Biography: general Books

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Book SynopsisMildred Muhammad shares her story about rising up from the domestic abuse she endured from her ex-husband, John Allen Muhammad, the convicted D.C. Sniper.Mildred witnessed firsthand John’s bizarre behavior after he returned from the Gulf War, but no one—including her family, friends, and local police—took her warnings seriously. Even when John kidnapped their three children for eighteen months, changing their identities and living with them on the run in Antigua, or when he threatened to kill Mildred, her pleas for help went unfounded and she was forced to live undercover for eight months in a women’s shelter. Everyone knew John as a charming and intelligent man. No one could fathom that he posed a serious threat to Mildred, let alone the ten innocent victims he and his seventeen-year-old accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo would later kill to carry out John’s heinous plot to get custody of his and Mildred’s children...permanently. What began as a domestic case eventually victimized millions. And it has taken years for Mildred and her children to heal from the fear and psychological trauma they endured. In Scared Silent, Mildred shares her personal story to show how domestic violence devastates entire families, including the children, and hopes that what she reveals will give new insight on this national social ill.

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Book SynopsisShannon McQuaide's book explores the benefits and practical application of yoga and its benefit to first responders.Table of Contents Part I: The Crisis in the Fire Service 1. Today’s Fire Service Needs a Conscious Warrior Culture Part II: East Meets West—Why Yoga Belongs in the Fire Station 2. From Badass Warrior to Savasana: The Benefits of Yoga for Firefightersand First Responders 3. What Does Resilience Have to Do with Yoga? Part III: The Science behind Yoga and Mindfulness 4. How Yoga Reduces Chronic Stress and What That Means for Your Job and Your Life 5. Take Heart: How Yoga and Mindfulness Mitigate Chronic Diseasesand Disorders Part IV: How to Set Up an Evidence-Based Yoga Program in Your Fire Station 6. Fireflex Yoga Fundamentals: Everything You Need to Know 7. Day One: Starting on the Right Foot Part V: The Classes 8. My Hips Are Too Tight! Classes 1 and 2 9. Shouldering the Burden: Classes 3–4 10. Trunk Stability for Your Aching Back: Classes 5–6 11. Balancing Your Life: Classes 7 and 8 12. #ItAllConnects: Classes 9–10 Part VI: The Conscious Warrior1 3. The Conscious Warrior: A Mind-Body Approach to Leadership The Yoga Challenge

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Book SynopsisAs a musician and fine arts photographer Diane Asseo Griliches has observed the many distinctive and dynamic ways in which music teachers interact with their students. These 60 black and white photographs capture unique moments in the lively teaching sessions, and the viewer sees great musician/teachers (YoYo Ma, Jimmy Heath, Roman Totenberg, Bobbie McFerrin, and Ravi Shankar, to name but a few) photographed in the act! We are led into a world few have been privileged to share, where one sees the passion, devotion, joy and agony of hard work, the concentration and approval in the faces and body language of students and teachers, and through it all, the pleasures of shared music making. This book involves classical, jazz and ethnic areas of music. Each image is accompanied by a short biography of the teacher as well as a quotation from the teacher or student. All will respond to the very human emotions and the fine photography. This is a book for music lovers and lovers of photography. When one hears the names Yo-Yo Ma, Paula Robison, Bobbie McFerrin, and Ravi Shankar, great musicians immediately spring to mind. What most people do not know is that these dedicated people are also passionate teachers. From intimate one-on-one lessons to larger classroom sessions, these tireless musician/teachers are passing along the secrets of their art to the next generation. In Teaching Musicians, musician and fine arts photographer Diane Asseo Griliches leads us into a world few have been privileged to enter. The students are sensitive, vulnerable, reaching for confidence and achievement, and the teachers are encouraging with humor, critical commentary, generous guidance, or excited demonstration. The dynamic exchanges between student and teacher are observed through body language, facial expressions, and commentary. These convey much in attitude and approach, and through these intense photographic images one can experience the importance of the making of a musician. The photographer has entered into the other life of these fine musicians -- the life as a teacher -- and captured these moments for posterity. We also learn something of the life of these teachers, and relish what they or their students have to say.

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Book SynopsisThis relationship, like all relationships, is about acceptance and trust. In each moment I am challenged by my own prejudice and fears. Disabled or not, to witness a child grow up and allow them to develop as themselves, to nurture potential but not overwhelm is a daunting task facing all parents. With a child who has a disability it is hard to ignore this task. Even the most mundane experiences are heightened and intensified. The pace of life is slowed down and so these feelings that accompany this journey unavoidably rise to the surface daily. My struggle has been to stay close enough to a core sense of myself and not to be seduced by an external image of 'how to live' and 'what's important' but to a vision created by just us in the present reality of our lives. When you have a learning difficulty you already live outside a well-defined box. Often being 'different' can be liberating. This is my point of view. I do not intend to speak for other mothers. It is the history I have created and I am aware that there are many different ways to tell this narrative. Each child is different and each child with Downs syndrome is different. This document is about being 'Up Close,' up close to both of us. Up Close: A Mother's View is an extraordinary book. With some fifty photographs taken over the first twelve years of her daughter Ophir's life, and a meditative, thoughtful text, Fiona Yaron-Field conveys her moods and feelings, reactions and impulses as a mother. Her lucid words frame the record of an affectionate and unflinching focus on her relationship with her growing daughter, reflected back through the lens of the camera. Fiona has worked as a professional photographer and Art Psychotherapist for over fifteen years. Her work has primarily focused on the family and running a successful portrait business. She has worked in various community-based projects teaching photography and facilitating groups of children and adults with both mental and physical disabilities. Fiona has exhibited her photographic work, and most recently her show Shifting Perspectives was shown at the OXO Tower, London, after touring in the UK. Her latest project is due to be exhibited in June 2008. She is the mother of two girls. Ophir, her eldest, has Downs syndrome.Trade Review"This is a very moving and beautiful piece of work. I find these images and words extremely emotional and full of feeling. Up Close: A Mother's View is just a wonderful book." - Dame Helen Mirren, DBE"

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird: The modern classic that spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list and that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation.  Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared light-skinned woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in orchestrated chaos with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Mommy, a fiercely protective woman with dark eyes full of pep and fire, herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. God is the color of water, Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college—and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

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Book SynopsisWendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder—a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she’s never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family— looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House—exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura’s hometowns. Whether she’s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of “the Laura experience.” The result is an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones—and find that our old love has only deepened.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisMatt Sanford's life and body were irrevocably changed at age 13 on a snowy lowa road. On that day, his family's car skidded off an overpass, killing Matt's father and sister and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down and confined to a wheelchair. His mother and brother escaped from the accident unharmed but were left to pick up the pieces of their decimated family. This pivotal event set Matt off on a lifelong journey, from his intensive care experiences at the Mayo Clinic to becoming a paralyzed yoga teacher and founder of a non-profit organization. Forced to explore what it truly means to live in a body, he emerges with an entirely new view of being a whole person."Waking" is a chronicle of that process. By turns agonizingly personal, philosophical, and heartbreakingly honest, this groundbreaking memoir takes the reader inside the body, heart, and mind of a boy whose world has been shattered. The author allows us to follow with him as he rebuilds from the ground up, searching for healing stories to help him reconnect his mind and his body. To do so, he must reject much of what traditional medicine tells him and instead turn to yoga as a centerpiece of his daily practice.The author finds not only a better life, but meaning and purpose in the mysterious distance that we all experience between mind and body. In searingly candid, frequently poetic language, Sanford pulls back the curtain on what it means to survive devastating trauma, from returning to a broken life to the uncertainty of finding sexual intimacy with a paralyzed body. But first and foremost the author offers a powerful message about the endurance of the human spirit, and of the body that houses it.Trade Review“Losing his father, his sister--and his legs--in a terrible car accident at the age of 13 did not stop Matthew Sanford from living his life . . . In Waking, he offers a powerful, honest account of his battle: awakening a spirit within a damaged body.” —Psychology Today“This is a riveting, heartbreaking, heart-opening saga. . . . Months after first reading it, I find myself appreciating his writing and the depth of his thinking more and more.” —Nina Utne, Chair, Utne magazine“His paralysis has taught him powerful lessons about consciousness . . . [Sanford] will truly dare readers to appreciate their own bodies and lives.” —Yoga Journal“From a hard-won understanding of how the body has intelligence and is an aspect of the soul, the author presents us with a new revitalizing vision of what it is to be human.” —Susan Griffin, author of Woman and Nature

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Book SynopsisIn this provocative book, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the most outspoken critic of the civil-rights establishment in America today, lays bare its corrupt leadership, courageously taking aim at the bigest names?Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, among others?claiming they are nothing more than scam artists profiting off the hatred and disorder they foster in the black community. Peterson insists it's time to throw off the oppression of the established black leadership and stand for the American ideals of freedom, personal responsibility, free enterprise, and moral principle.

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Book Synopsis"One day I'll be in that house," said ten year old Condoleezza Rice as she gazed across the White House's expansive front lawn.Of course, Condi made good on that promise. With poise and gracefulness?combined with an iron will and determination?rarely seen in Washington, Rice has become one of the most iconic and influential figures on the world stage. This is her story.Condi provides an in-depth study of the life, faith, and achievements of one of America's most fascinating women. From her humble beginnings in segregated Alabama to her academic career, from her first days in Washington to her appointment as Secretary of State and beyond, Condi investigates Rice's rise to political prominence. Drawing from in-depth research, Mary Beth Brown explores how Condi's parents, mentors, faith, and defining moments have helped her grow into a position of power and global influence.Here is a story of inspiration, of principle, and of the limitless opportunities for those who pursue their dreams with unfailing hope and dogged determination.

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Book SynopsisIn an autobiography marked by staggering vulnerability, former NBA star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf–whose given name was Chris Jackson before converting to Islam and changing it in 1991–recounts the twists, turns, trials, and triumphs of his life. He is perhaps most well-known for being exiled from the league for praying—instead of standing and saluting the flag – during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games throughout the 1995–96 season. Abdul-Rauf’s protest sent shockwaves through the NBA that can still be felt today. With wit and candor, Abdul-Rauf tells the story of how he rose to the top of his game—only to have his career taken away in the blink of an eye when he stood up for his principles. He also recounts his experiences living with Tourette Syndrome, committing his life to the Islamic faith, and growing up estranged from his father.In the Blink of an Eye challenges readers to examine our own lives by asking what we value, how we want to be remembered, and how we can contribute to making the world a better place. Through evocative passages that place the reader in the heat of the moment as well as poignant portraits of the important people in his life, In the Blink of an Eyemust-read for anyone who has faced down adversity by standing up for the integrity of their own life, path, and identity. From his confrontations with racism—including the burning down of his house—to his difficult relationship with some of his closest family members, Adbul-Rauf reveals in intimate detail the important and inspirational, if painful, episodes that shaped his life.

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