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A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution
by David. A. NicholsFifty years after President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce a federal court order desegregating the city's Central High School, a leading authority on Eisenhower presents an original and engrossing narrative that places Ike and his civil rights policies in dramatically new light. Historians such as Stephen Ambrose and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., have portrayed Eisenhower as aloof, if not outwardly hostile, to the plight of African-Americans in the 1950s. It is still widely assumed that he opposed the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision mandating the desegregation of public schools, that he deeply regretted appointing Earl Warren as the Court's chief justice because of his role in molding Brown, that he was a bystander in Congress's passage of the civil rights acts of 1957 and 1960, and that he so mishandled the Little Rock crisis that he was forced to dispatch troops to rescue a failed policy. In this sweeping narrative, David A. Nichols demonstrates that these assumptions are wrong. Drawing on archival documents neglected by biographers and scholars, including thousands of pages newly available from the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Nichols takes us inside the Oval Office to look over Ike's shoulder as he worked behind the scenes, prior to Brown, to desegregate the District of Columbia and complete the desegregation of the armed forces. We watch as Eisenhower, assisted by his close collaborator, Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr., sifted through candidates for federal judgeships and appointed five pro-civil rights justices to the Supreme Court and progressive judges to lower courts. We witness Eisenhower crafting civil rights legislation, deftly building a congressional coalition that passed the first civil rights act in eighty-two years, and maneuvering to avoid a showdown with Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, over desegregation of Little Rock's Central High. Nichols demonstrates that Eisenhower, though he was a product of his time and its backward racial attitudes, was actually more progressive on civil rights in the 1950s than his predecessor, Harry Truman, and his successors, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Eisenhower was more a man of deeds than of words and preferred quiet action over grandstanding. His cautious public rhetoric -- especially his legalistic response to Brown -- gave a misleading impression that he was not committed to the cause of civil rights. In fact, Eisenhower's actions laid the legal and political groundwork for the more familiar breakthroughs in civil rights achieved in the 1960s. Fair, judicious, and exhaustively researched, A Matter of Justice is the definitive book on Eisenhower's civil rights policies that every presidential historian and future biographer of Ike will have to contend with.
A Matter of Magic: Mairelon and The Magician's Ward
by Patricia C. WredeAn orphan in Regency London discovers a world of magic, intrigue, and romance in this YA historical fantasy duology—now available in one volume!When a stranger offers Kim a small fortune to break into a traveling magician’s wagon, she doesn’t hesitate. Having grown up a waif in the dirty streets of London, Kim isn’t above a bit of breaking-and-entering. But when the magician catches her in the act, Kim thinks she’s done for.Instead, Mairelon the Magician asks Kim to become his apprentice. And that’s when the real trouble begins. Kim soon finds herself entangled with murderers, thieves, and cloak-and-dagger politics, all while trying to learn how to become both a proper lady and a magician in her own right.A Matter of Magic includes the books Mairelon the Magician and The Magician’s Ward.
A Matter of Moral Justice: Black Women Laundry Workers and the Fight for Justice (Working Class in American History #1)
by Jenny CarsonA long-overlooked group of workers and their battle for rights and dignity Like thousands of African American women, Charlotte Adelmond and Dollie Robinson worked in New York’s power laundry industry in the 1930s. Jenny Carson tells the story of how substandard working conditions, racial and gender discrimination, and poor pay drove them to help unionize the city’s laundry workers. Laundry work opened a door for African American women to enter industry, and their numbers allowed women like Adelmond and Robinson to join the vanguard of a successful unionization effort. But an affiliation with the powerful Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) transformed the union from a radical, community-based institution into a bureaucratic organization led by men. It also launched a difficult battle to secure economic and social justice for the mostly women and people of color in the plants. As Carson shows, this local struggle highlighted how race and gender shaped worker conditions, labor organizing, and union politics across the country in the twentieth century. Meticulous and engaging, A Matter of Moral Justice examines the role of African American and radical women activists and their collisions with labor organizing and union politics.
A Matter of Obscenity: The Politics of Censorship in Modern England
by Christopher HilliardA comprehensive history of censorship in modern BritainFor Victorian lawmakers and judges, the question of whether a book should be allowed to circulate freely depended on whether it was sold to readers whose mental and moral capacities were in doubt, by which they meant the increasingly literate and enfranchised working classes. The law stayed this way even as society evolved. In 1960, in the obscenity trial over D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, the prosecutor asked the jury, "Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?" Christopher Hilliard traces the history of British censorship from the Victorians to Margaret Thatcher, exposing the tensions between obscenity law and a changing British society.Hilliard goes behind the scenes of major obscenity trials and uncovers the routines of everyday censorship, shedding new light on the British reception of literary modernism and popular entertainments such as the cinema and American-style pulp fiction and comic books. He reveals the thinking of lawyers and the police, authors and publishers, and politicians and ordinary citizens as they wrestled with questions of freedom and morality. He describes how supporters and opponents of censorship alike tried to remake the law as they reckoned with changes in sexuality and culture that began in the 1960s.Based on extensive archival research, this incisive and multifaceted book reveals how the issue of censorship challenged British society to confront issues ranging from mass literacy and democratization to feminism, gay rights, and multiculturalism.
A Matter of Pride: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
by Linda CarlinoA story combining historical accuracy with masses of fiction. The generally accepted imposing figure of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor: king, general, lawmaker, and the defender of Christendom, is shown here to be a man of faults and failings, of generosity and tenderness, of passions and regrets, all in equal measure and always to excess.
A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna
by Amitava KumarIt is not only the past that lies in ruins in Patna, it is also the present. But that is not the only truth about the city that Amitava Kumar explores in this vivid, entertaining account of his hometown. We accompany him through many Patnas, the myriad cities locked within the city--the shabby reality of the present-day capital of Bihar; Pataliputra, the storied city of emperors; the dreamlike embodiment of the city in the minds and hearts of those who have escaped contemporary Patna's confines. Full of fascinating observations and impressions, A Matter of Rats reveals a challenging and enduring city that exerts a lasting pull on all those who drift into its orbit.Kumar's ruminations on one of the world's oldest cities, the capital of India's poorest province, are also a meditation on how to write about place. His memory is partial. All he has going for him is his attentiveness. He carefully observes everything that surrounds him in Patna: rats and poets, artists and politicians, a girl's picture in a historian's study, and a sheet of paper on his mother's desk. The result is this unique book, as cutting as it is honest.
A Matter of Scandal (With This Ring #3)
by Suzanne EnochMiss Emma Grenville has had her fill of pig-headed noblemen who believe women exist solely to satisfy men. And her arrogant new landlord, the Duke of Wycliffe, is the worst of the lot! The too-attractive cad wants to triple the rent on Emma's finishing school for young ladies to help get his newly inherited estate out of debt. Well, he clearly needs educating-about women. And Emma is just the one to enlighten him. The sinfully handsome duke has never met a woman he couldn't seduce and outwit. And now that he's tricked Emma into a wager, he has the stubborn headmistress right where he wants her. But the confirmed bachelor underestimates the quick-witted and surprisingly sensual Miss Grenville. For she may be leading him to a place neither dreams they'll ever go-to the altar.
A Matter of Temptation
by Lorraine HeathThe handsome duke whom Victoria married is more deliciously exciting than the cold-hearted rogue she was engaged to . . . How could he possibly be the same man?
A Matter of Temptation
by Lorraine HeathThe handsome duke whom Victoria married is more deliciously exciting than the cold-hearted rogue she was engaged to . . . How could he possibly be the same man?
A Matter of Time
by Ritu Menon Shashi DeshpandeThe New York Times Book Review called Shashi Deshpande's U.S. debut, "austere, philosophical, and rich; a work that . . . grows in moral force and pathos." Deshpande's critical acclaim in India--including three top literary prizes--prefigured the wide recognition abroad of this pivotal novel, now available in paperback.One morning, with no warning, Gopal, respected professor, devoted husband, and caring father, walks out on his family for reasons even he cannot articulate. His wife, Sumi, returns with their three daughters to the shelter of the Big House, where her parents live in oppressive silence: they have not spoken to each other in thirty-five years. As the mystery of this long silence is unraveled, a horrifying story of loss and pain is laid bare--a story that seems to be repeating itself in Sumi's life.Set in present-day Karnataka, A Matter of Time explores the intricate relationships within an extended family, encompassing three generations. Images from Hindu religion, myth, and local history intertwine delicately with images of contemporary India as the women face and accept the changes that have suddenly become part of their lives.As the women's secrets and strengths are revealed, so are the complications of family and culture, catching each in turn in the cycles of love, loss, and renewal that become essential to their identity. A Matter of Time reveals the hidden springs of character while painting a nuanced portrait of the difficulties and choices facing women--especially educated, independent women--in India today.Shashi Deshpande is the author of seven novels, including The Binding Vine, forthcoming from The Feminist Press and is one of India's most celebrated writers. Her work has been translated into many languages and broadly anthologized.Ritu Menon, a founder of Kali for Women, India's first feminist publisher, has co-edited three anthologies of writing by Indian women.
A Mattress Maker's Daughter: The Renaissance Romance of Don Giovanni De' Medici and Livia Vernazza
by Brendan Dooley"A Mattress Maker's Daughter "richly illuminates the narrative of two people whose mutual affection shaped their own lives and in some ways their times. According to the Renaissance legend told and retold across the centuries, a woman of questionable reputation bamboozles a middle-aged warrior-prince into marrying her, and the family takes revenge. He is Don Giovanni de' Medici, son of the Florentine grand duke; she is Livia Vernazza, daughter of a Genoese artisan. They live in luxury for a while, far from Florence, and have a child. Then, Giovanni dies, the family pounces upon the inheritance, and Livia is forced to return from riches to rags. Documents, including long-lost love letters, reveal another story behind the legend, suppressed by the family and forgotten. Brendan Dooley investigates this largely untold story among the various settings where episodes occurred, including Florence, Genoa, and Venice. In the course of explaining their improbable liaison and its consequences, "A Mattress Maker's Daughter "explores early modern emotions, material culture, heredity, absolutism, and religious tensions at the crux of one of the great transformations in European culture, society, and statecraft. Giovanni and Livia exemplify changing concepts of love and romance, new standards of public and private conduct, and emerging attitudes toward property and legitimacy just as the age of Renaissance humanism gave way to the culture of Counter-Reformation and early modern Europe.
A Maverick Boasian: The Life and Work of Alexander A. Goldenweiser (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology)
by Sergei KanA Maverick Boasian explores the often contradictory life of Alexander Goldenweiser (1880–1940), a scholar considered by his contemporaries to be Franz Boas&’s most brilliant and most favored student. The story of his life and scholarship is complex and exciting as well as frustrating. Although Goldenweiser came to the United States from Russia as a young man, he spent the next forty years thinking of himself as a European intellectual who never felt entirely at home. A talented ethnographer, he developed excellent rapport with his Native American consultants but cut short his fieldwork due to lack of funds. An individualist and an anarchist in politics, he deeply resented having to compromise any of his ideas and freedoms for the sake of professional success. A charming man, he risked his career and family life to satisfy immediate needs and wants. A number of his books and papers on the relationship between anthropology and other social sciences helped foster an important interdisciplinary conversation that continued for decades after his death. For the first time, Sergei Kan brings together and examines all of Goldenweiser&’s published scholarly works, archival records, personal correspondences, nonacademic publications, and living memories from several of Goldenweiser&’s descendants. Goldenweiser attracted attention for his unique progressive views on such issues as race, antisemitism, immigration, education, pacifism, gender, and individual rights. His was a major voice in a chorus of progressive Boasians who applied the insights of their discipline to a variety of questions on the American public&’s mind. Many of the battles he fought are still with us today.
A Maxwell Loss
by Gwen KirkwoodPünktlich um 15.10 Uhr treffen sich die Eltern jeden Tag an der Featherstone-Grundschule im englischen Denbury, um ihre Kinder abzuholen. Für ein paar von ihnen sind aus Bekanntschaften am Schultor Freundschaften fürs Leben entstanden, die sich gegenseitig durch ihre Dramen, Geheimnissen und Sorgen begleiten. Als die attraktive Karrierefrau Alana die Identität ihres unehelichen Kindes preisgibt, erwartet sie nicht, dass die Konsequenzen ganz so extrem sind. Ehemaliges tschechisches Au-pair und natürliche Schönheit Dana findet Glück in ihrem geheimen Nebenjob, aber wonach sie sich wirklich sehnt, ist ein zweites Kind. Der prügelnde Ehemann von armer Mutter Mo führt sie auf einen Weg, den sie nie für möglich gehalten hätte. Supermutter Joan muss damit klarkommen, als das Leben ihr einen verheerenden Schlag verpasst. Und was ist mit dem schwulen Vater Gordon? Wird er es schaffen, die elterlichen Herausforderungen zu meistern und gleichzeitig mit seinem gebrochenen Herzen fertig zu werden? Vier sehr unterschiedliche Schulmütter. Ein liebenswerter Vater. Und die ineinander verflochtenen Irrungen und Wirrungen, die ein Jahr am Schultor mit sich bringen.
A Maxwell Maligned
by Gwen KirkwoodForeword by KATIE FFORDE Contributors include Writers: Frederick Forsyth, Ian Rankin, Jilly Cooper & Jill Mansell Publishers: Harper Collins, Hodder Headline, Simon & Schuster Journalists: Miles Kington, Michael Bywater, Robert Crampton Agents: Teresa Chris, Simon Trewin, Jonathan Lloyd & Jane Judd Wannabe a Writer? This hilarious, informative guide to getting into print, is a must-have for anyone who's ever thought they've got a book in them. Where do you start? How do you finish? And will anyone ever publish it when you have? Drawing on her own experiences as a novelist and journalist, Writing Magazine's Agony Aunt Jane Wenham-Jones takes you through the minefield of the writing process, giving advice on everything from how to avoid Writer's Bottom to what to wear to your launch party. Including hot tips from authors, agents and publishers at the sharp end of the industry, Wannabe a Writer? tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the book world - and a few things you didn't...
A Maxwell Misled
by Gwen KirkwoodWhen Della found a stray dog living wild with her thirteen puppies on a beach in Rhodes she was determined not to get involved. But fate had other ideas and Della brought Lindy back to England. Lindy had already proved herself to be a true survivor, but she was more of a survivor than Della had ever dreamed. Over the next eight years she survived a series of events, any one of which might have finished off a lesser dog than Lindy. They included: being stampeded by a herd of angry cows; a rare life threatening form of anaemia; being swept down the river after chasing ducks; falling out of a car travelling at speed, and getting lost for a night in a forest. The Dog with Nine Lives is both poignant and humorous. Dog lovers will love it. It is the true story of a very special dog.
A Maxwell Mismatched: The Children of Lochandee
by Gwen KirkwoodIn 1960s Scotland, the farming industry is on the brink of huge changes, becoming more mechanised and less dependent on manpower. At Lochandee, though, it is a time of hope and promise for the future. Rachel is thrilled and proud that the Maxwell children are continuing to grow their respective businesses - Conan his transport firm and Bridie her farm. Meanwhile, Ewan and his niece Lucy are coming of age. But what is Lucy's fellow teaching student Gerda up to? Is she too good to be true? Rachel has her doubts, but Ewan seems smitten. And how will Lucy's romance with her friend's brother fare?
A Maxwell Mourned
by Gwen KirkwoodTide of Fortune, is a thrilling adventure story set on the high seas. It has all the ingredients that readers who are familiar with the writing of Patrick O'Brian, Alexander Kent and CS Forester will recognise: perilous seascapes, bloody sea battles, races against time and tide, gallant sea captains and salty crew, exotic locations but with a twist! The story is told from the point of view of an inexperienced nineteen-year-old girl, Kerenza Vyvyan. Her voyage on the packet ship Kestrel is not only a journey to ransom her mother and sister held captive by the Governor of Tangier but also proves to be a journey of self-discovery. Kerenza bravely faces the various disasters that befall her on board with a growing strength of character and fortitude she never knew she had. Jane Jackson's heroine, Kerenza, prefigures the feisty women of 20th century novels rising above the traditional role mapped out for a woman of her time. However, this is not all action and adventure for during the course of her travels Kerenza regains the love and trust of Kestrel's captain, Nick Penrose, who had broken her heart earlier.
A Maxwell Profit
by Gwen KirkwoodYou are writing and selling short stories but you want to take the next step and write a novel. Della Galton, author of the successful writing guide How To Write and Sell Short Stories, shows you how to make the leap in this step-by-step guide. Using examples from her own successful career as writer of hundreds of published short stories and two novels, Della shows the critical differences between developing character, plot and setting in short and long fiction. The essential book to help take your writing to the next level.
A Maxwell Takes Flight
by Gwen KirkwoodShortlisted for the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel Awards 2013 A British romantic comedy by Jane Wenham-Jones, author of 'Perfect Alibis'. Laura Meredith never imagined herself appearing on TV- she's too old, too flabby, too downright hormonal, and much too busy holding things together for her son, Stanley, after her husband left her for a younger, thinner replacement. But best friend Charlotte is a determined woman and when Laura is persuaded on to a daytime show to talk about her PMT, everything changes. Suddenly there's a camera crew tracking her every move and Laura finds herself an unlikely star. But as things hot up between her and gorgeous TV director, Cal, they're going downhill elsewhere. While Laura's caught up in a heady whirlwind of beauty treatments, makeovers and glamorous film locations, Charlotte's husband, Roger, is concealing a guilty secret, Stanley's got problems at school, work's piling up, and when Laura turns detective to protect Charlotte's marriage, things go horribly wrong. The champagne's flowing as Laura's prime time TV debut looks set to be a hit. But in every month, there's a "Day Ten" ...
A Mayor for All the People: Kenneth Gibson's Newark
by Steve Adubato Junius Williams Ronald Rice David Dinkins Sheila Oliver Fred Means Barbara Kukla Martin Bierbaum Sharpe James Fran Adubato Sheldon Bross Elizabeth Del Tufo Robert Pickett Marie Villani Harold Hodes William Payne Grizel Ubarry Deforest B. Soaries Elton Hill Harold Gibson Camille Savocca GibsonIn 1970, Kenneth Gibson was elected as Newark, New Jersey’s first African-American mayor, a position he held for an impressive sixteen years. Yet even as Gibson served as a trailblazer for black politicians, he presided over a troubled time in the city’s history, as Newark’s industries declined and its crime and unemployment rates soared. This book offers a balanced assessment of Gibson’s leadership and his legacy, from the perspectives of the people most deeply immersed in 1970s and 1980s Newark politics: city employees, politicians, activists, journalists, educators, and even fellow big-city mayors like David Dinkins. The contributors include many of Gibson’s harshest critics, as well as some of his closest supporters, friends, and family members—culminating in an exclusive interview with Gibson himself, reflecting on his time in office. Together, these accounts provide readers with a compelling inside look at a city in crisis, a city that had been rocked by riots three years before Gibson took office and one that Harper’s magazine named “America’s worst city” at the start of his second term. At its heart, it raises a question that is still relevant today: how should we evaluate a leader who faced major structural and economic challenges, but never delivered all the hope and change he promised voters?
A Maze of Murders (Kathryn Swinbrooke Mysteries, Book 6): A hunt for a killer in medieval Canterbury
by Paul DohertyA serial killer stalks the passages of a medieval monastery...A Maze of Murders is a thrilling murder mystery from the masterful Paul Doherty, featuring medieval sleuth Kathryn Swinbrooke. Perfect for fans of Susanna Gregory and Robin Hobb.A violent past haunts Sir Walter Maltravers of Ingoldby Hall in Canterbury. Decades before the War of the Roses, he served in the fanatical bodyguard of Constantine XI Palaeologus, the last Byzantine emperor. But instead of defending the emperor to his death, Maltravers fled, taking with him the Lacrima Christi - a holy relic of incalculable value. When the Lacrima Christi disappears from Canterbury's Franciscan monastery, Sir Walter fears he is being tracked down by the emperor's vengeful loyalists. Days later, Maltravers's head is found impaled on a pole. Apothecary Kathryn Swinbrooke and her fiancée, Colum Murtagh, are called to investigate the crime. As the investigation begins, it becomes clear that all was not as it seemed within the cosy confines of Ingoldby Hall. The death toll is mounting, and if Swinbrooke and Murtagh don't nail down the killer - or killers - soon, they could be next.What readers are saying about the Kathryn Swinbrooke Mysteries:'The sense of menace, depth of characterization and interesting cast of characters make this book, and the series, a brilliant read''A great romp through medieval England''Superb plot and characters. Kathryn is so interesting and insight into the history of the time is so well documented. You feel as if you were there and can even smell it!'
A Maze of Murders: A hunt for a killer in medieval Canterbury (Kathryn Swinbrooke Mysteries, Book #6)
by Paul DohertyA serial killer stalks the passages of a medieval monastery...A Maze of Murders is a thrilling murder mystery from the masterful Paul Doherty, featuring medieval sleuth Kathryn Swinbrooke. Perfect for fans of Susanna Gregory and Robin Hobb.A violent past haunts Sir Walter Maltravers of Ingoldby Hall in Canterbury. Decades before the War of the Roses, he served in the fanatical bodyguard of Constantine XI Palaeologus, the last Byzantine emperor. But instead of defending the emperor to his death, Maltravers fled, taking with him the Lacrima Christi - a holy relic of incalculable value. When the Lacrima Christi disappears from Canterbury's Franciscan monastery, Sir Walter fears he is being tracked down by the emperor's vengeful loyalists. Days later, Maltravers's head is found impaled on a pole. Apothecary Kathryn Swinbrooke and her fiancée, Colum Murtagh, are called to investigate the crime. As the investigation begins, it becomes clear that all was not as it seemed within the cosy confines of Ingoldby Hall. The death toll is mounting, and if Swinbrooke and Murtagh don't nail down the killer - or killers - soon, they could be next.What readers are saying about the Kathryn Swinbrooke Mysteries:'The sense of menace, depth of characterization and interesting cast of characters make this book, and the series, a brilliant read''A great romp through medieval England''Superb plot and characters. Kathryn is so interesting and insight into the history of the time is so well documented. You feel as if you were there and can even smell it!'
A McKettrick Christmas
by Linda Lael MillerLizzie McKettrick is coming home for Christmas. And Indian Rock's new schoolteacher has a surprise in store for her family-a special young man, Whitley Carson. He might seem a little too interested in the McKettrick money, but Lizzie's certain Whitley cares for her deep down.Yet fate has a surprise of its own for Lizzie: Dr. Morgan Shane. When their homebound train is halted by a massive avalanche, injuring and stranding its passengers, the handsome doctor takes charge-with Lizzie by his side.Despite their growing bond, Lizzie and Morgan know time is running out. With another avalanche looming and the train's food supply dwindling, it's going to be a bleak Christmas Eve. But with faith, hard work and a little extra help from a most unexpected source, they just might find their way home to celebrate a McKettrick family Christmas after all....
A McKettrick Christmas
by Linda Lael MillerLizzie McKettrick is coming home for Christmas. And Indian Rock's new schoolteacher has a surprise in store for her family-a special young man, Whitley Carson. He might seem a little too interested in the McKettrick money, but Lizzie's certain Whitley cares for her deep down.Yet fate has a surprise of its own for Lizzie: Dr. Morgan Shane. When their homebound train is halted by a massive avalanche, injuring and stranding its passengers, the handsome doctor takes charge-with Lizzie by his side.Despite their growing bond, Lizzie and Morgan know time is running out. With another avalanche looming and the train's food supply dwindling, it's going to be a bleak Christmas Eve. But with faith, hard work and a little extra help from a most unexpected source, they just might find their way home to celebrate a McKettrick family Christmas after all....
A McKettrick Christmas (McKettrick Series #10)
by Linda Lael MillerLizzie McKettrick is coming home for Christmas. And Indian Rock's new schoolteacher has a surprise in store for her family-a special young man, Whitley Carson. He might seem a little too interested in the McKettrick money, but Lizzie's certain Whitley cares for her deep down. Yet fate has a surprise of its own for Lizzie: Dr. Morgan Shane. When their homebound train is halted by a massive avalanche, injuring and stranding its passengers, the handsome doctor takes charge-with Lizzie by his side. Despite their growing bond, Lizzie and Morgan know time is running out. With another avalanche looming and the train's food supply dwindling, it's going to be a bleak Christmas Eve. But with faith, hard work and a little extra help from a most unexpected source, they just might find their way home to celebrate a McKettrick family Christmas after all. ...