When Jo Ann Pierce began her career in education, immersion in the classroom experience seemed like enough of a challenge-balancing the demands of family life as a wife and mother with the steep learning curve of mentoring and nurturing students was as much as she thought she could handle. But as she learned to trust her goat-like sense of balance on uneven terrain, she realized she could see a summit above her, and that it was within reach. Could she trust that God had a special plan to help her discover her gifts of leadership? Bit by bit, her vision emerged; this powerful memoir shares her upward climb as a "wannabe" principal, with successes and failures, personal notes and memories. Deeply personal yet universal not only to teachers and principals, but all leaders, this book illuminates the heart of Dr. Pierce's quest to find her best self, for the service and benefit of others. Let her inspire you to recognize the mountain of love in your own life-and take courage from her journey to climb upward to your pinnacle.

Between the Mountain and the Sky shows us the goodness that is possible when a single person--regardless of age--takes action to help another and, in the process, changes the lives of hundreds. Maggie’s story begins in suburban New Jersey, in a comfortable middle-class family that supports her decision to travel the world during a gap year before starting college. During her travels, the trajectory of her life alters when she has a surprise encounter with a Nepali girl breaking rocks in a quarry. Maggie decides to invest her life savings of five thousand dollars to buy a piece of land and open a children’s home in Nepal. That home becomes Kopila Valley Children’s Home, and eventually, the nonprofit Maggie launches, the BlinkNow Foundation, also starts the Kopila Valley School, which provides tuition-free education for more than four hundred students. Maggie and BlinkNow’s work have been recognized around the world for their innovative, sustainable work. However, this book isn’t a how-to for fledging philanthropists or nonprofit founders--it’s a coming-of-age story about a young woman suspended between two worlds, as well as the love, loss, healing, and hope she experiences along the way. And Maggie’s inspiring, intimate tale shows readers an important truth: the power to change the world exists within all of us.

Elena Gorokhova’s A Mountain of Crumbs is the moving story of a Soviet girl who discovers the truths adults are hiding from her and the lies her homeland lives by. Elena’s country is no longer the majestic Russia of literature or the tsars, but a nation struggling to retain its power and its pride. Born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, Elena finds her passion in the complexity of the English language—but in the Soviet Union of the 1960s such a passion verges on the subversive. Elena is controlled by the state the same way she is controlled by her mother, a mirror image of her motherland: overbearing, protective, difficult to leave. In the battle between a strong-willed daughter and her authoritarian mother, the daughter, in the end, must break free and leave in order to survive. Through Elena’s captivating voice, we learn not only the stories of Russian family life in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose curiosity and determination finally transport her to a new world. It is an elegy to the lost country of childhood, where those who leave can never return.

Here is an extract from one of the many inspirational poems. Bless my soul, my true redeemer, In my mind and heart I am not a deceiver. Bless the life I enjoyed upon this earth, Give me all the joys, for all its worth. Bless my path when the hours are dark, Let me soar to your kingdom like a lark. Lord bless me every moment I open my eyes, And holding you close Ill never sigh. Bless my life oh Lord in quietness and peace, I need your love, your hand as I proceed. Bless me and all others in these days, Let me shine in your eyes, just as the suns rays. I hope you will enjoy reading all these poems. Thanks. H .Winston Anderson. ForeWord Clarion Book Review