Brother Ray


Book Description




A Play Day with My Brother Ray


Book Description

This fiction hybrid reader includes high-frequency and decodable words as well as illustrations for students in the Being a Reader program in grades K-2. The reader's topic is spending time with an older brother.




A Memoir of Injustice


Book Description

Including previously undisclosed information on one of the most significant and mysterious events in modern American history, this account debunks the myth that James Earl Ray was a racist and documents his actual location on one of the critical days leading up to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The memoir also reveals photographs of James Earl Ray when he was ill in prison and gives the key to a code used by the brothers in planning a prison break. Presenting a mesmerizing perspective on the manipulation of the media in reporting on race relations, the working middle class, and the U.S. criminal justice system, this account broadcasts an urgent call to action to correct some of the many injustices that surround these events, such as the U.S. government's refusal to rigorously test the alleged murder weapon, and encourages support for new federal legislation.




Hidden in the Mix


Book Description

Country music's debt to African American music has long been recognized. Black musicians have helped to shape the styles of many of the most important performers in the country canon. The partnership between Lesley Riddle and A. P. Carter produced much of the Carter Family's repertoire; the street musician Tee Tot Payne taught a young Hank Williams Sr.; the guitar playing of Arnold Schultz influenced western Kentuckians, including Bill Monroe and Ike Everly. Yet attention to how these and other African Americans enriched the music played by whites has obscured the achievements of black country-music performers and the enjoyment of black listeners. The contributors to Hidden in the Mix examine how country music became "white," how that fictive racialization has been maintained, and how African American artists and fans have used country music to elaborate their own identities. They investigate topics as diverse as the role of race in shaping old-time record catalogues, the transracial West of the hick-hopper Cowboy Troy, and the place of U.S. country music in postcolonial debates about race and resistance. Revealing how music mediates both the ideology and the lived experience of race, Hidden in the Mix challenges the status of country music as "the white man’s blues." Contributors. Michael Awkward, Erika Brady, Barbara Ching, Adam Gussow, Patrick Huber, Charles Hughes, Jeffrey A. Keith, Kip Lornell, Diane Pecknold, David Sanjek, Tony Thomas, Jerry Wever




Brother Ray


Book Description

Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray, he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age of thirty-two. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and country music, he invented, almost single-handedly, what became known as soul. And throughout a career spanning more than a half century, Ray Charles remained in complete control of his life and his music, allowing nobody to tell him what he could and couldn't do.As the Chicago Sun-Times put it, Brother Ray is "candid, explicit, sometimes embarrassing, often hilarious, always warm, touching and deeply human-just like his music."




The Sapp Brothers' Story


Book Description

Through their strong work ethic and faith in God—and in each other—the Sapp brothers rose above early adversity to become some of the most respected and successful leaders in the Midwest. Forming the Sapp Brothers Truck Stops in the 1970s and going on to build the Sapp Brothers Petroleum Company, this family has been a Nebraska legend that built business for the state and invested in many state-sponsored organizations. Their "coffee pot" water tower is a symbol of their first truck stops and a Nebraska icon. Keeping integrity and humility as the focus of their professional and personal lives throughout the years, the Sapp brothers have proven that nice guys can finish first and that the American dream is still alive and well.




Brother Ray


Book Description

Ray Charles has led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the prevailing racism of the time, by the age of thirty-two Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and even country music, he invented, almost single-handed, what became known as soul. And over a career spanning close to fifty years, Ray Charles has remained in complete control over his life and music, allowing nobody to tell him what to do. Brother Ray was first published to great critical acclaim in 1978, and has since attained the status of a classic. In an inimitable and unsparing voice, Ray Charles here tells his whole story, from the details of his sex life and drug use to the chronicle of his musical development. Supplemented with a new epilogue updating his story to the present day, and including a complete discography, Brother Ray is as engaging, frank, funny, and soulful as Ray Charles's enduring music.




Talon of God


Book Description

The acclaimed actor makes his fiction debut with this enthralling urban fantasy in which a holy warrior must convince a doctor with no faith to help stop a powerful demon and his minions from succeeding in creating hell on earth—a thrilling adventure of science and faith, good and evil, damnation and salvation. Imagine that everyone you have ever known or loved was forced against their will into a state of demonic possession and spiritual slavery. Imagine an unholy cabal of the world’s richest and most powerful men directing this sinister plan in order to cement their unbridled control of the planet. Imagine two heroes emerging from that dark-ness to do battle with the forces of evil. Set in the mean streets of Chicago, Talon of God is the action-packed adventure centered around Lauryn Jefferson, a beautiful young doctor who is dragged into a seemingly impossible battle against the invisible forces of Satan’s army and their human agents that are bent on enslaving humanity in a mission to establish the kingdom of hell on Earth. But Lauryn is a skeptic, and it’s only as she sees a diabolical drug sweep her city and begins to train in the ways of a spirit warrior with Talon Hunter, the legendary man of God, that she discovers her true nature and inner strength. Facing dangerous trials and tests, it’s a true baptism by fire. And if she and Hunter fail, millions could die. And rivers of blood would flow throughout the land. Imagine such horror. Such pain. And imagine what it would take to fight against it. For only the strongest and most faithful will survive . . . Get ready. Armageddonapproaches quickly.




Legacy of Secrecy


Book Description

From the authors of Ultimate Sacrifice—this "riveting take on the assassination itself and the devastating results of government secrets . . . proves the continuing relevancy and importance of seeking the truth behind one of the US’s most personal tragedies” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). John F. Kennedy’s assassination launched a frantic search to find his killers. It also launched a flurry of covert actions by Lyndon Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, and other top officials to hide the fact that in November 1963, the United States was on the brink of invading Cuba as part of a JFK–authorized coup. The coup plan’s exposure could have led to a nuclear confrontation with Russia, but the cover–up prevented a full investigation into Kennedy’s assassination, a legacy of secrecy that would impact American politics and foreign policy for the next forty–five years. It also allowed two men who confessed their roles in JFK’s murder to be involved in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968. Exclusive interviews and newly declassified files from the National Archives document in chilling detail how three mob bosses were able to prevent the truth from coming to light until now. The trade paperback is updated with dramatic new revelations, has three new chapters, an expanded photo-document section, and updated text throughout, including the completed story of how three powerful Mafia bosses used John and Robert Kennedy's top–secret plan of staging a coup against Fidel Castro to murder JFK. ”Explosive . . . based mainly on government documents from the National Archives.” —Vanity Fair “They’ve done a service by digging up the deepest, darkest, most disturbing archival evidence to support their Mob hit theory.” —Ron Rosenbaum, New York Times bestselling author of Explaining Hitler




Death Came Calling


Book Description

Sheriff Ray Cairney is sure something untoward is going on in Bristow and that Curtis Waring - bank manager and town council leader - is behind it. The arrival of two gunslingers and the subsequent turn of events convince Cairney his hunch was right - but how to prove it? The men involved are rich and powerful and he is just one man. That, however, won't stop the sheriff. The murder of an entire family gives Cairney the evidence he will need to bring justice to Bristow, but it will be a long, hard journey.