Kirjahaku

Want to boggle the mind? Find out how many people you are potentially related to. When James Casper became hooked on learning who his great grandfather really was, he realized he could only do so much with online genealogy records, books, and microfiche in Minnesota libraries. He would have to travel to Europe to make sense of it all. Standing at his, great-great grandfather's grave, he never expected to meet his third cousin, Gerlinde Jaeger Kasper, alive and well in Grafenhausen, but that happened on the same day. Follow along to find out who left Germany (and other countries) to become the Casper family in North America. There's room to add current generations and more research to be done. Three Hundred Years in the Life of a Family and Through the War and out the Other Side are not your standard compilation of genealogical charts. Filled with gutsy and harrowing stories of pioneer Kaspers, you will get to know and care about these people. The author would be thrilled if someone would pick it up from here and continue the story.

This story was inspired by the Beatle's song, "Hey, Jude." Fifty years ago, Lennon and McCartney wrote: "take a sad song and make it better." Forty years ago, Casper's young character named Jude finds a way to do that.Remember that feeling in the pit of your stomach as a result of your first crush? Kids who had it in for you at school? Adults who thought they had you figured out?Youth leaves us with some rich memories and some we'd like to forget.Explore a year of turmoil, revelation, and change in the life of Jude Henley. He turns sixteen while working in a ramshackle camping park for summer tourists. An older woman needs his help, a landlord has it in for him, and in the end, this shy boy winds up on the front page of the local newspaper.A steady mom and a message from a dead man buck up Jude's confidence. Laugh, wince, and cheer as you follow in Jude's footsteps and recall how big our small world was when we were growing up.

Was it suicide or murder in the Paradise Hotel?Why is someone in the Vatican willing to pay for silence?When a church confessional is bugged, those who seek forgiveness find instead blackmail, extortion, and dark rumors.Among them is a man with a hidden life who might become pope.A police detective and his amateur sleuth wife uncover much that is hidden.But only the reader will know the whole story of how the Vatican came to have its accidental pope.An Accidental Pope is not so much a 'Whodunit' as a 'How did it happen'Answers can be found in two wooden boxes, one the confessional and the other a coffin in an isolated churchyard.Secrets, lies, and intrigue lead to unanswered questions as the Catholic church faces one of the greatest scandals in its history.

Lines That Do Not Cross is a collection of James Casper's stories depicting the sometimes painful truth that certain problems people confront in their everyday lives cannot be solved or resolved. This collection asserts that quick fixes, pop psychology, and the support of family and friends will eventually come to the end of a road where lines do not and never will cross. Part tragic, part comic, part depressing, and also inspiring and uplifting, Casper, in these stories, has laid his fingers upon the pulse of the human condition in a world beset by conundrums and weather that cannot be predicted. The reader is invited to enjoy these stories by paging through the collection, considering the titles, and picking and choosing what to read and what not to read at their leisure as all of us alike in our own lives encounter personal lines that do not cross.

Think there's more to life than wizards, dragons, smartphones and computer games? Looking for a down-to-earth story about everyday magical twists and turns? THE FAR END OF THE PARK explores a year of turmoil, revelation, and change in the life of Jude Henley turning sixteen while "stranded" in a ramshackle place for summer tourists. He would never have guessed that bearing down on him in these silent surroundings would be bullies, storm and fire, his picture on the front page of the local newspaper, and a message from a dead man. What Jude dreaded as a boring year turns out to be a time of conflict and discovery, of guesswork and coming of age. Jude is the sort who likes to stay in the background, as he puts it, "never first, never last, somewhere in the middle of the pack, in the middle of the classroom, in the middle of the alphabet." THE FAR END OF THE PARK will change all that without wizardry and magic wands. From now on, you'll remember Jude, and Jude will never forget the far end of the park.