Rick and Polly Rood began their married life like many other couples-hoping for a life blessed by God, and to be used by Him in his service. Twelve years later, however, their life took an unexpected turn when at age 34 Polly was diagnosed with Huntington's Disease, a neurodegenerative illness. For the next nineteen years they navigated this unexpected journey, which included Polly's residing in nursing home for the last eleven years of her life. This book recounts their struggles and fears, as well as their persevering hope. More than that, however, it tells the story of how God graciously carried them through these years of affliction. Rick's prayer is that by telling their story many others might find hope in our gracious and merciful God, both for this life and the next. "Our Story...His Story shows how God graciously wills to strengthen his people to be faithful to each other and to Him in the midst of long-lasting affliction." Mark R. Talbot, PhD. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Wheaton College "I pray God will use this book to encourage many others who are navigating the unavoidable storms of life." Wesley K. Willmer, PhD. Former Vice-President for Advancement, Biola University. Author Bio: Rick Rood is a native of Seattle, WA and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University (BA in history) and Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM in Old Testament). He has served as a hospital chaplain with Healthcare Chaplains Ministry Association since 1996, at both an acute care and a psychiatric hospital in the Dallas, TX area. Rick cared for his wife Polly until her home going in 2003. They have a son and daughter. Rick married his new wife Li Lin in 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan. They reside in the Dallas area.

"Chilling and suspenseful, with just the right number of twists." --Kirkus Reviews Five boys went hunting. Four came back. And the evidence shows it could have been any one of them, in this thrilling mystery with a big twist, for fans of Courtney Summers. Kate Marino's senior year internship at the District Attorney's Office isn't exactly glamorous--more like an excuse to leave school early that looks good on college applications. Then the DA hands her boss, Mr. Stone, the biggest case her small town of Belle Terre has ever seen. The River Point Boys are all anyone can talk about. Despite their damning toxicology reports the morning of the accident, the DA wants the boys' case swept under the rug. He owes his political office to their powerful families. Kate won't let that happen. Digging up secrets without revealing her own is a dangerous line to walk; Kate has personal reasons for seeking justice. As she gets dangerously close to the truth, it becomes clear that the early morning accident might not have been an accident at all-and if she doesn't uncover the true killer, more than one life could be on the line including her own.

Begun by the author when he was eighty-seven years old and mourning the loss of his wife, Our Story is a graphic memoir like no other: a celebration of a marriage that spanned the twentieth century in China, told in vibrant, original paintings and prose. Rao Pingru was twenty-four-year-old soldier when he was reintroduced to Mao Meitang, a girl he’d known in childhood and now the woman his father had arranged for him to marry. One glimpse of her through a window as she put on lipstick was enough to capture Pingru’s heart: a moment that sparked a union that would last almost sixty years. Our Story is Pingru and Meitang’s epic but unassuming romance. It follows the couple through the decades, in both poverty and good fortune—looking for work, opening a restaurant, moving cities, mending shoes, raising their children, and being separated for seventeen years by the government when Pingru is sent to a labor camp. As the pair ages, China undergoes extraordinary growth, political turmoil, and cultural change. When Meitang passes away in 2008, Pingru memorializes his wife and their relationship the only way he knows how: through painting. In an outpouring of love and grief, he puts it all on paper. Spanning 1922 through 2008, Our Story is a tales of enduring love and simple values that is at once tragic and inspiring: an old-fashioned story that unfolds in a nation undergoing cataclysmic change. (With gorgeous full-color illustrations throughout, and a distinctive exposed spine emulating the original Chinese design.)

Every love story has a breaking point... From the author of Paperweight comes the star-crossed romance of two high school friends in a tale rife with deeply buried secrets and shocking revelations. BEFORE: Bridge and Wil have been entangled in each other’s lives for years. Under the white-hot Florida sun, they went from kids daring each other to swim past the breakers to teenagers stealing kisses between classes. But when Bridge betrayed Wil during their junior year, she shattered his heart and their relationship along with it. AFTER: When Wil’s family suffers a violent loss, and Bridge rushes back to Wil’s side. As they struggle to heal old wounds and start falling for each other all over again, Bridge and Wil discover just how much has changed in the past year. Though they once knew each other’s every secret, they aren’t the same people they used to be. Bridge can’t imagine life without Wil, but sometimes love isn’t enough. Can they find their way back to each other, or will this be the end of their story?

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.

This Is Our Story follows the lives of Rosa and Mila, two young women from different countries who become victims of human trafficking when duped into domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation in the American Southeast. Their experiences with the underbelly of globalization here in our own backyard, and the legal battles they wage against their traffickers with their immigration attorney, Lily, are told in their own voices, and hers, in vivid and compelling detail. "Fortunately, Wendi Adelson has written a novel, based on her vast experience, that allows the reader to enter the painful and isolated world of human trafficking. She opens our minds and our hearts to the struggles of young women we would never have the opportunity to meet. We are captivated and devastated by her stories, and we want to learn more. Wendi's book deeply touched me, a grandmother with three young granddaughters, and it would certainly appeal to the high school and college students I serve every day. These are stories to be told and retold, until we work together both locally and internationally to assure that human trafficking is no longer tolerated."-- Rody Thompson, Southeast PeaceJam Director, Florida State University "In 'This Is Our Story,' Wendi Adelson has captured the reality of young trafficked women in the United States. The main protagonists are multi-dimensional, evoking sympathy and admiration as well as frustration and pity. She brings to life the utter disregard for human dignity that characterizes traffickers around the world. She movingly and persuasively demonstrates how the victims are brutalized into believing in their own lack of self-worth, lack of recourse, and lack of a future. The book ends with a bitter-sweet, frustrating, but all too real resolution that brings into stark relief the magnitude and gravity of human trafficking." -- Marisa Cianciarulo, Associate Professor of Law, Chapman University

Inspired by history, Our Story is a beautifully illustrated collection of original stories from some of Canada’s most celebrated Aboriginal writers. Asked to explore seminal moments in Canadian history from an Aboriginal perspective, these ten acclaimed authors have travelled through our country’s past to discover the moments that shaped our nation and its people. Drawing on their skills as gifted storytellers and the unique perspectives their heritage affords, the contributors to this collection offer wonderfully imaginative accounts of what it’s like to participate in history. From a tale of Viking raiders to a story set during the Oka crisis, the authors tackle a wide range of issues and events, taking us into the unknown, while also bringing the familiar into sharper focus. Our Story brings together an impressive array of voices—Inuk, Cherokee, Ojibway, Cree, and Salish to name just a few—from across the country and across the spectrum of First Nations. These are the novelists, playwrights, journalists, activists, and artists whose work is both Aboriginal and uniquely Canadian. Brought together to explore and articulate their peoples’ experience of our country’s shared history, these authors’ grace, insight, and humour help all Canadians understand the forces and experiences that have made us who we are. Maria Campbell • Tantoo Cardinal • Tomson Highway • Drew Hayden Taylor • Basil Johnston • Thomas King • Brian Maracle • Lee Maracle • Jovette Marchessault • Rachel Qitsualik