Mattie Spenser and her new husband Luke start off to the west. As they live their life Mattie keeps a journal of the joys and frustrations of frontier life and marriage.

"Mattie Breathes" seeks to help educate families about life with a tracheostomy, and to show the amazing quality of life and true joy that children living with a tracheostomy can have. It is also a tool to help medical professionals and educators prepare families for life with a tracheostomy. Mattie was born with Down syndrome and a severe AV canal heart defect. he was hospitalized his first 11 months of life, and required G-tube surgery, a tracheostomy, and two open heart surgeries. He spent the next 3 years living at home with his family. He loves trips to the zoo, the park, and playing with his siblings.

From the NYT bestselling author of Sworn to Silence comes a chilling tale of a tragic accident, a beautiful Amish woman, and the dark side of the seemingly perfect Amish world

Anita Shreve's hauntingly beautiful #1 bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection about tragedy, grief, betrayal, and the 'impossibility of knowing another person.' As a pilot's wife, Kathryn has learned to expect both intense exhilaration and long periods alone, but nothing has prepared her for a late-night knock that lets her know her husband has died in a crash. Until now, Kathryn Lyons's life has been peaceful if unextraordinary: a satisfying job teaching high school in the New England mill town of her childhood; a picture-perfect home by the ocean; a precocious, independent-minded fifteen-year-old daughter; and a happy marriage whose occasional dull passages she attributes to the unavoidable deadening of time. As Kathryn struggles with her grief, she descends into a maelstrom of publicity stirred up by the modern hunger for the details of tragedy. Even before the plane is located in waters off the Irish coast, the relentless scrutiny of her husband's life begins to bring a bizarre personal mystery into focus. Could there be any truth to the increasingly disturbing rumors that he had a secret life?

In August 1948, a daring bank robbery occurs at the First Express Bank in Marion, Indiana. At the same precise time, three inmates are sprung from the local jail by a stranger dubbed the Mayor. As special deputies, Sam and Howie are directed by Sheriff Neverfine to track down the culprits. The trail leads to a secret chemical laboratory located in a deserted coal mine deep inside an obscure mountain in Southern Indiana. Captured and shackled inside the mine, Sam and Howie notice a faded Bible verse on the stone wall. Who scratched the verse on the wall? Why does the verse appear in such an odd location? Does the verse have any special meaning or message for people who entered the room in past years? The deputies then discover that the devious criminals are developing a secret chemical called BrainX. When this substance is absorbed into the brain cells of subjects they become as zombies, responding only to the directives of the scheming experimenters. When Sam and Howie learn that they are destined to be the first human subjects to be infused with BrainX, their future existence as normal persons is in jeopardy. Will they ever be able to escape from the ongoing tortuous nightmare? And how about the Kingbee? Why does he suddenly show up? How does this character fit into the ongoing mysterious saga? Is he a friend or a foe? You will have to read every chapter in this novel, the sixth in the Sam and Howie series, to find the answers to all these intriguing questions.

One quiet spring day, Gracie Hollaman hears voices in her head that tell her to get in her car and leave her entire life behind -- her home, her husband, her daughter, her very identity. Gracie's subsequent journey releases her genius for painting and effects profound changes in the lives of everyone around her. Ultimately, her quest leads her into the home of Mama Toot and Mattie, two strong, accomplished women going through life changes of their own. As the bonds between these women grow stronger, and the family Gracie left behind come to terms with their own loss, both worlds slowly and inevitably collide, revealing a long-buried secret that they share. A spellbinding debut novel, Sufficient Grace explores the power of personal transformation and redemption, and the many ordinary and extraordinary ways they come to pass through faith, love, motherhood, art, even food. Even though we sometimes have to leave behind an old identity in order to discover our soul, this poignant, poetic study of the human condition affirms the enduring importance of relationships and the strength we derive from them.

Mattie J.T. Stepanek began writing poetry at the age of three. In ,Heartsongs, Mattie explores the uncensored reality of living with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and with the grief associated with the loss of his three siblings to the same life-threatening condition. Heartsongs is a collection of the early poems and artwork of this gifted, courageous, award-winning poet.

In the late eighteen hundreds when Shirks grandmother was a young person, women’s choices were limited. Frances “knew” she was meant to be a nurse, but, being young and unmarried, society said “no”. Her friend Sally, granddaughter of slaves, “knew” she could be a great teacher, but there was little chance for her to get training. Reading this book in a group and then having a discussion about it takes courage. It’s not easy to talk about race and gender issues.

Leaving his wife of sixteen years when she discovers that he has had yet another affair, high-profile Chicago attorney learns that his wife has received shattering news and guiltily returns to her, determined to make things right in spite of long-standing betrayals and the hostility of their teenage daughter. Original.