A middle grade road novel about a boy stuck on a summer trip with his offbeat auto-mechanic cousins--a humor- and heart-filled journey that leads the boy to an unexpected confrontation with some broken-down parts of himself. After eleven-year-old June Ball's dad disappears without so much as a goodbye note, June's mother sends him on the road with his adult cousins, mechanics Thomas and Cornell Ball. The Balls are "Ford Men"; their calling in life is to restore old Ford cars--and only Ford cars--that no longer run. And so begins a summer traveling the highways and byways of America, encountering busted-up Fairlanes, Thunderbirds, and Rancheros. They also encounter the cars' owners, who sometimes need fixing up, too. June doesn't understand his cousins' passion for all things Ford. But at every turn, June realizes that this journey is about more than giving neglected classic cars some much-needed TLC--there's room to care for the broken parts of humans, too. A story of adventure, longing, and growing up from adult novelist, journalist, and All-SEC center for the LSU Tigers, John Ed Bradley.

For generations, fathers and sons have used the language of sports to work out their differences and express their love for each other. Fathers & Sons & Sports" "presents a" "powerful lineup of real-world stories about fathers and sons playing one-on-one in the game of life, written by such great sportswriters and authors as
Henry Aaron, as told to Cal Fussman - Michael J. Agovino - Buzz Bissinger - Jeff Bradley - John Ed Bradley - James Brown - Darcy Frey - Tom Friend - Bill Geist - Mike Golic - Donald Hall - Paul Hoffman - Mark Kriegel - Norman Maclean - John Buffalo Mailer - Ron Reagan - Peter Richmond - Jeremy Schaap - Lew Schneider - Dan Shaughnessy - Paul Solotaroff - John Jeremiah Sullivan - Wright Thompson - Steve Wulf

The unforgettable accounts here include the stories of a professional football player passing on his" "father's secrets to his own sons, a severely disabled boy discovering joy on a surfboard, a wealthy NFL player taking his coddled children back to the mean streets that made him, and a major league manager who must face the hard fact that nothing, not even unconditional love, can save his son.
Anyone who has ever been a father or a son will see himself in these moving snapshots of family life at its most emotional. Whether the stories take place on a diamond, a court, a gridiron, a fairway, or a chessboard, they're all about the same subject: fatherhood, one of the world's most intriguing sports.

tell them we are rising
""The inspiring story of how one woman gave back.""--Ed Bradley
""This is a heartwarming story about struggle, survival, and achieve ment. If we didn't know people like this in our lives, we would want to invent them. What more could one ask? A good story told with a deft hand.""--William H. Gray III President, United Negro College Fund
""An inspiring account of an African American educator determined to make a difference in the lives of indifferent students.""--Kirkus Reviews
""Tell Them We Are Rising is a wonderful, inspiring story of service, commitment, generosity, love, and hope. It is written with the humor, wisdom, and grace of a bygone era, yet spiced with the ultramodern savvy and the future-oriented vision of a twenty-year-old. What an extraordinary woman What an extraordinary life ""--Chaka Fattah U.S. Representative (Pennsylvania)

I spent two and a half years of my life, most of my money, two gallons of blood, a squared mile of skin (blood and skin left road side across America), a rib and a hunk of my scalp on this project. I have suffered a concussion, hypothermia, near drowning, bone bruises, soul crushing loneliness, home sickness (for a home that no longer existed), insect attacks, heat exhaustion, hail, snow, pouring rain and fatigue. Fatigue beyond what I though was possible to endure. I was shown kindness by people who live in gated communities, by street people in Baltimore, by toothless old men in panhandle Florida, by crazy young Hispanic women in West Hollywood. I biked through the evergreen forests of northern Maine, the streets of Manhattan, across the George Washington Bridge, through the twisting urban sprawl of New Jersey, the back roads of Virginia, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the pecan plantations of Georgia and the Florida Keys. I have seen the fog of my breath on cold Maine mornings, sunrises in coastal Carolina and sunset in Key West. I slept behind an abandoned hunting camp in Maine, a forgotten church in Louisiana, and in the empty dessert of West Texas. This is my story, true and from my heart. It is a story of hope and inspiration. A tale of how to go on when it feels like there is no point in going on. A chronicle of my journey across this country, and through my depression.

"The best sports book of the year."
"- Sports Illustrated"
"John Ed Bradley says that all he ever wanted to do was to leave behind a pretty piece of writing. Here it is-a wonderful blend of honest introspection, passionate reporting, and superb storytelling. One of the best books I have read in years."
- Jeffrey Marx, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Season of Life
Inspired by a classic essay about a visit to a dying coach, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium explores in gorgeous detail the inescapable pull of college football-the cocky smiles behind the face masks, the two-a-day drills, the emotionally charged bus rides to the stadium, the curfew checks, the film-study sessions, the locker room antics, and the yawning void left in one's soul the moment the final whistle sounds. To understand why it's so painful to give up the game, you must first understand the intimacy of the huddle. "It ends for everybody," writes John Ed Bradley, "and then it starts all over again, in ways you never anticipated. Marty Dufresne sits in his wheelchair listening to the Tiger fight song...Ramsey Darder endures prison by playing the games over in his head...Big Ed Stanton never took up the game of golf, and yet he rides the streets of Bayou Vista in a cart nearly identical to Coach Mac's, recalling the one time the old man invited him for a ride." Far more than a memoir, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium is a brutally honest, profoundly moving look at what it means to surrender something you love.

An Amazon Editors' Best Book of 2007
"John Ed Bradley is a rare gem, a gifted writer trapped in the body of a football player. It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium will send chills down the back of anyone who loves the game and will echo in the minds of former players long after they've put it down."
- Tim Green, best-selling author and member of the College Football Hall of Fame
"A mesmerizing read...achingly sentimental in some parts, brutally truthful in others..."
"- Chicago Tribune"
"The best memoir I have ever read on how a particular game, win or lose, can linger with us."
- Josh Levin, "Slate"
"An unsparing and often beautiful chronicle of [Bradley's] attempt to join polite society."
"- Play Magazine"
"A lyrical memoir...about his teammates, his coaches, his parents and the magnetic power of football in Louisiana." - National Public Radio
"Heart-wrenching, honest, insightful and hard to put down." "- The Franklin Sun
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In his most enthralling novel since the acclaimed Tupelo Nights, John Ed Bradley tells a scorching story of sex and death in sultry New Orleans.

After years as an “actress” in California, Juliet Beauvais is drawn back to town with the promise of a big inheritance. But she finds her “dying” mother all too healthy and making other plans. Fortunately for Juliet, Sonny LaMott has been carrying a torch for her all these years, and he’s easily lured into a scheme that’s sure to get Juliet what she deserves. Twisted, gothically atmospheric, and replete with surprise, My Juliet is a deliciously dark and mordantly funny tale.

When journalist Jack Charbonnet meets Rhys Goudeau, a beautiful art restorer, he is soon caught up in intrigue more fascinating than any news story. She is determined to find a lost painting by the great, controversial Southern artist Levette Asmore, who killed himself soon after being forced to whitewash a scandalous masterpiece. As they try to keep ahead of unscrupulous collectors who are on the same trail, Jack and Rhys are drawn ever more deeply into the racially troubled history of pre-WWII New Orleans, and into the secret histories of friends and family.
A piquantly atmospheric story of race, romance and art, Restoration""is provocative, suspenseful and altogether entertaining.