An emotional story about starting anew, Marie's Big Adieu acknowledges the fear and grief of those "big goodbyes" and validates the child's struggles in new situations.

Day 14: It should have been the beginning . . . All she needed were stamps and signatures. Marie and her translator stood in the government offices in Kabul, Afghanistan, to complete the paperwork for her new literacy project. The women in her home town, the northern village of Shehktan, would learn to read. But a spattering of gun shots exploded and an aid worker crumpled. Executed. On the streets of Kabul. Just blocks from the guesthouse. Sending shockwaves through the community. The foreign personnel assessed their options and some, including Marie’s closest friend, Carolyn, chose to leave the country. Marie and others faced the cost and elected to press forward. But the execution of the lone aid worker was just the beginning. When she returned home to her Afghan friends in Shehktan to begin classes, she felt eyes watching her, piercing through her scarf as she walked the streets lined in mud brick walls. And in the end . . . It took only 14 days for her project, her Afghan home, her community—all of it—to evaporate in an eruption of dust, grief, and loss. Betrayed by someone she trusted. Caught in a feud she knew nothing about, and having loved people on both sides, Marie struggled for the answer: How could God be present here, working here, in the soul of Afghanistan?

Adieu, Miss Gracie, Adieu is the third book of the Mint Julep trilogy and will answer all of your questions about all of your favorite characters. The old uncles continue the traditional telling of the family stories as the young boys complete the final hours of their initiation. Meet the grown-up Mon Claire, Labelle Jelee, Petois and Pecous, and, of course, Monique Aimee Elizabeth LaPierre-Menard. Say your bittersweet goodbyes to the main characters. Don’t forget Madeleine Dubois-Chachere, the mysterious new member of the New Orleans House, who leaves Miss B B totally frustrated, which causes her to go to outrageous antics to find out just exactly who (or what) she is! All of the secrets of the LaPierre and Menard families will be exposed and you will laugh, you will cry…and you will also drop your jaw in utter surprise when it is revealed just who “Miss Gracie” is!

Author Noel A. Brand first met Marie Le Claire, a spirited young Frenchwoman, in July of 2013. Over the course of several interviews with Brand, she shared stories of her lifeand of her death in the eighteenth century. Marie is, in fact, a past-life persona of Brands present-day wife, Diane. In this biographical study, Brand recalls how he came to discover this relationship and what that discovery meant for Diane. He first explores his own background and considers the process of accessing past lives, as well as how past lives may influence peoples present existence. He then shares Maries life story, an engaging tale that is surprisingly relevant to the struggles of women today. Finally, he discusses the connection between Marie and Diane, providing practical exercises for the reader to use in their own past-life discovery. This personal narrative presents an exploration of past lives through the stories of a young woman from eighteenth-century France and the modern-day Australian to whom she is connected.

“Read it. You will be uplifted.”—Ruth Ozeki, Zen priest, author of A Tale for the Time Being Marie Mutsuki Mockett's family owns a Buddhist temple 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In March 2011, after the earthquake and tsunami, radiation levels prohibited the burial of her Japanese grandfather's bones. As Japan mourned thousands of people lost in the disaster, Mockett also grieved for her American father, who had died unexpectedly. Seeking consolation, Mockett is guided by a colorful cast of Zen priests and ordinary Japanese who perform rituals that disturb, haunt, and finally uplift her. Her journey leads her into the radiation zone in an intricate white hazmat suit; to Eiheiji, a school for Zen Buddhist monks; on a visit to a Crab Lady and Fuzzy-Headed Priest’s temple on Mount Doom; and into the "thick dark" of the subterranean labyrinth under Kiyomizu temple, among other twists and turns. From the ecstasy of a cherry blossom festival in the radiation zone to the ghosts inhabiting chopsticks, Mockett writes of both the earthly and the sublime with extraordinary sensitivity. Her unpretentious and engaging voice makes her the kind of companion a reader wants to stay with wherever she goes, even into the heart of grief itself.

Follows a woman whose function it once was to read books aloud to Marie Antoinette, as she recounts her memories of living at Versailles during the final days of the French revolution.

Emotions are invisible, taken for granted and dismissed much of the time#8212a paradox given they are some of the most powerful forces on Earth. They inflame wars, induce death, inspire invention, and control stock markets. More important, each of us has them#8212all the time. In Goodbye, Hurt and Pain, Deborah Sandella uses cutting-edge neuroscience research and her revolutionary Regenerating Images in Memory (RIM) technique to show how blocked feelings prevent us from getting what we want, and she introduces a process that bypasses logic and thinking to activate our own emotional "self-cleaning oven." Using imagination, color, and shape to visualize feelings and get straight to the root of longstanding problems, she teaches us to move destructive feelings such as fear, anger, hurt, resentment, and envy out of the body. Letting go of old feelings and traumatic memory at a deep, cellular level makes people feel and look younger, lighter, more energized, and less burdened. And they can begin to experience results after just one or two self-directed sessions. Goodbye, Hurt and Pain also provides seven organic ways of using your feelings to attract more love, better health, and greater success. The process is fast, fun, and as easy as 1-2-3. "Wonderful and profound. This book will touch you intimately and probably change your life." #8212Jack Canfield, from the foreword

The Horn family, from the Foggy Bottom community on the banks of the Neches River in Deep East Texas, are a proud family. They are descendants of some of the earliest settlers in this very remote area. Foggy Bottom folks are known to be clannish and the Horns are viewed as a backwoods clan by the residents of the nearby town, Pine Hill. Anthony Hall, the bankers son, from Pine Hill is in love with Beth Horn, the daughter of the most prominent family in Foggy Bottom. Beth is a brilliant and vivacious young lady who is a premed student at the University of Texas, but the residents of Pine Hill still see her as that little Fog Head kid who sold peas from the Horn pea patch.. The prejudice on both sides of the river creates serious problems especially between the Pine Hills mayors son, Bobby Dodd and Thomas Horn. A story of trials, faith, integrity and perseverance unfolds as each of the Horn family tries to merge with their prejudiced laden environment.

There has been much written, from many perspectives, about the French revolution and Marie Antoinette over the years. however, Farewell My Queens, from Marie Antoinette to Farah Diba, by Dr. Ellie Abdi, Stewart Essence Parr, Nooshin Manshadi and edited by Marjorie Sara Mamman is the fi rst I have read that compares the tragic lives of the queen of France and those of the three ill-fated queens of Iran: Fawzia Fuad of Egypt, Soraya Esfandyari Bakhteyari, and Farah Diba. While these Persian queens did not share the ultimate sacrifi ce of death under the blade of the guillotine, as did Marie Antoinette, as outsiders, these four queens all endured the stifl ing and controlling life at court and the pressure to produce an heir.