Friday Sept 17th at 7pm Elissa Al-Chokhachy shares the stories in her new book\, “Miraculous Moments\: True Stories Affirming That Life Goes On”
Elissa Al-Chokhachy\, a hospice nurse\, has been working with the dying and the bereaved for almost 2 decades\, and in that time she has listened to numerous stories of contact with loved ones who have passed on. In her book she has collected 88 true stories from people who have seen\, heard\, and felt love from their family and friends in spirit. Included are encounters with angels\, near-death experiences\, and even visits from the spirits of beloved pets. This book offers hope\, reassurance and comfort to all.
Elissa Al-Chokhachy is a certified hospice nurse who has earned a Masters of Art in Thanatology\: Death\, Dying and Bereavement from Hood College\, and is the recipient of the Boston College Alumni Award for Excellence in Nursing.
Does life continue after death? Will we ever be reunited with loved ones? Does love ever die?
Heartfelt testimony to the eternal nature of the human spirit can be found in this collection of eighty-eight true stories from people who have seen\, heard\, and felt love from their family\, friends\, and acquaintances in spirit. The author\, a hospice nurse\, shares the wisdom she has gained from nearly twenty years of working with the dying and bereaved.
Told with courage and warmth\, these vivid firsthand accounts—of receiving signs\, messages\, and even hugs from family members who have crossed over\; encounters with angels\; near-death experiences\; and visits from the spirits of beloved pets—offer hope\, reassurance\, and comfort to anyone who is mourning a lost loved one or has ever wondered if life goes on.
Elissa Al-Chokhachy\, MA\, RN\, CHPN\, FT has been working with the dying and the bereaved for almost two decades. She graduated with a Masters of Art in Thanatology\: Death\, Dying and Bereavement. Al-Chokhachy is the recipient of the Boston College Alumni Award for Excellence in nursing and the Dr. William B. Stevens Award for the nurse who enjoys her work the most. She is the author of two children's books and is a certified hospice nurse and a fellow in thanatology. The author resides in Massachusetts.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120518T111017Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100918T230000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100919T010000Z UID:http://www.jabberwockybookshop.com/event/my-best-friend-wookie-tony-pacetti URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.jabberwockybookshop.com/event/my-best-friend-wookie-tony-pacetti SUMMARY:My Best Friend is a Wookie by Tony Pacetti DESCRIPTION:Saturday Sept 18th at 7pm\, Tony Pacitti\, formerly of Rowley\, presents his memoir\, “My Best Friend is a Wookie\: One Boy’s Journey to Find His Place in the Universe”
The real-life saga of certified geek and official Jedi Knight wannabe\, Tony Pacitti is a hilarious and heart-wrenching coming-of-age tale framed around Lucas’ epic Star Wars…the movie that changed one little boy’s life. With the Force on his side\, Tony Pacitti tells how he survived the countless hurdles of adolescence\, temptations from the Dark Side\, and ultimately lived to see the day when he is comfortable in his own skin. For anyone who’s pretended a flashlight was a lightsaber\, who loved the movies\, or who remembers a geeky and awkward adolescence\, this evening and this book will be a must.
Tony Pacitti has written for SouthCoast247.com as a features writer and video game reviewer and has had his short science fiction published at 365tommorows. He has been the writer for the online comics RoboPlanet and The Silencer at Pandemonium Comics. He now lives in Providence\, Rhode Island and is probably watching The Empire Strikes Back on laserdisc at this very moment.
From the best-selling author of Leviathan comes this sweeping narrative of one of America’s most historically rich industries. As Henry Hudson sailed up the broad river that would one day bear his name\, he grew concerned that his Dutch patrons would be disappointed in his failure to find the fabled route to the Orient. What became immediately apparent\, however\, from the Indians clad in deer skins and “good furs” was that Hudson had discovered something just as tantalizing.
The news of Hudson’s 1609 voyage to America ignited a fierce competition to lay claim to this uncharted continent\, teeming with untapped natural resources. The result was the creation of an American fur trade\, which fostered economic rivalries and fueled wars among the European powers\, and later between the United States and Great Britain\, as North America became a battleground for colonization and imperial aspirations.
In Fur\, Fortune\, and Empire\, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin chronicles the rise and fall of the fur trade of old\, when the rallying cry was “get the furs while they last.” Beavers\, sea otters\, and buffalos were slaughtered\, used for their precious pelts that were tailored into extravagant hats\, coats\, and sleigh blankets. To read Fur\, Fortune\, and Empire then is to understand how North America was explored\, exploited\, and settled\, while its native Indians were alternately enriched and exploited by the trade. As Dolin demonstrates\, fur\, both an economic elixir and an agent of destruction\, became inextricably linked to many key events in American history\, including the French and Indian War\, the American Revolution\, and the War of 1812\, as well as to the relentless pull of Manifest Destiny and the opening of the West.
This work provides an international cast beyond the scope of any Hollywood epic\, including Thomas Morton\, the rabble-rouser who infuriated the Pilgrims by trading guns with the Indians\; British explorer Captain James Cook\, whose discovery in the Pacific Northwest helped launch America’s China trade\; Thomas Jefferson who dreamed of expanding the fur trade beyond the Mississippi\; America’s first multimillionaire John Jacob Astor\, who built a fortune on a foundation of fur\; and intrepid mountain men such as Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith\, who sliced their way through an awe inspiring and unforgiving landscape\, leaving behind a mythic legacy still resonates today.
Concluding with the virtual extinction of the buffalo in the late 1800s\, Fur\, Fortune\, and Empire is an epic history that brings to vivid life three hundred years of the American experience\, conclusively demonstrating that the fur trade played a seminal role in creating the nation we are today.
Eric Jay Dolin is the author of Leviathan\: The
History of Whaling In America\, which was chosen as one of the best
nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times and The
Boston Globe\, and also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S.
Maritime History. A graduate of Brown\, Yale\, and MIT\, where he received
his Ph.D. in environmental policy\, he lives in Marblehead\,
Massachusetts\, with his wife and two children. His website is at
ericjaydolin.com.
Jesse Cooper was an honor-roll student who loved to windsurf and
write poetry. He also had severe cerebral palsy and was quadriplegic\,
unable to speak\, and wracked by seizures. He died suddenly at age
seventeen.
In fiercely honest\, surprisingly funny\, and sometimes
heartbreaking prose\, Jesse’s mother\, Marianne Leone\, chronicles her
transformation by the remarkable life and untimely death of her child.
An unforgettable memoir of joy\, grief\, and triumph\, Knowing Jesse unlocks
the secret of unconditional love and speaks to all families who strive
to do right by their children.
\;
Marianne Leone is an actress who appeared in The Sopranos\,
a screenwriter\, and an essayist published in The Boston Globe.
She lives in Massachusetts with her husband\, actor Chris Cooper\, and two
rescue dogs.
The Jesse Cooper Foundation funds inclusion and
adapted sports for children with special needs\, and supports disabled
orphans in Romania.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120518T111017Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101009T230000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101010T010000Z UID:http://www.jabberwockybookshop.com/event/birth-phoenix-harriet-b-varney-miller URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.jabberwockybookshop.com/event/birth-phoenix-harriet-b-varney-miller SUMMARY:Birth of the Phoenix by Harriet B. Varney Miller DESCRIPTION:Harriett B. Varney Miller has a bachelor’s degree in Economics.
Harriett is actively involved with current social issues\, including
volunteering at the local crisis center\, and having gone to New Orleans
to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Birth of the
Phoenix is her first novel. Harriett lives with her
children in Massachusetts.
\;
“Ms. Miller has gifted us with an authentic glimpse of not
only the suffering but how victims of all kinds of abuse can heal and
transform themselves\, creating new lives that surpass their
expectations. This novel will inspire and encourage women everywhere to
find their power and take control of their lives. I couldn’t put it
down…” Robin Conrad\, Family Violence Advocate\, The Jeanne Geiger
Crisis Center
Following up Finn\, his much-heralded and prize-winning debut whose voice evoked “the mythic styles of his literary predecessors . . . William Faulkner\, Toni Morrison\, Cormac McCarthy and Edward P. Jones” (San Francisco Chronicle)\, Jon Clinch returns with Kings of the Earth\, a powerful and haunting story of life\, death\, and family in rural America.
The edge of civilization is closer than we think.
It’s as close as a primitive farm on the margins of an upstate New York town\, where the three Proctor brothers live together in a kind of crumbling stasis. They linger like creatures from an older\, wilder\, and far less forgiving world—until one of them dies in his sleep and the other two are suspected of murder.
Told in a chorus of voices that span a generation\, Kings of the Earth examines the bonds of family and blood\, faith and suspicion\, that link not just the brothers but their entire community.
Vernon\, the oldest of the Proctors\, is reduced by work and illness to a shambling shadow of himself. Feebleminded Audie lingers by his side\, needy and unknowable. And Creed\, the youngest of the three and the only one to have seen anything of the world (courtesy of the U.S. Army)\, struggles with impulses and accusations beyond his understanding. We also meet Del Graham\, a state trooper torn between his urge to understand the brothers and his desire for justice\; Preston Hatch\, a kindhearted and resourceful neighbor who’s spent his life protecting the three men from themselves\; the brothers’ only sister\, Donna\, who managed to cut herself loose from the family but is then drawn back\; and a host of other living\, breathing characters whose voices emerge to shape this deeply intimate saga of the human condition at its limits.
Born and raised in the remote heart of upstate New York\, Jon Clinch has been an English teacher\, a metalworker\, a folksinger\, an illustrator\, a typeface designer\, a housepainter\, a copywriter\, and an advertising executive. Teaching and advertising took him south to the suburbs of Philadelphia for many years\, and only with the publication of Finn\, his first novel\, was he able to return to the kind of rural surroundings he’d loved from the start\: This time\, in the Green Mountains of Vermont. He is married to novelist Wendy Clinch\, and they have one daughter.