Böcker av Ron Dull

Aunt Angela knelt by the boys' bedside and bowed her head into the comfort of the blankets. "Oh, good and holy Saint Nicholas," she intoned, "you who bring joy to children, and plenty of presents too. It's me again, Angela Cavallo. Look, I know you're busy tonight, but put in my heart the spirit of childhood about which the Gospel speaks. Teach me how to sow happiness around me. Teach Little Dick never ever to touch women again. Teach The Turd to be nice to others, and teach Baby Michael to stop stealing stuff. Even if you must punish each of them with horrible afflictions, that's okay, we'll understand. Amen." "Amen," the boys chimed in together, hoping that tonight, Christmas Eve, would not be the night they broke out with some weird infection.When this mafioso family reunites for a Christmas celebration, things get wacky quickly as headstrong Silvio Cavallo and his unforgettable gay twin brothers become involved in a hilarious hit job gone wrong.Italian Holiday is a comical caper of Italian bluster, dysfunctional family dynamics, and an outlandish tale complete with wine, weapons, and wisecracks. For at least one family, turmoil rather than the serenity of a Norman Rockwell painting may be the real Christmas tradition.

In an impoverished world, imprisoned by socially constraining fences with very few gates of opportunity, Joey Joaneda, the son of failed and alcoholic parents, struggles toward maturity in a depression-era fishing village. Nothing much is expected from him or his Wharf Rat friends except to carry on questionable and antiquated traditions. Under the influence of a cast of colorful local characters -- from the powerful Captain Sam Brumos and a wise old woman in a fish house, to a very troublesome monkey -- the boy wrestles with the rewards and consequences of his own actions. He endures the animosity of his peers when he turns his back on simply "coasting around." Inevitably, he confronts the definitive fence which must be climbed to call himself a man, the need to accept accountability for his life choices.But can you ever deny your past? Can you ever run fast enough or far enough to lose who you are? Goaded by the insistent vagrant Holy Joe in a search for truthfulness, Joey Joaneda, "the boy who is always running away," discovers that ultimately, you will forever bump into yourself.

The Finns had a name for it: tuntaria. It meant a barren land, one which to them was frozen and devoid of life. Look deeper the voices of the inutshuks whispered mysteriously, find the way. When two adolescence boys accompany their fathers into the desolate wilderness of the Canadian tundra, they enter the extraordinary land of the native Inuit whose values of life, death, and community define a home much unlike their own. Their lives are molded forever by the rough, no-nonsense men they meet, the beautiful animals they hunt, the proximity of disaster at every turn, and the hypnotic dance of the Northern Lights. We all search for our own destiny. We question our legacy and ironically often find final salvation and our individual God sitting quietly by the side of the road, patiently waiting for us to Go With on a journey of personal discovery which is not to be missed.

When Hermann Olsen initially left the kidney-bashing back road of Route 226 in the Wasatch range of Utah and limped stiffly into the Mahogany Ridge Club, he was simply looking for a cold beer, some companionship, and a place to escape the omnipresent western dust. He soon makes the acquaintance of the rough ranchers who frequent the town's favorite watering hole, and hours later he becomes the dubiously proud owner of a dilapidated tavern, an out-of-commission ski hill, some ancient chairlifts, and a fat old search-and-rescue dog more renown for her gas than for her work ethic.Hermann's plan is simple: put just enough money into the area in order to revitalize it as "a place for the locals," and then leisurely sit back and watch life go by from the tranquil banks of the teeming trout streams.Good plan. But life is a roller coaster ride with its own ideas of what is in store for us, and despite our best intentions and our worst flaws, we sometimes experience unexplained success. The seriously out-of-the-way hill known as Mount Bellew soon attracts a cult of hardcore skiers and snowboarders who are enamored with its legendary lack of facilities and un-groomed slopes. Mount Bellew explodes beyond the edges of Hermann's dream, and in a very short expanse of time, the ex-hippie finds himself attempting to manage a lively and bustling ski resort. "Desperate times call for desperate solutions," Hermann believes. He soon surrounds himself with the colorful and equally desperate characters that make up his personnel staff.Told through the viewpoint of a simple bus driver who is looking back on his youth, Mount Bellew shows us how all of our heroes are seriously flawed, struggling through individual changes and challenges in their lives, and how every life is a unique season of hope."Men do change, and the change comes like the wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass." -- John SteinbeckHow we handle it all is the measure of the man. How Mount Bellew survives the growing pains is the richly entertaining story to be told . . .