Kirjahaku

The Knights of Redemption tells the story of five men who are arrested the same night for unrelated crimes and thrown together in a New Haven, Connecticut jail.Henry Whitman is the President of Yale University who always does the right thing and is the "moral compass" for everyone that knows him. Rogers Conner-the person Major League baseball players voted "the person you would least like to play with"-is about to sign with the Yankees in the twilight of his career. Matt O'Malley is a failed, small-town politician who is trying to pick up the pieces of his career and personal life. Hector Rodriguez is the Assistant Manager at a car wash who has found life in the United States to be a struggle since coming over from Mexico. Mo Falls is a popular television star who has just been thrown off the #1 rated show in the country for his outlandish behavior.At first glance, these men appear to have little in common, but a closer look reveals that their lives are more intertwined than they realize, that they have been brought together for a reason, and that each person-has the ability to help one of the others. Posing the question, "What if you had the opportunity to rectify your greatest mistake?," The Knights of Redemption allows us to reflect on our own successes, failures, and regrets of the past, while gently reminding us that we are given one life to live, so live it well...

Andy Warhol once said, "Everyone wants to be famous", to which photographer, Nat Finklestein responded, "Yeah, for about 15 minutes, Andy." That was certainly true for John Mann, who after skyrocketing into the national spotlight as "The Chameleon", decided to drift back into a life of relative obscurity. In the sequel, we fast forward 8 years to Americans waking up one December morning to find it is snowing in Southern California, sunny and 80 degrees in our nation's capital, and pitch black in Seattle in the middle of the day. All are the result of a freak tilt in the earth's axis that is unlikely to correct itself anytime soon. The resulting environmental shift throws an already weak economy into further disarray during a Presidential election year. Unhappy with both major political parties, a billionaire businessman springs onto the scene and funds a party that will accept nominations for the highest office in the land from any U.S. citizen. All eyes suddenly settle once again on Yale educated, high school administrator, John Mann. There's only one problem--he doesn't want the job.

Jim Reilly woke up dead one morning and was really pissed off about it. He snapped open the paper while sitting on the can, the way he did every morning, and found himself staring at an old picture of himself in the Obituary section on Page 6... It wasn't even a good picture.With the Irish Wake just three days away, his best friend convinces him to play along so they can find out who is responsible for the sick joke. The resulting chaos sees Jim reunited with old friends, acquaintances and family members-most of whom he hasn't seen since his wife passed away three years earlier. Is it better to have loved and lost, or never to have loved at all? That is the dilemma Jim is faced with. How do you move forward when the person you have shared nearly every experience with, good or bad, for most of your adult life, is no longer around? The answer for Jim is that he can't. He's stuck in neutral, going through the motions of a life that very much needs him as an active participant. That is until his older brother returns from the sun swept beaches of Santorini for what he believes to be his brother's wake, only to find his brother is still alive-sort of.Sam Reilly has lived his life in a never ending quest to squeeze every last drop out of it. He's run with the bulls at Pamplona, attended the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, ridden a bike through the Swiss Alps, toasted with celebrities at film festivals, surfed the blue sea just off the coast of the Greek Islands, in addition to living in a small Upstate New York town where the most exciting things were Sunday night Bingo at the local church and Friday Night football at the high school. The responsible way Jim lived his life is what enabled Sam to live the carefree lifestyle he had grown accustomed to, and now it was time to return the favor. The irrepressibly likable Sam takes Jim on an unexpected and unintentional laugh riot journey through a cast of characters that include slow drinkers, giant ballbags and smelly bastards. A story that is as sure to tug at your heart as give you a belly laugh, Jim finds that it took dying, to actually bring him back to life.

Shady Badesso arrived in Niantic, Connecticut from nowhere. With arms as thick and sturdy as PVC pipe, a back broader than a drive-in movie screen, and legs the size of a 75 year old oak tree, he looked like he was built from leftover parts at a hardware store. He was friendly, but had very few friends. If you Googled him, you would find absolutely NOTHING. It was as if he had been dropped into the small northern coastal town from thin air. But when two men escape from a nearby prison and kidnap one of the locals--a mysterious and confident young woman that Shady has feelings for, the prisoners find themselves utterly unprepared for the unexpected variable thrown in their path. A variable named Shady Badesso.At its core, Shady Badesso is a story of redemption, as a man attempts to come to terms with the worst thing he has ever done, a split second, impulsive decision with the best of intentions, gone horribly wrong. Will he ever forgive himself? And does he even need forgiveness? That is his inner battle as he spends his life in a never-ending effort to make amends.

In the long awaited follow up to the best selling, Five Days, Another Five Days tells the story of war hero, Al Sokratis, who begins his day by being asked to be the Best Man at his grandson's wedding, only to end it in the afterlife after he is hit and killed by a texting driver while pulling a stranger from a burning vehicle. Because of the heroic way he died as well as the way he lived his life, Al is rewarded by being given the opportunity to re-live any five days of his life. They can be days he enjoyed and wants to experience all over again, days in which he had regrets and wants to make amends, or days in which he tries to help others and change the course of history. Another Five Days takes us on a tour of Woodstock, Vietnam, the NASA Space Program, and the 1986 World Series, introducing us to heroes and almost heroes, people whose lives could have turned out vastly differently were it not for the blink of an eye. Above all else, it is a love story as Al desperately tries to find a way to reunite with his departed wife.