Cherry Blossom Blues

Delve into a lyrical love story shared between two Afro-American men living in the District of Columbia during the ethos of the roaring 1920s and the Harlem Renaissance. In spite of their class differences, their clandestine affairs thrive among their respective travels, marriages, careers, and time itself. Experience exhilaration as the main characters intertwine with real-life figures: Al Capone, Marcus Garvey, Herbert Hoover, Stephanie St. Clair and Albert Khan in Harlem, Macon, Georgia and Paris, France. Get goosebumps observing the living commune with the dead during ritualistic and mysterious séances. Observe how history often repeats itself by encountering the ramifications of the Spanish Influenza, World War I, Prohibition, and the threat of rising fascism foreshadowing the Jewish Holocaust. Most importantly, glean the profundity of our interconnections with everything in the universe in order to achieve authentic bliss.

Child Protection in America

Child abuse and neglect are tragically common. Each year, more than 1,000 American children die due to maltreatment. Thousands more suffer physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Across the country, every community has a system of government-operated and funded child protective services (CPS). But given that social workers of CPS have the authority to remove children from unsafe parents, it is no surprise that CPS is controversial. Does CPS protect children? Does CPS do more good than harm? Is CPS fundamentally racist, as some critics argue? Should CPS be abolished? To answer these questions, it is essential to understand the origins of child protection in America. How did we arrive at the child protection system in place today? This book traces the history of child protection from colonial times to the present and provides the most in-depth analysis ever published of the origins of child protection.

Chock Full of Fuckery

Chock Full of Fuckery is a captivating collection of poems, short stories, and musings told through the lens of a mixed, Gen X chick who is ridiculously sick of everyone’s shit. Including her own.

Blended with pain and humor, this book gives a glimpse into raw and often absurd aspects of her life, and offers a gentle reminder that life is a tapestry of experiences interwoven with darkness and light, tragedy and triumph.

Be ready to embrace the beautiful mess of one woman’s history. Why? Because this could be just what you need right now.

Chosen

In a gripping thriller that delves into the complexities of identity, murder, and the enduring question of nature versus nurture, Chosen follows Ted, a man whose quest to find his birth mother leads him to a chilling discovery: Chosen, his identical twin, separated at birth and raised in a starkly different world.

When a moment of uncontrollable rage leaves Chosen dead at Ted’s hands, Ted must make a life-altering decision: turn himself in or flee, erasing his ties to the fateful deed. As Ted navigates a dizzying maze of moral dilemmas, weaving himself into a new narrative, the authorities begin to unravel the mystery behind Chosen’s disappearance, unearthing a tale of twins divided by circumstance and a mother’s secretive past.

Through vivid and immersive prose, Chosen explores the divergent paths of two brothers, one raised in privilege and the other in poverty, casting a spotlight on the influence of upbringing on their individual fates. As the investigation deepens, readers become voyeurs into the tumultuous psyches of characters grappling with the weight of their choices, the elasticity of truth, and the undying question of what shapes us.

Christianity as the Moral Order of Integration

This book is an integration of the Old and New Testaments, and it is intended to demonstrate that there should be only one Testament. Together they form the Bible of the Jewish people. They unfold the long journey that Abram and Sarai were summoned by God to initiate. As migrants without a country and without an ethnic identity, they personified the Truth of God by incarnating “the Lord God’s” being of presence and transcendent possibility. Incorporated into an eternal covenant as Abraham and Sarah, they established the birthright of God’s elect people as the embodiment of the integration of universality and ethnicity.

The journey continued through their descendants, vacillating between the union of universality and ethnicity and mere ethnicity, and, in the course of Israel’s history, it separated the prophets from the priests. The journey traverses the Yahwist Strand of the Pentateuch, the four prophetic divisions of the Book of Isaiah, Book 1 of I Enoch, the Apocalypse of Daniel, John the Baptist, and it climaxes in the ontological termination of the moral order of separation through the death of Jesus of Nazareth and the inauguration of a New Creation and its New Humanity through his resurrection from the dead.

The journey is concluded by Paul the Apostle who, as an ethnically determined Pharisee, is called by God to proclaim the moral order of integration as a gift to the nations of the Gentiles.

Christina and Marianna's Wild Hair Adventure

This book is about two sisters who did not see how beautiful their hair truly was.

In the end, Christina learns to embrace the beauty of her curls and the versatility that goes along with her unique hair.

Join the girls on their adventure to discover the beauty of their hair.

Christina's War

Growing up on a poor farm in Missouri and learning how to sing opera from her war-scarred father, young Christina Cross has no idea the powerful forces of good and evil, of music and war, will one day pull her into the maelstrom of the Second World War, compelling her to make life-or-death-decisions about who she is fighting for and the price she is willing to pay.

Like a masterful opera, Christina’s War deftly transports the reader to early 1940s Paris where Christina and her sister, Nicollet, are sent by their father to live a better life with their Grandfather, Philippe Pétain. Philippe, eager to please the Nazi regime, envisions Christina’s exquisite voice as a means to entertain Hitler and his officers. Yet, unbeknownst to him, Christina’s heart belongs not just to music but to Laurent Gauvion Saint-Cyr, the charismatic leader of the French Underground who had recruited her into the resistance.

When she defiantly refuses to sing, setting Hitler’s fury aflame, Nicollet becomes a pawn in a dangerous game of power and retribution. Now, Laurent must not only fight for their country’s freedom but race against time to save the two sisters from the clutches of a malevolent Nazi officer who revels in torture.

Christmas Eve at Grandmother's House

Join three excited girls as they visit their grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve. The air is filled with laughter and chatter as they decorate, discussing who’s been naughty or nice. The warm, inviting scent of holiday smells from the kitchen, where Grandmother is busy preparing holiday dinner and treats.

The girls look so beautiful in the PJs Grandma has bought them for Christmas, a heartwarming tradition they cherish. Earlier that day, Grandma visited the MDPLS Library and has chosen a special story to read to her granddaughters tonight.

To find out how this enchanting Christmas Eve unfolds, you’ll have to read the book!

Chrystal Blue Eyes: The Last Reindeer

Join Chrystal, the last reindeer with blue eyes, on an epic journey through treacherous terrain in this thrilling and romantic Christmas adventure. As she navigates the hostile world of reindeer, Chrystal must overcome countless challenges and obstacles to survive. This captivating tale will captivate readers of all ages and leave them enchanted with the world of reindeer forever.

Circle of Stone

In Depression-era Arkansas, a group of Black individuals, weary of enduring relentless brutality and disrespect from white communities, form a covert alliance known as ‘The Circle.’ United by a vow to clandestinely resist racist oppression, they employ ingenious tactics to combat the injustices inflicted upon their town. As they skillfully orchestrate retribution, ‘The Circle’ begins to shift the power dynamics, much to the chagrin of their white oppressors. This stirring tale reveals the resilience and ingenuity of a community determined to fight back in the face of adversity.

Climbing the Stairs of the City & Other Short Stories

H. Lloyd Weston worked assiduously to create a compilation of short stories, some from real-life experiences, the others from the divine gift of the imagination. Each story is crafted with the author’s emphasis on originality and fluidity of thought and expression, keeping in mind the reader who will embark upon the same journey by finding enjoyment in reading these engaging stories. The author wants the reader to experience the same palpable joy and reward he received in the task of creating them.

His obsession with executing a quality batch of stories came from his love of literature and the coterie of exceptional short story writers whose works he read along the way. Among these are writers such as Anton Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield, D. H. Lawrence, James Baldwin, Eudora Welty, Katherine Ann Porter, Ernest Hemingway, and Leo Tolstoy. The reader is swept away by the gripping power of these stories-tales that are original, imaginative, and adventurous.

It is hoped that the average reader will find things pertinent to their own life experiences within these poignant and suspenseful tales; stories that afford them the chance to escape the humdrum of daily life and the headlines of today’s depressing 24-hour news cycle. It is hoped that these stories will take each reader to a place of wonder and escape to the three different geographic locations within these stories.

Close Enough

Nicole’s life in the sunshine state of Florida was once warm and comfortable, having escaped an abusive marriage over a decade and a half ago. Her fulfilling career in the medical field provided stability, but the arrival of a new doctor named Mark would soon ignite a passion she had only fantasized about. As their paths intertwined at the prominent rehabilitation center where they worked, Nicole’s sexual desires transformed into breathtaking realities, surpassing her wildest dreams. Under the guidance of Anita, the managing director who had taken her under her wing, Nicole embarked on a journey of sexual exploration that revealed an unexpected array of colorful and edifying encounters.

Amidst the corridors of the rehabilitation center, the tantalizing encounters between Nicole and Mark fueled her imagination, igniting a creativity that soared beyond the confines of their working relationship. Their world became a wonderland of lust and love, each rendezvous fueling their insatiable appetites. However, their passionate escapades were abruptly halted when an angry patient intentionally struck Mark from behind with a chair, shattering their idyllic existence and plunging them into uncertainty.

In this sensually charged tale, Nicole’s pursuit of sexual enlightenment takes center stage, illuminating the depths of desire and the transformative power of intimate experiences. As they navigate the aftermath of the devastating blow that threatens to extinguish their flame, Nicole and Mark must confront the complexities of their connection and redefine their relationship in ways they never anticipated.