13 Moons over Vietnam—1st Moon: Innocence Why another memoir on Vietnam? There are already hundreds of publications on the Vietnam War. 13 Moons over Vietnam captures a unique perspective of a soldier’s experience of war, juxtaposing more than 150 stories between the lines of 280 uncensored letters to his wife, who was pregnant with their first child. These stories, describing actual experiences, are conveyed with raw emotions of anxiety and fear, refuting the nonchalant tone of his correspondence home. The effect is a stark and unsettling contrast between what is written home and what actually happens. 13 Moons over Vietnam is organized as a series segmented by lunar cycles that symbolize the author’s struggles with identity and faith as he confronts progressive incidents of social and emotional violence. Begin with 1st Moon: Innocence, and witness a metamorphosis that spirals through a moral and spiritual minefield.

When the famous South African fish scientist Professor JLB Smith published Old Fourlegs – The Story of the Coelacanth in 1956 he created an international sensation. After all, this 400-million-year-old fish, known only from fossil remains, was thought to have become extinct around 66 million years ago! JLB Smith’s dramatic account of the discovery of the first and second coelacanths in 1938 and 1952 turned him into a cult figure and put South African science on the world map. His book was eventually published in six English editions and translated into nine foreign languages. Mike Bruton’s The Annotated Old Fourlegs includes a facsimile reprint of the original book, to which he has added notes and images in the margins that provide an interesting and revealing commentary on Smith’s text, as well as new introductory and explanatory chapters that bring the coelacanth story up to date.

Reproduction of the original: The House of Souls by Arthur Machen

Light in Bandaged Places shows us the harm done when an older man in a position of power convinces a child that sex with him is alright because he loves her. This poignant story takes us through the long-term wounding of such abuse—and the multifaceted path of healing. As a lonely girl coming of age in the 1970s, Liz has every reason to believe her 8th-grade teacher is in love with her. Because the sex isn’t physically violent and is wrapped in a message of love, she learns to exchange sex for attention. It feels like love, after all. But years later, as an adult, emotional closeness eludes Liz. Even after marrying a sensitive, caring man, she is walled off. Struggling through confusing years, she believes something is deeply wrong with her. Healing begins when an unexpected event takes Liz back to those formative years, and she sees for the first time that what happened to her was not love but trauma. As she begins to understand how her relationship with her former teacher destroyed her innocence and self-worth, she begins a spiritual and psychological journey that sets her free. Now a meditation teacher and Buddhist practitioner, Liz offers her story in hope of helping others along their own paths of discovery and healing.

Eerie Tales Of Pine Bush is a collection of stories about some of the strange phenomena that takes place in Pine Bush in the Guilderland/Albany area of New York. Included in the collection are stories about the youthful adventures the author encountered while growing up in that intriguing area.