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"The adventures of 'Tom Sawyer' with an ironic, Yiddish twist."

WINNER -- 2001 MPA -- "Excellence In Independent Publishing" Award

The adventurous, humorous, sometimes wonderfully strange exploits of a youth during his family's adjustment to a new world, these compelling boyhood memories are of an almost Tom Swayer character, albeit with ironic Yiddish twists.

Fleeing from the Nazi invasion of France, the Engelhards, a proud and wealthy family, are forced to adjust to life as common refugees in Canada.

Highlighted by a youth's adventures as his eyes open up to his new world, the eighteen compelling short stories combine both the urgency of the family's circumstances with the ironic side of trying to fit into a new culture.

With themes of humiliation, intimidation, and alienation, this powerful book illustrates how the Holocaust did not end in 1945, but continued to reverberate through successive decades, even until the present day.

A Book of Kells recalls the lives and unearths the egos of John Kell and Kathleen Ward who meet in 1917 when he is a Canadian sailor stationed in Portsmouth, England. Her father, a Methodist Sunday School teacher, brings him home for tea. Kathleen's sister writes to Jack until she gets married in 1924 and Kathleen takes up the correspondence. Meanwhile, Jack has been getting an education and has spent a year evangelizing the Swampy Cree to whom he plans to return for another five years. When he gets Kathleen's letter it is like manna from heaven. He proposes awkwardly and she asks him to come over for another look. But, when he does, she smashes him at tennis and banishes him to his far northern post. However, they agree to give themselves a year to reconsider. Seventy-two letters get through, even though the native reserve is cut off from civilization for six months of the year. They marry in 1927 and she goes up to Oxford House, Manitoba, by canoe along the old fur trade route. Nine months later, in mid-winter, she treks for five days by horse-drawn cariole to find a place to give birth. When I enter the picture during the Great Depression, a stressed-out minister's wife and three little girls are crammed into a duplex on a working-class street in Toronto. We're working our hearts out as little "examples," trying to help Father. In later years, I discovered an emotional toll to pay. I couldn't sit through a church service without breaking into unrestrained weeping. My teen-age and college years were near-suicidal. What seemed to be the fundamental problem was that I had been trained to put away my ego in favor of redeeming my soul. Still, religion was a great strength, protecting our family from tendencies towards alcoholism and mental illness. I struggle desperately to avoid the pitfall of black sheep, which seemed inevitable for the youngest of three "perfect" minister's daughters. The name of this family voyage recalls the famous ninth-century illuminated gospel manuscript, The Book of Kells.

The world may know Shania Twain as many things: a music legend, a mother, and recently, a fixture in the news for her painful, public divorce and subsequent marriage to a cherished friend. But in this extraordinary autobiography, Shania reveals that she is so much more. She is Eilleen Twain, one of five children born into poverty in rural Canada, where her family often didn't have enough food to send her to school with lunch. She's the teenage girl who helped her mother and young siblings escape to a battered woman's shelter to put an end to the domestic violence in her family home. And she's the courageous twenty-two-year-old who sacrificed to keep her younger siblings together after her parents were tragically killed in a car accident.

Shania Twain's life has evolved from a series of pivotal moments, and in unflinching, heartbreaking prose, Shania spares no details as she takes us through the events that have made her who she is. She recounts her difficult childhood, her parents' sudden death and its painful aftermath, her dramatic rise to stardom, her devastating betrayal by a trusted friend, and her joyful marriage to the love of her life. From these moments, she offers profound, moving insights into families, personal tragedies, making sense of one's life, and the process of healing. Shania Twain is a singular, remarkable woman who has faced enormous odds and downfalls, and her extraordinary story will provide wisdom, inspiration, and hope for almost anyone.

When I mention that I work in an emergency room, people usually say,
1. Are you a nurse?
2. Wow. That must be really hard.
3. What's it like?

This is what it's like to be an emergency doctor.

That teenager puking up two liters of vodka and his stomach lining at triage? Yup. Blood pouring out of a terrified pregnant woman? Call me. And, of course, the patient who no longer has a nosebleed screaming at me across the department, "YOU are the most UNFEELING DOCTOR I have EVER MET!" Fun fun fun.

Let me peel back the curtain for you. It's not an iron curtain. In the emerg, it's most likely a crummy fabric curtain that too many other people have sneezed on.

Come on in.

This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. 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.

It is the last decade of the 19th century. The Wild West has been tamed and its fierce, independent and often violent larger-than-life figures – gun-toting wanderers, trappers, prospectors, Indian fighters, cowboys, and lawmen –are now victims of their own success. They are heroes who’ve outlived their usefulness.
But then gold is discovered in Alaska and the adjacent Canadian Klondike and a new frontier suddenly looms - an immense unexplored territory filled with frozen waterways, dark spruce forests, and towering mountains capped by glistening layers of snow and ice.

“Klondicitis,” a giddy mix of greed and lust for adventure, ignites a stampede. Fleeing the depths of a worldwide economic depression and driven by starry-eyed visions of vast wealth, tens of thousands rush northward.

Joining this throng of greenhorns and grifters, whores and highwaymen, sourdoughs and seers are three unforgettable men. In a true-life tale that rivets from the first page, we meet Charlie Siringo, a top-hand sharp-shooting cowboy who, after futilely trying to settle down with his new bride, becomes one of the Pinkerton Detective Agency’s shrewdest; George Carmack, a California-born American Marine who’s adopted by an Indian tribe, raises a family with a Taglish squaw, makes the discovery that starts off the Yukon Gold Rush – and becomes fabulously rich; and Soapy Smith, a sly and inventive predator-conman who rules a vast criminal empire.

As we follow this trio’s lives, we’re led inexorably into a perplexing mystery. A fortune in gold bars has somehow been stolen from the fortress-like Treadwell Mine in Juneau, Alaska, with no clues as to how the thieves made off with such an immensely heavy cargo.  To many it appears that the crime will never be solved.  But the Pinkerton Agency has a reputation for finding the answers that elude others.  Charged with getting the job done is Charlie Siringo who discovers that, to run the thieves to ground, he must embark on a rugged cross-territory odyssey that will lead him across frigid waters and through a frozen wilderness.  Ultimately, he’ll have his quarry in his sights. But then an additional challenge will present itself.  He must face down Soapy Smith and his gang of 300 cutthroats.  Hanging in the balance: George Carmack’s fortune in gold.

At once a compelling true-life mystery and an unforgettable portrait of a time in America’s history when thousands were fired with a vision of riches so unimaginable as to be worth any price, The Floor of Heaven is also an exhilarating tribute to the courage and undaunted spirit of the men and women who helped shape America.
 


From the Hardcover edition.

A Fascinating journey into the heart and culture of a reclusive religious community.

I Am Hutterite takes readers into the hidden heart of the little-known Hutterite colony in southern Manitoba where author Mary-Ann Kirkby spent her childhood. When she was ten years old her parents packed up their seven children and a handful of possessions and left the security of the colony to start a new life. Overnight they were thrust into a world they didn't understand, a world that did not understand them.

Before she left the colony Mary-Ann had never tasted macaroni and cheese or ridden a bike. She had never heard of Walt Disney or rock-and-roll. She was forced to reinvent herself, denying her heritage to fit in with her peers. With great humor, Kirkby describes how she adapted to popular culture; and with raw honesty her family's deep sense of loss for their community. More than a history lesson, I Am Hutterite is a powerful tale of retracing steps and understanding how our beginnings often define us. 

Controversial and acclaimed by the Hutterite community, Kirkby's book unveils the rich history and traditions of her people, giving us a rare and intimate portrait of an extraordinary way of life.

'BUFFALO AIRWAYS - Diamonds, DC-3s and 'Buffalo Joe' McBryan' will leave you on the edge of your seat...breathless with anticipation and awe! Experience the true-life adventure where heroic young pilots are recruited to fly World War Two airplanes in the most extreme conditions on earth under the demanding, watchful eye of legendary aviator 'Buffalo Joe' McBryan.

Written by critically-acclaimed Author, retired pilot and former Buffalo Airways flight crew member, Darrell Knight.

Includes 48 stunning photographic images of DC-3, DC-4 and C-46 Commando 'warbird' propliners in present-day use.

Read how the young flyers and aircraft engineers from Buffalo Airways brave minus forty degree temperatures, engine failures and seemingly-impossible demands from expeditors and the airline's owner to bring food, fuel and freight from civilization to remote, isolated settlements high above the Arctic circle in lovingly-restored vintage aircraft.

Fly along in the cockpit with these seat-of-the-pants aviators as they battle adverse weather, wing icing, runaway propellers, damaged engines, propeller strikes and dangerously-thin melting ice runways.

Darrell Knight is also the author of "Pete Knight - The Cowboy King" and "Artillery Flyers at War", both available in hardcover and paperback editions.