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  JJ's Journey - A Story of Heroes...

  Tracy Calhoun, JJ

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  It was 2014 at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice House in Oregon, and a ninety-year-old woman in a coma had been totally unresponsive for several days. The woman had no family or friends, and the staff expected she would pass very soon. Tracy, one of the nurses, went in to sit by her side during these final hours. While she was there, her dog, JJ, a staff "therapist," came to join her and hopped up on the bed. JJ snuggled up next to the elderly woman and nuzzled the woman's hand with her snout. And, the woman began stroking JJ's face. Somehow, JJ had reached her, wherever the woman was. Tracy was touched and quickly recorded it on her phone. In August 2015, that video went viral and has been seen tens of millions of times.JJ's Journey is a heartwarming memoir of a nurse and her dog, and their combined efforts to bring peace and consolation to humans in times of crisis and grief. We learn about the work done at the hospice house and the different kinds of work a therapy dog does both inside and outside of hospitals. Rich with informative detail, we also learn the intricacies of training animals for this work, the complexities of recognizing whether the dog has the right personality, and how to engage their supportive spirit.

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  Black Folk Could Fly - Selected...

  Randall Kenan, Tayari Jones

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  A personal, social, and intellectual self-portrait of the beloved and enormously influential late Randall Kenan, a master of both fiction and nonfiction.Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays, published as introductions to anthologies and in small journals, revealing countless facets of Kenan's life and work.Flying under the radar, these writings were his most personal and autobiographical: memories of the three women who raised him—a grandmother, a schoolteacher great-aunt, and the great-aunt's best friend; recollections of his boyhood fear of snakes and his rapturous discoveries in books; sensual evocations of the land, seasons, and crops—the labor of tobacco picking and hog killing—of the eastern North Carolina lowlands where he grew up; and the food (oh the deliriously delectable Southern foods!) that sustained him. Here too is his intellectual coming of age; his passionate appreciations of kindred spirits as far-flung as Eartha Kitt, Gordon Parks, Ingmar Bergman, and James Baldwin. This powerful collection is a testament to a great mind, a great soul, and a great writer.

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  Winston S Churchill: Young...

  Randolph S. Churchill

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  The second volume in this “magisterial achievement” of political biography chronicles Churchill’s days in Parliament up to the outbreak of WWI (Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War).   Written by Winston S. Churchill’s son, Randolph, the second volume of this authoritative, eight-volume biography begins as Churchill takes his seat in the House of Commons at the age of twenty-six. An independent spirit and rebel, his maiden speech received cheers from the Leader of the Opposition.   In the years leading up to the Great War, Churchill was at the center of British political life. At the Home Office, he introduced substantial prison reforms and took a lead in curbing the powers of the House of Lords. At the Admiralty, beginning in 1911, he helped build the Royal Navy into a formidable fighting force. He learned to fly, and founded the Royal Naval Air Service. He was also active in attempts to resolve the Irish Question and to prevent civil war in Ireland.   In 1914, as war in Europe loomed, Churchill wrote to his wife from the Admiralty: “The preparations have a hideous fascination for me . . . yet I would do my best for peace, and nothing would induce me wrongfully to strike the blow. I cannot feel that we in this island are in any serious degree responsible for the wave of madness which has swept the mind of Christendom.”   When war came, the fleet was ready. It was one of Churchill’s greatest early achievements.  “A milestone, a monument . . . rightly regarded as the most comprehensive life ever written of any age.” —Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War  “The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written.” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times

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  Mary Magdalene - A Biography

  Raymond F. Collins S.T.D.

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  After two thousand years of flawed history, here at last is a biography of Mary Magdalene that draws her out of the shadows of history and restores her to her rightful place of importance within Christianity. Throughout history, she has been both revered and reviled, a woman who has taken on many forms-witch, whore, the incarnation of the eternal feminine, and the devoted companion (and perhaps even wife) of Jesus. In this brilliant new biography, Bruce Chilton, a renowned biblical scholar, offers the first complete and authoritative portrait of this fascinating woman. His descriptions of who Mary was and what she did challenge the male-dominated history of Christianity familiar to most listeners. Through groundbreaking interpretations of ancient texts, he shows that Mary played a central role in Jesus' ministry and was a seminal figure in the creation of Christianity.

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  On The Beat: My Story

  Graham Cole

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  Graham Cole has played PC Tony Stamp in hit television drama The Bill for nearly 25 years. Now he lifts the lid on his own life and reveals how he became one of Britain's best-loved TV cops. From growing up in London to patrolling the streets of fictional Sun Hill, Graham's story is witty and warm and reveals what life is like as a star of the country's favourite police drama.

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  Darkest Hour - How Churchill...

  Anthony McCarten

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  “McCarten's pulse-pounding narrative transports the reader to those springtime weeks in 1940 when the fate of the world rested on the shoulders of Winston Churchill. A true story thrillingly told. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable.”—Michael F. Bishop, Executive Director of the International Churchill Society 
  From the acclaimed novelist and screenwriter of The Theory of Everything comes a revelatory look at the period immediately following Winston Churchill’s ascendancy to Prime Minister 
  “He was speaking to the nation, the world, and indeed to history....” 
  May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away. 
  Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a skeptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people? 
  In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated Bafta-winning writer Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before. He reveals how he practiced and re-wrote his key speeches, from ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’ to ‘We shall fight on the beaches’; his consideration of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, and his underappreciated role in the Dunkirk evacuation; and, above all, how 25 days helped make one man an icon. 
  Using new archive material, McCarten reveals the crucial behind-the-scenes moments that changed the course of history. It’s a scarier—and more human—story than has ever been told.

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