This book provides an analysis of the Welsh immigrant community in the Ballarat/Sebastopol gold mining district of Victoria, Australia during the second half of the nineteenth century. As its focus, the book has the Welsh migrant group as a whole, in one particular area, during one period of time, and is a departure from previous studies that have concentrated on prominent individuals and cultural/religious societies, to the exclusion of many facets of immigrant life. By viewing the entire...

Popular media are powerful mirrors and makers of meaning around suicide.This book brings together scholars from across disciplines to examine how suicide is mythologized, politicized and challenged across film, TV, young adult literature, digital platforms, online communities, and more. From news coverage of celebrity suicide to social media interventions with at-risk youth, this wide-ranging collection explores suicide’s intersections with class, gender, chronic illness and cultur...

"The End Times Taphouse" is intended for those concerned about the decline of our nation and the current events affecting us all. Christians will most certainly be intrigued by this tale, as will those wondering where God is during these times of our nation's moral crisis. The timeframe is the near future and the story addresses many of the current events unfolding in the world today. The colorful characters, humor, and realistic situations entertain and bring the book to life. Fiction rea...

Jack was abandoned by his parents at an early age. Adopted by an elderly farm couple, he quickly learned that watching out for number one was all that mattered. Fighting his way through the teenage years toughened Jack and made him into a rebel that never conformed to the crowd. When the party bus of the 70's came along Jack jumped on board for the ride. His rugged good looks always attracted the girls but it never led to anything meaningful. That is until the day the Prodigal Bad Boy met ...

In Red Star Rising, the riveting sequel to Truths Blood, America has fallen. The Chinese military occupies the former United States and two men struggle to survive rogue gangs, the army, and even the occasional cannibal. Dustin Lang is on his way home after trying to free his brother from a Chinese prison. Meanwhile, Eli West searches for his sister in a ravaged Willamette Valley. In this brutal and unpredictable world, who will survive? Red Star Rising takes the lessons of history and app...

It hadnt seemed possible that a president whose policies had impoverished millions could be reelected. It was the waning years of the American empire and the liberties represented in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were a fading memory. The government monitored every aspect of American life, and the drones buzzing overhead served as a constant reminder, but it was the governments reckless spending that brought the nation to its knees.Now, the economy is in ruin, and the pre...

Tyler Roberts encourages scholars to abandon rigid conceptual oppositions between "secular" and "religious" to better understand how human beings actively and thoughtfully engage with their worlds and make meaning. The artificial distinction between a self-conscious and critical "academic study of religion" and an ideological and authoritarian "religion," he argues, only obscures the phenomenon. Instead, Roberts calls on intellectuals to approach the field as a site of "encounter" and "res...

Ten-year-old Kenny (Kenji in Japanese) worships his older brother, Mickey (Mitsuo), a baseball hero whose outstanding performance on the Asahi baseball team has given him fame and popularity. Despite Kenny's suspected heart condition, he is determined to practice secretly with Mickey so he, too, can one day try out for the Asahi. But world events soon overtake life in this quiet community. When Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in 1941, everything for Kenny and his family spirals out of control: ...

Hunter S. Thompson, “smart hillbilly,” boy of the South, born and bred in Louisville, Kentucky, son of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom, public school-educated, jailed at seventeen on a bogus petty robbery charge, member of the U.S. Air Force (Airmen Second Class), copy boy for Time, writer for The National Observer, et cetera. From the outset he was the Wild Man of American journalism with a journalistic appetite that touched on subjects that drove his sense ...

In The Disciple of Las Vegas, forensic accountant Ava Lee is hired by the richest man in the Philippines to recover $50 million from a Canadian land swindle. With the billionaire's reputation on the line, she follows the money from Vancouver to Las Vegas, to the Costa Rican accounts of the Moneida, a First Nations band that owns The River, a poker web site. After uncovering an illegal online gambling ring, she confronts one of the world poker greats, David "The Disciple" Douglas, and his p...

“A thoughtful and powerful page turner.”—PeopleElvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especially to a girl in a terrible fix. And Jennifer Sheridan qualifies: Her fiancé, Mark Thurman, is a decorated LA cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer's sure he's in trouble—the kind of serious trouble that only Elvis Cole can help him out of.Five minutes after his new client leaves his office, Elvis and his partner, the enigmatic Joe Pik...

*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • The bravely imagined, wildly acclaimed debut novel from the author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove—*about a thirteen year old girl who sets out on a mission through magical swamps to save her family."Ms. Russell is one in a million.... A suspensfuly, deeply haunted book." —The New York Times**Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family’s island h...