Bessie: Lost & Found


Book Description

Fifteen-year-old Bessie MacIntyre and her best pal, Ash, find themselves in Heaven, with no memory of how or when or why they ended up there. And when Jason—Bessie’s trusted companion since childhood, and later her boyfriend—appears out of the blue, she feels slivers of fear run up and down her spine. Is there a dark side to Jason she wasn’t aware of? Is he the reason they’re here? Desperate for answers, Bessie is willing to break the most sacred laws in all of Heaven on her quest. She has to know. Was it Jason? Or was something . . . or someone far more sinister involved? With the gentle guidance of Angel Mel, Bessie gradually unravels the truth.




Sunk Without a Sound


Book Description

In November 1928 an empty scow was found adrift and empty in the Colorado River. No bodies were found. But since 1971 several people have come forward claiming to be the occupants; one confesses to being a murderer.




Bessie: Life & Death


Book Description

Fifteen-year-old Bessie MacIntyre has just endured the most traumatic experience of her young life; sadly caused by a series of events she had personally set in motion in the early hours of July 15, 2002. Now back at home in Ravenspond, Pennsylvania, she has to deal with the tragic aftermath and learn to live with the consequences of her actions. Will she find the inner strength to forgive herself and embrace life again? What will happen to those she had to leave behind? Was any of it real? Or did Bessie just dream all that crazy stuff about Heaven and her buddy Angel Mel in his Hawaiian shirts? Only time will tell what tomorrow may bring.







Missing Bessie


Book Description

It's the summer of 1972 and Bessie has just turned fifteen in Ravenspond, Canada. She is young, curious and restless. Having just broken up with her boyfriend Jason, she decides to hitchhike to Vancouver with her best pal, Ash, and catch her hero Chris Lisacker in concert. But instead of ending up on the West Coast, Bessie and Ash find themselves in Heaven, with no idea how they got there. With the help of the Hawaiian-shirted Angel, Mel, Bessie gradually recovers her memories. But when her fate is about to be revealed, does she really want to know the truth?




Bessie


Book Description

Considered by many to be the greatest blues singer of all time, Bessie Smith was also a successful vaudeville entertainer who became the highest paid African-American performer of the roaring twenties. This book--a revised and expanded edition of the classic biography of this extraordinary artist--debunks many of the myths that have circulated since her untimely death in 1937. Chris Albertson writes with insight and candor about the singer's personal life and her career, supplementing his historical research with dozens of interviews with her relatives, friends, and associates, in particular Ruby Walker Smith, a niece by marriage who toured with Bessie for over a decade. For this new edition he includes more details of Bessie's early years, new interview material, and a chapter devoted to events and responses that followed the original publication in 1971.




Bessie at School


Book Description




Bessie Among the Mountains


Book Description




Tasa's Song


Book Description

An extraordinary novel inspired by true events. 1943. Tasa Rosinski and five relatives, all Jewish, escape their rural village in eastern Poland—avoiding certain death—and find refuge in a bunker beneath a barn built by their longtime employee. A decade earlier, ten-year-old Tasa dreams of someday playing her violin like Paganini. To continue her schooling, she leaves her family for a nearby town, joining older cousin Danik at a private Catholic academy where her musical talent flourishes despite escalating political tension. But when the war breaks out and the eastern swath of Poland falls under Soviet control, Tasa’s relatives become Communist targets, her tender new relationship is imperiled, and the family’s secure world unravels. From a peaceful village in eastern Poland to a partitioned post-war Vienna, from a promising childhood to a year living underground, Tasa’s Song celebrates the bonds of love, the power of memory, the solace of music, and the enduring strength of the human spirit. 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY): Bronze Medal, Historical Fiction 2016 Foreword INDIES Book Awards: Finalist - Historical Fiction