Please understand one critical feature of this book. It is a biography, hand written by the junkie in question about his life and his alone. As such it is not a piece of literary perfection. It has not been polished to perfection by a team of editors, nor was it published by a major publishing company. Black Tar: For The Love of Heroin was originally written on a legal pad as part of a twelve step program. It made its way to me, its ultimate editor, and I was amazed by the details Stephen was able to remember and capture on paper. Once I got to know him I asked him if he would work with me on his life story and he reluctantly agreed. Sensing his hesitancy I told him we would not use his name and focus on the day to day existence of a junkie as he experienced it living from fix to fix. But Stephen could be a hard person to track down and his never ending thirst for the needle made his story a hard one to tell. I spent days upon weeks crawling the downtown streets looking for him and a lot of times when I did find him I would have to buy him heroin just to get him to work with me. So, I made a deal with him, like making a deal with the devil, that if he would help me drag his biography into existence, I would buy him enough heroin to get through each and every day we worked together.One day's worth of heroin for one day's worth of storytelling. This made it easy for him to make himself available for the writing of his biography. By the time I met Stephen he was almost fifty years old and in full blown heroin psychosis. How he managed to live as long as he had was always a miracle to me. Over the course of a year and several months I pulled every story Stephen could remember from his heroin-addled brain and preserved them on paper. But I never wanted this story to be an autobiography. I wanted it to be Stephen telling his story, in his words, no matter how it might look like in the end.With these rules in place I gave him his first computer and at first he slaved over his 'hunt and peak' computer skills. But the more he wrote the more he remembered and slowly, after three long years of exchanging one day of heroin to entice him to work one day of writing, Stephen declared himself finished with the project. I read what he had written and quickly realized that active heroin junkies make terrible writers. What he had produced was basically unusable. To make a three-year writing stint something of literary value I set myself to editing what he had written. I didn't want to strip it of the style of writing that made it junkie. More than anything else I wanted to preserve his perspective, sense of pain, his defeat, his single-minded approach to heroin and to the fact he knew it was going to kill him. I think that fatalistic view of life is what hit me the hardest.To make the book easy to digest I divided it into five segments and then spread his life between the points. And that is what we ended up with. The biography of a drug addict; barely touched by an editor's pen, and filled with the dirt, muck and blood that is a junkies life.

    Trust can be rebuilt in your marriage! With patient, loving, self-sacrificing effort, it’s possible that one day your wife will risk her heart with you again. And she may even have more respect and love for you than before. In Worthy of Her Trust, Jason Martinkus relates how he repaired his own marriage after revelations of sexual addiction. Along with Stephen Arterburn, Jason offers exercises and tools rooted in counseling principles to help your marriage begin again. This comprehensive guide discusses: · How to be truly and effectively transparent · Combating the “he must not love me” myth and other untruths· What to do about the Internet, office temptations, and travel· Encouragement for wives who wonder if trust can ever be restored · The “five-minute phone call” and other daily trust-building strategies· What meaningful forgiveness and restitution look like· The Amends Matrix—a concrete exercise to admit past wrongs and cast a vision for a faithful futureIncluding insights from Jason’s wife, Shelley, Worthy of Her Trust guides you through the process of rebuilding your relationship so it is stronger than ever.

    The consequences of not treating male depression are extremely serious. Studies show that suicide is more common in men than women, and tha the male suicide rate is three times higher at midlife than at any other life stage. In Unmasking Male Depression, Dr. Archibald Hart explores the many forms of depression and gives tools for coping with and healing depression in men. Hart also examines the lives of Christian leaders who struggled with depression, such as Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, to reveal the myths surrounding this illness

    Here, the bestselling author of Suddenly Sixty and Necessary Losses presents her life-affirming perspective on the joys, heartaches, difficulties, and possibilities of a grown-up marriage -- and no, that's not an oxymoron! Featuring interviews with married women and men, the findings of couples therapists, the truths offered by literature and movies, and a bemused exploration of her own marriage, Judith Viorst illuminates the issues couples struggle with from "I do" through "till death do us part." Examining marital rivalry, marital manners, marital sex (extramarital, too), marital fighting and apologies, what kids do for (and to) marriage, and the boredom and bliss of everyday married life, Viorst leaves no marital stone unturned. From the early years when we wonder "Who is this person?" and "What am I doing here?" to the realities of divorce, remarriage, and growing older (and old) together, Viorst offers insights and advice with honesty, humanity, and humor -- all the while recognizing how tough it is to be married and, when it works, how very precious it can be.

    Here they return with a frank, yet encouraging look at marriage post-tots. They set out to discover if parenthood has to be incompatible with conjugal blissand if so, how to change that. To find out, they spoke to hundreds of mothers (and quite a few fathers). I'd Trade My Husband for a Housekeeper examines the challenges of modern parenthood for married couples today and it extends a loving hand so that mothers can step out of the madness, make the most of what they have, and learn to love their marriages as much as they love their husbands and kids.

    Women's magazines often give advice like "be your best self", "focus on you", or "put on that mini-skirt he loves." While these things do work to keep a man interested, they're surface level tactics that only work temporarily.Women who know how to keep a man happy understand what men secretly want in a woman. These women are irresistible not because of their looks, but because they possess one feminine quality that make men crave their attention. High-quality men, the ones that desire true commitment from a woman, desperately yearn for the company of a woman who understands how to keep him captivated by her.So what is the secret to getting a man to crave your attention? What do men secretly want in a woman?It's simple...Graceful communication.<h2>How to Talk to a Man and Keep Him Helplessly Attracted to You</h2>If you've ever had a man shut you out or shut down on you during a disagreement it's because you failed to communicate respectfully. If you want to be able to communicate your needs and wants to a man without him losing his temper or ignoring you completely, you must learn how to talk to a man gracefully.If a man doesn't feel respected when you communicate with him it's impossible to connect with him on an intimate level. And without that intimate connection, there's nothing you can do to keep him captivated by you.To achieve lasting intimacy with a woman, a man needs to feel emotionally secure with her. But if a woman fails to communicate respectfully, he won't feel confident sharing his whole heart with her.Simply put, if you want a man to open up to you, you must learn how to communicate gracefully with him.<h2>Become the Only Woman He Opens Up and Listens to</h2>Men give their undivided attention to those who respect them. If a man doesn't feel respected communicating with you, he'll find the respect he needs elsewhere. The woman who knows how to communicate with men can influence the man she wants without resorting to "that mini-skirt he loves."A man craves the attention of a graceful woman who knows exactly what to say to him, when to say it, and most importantly, how to say it to get what SHE wants. Men love being gracefully influenced by the woman they adore.If you're interested in learning how to talk to a man so that he opens up to you, listens to you, and willingly gives you what you want without a fuss, this book will help you to communicate with men more effectively.Here's what you're going to learn inside: Discover how to tell him exactly what's on your mind without turning him off. Learn how to communicate what you want and need from him, and make him HAPPY to give it to you. Find out the four most powerful words good men desperately need to hear from the woman they love. Discover how to have difficult conversations with him without making him resent or resist you. Learn how to be a good wife or girlfriend by being more assertive (attractive) with your man without being aggressive (unattractive). Find out how to understand the masculine mind and speak his language so that he FEELS exactly what you say to him.

    The book introduced thousands to their Imago Relationship Therapy, a unique healing process for couples, prospective couples, and parents, and developed into an overnight sensation. For their part, Doctors Hendrix and Hunt managed to aid scores of couples in their plight for more loving, supportive, and deeply satisfying relationships. Now, more than a decade later, this companion book picks up where its predecessor left off, delving further into relationship therapy to help transform relationships into lasting sources of love and companionship. The Getting the Love You Want Workbook is designed for the hundreds of thousands of couples who have attended Imago workshops since Getting the Love You Want hit bookstands, as well as new and curious ones seeking a practical route back to intimacy and passionate friendship. The workbook contains a unique twelve-week course (The New Couples’ Study Guide) designed to help work through the exercises published in Part III of Getting the Love You Want. For those of us struggling to maintain our most precious relationships, the Getting the Love You Want Workbook helps us grow aware of our individual, unconscious agenda while steering us towards a more harmonious link with our loved ones that will satisfy our deepest needs.

    To become a persuasion powerhouse, start by imagining the human brain as an electrical circuit with 8 psychological switches that all need to be turned on for an effortless YES. 90% of purchasing decisions in the buyer’s mind are the result of someone sparking that circuit into action. The result? People stop scrolling and start drooling because you have tapped into their deepest, darkest desires. Consumers scramble for their credit cards because you have managed to position your products, your ideas and YOURSELF as irresistible. People take to their social media soapboxes on your behalf, telling the world how much they love you. And the best part about this excuse-disarming, desire-cultivating, wallet-opening thing called persuasion is that you don’t have to be a natural at persuasion, to persuade! Here are the eight persuasion switches in Mass Persuasion Method that once activated turn you into a master persuader: PERSUASION SWITCH #1 THE PRESTIGE SWITCH PERSUASION SWITCH #2 THE BELIEVABILITY SWITCH PERSUASION SWITCH #3 THE PARITY SWITCH PERSUASION SWITCH #4 THE CURIOSITY SWITCH PERSUASION SWITCH #5 THE URGENCY SWITCH PERSUASION SWITCH #6 THE DESIRABILITY SWITCH PERSUASION SWITCH #7 THE EDUTAINMENT SWITCH PERSUASION SWITCH #8 THE RELATABILITY SWITCH This book will not only show you the science and psychology behind each switch but will also give you specific, hands-on tactics that you can use on your websites, your social media & your client communications to to hook, pull, draw, magnetize and altogether mesmerize your customers and potential customers into buying from you, above everyone else in your industry...and not just once, but over and over again.

    But marriages can and will not only survive but thrive when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another.”Those are the powerful words of bestselling author Gary Thomas in his newest book—Cherish. And in a world desperate for marriage redemption, it is needed now more than ever.Thomas shows that although there are a countless number of marriages consisting of two people just going through the motions, there are real ways this pattern can be reversed: when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another in proven, loving, and everyday actions and words.Through personal stories and real world examples, Thomas proves what husbands and wives can begin doing today to turn their marriage around—even a marriage marred by neglect and disrespect.So how do you cherish your spouse? Thomas will show you how going out of your way to notice them, appreciate them, honor them, encourage them, and hold them close to your heart will bring hope, light, and life into your marriage.

     From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw. Now, in Between Breaths, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety--which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam--and how she dealt with this anxiety as she came of age, eventually turning to alcohol for a release from her painful reality. The now-A&E Network reporter reveals how she found herself living in denial about the extent of her addiction, and how she kept her dependency a secret for so long. She addresses her time in rehab, her first year of sobriety, and the guilt she felt as a working mother who could never find the right balance between a career and parenting. Honest and hopeful, Between Breaths is an inspiring read. Winner of the Books for a Better Life Award in the First Book category Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller

    The secret to stronger relationships isn't to become more charming or funny or to solve the world's problems or to just try harder. All you have to do is listen. It's that simple. Yet our noisy culture hasn't equipped us to do this. With warmth and a touch of humor, personal coach and expert communicator Becky Harling shares simple, practical listening tools that will help you become a person others are drawn to and want to spend time with, as well as how to: - be fully present- offer understanding instead of advice- ask great questions- create a sense of safety and trust- manage your body language- and more!When you learn to listen well, your marriage will grow stronger, your parenting will flourish, your friendships will thrive, and your influence at work will increase. You will be amazed at how one simple act can transform the hearts of others--as well as your own.

    But Marty is trapped in an unhappy marriage and nothing can come of it. Meanwhile, Peggy is desperate to marry her long-term boyfriend Pete. But Peggy’s staunchly Catholic parents would never accept a Protestant son-in-law, and she decides the only way to resolve her issues is to escape to a place where nobody can find her.With no job, no family to stay for and no hope of a future with Marty, an unexpected job offer from America offers Irene a lifeline. But it would mean never seeing Marty again. Will Irene and Peggy solve their problems by running away – or should they follow their hearts back home to Liverpool? An inspirational tale of love and friendship, perfect for fans of Kitty Neale and Lyn Andrews.

    This relationship leads her to think about the social problems of her community and achieve the goals of her life. With the help of Professor Alok, she achieves her goals and fulfils her ambitions. Her two close friends Khushi and Sana help her during the difficult phases of her life. Ultimately, Zoya emerges as a winner in life. This tragic novel also deals with the current social problems of Muslims.

    She herself has also been wed for 22 years and has seen both the highs and lows of matrimony in her own marriage as well as the marriages of those close to her. While the national divorce rate hovers around the 50% threshold, there is a lot of chatter that marriage as we know it is an outdated institution--that we are too selfish, too unwilling to make sacrifices, and too misguided by elevated expectations of happiness to make marriage work.While these points may hold some validity, a lot of this chatter is nothing new. So what's causing so many divorces and, perhaps even more importantly, what are we to do about it if we want marriage to survive? Drawing from both her professional career and personal life, Toler sees that the biggest impediment to marriage these days is that couples decide to take the plunge based almost entirely on the most irrational criteria: falling in love. Making Marriage Work doesn't suggest that love has nothing to do with marriage at all; rather, Toler says that love by itself is simply not enough to make marriages survive. This book is a logical and simple guide to reintroducing some of the practicality of marriage that has leaked out of it over the years.Marriage, Toler says, is a job, and it needs to be treated like one. However, the makeup and consistency of this job has changed so much over the past few decades that the old rules no longer apply. Making Marriage Work is an updated manual to help get the job of marriage done right in this day and age. It suggests specific procedures that should be put in place to bridge the gap between head over heels and happily ever after. It explains how to phrase things in order to span the great hormonal divide men and women often fall into when trying to talk to one another. It also discusses the very new and real challenges to marriage created in a culture often overwhelmed by the emphasis on (and ability to attain) instant gratification. Replete with simple, no-nonsense rules, Divorce Court anecdotes, and stories about Judge Toler's own union, Making Marriage Work contains invaluable information couples can use today to secure their marital tomorrow.

    A resident with a secret past. A woman starting over, unsure what the future holds.Working as an Occupational Therapist in a busy London hospital, Cassie loves her job but is looking forward to early retirement in five years when she reaches fifty. However, her husband has other ideas…Suddenly single, Cassie needs a fresh start. Responding to an ad for a live-in position, Cassie arrives at Fletchling Hall, a grand stately home, its corridors echoing with stories from the past.Her new position seems too good to be true, living in a cottage in the grounds, the commute into work a glorious stroll through the gardens to the imposing house in the Sussex countryside.In the cellar, a forgotten diary has languished undisturbed for nearly seventy years. When Cassie discovers the diary, she unravels the heartfelt story of two young souls from the war years, and a little boy called Ted, a young evacuee. It reveals the surprising connection Cassie, a Canadian, has to the house and its resident.An unforgettable tale of a secret spanning decades, love found, and the importance of belonging.