Life Tragedy

The smoke was thick, the music was loud, and the beer was flowing. In the fast-and-loose 1980s, Jackson Station Rhythm and Blues Club in Hodges, South Carolina, was a festive late-night roadhouse filled with people from all walks of life who gathered to listen to the live music of high-energy performers. The good times ground to a terrifying halt in the early morning hours of April 7, 1990. A brutal attack - an apparent hate crime - on the owner Gerald Jackson forever altered the lives of all involved.

The Magic of Life explores how he overcame tragedy, grief, and depression throughout his life. Even though he lost his mother, he and his brother were raised by his father and an incredible Jamaican woman who stepped in to fill the mother’s role. Michael shares his unique life about loss and how he finally addressed his grief with a blend of humor and inspiration that will have you crying and laughing throughout the book.

Blending firsthand accounts of tragedy with opportunity for raw self-examination and reflection, Vleisides delves into the realm of spirituality and belief amid loss and despair. For the "spiritual but not religious", who want to pursue God outside the walls of organized religion, Used to Go to Church is an invitation to rethink faith and open up to a life centered on grace, mercy, and love.

In November 2004, Lora Jones was a happy wife and proud mother of two beautiful children. Lora and her family left for a family vacation, excited to celebrate the holidays, but sounds of music and laughter in their van were shattered by a head-on collision. Lora watched helplessly as, one-by-one, her beloved family slipped into eternity. Awake in a nightmare, all traces of laughter were replaced by the mournful cries of a wounded heart. How in the world could Lora go on alone? Song of a Wounded Heart tells the true story of Lora’s journey from death to hope.

Florence Stanville is a woman with a past. When she moves to Guisethorpe on the east coast of England, the townsfolk are intrigued by the glamorous and mysterious stranger, with her flame-red hair and abrupt manners. Florence doesn’t care about the gossips—she’s drawn to the peaceful seaside town by the pull of her childhood, when she lived for a brief but happy time with her beloved late mother. The riddle of those days remains, and now Florence can only snatch at half-remembered memories and shadowy figures in her dreams.

A life forged in tragedy, but defined by triumph. One of the most inspirational books you will ever read, Radical Survivor is ultimately an uplifting tribute to the human capacity for healing and resilience. With the added richness of letters Nancy received before and after the crash, as well as her sons' journal entries, Radical Survivor traverses the full spectrum of human emotions, offering a gift of hope for anyone faced with healing after loss of any kind.

On June 10, 2008, Carol Decker walked through the hospital doors a healthy woman with flu-like symptoms and early labor contractions. Three months later, she returned home a blind triple-amputee struggling to bond with a daughter she would never see. Unshattered recounts Carol's fight for survival against sepsis and its life-shattering complications. From excruciating skin grafts to learning how to function in daily life without lower legs, a left hand, and her sight, Carol takes us on a personal and raw, yet inspiring journey.

The author attempts to put her life back together following her fiance's tragic skiing accident and, amidst the shattered pieces, searches for hope in a God who heals even unimaginable pain.

Author Jeff Spevak was confronted with a dilemma: How do you tell the story of a man who can’t bring himself to talk about the most epic moment of his life? A clever fellow who’d scrapped to survive in a fashion that seems quaint today, Coleman tested himself as a teenager by swimming across lakes, building homes from foraged lumber, and running a navy carpentry shop as though he were a member of the scamming crew of McHale’s Navy. He was a self-taught sailor who’d become a legend on Lake Ontario. At age 96, Ernie was still sailing.

Minutes before Brian Walsh, then just a teenager, heard his beeper go off, calling him to help put out another fire, he was on top of the world. An hour later, after a freak flashover and confusion that sent the junior firefighter into the inferno against regulations, Brian had suffered such profound burns to his face that he was unidentifiable to his fellow firefighters. Nearly everyone expected him to die that night. He did not. In this stirring autobiography, he tells his incredible story, sharing the lessons that only tragedy could teach.

How did I get here? Flashbacks of the day were running through Cassidy's mind. She remembered the excitement of the good weather, boat rides, and the diamond-like sparkle on the water. Then it hit her, she remembered the stone entrance at the lake house. Cassidy's father had given her a clear warning that he received in prayer, "If you see the stone entrance like the one in your dreams, flee for your physical life." But she didn't heed the warning that day and it cost her dearly.

Son! Done! Come! These three single words present the key to the great mystery of the book of Revelation. This is the story of Jesus. He was born as a son. He died, and it was done. He lives again and has come to create a living community in himself and the Father through the Spirit. Experiencing Revelation presents a new perspective on this book of the Bible. Rather than analyze countless details separately, the apostle John’s Revelation is best understood as it was designed–a three-act dramatic play revealing Jesus Christ, to be experienced straight through as a whole.

When Marc Pittman had a son, he became the father he had always wanted to have. He told his boys everything, and they were honest with him in return. They unburdened their fears; told him their dreams; even admitted their sins. Despite the fact that his sons were star football players, they felt no shame in holding their father's hand in public. People told him he was lucky to have the relationship he did with his children, but Marc Pittman knew the truth - it wasn't luck, he worked at it every day. And then his eldest son, Cole, was killed in a traffic accident on the way to football practice

Expressions of Poetry by Montice Harmon is a beautiful collection of semi-confessional poems that speak about the poet's trials and tribulations. The poems are a kind of motivation for depressed minds and discouraged people to rise above their problems and face the world with a positive attitude. Most of Harmon's poems are prose poems. He takes prose poems to another level with this collection. The poems all deal with some aspect of the poet's personal struggles - his joys and sorrows - and they connect you with his spirit and inner mind.

Molly McKenzie is only eleven years old when her abusive father beats her to within an inch of her life. Escaping from the hovel she calls home, Molly is found by kind fisherfolk, sick and near death. With them she experiences the love of a family for the first time and, even though life is hard, she is content. Time passes and Molly’s looking ahead to a future with the boy she loves, but then a terrible tragedy rips her life apart. Once again she’s cast adrift in an uncaring world, but Molly is made of stern stuff and is determined to survive.

Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life.

Becky Powell faced the unthinkable on May 16, 2013. Her husband, Mark, called and said, "I've done something terrible." Within hours, she learned that he had taken his own life and, over a period of several years, millions of dollars from friends and colleagues. Everything she believed to be true, the very fiber of her marriage, was called into question. Yet from that first horrific moment, God was there. Awful Beautiful Life is Becky's journey through the two years surrounding Mark's death and how she overcame.

It's fall 1987, and life as normal is ending for the Malone family. With their sterile Dallas community a far cry from the Irish-American Bronx of their youth, Pat and Anne Malone have reached a breaking point. Pat, faced with a debilitating MS diagnosis, has fallen into his drinking. Anne, his devoutly Catholic wife, is selected as a juror for a highly publicized attempted murder trial, one that raises questions - about God, and about men in power - she has buried her entire life. Together, they try to raise their only son, Daniel.

After the death of a child, there is no closure. It is like learning how to live with an amputation—you are forever changed and need to learn how to live a new “normal”. Laura Diehl was plunged into that place with the death of her daughter and experienced the deep need to connect with others who had experienced what cannot be put into words. When Tragedy Strikes is the raw account of her journey from deep darkness back into light and life, extending a hand of hope to those traveling on the path behind her who need to rebuild their lives after the death of a child.

In Chia-Chia Lin’s debut, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When 10-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive.