Ray Johnston thought his life was disgustingly normal. At forty-two, he had lived in Memphis all his life. His ex-wife had saved him from paying alimony by marrying her divorce lawyer, he enjoyed his work at the lumberyard, and he had a girlfriend who, everyone had to admit, was a peach. He did suffer one recurring nuisance; from as far back as he could remember, strangers would come up to him asking, “Do you know you look a lot like Elvis?” One day a man at a bar notices the similarity. It turns out the man actually works for Elvis Presley, and soon Ray gets two unfriendly phone calls, supposedly from the King himself. Later comes a third, one that makes Ray dizzy. He has been invited to dinner at Graceland! In an hour! Why? Ray can’t believe it---even when the limousine arrives to take him to the famed residence. What follows is a meeting of two men who have almost nothing in common except their looks, their age, and the city they were born and grew up in. One is a working man who is trying to deal with what life has given him. The other is the most well-known and worshipped singer who has ever lived. Steve Carlson delivers an enchanting debut novel that explores the power of loss and redemption in a moving portrait of Elvis at the end of his life.

Describes what Graceland, the home Elvis Presley built in Memphis, tells about the late singer's life and personality.

A teenage Elvis impersonator navigates the Lagos ghetto in this “searing chronicle of a young man’s coming of age in Nigeria during the late 1970s” (Publishers Weekly). Elvis Oke dreams of escaping the sprawling, swampy, cacophonous city of Lagos, Nigeria. Beset by poverty, floods, and beatings by his alcoholic father, he ekes out a living by impersonating his famous namesake. But soon he is tempted by a life of crime. Thus begins his odyssey into the dangerous underworld of Lagos, guided by his friend Redemption and accompanied by a restless hybrid of voices including The King of Beggars, Sunday, Innocent and Comfort. Ultimately, young Elvis, drenched in reggae and jazz, and besotted with American film heroes and images, must find his way to a GraceLand of his own. In this lyrical and nuanced debut novel, Nigerian poet Chris Abani shares a remarkable story of a son and his father, and an examination of postcolonial Nigeria where the trappings of American culture reign supreme. “A richly detailed, poignant, and utterly fascinating look into another culture and how it is cross-pollinated by our own. It brings to mind the work of Ha Jin in its power and revelation of the new.” —T. Coraghessan Boyle

Jarrett Browning Jr's Journal - Journeys takes a look into the private journals of Jarrett Browning Jr. Jarrett's journals have been released for the first time detailing his troubled childhood from adolescence to adulthood. Come and experience his journey!

Elvis Style: From Zoot Suits to Jumpsuits celebrates the innovative style-world of Elvis Presley - the man who singlehandedly changed the way that America, and much of the world beyond, dressed. The comprehensive, full colour book highlights not only the impact that Elvis made during his lifetime, but also his enduring influence on contemporary design culture – from pop stars and high-end fashion houses, to contemporary Rockabilly-fused street style. Elvis Style focuses on Elvis’ wonderfully expressive hairstyles, clothes, cars, and interiors, offering the reader an intriguing and insightful journey though the crazy, cool and at times kitsch world of a true megastar. Elvis Style speaks to a number of leading design experts to shed fresh light on Elvis’ design choices and influence. These include Sex & the City stylist Patricia Fields, Academy Award winning costume designer Mark Bridges, Elvis’ personal car-customizer George Barris, and Hal Lansky of Lansky Bros (Elvis’ favorite tailoring house), who has written the foreword. Elvis Style includes over 175 photos, many of which show rarely seen before Elvis-worn garments, interiors and cars from The King’s extensive private collection.

This book is a collection of my poetry over the years inspired by the life I have led working in the care setting and traveling all over the world. I hope you enjoy my work and may find it useful to use in the right settings, for instance “Those in Grief” has been used in funerals. My life has been rather colorful to say the least, and I have been in a few situations facing danger and adventure, bringing me to the present day. Now at sixty-three, I can reflect on this and laugh at the funny events and sigh with relief at actually surviving other situations. I consider each event as a blip in my life and nothing more. Yes, I do have nightmares from my worst experiences as a teenager, but I just thank God that I survived to tell the tale.

"God-Shaped Hole will change you as a reader, writer and human. It is rare books like this one that remind me why I fell in love with the written word."—Colleen Hoover When I was twelve, a fortune teller told me that my one true love would die young and leave me all alone... It's a dark prediction, but Beatrice Jordan never really believed in true love anyway. So, no harm done. She's accepted her lot in life: living in Los Angeles as an artist, not letting herself get too attached to anyone. It's not perfect, but nothing is. Until fate intervenes. It's a simple personal ad: "I am seeking a friend for the end of the world..." Eleven little words that change Beatrice's life irrevocably. Because they lead her to Jacob Grace, an unpredictable writer looking for something he can't name. Both of their worlds shift that day and what follows is a love story unlike any other; brimming with creativity and passion, as two lost souls find themselves in each other. From hole-in-the-wall record stores to late night phone calls, together, Beatrice and Jacob transcend the loneliness of their lives. But dark realities and secrets soon rise to the surface, as does Beatrice's fear of an inescapable fate. Despite it all, this is a story of real love: the kind that breaks you and remakes you, the kind that changes you forever. The kind of love worth having, even if it's short lived, even if you know you might lose it. God Shaped Hole is a brand new kind of love story, introducing dreamers to a quintessentially raw romance and inspires everyone to live and love as vividly as possible—the perfect book club or beach read for fans of The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves, In Five Years by Rebecca Serle, and More Than Words by Jill Santopolo. Praise for God-Shaped Hole: "This generation's Love Story."—Kirkus "If Holden Caulfield were a twenty-seven-year-old woman living in LA, this is the book he'd write, or read. It's very fast and very funny, and at its core it's that rarest of things—a truly convincing love story."—Dave Eggers "With wit and humor, the author brings these characters and their quirky, artsy friends alive. Bottom Line: You'll dig it"—People

A leading authority on religion and spirituality in America recounts the changes she witnessed from 1992–2004, a period she compares to the tumultuous years of the Reformation and Peri-Reformation in Europe. As the founding editor of the religion department of Publishers Weekly, Phyllis Tickle was a key figure in bringing discussions about religion into the nation’s cultural and intellectual mainstream. Prayer Is a Place is her insightful first-person account of the people she has met and the trends she has observed over twelve crucial years of change in American religion. Tickle writes about her face-to-face meetings with such luminaries as the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Chief Mullah of Jerusalem; describes speeches and conferences that redefined traditional religions; and chronicles the birth of new approaches to religion and spirituality. The result is a fascinating overview of the reconfiguration of religion in America and its impact on our culture. In charting the changes, passions and innovations that have occurred, Tickle remains a clear-eyed, unbiased and sympathetic observer. From her lively reminiscences of the 1003 Parliament of the World’s Religions—a seminal gathering of Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists—to an intriguing look at the rise of Gnosticism in the country to a cogent analysis of the spirituality movements that swept through America during the last decades of the twentieth century, Prayer Is a Place reminds readers that reverence can be expressed in many different forms and in many different settings.

Have you ever thought about narrating audiobooks? When Steve retired from acting, he thought that might be an interesting thing to do. Only problem was… he had no idea how to do it. He decided to look into it. With the help of people who knew a LOT more about it than he did, he learned how. Starting with a $25 snowball mic, he has now done 127 audiobooks and has a growing queue of future work. It’s been a fun, diverse, interesting time. In this book he shares that journey as well as much of the info he’s picked up along the way about how to do it. See what the inside of the audiobook world looks like and the steps necessary for you be a part of it. The second part of the book concentrates primarily on how to navigate ACX, the most popular audiobook production site there is (owned by amazon). After having worked with them for a number of years, Steve has excellent suggestions and insight into how to use their format to better help the novice or the professional narrator. It's the perfect place for the new narrator to get his or her feet wet, get some experience under their belts and get paid for it. As they get better and more accomplished, they can also move up in categories. This book shows you best how to navigate those waters and not make seemingly slight mistakes that could leave your career dead in the water. It's an easy effective formate to work with if you know what you're doing. Read or listen to this book... and you will.