Dancing In The Minefields


Book Description

Maribeth Ditmars offers hope and a beautiful journey of faith in God amidst great adversity, tribulation, and grief. Dancing in the Minefields gives inspiration to all those who have suffered through trials, tragedy, even the loss of a child, or to those that are familiar with drug and alcohol addiction. The Ditmars married in the late 70's. They were like any other young and in love couple. Together they had great hopes and high expectations for the future. Yet, trauma came knocking on their door in the form of childhood cancer. With their world crumbling, both Maribeth and her husband fought hard as a team through the diagnosis of leukemia. As the Ditmars persevered through tragedy, Maribeth's journey of faith and finding God begins to unfold into a beautiful testimony of the faithfulness and love of God. She advocates and reveals the effectiveness of the 12 step recovery program that was also fundamental in her healing from the grief, and alcohol that captivated her mind and soul. Certainly life is not without troubles, tragedy and grief; yet, Maribeth presents to readers the eternal treasures of Heaven and hope found in Jesus Christ as her family found themselves among the minefields of life. Learning to dance among the minefields speaks of faith tried in the fires of adversity. Her words expressed in this book coupled with some heavenly experiences of the life yet to come display the reality of a world that awaits us that is far beyond this trivial place we call Earth. This is a place where a piece of her heart resides, as she knows that she will see her beloved sons once again. This reunion and redemption on Earth for the meantime is something all of us have to look forward to being in the family and Body of Christ. Her book inspires and gives those that have experienced great tragedy to look forward to eternity and to live enjoying their present.




Dancing Through Minefields


Book Description

When your very life is a minefield, only faith, friends, and family will get you through... Dancing through Minefields is a truly explosive story of will and wisdom. Protagonist Anne Schroeder walks the reader through a life of danger, abuse, and fear; avoiding landmines as she protects her children and unwaveringly keeps her eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel. Which will terrify you more? Mike, who threatens her safety and sanity, or Breast Cancer, which threatens her womanhood, sexuality, and her very life? Will she survive one only to be taken down by the other? Debut author Carol Feller creates a magnificent story of courage in the midst of fear, confronting real issues with corresponding emotionally- charged accounts of Anne's fight against both spousal abuse and Breast Cancer. "Descriptions were most apt and put me right in the story. Your story is compelling, convincing and uplifting." Lois Hjelmstad, author of Fine Black Lines "What you had to say was powerful, in spite of being very sad..." Jane Lukic, lyricist and performer, Breath after Breath from album After the Storm "Vivid, relatable, and above all, encouraging!" Rachel Mitchell Library Director




Dancing Naked in the Mind Field


Book Description

Here is a multidimensional playland of ideas from the world's most eccentric Nobel-Prize winning scientist. Kary Mullis is legendary for his invention of PCR, which redefined the world of DNA, genetics, and forensic science. He is also a surfer, a veteran of Berkeley in the sixties, and perhaps the only Nobel laureate to describe a possible encounter with aliens. A scientist of boundless curiosity, he refuses to accept any proposition based on secondhand or hearsay evidence, and always looks for the "money trail" when scientists make announcements. Mullis writes with passion and humor about a wide range of topics: from global warming to the O. J. Simpson trial, from poisonous spiders to HIV, from scientific method to astrology. Dancing Naked in the Mind Field challenges us to question the authority of scientific dogma even as it reveals the workings of an uncannily original scientific mind.




Heads or Tails


Book Description

In the wake of the global financial crisis, Heads or Tails answers the question: what changes should financial institutions undergo to ensure reliable protection against extreme risks? Recent massive failures among large and respected financial institutions, clearly demonstrate that contemporary risk management and regulation fail to provide adequate responses to the challenges set by extreme risks. Dr Evgueni Ivantsov combines analysis of the nature of extreme risk (so-called tail risk), risk management practices and practical solutions to build a robust, enterprise-wide, extreme risk management framework which includes three lines of defence, ranging from strategic to tactical, designed to help address the tail risk during different stages of its development. The author also discusses: ¢ Why modern ’sophisticated’ risk management frameworks, strong capitalisation and liquidity do not prevent banks from failure in the face of systemic crisis; ¢ What it means to build an effective defence against systemic and catastrophic losses; ¢ What risk architecture should look like to ensure that extreme risk events are identified early and efficiently mitigated; ¢ How modern management practices, regulation and risk and business culture need to change to guarantee sustainability. While the context of Dr Ivantsov’s writing is financial services, the book contains an important message for specialists from any industries exposed to the extreme risks (oil/gas, energy, mining, chemical productions, transportation, etc.). Until the shortcomings of current risk management and regulation are resolved, financial services and other at risk industries will repeat the painful mistakes of the past, over and over again.




Letters to My Daughters


Book Description

Barbara Rainey Offers Sage Advice on the Art of Being a Wife Radio personality and bestselling author Barbara Rainey knows firsthand the challenges newly married couples face. Dismayed by Hollywood depictions of marriage and the seemingly easy solution of divorce, she sees a desperate need for a voice of experience, a mentor who has been there and understands--and can encourage, coach, and care. As her daughters began their married lives, Barbara wanted to share with them, and now you, some of the lessons learned throughout her own marriage as well as those gleaned from years of ministry to couples. In these heartfelt, insightful letters, she answers the tough questions and addresses the realities of marriage. Through personal stories--including her own mistakes--and practical advice, Barbara provides the tools and direction to help you become a godly wife and determine your part in achieving a better marriage.




Hard Times Require Furious Dancing


Book Description

"I was born to grow, / alongside my garden of plants, / poems / like / this one“ So writes Alice Walker in this new book of poems, poems composed over the course of one year in response to joy and sorrow both personal and global: the death of loved ones, war, the deliciousness of love, environmental devastation, the sorrow of rejection, greed, poverty, and the sweetness of home. The poems embrace our connections while celebrating the joy of individuality, the power we each share to express our truest, deepest selves. Beloved for her ability to speak her own truth in ways that speak for and about countless others, she demonstrates that we are stronger than our circumstances. As she confronts personal and collective challenges, her words dance, sing, and heal.




Got to Be Something Here


Book Description

Beginning in the year of Prince’s birth, 1958, with the recording of Minnesota’s first R&B record by a North Minneapolis band called the Big Ms, Got to Be Something Here traces the rise of that distinctive sound through two generations of political upheaval, rebellion, and artistic passion. Funk and soul become a lens for exploring three decades of Minneapolis and St. Paul history as longtime music journalist Andrea Swensson takes us through the neighborhoods and venues, and the lives and times, that produced the Minneapolis Sound. Visit the Near North neighborhood where soul artist Wee Willie Walker, recording engineer David Hersk, and the Big Ms first put the Minneapolis Sound on record. Across the Mississippi River in the historic Rondo district of St. Paul, the gospel-meets-R&B groups the Exciters and the Amazers take hold of a community that will soon be all but erased by the construction of I-94. From King Solomon’s Mines to the Flame, from The Way in Near North to the First Avenue stage (then known as Sam’s) where Prince would make a triumphant hometown return in 1981, Swensson traces the journeys of black artists who were hard-pressed to find venues and outlets for their music, struggling to cross the color line as they honed their sound. And through it all, there’s the music: blistering, sweltering, relentless funk, soul, and R&B from artists like Maurice McKinnies, Haze, Prophets of Peace, and The Family, who refused to be categorized and whose boundary-shattering approach set the stage for a young Prince Rogers Nelson and his peers Morris Day, André Cymone, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis to launch their careers, and the Minneapolis Sound, into the stratosphere. A visit to Prince’s Paisley Park and a conversation with the artist provide a rare glimpse into his world and an intimate sense of his relationship to his legacy and the music he and his friends crafted in their youth.




And Then We Danced


Book Description

“Captivating…equal parts memoir and cultural history, Henry Alford seamlessly interweaves heartwarming and hilarious anecdotes about his deep dive into all things dance” (Misty Copeland, The New York Times Book Review). When Henry Alford wrote about his experience with a Zumba class for The New York Times, little did he realize that it was the start of something much bigger. Dance would grow and take on many roles for Henry: exercise, stress reliever, confidence builder, an excuse to travel, a source of ongoing wonder, and—when he dances with Alzheimer’s patients—even a kind of community service. Tackling a wide range of forms (including ballet, hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, tap, contact improvisation, Zumba, swing), Alford’s grand tour takes us through the works and careers of luminaries ranging from Bob Fosse to George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp to Arthur Murray. Rich in insight and humor, Alford mines both personal experience and fascinating cultural history to offer a witty and ultimately moving portrait of how dance can express all things human. And Then We Danced “is in one sense a celebration of hoofer in all its wonder and variety, from abandon to refinement. But it is also history, investigation, memoir, and even, in its smart, sly way, self-help…very funny, but more, it is joyful—a dance all its own” (Vanity Fair).




Kaiso!


Book Description

This volume is a collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, the African American dancer, anthropologist and social activist. It includes articles, her essays on dance and anthropology and chapters from her volume of memoirs, 'Minefields'.




Desert Dancing


Book Description

From the book's beginning: She calls it desert dancing, what we do out there. It's a place some of us call home, no matter where we live; a place you go back to, even when you've never been there before. Deserts around the world may be different, but the feeling is the same; the hearts of prophets and devils alike beat stronger there. A place you feel eternity. Home for the spirit. Forbidding -- to some. Bleak and lonely. No desert rat can deny these feelings at times. That's part of it. It's also the primordial challenge of surviving, low-tech life and death, surrounded by a rugged, powerful beauty and the wonderful adaptations of Mother Nature to the difficult, dry world of the desert. Animals that can live their entire lives without a drink of water. Seeds that can lay dormant for years, then germinate after a desert rainstorm that offers just enough water to bring them to life. The more high-tech my tools and toys, the more I need my desert time, my desert dancing. Reviews: ... goes beyond being a simple A to B guidebook. Desert Dancing reads like the journal of a friend, who, in a highly readable style, shares with you a wonderful trip. Excellent research, combined with an in-person familiarity of the subject at hand, makes this a necessary volume for anyone considering a trip into the desert, or for the armchair explorer who wants to gain a sense of what the desert is all about. -- Bob Moore, Editor Route 66 magazine. Wow! You can feel the heat, see the old West as it was and what it has become. This books makes you want to pack up your vehicle and head to the desert, but don't leave home without the book - you'll get lost in that vast sea of sand without it. Read this book and you'll enjoy what the California desert really has to offer. Water, water, water, please! An outstanding adventure. Excellent reading. -- Leslie Curtis Riley from Clovis, CA. A combination guidebook/journal to this enchanting region. Filled with historical notes and details of the culture, Desert Dancing is a trip for your senses. Alongside practical travel information you'll find insight into the area's past, and the legends and myths that survive today. Visit sacred places and learn of their mysteries. Directions, places to stay and eat, plus advice on safe passage in this harsh but beautiful terrain




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