Using a water-skiing metaphor, experienced pastor and humorist Dave Stone offers learning leaders key truths to strengthen their leadership and enjoy it like never before. This book features a stream of opportunities for leaders to assess their own ministry setting and capitalize on their personal style to develop a thriving, growing ministry. Great for individual study or church leadership training.

Buchi Emecheta's autobiography spans the transition from a tribal childhood in the African bush to life in North London as an internationally acclaimed writer.

That's the thing about hearts- Like waves, they break too. Grief. I've never battled with the raw, debilitating pain that comes with it. Then a twist of fate hits me out of nowhere, and I can barely keep from drowning. It's like weights tied to my ankles in the middle of a raging ocean. I'm helpless, with no way to swim back to the surface. But fate is crueler still, bringing my stepbrother back for the first time in years. Cannon never wanted this family. Especially me. Still, he's always been my greatest desire. And my biggest weakness. He's unattainable. Straight, engaged, and with a seemingly perfect life on the other side of the country. It's something I'd do well to remember, yet when he stays, it's so easy to forget. In finding solace together, we mend what once was broken. This loss bonds us. Changes us. He's become more than a brother or a lover. He's my anchor. So how am I supposed to keep my head above water when I'll eventually lose him too? *Head Above Water is a STANDALONE full length MM enemies-to-lovers stepbrother romance novel.*

Heads above Water tells the stories of women and their families who survived the Grand Forks, North Dakota, flood of 1997, one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. This book describes the challenges women faced and explores the importance of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability in their disaster recovery. The women found themselves face-to-face with social and familial upheaval, emotional and physical trauma, precarious economic and social status, and feelings of loss and violation. By exploring the experiences of these women, author Alice Fothergill contributes to broader sociological discussions about women's changing roles, the stigma of needing and receiving assistance, family relationships under stress, domestic violence, downward mobility, and the importance of "home" to one's identity and sense of self. Heads above Water offers poignant insight into women's everyday lives in an extraordinary time.

Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in THIS IS WATER. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously' How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion' The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend. Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.

A bemused, stoop-shouldered figure who is more than a mere speaker--let's call him a protagonist--stalks the poems of Falling to Earth. With candor and an almost grandiose simplicity, Hansen describes the limitations of his middle-aged body and, in so doing, the limitations of his enterprise in mid-life: the gracelessness of survival. Falling to Earth is the journey of a vibrant soul refreshing itself poem by poem.--Molly Peacock, from her foreword Tom Hansen taught writing and literature for 35 years before retiring to the Black Hills of South Dakota. His credits include Paris Review, The Iowa Review, and The American Scholar.

If you've ever felt overworked, overwhelmed, or just plain unlucky, this book is for you. Through this collection of stories, wisdom, and practical advice, readers will meet four ordinary women who have faced extraordinary life challenges. Together, they have a history of six marriages, ten children, four stepchildren, six dogs, two miscarriages, two cats, a failed adoption, widowhood, and foster parenthood. They have built companies, lost companies, and sold companies. One of them was shot and left for dead on a tarmac in South America, and two lived through the deaths of spouses. Raising babies and teenagers together, they have known celebrity and success along with loneliness and self-doubt. This book started simply with four friends getting together at the kitchen table to talk about their lives. Week by week and story by story, they realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life's myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. For over a decade, the power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive. The remarkable results are in this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity. This Is Not the Life I Ordered is the culmination of weekly "kitchen table coaching" sessions that took place for more than a decade and were designed to support one another through life's ups and downs. The women realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life's myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. The power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive and the remarkable results are in this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity. * Features practical "Wit Kit" tips - exercises and actions for readers to become their own life coach and start their own kitchen-table cabinets.