We Are Not Shining Stars is a collection of writings I penned over the duration of two and half to three years. They are not all fiction, nor are they all non-fiction. Instead, this book contains both, although most are based on real-life events as seen through my teenage eyes.

Cork, Ireland 1965The residents of Chapel Street go about their business and enjoy knowing everyone else's.Despite money being tight, Liam Tobin is the happiest boy in Ireland. He has everything he needs, a happy family, loving parents and a chance to realise his dream of one day becoming a priest. Patrick Lynch lives across the street but his life is in stark contrast to his friend Liam's. Patrick hates his father, with good reason. He knows there is only one way to escape and he is determined to take it, but one decision threatens to destroy all of Patrick's dreams. Hugo FitzHenry seems to have it all, wealth, power and a position in life, but Hugo has a dark secret, one that could ruin everything if it got out.The three boys are thrown together by fate, and through the years the boundaries of their friendship is tested to the limit. Only by sticking together can they prevail. Or fail.

The stunning biographical portraits in Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo, some adapted from essays that first appeared in The New Yorker, explore the lives of five women who did their best to stand up and cause more trouble than was considered proper in Japanese society. Their lives stretch across a century and a half of explosive cultural and political transformations in Japan. These five artists-two actresses, two writers, and a painter-were noted for their talents, their beauty, and their love affairs rather than for any association with politics. But through the fearlessness of their art and their private lives, they influenced the attitudes of their times and challenged the status quo. Phyllis Birnbaum presents her subjects from various perspectives, allowing them to shine forth in all of their contradictory brilliance: generous and petulant, daring and timid, prudent and foolish. There is Matsui Sumako, the actress who introduced Ibsen's Nora and Wilde's Salome to Japanese audiences but is best remembered for her ambition, obstreperous temperament and turbulent love life. We also meet Takamura Chieko, a promising but ultimately disappointed modernist painter whose descent into mental illness was immortalized in poetry by a husband who may well have been the source of her troubles. In a startling act of rebellion, the sensitive, aristocratic poet Yanagiwara Byakuren left her crude and powerful husband, eloped with her revolutionary lover, and published her request for a divorce in the newspapers. Uno Chiyo was a popular novelist who preferred to be remembered for the romantic wars she fought. Willful, shrewd, and ambitious, Uno struggled for sexual liberation and literary merit. Birnbaum concludes by exploring the life and career of Takamine Hideko, a Japanese film star who portrayed wholesome working-class heroines in hundreds of films, working with such directors as Naruse, Kinoshita, Ozu, and Kurosawa. Angry about a childhood spent working to provide for greedy relatives, Takamine nevertheless made peace with her troubled past and was rewarded for years of hard work with a brilliant career. Drawing on fictional accounts, interviews, memoirs, newspaper reports, and the creative works of her subjects, Birnbaum has created vivid, seamless narrative portraits of these five remarkable women.

"Shining Stars" is a collaborative book of motivational and inspirational short stories from authors throughout the United States. Each chapter will inspire and motivate you to achieve your highest potential. The book also affords people who have had a desire to become an author, be one. The book will also serve as a fundraiser not only for the Co-authors, but different non- profit organizations that I support. A portion of the proceeds will also benefit a business in Ferguson, Missouri that was burnt down doing the rioting after unarmed Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer.

From the very start, you set your sight high above the horizon ... So begins the wonderful and inspirational book, You Are A Shining Star. The perfect mix of uplifting words and wisdom is paired with an interior full of lovely watercolor jewel tones and stunning celestial illustrations. It's a wonderful guide & gift to help anyone in your life chart their course and shoot for the stars.

Open this book and become shining stars in areas such as family, finances, education, and much more. Jesus said Christians are the "lights of the world"; Paul said they are to "shine like stars in the universe." These bright metaphors are a bold contrast to the ever-increasing darkness of evil that fills our world. Can Christians change the world as we have always believed? Can we turn the tide for good in our society? With inspiring messages from Joni Eareckson Tada, Dr. H. Norman Wright, Mother Theresa, Dr. Ronald Sider, and others, Dr. M. Norvel Young reveals ten practical and inspirational ways you can become the "living lights" Christ called you to be.