Common Threads: A Cultural History of Clothing in American Catholicism

It is the early 1850s when thirteen-year-old Ashani tribe member Berko Yaba is snatched from his home in Ghana, West Africa, and placed on a slave ship bound for Jamaica. A short time later, Berko takes a new name, Jed, and reluctantly begins a new, imprisoned life with his shrewd owner. Meanwhile, in Cupar, Scotland, Johnny McDonald is like most teenage boys in his farming community, focused on raising healthy crops and animals. But when Johnny marries Diana and begins farming his own land, things begin to go wrong. Halfway across the world from each other, Jed and John endure very different challenges. As Jed battles the torture of slavery and falls in love with Mary, another slave, John fights the daily obstacles that accompany a life of farming. But when John encounters a disaster that ruins his crops and Jed discovers the Underground Railroad, fate eventually leads both men and their families to journey to a small community in southern Ontario, where common threads tie them together as they become owners of one of the largest potato farms in Canada. In this historical tale, the years pass and the families grow to include multi-racial twins, as events eventually lead a new generation to Mississippi, where everyone must face the sorrows of prejudice.

Common Thread – Uncommon Women begins in 1863 at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. This historic saga covers four generations of women, beginning with the author’s great grandmother, Minerva, who was Cherokee Native American. Minerva warned her daughter, “Jennie, they put my people on a reservation, took away their pride, and left them with no way to defend themselves. Don’t you ever let anyone hurt you or your children.” Jennie, Minerva’s daughter, was a determined woman. Her friendship with a slave created tension within her husband’s family. Thedis moral presence was a blessing to the sick, and when death won, she readied them for burial. She was destined to suffer heartbreaks too horrific to imagine. Robbie was Thedis’s second-born child. Daily she was reminded of a tragic event, the shotgun blast, her screams, and the smell of fresh blood. Born with a proud Native American heritage, these women endured hardships beyond modern comprehension, but still found joy and happiness. Marylin Hayes Martin breathed essence into her characters, taking them through some of the most difficult times in American History: the Civil War, the Great Depression, and two World Wars. Common Thread - Uncommon Women is Martin’s debut novel. “Marylin Martin’s startling book, “Common Thread - Uncommon Women,” captures the enormous well of strength, both physical and emotional, that the women who helped settle America – and who were born here, of Native American blood – had to draw on simply to survive. Alexander Stuart, author of The War Zone In “Common Thread - Uncommon Women” a story that covers the lives of four generations of her own family, Marylin Martin takes a historical family saga and raises it to a moving memorable work of art. Bill Manville, columnist for the New York Daily News

Drawing on his wide experience and knowledge of other religions as they are actually lived, Winfried Corduan helps you sort through the complex tapestry of faiths around the world.

Dawn Botstein is doing just fine after her divorce, thank you very much. She's got her yarn store to run, her house to herself for the first time in her life, and no use for men anymore. That is until the hottie silver fox who walks into her store turns out to be her old high school crush-the guy who rejected her 30 years ago. No way is she going to lose her head over him this time, no matter how well he wears that salt-and-pepper lumberjack beard. Okay, so he's the opposite of her ex in every way, and his attention gives her a thrill she thought she'd never feel again. She's not risking her heart again. Mike Pilota is having a mid-life crisis. Only instead of buying a red sports car he can't afford and dressing like a 25-year-old who's time-traveled from the 1990s, he quit his job after his second divorce to move closer to his recently widowed mother. He didn't expect to run into Dawn again, but as soon as he lays eyes on her he's utterly smitten. So he sets out to make up for past mistakes and prove he can be the kind of man she deserves. But is it too late for second chances? Or will these two lonely hearts find a way back to each other? 'Mad About Ewe' is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #1 in the Common Threads series, Seduction in the City World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

When young Adam is separated from his parents in a bustling market, he finds many diverse people in similar clothing who kindly help him search for them.

Well blended photography and commentary that create an image of the southern culture.