Life's Journey Into Despair and Failure


Book Description

For years, I was a proud employee of General Motors. I loved my work as a Journeyman Electrician. Unfortunately, my work was transformed into a horror story when I was assigned to Pontiac Assembly Center. There, I was routinely bullied, harassed, and threatened by co-workers and supervisors. When I asked GM management for help, they responded by aligning themselves with my persecutors. I was threatened with physical violence, stalked, denied safety rights, forced to do work others were unwilling to do, and refused medical treatment. I was removed from a coveted job by a Superintendent, who cited my MS condition, blatantly ignoring rights afforded under ADA. I was called "Black Nigger Bitch". There were pictures posted about the plant, where I was depicted as "ROADKILL". KKK style nooses were hung in the plant. A General Foreman pressed his face close to mine and said, "I can't promise you you're going to live the next few minutes." I next turned to the justice system for help. When my case went before a Circuit Court Judge, he swiftly and willfully granted summary disposition judgments in GM's favor. Undaunted, I began my own investigation. In doing so, I discovered that 108 pages of my deposition had disappeared. I uncovered a letter from a GM executive threatening a union official who planned on helping me. My lawyer lied to me about having filed an appeal. Where is the justice when a court of law condones this as acceptable behavior in a civilized society? How can America hold itself out as a free and just society that other countries would choose to emulate? Should corporate entities such as GM be allowed to not only bend the law, but to break the law? How and why could such travesty have been allowed to occur?




Sealed


Book Description

Katie Langston is an unlikely convert to Christianity. She grew up in a devout, conservative Mormon family in Utah, served a proselytizing mission to Bulgaria when she was 21, married for "time and all eternity" in the Mormon temple when she was 23. From the outside, she had a typical Mormon life. Inside, she was coming apart at the seams. From childhood, she battled "The Questions"—obsessive-compulsive disorder, though she didn't have a diagnosis for it until much later—and lived inside a complex maze of anxiety and fear. This was compounded by Mormonism's emphasis on "worthiness," a designation of acceptability in Mormon practice, that brought her to the edge of despair as a young mother. Then, almost by accident, she had an encounter with the grace of Jesus Christ—and her world changed. In candid but not sensationalized ways, Langston explores little-understood Mormon practices and teachings while grappling with universal human questions such as the nature of faith, the complexity of family, the process of healing, and what it means to truly belong. This book is intended to be a bridge-builder, a way to help non-Mormons understand Mormonism and Mormons orthodox Christianity through the power of personal narrative. Most of all, it is a testimony of Jesus Christ, in the hopes that those who read it—Mormon, Christian, or neither—will catch a glimpse of the spectacular, life-changing grace of God.




The Journey from Abandonment to Healing


Book Description

Like Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's groundbreaking On Death and Dying, Susan Anderson's book clearly defines the five phases of a different kind of grieving--grieving over a lost relationship. An experienced professional who has specialized in helping people with loss, heartbreak, and abandonment for more than two decades, Susan Anderson gives this subject the serious attention it deserves. The Journey From Abandonment to Healing is designed to help all victims of emotional breakups--whether they are suffering from a recent loss, or a lingering wound from the past; whether they are caught up in patterns that sabotage their own relationships, or they're in a relationship where they no longer feel loved. From the first stunning blow to starting over, it provides a complete program for abandonment recovery.




I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die


Book Description

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.




He


Book Description

What does it really mean to be a man? What are some of the landmarks along the road to mature masculinity? And what of the feminine components of a man's personality? Robert A. Johnson explores these questions in this new edition of He, updated to reflect his thinking on these subjects. Book jacket.




Mastering Life's Timeline


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive guide on how to make the most of each stage of your life, covering the main phases of growth, reproduction, caregiving, mentorship, and decline, with a clear focus on rationality, masculinity, and practical advice.




Eloquence in Trouble


Book Description

Eloquence in Trouble captures the articulation of several troubled lives in Bangladesh as well as the threats to the very genres of their expression, lament in particular. The first ethnography of one of the most spoken mother tongues on earth, Bangla, this study represents a new approach to troubles talk, combining the rigor of discourse analysis with the interpretive depth of psychological anthropology. Its careful transcriptions of Bangladeshi troubles talk will disturb some readers and move others--beyond past academic discussion of personhood in South Asia.




J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia


Book Description

A detailed work of reference and scholarship, this one volume Encyclopedia includes discussions of all the fundamental issues in Tolkien scholarship written by the leading scholars in the field. Coverage not only presents the most recent scholarship on J. R. R. Tolkien, but also introduces and explores the author and scholar's life and work within their historical and cultural contexts. Tolkien's fiction and his sources of influence are examined along with his artistic and academic achievements- including his translations of medieval texts- teaching posts, linguistic works, and the languages he created. The 550 alphabetically arranged entries fall within the following categories of topics: adaptations; art and illustrations; characters in Tolkien's work; critical history and scholarship; influence of Tolkien; languages; biography; literary sources; literature; creatures and peoples of Middle-earth; objects in Tolkien's work; places in Tolkien's work; reception of Tolkien; medieval scholars; scholarship by Tolkien; medieval literature; stylistic elements; themes in Tolkien's works; Theological/ philosophical concepts and philosophers; Tolkien's contemporary history and culture; works of literature.




Retelling the Stories of Our Lives: Everyday Narrative Therapy to Draw Inspiration and Transform Experience


Book Description

Our lives and their pathways are not fixed in stone; instead they are shaped by story. If we tell stories that emphasize only desolation, then we become weaker. If we tell stories in ways that make us stronger, we can soothe our losses and erase sorrows. Learning how to re-envision the stories we tell about ourselves can make an enormous difference in the ways we live our lives. Drawing on wisdom form the field of narrative therapy, this book will help people rewrite and retell the stories of their lives, reclaiming and celebrating experiences in the face of specific challenges such as trauma, abuse, personal failure, grief, and aging. Readers are introduced to key ideas of narrative practice like externalizing problems--"the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem"--and the concept of "re-membering" one's life. Easy-to-understand examples and exercises help readers make these techniques their own, leading them on a path to reclaim their past and re-envision their future. -- Publisher's description.




The Twentieth-Century American Fiction Handbook


Book Description

THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN FICTION Accessibly structured with entries on important historical contexts, central issues, key texts and the major writers, this Handbook provides an engaging overview of twentieth-century American fiction. Featured writers range from Henry James and Theodore Dreiser to contemporary figures such as Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Pynchon, and Sherman Alexie, and analyses of key works include The Great Gatsby, Lolita, The Color Purple, and The Joy Luck Club, among others. Relevant contexts for these works, such as the impact of Hollywood, the expatriate scene in the 1920s, and the political unrest of the 1960s are also explored, and their importance discussed. This is a stimulating overview of twentieth-century American fiction, offering invaluable guidance and essential information for students and general readers.