Showing results for "Stumblings" in Literature & Fiction

Alice Heppenheimer, born into a prosperous German Jewish family around the turn of the twentieth century, comes of age at a time of growing opportunities for women. So, when she turns 21 years old, she convinces her strict family to allow her to attend art school, and then pursues a career in women's fashion. Alice prospers in her career and settles into married life, but she could not anticipate a Nazi Germany, where simply being Jewish has become an existential threat.

For over 60 years, since his award-winning debut, The Room on the Roof, was published, Ruskin Bond has charmed and entertained us with characters ranging from the animal world to humans to ghostly spirits, and his magic touch has often presented to us a world unhurried, tucked away in hills and valleys. What does it mean to be an octogenarian loved by the young and old alike? To be synonymous with the smell of pinewood and rambling mountain paths? In short, what is it that makes him Bond?

The author describes these poems as "stumblings" because they are stumbling attempts to understand what can seem beyond understanding. In his writing, he confronts the issues that are inescapably a part of being human, as he sees them playing out in the maelstrom of his own life. He takes us into areas of desperation, confusion, even despair, but also of acceptance, fulfilment, ecstasy, obstinate faith, and, above all, of tender love.

Sometimes we try to connect to others, especially people we love but end up missing each other for a variety of reasons. The stories in STUMBLING TOWARD GRACE explore instances of imperfect people trying to connect to loved ones and others despite fractured relationships and personal flaws. These are ordinary people striving to survive and thrive in situations reflective of today’s challenges. A wife can no longer deal with her husband's recent paralysis. A husband desperately wants his wife to reconsider separating.

Jameson: Being a 22-year-old virgin was not on my list of life goals. I don't know how it happened. Well...I never date, dedicate all my time to college, and I'm awkward with a capital A around hot guys - okay, so I know exactly how it happened. When my best friends come up with a plan to make the most of this summer before grad school, I'm all for it. That's how I end up at a charity bachelor auction, bidding on a date I hope will help me toss this V-card out the window. What could possibly go wrong?

Lent against a lamppost in the black of night as freezing cold rain lashes down from above. He wants to reach the sanctuary of the bar on the other side of the road, but the night and the cold rain and the lack of light make it seem a wide reaching roadway that perhaps is too far for him to stumbling across. Join our protagonist striving to make his way out of the driving rain to the bar that teases just out of reach and leads us to distraction, as haunting lights bedazzle and amaze the eye once we're lost in the abyss of night's darkness.