just said that she’ll pretend to be Josh’s fiancée for a week in the Seychelles…

    Buechner is the author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, including Godric (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize) and Telling Secrets.

    Whether she is contemplating the Grand Canyon, her vegetable garden, motherhood, genetic engineering, or the future of a nation founded on the best of all human impulses, these essays are grounded in the author's belief that our largest problems have grown from the earth's remotest corners as well as our own backyards, and that answers may lie in both those places.Sometimes grave, occasionally hilarious, and ultimately persuasive, Small Wonder is a hopeful examination of the people we seem to be, and what we might yet make of ourselves.

     Kimberly Rae Jordan Elizabeth Maddrey Autumn Macarthur Lesley Ann McDaniel Lynnette Bonner Heather Gray Jan Thompson The Tenderness of His Love by USA Today Bestselling Author Kimberly Rae Jordan When Tennyson Page gives a struggling single mom and her daughters a helping hand, he never imagines the impact they’ll have on his life. But having been hurt twice before by women he’d helped, Tennyson isn’t sure he’s able to interpret Olivia Duncan’s motives correctly. Is it just gratitude on Olivia’s part? Or is it something more? A Heart Reclaimed by Bestselling Author Elizabeth Maddrey Two landscape architects and former college rivals work together to restore the grounds at Peacock Hill. Will the garden they plant blossom into love? His Father’s Son by USA Today Bestselling Author Autumn Macarthur Can a small-town single mother regain her lost faith and forgive the past, when her disabled child’s father returns, determined to help the son he unwillingly left behind – and the woman he’s never stopped loving? Sink or Swim by USA Today Bestselling Author Lesley Ann McDaniel Still reeling from the dangerous relationship she fled a year ago, Jen Bloom is finally getting her head above water. Her job as a housekeeper at the Inn at Crescent Cove has been a lifesaver, and the inn’s chef—Luke Strong—has become her best friend. But what she really wants now is to manage the inn. Then another woman arrives in town to interview for the management job. Realizing that the woman has her eye on more than just the job, Jen questions her own motives for staying in Crescent Cove. Is it the town…or the promise of love? Angel Kisses and Riversong by Bestselling Author Lynnette Bonner After a career ending injury, Jett Hudson escapes to a B&B in the mountains of Washington. But when he arrives and has to wake owner Salem Finn, who is sound asleep at her desk, he starts having second thoughts about his choice of lodging—even if her messy bun reminds him of a halo, and her soft gaze has a way of making him forget to breathe. Sometimes the river of life takes unexpected turns. And sometimes those turns lead to angel kisses…and Riversong. Skye by Bestselling Author Heather Gray When Skye reaches her limit, she packs a bag and runs away from it all…without realizing what she’s running toward. Sam is the only wrinkle in her plan. What happens when a woman chased by guilt and fear runs headlong into a battle-hardened Marine who isn’t used to backing down? Ask You Later by USA Today Bestselling Author Jan Thompson He lives and breathes expressive art.

    This is to keep you on the edge with each turn in the alleys of the Labyrinth.Labyrinth: Short Stories is an array of fifteen tales that cover genres like adventure, romance, paranormal, fantasy, history, and many more.Summary Of The BookLabyrinth: Short Stories, published in 2012, is a collection of fifteen short stories written by various Indian authors. Each tale belongs to a different genre and era, thereby giving this book a unique and refreshing feel. Labyrinth: Short Stories starts off with The Martyr, which has been written by Mainak Dhar. It revolves around young Kemal who finds himself in the middle of a war in Afghanistan. Puppet Show, by Aditi Chincholi, explains how a doctor cannot find a way to break a spell that has been cast over the natives of a valley.Bagheera Log Huts takes readers into the heart of an Indian jungle, where the search for a wild cat turns into an unexpected adventure. Shawn Pereira’s I'll Be Back describes an out-of-body experience, which shows how things can take a downward spiral when one is caught in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Aditi Chincholi’s second story, Sym World, is set in a fantasy land which the protagonist Kyoto has willingly entered, but cannot find a way out. In Mortified, written by Jeevan Varma, readers will find themselves in a small Indian township where a mortified Sharmaji is going to be attacked. This is followed by Crashing Impacts, a tale of love and sacrifice that spans almost ten years.Rishabh Chaturvedi’s The Night Of The Wokambee describes how Revant is in a quandary when a strange creature visits his house every night. Both Mists of Time by Niharika Puri, and Russkaya Rulyetka by Shawn Pereira, illustrate how a person makes impulsive decisions when he is overcome with rage and jealousy. Candies shows readers that the pursuit of love is filled with ups and downs. Travel Through The Night, authored by Rishabh Chaturvedi, follows the protagonist into dense sugarcane plantations, where he encounters strange spirits who block his path. A Day of Battle is set during the great epic battle of the Mahabharata, and the author Abhishek Dwivedi shares stories of the bravery of some of the best warriors that this world has ever seen. The next story, Farming On Facebook by Sushant Dharwadkar, takes a huge time leap, and shows how the present generation is unaware of the real world, as their focus lies only on the screens in front of them. About The AuthorsLabyrinth: Short Stories has been written by Mainak Dhar, Richard Fernandes, Jeevan Verma, Rishabh Chaturvedi, Niharika Puri, Aditi Chincholi, Abhishek Dwivedi, Sushant Dharwadkar, Rohit Das, and Shawn Pereira. They are a part of the initiative by Litizen.com. Professionally they are accountants, chefs, media professionals, doctors, and students.

    Intense, vivid, and fearless, her work endows the true and seemingly ordinary aspects of life—a commuter chases snowball-throwing children through backyards, a bookish teenager memorizes the poetry of Rimbaud—with beauty and irony. These essays invite readers into sweeping landscapes, to join Dillard in exploring the complexities of time and death, often with wry humor. On one page, an eagle falls from the sky with a weasel attached to its throat; on another, a man walks into a bar.Marking the vigor of this powerful writer, The Abundance highlights Annie Dillard’s elegance of mind.