Katherine was a beautiful, perfect baby for the first year ofher life. Then, without warning, she changed forever. She startedcrossing her eyes. She cried at night for hours at a time and couldnot be soothed. She stopped saying words, stopped crawling, andbegan what would become a lifelong habit of wringing her hands.Hospital visits and consultations with doctors offered no answersto the mystery. Soon Katherine slipped away to a place her motherand father could never reach. In Keeping Katherine, Susan Zimmermann tells the story of herlife with her daughter Katherine, who has Rett syndrome, adevastating neurological disorder. Writing with honesty and candor,Zimmermann chronicles her personal journey to accept the changeddynamic of her family; the strain of caring for a special needschild and the pressure it placed on her marriage, career, andrelationship with her parents; the dilemma of whether Kat would bebetter cared for in a group home; and most important, the alteredreality of her daughter’s
This edition has been updated to reflect new developments andincludes new material obtained through the Freedom of InformationAct. Pat Tillman walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contractto join the Army and became an icon of post-9/11 patriotism. Whenhe was killed in Afghanistan two years later, a legend was born.But the real Pat Tillman was much more remarkable, and considerablymore complicated than the public knew... A stunning account of a remarkable young man's heroic life anddeath, from the bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air,and Under the Banner of Heaven.
Logan Ward and his wife, Heather, were prototypical NewYorkers circa 2000: their lives steeped in ambition, work, andstress. Feeling their souls grow numb, wanting their toddler son tosee the stars at night, the Wards made a plan. They would return totheir native South, find a farm, and for one year live exactly aspeople did in 1900 Virginia: without a car or electricity–and withonly the food they could grow themselves. It was a project thatwould push their relationship to the brink–and illuminate stunninghardships and equally remarkable surprises. From Logan’s emotionally charged battles with Belle, the familyworkhorse, to Heather’s daily trials with a wood-fired cookingstove and a constant siege of garden pests and cantankerousanimals, the Wards were soon overwhelmed by their new life. At thesame time as Logan and Heather struggled with their increasinglyfragile relationship, as their son relished simple joys, the couplediscovered something else: within their self-imposed time warp,they
Told by a former high-level member of the Peoples Temple andJonestown survivor, Seductive Poison is the "trulyunforgettable" ( Kirkus Review ) story of how one woman wasseduced by one of the most notorious cults in recent memory and howshe found her way back to sanity. From Waco to Heaven's Gate, the past decade has seen its share ofcult tragedies. But none has been quite so dramatic or compellingas the Jonestown massacre of 1978, in which the Reverend Jim Jonesand 913 of his disciples perished. Deborah Layton had been a memberof the Peoples Temple for seven years when she departed forJonestown, Guyana, the promised land nestled deep in the SouthAmerican jungle. When she arrived, however, Layton saw thatsomething was seriously wrong. Jones constantly spoke of arevolutionary mass suicide, and Layton knew only too well that hehad enough control over the minds of the Jonestown residents tocarry it out. But her pleas for help--and her sworn affidavit tothe U.S. government--fell on skeptical ears. I
Loretta Lynn’s classic memoir tells the story of her earlylife in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, and her amazing rise to the topof the music industry. Born into deep poverty, married at thirteen, mother of six, and agrandmother by the time she was twenty-nine, Loretta Lynn went onto become one of the most prolific and influential songwriters andsingers in modern country music. Here we see the determination andtalent that led to her trailblazing career and made her the firstwoman to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country MusicAssociation and the first woman to receive a gold record in countrymusic.
In 1944, Bertie Bowman–a poor, impressionablethirteen-year-old–heard South Carolina senator Burnet Maybankdeclare: “If you all ever get up to Washington, D.C., drop by andsee me!” Bertie took those words to heart, and when he arrived inWashington, Senator Maybank, surprisingly true to his word, saw toit that the young runaway had a place to stay and a steadyincome–earned by sweeping the Capitol steps for two dollars a week.Bowman would rise to become hearing coordinator for the SenateForeign Relations Committee in the U.S. Capitol–and this is hisremarkable story. For sixty years, Bertie Bowman stood at the epicenter of change andwitnessed history in the making, observing firsthand theclandestine backroom deals made in the name of democracy. Throughit all, he lived by these guiding principles: Work hard. Be true toyourself. Take responsibility. Have a positive outlook. Expect thebest from people. As Bowman recounts his extraordinary life, healso shares the lessons and values that have served him