A candid and eye-opening inside look at the final decades of Sinatra's life told by his longtime manager and friend, Eliot Weisman. By the time Weisman met Sinatra in 1976, he was already the Voice, a man who held sway over popular music and pop culture for forty years, who had risen to the greatest heights of fame and plumbed the depths of failure, all the while surviving with the trademark swagger that women pined for and men wanted to emulate. Passionate and generous on his best days, sullen and unpredictable on his worst, Sinatra invited Weisman into his inner circle, an honor that the budding celebrity manager never took for granted. Even when he was caught up in a legal net designed to snare Sinatra, Weisman went to prison rather than being coerced into telling prosecutors what they wanted to hear. With Weisman's help, Sinatra orchestrated in his final decades some of the most memorable moments of his career. There was the Duets album, which was Sinatra's top seller, the massive tours, such as Together Again, which featured a short-lived reunion of the Rat Pack--until Dean Martin, having little interest in reliving the glory days, couldn't handle it anymore--and the Ultimate Event Tour, which brought Liza Minelli and Sammy Davis Jr. on board and refreshed the much-needed lining of both their pocketbooks. Weisman also worked with many other acts, including Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and an ungrateful Don Rickles, whom Weisman helped get out from under the mob's thumb. Over their years together, Weisman became a confidant to the man who trusted few, and he came to know Sinatra's world intimately: his wife, Barbara, who socialized with princesses and presidents and tried to close Sinatra off from his rough and tough friends such as Jilly Rizzo; Nancy Jr., who was closest to her dad; Tina, who aggressively battled for her and her siblings' rights to the Sinatra legacy and was most like her father; and Frank Jr., the child with the most fraught relationship with the legendary entertainer. Ultimately Weisman, who had become the executor of Sinatra's estate, was left alone to navigate the infighting and hatred between those born to the name and the wife who acquired it, when a mystery woman showed up and threatened to throw the family's future into jeopardy. Laden with surprising, moving, and revealing stories, The Way It Was also shows a side of Sinatra few knew. As a lion in winter, he was struggling with the challenges that come with old age, as well as memory loss, depression, and antidepressents. Weisman was by his side through it all, witness to a man who had towering confidence, staggering fearlessness, and a rarely seen vulnerability that became more apparent as his final days approached.

In this book, I lovingly recount the unyielding love and encouragement of my parents, who instilled a deep sense of responsibility and unshakeable confidence in me as well as my four brothers and sisters. My story illustrates a family bound by tradition, loyalty, and love. As the son of a freed slave, my father saw first-hand the daily challenges and obstacles for African Americans in post-slavery America. Both he and my mother implanted in us a clear work ethic, family values, and commitment to education, foundations that have remained with and propelled me throughout life. Thats the Way It Was weaves anecdotal accounts of my educational, athletic, and professional experiences, often with humorous details and sometimes tainted with racial biases as was commonplace in a cotton-farming community deep in segregated, post-depression Mississippi. I share many examples of both throughout the book to provide a realistic view of the world I encountered and somehow navigated relatively unscathed. I would later go on to make history as the first African American graduate of the University of Kentuckys Dental School and as the first African American intern and orthodontic resident at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I have been fortunate enough to have had a remarkable forty-five-plus-year career in private practice, always fueled and driven by the unconditional love and support of my family and my small-town community. I hope my story can serve as an inspiration for the younger generations to stay committed to their goals, never give up, and always strive to make the most of their talents.

Chronicles the black experience in Georgia from the early 1500s to the present, exploring the contradictions of life in a state that was home to both the KKK and the civil rights movement.

For many families living in South Russia, Canada was seen as the promised land, a place to escape famine and the communist regime. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, migration from the Motherland was fraught with both fear and promise, the potential for a better life in a new land. The Way It Was is a true chronology of Ron Teichreb’s family, which emigrated from Russia to Saskatchewan where they lived in tune with the land as homesteaders. It’s a story of a hard life softened by glints of joy, seen through vignettes detailing life’s many milestones, such as births, marriages, and deaths. Hijinks and resilience are common themes that the author shares when telling of his boyhood spent growing up on a small farm, playing sports, and exploring other pursuits. Eventually, he introduces the reader to his adulthood, career, and, finally, retirement in Saskatoon.

Whether you are continuing your journey with me via these Spirit Animal Tales or whether you missed my first volume, The Voice of Coyote, and are leaping unwarned into this spiritual realm, I welcome you. These are tales that ‘I’ have been blessed with, passed to me from various Spirit Animals, mainly Coyote. They are filtered through ‘my’ experiences; people, places, things, & incidences that brought me to where I am today. There is no conscious effort on my part to accurately recreate any person, place, thing, or incident. If anyone has a button or two pushed, that’s probably meant to be. That said, the path lies before & may you enjoy. Peace! This one is for my beloved companion & wife, Linda for Uncle Ike, and for the ever-wandering WhiteDog Doug Hodges

The Way It Was chronicles Van Kleek's experiences as a student and teacher in one-room schools in rural Alberta. From her first year attending school in the High Prairie country in 1916, to the closure of her last rural schoolhouse in 1961, Edith Van Kleek recalls a bygone era in Canadian educational history.