For most people, softball is a way to have fun, get exercise, make friends, and develop teamwork. But for 17-year-old Jace Waldron, softball is something more - a pathway to maturity. It is through that game that Jace learns what is important in romance and why physical beauty alone is not enough to make it work. Join Jace and his team, the Valkyries, as they come to the plate to take on all challengers, while gaining valuable lessons about life along the way.

People often take ordinary things in life for granted. This book invites readers to take a fresh look at the wonderful gift of cherries.

The critically acclaimed, San Francisco Chronicle bestseller—a gripping story of the strife and tragedy that led to San Francisco’s ultimate rebirth and triumph. Salon founder David Talbot chronicles the cultural history of San Francisco and from the late 1960s to the early 1980s when figures such as Harvey Milk, Janis Joplin, Jim Jones, and Bill Walsh helped usher from backwater city to thriving metropolis.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

The media's bias toward stories of conflict, violence, and division is bad for your health. In this book, Hal Urban shows how to find the positive and uplifting all around us. The news media thrives on bad news. In recent years, the political climate has become vitriolic and divisive, our country seems more polarized than ever, and news feels inescapable because technology has significantly increased its reach. People who like to stay informed need a lift. Most people are aware that what they eat greatly impacts their physical health: junk food is bad, vegetables are good. Hal Urban argues that we can nourish our minds by choosing how we consume news, and that when we surrender all that choice to media and external forces, we give up our growth, freedom, and mental health. Countless signs of progress and acts of kindness exist all around the world if you know where to look. And there are positive aspects in our own lives—family, friends, simple beauties, and everyday generosities—that we take for granted. This book helps readers understand that, as the late Zig Ziglar said, "You are what you are because of what goes into your mind."

Offers a positive approach to life and insights on how to develop one's potential to the fullest.

Upon moving to Appalachian Ohio with their two small children, Richard Gilbert and his wife are thrilled to learn there still are places in America that haven’t been homogenized. But their excitement over the region’s beauty and quirky character turns to culture shock as they try to put down roots far from their busy professional jobs in town. They struggle to rebuild a farmhouse, and Gilbert gets conned buying equipment and sheep—a ewe with an “outie” belly button turns out to be a neutered male, and mysterious illnesses plague the flock. Haunted by his father’s loss of his boyhood farm, Gilbert likewise struggles to earn money in agriculture. Finally an unlikely teacher shows him how to raise hardy sheep—a remarkable ewe named Freckles whose mothering ability epitomizes her species’ hidden beauty. Discovering as much about himself as he does these gentle animals, Gilbert becomes a seasoned agrarian and a respected livestock breeder. He makes peace with his romantic dream, his father, and himself. Shepherd, a story both personal and emblematic, captures the mythic pull and the practical difficulty of family scale sustainable farming.