Flowers for Sarajevo


Book Description

Young Drasko is happy working with his father in the Sarajevo market. Then war encroaches. Drasko must run the family flower stand alone. One morning, the bakery is bombed and twenty-two people are killed. The next day, a cellist walks to the bombsite and plays the most heartbreaking music Drasko can imagine. The cellist returns for twenty-two days, one day for each victim of the bombing. Inspired by the musician's response, Drasko finds a way to help make Sarajevo beautiful again. Inspired by real events of the Bosnian War, award-winning songwriter and storyteller John McCutcheon tells the uplifting story of the power of beauty in the face of violence and suffering. The story comes to life with the included CD in which cellist Vedran Smailović accompanies McCutcheon and performs the melody that he played in 1992 to honor those who died in the Sarajevo mortar blast.




Texas Twilight


Book Description

Texas Badlands, 1886 Fresh out of medical school, John McCutcheon finds his stagecoach under attack by brutal outlaws. With the help of a feisty acquaintance, Lily Anthony, he manages to fend off the assault. Lily is attracted to the charming cowboy-doctor, with his chiseled good looks and teasing ways, then heartbroken to learn he's engaged to be married.




Montana Dawn: The McCutcheon Family


Book Description

Montana Territory, 1883 When Luke McCutcheon finds Faith Brown about to give birth in her rickety wagon, his first instincts are to ride for help. Instead, he stays and delivers a beautiful baby girl. Unable to leave the pretty young widow and her little son and newborn unprotected in the Montana wilderness, he brings them along on his family's cattle drive, to the absolute delight of the other friendly cowboys.




Mail-Order Brides of the West


Book Description

MAIL-ORDER BRIDES OF THE WEST is a new series created in collaboration by USA Today Bestselling Authors Caroline Fyffe and Debra Holland. The well-educated daughter of a lawyer, Trudy Bauer arrives at the St. Louis based Mail-Order Brides of the West agency full of excitement for an adventure of a lifetime. She befriends the agency's maid, Evie Davenport, and the two form a strong and lasting friendship. They vow to stay in contact through letters when Evie takes hold of her destiny and arranges a marriage on the sly. Each brave young woman is ready to face whatever an unknown groom and life in Montana can throw her way. In Fyffe's Novel, house servant Evie Davenport travels by stagecoach to Y Knot, Montana in a McCutcheon Family Novel. In Holland's book, bride-to-be Trudy Bauer rides the train to Sweetwater Springs, in a Montana Sky Novel. Through their correspondence, the friends keep each other abreast of their hardships, trials and tribulations-some of heartbreak, some of love. Watch for more exciting Mail-Order Brides of the West books to come....




Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way


Book Description

The classic guide to an unmedicated childbirth, fully revised for the twenty-first century—with updated information and attractive new illustrations and photos throughout. For women birthing vaginally, 90% of Bradley births are drug-free! The Bradley Method®, used and praised by women for almost seventy years, prepares you for drug and surgery-free childbirth and puts you in control by providing the tools to navigate evidence-based care. Certified childbirth educator Susan McCutcheon, one of Dr. Bradley’s first students, now makes this natural approach to childbirth more accessible than ever. You will learn: • Exercises and nutrition to get your body ready for birthing • To defuse fear by understanding all aspects of laboring • How to involve your partner as a birth coach and a fully engaged participant • What’s driving the induction epidemic and how to avoid an unnecessary induction • What’s driving the cesarean surgery epidemic and how to reduce your risk • How to get the information you need to make informed decisions about your birth “The Bradley Method’s simple objective, through relaxation, breathing, and visualization, is a birth free of the interventions frequently offered to women in the different stages of childbirth: fetal monitors, drug-induced labor, anesthesia, episiotomy, and Caesarean section. (Its) other defining feature, the husband’s active participation in the delivery, is critical to this overall goal of an intervention-free birth.”—Mothering




Christmas in the Trenches


Book Description

This moving book about peace, understanding, and unity is based on the real-life World War I event known as the Christmas Truce. It is cold and clear on Christmas Eve night in 1914. Suddenly, a strange sound pierces the darkness. Someone is singing a Christmas carol in German. Francis Tolliver and his fellow British soldiers are holed up in muddy trenches along the Western Front. Their enemies—German soldiers—lie in wait just across a field known as "No Man's Land." As the Germans' carol ends, Tolliver and the other British soldiers sing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Soon carols are being sung back and forth. Then a figure emerges in the dark, carrying a small Christmas tree with lighted candles. The British and German soldiers slowly leave their trenches—and the war—behind to stand together in the open field. This haunting story is adapted by award-winning songwriter John McCutcheon from his song of the same name. Henri Sørensen's traditional, full-color oil paintings reinforce the emotional power and dignity of the story. Back matter provides more information about the historical event, and a CD featuring readings of the story and recordings of "Silent Night" and "Christmas in the Trenches" is included.




Studying Religion


Book Description

Widely used as a primer, a text and a provocation to critical thinking, 'Studying Religion' aims to develop students' skills. The book clearly explains the methods and theories employed in the study of religion. Essays are offered on a range of topics: from the history and functions of religion to public discourse on religion and the classification of religions. The works of key scholars - from Karl Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Rudolf Otto to Mircea Eliade, James G. Frazer, and Sigmund Freud - are analysed and explored. 'Studying Religion' represents a shift away from the traditional focus of describing the exotic or curious religious 'Other' to an examination of how religious behaviours and institutions are studied. The book will be invaluable to students of religious studies.




McCutchen Meadows


Book Description

Over the course of 180 years the descendants of John McCutchen transformed a log house on a Kentucky land grant in Logan County into a beloved and handsome homeplace. McCutchen Meadows: A Family Story recounts how six generations cultivated ultimately more than 620 acres near Auburn, Kentucky. Written by John McCutchen's fifth great-grandson William G. Coke, McCutchen Meadows begins with Ulster immigrants arriving in Pennsylvania in 1728. It ends when the author spends one final night alone before the sale of his old family home. Through stories, deeds, wills, documents, and photographs, Coke weaves a compelling, close-up version of American life over nearly two centuries.




Happy Adoption Day!


Book Description

This adaptation of McCutcheon's song commemorates the day when a child joins an adoptive family. Complete with musical notation, these verses reassure adopted children they are special. Full-color illustrations.




Magician's Son


Book Description

An unflinchingly honest, thought-provoking account of growing up without a historySandy McCutcheon, one of Australia's most popular national broadcasters, was adopted into a respectable, well-off family, but it was one in which he never felt at home. His yearning for acceptance was matched by an instinct to rebel, and by frustration with his parents' refusal to acknowledge his adoption. He did not learn the truth about his birth for fifty years, and when he did the circumstances were so convoluted as to defy belief. Eventually he discovered a family with uncanny parallels between its generations, where history has been repeated not once but several times.Sandy's extraordinary story sheds light on things that affect us whether we're adopted or not: on how memory helps shape our sense of self, on the importance of not harbouring resentment, on the way the heart knows things that the mind does not. And the way life never stops delivering surprises . . .