Showing all 17 results
A Whistleblower’s Requiem
$7.99 – $16.95
written by Michael K. Willis
Michael K. Willis never imagined he’d become a whistleblower when he accepted a position as the assistant administrator at Bradley Memorial Hospital. This memoir details the real-life events that led him to file a lawsuit against his boss under the Tennessee Whistleblower Act. This news rocked the small southern town located in the Appalachian Mountains’ western foothills, as the hospital was a renowned institution. Hospital Administrator Jim Whitlock was under indictment, and Willis’s ethical standards would not let him look the other way. He would not be blamed or become the scapegoat. Instead, he would act to save his job and ensure the truth prevailed.
A Young Life of Light
$22.95
written by Harry Hathaway Warner
What constitutes a life well lived? It’s a question often pondered in the wake of loss, and it’s one that catalyzed Harry Warner to write this book following the death of his grandson, Patrick Gorman, at age seventeen. Patrick’s life was brief and far from easy. Born with Marfan’s syndrome and severe respiratory complications, he was given a fifty-fifty chance of survival; at eleven months, he contracted a virus that would leave him deaf in both ears. His early years consisted of a string of hospital visits and struggling to communicate in a hearing world. Yet through it all, a remarkable young man was formed—a talented artist and sportsman with a love for the outdoors and an ability to inspire his peers in ways that would only be fully revealed upon his passing.
In A Young Life of Light, his grandfather memorializes Patrick Gorman’s life, person, and achievements, and proclaims a simple, valuable truth: that the good life is measured by the impression it leaves in the hearts of others.
Benjamin E. Mays Institute: Educating Young Black Males
$15.95
written by Sadiq Ali
For many young black American males, the future seems bleak at worst, uncertain at best. The challenges seem frightfully beyond the reach of society’s current institutions. Realizing the state of emergency firsthand, educator Sadiq Ali successfully established an African-American all-male school in Hartford, Connecticut. In Benjamin E. Mays Institute: Educating Young Black Males, Ali describes the creation and life of the school, its successes and struggles. Perhaps most importantly, Ali uses his knowledge and experience to address ways that others around the nation can use education to improve the future for today’s young black men.
Echoes in Ferryland
$15.95
written by Nancy H. Clark
Echoes in Ferryland offers the rich perspective of a woman looking back at her life and describing history as she saw it unfold before her very eyes. Author Nancy Clark fondly reminisces about her childhood and memorable life spent in Virginia’s Northern Neck, a region of rivers that witnessed the rise and ultimate decline of the steamboat. Her story tells of a simpler life—and the “unabashed naïvete that came with it,” she writes—where there is a deep respect and honor for the past as well as the acceptance of inevitable change that comes with modernity. Join author Nancy Clark on her life journey through Virginia’s “Land of Pleasant Living.”
Eleven Dollars and a Half Tank of Gas
$4.99 – $15.95
written by Greg Drost
In this candid memoir of a classic American boyhood, Greg Drost—teacher, family man, and self-taught surfer—takes a moment to look back on the events that led him to where he is today. From summer hijinks and schoolboy woes, through hardship and heartbreak, and down the long and winding road to self-discovery, this delightful collection of anecdotes is more than the story of one man’s coming of age. It is an examination of all those moments, great and small, that shape us into the people we grow up to be.
Fighting Hitler from the North Jersey Suburbs
$15.95
written by James C. Berrall
For children residing an ocean apart from the imminent dangers of World War II, the war’s effects were nonetheless felt in a way that shaped a generation. In Fighting Hitler from the North Jersey Suburbs, author James C. Berrall focuses a nostalgic lens on the American home front during the second great war, offering a child’s-eye view of the commotion and peculiarities of wartime. Drawing on his boyhood experiences, Berrall recalls everything from popular contemporary songs and radio programs to the looming anticipation of air raids and military invasions. A true portrait of an era, Fighting Hitler from the North Jersey Suburbs chronicles the formative years of both a young man and an emerging superpower.
From Basketball to Bow Ties: A Journey in Leadership, Self-Discovery, and Success through Service
$7.99 – $29.95
written by Harold E. Harris Jr.
What do basketball and bow ties have in common? More than you’d expect. Namely: leadership. Part memoir, part self-help book, From Basketball to Bow Ties follows Harold E. Harris Jr. from his tumultuous youth spent playing and eventually coaching basketball to his adulthood as a successful businessman who is never without his signature bow tie. Harris’s journey through the hoops helps to shape his ultimate career path, where he leads a team with the foundations of teamwork and diligence. He skillfully translates lessons learned on the court to actionable tips for professional leadership. Leaders, professionals, sports fans, and students will find this book an invaluable resource for developing their leadership skills.
From Morning ‘til Evening: The Autobiography of Grady W. Powell, Sr.
$16.00
written by Grady Wilson Powell
From Morning ’til Evening traces the life of Rev. Grady Powell, Sr., a devoted man of God, who has served as pastor of churches in Virginia for more than fifty years. This vivid and personal story chronicles Rev. Powell’s journey from his upbringing in Brunswick County, Virginia, through his marriage to Bertie Jeffress of Pittsburgh, the raising of five children, and the challenges and rewards of a rich professional life. Ultimately, we join him as he stands in the pulpit of Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia, where he ministered to hundreds of parishioners.
This is the story of a man whose faith and family are truly his touchstones. We follow him on his journey from youth to his professional and personal destiny and, finally, to his dance with retirement, where in the evening of his life, he reflects on the deeper meaning of God, the importance of family, and the people he serves.
Harper: 48 Days to Change the Lives of Millions
$15.00
written by William Stanfield
Harper Ann Stanfield came into the world on August 20, 2012, a beautiful newborn with brown eyes, a strong will, and a life-threatening condition known as a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH)—a hole in her diaphragm that permitted her abdominal organs to migrate into her chest cavity, obstructing her left lung. For weeks after—and through multiple surgeries—machines would be her constant companions, breathing for her, circulating her blood, and removing toxins from her body. Her parents, William Stanfield and Erin Byers, watched on and waited, helpless to change their daughter’s circumstances and often unable to even hold her.
To keep their community of family and friends informed and to help raise awareness about CDH, they started a Facebook page and posted daily updates on Harper’s struggle. These posts are compiled here, in Harper, a tribute to a tiny fighter and to all the children like her, both among us and in our hearts and memories.
Impressions Behind the Pink Ribbon: Writing Through the Laughter and Tears with My Metastatic Breast Cancer
$15.00 – $23.95
written by Norma Woody
Following her diagnosis with an aggressive form of metastatic breast cancer, Norma Woody found herself the bearer of two seemingly unendurable burdens: the knowledge that she was dying, and the realization that too much of the life she had left would be spent in solitude and pain. Yet as the door to her physical life was closing, a window to her inner life was flung open. In her time spent alone wrestling with thoughts and disappointments, Norma found solace in writing, and was able to explore her creative mind and unlock feelings long denied her. In the process, she plumbed new depths of forgiveness, releasing expectations and uncovering within herself a greater childlike wonder for the world and a deeper respect for the God she had always believed in. Impressions Behind the Pink Ribbon is her record of that journey through hardship to peace, and it stands as a gift bestowed in unending faith and love.
Impressions Beyond the Terminal Cancer Diagnosis
$15.00
written by Norma Woody
In this collection, as in her first book, Impressions Behind the Pink Ribbon, Norma explores a range of emotions and trials only a woman facing her own death can experience. A true and rich testament that only the examined life is worth living, she probes the depths and meaning of honesty, hope, friendship, and faith, as well as her own fear, isolation, heartache, and failures. For Norma, life was a kaleidoscope of miracles and experiences she felt compelled to capture in her writing, and had she lived, she would have penned many more books. We regret that this is her final manifesto of life, love, and hope.
Life Is Here, and I Have Been Away
$9.99 – $24.95
written by Dan Bessie
When Mary Burnett finds herself at the very end of her rope, she musters the courage to repel her suicidal
demons and commits herself to psychiatric care. And so, her life-saving journey begins—one she vows to take without self-deception, as though looking into a truth-telling mirror.
While she reads decades of her old journals about long-forgotten incidents, the past comes alive—the good times and the bad: growing up with a petulant mother, failed marriages, the birth of two sons while living in poverty, and more.
Resolving her long stream of memories and banishing self-doubt as she completes therapy, Mary zeroes in on three goals: secure a home for her little family, see her boys launched into the world as self-assured young men, and find a way (in her own words) “to be of use, to serve some purpose in this life.”
In Life Is Here, and I Have Been Away, Mary Burnett’s son Dan Bessie weaves his mother’s narrative with his own perspective, and in so doing explores exactly how one woman was able to reinvent herself and rebuild her life.
Living Tidal
$6.99 – $17.95
written by Sheena Jeffers
On a frigid November night at high tide, a young woman unties the dock lines and watches the land recede as the sailboat she’s standing on floats out to sea. She has a jacket, a scarf, and a deep need to reinvent herself. Living Tidal is part adventure, part love story: a coming-of-age memoir that captures the hearts and minds of readers with each page. Journalist Sheena Jeffers addresses the curiosity, self-doubt, and the desire we all have to deeply experience the world as we embark on the lifelong journey to know ourselves.
Matzo Balls and Christmas Trees: Memories of My Jewish Mother
$14.95
written by Randi Wolf Lauterbach
The holidays bring a special ache to those who have lost a loved one in December. The winter of 1974 rendered Randi Wolf Lauterbach a twenty-two-year-old orphan and changed her world forever. Thirty-seven years later, with the anniversaries of her parents’ deaths approaching, Randi’s mind was immersed in thoughts of her mother—thoughts clamoring to be recorded. A first-generation Jewish-American, Margaret Wolf possessed a sharp wit, a penchant for music and gambling, and a strong foothold in her cross-cultural community of family, friends, and neighbors. When she passed suddenly, the woman who had seemed larger than life became but a memory cradled in the hearts of those who knew her. But, oh, what memories she left!
Framed with humor, nostalgia, and warmth, Matzo Balls and Christmas Trees paints a timeless portrait of familial love—a love that transcends life and death and is renewed with each passing season.
One Leaf in Time
$15.95
written by Sylvia Churchill Prince
One Leaf in Time chronicles the life of Sylvia Churchill Prince, born in Tientsin, China, where her father was a successful businessman. For the first eight years of Sylvia’s life, the Churchills enjoyed a life of luxury among a community of foreign businessmen and dignitaries. The outbreak of the Second World War brought that life to a sudden stop, as the Churchills were rounded up by Japanese occupiers and transported to an internment camp in Weihsien. Prince offers a warts-and-all description of camp life, describing the harsh treatment imposed by Japanese officials, but also the resilience of internees from countries across Europe and North America. As her account reveals, it was possible to find entertainment, respite, and even joy in an environment where danger was but one misstep away.
___________
After the war, the Churchills moved to the United States. Prince recounts her experiences as a nursing student at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, her marriage to optometrist James Prince, and her life as a mother of five, working nurse, and resident of Kilmarnock in Virginia’s Northern Neck. Her experiences expose some of the trials and joys of raising a family and being a good neighbor in rural America.
Roads Taken
$15.95
Written by Tucker Carwile
Roads Taken is a collection of some of Tucker Carwile’s favorite poems. They were selected because they show the roads he has taken, whether right or wrong, and express the emotional range of a life well lived. Written over a period of years, this collection of work is the expression of his true vocation. These are poems of sorrow and pain, battles and spirituality, the loss of friends, the beauty of nature, humor reminiscent of the past, changes over time, and love and joy found. Tucker’s decision to pursue a career instead of following his passion for writing led him down many roads away from poetry, and away from his true soul mate. The fifth and powerful final section of poems, “Roads to Happiness,” captures the long-awaited reunion with his beloved. After traveling miles of roads, they both ultimately discover the true contentment that only real devotion can give.
Seven Songs for Seven Dogs
$19.95
Written by L. Meredith Averitt, DVM
Illustrated by Maegan Penley
As a veterinarian and lifelong animal lover, Meredith always knew she’d have dogs. But seven? It turns out that when it comes to a family of wriggling, happy dachshunds (and their poodle big brother), more really is merrier. In Seven Songs for Seven Dogs, you’ll get to know Lexi, Topher, Caddie, Carly, Sera, Chester, and Grady; gain a glimpse into the world of dog showing; and delight in seven silly songs inspired by this canine crew.
