The Saint I Ain't


Book Description

Sinners, saints and saviors collide in Bobby Johnston's stories, which chronicle the savagery and poetry of opressive Catholic upbringing in 1970s Rust-Belt America. Johnston weaves landscapes of transgression and absolution, humor and resilience into his sharp-eyed tapestry of recall.




Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't


Book Description

In the long decade between the mid-fifties and the late sixties, jazz was changing more than its sound. The age of Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and Charles Mingus's The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady was a time when jazz became both newly militant and newly seductive, its example powerfully shaping the social dramas of the Civil Rights movement, the Black Power movement, and the counterculture. Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't is the first book to tell the broader story of this period in jazz--and American--history.




It Ain't So Awful, Falafel


Book Description

Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block...for the fourth time. California’s Newport Beach is her family’s latest perch, and she’s determined to shuck her brainy loner persona and start afresh with a new Brady Bunch name—Cindy. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Even puka shell necklaces, pool parties, and flying fish can't distract Cindy from the anti-Iran sentiments that creep way too close to home. A poignant yet lighthearted middle grade debut from the author of the bestselling Funny in Farsi. California Library Association’s John and Patricia Beatty Award Winner Florida Sunshine State Young Readers Award (Grades 6–8) New York Historical Society’s New Americans Book Prize Winner Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature, Honorable Mention Booklist 50 Best Middle Grade Novels of the 21st Century




Ain't But a Place


Book Description

This collection of fiction and poetry, memoirs and autobiography, history and journalism illuminates the African American experience in St. Louis in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.




Saint Anything


Book Description

A new blockbuster from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Dessen now available in paperback! Sydney's handsome, charismatic older brother, Peyton, has always dominated the family, demanding and receiving the lion's share of their parents' attention. And when Peyton's involvement in a drunk driving episode sends him to jail, Sydney feels increasingly rootless and invisible, worried that her parents are unconcerned about the real victim: the boy Peyton hit and seriously injured. Meanwhile, Sydney becomes friends with the Chathams, a warm, close-knit, eccentric family, and their friendship helps her understand that she is not responsible for Peyton's mistakes. Once again, the hugely popular Sarah Dessen tells an engrossing story of a girl discovering friendship, love, and herself. "This summer I'm looking forward to reading Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen."--John Green "The name Sarah Dessen has become synonymous with Young Adult contemporary fiction."--Entertainment Weekly Sarah Dessen is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contributions to YA literature, as well as the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Books by Sarah Dessen: That Summer Someone Like You Keeping the Moon Dreamland This Lullaby The Truth About Forever Just Listen Lock and Key Along for the Ride What Happened to Goodbye The Moon and More Saint Anything Once and for All




Saint Misbehavin'


Book Description

Have you ever been praying to your favorite patron saints and gotten the funny feeling that they ain’t listening? Well, you’ll be thrilled to know that there are some lesser-known saints to whom you might want to redirect your devotion! These not-so pious patrons for the 21st century are here to represent all your deepest transgressions in one hilarious volume. Accompanied by character profiles and biological facts that will have you rolling on the floor laughing, Saint Misbehavin’: Modern- Day Saints You’ve Never Heard Of is the answer to all your prayers.




It Ain't Gonna Happen!


Book Description

For those who don't think Our Lady Queen of Peace of Medjugorje speaks to issues of the day like the economy, money, jobs, housing...For those who don't think Our Lady is appearing to fundamentally change the world and the system by which it operates...For those who place their security in worldly systems of retirement, pensions, and 401K's, and think Our Lady does not have something to say to you...For those who think life will continue as normal, and that the tumbling stock markets will recover, that bailouts will work, and that everything will return as previous, guess what?Can the current world economic system co-exist with Our Lady of Medjugorje's apparitions? The answer to this question is not only surprising, but scary.What would you do to not become a slave? Should you act now? Is it okay to wait? Will the system recover from its present state? The answers can be found in this book. The results can only be found in your reaction...




The Healing


Book Description

A new edition of a National Book Award finalist follows a black faith healer whose shrewd observations about human nature are told with the rich lyricism of the oral storytelling tradition. From the acclaimed author of Corregidora, The Healing follows Harlan Jane Eagleton as she travels to small towns, converting skeptics, restoring minds, and healing bodies. But before she found her calling, Harlan had been a minor rock star’s manager and, before that, a beautician. Harlan retraces her story to the beginning, when she once had a fling with the rock star’s ex-husband and found herself infatuated with an Afro-German horse dealer. Along the way she’s somehow lost her own husband, a medical anthropologist now traveling with a medicine woman across eastern Africa. Harlan draws us deeper into her world and the mystery at the heart of her tale: the story of her first healing. The Healing is a lyrical and at times humorous exploration of the struggle to let go of pain, anger, and even love. Slipping seamlessly back through Harlan’s memories in a language rich with the textured cadences of unfiltered dialogue, Gayl Jones weaves her story to its dramatic—and unexpected—beginning.




Two Trains Running


Book Description

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson comes a “vivid and uplifting” (Time) play about unsung men and women who are anything but ordinary. August Wilson established himself as one of our most distinguished playwrights with his insightful, probing, and evocative portraits of Black America and the African American experience in the twentieth century. With the mesmerizing Two Trains Running, he crafted what Time magazine called “his most mature work to date.” It is Pittsburgh, 1969, and the regulars of Memphis Lee’s restaurant are struggling to cope with the turbulence of a world that is changing rapidly around them and fighting back when they can. The diner is scheduled to be torn down, a casualty of the city’s renovation project that is sweeping away the buildings of a community, but not its spirit. For just as sure as an inexorable future looms right around the corner, these people of “loud voices and big hearts” continue to search, to father, to persevere, to hope. With compassion, humor, and a superb sense of place and time, Wilson paints a vivid portrait of everyday lives in the shadow of great events.