Soul Tracks III is a collection of nearly 90 poems penned over lifetime of living and loving. Amusing, insightful, heart-wrenching, and brilliant, these reflections will surprise you with their depth of thought and feeling, and a few will leave you sighing and smiling. The author embraces a remarkable range of subjects from being a chocoholic to observing man’s litter to appearing yet again in traffic school to ruminating on the difficulty of listening and to mourning the death of a friend...

A financial whiz Simon Katz uses his considerable talents to develop a method for moving cash undetected. Enticed by power and money, he readily extends his unique services to the Chicago mob; that is until Simon discovers his partners in crime are reaping millions by offering his system to an international terrorist group. In a sudden moral quandary, and under physical threat, he decides to run. Local police become involved when Simon’s date reports him missing. The investigation expands ...

Interest in family history was sparked during events on my 65th birthday in 2003. Throughout life I spent thoughts and energy living the moment or planning the future, proud of never looking back. This mindset changed when Danny, my oldest grandson interviewed me for a 6th grade project. His assignment was to survey the teen history of an older family member. Danny presented his report to his class and later at my birthday party in Greenwich, Connecticut. His recitation and its reception e...

It's safe to say that world-famed speaker and author Og Mandino has as many friends as any man alive, thanks to his inspiring motivational lectures and his bestselling books. This new book is a special gift to all his friends, old and new, a book they may cherish above all the rest. Secrets for Success and Happiness is Og's beautifully written journal, an intimate record of his innermost thoughts and feelings, the heartwarming events of his day-to-day life.Whether he's writing in hi...

From journalists Agnes Hooper Gottlieb and Henry Gottlieb, and Brent Bowers and Barbara Bowers, the acclaimed co-authors of 1,000 Years, 1,000 People, comes a new book that celebrates the reasons we’re proud to call America home—from jazz and the Gettysburg Address to baseball and the White Castle hamburger. Chock full of anecdotes and often surprising insights and historical information, 1,000 Things to Love About America is a smart, breezy, and unabashed love song to the good old U.S.A.

The former U.S. Poet Laureate contemplates life, death, and the view from his window in these "a lternately lyrical and laugh-out-loud funny " essays ( The New York Times).From an early age, Donald Hall dedicated his life to the written word. In his long and celebrated career, he was an accomplished poet, essayist, memoirist, dramatist, and children's author. Now, in the "unknown, unanticipated galaxy" of very old age, his ...

“Timely . . . [the collection] paints intimate portraits of neglected places that are often used as political talking points. A good companion piece to J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy.”—BooklistThe essays in Voices from the Rust Belt "address segregated schools, rural childhoods, suburban ennui, lead poisoning, opiate addiction, and job loss. They reflect upon happy childhoods, successful community ventures, warm refuges for outsiders, and ...

In True Stories: Memories, Musings, Odds and Ends, C.J. Ott tells of the first seven years of his childhood in New York City and the next seven years in the Saugerties area, a hundred miles north of the city. He recounts his experiences as a postulant, novice and scholastic in the Marianist religious order; four years of military service in the U.S. Air Force, and a twenty-five year career as a teacher and principal in Trotwood-Madison City Schools, by Dayton, Ohio. Along the way he recall...

In March 1986, while living in Brooklyn, Chris Bohjalian and his wife were cab-napped on a Saturday night and taken on a forty-five-minute joy ride in which the driver ignored all traffic lights and stop signs. Around midnight he deposited the young couple on a near-deserted street, where police officers were about to storm a crack house. Bohjalian and his wife were told to hit the ground for their own protection. While lying on the pavement, Bohjalian's wife suggested that perhaps it was ...

This "rollicking newspaperman's memoir" offers a personal tour of Chicago's cultural history and makes "a strong case for Second City exceptionalism" ( The New York Times).In 1952 the New Yorker published a three-part essay by A. J. Liebling in which he dubbed Chicago the "Second City." From the skyline to garbage collection, nothing escaped Liebling's withering gaze. Among the outraged responses from Chicago residents was one that Liebling descri...

Fruitcake Hill is a cleverly written history and personal memoir of an Irish family from the Chicago suburbs that has continuously occupied a single farmhouse property for over 137 years. The story focuses on the family's struggles to preserve the life they knew before urban sprawl became a reality. A humorous and informative read!

When it's time for your kids to leave home, will they be ready to face the world? Will they be able to handle the NYC subway system? Will they have experienced the challenge of a summer career camp? Will they be able to compare civilizations and governments around the world? Will their imaginations have been sparked in a foreign land? Will they know that tamales aren't edible until they take the cornstalk off?In 1001 Things Your Kids Should See & Do Before They...