William Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances." We spend our lives playing many roles; acting out comedies, dramas, and tragedies. We dress up in our perceptions of truth and illusion and despite a lifelong relationship with learning our lines, we struggle to play our most important role-being ourselves.We refer to our life as a journey, quest, and adventure-on stage, it's a portrayal, performance, and recital-I call it...our Blessing Path and over 16 Acts, I invite you back on stage to prepare for your biggest performance, with you as director and in the lead role. Before the final curtain descends, you will have answered a mysterious question-is what we experience Good Luck? Bad Luck? Who Knows? and does it matter?

The last thing Harry ?Dit? Sims expects when Emma Walker comes to town is to become friends. Proper -talking, brainy Emma doesn?t play baseball or fi sh too well, but she sure makes Dit think, especially about the differences between black and white. But soon Dit is thinking about a whole lot more when the town barber, who is black, is put on trial for a terrible crime. Together Dit and Emma come up with a daring plan to save him from the unthinkable. Set in 1917 and inspired by the author?s true family history, this is the poignant story of a remarkable friendship and the perils of small-town justice

This book covers common open adoption situations and how real families have navigated typical issues successfully. Like all useful parenting books, it provides parents with the tools to come to answers on their own, and answers questions that might not yet have come up.

Searching for the perfect gift for a booklover, literature aficionado, word lover, student, teacher, or writer? Serendipitous Discoveries from the Bookshelf was written and designed by a bibliophile for bibliophiles. It is a beautifully designed and eloquent homage to books, reading, and lifelong learning. The book presents over 100 thoughtful and witty essays filled with fascinating insights, inspiring passages and parables, eloquent quotes about books and reading, valuable life lessons, fascinating rare English words, and arcane literary facts. Alexander Atkins, founder of the popular blog Atkins Bookshelf, takes the reader on a captivating and inspiring guided tour -- through the world of books, literature, words, phrases, wisdom, education, quotations, movies, music, and trivia -- to share fascinating serendipitous discoveries from years of book collecting, reading, and research. Learn the answers to the following questions: * What is the rarest book in American literature? * Which books should you read to be well read? * What does the most amazing personal library in the world look like? * What is the most wicked Freudian slip in a book? * What are the original titles of some of the most famous books in literature? * What are some rare words that booklovers treasure? * What makes a great teacher or a great mentor? * What is the most important life lesson? * How can college help you live a good life? * What is the story behind the painting on the cover of The Great Gatsby? * What is one of the most inspirational Shakespearean sonnets? * What are some well-known phrases that you have been misquoting for years? * Which Founding Father vandalized Shakespeare's writing chair? * Which famous singer inspired Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech? * Which hit song was inspired by John Fowles' literary masterpiece, The Magus? * What is considered the most moving death monologue in cinematic history?

A WALL STREET JOURNAL SUMMER PICK A WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER Warrior and writer, genius and crank, rider in the British cavalry’s last great charge and inventor of the tank, Winston Churchill led Britain to fight alone against Nazi Germany in the fateful year of 1940 and set the standard for leading a democracy at war. With penetrating insight and vivid anecdotes, Gretchen Rubin makes Churchill accessible and meaningful to twenty-first-century readers by analyzing the many contrasting views of the man: he was an alcoholic, he was not; he was an anachronism, he was a visionary; he was a racist, he was a humanitarian; he was the most quotable man in the history of the English language, he was a bore. Like no other portrait of its famous subject, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill is a dazzling display of facts more improbable than fiction. It brings to full realization the depiction of a man too fabulous for any novelist to construct, too complex for even the longest narrative to describe, and too significant ever to be forgotten.

Do people see you as the kind of leader you want to be? Are your strongest leadership qualities getting in the way of your greatness? After decades of advising and inspiring some of the most eminent chief executives in the world, Lolly Daskal has uncovered a startling pattern: within each leader are powerful abilities that are also hidden impediments to greatness. She’s witnessed many highly driven, overachieving leaders rise to prominence fueled by well-honed skill sets, only to falter when the shadow sides of the same skills emerge. Now Daskal reveals her proven system, which leaders at any level can apply to dramatically improve their results. It begins with identifying your distinctive leadership archetype and recognizing its shadow: ■ The Rebel, driven by confidence, becomes the Imposter, plagued by self-doubt. ■ The Explorer, fueled by intuition, becomes the Exploiter, master of manipulation. ■ The Truth Teller, who embraces candor, becomes the Deceiver, who creates suspicion. ■ The Hero, embodying courage, becomes the Bystander, an outright coward. ■ The Inventor, brimming with integrity, becomes the Destroyer, who is morally corrupt. ■ The Navigator, trusts and is trusted, becomes the Fixer, endlessly arrogant. ■ The Knight, for whom loyalty is everything, becomes the Mercenary, who is perpetually self-serving. Using psychology, philosophy, and her own experience, Daskal offers a breakthrough perspective on leadership. She’ll take you inside some of the most cloistered boardrooms, let you in on deeply personal conversations with industry leaders, and introduce you to luminaries who’ve changed the world. Her insights will help you rethink everything you know to become the leader you truly want to be.