American Development

Barry Becher and Ed Valenti set the stage for today’s infomercials with their now-famous television techniques. Their zany commercials - advertising such products as the Miracle Painter, Armourcote cookware, and, most famously, the Ginsu® knife - captured both the imagination and pocketbook of the American public. And they became millionaires in the process. But wait, there’s more! You’ll learn how to get a better price on anything you buy, how to get better service anywhere, even how to get easily get bumped from coach to first class on an airline.

In a family memoir that reads like a detective novel, Rhonda Noonan recounts her 30-year quest to find the truth of her own background - and what she uncovered will surprise listeners as much as it did her. Rhonda was born and adopted in Oklahoma, a state with closed adoption records. And, although she was cherished by her adoptive family, she - like so many adoptees - felt a burning desire to find and make contact with her birth parents.

There is no higher praise we can give people than to say they have good character. But what does this mean, really? What makes this quality so essential to achieving personal success and fulfillment? More importantly, how can we build our own character and live more satisfying lives? Reflecting society's diversity, the contributors to this unique collection of essays speak from various cultural and professional backgrounds to share their observations on living with integrity, honesty, and compassion.

By official count, more than one out of every six American children live beneath the poverty line. But statistics alone tell little of the story. In Invisible Americans, Jeff Madrick brings to light the often invisible reality and irreparable damage of child poverty in America. Keeping his focus on the children, he examines the roots of the problem, including the toothless remnants of our social welfare system, entrenched racism, and a government unmotivated to help the most voiceless citizens.

Written in conversational style, the book holds your attention as you follow a couple through the ups and downs of learning how to improve their marriage. The quick listen will inspire and give you the tools you need, no matter what level your marriage is at. Whether you're having problems or you just want to improve your relationship, this book offers a plethora of ideas and practical exercises. Ten Secrets for Achieving a Successful Celestial Marriage is about actionable changes that you can make in your marriage to create the relationship you always dreamed of.

Are you a Christian parent looking for biblical answers on prayer and family finances? Parenting is never an easy job but with this book, you will learn to parent, pray, and manage your finances biblically. Get the information you need to faithfully follow the will of god and live free.

Are You a Christian parent looking to overcome your doubts in raising a special needs child with faith? Are the challenges of raising your special needs child becoming overwhelming? What if you had the information you need to reduce your stress, reduce anxiety, and walk by faith? Parenting is never an easy job, especially if you have a special needs child. However, with this audiobook you can conquer the doubts of raising a special needs child with faith, hope, prayer and love.

On a winter morning in 1990, Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota picked up the Bismarck Tribune. On the front page, a small girl gazed into the distance, shedding a tear. The headline: Foster home children beaten - and nobody's helping. Dorgan, who had been working with American Indian tribes to secure resources, was distressed. He flew to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to meet with five-year-old Tamara and her grandfather. They became friends. Then she disappeared. And he would search for her for decades until they finally found each other again.

In Marital Cruelty in Antebellum America, Robin C. Sager probes the struggles of aggrieved spouses shedding light on the nature of marriage and violence in the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War. Analyzing over 1,500 divorce records that reveal intimate details of marriages in conflict in Virginia, Texas, and Wisconsin from 1840-1860, Sager offers a rare glimpse into the private lives of ordinary Americans shaken by accusations of cruelty.

Rising above the jeremiads characteristic of so much contemporary public debate, The Broken Hearth provides a powerful affirmation of family life and the matchless benefits it bestows on individuals and society as a whole.

This book is the inspiration of my third son, Arthur, nineteen years of age at the time it was written. Its title has been something of a family joke. At certain moments when caught up in the throes of a domestic squabble, we were near our wits' end I would pipe up with a note of sympathy: It's hard raising parents. Understandably, the phrase caught on with our four children. Over the years, this remark has provided a timely dose of relief.

The triumphant story of Thomas W. Felder, who began his life as a poor kid in the South Bronx. During that time he lived in rat-infested, crime-ridden tenements and even experienced homelessness. Thomas went on to become a high-powered attorney and a key player in one of the largest television network mergers in US history.

In 1811, while escorting members of John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company up the Columbia River, their Chinookan guide refused to advance beyond a particular point that marked a boundary between his people and another indigenous group. Long before European contact, Native Americans created and maintained recognized borders, ranging from family hunting and fishing properties to larger tribal territories to vast river valley regions.

An "unleashed love song" to her late grandmother, Nickole Brown's collection brings her brassy, bawdy, tough-as-new-rope grandmother to life. With hair teased to Jesus, mile-long false eyelashes, and a white Cadillac Eldorado with atomic-red leather seats, Fanny is not your typical granny rocking in a chair. Instead, think of a character that looks a lot like Eva Gabor in Green Acres, but darkened with a shadow of Flannery O'Connor.

Many factors - personal, professional, and psychological - combine to affect how we think, feel, and act while on the job, which ultimately affects our productivity and success. In 9 to 5: Your Mind at Work, we look at some of these factors, including the physical office space, how to foster creativity and communication, the psychology of effective leadership, the benefits and importance of diversity, and achieving work-life balance.

What's Next? is a self-help book aimed primarily at college and professional athletes who have left their sport, or are preparing to leave, and seek guidance as to what they need to do next. Author Derrick Furlow, Jr., a former college and professional football player, has been in those shoes. Some things he has learned the hard way, parlaying challenging, even dire, circumstances into sources of innovative solutions; other points of action he has sought out and implemented on his own. Furlow now offers sound advice and encouragement to athletes in transition.

Forget what you’ve been culturally conditioned to think about financial freedom. It’s no longer reserved for the elite. How many legitimate problems would you have if acquiring money to pay for your basic needs was no longer your primary focus? Imagine what your life would look like if your primary focus was not money, but instead something truly meaningful to you. With your basic financial needs met, you would be free to create, free to impact, free to explore, and free to evolve. What more could you want?

Wild mustangs, ghosts on the ranch, gun-toting outlaws and trailblazing cowboys roam the pages of this collection of 8 classic stories about the American frontier. Travel down "The Road to Hell" with a mysterious ranch builder, face down the "Yellow Devil" mountain lion, travel "Where the Wind Blows Free," and join in on a herd of other adventures that will keep you reading until long after high noon.

In this memoir, the pseudonymous author, Ruthie Bolton, tells how she overcame tremendous obstacles to find her place in the world. Born into poverty in a rural Southern town, Bolton was abandoned by her 13-year-old mother and raised by her step-grandfather, an abusive tyrant who beat his wife to death and terrorized his children. With remarkable candor yet no trace of self-pity, Bolton describes how she used alcohol and drugs to try to escape her nightmarish existence.

Ronald Reagan’s daughter writes with a moving openness about losing her father to Alzheimer’s disease. The simplicity with which she reveals the intensity, the rush, the flow of her feelings encompasses all the surprises and complexities that ambush us when death gradually, unstoppably invades life.