Author: Edgar Crespo
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595826733
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
An orphan before age five, Germain spends two years living alone on the seashore in seventeenth century France. The fishermen call him "little prophet" since he can always foretell impending storms. One fateful day he strays into a castle of monks-and is not allowed to leave. The monks educate him and he is proved to be an excellent student, but he suffers from their cold and unfeeling ways. As a young man, Germain eventually takes his vows becoming a priest in the Catholic Church. He settles in a poor village with his faithful dog, Sultan, and it is here that he consoles the humble and oppressed-sometimes risking his life for their sake. As his reputation as a virtuous and holy man spreads, even royalty arrive for absolution of their crimes. Father Germain teaches love of the Creator and mankind with a belief that even the most hardened heart can be turned toward goodness. He exposes church hypocrisy and is persecuted by his superiors; yet he continues to teach according to his conscience. Memoirs of Father Germain is the touching, true account of this beloved priest's life relayed to the writer Amalia Domingo Soler of Spain. These stories of intrigue, adventure, human emotion, and morality will provide you with tremendous love, inspiration, and hope.
Memoirs of Father Germain
Author: Edgar Crespo
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595826733
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
An orphan before age five, Germain spends two years living alone on the seashore in seventeenth century France. The fishermen call him "little prophet" since he can always foretell impending storms. One fateful day he strays into a castle of monks-and is not allowed to leave. The monks educate him and he is proved to be an excellent student, but he suffers from their cold and unfeeling ways. As a young man, Germain eventually takes his vows becoming a priest in the Catholic Church. He settles in a poor village with his faithful dog, Sultan, and it is here that he consoles the humble and oppressed-sometimes risking his life for their sake. As his reputation as a virtuous and holy man spreads, even royalty arrive for absolution of their crimes. Father Germain teaches love of the Creator and mankind with a belief that even the most hardened heart can be turned toward goodness. He exposes church hypocrisy and is persecuted by his superiors; yet he continues to teach according to his conscience. Memoirs of Father Germain is the touching, true account of this beloved priest's life relayed to the writer Amalia Domingo Soler of Spain. These stories of intrigue, adventure, human emotion, and morality will provide you with tremendous love, inspiration, and hope.
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595826733
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
An orphan before age five, Germain spends two years living alone on the seashore in seventeenth century France. The fishermen call him "little prophet" since he can always foretell impending storms. One fateful day he strays into a castle of monks-and is not allowed to leave. The monks educate him and he is proved to be an excellent student, but he suffers from their cold and unfeeling ways. As a young man, Germain eventually takes his vows becoming a priest in the Catholic Church. He settles in a poor village with his faithful dog, Sultan, and it is here that he consoles the humble and oppressed-sometimes risking his life for their sake. As his reputation as a virtuous and holy man spreads, even royalty arrive for absolution of their crimes. Father Germain teaches love of the Creator and mankind with a belief that even the most hardened heart can be turned toward goodness. He exposes church hypocrisy and is persecuted by his superiors; yet he continues to teach according to his conscience. Memoirs of Father Germain is the touching, true account of this beloved priest's life relayed to the writer Amalia Domingo Soler of Spain. These stories of intrigue, adventure, human emotion, and morality will provide you with tremendous love, inspiration, and hope.
Son of a Gun
Author: Justin St. Germain
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0345538749
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY In the tradition of Tobias Wolff, James Ellroy, and Mary Karr, a stunning memoir of a mother-son relationship that is also the searing, unflinching account of a murder and its aftermath Tombstone, Arizona, September 2001. Debbie St. Germain’s death, apparently at the hands of her fifth husband, is a passing curiosity. “A real-life old West murder mystery,” the local TV announcers intone, while barroom gossips snicker cruelly. But for her twenty-year-old son, Justin St. Germain, the tragedy marks the line that separates his world into before and after. Distancing himself from the legendary town of his childhood, Justin makes another life a world away in San Francisco and achieves all the surface successes that would have filled his mother with pride. Yet years later he’s still sleeping with a loaded rifle under his bed. Ultimately, he is pulled back to the desert landscape of his childhood on a search to make sense of the unfathomable. What made his mother, a onetime army paratrooper, the type of woman who would stand up to any man except the men she was in love with? What led her to move from place to place, man to man, job to job, until finally she found herself in a desperate and deteriorating situation, living on an isolated patch of desert with an unstable ex-cop? Justin’s journey takes him back to the ghost town of Wyatt Earp, to the trailers he and Debbie shared, to the string of stepfathers who were a constant, sometimes threatening presence in his life, to a harsh world on the margins full of men and women all struggling to define what family means. He decides to confront people from his past and delve into the police records in an attempt to make sense of his mother’s life and death. All the while he tries to be the type of man she would have wanted him to be. Praise for Son of a Gun “[A] spectacular memoir . . . calls to mind two others of the past decade: J. R. Moehringer’s Tender Bar and Nick Flynn’s Another Bull____ Night in Suck City. All three are about boys becoming men in a broken world. . . . [What] might have been . . . in the hands of a lesser writer, the book’s main point . . . [is] amplified from a tale of personal loss and grief into a parable for our time and our nation. . . . If the brilliance of Son of a Gun lies in its restraint, its importance lies in the generosity of the author’s insights.”—Alexandra Fuller, The New York Times Book Review “[A] gritty, enthralling new memoir . . . St. Germain has created a work of austere, luminous beauty. . . . In his understated, eloquent way, St. Germain makes you feel the heat, taste the dust, see those shimmering streets. By the end of the book, you know his mother, even though you never met her. And like the author, you will mourn her forever.”—NPR “If St. Germain had stopped at examining his mother’s psycho-social risk factors and how her murder affected him, this would still be a fine, moving memoir. But it’s his further probing—into the culture of guns, violence, and manhood that informed their lives in his hometown, Tombstone, Ariz.—that transforms the book, elevating the stakes from personal pain to larger, important questions of what ails our society.”—The Boston Globe “A visceral, compelling portrait of [St. Germain’s] mother and the violent culture that claimed her.”—Entertainment Weekly
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0345538749
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY In the tradition of Tobias Wolff, James Ellroy, and Mary Karr, a stunning memoir of a mother-son relationship that is also the searing, unflinching account of a murder and its aftermath Tombstone, Arizona, September 2001. Debbie St. Germain’s death, apparently at the hands of her fifth husband, is a passing curiosity. “A real-life old West murder mystery,” the local TV announcers intone, while barroom gossips snicker cruelly. But for her twenty-year-old son, Justin St. Germain, the tragedy marks the line that separates his world into before and after. Distancing himself from the legendary town of his childhood, Justin makes another life a world away in San Francisco and achieves all the surface successes that would have filled his mother with pride. Yet years later he’s still sleeping with a loaded rifle under his bed. Ultimately, he is pulled back to the desert landscape of his childhood on a search to make sense of the unfathomable. What made his mother, a onetime army paratrooper, the type of woman who would stand up to any man except the men she was in love with? What led her to move from place to place, man to man, job to job, until finally she found herself in a desperate and deteriorating situation, living on an isolated patch of desert with an unstable ex-cop? Justin’s journey takes him back to the ghost town of Wyatt Earp, to the trailers he and Debbie shared, to the string of stepfathers who were a constant, sometimes threatening presence in his life, to a harsh world on the margins full of men and women all struggling to define what family means. He decides to confront people from his past and delve into the police records in an attempt to make sense of his mother’s life and death. All the while he tries to be the type of man she would have wanted him to be. Praise for Son of a Gun “[A] spectacular memoir . . . calls to mind two others of the past decade: J. R. Moehringer’s Tender Bar and Nick Flynn’s Another Bull____ Night in Suck City. All three are about boys becoming men in a broken world. . . . [What] might have been . . . in the hands of a lesser writer, the book’s main point . . . [is] amplified from a tale of personal loss and grief into a parable for our time and our nation. . . . If the brilliance of Son of a Gun lies in its restraint, its importance lies in the generosity of the author’s insights.”—Alexandra Fuller, The New York Times Book Review “[A] gritty, enthralling new memoir . . . St. Germain has created a work of austere, luminous beauty. . . . In his understated, eloquent way, St. Germain makes you feel the heat, taste the dust, see those shimmering streets. By the end of the book, you know his mother, even though you never met her. And like the author, you will mourn her forever.”—NPR “If St. Germain had stopped at examining his mother’s psycho-social risk factors and how her murder affected him, this would still be a fine, moving memoir. But it’s his further probing—into the culture of guns, violence, and manhood that informed their lives in his hometown, Tombstone, Ariz.—that transforms the book, elevating the stakes from personal pain to larger, important questions of what ails our society.”—The Boston Globe “A visceral, compelling portrait of [St. Germain’s] mother and the violent culture that claimed her.”—Entertainment Weekly
Daddy, We Hardly Knew You
Author: Germaine Greer
Publisher: Rosetta Books
ISBN: 0795338147
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
“Ferocious psychic need and volcanic energy drive this combined memoir, detective story and travelogue” from the author of The Female Eunuch (The New Yorker). After her father died, influential feminist writer and public intellectual Germaine Greer realizes how little she knows about him. She decides to track the life of her father, an Australian intelligence officer during World War II, to uncover the roots of his secrecy and distance. As she painstakingly assembles the jigsaw pieces of the past, Greer discovers surprising secrets about her father, her family, and herself. During her three-year quest, Greer travels from England to Australia, Tasmania, India, and Malta; searches through scores of genealogical, civil, and military archives; and delves into the memories of the men and women who may—or may not—have known Reg Greer. Yet the heart of her “lyrical but brutal elegy” is her own emotional journey, as the startling facts behind her father’s façade force her to painfully examine her own notions of truth and loyalty, family and obligation (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). “Anyone who has done this kind of search will identify with Ms. Greer’s frustration, admire her persistence, laugh at her accuracy and rejoice in her discoveries.” —The New York Times Book Review “The deeply affecting climax is a remarkable feat of family reconstruction.” —Publishers Weekly
Publisher: Rosetta Books
ISBN: 0795338147
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
“Ferocious psychic need and volcanic energy drive this combined memoir, detective story and travelogue” from the author of The Female Eunuch (The New Yorker). After her father died, influential feminist writer and public intellectual Germaine Greer realizes how little she knows about him. She decides to track the life of her father, an Australian intelligence officer during World War II, to uncover the roots of his secrecy and distance. As she painstakingly assembles the jigsaw pieces of the past, Greer discovers surprising secrets about her father, her family, and herself. During her three-year quest, Greer travels from England to Australia, Tasmania, India, and Malta; searches through scores of genealogical, civil, and military archives; and delves into the memories of the men and women who may—or may not—have known Reg Greer. Yet the heart of her “lyrical but brutal elegy” is her own emotional journey, as the startling facts behind her father’s façade force her to painfully examine her own notions of truth and loyalty, family and obligation (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). “Anyone who has done this kind of search will identify with Ms. Greer’s frustration, admire her persistence, laugh at her accuracy and rejoice in her discoveries.” —The New York Times Book Review “The deeply affecting climax is a remarkable feat of family reconstruction.” —Publishers Weekly
The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain
Author: Andrew M. Greeley
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780812575972
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
A priest has gone missing in Paris, and Bishop Blackie Ryan is sent to the rescue.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780812575972
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
A priest has gone missing in Paris, and Bishop Blackie Ryan is sent to the rescue.
Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father
Author: Alysia Abbott
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393240525
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year In this vibrant memoir, Alysia Abbott recounts growing up in 1970s San Francisco with Steve Abbott, a gay, single father during an era when that was rare. Reconstructing their time together from a remarkable cache of Steve’s writings, Alysia gives us an unforgettable portrait of a tumultuous, historic period in San Francisco as well as an exquisitely moving account of a father’s legacy and a daughter’s love.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393240525
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year In this vibrant memoir, Alysia Abbott recounts growing up in 1970s San Francisco with Steve Abbott, a gay, single father during an era when that was rare. Reconstructing their time together from a remarkable cache of Steve’s writings, Alysia gives us an unforgettable portrait of a tumultuous, historic period in San Francisco as well as an exquisitely moving account of a father’s legacy and a daughter’s love.
Trust Me
Author: George Kennedy
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema
ISBN: 1557839166
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 229
Book Description
(Applause Books). "These are memoirs of a kid born in New York City in 1925. His dad, George Senior, was a pianist, composer, and orchestra leader at Proctor's Vaudeville Theatre, and his mother, Helen, played in a classic dance troupe. Hanky-panky ensued. They married, and I soon was the result... I write like I talk. A long time ago I tried making 'talking and telling the truth' one and the same. That isn't just difficult; it means painfully reviewing things you've been led to believe since you were a child. That's very hard to do. Like many, I have marched along adhering to conventions (sex, color, church, party, gang) without examination. There's a wonderful, protective 'togetherness' in that anonymity. You obey or are damned, less joined together than stuck together. You become an echo rather than a voice. This book is about what happens when you stop fearing and think. I like writing, but warmed-over BS is not on the menu. You are the most important thing in life. Every phrase in the book awkward or not is how I think and question everything. I wrote every word as if we were sitting together. I want you to think, too..." George Kennedy, from the preface
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema
ISBN: 1557839166
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 229
Book Description
(Applause Books). "These are memoirs of a kid born in New York City in 1925. His dad, George Senior, was a pianist, composer, and orchestra leader at Proctor's Vaudeville Theatre, and his mother, Helen, played in a classic dance troupe. Hanky-panky ensued. They married, and I soon was the result... I write like I talk. A long time ago I tried making 'talking and telling the truth' one and the same. That isn't just difficult; it means painfully reviewing things you've been led to believe since you were a child. That's very hard to do. Like many, I have marched along adhering to conventions (sex, color, church, party, gang) without examination. There's a wonderful, protective 'togetherness' in that anonymity. You obey or are damned, less joined together than stuck together. You become an echo rather than a voice. This book is about what happens when you stop fearing and think. I like writing, but warmed-over BS is not on the menu. You are the most important thing in life. Every phrase in the book awkward or not is how I think and question everything. I wrote every word as if we were sitting together. I want you to think, too..." George Kennedy, from the preface
A Stone of Hope
Author: Jim St. Germain
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062873229
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
In the tradition of The Other Wes Moore and Just Mercy, a searing memoir and clarion call to save our at-risk youth by a young black man who himself was a lost cause—until he landed in a rehabilitation program that saved his life and gave him purpose. Born into abject poverty in Haiti, young Jim St. Germain moved to Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, into an overcrowded apartment with his family. He quickly adapted to street life and began stealing, dealing drugs, and growing increasingly indifferent to despair and violence. By the time he was arrested for dealing crack cocaine, he had been handcuffed more than a dozen times. At the age of fifteen the walls of the system were closing around him. But instead of prison, St. Germain was placed in "Boys Town," a nonsecure detention facility designed for rehabilitation. Surrounded by mentors and positive male authority who enforced a system based on structure and privileges rather than intimidation and punishment, St. Germain slowly found his way, eventually getting his GED and graduating from college. Then he made the bravest decision of his life: to live, as an adult, in the projects where he had lost himself, and to work to reform the way the criminal justice system treats at-risk youth. A Stone of Hope is more than an incredible coming-of-age story; told with a degree of candor that requires the deepest courage, it is also a rallying cry. No one is who they are going to be—or capable of being—at sixteen. St. Germain is living proof of this. He contends that we must work to build a world in which we do not give up on a swath of the next generation. Passionate, eloquent, and timely, illustrated with photographs throughout, A Stone of Hope is an inspiring challenge for every American, and is certain to spark debate nationwide.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062873229
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
In the tradition of The Other Wes Moore and Just Mercy, a searing memoir and clarion call to save our at-risk youth by a young black man who himself was a lost cause—until he landed in a rehabilitation program that saved his life and gave him purpose. Born into abject poverty in Haiti, young Jim St. Germain moved to Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, into an overcrowded apartment with his family. He quickly adapted to street life and began stealing, dealing drugs, and growing increasingly indifferent to despair and violence. By the time he was arrested for dealing crack cocaine, he had been handcuffed more than a dozen times. At the age of fifteen the walls of the system were closing around him. But instead of prison, St. Germain was placed in "Boys Town," a nonsecure detention facility designed for rehabilitation. Surrounded by mentors and positive male authority who enforced a system based on structure and privileges rather than intimidation and punishment, St. Germain slowly found his way, eventually getting his GED and graduating from college. Then he made the bravest decision of his life: to live, as an adult, in the projects where he had lost himself, and to work to reform the way the criminal justice system treats at-risk youth. A Stone of Hope is more than an incredible coming-of-age story; told with a degree of candor that requires the deepest courage, it is also a rallying cry. No one is who they are going to be—or capable of being—at sixteen. St. Germain is living proof of this. He contends that we must work to build a world in which we do not give up on a swath of the next generation. Passionate, eloquent, and timely, illustrated with photographs throughout, A Stone of Hope is an inspiring challenge for every American, and is certain to spark debate nationwide.
Walking Through Walls
Author: Philip Smith
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416542949
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
Smith's hilarious and profound memoir about coming-of-age in 1960s Miami with a decorator father who discovers he has the power to talk to the dead and heal the sick.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416542949
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
Smith's hilarious and profound memoir about coming-of-age in 1960s Miami with a decorator father who discovers he has the power to talk to the dead and heal the sick.
A Practical Guide for the Spiritist
Author: Edgar Crespo
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595895174
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 77
Book Description
Having faced adversity and tragedy in his early life, Miguel Vives found salvation in Spiritism and renown and success as a healing and spiritual medium. Yet while Vives made his mark as a nineteenth-century Spiritist, for anyone who is determined to achieve moral and spiritual advancement in this lifetime and beyond, his teachings shine as a twenty-first century beacon of inspiration and affirmation. In this concise guidebook, translated from Spanish by Edgar Crespo, Vives draws a precise roadmap that shows how we can reach a new level of spiritual fulfillment and a profound sense of peace and communion with humanity. Based on his understanding of the natural and spiritual law of reincarnation, Vives provides guidelines for our obligations to our Creator and to Jesus-based on a universal moral code that goes beyond any creed or religion. Vives also shows how we are to behave with love and charity with our families, with ourselves, and with all other persons, even those who bring heartache and pain. Steered by an abiding devotion to moral and ethical conduct, Vives spells out how we can obtain the moral courage to triumph over the challenges of life.
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595895174
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 77
Book Description
Having faced adversity and tragedy in his early life, Miguel Vives found salvation in Spiritism and renown and success as a healing and spiritual medium. Yet while Vives made his mark as a nineteenth-century Spiritist, for anyone who is determined to achieve moral and spiritual advancement in this lifetime and beyond, his teachings shine as a twenty-first century beacon of inspiration and affirmation. In this concise guidebook, translated from Spanish by Edgar Crespo, Vives draws a precise roadmap that shows how we can reach a new level of spiritual fulfillment and a profound sense of peace and communion with humanity. Based on his understanding of the natural and spiritual law of reincarnation, Vives provides guidelines for our obligations to our Creator and to Jesus-based on a universal moral code that goes beyond any creed or religion. Vives also shows how we are to behave with love and charity with our families, with ourselves, and with all other persons, even those who bring heartache and pain. Steered by an abiding devotion to moral and ethical conduct, Vives spells out how we can obtain the moral courage to triumph over the challenges of life.
Driving with Dead People
Author: Monica Holloway
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847396909
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
At nine years old, Monica Holloway develops a fascination with the local funeral home. Small wonder, with a father who drives his Ford pick up with a Kodak movie camera sitting shotgun just in case he sees an accident, and whose home movies feature more footage of disasters than of his children. In between her father's bouts of violence and abuse, Monica becomes fast friends with Julie Kilner, whose father is the town mortician. She and Julie preferred the casket showroom to the parks and grassy backyards in her hometown of Elk Grove, Ohio, where they would take turns lying in their favourite coffins. In time, Monica and Julie get a job driving the company hearse to pick up bodies from the airport, yet even Monica's growing independence can't protect her from her parents' irresponsibility, and from the feeling that she simply does not deserve to be safe. Little does she know, as she finally strikes out on her own, that her parents' biggest betrayal has yet to be revealed...
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847396909
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 476
Book Description
At nine years old, Monica Holloway develops a fascination with the local funeral home. Small wonder, with a father who drives his Ford pick up with a Kodak movie camera sitting shotgun just in case he sees an accident, and whose home movies feature more footage of disasters than of his children. In between her father's bouts of violence and abuse, Monica becomes fast friends with Julie Kilner, whose father is the town mortician. She and Julie preferred the casket showroom to the parks and grassy backyards in her hometown of Elk Grove, Ohio, where they would take turns lying in their favourite coffins. In time, Monica and Julie get a job driving the company hearse to pick up bodies from the airport, yet even Monica's growing independence can't protect her from her parents' irresponsibility, and from the feeling that she simply does not deserve to be safe. Little does she know, as she finally strikes out on her own, that her parents' biggest betrayal has yet to be revealed...