*Barrett* I'm Deaf. What most people view as a disadvantage, I see as an advantage. I feel my way through life in my 1969 Ford Fairlane. The vibrations and speed sustain me, the race track is where I dominate. I thought racing was all I needed to survive...but I was wrong. *Presley* Music is my life. I inhale the melody and breathe in the lyrics. That was until I met someone that opened my eyes to a new culture. Who knew all it would take was silence for me to really experience music. When Silence and sound collide it creates an explosion of the senses.

She’s thirty-two, musically gifted, vivacious, and in love with Patrick Harrold, the voice teacher who hired her to play piano for his collection of off-kilter vocal students. Indeed, Samantha Eliot has long dreamed of devoting her life to music and song. But there’s a problem. She can’t speak, let alone sing. And she hasn’t been able to since a terrible accident took her voice at the age of seven. Truth be told, she has two additional problems. She’s never met—but is presently searching for—her birth mother. And the man she loves may, in fact, give up teaching voice, therefore no longer requiring her services. Can she rectify the second and third of these three problems, even though she must live with the first? Also featuring a collection of hilarious voice students with issues of their own, Samantha’s Silent Song speaks to those who have made an honest attempt, but failed, at fully realizing their dreams.

When Chris Beth said yes to a struggling country minister's proposal, life seemed almost too good to be true. Could it last? The settlers in their little Oregon community could scarcely afford a resident preacher's salary, and Chris Beth's teaching contract would soon end. Another separation. More adjustments. Threatening and captivating adventures reveal the heartaches and joys of real pioneer life...wagon caravans of starving people rumbling through frontier territory. Fear of Indian uprisings, drought, plagues of grasshoppers, and the faith and commitment of people shouldering heavy burdens in a common bond of love. Ever present and strengthening their arms to hold each other up is love's silent song.

Lex Perry had it all. Fame. Fortune. A once-in-ten-lifetimes love with a brilliant, beautiful, battle-scarred goddess. And an addiction that was done sharing his attention. He survived. His fall from grace never stopped fans from throwing money and panties at him. All he lost for his weakness was the heart Gin—the woman, not the booze—took with her when she left.

In August 1988, I had been cleaning out a room in my house where furniture and miscellaneous items were stored. It was during this time that I discovered an old, unused canvas that I had bought many years ago from an artist-friend, long deceased. It was a Saturday afternoon, and mainly to get away from having to make decisions on what I was going to keep and throw away, I decided that I would begin a painting. I am a very, very amateur painter, and a bad one, at that. I gathered paint, brushes and canvas and proceeded to a shed behind the house that had been used as a shelter for two of my largest dogs. I had no idea of what I was going to sketch as I painted the background white. As I stood there, with brush in hand, "something" caused my hand to begin painting on the wet background. I was puzzled because I don't begin painting until the background is completely dry and that takes several days when oil paint is used. My hand was moving fast--fast--faster and faster, and I was visually having difficulty keeping up with the speed of the brush. I felt that I was only an onlooker and had no doubt that it was not I who was forming this picture, whatever it was. And what was it, anyway? The outline of the painting had been formed, and now my hand moved without any effort, as if guided by some force. The picture was being filled in now, my hand moving with the speed of a swordsman. "A Study in Scarlet?" Sir Arthur Doyle? What? The outline of three strange birds was rapidly appearing on the canvas. The painting was completed in less than an hour. During the painting, the idea for this book formed in my mind. For those of you who will say, or would have said,. "Well, he must have been reading stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle and had that on his mind-Not so! Wrong. I had not read anything by A. Conan Doyle in many years. And all that I knew about Sir Doyle was that he was the author of Sherlock Holmes stories and had lived in England. But what about the three birds? Did they have any significance? Could they represent Doyle--i.e., Holmes, Watson, and Professor Moriarity? Maybe. I really don't know. What I do know is that I don't paint birds. Was this an "automatic painting?" Did some spirit finally complete an unfinished work - interrupted by an unexpected demise? Could the incident be duplicated if I took an old canvas, paint and brush again to the shed in the back of the house on an August day in 2088? That would be 200 years since the first Ripper murder. But wait! I wouldn't be around then, and neither would you. Oh, well, who knows, maybe I will come back just to complete my own painting--but it won't be of birds, I assure you. I hope that you enjoy the book. I have a way of knowing.

(Applause Books). Lose yourself in a universe of forces familiar and frightening in the 21 plays presented in this exclusive volume. The playwrights included here succeed in pushing back the boundaries of conventional dramatic expression. Among them, Lanford Wilson dissects a survivor's anguish after his lover's death in A Poster of the Cosmos and Deborah Pryor spins an eerie tale of spellbinding romance in The Love Talker . Richard Greenberg plots a battle of wills between a young writer and his elusive muse, while Sheila Walsh examines the exchange of a woman's soul for her husband's fame in Molly and James . From the starkly realistic to the fantastic, these plays challenge their audiences to confront the universal from a new perspective.

For the first time, Jethro Tull founder, singer, songwriter and photographer Ian Anderson has gathered together the complete lyrics from all of the Tull and solo albums in one volume. This hardback book is illustrated throughout with new, original and previously unpublished photographs taken by Ian to accompany certain lyrics. Ian has combed through everything from This Was in 1968 to unreleased 2021 songs, taking in all of his solo albums and tracks released only on box sets and compilations, to collate more than 300 song lyrics. After listening to original masters, checking notebooks and song sheets, Ian is confident that this book represents the complete, collected lyrics of his more than six decade-long career.

"Do you have a favorite sound?" little Yoshio asks. The musician answers, "The most beautiful sound is the sound of ma, of silence." But Yoshio lives in Tokyo, Japan: a giant, noisy, busy city. He hears shoes squishing through puddles, trains whooshing, cars beeping, and families laughing. Tokyo is like a symphony hall! Where is silence? Join Yoshio on his journey through the hustle and bustle of the city to find the most beautiful sound of all.