Winds of Skilak 2: The Continuing Saga of one couple's adventures and survival in the Alaskan wilderness


Bonnie Rose Ward - 2018
     Imagine canning a whole moose. One thousand pounds of meat, critical to survival through the brutal winter on an island in Alaska. And doing it in a home with no electricity, no plumbing, and no refrigeration. For the Wards, this is just another ordinary task in an environment that can be unforgiving of mistakes but immensely rewarding to those willing to embrace the work of creating a home in a harsh but beautiful land. In this sequel, Sam and Bonnie are thriving, building getaway cabins and continuing to joyfully tackle life on a remote, isolated island on Skilak Lake, where williwaw winds can whip up suddenly and without warning, and wicked storms can blow for weeks. In an era before cell phones and internet, their ability to communicate with the rest of the world, accessible only by boat or plane, is at the whim of the temperamental lake. Then, just as they are about to achieve a new dream, one of the largest man-made, environmental disasters strikes, altering their lives and threatening their livelihood and idyllic life. Will the love and devotion between Bonnie and Sam be enough for them to survive, or will Alaska finally win? From the awe-inspiring beauty of the Northern Lights, to terrifying accidents and strangers, to a Christmas miracle, this is a testament of courage and inspiration to anyone born with a wild longing in their hearts. Through sorrows and joys, love and loss, God’s hand is always present in their lives as Bonnie shares her chronicle of faith, survival, and beauty in an untamed land few others will ever know.

Family Secrets: The scandalous history of an extraordinary family


Derek Malcolm - 2017
    The secret, though, that surrounded my parents’ unhappy life together, was divulged to me by accident . . .’ Hidden under some papers in his father’s bureau, the sixteen-year-old Derek Malcolm finds a book by the famous criminologist Edgar Lustgarten called The Judges and the Damned. Browsing through the Contents pages Derek reads, ‘Mr Justice McCardie tries Lieutenant Malcolm – page 33.’ But there is no page 33. The whole chapter has been ripped out of the book. Slowly but surely, the shocking truth emerges: that Derek’s father, shot his wife’s lover and was acquitted at a famous trial at the Old Bailey. The trial was unique in British legal history as the first case of a crime passionel, where a guilty man is set free, on the grounds of self-defence. Husband and wife lived together unhappily ever after, raising Derek in their wake. Then, in a dramatic twist, following his father’s death, Derek receives an open postcard from his Aunt Phyllis, informing him that his real father is the Italian Ambassador to London . . . By turns laconic and affectionate, Derek Malcolm has written a richly evocative memoir of a family sinking into hopeless disrepair. Derek Malcolm was chief film critic of the Guardian for thirty years and still writes for the paper. Educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, he became first a steeplechase rider and then an actor after leaving university. He worked as a journalist in the sixties, first in Cheltenham and then with the Guardian where he was a features sub-editor and writer, racing correspondent and finally film critic. He directed the London Film Festival for a spell in the 80s and is now President of both the International Film Critics Association and the British Federation of Film Societies. He lives with his wife Sarah Gristwood in London and Kent and has published two books – one on Robert Mitchum and another on his favourite 100 films. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television and a veteran of film festival juries all over the world.

And Then I Met Margaret


Rob White - 2013
    What's most important in each story is the unassuming, ordinary, everyday guru who popped into his life and offered the perfect life-lesson for the moment. Rob shares these very interesting life lessons, which helped him gain insights that proved to be superb starting points for a new life.

But Why? : A Collection of Reader-Submitted Medical Stories


Kerry Hamm - 2019
     You'll giggle when an EMT reveals his/her most prized possession, shake your head at some of the RIDICULOUS behavior seen in the emergency room, and you'll relate to the frustrations and joy healthcare workers across the globe express in their submissions. Special sections within this volume include: That Darn Cat, DOGgonit!, As Heard on the Scanner, and many more.

No-Fail Habits


Michael Hyatt - 2020
    Our work follows us home, even on weekends and vacations.The result is stress, burnout, and strained relationships. Ironically, burning the candle at both ends makes work quality suffer too.Days full of busyness, where you go to bed wondering where all the time went and why so little got done, is primarily the product of habit. One action triggering another that fills every moment of the day, crowding out anything that's not an emergency.It's automated overwork. And when a person succumbs to the stress and leaves for greener pastures, this “burnout pattern” follows them around from one job to the next.But there's good news . . .Self-automation can become your advantage as well.And it's all laid out in the newest book from Michael Hyatt & Company, No-Fail Habits.No-Fail Habits reveals how you can permanently drop habits that don't serve you.You'll also discover how to identify negative triggers and replace them with actions, habits, and rituals that free your time and give you the mental space for deep work—the fertile soil of accomplishment.No-Fail Habits is the blueprint for leveraging habits to build a life of success at work and in your personal life. No-Fail Habits will help you achieve more than you ever thought possible.

Guitar Lessons: A Life's Journey Turning Passion Into Business


Bob Taylor - 2011
    From the "a-ha" moment in junior high school that inspired his very first guitar, Taylor has been living the American dream, crafting quality products with his own hands and building a successful, sustainable business. In Guitar Lessons, he shares the values that he lives by and that have provided the foundation for the company's success. Be inspired by a story of guts and gumption, an unwavering commitment to quality, and the hard lessons that made Taylor Guitars the company it is today.

DITCHING DIETS: How to lose weight in a way you can maintain


Gillian Riley - 2013
    The best way to lose weight is by developing a style of eating you can live with, because it’s flexible and probably unique to you. But often that’s easier said than done.You’ve no doubt tried some different things already. Maybe you’ve been advised to eat only when hungry and stop when full; to overeat your favourite foods so you’d learn to get over them; to find the right kind or combination of carbs, proteins and fats, or micronutrients; to deal with your emotions in order to stop wanting to eat so much.None of this takes into account what happens in your brain when your natural, survival drive to eat (and eat and eat) becomes activated. The purpose of this drive is to get you through the next famine, but in these times of plenty it’s a disaster. In the face of this, nutritional advice may not make much of a difference. You can know what’s healthy, but find it impossible to stick to for long enough.Do you feel hungry after a meal, no matter what was in it? Do you lose weight only to yo-yo back again? Do you think about food too much of the time? Would you like to stop dieting and eat ‘like a normal person’?<b>DITCHING DIETS</b> explains how to stop eating so much by thinking in a way that’s the opposite of dieting. The opposite because it’s the dieting mindset – especially the prohibitions - that contribute to the problem in the first place.You will discover how to eat in ways you truly want to live with, rather than ways you later regret; how to eat less without following any rules, either your own or those taken on from others; how to develop the motivation to make changes, and stay in touch with that motivation long term.You will learn how to eliminate:• persistent cravings and obsession with food• feeling deprived, miserable or irritable when you don’t overeat• an all-or-nothing relationship with food• rebellious overeating and bingeing.<b>DITCHING DIETS</b> will give you control around food so that you can lose weight – and maintain that weight loss in the longer term. This is about how to make a shift in your thinking about food that will last, and once you’ve made that shift there will be no need to diet again.<b>DITCHING DIETS</b> is easy to read, with thought-provoking and practical advice that the author has taught in seminars for many years. Not a book on nutrition, this is a common sense, gimmick-free approach that enables you to overcome your attraction to all that food you don’t really need. <i>“Her way of achieving a healthy lifestyle and junking diets for ever has to be the only way forward in my life.” </i>ELLE<i>“I can sense the shift in my thought process and I am no longer grazing from the fridge all night.” </i>The Daily Telegraph<i>“I am eating healthier food and less of it. What I like most is the idea of never going on a diet again.” </i>The Independent<b>A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR</b>Many years ago I signed up for a liquid diet programme, and the day I was to begin I woke up with a strong desire for a large, fried, English breakfast. The thing was, I didn’t ever eat breakfasts like that at that time.

Rethinking Possible: A Memoir of Resilience


Rebecca Faye Smith Galli - 2017
    With a pastor father and a stay-at-home mother, her 1960s southern upbringing was bucolic--even enviable. But when her brother, only seventeen, died in a waterskiing accident, the slow unraveling of her perfect family began. Though grief overwhelmed the family, twenty-year-old Galli forged onward with her life plans--marriage, career, and raising a family of her own--one she hoped would be as idyllic as the family she once knew. But life had less than ideal plans in store. There was her son's degenerative, undiagnosed disease and subsequent death; followed by her daughter's autism diagnosis; her separation; and then, nine days after the divorce was final, the onset of the transverse myelitis that would leave Galli paralyzed from the waist down. Despite such unspeakable tragedy, Galli maintained her belief in family, in faith, in loving unconditionally, and in learning to not only accept, but also embrace a life that had veered down a path far different from the one she had envisioned. At once heartbreaking and inspiring, Rethinking Possible is a story about the power of love over loss and the choices we all make that shape our lives --especially when forced to confront the unimaginable.

Compassion Amidst the Chaos: Tales told by an ER Doc


Christopher Davis, MD - 2020
    You meet one when life doesn't go as planned. Survival requires immediate dependence and trust in a stranger in a white coat. As soon as the imminent danger has passed— they are off to the next case. Many patients don't realize that their stories stay with those that served them. Patients have the most to teach about humility and humanity."Compassion Amidst the Chaos" is brimming with the tension, anguish, exhaustion, relief, gratitude, and compassion that are all part of a typical day at work in the ER. Travel with Dr. Chris Davis through the cases he remembers most from his 35-year career as an emergency medicine doctor.

A Footpath in Umbria: Learning, Loving and Laughing in Italy


Nancy Yuktonis Solak - 2010
    As ordinary boomers, they simply wanted to experience “The Dream” – to live in Italy. They settled down in traditional Umbria, just east of Tuscany.Constrained by a strict budget, their experience took on challenges as diverse as getting accustomed to the vagaries of Italian appliances to gathering their own wood. Transportation was by train, bus, bicycle or footpath. What neither of them knew when they began was how the adventure would challenge their habits, upbringing, and outlook on life. Most surprising of all was how the experience would challenge their relationship to each other.A Footpath in Umbria is a celebration of the joys and revelations to be found by changing venues, whether it’s living in another country or simply venturing cross town.

21 Months, 24 Days: A blue-collar kid's journey to the Vietnam War and back


Richard Udden - 2015
    Threatened by the draft in the late sixties, he enlisted in the Army to avoid becoming a grunt, yet ended up one anyway. He endured a grueling war in Vietnam and then returned to a country too angry to care. While his journey took unexpected turns, his choices got him there, so he did his best to react positively and keep moving forward.Udden delivers his story in a comfortable, friendly style. He conveys the experiences of basic training, advanced infantry training, and what it was like to live, work, guard, patrol, and fight in the jungle. The reader will feel the adrenalin rush of a firefight, the thrill of a wild ride dangling below a helicopter, and the humor in celebrating his 21st birthday on a firebase.Through his words and personal photographs, you will live through his journey exactly as he experienced it.

Dion: The Wanderer Talks Truth (Stories, Humor Music)


Dion DiMucci - 2011
    He continued to make great music while slowly returning to his Catholic roots. His hard-won wisdom filters through his stories whether he's recalling how he went shopping with John Lennon and ended up on the cover of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band or what it was like to travel in the Jim Crow South with Sam Cooke.Praise for Dion... "To this day nobody, nobody can rock like Dion."—Lou Reed "He always had the name that said it all...Dion."—Bruce Springsteen "If you want to hear a great singer, listen to Dion. His genius has never deserted him."—Bob DylanThe audio edition of this book can be downloaded via Audible.

Even if you don't.: A love story


Bryan C. Taylor - 2018
    And even more than that, it's the awe-inspiring life story of Kailen Combs Taylor. Kailen lived with a perpetual sense of wonder, maintaining immutable joy and resilient hope in the midst of some of life's most barbaric trials. Narrated with heartrending candor, this harrowing love story will make you laugh, cry, and frantically turn the page, often all at once. And long after you finish the book and fall back into the hectic fray of life, you may find Kailen's message still resonates in your heart: that life can be a fairytale, even when it's a tragedy. "Bryan has written a book which proves that even in the face of impossible odds, love never fails." -Christina Rasmussen, Author of Second Firsts: Live, Laugh, and Love Again

The Nanny Chronicles of Hollywood


Julie Swales - 2015
    Amidst the fantastic luxury, sexy celebrities, and hyped-up household politics, the nanny certainly has more to handle than diapers and bedtimes. But if you’re just looking for dirt, you won’t find it in these pages. Instead, authors Julie Swales and Stella Reid share anecdotes and insights about what happens when money, power, and fame intersect with the highly personal arena of raising children.

Not Your Average Runner: Why You’re Not Too Fat to Run and the Skinny on How to Start Today


Jill Angie - 2017
    With humor, compassion, and lots of love, Jill Angie delivers the goods: overcoming the challenges of running with an overweight body and giving individuals’ self-esteem an enormous boost in the process. This isn't a guide to running for weight loss, or a simple running plan. It shows readers how a woman carrying a few (or many) extra pounds can successfully become a runner in the body she has right now. Jill Angie is a certified running coach and personal trainer who wants to live in a world where everyone is free to feel fit and fabulous at any size. She started the Not Your Average Runner movement in 2013 to show that runners come in all shapes, sizes and speeds, and, since then, has assembled a global community of revolutionaries that are taking the running world by storm. If you would like to be part of the revolution, flip to the inside and find out more!