Shadow Books

Facing the Sunshine: A Young Woman's Emergence From the Shadows of Sexual Abuse and Anorexia is the true-life memoir of author Sarah Jane Thornton, whose childhood was savaged by the specter of sexual abuse. At age sixteen, she fled home and began to systematically starve herself, which nearly killed her; hospitalized for two years after a suicide attempt at age twenty-one, she was subjected to seclusion, shock therapy, restraint with medication, and other questionable treatments. It was psychotherapy that gradually succeeded in helping her, along with self-empowering interactions and her own inner strength. Surpassing expectations, she earned her own right to be discharged, and as an adult found it possible to live with her father and former abuser, discovering the healing power of forgiveness and looking toward a better future. A powerful and ultimately inspirational tale of learning to enjoy and cherish life despite years of suffering past.

If you like crazy metaphors worked into the pages of a book like spillt lunch, you've got to give Rob Smith's stuff a gander. He writes well, he conceives interesting plots, and he throws it all together like a thousand monkeys banging on a thousand typewriters. I love all of his books, and seeing as I've met the author, I can vouch for his character and his good taste in cologne.

From the Introduction by Carrie Fisher, the extraordinary photographs by a young photographer, Lauren
Greenfield (whose subsequent work more than justified our excitement over this book), to the afterword
by Richard Rodriquez, who unfailingly expresses in the most sparse and articulate prose, the exact phrase
to describe what we all wish we had the power to think and say, this is a book of both accomplishment
beyond her years, and the promise of extraordinary work in the future.

Buy it. Read it and review the images many times. It only gets better with each insight gained from picking
it up again and again.

I am fascinated by the minds behind my favorite minds. President Thomas S. Monson, member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ, obliges my whim.

This book contains many of President Monson's favorite quotes and pearls of wisdom. This isn't a President Monson Quote book, though this fluent speaker deserves one, but it is rather a book of his favorite quotes from other people. He has great quotes and quips, and it is worth the price of the book.

Countries sometimes to act like rival highschool teams. And the more similar the schools (or countries) the stronger the rivalry. In schools they play football. With countries they go to war.

But all of a sudden this doean't work any more. The Cold War never turned very hot. I've often wondered if this was because of nuclear weapons. For once, the old men can't sit around and send young people off to do the fighting. The old men, sitting in their capital building are just as much on the front line as the Grunt carrying a rifle. The longest stretch of time since the Roman era passed with the largest powers going to war.

In this book, the authors describe a similar situation that seems to exist between India and Pakistan. After fighting several smaller wars, both countries obtained atomic weapons. Now they have avoided a war. Did the leaders suddenly realize that their own personal hide was on the line?

Do you think that Osama would think differently if he was convinced that continued bombings might cause a mushroom cloud to grow over Mecca?

I found a battered paperback in a second hand shop and picked it up as it had a rare interview with Stanley Kubrick discussing his plans for Napoleon.

There is a mixed bags of directors, some established (Stanley Kubrick, Richard Lester, Arthur Penn); others just starting out (Jim McBride, Brian De Palma) and those plain weird (Norman Mailer, Andy Warhol).

it is interesting to read the opinions and experiences of these film makers. There are some hilairous prophecies i.e. Roger Corman claims that Pay TV will be a failure.

Very difficult to get hold of a copy now, but should one snap it up quickly.

Former naval officer Marsha Hansen and former naval captain Peter A. Huchthausen present Finding God in the Shadows: Stories from the Battlefield of Life, tales of the largely unknown and unsung men and women serving in the military. All the stories are true; some speak of severe situations and moments of desperation on the battlefield, yet their purpose is neither to shock nor to promote a specific theology, but rather to explore issues of faith and ethics through the life experiences of people who have been changed by moments of crisis. The stories' settings range from World War II, to the Vietnam War, to the Cold War. Each story is followed by a biblical reflection that contrasts the characters and the tale against biblical events. Finding God in the Shadows is a profoundly moving introspection about the light that faith can bring to life's darkest moments, and is highly recommended.

Daugherty may be best known for his novels and short stories (Amazon has them all), but this sequence of linked essays on his Red Dirt homeland and the diaspora of its hardscrabble settlers shows us the initial sparks of his fictional fire -- while also proving, in itself, a moving and significant investigation.

The Oklahoma City bombing in the mid-90s -- which this book presents, cannily, as an in-country foreshadowing of the terrible events of 9/11 -- brings Daugherty back to his old family touchstones around that city and then across the depressed Southwest. He interviews eyewitnesses (including family members), digs into pertinent first-hand materials old and new, and arrives at the horrified conclusion that the bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was himself closely akin to his victims, the frustrated and embittered Okies.

With a sensitivity to the criminal mind worthy of Truman Capote, Daugherty demonstrates how McVeigh was brought to his violence by the same forces as drove the hand-to-mouth migrants of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" or Woody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty." The sorry cases of the 1930s were as badly used as McVeigh himself, and many, to be sure, teetered close to such destructive acting out. And "Five Shades" uncovers this abiding pain, eating at generation after generation of Westerners, along the same route as the refugees took from Dust Bowl days to the 1990s: Daugherty drives to California, as much as he can on Route 66. Along the way he gets as close as he can to the lives of migrant laborers these days, and finds out how their suffering has taken a toll on him as well.

A book of hard journeys, honest music, and accumulating loss, "Five Shades of Shadow" adds up to a fine and artful darkness. Yet it achieves illumination, in the end, exposing the viciously deepening divide in our country and beyond between the haves and have-nots.

On the Mississippi by Memphis Dr. David Stewart attends a gala on the fancy Memphis Queen III riverboat when he notices the woman in black wearing a veil. He wants to meet her so he crosses the crowded ballroom floor to ask her to dance with him, but when he reaches where she was standing she is gone. He assumes she left, but soon finds her on the deck. Still drawn to the strangely garbed stranger, he talks with her. He finds Lisette refreshing especially her enthusiastic almost child-like reaction to locales that can be seen from the vessel as if she never seen anything like these edifices before. However she soon disappears again without a trace.

He dreams of seeing Lisette soon, but is upset that he has no personal information to contact her. David reads a stunning article on the disappearance of the luxurious riverboat Cajun Star in 1885, which included on the passenger list the names of Lisette and David. As his logic fails him and he ponders what is going on David wonders how to save the life of a woman he thinks he once loved in a previous century but he knows he loves in this century.

ASK A SHADOW TO DANCE is an intriguing paranormal romance that will remind readers of the book and movie SOMEWHERE IN TIME. The haunting tale grips the reader at about the same that it grips David as he begins to realize that he is about to peruse an enticing woman in the shadows of time. The lead couple makes this eerie thriller work as the audience will be as haunted as they are.

Harriet Klausner

If he had known what he knew now Adrian would never have entangled himself with a fiery redheaded beauty by the name of Therese Osmoscescu. Exquisite and seductive, Adrian immediately fell under her spell and what resulted from their raw, sexual escapade was Therese turning Adrian into a creature of the night - a vampire.

Ten years had past since that horrific night and after spending all those years alone, existing only during the night and without a place to call home, Adrian pondered ending his life. However, before he could follow through with taking his own life he met Sir Sidney Chesswell. Instantly his life changed for the better because Sidney adopted Adrian has his `long lost son' and Sidney was determined to find a cure to make Adrian human again. But, that wasn't the only challenge the men faced - in enters the vivacious, red-haired, blue-eyed Katherine Edgeworth. A beautiful young woman with secrets of her own and who immediately awakens desires within Adrian that he had thought died long ago.

From Flame of Shadows sensual lustful beginning until the dramatic conclusion, Sahara Kelly kept me hanging onto each word. I eagerly raced through the pages, desperate to see what would happen next. The plot moved at an exciting, swift pace with a fascinating hero and heroine that I couldn't help but fall in love with. It was easy to see that both Adrian and Katherine belong together as a couple and they complimented each other very well; although both were hording secrets from one another. The chemistry between them sparked with heated flames and was hot enough to simply melt away the pages. I applaud Ms. Kelly on a wonderful job of creating a hero and heroine who instantly and fully connected with one another all while helping each other conquer evils that stemmed from their pasts. Flame of Shadows is an exhilarating, sizzling tale that I really enjoyed.

Nikita
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed