Apex Blues

Apex Blues chronicles the extraordinary lives and musical legacies of two generation-spanning Jazz clarinet virtuosos: Jimmie Noone Sr. and his son Jimmy Noone Jr.

Jimmie Noone Sr. rose to fame in the 1910s New Orleans French Quarter jazz scene, forging his iconic ‘Sweet Lorraine’ style during the dawn of the genre. Later, his son Jimmy initially made waves as a San Diego local musician before feeling called to follow in his father’s footsteps. He set out to revive his dad’s New Orleans Jazz sound and mentorship.

As the author witnesses firsthand, Jimmy exceeds even his father’s musical heights through raw talent and relentless dedication to his craft. In his final days, he completes his quest: to honor Jazz history by propelling his father’s sound into the future. Jimmy cements the Noone legacy, ensuring the nation remembers what sublime Jazz can be.

Spanning generations, geographies, and evolutions of musical style, Apex Blues captures how two clarinet greats shepherded Jazz from regional obscurity into an acclaimed American art form.

Are You Ready to Improve Habits?

This book is inspirationally empathetic because it describes the author’s experience in improving his health through the joy of physical exercising simultaneously witnessing the benefits in his muscles, successfully avoiding falls, and protecting his brain and heart. The author can be in the reader’s shoes because in the last two decades he successfully recovered from a heart attack, and two heart operations. At 81 years of age, he can walk briskly with his cane and frequently travels abroad, across challenging kilometers and miles of uneven terrains in countries like Jordan, Israel, Greece, and Turkey.

He also performs daily exercises related to improving balance and is able to rapidly stand up from being seated on a chair, and even from the floor.

The book exemplifies that the habit of systematic exercising turns out into a pleasant and healthy activity that also contributes to a reduction in weight and nurtures happiness and the joy of being alive.

Aristotle: Form and Matter Edification

Aristotle: Form and Matter Edification offers an in-depth exploration of Aristotle’s central metaphysical concepts. This scholarly work meticulously reconstructs Aristotle’s theories, presenting them through the rigorous lens of analytic geometry and metaphysics. Fortin successfully bridges ancient philosophical thought with modern scientific inquiry, making complex ideas accessible and relevant for contemporary scholars.

In this treatise, Fortin delves into the intricate relationship between form and matter, which lies at the heart of Aristotelian ontology. He thoroughly examines Aristotle’s notions of substance, expanse, and quantity, elucidating how these foundational principles underpin existence and change. The text traverses various dimensions of being, from the indivisible unity of numbers to the tangible perceptions of visual and auditory experiences, offering a comprehensive understanding of Aristotle’s enduring impact on both ancient and modern science and philosophy.

Fortin’s focus on the dynamic nature of human intellect underscores the timeless relevance of Aristotelian thought. Aristotle: Form and Matter Edification is an essential read for serious students of philosophy and science, providing a rigorous and thoughtful analysis of Aristotle’s work. This volume not only pays homage to Aristotle’s intellectual legacy but also invites readers to engage with the perennial questions of existence, substance, and the nature of reality.

Back to the Trees and Caves

After dedicating over three decades to managing wilderness areas for the USDA Forest Service, Jonathan Klein comes to a sobering realization: the wilderness within the lower forty-eight is, at best, a theatrical semblance of the real essence of wild. Upon retirement at age sixty, Klein embarks on a solo canoe journey across the untamed expanses of northern Canada, yearning to uncover the authentic wilderness that eludes him. Back to the Trees and Caves unfolds this riveting 700-mile adventure from Saskatchewan to Hudson Bay, across landscapes untouched by time.

The voyage is far from tranquil. Klein battles violent storms, navigates raging rapids, and crosses lake expanses that mirror oceans. After seven grueling weeks, an utterly exhausted Klein reaches Churchill, Manitoba, but not without facing a life-and-death encounter with an apex predator, a confrontation that brings him face to face with the harsh yet majestic reality of the wild.

As Klein paddles through the endless miles, the journey morphs into more than a physical quest; it becomes a conduit for profound reflections on the intrinsic value of wild places. Not just for the wandering souls of humans, but as irreplaceable havens for the myriad wild creatures that inhabit them. The narrative encapsulates Klein’s evolving insights on the sanctity of these landscapes and the imperative to shield them from the unrelenting grasp of human consumption.

Baseball Confidential

Baseball Confidential is a revealing look at behind the scenes communication between players, coaches, and managers at all levels of baseball. The book consists of stories and interviews with former players, coaches, and managers mostly at the Major League Baseball level.

This book is written for baseball fans. Every fan wants to know what is said on the mound, in the locker room, behind closed doors and more. With my exposures to coaches, players and fans that is all brought to light in Baseball Confidential. Readers are invited to come behind the closed doors.

The book reveals many funny and good stories related to the mentioned, behind-the-scenes communication. This is a baseball book that includes what coaches say to players: to pitchers on mound visits, pre- and post-game pep talks, and more.

Birthed Anew: From Pain to Passion to Purpose

We all have a part deep within us that is fighting to make its exit. Whether it’s hidden secrets, traumatic experiences, or soul wrenching memories, it no longer wants to reside there. Let me introduce you to Grace. She weaves us through the course of her life as she embarks upon this quest for freedom from life’s shackles. On this journey, we experience her deeply rooted pain, and her drive towards deliverance. We witness her attempts of resurrection from the dark pits of pain to the moment of her personal triumph.

Pursing growth commences through the identification of the who, what, where, when and why’s in our lives. Gaining a better understanding of how our past paves our future can help individuals make positive choices that will support authentic healing and restoration.

Birthed Anew: From Pain to Passion to Purpose will shed light on commonly hidden skeletons while simultaneously revealing the beauty of what it actually means to transition from a painful situation to a purposeful one and ultimately experience the gift of forgiveness.

Born A Bastard - Swim Upstream

Dive deep into a saga that blurs the lines between fiction and reality, spanning a century from the 1850s to 1950s. This tale, inspired by true events, unravels the intricate tapestry of a family I was adopted into – a lineage rife with hedonism, deceit, and dark desires.

Each character in this sprawling family epic is a study in contrasts: driven by their insatiable passions, they navigate a world laden with amorality, neuroses, and intense eroticism. Their stories are a testament to the tumultuous times they lived in, filled with ambition and treachery.

In 1946, amidst the serene backdrop of a Hawaiian beach house, a Tsunami loomed, threatening to engulf all in its path. Entrusted to the wrath of nature at the tender age of four, the intention was clear: my demise amidst the surging waters and the house’s obliteration. Yet, fate had other plans. My survival is just one of the many riveting episodes from a past riddled with enigmas.

Venture into a world of intriguing personalities living through history’s defining moments. A tale of resilience, lust, and the lengths to which people go to satisfy their own agendas. Embark on this compelling journey, and uncover the depths of human nature and the indomitable spirit of survival.

Boy Refugee

Boy Refugee: A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War is the story of a young refugee boy in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The story chronicles his escape from war-ravaged Bangladesh to the relative safety of a barbed-wired internment camp in the foothills of the Himalayas, his day-to-day life as a civilian prisoner of war, and his thousand-mile, two-year-long journey back to Pakistan.

Breaking the Chains of Bondage

Thirty-four years ago, Charles Smith was incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (or ‘Injustice,’ as he would say) with two life sentences. Now, he shares with us the harrowing and horrific experience of life in a Texas prison. Breaking the Chains of Bondage is his personal memoir that guides us through the fields and down the halls of everyday life, torture, and trauma in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison system. It is a read you won’t soon forget.

Despite facing numerous hardships and challenges during his 30+ years of incarceration, Charles persevered and achieved a master’s degree in psychology from UT-Clear Lake in Houston, earning widespread respect as a motivational speaker. He shares his passion for justice for all and his love for Esther and humanity at large. Breaking the Chains of Bondage is a riveting story of courage, resilience, and love. Open it up—take a walk inside.

Can Love and Talents Survive Opposite Political and Economic Environments?

Can Love and Talents Survive Opposite Political and Economic Environments?

This author believes that it is important to narrate how he has been affected by living under opposing political and economic systems.

This book shows how the command economy differs from the market economy through the example of a highly qualified Cuban economist and scholar who has lived for decades in developing and developed market economy and command economy countries.

Another very important and interesting aspect of this book is that it establishes the talents of this man’s two big loves’ –– his mother and his second wife –– as important and influential contributors in developing his behavior in the politico-socio-economic environment in which his life has so far taken place.

This book is divided into four sections: CHAPTER I contains an analytic summary of chaotic situations in Cuba and the United States, in which he had personally participated. CHAPTER II is a comparison of the political, social, and economic advantages and disadvantages existing between the market and the command economies, and the social democracy according to his international scholarly and personal experience, in developing and developed countries, especially during the last half of the twentieth and the first two decades of the twenty-first centuries. CHAPTER III explains in depth what is meant by each one of this author’s seven talents: reading and writing, pedagogy, tenacity, learning foreign languages, traveling around the world, singing, and being empathetic. CHAPTER IV explains how these talents are related to those of the two women who had considerably influenced the performance of his life.

Canadian Family Law Handbook

This book provides an easy-to-understand survey of family law across Canada. For those interested in Ontario or other provinces, perhaps working toward paralegal certification, this book provides all the relevant details of family law and competencies in an organized fashion using plain language. The latest amendments to the Divorce Act concerning decision-making responsibilities, parenting time, and contact orders are fully canvassed as are new requirements for moving or relocating, and the broader definition of family violence. Indeed, not all marriages and families are harmonious. There is a thorough review of domestic abuse and resulting trauma as well as legal remedies including peace bonds, restraining orders, and civil contempt. This book also examines the client-centered, trauma-informed, anti-racist approach to providing legal services.

The laws of marriage (but not solemnization), annulment, and divorce are essentially the same no matter where you live in Canada. The first six chapters are very informative about those topics and issues of parenting, child support, and financial assistance for spouses. This book also deals with disputes concerning parenting responsibilities, support, and property division that arise when the parties never married but cohabited in a conjugal relationship of some duration prior to separation.

While this book is not legal advice, it provides every reader with a solid grasp of their rights and obligations in family matters. And those who will qualify as legal advisers in family disputes will benefit from the breadth of the material and the comparative approach.

Celestial Scepters I

Celestial Scepters I challenges the Church to explore the Scriptures, and to cease cutting, pasting and ignoring the Bible. The Church, in other words, must challenge their leaders, who have, since the beginning, distorted Jesus’ words.

Yet the Church is continually in conflict, forcing schisms and fusing theology with the political world, the Great Harlot. This has led them to deify kings, dictators, and papal autocrats. Why have they neglected Jesus’ teachings, going so far as to support antichristian figures like Hitler, Mussolini, Putin and Donald Trump?

Time is running out, the assault on the truth continues. Two movements emerged after Jesus’ death, the Church of James and the Church of Paul. Paul agreed to obey James, and to honor the Spirit that led Paul to do obey. Yet, Paul returned to his ways and ignored his sacred pledge. The early disciples, those who followed James, soon died out, who never left Jesus’ teachings. Paul, a man of contradictions, commanded his followers to obey the very kings who empowered the Church to ignore Jesus’ words and mission, making him, in reality, a Gentile god. But Jesus was explicit that we can become one with God, while yet alive, in the same way Jesus is one with God. We never needed a dictatorial taskmaster that Paul was and continued to be. What’s been lost since the beginning is the fact that we were given the glory, and we too are created in the image of God, and we too are the Way.