On November 16, 1965, Beth Taylor's idyllic childhood was shattered at age twelve by the suicide of her older brother Geoff. Raised in an 'intentional community' north of Philadelphia - a mix of farm village, hippie commune, and suburb - she and her siblings were instilled with nonconformist values and respect for the Quaker tradition. With the loss of her beloved sibling, Taylor began her complicated journey to understand family, loss, and faith. Written after years of contemplation, ""The Plain Language of Love and Loss"" reflects on the meaning of death and loss for three generations of Taylor's family and their friends. Her compelling portrait of Geoff reveals a boy whose understanding of who he was came under increasing attack as he was harassed by schoolmates for being a 'commie pinko coward' and tried to appease fellow Boy Scouts after he abstained from a support-the-troops rally.Touching on the timely issues of bullying, child rearing, and non-conformity, Taylor offers a rare look at growing up Quaker in the tumultuous 1960s that shows the more sober side of the decade's counterculture. Taylor tells how each stage of her life exposed clues to the subtle damage wrought by tragedy, even while it revealed varieties of solace found in friendships, marriage, and parenting. As she grapples with understanding the complexities of religious heritage, patriotism, and pacifism, she weaves the story of her own family together with the larger history of Quakers in the Northeast, showing the importance of family values and the impact of religious education. Beth Taylor says that she learned many things from her childhood, in particular that history is alive - and shapes how we judge ourselves and choose to live our lives. She comes to see that grief can be a mask, a lover, and a teacher.

Supernatural horror. When his aunt dies in mysterious circumstances in her Victorian home, her sceptical nephew Bryan (Tim Daly) immediately leaves his wife (Andrea Roth) to move in, despite warnings from those around him that his inherited home is haunted and dangerous. Once inside, Tim witnesses first hand the hauntings he was forewarned of as he is plagued by hallucinatory visions and unexplainable noises. But unwilling to accept supernatural explanations, Tom visits a doctor (Bruce Altman), a psychologist (Edward Hermann) and, reluctantly, a psychic (Zoe Saldana) in the hope of discovering some reasonable explanation. Could all the mystifying incidents really be just inside his head?

Every family has its own lore, its own set of funny little anecdotes that are told, and laughed over, at every family reunion. In this case the author has dipped into her own family's file of weird and silly experiences and set them to verse. Written in a narrative and humorous style, each poem has been inspired by events that are unique to the author's family but at the same time can be universally related to. Readers are certain to see echoes of their own family life. From an aunt accidentally waterproofing her Thanksgiving turkey, to the uncle who resuscitated a chicken, the poems are sure to rouse your sense of humor and send you reminiscing about the strange but true stories in your own family.

Imagine a child experiencing something so traumatic that her brain forces her to forget the events for 40 years. That's what happened to Beth Taylor, and that's her personal story of clergy sexual abuse chronicled in Bless Them Father, for They Have Sinned. Taylor's story is an honest, heartbreaking, and hopeful look at her journey to explore repressed memories, and then work to overcome the repercussions of the sexual abuse she endured at the hands of the Catholic clergy.