Adam Levtov teaches drama at a small college in the tiny town of Hope Falls. He usually gets stuck with directing one of Shakespeares minor tragedies, but this year, he is staging Othello, and the pressure is mounting. Unfortunately for Levtov, his students are rebelling; his teenage son is wearing eyeliner; and a hulking man with a Russian accent is stalking him. All the while, Levtov is struggling with his guilt over a lie he has lived for fifteen years; a household roiled by his demented father-in-law; and a wife who may be flirting with one of Levtovs colleagues. Is all this why Adam Levtov feels like a ghost walking through life? The Director of Minor Tragedies takes the reader into a world of tragedy and treachery, wrongdoing and redemption, in which low comedy crouches stealthily behind high art. "In his debut novel, Ronald Pies creates a compelling family drama filled with love, compassion, humor and a keen understanding of the human condition...A pleasure from the opening sentence through the satisfying conclusion, this book left me hoping for a sequel." - Richard Berlin, MD, Author of How JFK Killed My Father, and Secret Wounds

Why the United States has failed to establish a comprehensive high-quality child care program is the question at the center of this book. Edward Zigler has been intimately involved in this issue since the 1970s, and here he presents a firsthand history of the policy making and politics surrounding this important debate. Good-quality child care supports cognitive, social, and emotional development, school readiness, and academic achievement. This book examines the history of child care policy since 1969, including the inside story of America's one great attempt to create a comprehensive system of child care, its failure, and the lack of subsequent progress. Identifying specific issues that persist today, Zigler and his coauthors conclude with an agenda designed to lead us successfully toward quality care for America's children.

Every year at an exclusive private boarding school in New York state, the graduating students uphold an old tradition - they must swear an oath of secrecy and leave behind a "treasure" for each incoming senior. When Duncan Meade inherits the room and secrets of Tim Macbeth, he uncovers evidence of a clandestine romance, and unravels the truth behind one of the biggest mysteries in the school's history. How far would you go to keep a secret?

For years theater director Bryan Doerries has been producing ancient Greek tragedies for a wide range of at-risk people in society. His is the personal and deeply passionate story of a life devoted to reclaiming the timeless power of an ancient artistic tradition to comfort the afflicted. Doerries leads an innovative public health project—Theater of War—that produces ancient dramas for current and returned soldiers, people in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse, tornado and hurricane survivors, and more. Tracing a path that links the personal to the artistic to the social and back again, Doerries shows us how suffering and healing are part of a timeless process in which dialogue and empathy are inextricably linked. The originality and generosity of Doerries’s work is startling, and The Theater of War—wholly unsentimental, but intensely felt and emotionally engaging—is a humane, knowledgeable, and accessible book that will both inspire and enlighten.

A powerful and humane exploration of the history of the "insanity defense," through the story of one poignant case. When a three-year-old child was found with a head wound and other injuries, it looked like an open-and-shut case of second-degree murder. Psychologist and attorney Susan Vinocour agreed to evaluate the defendant, the child's mentally ill and impoverished grandmother, to determine whether she was competent to stand trial. Even if she had caused the child's death, had she realized at the time that her actions were wrong or was she legally "insane"? What followed was anything but an open-and-shut case. Nobody's Child traces the legal definition of "insanity" back to its inception in Victorian Britain nearly two hundred years ago, from when our understanding of the human mind was in its infancy, to today, when questions of race, class, and ability so often determine who is legally "insane" and who is criminally guilty. Vinocour explains how "competency" and "insanity" are creatures of a legal system, not of psychiatric reality, and how, in criminal law, the insanity defense has to often been a luxury of the rich and white. Nobody's Child is a profoundly dignified portrait of injustice in America and a complex examination of the troubling intersection of mental health and the law. When prisons are now the largest institutions for the mentally ill, Vinocour demands that we reckon with our conceptions of "insanity" with clarity, empathy, and responsibility.

In dreary, doubtful waiting hours Before the brazen frenzy starts, The horses show him nobler powers;- O patient eyes, courageous hearts.' Into Battle, Julian Grenfell, 1915 In the days of horsed cavalry, a soldier's mount was a living, breathing companion. It galloped into the jaws of death at the sound of the bugle and the nudge of spurs. It carried its rider over arid deserts, across swollen rivers, up near-sheer mountains. Whole societies functioned because of the warhorse - the Huns, the Mongols, and the tribes of the North American plains. Horses were worshipped as gods - the centaurs of ancient Greece, Tziminchak of the Aztecs, while the Roman emperor Caligula intended to make his horse a consul! Most of us have only ever seen warhorses at the movies - the Scots Greys at Waterloo, the Light Brigade at Balaclava, Taras Bulba's Cossacks on the Steppes and Custer's cavalry at the Little Big Horn. This book celebrates the color and nostalgia of a fighting past, from eohippus the first horse to Sefton, the last warhorse injured in the line of duty. Not forgetting the stark reality of thousands of animals sacrificed for men's greed and ambition, those killed on campaign, the maimed cab-horses and fodder for the knacker's yard.

The powerful story found in The Shack written by Wm. Paul Young stole the hearts of millions and rocketed to fame by word-of-mouth, making it a phenomenon in publishing history. Now, The Shack: Reflections for Every Day of the Year provides an opportunity for you to go back to the shack with Papa, Sarayu, and Jesus. This 365 day devotional selects meaningful quotes from The Shack and adds prayers writer by W. Paul Young to inspire, encourage, and uplift you every day of the year.

Through an examination of thirty-five major inquiries into child sexual abuse, the authors identify common themes with important implications for professional practice.