Discusses the basic psychological principles of interpersonal relationships.

I am a first and one-time author with a special purpose: self-understanding and personal growth through my memoirs. After six years of digging through life's events, tapping into my eidetic memory for the pointed details of the good and bad days of my soul, I give myself to you. The good loves, along with those entangled with evil and low self-esteem, are raveled up in a search for what love is supposed to be. Love would be kindled and found for me but then lost in not being able to give, believe or receive life's greatest treasure. I shrouded love in poisonous passion, fear and hate. Some choices in my life moved me toward self-interpreted success while other things I chose to do took me to the edge of society and the law. My voice is from the heart in the hope to inspire within you an empathy to those different than yourself. Two lifelong friends encouraged me and stood by me through my journey of self-reflection. After all the years of knowing me, one said "she loved me even more after reading my story," and it doesn't get any better than that. So please, sit down and have a cup of coffee with me, be amused, and understand why I did the things I did. Yes, you'll laugh and even possibly experience shock at times, but more importantly, you will "see me." Though the book does not end with a "happily ever-after," you will see the magic of introspection, along with the peace and acceptance it provides. While dysfunctional times can be a part of our lives, they're certainly not present all of our life. - Jim Rostello "I was engrossed in this memoir from the first chapter. The relationships chronicled in this book are many, they are varied, and they are moving. Jim Rostello openly shares the complicated father-son relationship he had as a child as he internally struggled to love himself as a closeted gay youth in a rural environment where acceptance of those feelings was unheard of at the time. The author takes you on a journey from his childhood all the way through his adult life describing his family, his Catholic upbringing, his teaching career, and his pursuit to find love and happiness in often risky and unconventional places." - Dawn Wilson

Simon Lester Henry Strauss is not in the least afraid of any haunted house, but there is something else that terrifies him.

0nce upon a time, there was a little old lady who was not afraid of anything! But one autumn night, while walking in the woods, the little old lady heard . . . CLOMP, CLOMP, SHAKE, SHAKE, CLAP, CLAP. And the little old lady who was not afraid of anything had the scare of her life!

Today, fear affects even the strongest of us. Sometimes it's immediate, caused by a sense of imminent danger—the kind we felt after terrorists destroyed the magnificent World Trade Center, tore a giant wound in the Pentagon and killed thousands of people. But sometimes fear becomes a normal way of life. In his best-selling memoir October Sky (aka Rocket Boys), Hickam introduced us to the rugged town of his youth, Coalwood, West Virginia, and the people who took on the hazardous and often brutal enterprise of coal mining. To survive and prosper, these people relied on an approach to living that would get them through hard times with an almost unnatural resilience. Over a lifetime, they learned to take on these attitudes: We are proud of who we are. We stand up for what we believe. We keep our families together. We trust in God but rely on ourselves. These attitudes are summed up in the Coalwood Assumption: WE ARE NOT AFRAID. Through poignant memories of his youth, best selling author Homer Hickam helps lead you beyond fear to find the courage and strength to live more happily and look toward to future with optimism.

When the sun goes down, the Dark stretches out. The Dark can be scary, but it can be other things too - it depends on how you see it... This gorgeous picture book tells the story of a little boy's fear of the Dark. Ingenious holes cut in the illustrations help to explore his feelings. When he goes camping with his dad, he discovers that it's only when it's really Dark that you can see all the beautiful stars. Maybe the Dark isn't so bad after all... This friendly, heartwarming story with a wonderful, cut-out starry sky, is a comforting, helpful book to share with young children.

Tradition has it that God's second commandment is that we should love one another. Why is it so hard? The capacity to love is in everyone. Yet so often it remains trapped and waiting to be released. In John Powell's best-selling Why Am I Afraid to Love, he carefully and sensitively confronts the barriers that restrain. He looks at the fear of rejection, the motives for love, how to truly understand the inner self and what true love looks like. He then considers the true test of love: can self be forgotten in loving others? Based on the original best-selling edition, this new book has been completely re-designed. A fitting companion to Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?, it is one of the most original and popular self help books on the market. It sits comfortably alongside other classics like I'm OK, You're OK. Why Am I Afraid to Love has sold over 100,000 copies in its original edition.