I have a memory. It was a wet November day. The wind was relentless.... bitter and cold. My Father and I stood outside of what was left of the old barn. It was skeletal, its days of glory long past. Our once magnificent house had been bulldozed to the ground by the present owner. The source of all my childhood memories had become nothing more than the investment of a stranger. Today Dad had on his usual old green hat, but I had seldom seen the ear flaps pulled down. His jacket was too thin for the weather. Conversation was difficult; the wind carried away words the moment they left our lips. Three months had passed since the tragic death of my mother. For the first time in eighty-eight years my father now lived alone. I looked into his face and saw his struggle, and that's when I knew I would never forget this moment. It would be a heart memory. This man had always done the right thing, followed all the rules and given freely without expecting re-payment or accolades of any kind. Did my late Mother's words ever filter through his mind, No family can continue to be so lucky? Did he think the pain had ended? During the coming years would he ever question the God he believed so strongly in? At times I know I did.

The Art of Straightening Nails is a story of hope, conquering self, and regaining lost love. This novel should appeal to anyone who has struggled to reclaim their lives from pains of the past. "I was drawn into the story of protagonist, Robert Rhodes, from page one. It is the story of the strength and courage of a growing boy who sees for himself a better future despite a poverty-stricken, neglectful past. The reader cannot help but love the main character and weep for his life's story. Author, Randy Judd, does a masterful job with his character development. This is an amazing story of hope and the unbelievable triumph of the human spirit"-Amazon Review Set in the South during the 60's and 70's, the saga follows Robert Rhodes as he reminisces about his life. His childhood had not been a pleasant, innocent experience. Aside from the poverty and endless disappointment his family endured, the boy had also known personal challenges of neglect and abuse. Even as an adult, Robert continues to be fettered by his past. After realizing the source of his lifelong pain, he confronts his past in a dramatic climax to the story. Not until Robert deals with his past, is he able to be emancipated from it. His new freedom allows him to find the love and success he had always sought. The Art of Straightening Nails leaves the reader with hope and empowerment in conquering their own barriers to happiness.

A dwarf drummer found guilty of a crime he did not commit writes his memoirs from a mental hospital in postwar Germany

In 1942 Norwegian Odd Nansen was arrested by the Nazis, and he spent the remainder of World War II in concentration camps—Grini in Oslo, Veidal above the Arctic Circle, and Sachsenhausen in Germany. For three and a half years, Nansen kept a secret diary on tissue-paper-thin pages later smuggled out by various means, including inside the prisoners' hollowed-out breadboards. Unlike writers of retrospective Holocaust memoirs, Nansen recorded the mundane and horrific details of camp life as they happened, "from day to day." With an unsparing eye, Nansen described the casual brutality and random terror that was the fate of a camp prisoner. His entries reveal his constantly frustrated hopes for an early end to the war, his longing for his wife and children, his horror at the especially barbaric treatment reserved for Jews, and his disgust at the anti-Semitism of some of his fellow Norwegians. Nansen often confronted his German jailors with unusual outspokenness and sometimes with a sense of humor and absurdity that was not appreciated by his captors. After the Putnam's edition received rave reviews in 1949, the book fell into obscurity. In 1956, in response to a poll about the "most undeservedly neglected" book of the preceding quarter-century, Carl Sandburg singled out From Day to Day, calling it "an epic narrative," which took "its place among the great affirmations of the power of the human spirit to rise above terror, torture, and death." Indeed, Nansen witnessed all the horrors of the camps, yet still saw hope for the future. He sought reconciliation with the German people, even donating the proceeds of the German edition of his book to German refugee relief work. Nansen was following in the footsteps of his father, Fridtjof, an Arctic explorer and humanitarian who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work on behalf of World War I refugees. (Fridtjof also created the "Nansen passport" for stateless persons.) This new edition, the first in over sixty-five years, contains extensive annotations and new diary selections never before translated into English. Forty sketches of camp life and death by Nansen, an architect and talented draftsman, provide a sense of immediacy and acute observation matched by the diary entries. The preface is written by Thomas Buergenthal, who was "Tommy," the ten-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz Death March, whom Nansen met at Sachsenhausen and saved using his extra food rations. Buergenthal, who later served as a judge on the International Court of Justice at The Hague, is a recipient of the 2015 Elie Wiesel Award from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

One of the oldest and most recognizable studios in Hollywood, Warner Bros. is considered a juggernaut of the entertainment industry. Since its formation in the early twentieth century, the studio has been a constant presence in cinema history, responsible for the creation of acclaimed films, blockbuster brands, and iconic superstars. These days, the studio is best known as a media conglomerate with a broad range of intellectual property, spanning movies, TV shows, and streaming content. Despite popular interest in the origins of this empire, the core of the Warner Bros. saga cannot be found in its commercial successes. It is the story of four brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack—whose vision for Hollywood helped shape the world of entertainment as we know it. In The Warner Brothers, Chris Yogerst follows the siblings from their family's humble origins in Poland, through their young adulthood in the American Midwest, to the height of fame and fortune in Hollywood. With unwavering resolve, the brothers soldiered on against the backdrop of an America reeling from the aftereffects of domestic and global conflict. The Great Depression would not sink the brothers, who churned out competitive films that engaged audiences and kept their operations afloat—and even expanding. During World War II, they used their platform to push beyond the limits of the Production Code and create important films about real-world issues, openly criticizing radicalism and the evils of the Nazi regime. At every major cultural turning point in their lifetime, the Warners held a front-row seat. Paying close attention to the brothers' identities as cultural and economic outsiders, Yogerst chronicles how the Warners built a global filmmaking powerhouse. Equal parts family history and cinematic journey, The Warner Brothers is an empowering story of the American dream and the legacy four brothers left behind for generations of filmmakers and film lovers to come.