Thank God I Got Polio


Book Description

A young boy suddenly collapses after contracting polio. After months in a polio ward, he goes home in a wheelchair. Despite being told he may never walk again, a conscious decision is made to surmount his physical and emotional challenges by living a life of adventure. With loving medical care, persistence, and courage, he succeeds. Most importantly, the adventure of life leads him back to faith, after a lifetime of denial. A story that will break your heart, and then put it back together again.




In Him All Things Hold Together


Book Description

The book tracks Jesus's story and its implications in prose and poetry--in scripture, story and song, sketches and snippets of essay. After starting with a chapter on ways of being with scripture (taking it seriously but often not literally) and suggestive chapters on God and the Old Testament, it moves from Jesus's incarnation through his ministry and passion for the Kingdom of God to his Passion and bodily resurrection. These are followed by chapters on "what happened next," including two chapters on contemporary Christianity, the good and the bad of it. The "take" on Jesus, as both title and sub-title suggest, is broad, in some ways quite orthodox but insisting on his call for compassion, social justice, inclusiveness and wholeness for all. It's also about Jesus alive and with us now, albeit in a different dimension from those with which we are familiar. The many meditations are often brief, and the poetry is "for people, and not just for critics and other poets"! There is much here to think about, but it's not an academic tome. It can be provocative, and often it's just plain fun!




1000 Years of Sobriety


Book Description

1000 Years of Sobriety features the moving personal accounts of twenty men and women who have each remained sober for more than fifty years. These are the real "old timers," keepers of the wisdom, men and women from around the world who are among the dwindling generations who joined Alcoholics Anonymous when Bill W. was still alive, and whose very commitment to sobriety is a testament to the enduring power of the program. The inspiring accounts collected here follow the time-tested formula used by millions of people who share their stories of hope in AA meetings every day: They tell us what they were like as active alcoholics, what triggered their decision to join AA, and the dramatic details of how they got sober--and how they've stayed sober for more than fifty years. Each story concludes with sage words of advice for others in recovery. Those who share their stories in 1000 Years of Sobriety are living proof that the human connection bonded by the Twelve Steps has unsurpassed powers, and that AA is a program for generations to come.




A Likely Story


Book Description

Mahoney recalls her summer as a domestic servant for the famous playwright.




Walking Through Fire


Book Description

The astonishing, Job-like story of how an existence filled with loss, suffering, questioning, and anger became a life filled with shocking and incomprehensible peace and joy. Vaneetha Risner contracted polio as an infant, was misdiagnosed, and lived with widespread paralysis. She lived in and out of the hospital for ten years and, after each stay, would return to a life filled with bullying. When she became a Christian, though, she thought things would get easier, and they did: carefree college days, a dream job in Boston, and an MBA from Stanford where she met and married a classmate. But life unraveled. Again. She had four miscarriages. Her son died because of a doctor's mistake. And Vaneetha was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, meaning she would likely become a quadriplegic. And then her husband betrayed her and moved out, leaving her to raise two adolescent daughters alone. This was not the abundant life she thought God had promised her. But, as Vaneetha discovered, everything she experienced was designed to draw her closer to Christ as she discovered "that intimacy with God in suffering can be breathtakingly beautiful."




Nemesis


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Set in a close-knit Newark neighborhood during a terrifying polio outbreak in 1944, a “book [that] has the elegance of a fable and the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama” (The New Yorker)—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral. Bucky Cantor is a vigorous, dutiful twenty-three-year-old playground director during the summer of 1944. A javelin thrower and weightlifter, he is disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. As the devastating disease begins to ravage Bucky’s playground, Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: fear, panic, anger, bewilderment, suffering, and pain. Moving between the streets of Newark and a pristine summer camp high in the Poconos, Nemesis tenderly and startlingly depicts Cantor’s passage into personal disaster, the condition of childhood, and the painful effect that the wartime polio epidemic has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children.




Men for God


Book Description

When God numbered Israel he counted the men over twenty who were able to fight. When Jesus began to build his church He chose twelve men, most of whom worked with their hands. The New Testament letters are all addressed to 'brothers'. Yet many churches today resemble lifeboats, saving women and children fi rst. What went wrong? How can it be put right? Why is it easier to get women converted than men?What are the differences between men and women? Is a man's daily work a necessary evil or his full-time Christian service? How can we disciple men today? These and many other questions about the roles and responsibilities of men are answered by David Pawson, who for some years has been leading seminars for men in this country and overseas under the banner of 'Men for God'.




Broken Star


Book Description

Chris and his friends try to live a normal life but World War II has changed everything. They have to entertain themselves, staying at home without movies and even church, most of the time, trying to avoid Old Lady Rainey, the town Gossip and Busybody. Chris and his friends learn a great deal about cigarettes and Sex. And Polio does strike one of their friends. By the end of the war, Chris has learned much about the broken, imperfect and war mangled world around him and realizes that he must fix it.




Thank God I'm Dead Already


Book Description

Sometimes when there is so much suffering in a persons life and nothing seems to turn out the way one plans, then it becomes easy to just give up on believing that there is a God in heaven who loves us and cares about our success. What we dont understand is that when we first give our lives to God, we agree to die. We agree to allow God to order the steps of our lives so that He can cause our destiny to fit His plans. That dying is very difficult, particularly when we dont understand it. This book is about the dyingand the coming to understand why it must happen.




Three Minutes for a Dog


Book Description

Contrary to popular belief Polio is not extinct. This is the true story of an indomitable spirit afflicted with unimaginable physical and psychological challenges. Paul Alexander’s life is a saga that started in 1946 and has been profoundly shaped by the Polio epidemic of the early 1950’s. Survivors of the 1950’s Polio Epidemic in America are rare. Polio victims, like Paul Alexander, who require the assistance of an “Iron Lung” respirator for their life’s breath are even rarer. Paul Alexander has crafted his life against all odds and has a courageous and compelling story to share with us all. Victims of Polio, their families, friends and communities are struggling to cope with this obscure but still dangerous infectious disease. This book is a testimony to the strength of the human spirit and an affirmation of the need to continue efforts to eradicate the pestilence of Polio from the planet.