In this moving and lyrical story of overcoming loss, a man and a woman wage the fight of their lives for a second chance at love. ""The Bridges of Madison County" with a happy ending".--"Kirkus Reviews".

A young girl describes the special things she sees when her family makes a nighttime trip to her grandparents' house.

In this moving and lyrical story of overcoming loss, a man and a woman wage the fight of their lives for a second chance at love. ""The Bridges of Madison County" with a happy ending".--"Kirkus Reviews".

Six mysterious passengers and seven dark secrets. Who can be trusted? It's a dark and dangerous journey for the Cobb and Co night mail coach, but when his coach-driver father is injured, young Jem Donovan must take the reins. Surely a boy like Jem can't handle a team of four horses and guide the coach on a rough bush track through fog and untold dangers? But there are six passengers on the coach tonight, each with a secret. And if Jem can't get them all to their destination by morning, the seventh secret could be deadly ...

Joni has sold over 15 million records in her lifetime, and her music continues to appeal to fans of folk, jazz, rock, and pop-despite relatively little airlplay. Her self-described "last tour" is scheduled to wind up in late 2004, and her recent album Travelogue has already gone gold (sales of 500,000 copies)

More than half a century after the birth of rock, the musical genre that began as a rebellious underground phenomenon is now acknowledged as America's-and the world's-most popular and influential musical medium, as well as the soundtrack to several generations' worth of history. From Ray Charles to Joni Mitchell to Nirvana, rock music has been an undeniable force in both reflecting and shaping our cultural landscape. Icons of Rock offers a vivid overview of rock's pervasive role in contemporary society by profiling the lives and work of the music's most legendary artists. Most rock histories, by virtue of their all-encompassing scope, are unable to cover the lives and work of individual artists in depth, or to place those artists in a broader context. This two-volume set, by contrast, provides extensive biographies of the 24 greatest rock n' rollers of all time, examining their influences, innovations, and impact in a critical and historical perspective. Entries inside this unique reference explore the issues, trends, and movements that defined the cultural and social climate of the artists' music. Sidebars spotlight the many iconic elements associated with rock, such as rock festivals, protest songs, and the British Invasion. Providing a wealth of information on the icons, culture, and mythology of America's most beloved music, this biographical encyclopedia will serve as an invaluable resource for students and music fans alike.

Fear is a poetic sequence of events in one mans life, beginning with the discovery of his unconditional love for his child, the loss of that child, his descent into depression, anxiety and panic disorder, guilt complex, and prescription drug addiction as a result of that loss, and his gradual recovery. He is now able to forgive himself of his guilt for this loss, love again, and regain his ability to live his life with a new commitment to Christ..

This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. Here in one convenient source are the South's novelists and short story writers, poets and dramatists, memoirists and essayists, journalists, scholars, and biographers from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. What constitutes a "southern writer" is always a matter for debate. Editors Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel have used a generous definition that turns on having a significant connection to the region, in either a personal or literary sense. New to this volume are younger writers who have emerged in the quarter century since the dictionary's original publication, as well as older talents previously unknown or unacknowledged. For almost every writer found in the previous edition, a new biography has been commissioned. Drawn from the very best minds on southern literature and covering the full spectrum of its practitioners, Southern Writers is an indispensable reference book for anyone intrigued by the subject.

The true confessions of a working opera composer: an exhilarating story of "a life that comes out of chaos." At eight years old, Ricky Ian Gordon pulled The Victor Book of Opera off his piano teacher’s bookshelf, and his world shifted on its axis. Though scandal, sadness, and confusion would shake that world over the next few decades, its polestar remained constant. Music has been the guiding force of Gordon’s life; through it, he has been able not only to survive great sorrow but also to capture the depths of his emotion in song. It is this strength, this technical and visceral genius, that has made him one of our generation’s greatest composers. In Seeing Through, Gordon writes with humor, insight, and incredible candor about his life and work: a tumultuous youth on Long Island, his artistic collaborations and obsessions, the creation of his compositions (including The Grapes of Wrath, 27, Orpheus and Euridice, Intimate Apparel, Ellen West, and more), his addictions and the abuses he endured, and the loss of his partner to AIDS and the devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As Gordon writes of that period: “We were, thousands of us, Lazarus. We had to rise from the ashes. We didn’t have to rebuild our lives, we had to build new ones.” Gordon has succeeded in building a remarkable life, as well as a body of work that bears witness to all he survived in the process—one that will endure as a pivotal chapter in America's songbook.

The Vietnam War was over and America seemed in the midst of a nationwide party. The self-proclaimed Me generation was flocking to discotheques, recreational drug use was high, and sexual taboos were being shattered nationwide. Then The Village People appeared on the music scene. Never before had gay sexuality been as up-front and in the face of America. The Village People struck a cultural nerve and fueled a craze that had them playing to sold-out crowds at Madison Square Garden. Even today, few adults could not at least hum the tunes to Y.M.C.A. and Macho Man. Because of the unique role they played in the United States of the late 1970s, The Village People are able to provide a powerful lens through which to view the emergence and development of gay culture in America. In Macho Man, readers can travel back with one of the first gay icons in popular music, and a top pop culture biographer, as they describe this complicated process of change. In these pages, Randy Jones, the original cowboy in the band, takes us inside the time period, the discos, and the new musical style that was in many ways unprecedented in giving a voice to a previously closeted gay culture. Assisted by Mark Bego, one of the most popular and prolific pop culture authors working today, Jones shows how the fast-lane rise, fall, and rebirth of this novel band paralleled activities across the last 40 years within the gay culture and gay rights movement. The work concludes with a gayography — a listing of openly gay musicians and performers in the United States before and since The Village People - along with a discography and filmography. This work will interest pop culture and music enthusiasts, in addition to scholars in gay studies.