Old Age is Just "A Play on Words" is providing me a grand opportunity to perform a literary song and dance in honor of people whom I have admired and respected throughout the years. Many of these people have been older relatives, friends, and acquaintances who have been a great influence in my life and in the lives of others. I have endeavored to honor them against a thematic backdrop of agelessness which they all represent. They deserve to be celebrated because of their wisdom, knowledge, wit, and zeal for living wholesome and exuberant lives, in spite of the social, environmental, and health related obstacles that they encountered. The poem, "Lonnie", is based on the actual words spoken by an older gentleman who proudly expressed to me his leisure-time activities. I immediately thought, "These are age old occurrences because old age is just a play on words.'" My fondness for "good southern living" was the inspiration for the section entitled "Call Me Country All You Wanna". Furthermore, my appreciation of my southern upbringing is woven in the other three sections of the book, Age of Contradictions, Old Fashioned Genuine Love, and Let Every Tongue Confess.(Ron Parker) Ron Parker's spirited collection of poems shows us how universal a celebration of the human experience can be. This body of work gives real-life people an opportunity to re-experience their hopes, dreams, ups, and downs which are so familiar to mankind. Each poem will touch where the crux of passion and zeal for life dwells. This modern day Wordsworth pens a style that is direct, pointed, and committed to delineating the vivid mental images that will strike a chord of "I Remember" in the minds of every reader.(Dr.Azalie B. Hightower)

Author, activist, and TED speaker Ashton Applewhite has written a rousing manifesto calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice on the basis of age. In our youth obsessed culture, we’re bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality. Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up with the pace of the modern working world and olders should just step aside for the new generation. Ashton Applewhite once held these beliefs too until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces her journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life. Explaining the roots of ageism in history and how it divides and debases, Applewhite examines how ageist stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of the all-American myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of elders as burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look like, and offers a rousing call to action. It’s time to create a world of age equality by making discrimination on the basis of age as unacceptable as any other kind of bias. Whether you’re older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the rest of your life. Age pride! “Wow. This book totally rocks. It arrived on a day when I was in deep confusion and sadness about my age. Everything about it, from my invisibility to my neck. Within four or five wise, passionate pages, I had found insight, illumination, and inspiration. I never use the word empower, but this book has empowered me.” —Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author

"Radical Marriage provides clear ideas, easy strategies to follow, and a 'radical' new paradigm for creating the relationship of your dreams." - Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D., Co-authors of Making Marriage Simple "Radical Marriage is an accessible and clear description of the steps for relationship success with many easy-to-follow strategies for making life and love better." - Don Ferguson, Ph.D. author of Reptiles in Love and The Couples' Manual "Radical Marriage is for couples in good marriages who envision something wonderful for their future together. The Steeles have given us a manifesto and road map for marriage as a more perfect union." -William J. Doherty, Ph.D., Professor of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota, author of Take Back Your Marriage: Sticking Together in a World That Pulls Us Apart "Is your marriage where you want it to be? This book will challenge you to take it to the next level, beyond where you ever thought it could be. Your marriage can be more - wonderfully more, extraordinarily more, radically more!" -- Greg and Priscilla Hunt, BetterMarriages.org What kind of marriage do you want? Most couples don't want an ordinary, boring, routine relationship. They want excitement, fun, closeness, love. Marriage is an ancient institution rich with traditions and customs. As appealing as that may be, in today's modern culture, we want to forge our own path. We need security, but we also need excitement and adventure. Radical Marriage is a model for the next evolution of marriage and is new territory for committed relationships. Our marriage can be the greatest adventure of our life. It can be the vehicle for experiencing the excitement and fulfillment we've always wanted. We can only get so far on our own. To get the rest of the way, we need a committed partner. Radical Marriage promotes a much-needed paradigm shift from the perception of marriage as being old fashioned, obsolete, and with a high likelihood of failure, to a platform for the greatest adventure of our life. Radical Marriage is for couples with a good relationship who strongly believe that they are together for a reason, which is to experience life to the fullest through their relationship. This book provides solid guidance and strategies for creating a Radical Marriage, including- Radical Commitment (Chapter 2) Radical Communication (Chapters 3-6) Radical Intimacy (Chapter 7) Radical Romance (Chapter 8) Radical Sex (Chapter 9) Radical Living (Chapter 10) Radical Marriage will open your eyes, rock your world, and change your reality about marriage.

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times

A thoughtful picture book illustrating the power of small acts of kindness, from the award-winning author of Sophie's Squash.