Kiowa County Public Library District

Back in Elmwood Springs, Missouri the experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to ask the question "Why are we here"?

Joe Gardner is a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. A misstep takes him from New York City to The Great Before, a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities before going to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22, who has never understood the appeal of the human life. As Joe tries to show 22 what's great about life, he may discover...

After a small town librarian survives a lightning strike, she seeks out a fellow survivor in a quest for meaning, only to begin an obsessive love affair between two opposites joined by a single common thread.

"The world's leading expert on near-death experiences reveals his journey toward rethinking the nature of death, life, and the continuity of consciousness. Cases of remarkable experiences on the threshold of death have been reported since ancient times, and are described today by 10% of people whose hearts stop. The medical world has generally ignored these "near-death experiences," dismissing them as "tricks of the brain" or wishful thinking. But...

When an injury ends his amateur boxing career, Stuart Long moves to Los Angeles to find money and fame. While scraping by as a supermarket clerk, he meets Carmen, a Sunday school teacher who seems immune to his bad-boy charm. Determined to win her over, the longtime agnostic starts going to church to impress her. However, a motorcycle accident leaves him wondering if he can use his second chance to help others, leading to the surprising realization...

"Based on the largest near-death-experience study in history--involving 3,000 people from diverse backgrounds and religious traditions, including nonbelievers--a New York Times best-selling author presents startling evidence that a Supreme Being exists--and there is amazing consistency about what he is like,"--NoveList.

ever in history, until now, have we been able to hear from so many people around the world who have been brought back from clinical death. Modern medical resuscitation and digital communication have revealed a goldmine of intriguing near-death experiences (NDEs) that show us the character of God. John Burke has spent the last three decades studying the commonalities of more than 1000 NDEs. His investigative journey started as a skeptical agnostic,...

If you caught a glimpse of heaven, would you choose to come back to life' Investigative journalist Judy Bachrach has collected accounts of the post-postmortem, and the conclusions are astonishing. Clinical death-- 'the moment when the heart stops beating and brain stem activity ceases'-- is not as straightforward as it may seem. Hundreds of thousands of post-death experiences have been documented, and for many who have died and returned, life is forever...

"The final volume in Morris West's Vatican trilogy." As Pope Leo's private struggle unfolds, the terrorists move in for the kill. Leo and those close to him are swept up into a fierce international conflict.

Eleven-year-old Harry Mancini lives in the house where Houdini spent his final years, so he has always been interested in the famous magician, and has even learned a few simple magic tricks; he just never expected Houdini to contact him from beyond the grave--and what Houdini wants him to do could well cost Harry his own life.