Writing with Grace

Writing with Grace
Author: Judy McFarlane
Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre Limited
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2014
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781771620253

"I don't know how to describe me as a real person." -- From "My Real Truth," a poem by Grace Chen "Put her away and forget about her." This was the blunt advice Grace Chen's grandfather gave Grace's parents when she was born with Down Syndrome. Twenty-four years later, Grace writes, "I always dream to be a famous writer." When Judy McFarlane is asked if she will help Grace, she realizes she holds deep, unacknowledged fears -- that Grace will be a dull-eyed young woman who can't read, let alone write, that she might become agitated, even lash out. But the idea that Grace wants to be a writer, a dream McFarlane gave up when she was young, captures McFarlane. She helps Grace write her book and travels with Grace when she gives a copy of it to her grandfather. Writing with Grace is the inspiring and informative story of the journey Grace and Judy have taken together. It relates the often dark history of Down Syndrome, something the Canadian Down Syndrome Society maintains is "not a birth defect or illness" but "a naturally occurring chromosomal arrangement that has always been part of the human condition." It also tells a universal story of moving from a deep fear of the 'other,' to seeing the world through the eyes of the 'other,' to Judy truly understanding when Grace says, "my real truth is too scary. I like to hide my real truth." With honest introspection and keen insight, McFarlane delves into what it takes to face one's own prejudice, what it means to live a full life and believe you are worthy. From a young woman who is marginalized by society, McFarlane learns how much courage it takes to follow a dream when everyone tells you it's impossible.

Read Between My Lines

Read Between My Lines
Author: Sandra Halliburton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Rock musicians
ISBN: 9780978687007

Whether giving back through her patriotism and community service, touring with Fleetwood Mac or performing as a solo artist, Stevie Nicks has mesmerized us for over thirty years. Her life story, with all its highs and lows, provides an opportunity to grow from her tremendous strength, persistence and courage while learning from the challenges she has faced. A widely revered singer/songwriter, Stevie is adored by multiple generations. Interpretation of her songs gives you a look inside her soul but not unless she lets you. On Stand Back from The Wild Heart, Stevie's second solo album she sings, No one knows how I feel what I say unless you read between my lines. Her highly personal songwriting tells the story. Stevie's autobiographical songs serve as an outlet for coping with pain and personal sacrifice. Fans have credited her with literally saving their lives!

Journeys Down the Line

Journeys Down the Line
Author: Robert Douglas Mead
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Total Pages: 634
Release: 1978
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN:

The building of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, its impact on the Alaskan economy, and its environmental and social effects on the land, the people, and the wildlife along its path.

Bad Tourist

Bad Tourist
Author: Suzanne Roberts
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2020-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1496223985

Both a memoir in travel essays and an anti-guidebook, Bad Tourist takes us across four continents to fifteen countries, showing us what not to do when traveling. A woman learning to claim her own desires and adventures, Suzanne Roberts encounters lightning and landslides, sharks and piranha-infested waters, a nightclub drugging, burning bodies, and brief affairs as she searches for the love of her life and finally herself. Throughout her travels Roberts tries hard not to be a bad tourist, but owing to her cultural blind spots, things don’t always go as planned. Fearlessly confessional, shamelessly funny, and wholly unapologetic, Roberts offers a refreshingly honest account of the joys and absurdities of confronting new landscapes and cultures, as well as new versions of herself. Raw, bawdy, and self-effacing, Bad Tourist is a journey packed with delights and surprises—both of the greater world and of the mysterious workings of the heart.

The Journey of Little Charlie

The Journey of Little Charlie
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2018-01-30
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1338164007

The Newberry Medalist brings humor and heart to this story of a Civil War–era boy struggling to do right in the face of history’s cruelest evils. Twelve-year-old Charlie is down on his luck: His sharecropper father just died, and Cap’n Buck—the most fearsome man in Possum Moan, South Carolina—has come to collect a debt. Fearing for his life, Charlie strikes a deal with Cap’n Buck and agrees to track down some folks accused of stealing from the cap’n and his boss. It’s not too bad of a bargain for Charlie . . . until he comes face-to-face with the fugitives and discovers their true identities. Torn between his guilty conscience and his survival instinct, Charlie needs to figure out his next move—and soon. It’s only a matter of time before Cap’n Buck catches on. Praise for The Journey of Little Charlie A National Book Award Finalist “This is a compelling and ugly story for middle-grade readers told with genuine care. Little Charlie is a product of his Southern upbringing, yet in Curtis’s skillful hands he learns the world is not as he’d thought . . . Christopher Paul Curtis does it again.” —Historical Novel Society “A characteristically lively and complex addition to the historical fiction of the era from Curtis.” —Kirkus Reviews

The Pink Line

The Pink Line
Author: Mark Gevisser
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2020-07-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0374713448

One of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Longlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize. "[Mark] Gevisser is clear-eyed and wise enough to have a sharp sense of how tough the struggle has been, and how hard it will be now for those who have not succeeded in finding shelter from prejudice." --Colm Tóibín, The Guardian A groundbreaking look at how the issues of sexuality and gender identity divide and unite the world today More than seven years in the making, Mark Gevisser’s The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers is an exploration of how the conversation around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide—and describe—the world in an entirely new way over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. No social movement has brought change so quickly and with such dramatically mixed results. While same-sex marriage and gender transition are celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others. As new globalized queer identities are adopted by people across the world—thanks to the digital revolution—fresh culture wars have emerged. A new Pink Line, Gevisser argues, has been drawn across the globe, and he takes readers to its frontiers. Between sensitive and sometimes startling profiles of the queer folk he’s encountered along the Pink Line, Gevisser offers sharp analytical chapters exploring identity politics, religion, gender ideology, capitalism, human rights, moral panics, geopolitics, and what he calls “the new transgender culture wars.” His subjects include a Ugandan refugee in flight to Canada, a trans woman fighting for custody of her child in Moscow, a lesbian couple campaigning for marriage equality in Mexico, genderqueer high schoolers coming of age in Michigan, a gay Israeli-Palestinian couple searching for common ground, and a community of kothis—“women’s hearts in men’s bodies”—who run a temple in an Indian fishing village. What results is a moving and multifaceted picture of the world today, and the queer people defining it. Eye-opening, heartfelt, expertly researched, and compellingly narrated, The Pink Line is a monumental—and urgent—journey of unprecedented scope into twenty-first-century identity, seen through the border posts along the world’s new LGBTQ+ frontiers.

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
Author: Dan Gemeinhart
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (BYR)
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2019-01-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1250196701

"Sometimes a story comes along that just plain makes you want to hug the world. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is Dan Gemeinhart’s finest book yet — and that’s saying something. Your heart needs this joyful miracle of a book." —Katherine Applegate, acclaimed author of The One and Only Ivan and Wishtree A 2020 ILA Teachers’ Choice A 2019 Parents' Choice Award Gold Medal Winner Winner of the 2019 CYBILS Award for Middle Grade Fiction An Amazon Top 20 Children's Book of 2019 A Junior Library Guild Selection Five years. That's how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, criss-crossing the nation. It's also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash. Coyote hasn’t been home in all that time, but when she learns that the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished—the very same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box—she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days...without him realizing it. Along the way, they'll pick up a strange crew of misfit travelers. Lester has a lady love to meet. Salvador and his mom are looking to start over. Val needs a safe place to be herself. And then there's Gladys... Over the course of thousands of miles, Coyote will learn that going home can sometimes be the hardest journey of all...but that with friends by her side, she just might be able to turn her “once upon a time” into a “happily ever after.” This title has common core connections.

The Journey North

The Journey North
Author: Peter Warren
Publisher: WestBow Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2013-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1449785913

The American Civil War still captivates our interest. As the war entered its third summer, the Confederate army met the Union army in July 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. During the second day of this three-day battle, some of the most brutal fighting occurred at Little Round Top. This story describes the bloody fighting that took place between the Union’s 20th Maine and the South’s 15th Alabama. It also describes how two fictional soldiers meet on Little Round Top and become friends. This meeting portrays those that often took place between opposing soldiers. They were random acts of compassion during a brutal war. These soldiers pushed aside their differences to become friends. In an act of kindness, one of these soldiers initiated their friendship, while the other cemented their friendship by a personal sacrifice he later made. It was a friendship that would last for years.

An Infinite Journey

An Infinite Journey
Author: Dr. Andrew M. Davis
Publisher: Ambassador International
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2014-01-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1620203359

After we’ve come to faith in Christ, God leaves us in this world for a very clear purpose: his own glory. But how are we to glorify God for the rest of our lives? The Bible reveals that God has laid before every Christian two infinite journeys which we are to travel every day: the internal journey of growth into Christlike maturity, and the external journey of worldwide evangelism and missions. This book is a road map for the internal journey, laying out how we are to grow in four major areas: knowledge, faith, character, and action. In this book, we’ll learn how God grows us in knowledge, faith, character, and action. We’ll also discover that spiritual knowledge constantly feeds our growing faith, faith will transform our character, our transformed character will result in an array of actions more and more glorifying to God, and our actions will feed our spiritual knowledge. This upward spiral will lead us to become more and more like Jesus Christ in holiness. And not only will this book help us understand Christian growth in detail, it will also give us a passion to grow every day for his glory.

Alaska

Alaska
Author: Walter R. Borneman
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 1069
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0061865273

The history of Alaska is filled with stories of new land and new riches -- and ever present are new people with competing views over how the valuable resources should be used: Russians exploiting a fur empire; explorers checking rival advances; prospectors stampeding to the clarion call of "Gold!"; soldiers battling out a decisive chapter in world war; oil wildcatters looking for a different kind of mineral wealth; and always at the core of these disputes is the question of how the land is to be used and by whom. While some want Alaska to remain static, others are in the vanguard of change. Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land shows that there are no easy answers on either side and that Alaska will always be crossing the next frontier.