Showing results by narrator "Pam Ward" in All Categories

With Bliss, Remembered, the celebrated Frank Deford has produced a work of literature that ranks with the best of his many novels, including Everybody’s All American, which Sports Illustrated ranked as one of the 25 best sports books of all time. In Bliss, Remembered, Deford explores new territory as he tells two love stories from the perspective of a beautiful should-have-been Olympic champion named Sydney Stringfellow.

A member of the first astronaut class to include women, NASA chose her for the seventh shuttle mission, inspiring several generations of women. After a second flight, Ride served on the panels investigating the Challenger explosion and the Columbia disintegration that killed all aboard. In both instances, she faulted NASA's rush to meet mission deadlines and its organizational failures. She also cofounded a company promoting science and education for children, especially girls.

This entertaining collection features 13 short mystery stories from some of our finest writers, all based on a piece of music. Editors Claudia Bishop and Don Bruns present the stories with two essays, discussing the short mystery and the musical mystery.

With the country in the midst of World War II, you can be sure that the small town of Elderberry, Georgia, will pull together to find a missing child. And you can be equally certain that first-grade teacher Miss Dimple Kilpatrick will be in the rescue party - especially since Peggy Ashcroft is one of her students. Miss Dimple carves out a search path all her own and, once again, the sharp-as-a-tack teacher is right on point. She finds Peggy in the woods, but the child is too sick to walk and it's too difficult for Miss Dimple to navigate the uneven terrain in the dark.

It's a sad duty that brings Alafair Tucker and her two daughters to Enid, Oklahoma, in the fall of 1915. Her sister Ruth Anne's husband, Lester, is not long for this world, and the family is gathering to send him to his reward. But her niece's irresponsible husband, Kenneth, has disappeared at a most inconvenient time.

Many pastors feel ill-equipped to address the family issues, the addictions, the pain of abuse and loss, as well as the myriad other secrets that people in their churches and communities hide in their lives. Church leaders know they have a message that offers hope and healing, but they struggle to put structures in place that allow for focused recovery care. Ministries of healing and renewal are the bridge they need to access God's boundless grace and the encouragement of a life-giving community that can offer support and counsel.

Alafair Tucker is a strong woman and the core of her family’s life on a farm in Oklahoma where backbreaking work and the daily logistics of caring for her husband and their nine children, and of being a good neighbor, requires determination and a clear head. She’s also a woman of strong opinions, and it is her opinion that her neighbor, Harley Day, is a drunkard and a reprobate. So, when Harley’s body is discovered frozen in a snowdrift one January day in 1912, she isn’t surprised that his long-suffering family isn’t particularly broken up. When Alafair helps Harley’s wife prepare the body for burial, she discovers that Harley’s demise was anything but natural.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was born to parents determined to overcome obstacles and achieve success. She married Bill Clinton, a man from humble roots who rose to serve two terms as President of the United States. She ran for office against, and then worked for, President Barack Obama. She is not defined by those relationships, but rather by her intellect, ambition, and peerless work ethic. Clinton has served as first lady, senator, and secretary of state.

Ann Meyers Drysdale is one of the greatest stars in the history of basketball. But her rise wasn't without controversy. Her 1979 NBA bid to play with the Indiana Pacers brought a barrage of criticism. But Ann simply wanted to play among the best. She had always competed with the guys. A female first in many categories, Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first woman ever signed to a four-year athletic scholarship to UCLA, where she remains the only four-time Bruin basketball All American, male or female.

Embrace your inner Mrs. Potato Head! She’s so much more real and full of fun than Barbie ever could be. And she knows how to laugh like only those who have discovered the humor, heart, and wisdom of true womanhood can laugh. Mrs. Potato Head’s hormones are out of whack. Her memory is held together by sticky notes. But she’s got a sense of humor that just won’t quit, and she’s learned to accept and enjoy herself as she is - because God does.

Loving the girl in the mirror isn't about changing how you look, but allowing God to change how you see. Teasi Cannon’s lifelong battle with body image nearly destroyed her. Yet today she feels blessed - not because the size of her lower half has changed but because her perspective has. In her often hilarious, no-nonsense style, Teasi's gut-honest journey and transparent insights will propel every one of us who struggles with...you name it - bad hair or chubby cheeks, skinny arms or wide hips - to realize our value and beauty.

In this deceptively simple yet powerful book, noted author and media expert Michael Levine lays out hundreds of simple admonitions that, when followed, add up to an excellent guide for a happy and successful life. Instead of telling us what to do, Never tells us what not to do in many aspects of life.

"Halie" Jackson grew up in poverty on the levees of New Orleans, hunting for alligators for food along the Mississippi River with her brother, Peter. But every Sunday young Mahalia sang proudly in the church choir, the youngest member at age five. She left school after eighth grade and worked as a maid to help support her family. However, her passion for singing her special brand of music known as "gospel" never waned.

This Christmas, come home to Fairbrook, the setting for Judy Duarte’s uplifting, heartwarming novels, where friendship, faith, and some extraspecial providence will make it a holiday to remember.

The Big Ratchet is the story of the ratchets: the technologies and innovations, big and small, that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket. Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened.

Marine biologist Kathy McNeely travels to Alaska, where she discovers an illegal ivory-poaching operation that is threatening the region's walrus population, and, with the help of a local tribe, she sets out to expose the poachers.

Acclaimed artist Elaine Gordon can't believe her loving husband is gone. After a lifetime spent utterly devoted to her soul mate and their marriage, Elaine is now tetherless, faced with widowhood and all the decisions that come with it - not least of which is what to do with her rambling, now-empty family home.

An outspoken centrist, Senator Snowe stunned Washington in 2012 when she announced she would not seek a fourth term and offered a sharp rebuke to the Senate, citing the dispiriting gridlock and polarization. After serving in the legislative branch at the state and federal levels for 40 years, including 18 years in the U.S. Senate, she explained that Washington wasn’t solving the big problems anymore. In this timely call to action, she explores the roots of her belief in principled policy-making and bipartisan compromise.

It's the summer of 1944 and the world seems mired in a war that will never end. Even with a war on, the peaches are ripe for picking. As veteran teacher Miss Dimple Kilpatrick and her colleagues work in the orchard, they hear frantic calls for help.

For far too long, the menace of concussions has been hidden in plain sight. On playing fields across America, lives are being derailed by seemingly innocuous jolts to the head. From the peewees to the pros, concussions are reaching epidemic proportions. This book brings that hidden epidemic and its consequences out of the shadows.