Books by Tales Press
The Family
by Michael J. Woods
The story about Florence and Tommy Woods and their eight kids is the story of America's family. The story connects political, social, cultural and historic events to the lives of family members along with the country’s development through the 20th century. Gary Herrity, a writer for The Clinton (Iowa) Herald, said, “No one ever had more fun growing up than the Woods boys and many of their friends. ... The Woods family lived it, loved it and used the lessons to enrich their lives.” More Info
PRICE: $20.00
The Ashes of War
by MH Murphy
This story begins on April 28, 1975, just as the great city of Sai Gon and the Republic of Viet Nam were taking their last breaths of freedom during the last two days before surrender, and then on through the next seven years of hardship and changes endured by the South Vietnamese people. "The Ashes of War" describes the plight of the Vietnamese boat people, those who escaped overland, and those who stayed behind and attempted to create a new life in the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. More Info
PRICE: $21.95
With the Silent Knowledge
by Ray Elliott
The story of Michael Callahan—a smart, talented man from a privileged upbringing who’s also an alcoholic with sociopathic tendencies and his own worst enemy. He winds up in a maximum-security prison to fend for himself in a hard environment that doesn’t do much to help non-violent offenders break their self-destructive behaviors. But that doesn’t mean he won’t try to outsmart and outlast the conditions that only beat him down before he can try to make parole. And perhaps with the help of Blaine, a well-meaning counselor who recognizes Callahan’s real potential beneath the veneer of his intellectual gamesmanship, there may be a glimmer of hope that he can finally get the help he needs. More Info
PRICE: $23.99
The Dawn Before Darkness
by William Prather
A novelized biographical account of certain prominent historical figures in the West of Europe during a dimly lit period spanning the end of the sixth century. King Chilperic I and Queen Fredegonde, whose lives followed the curve of France’s coming-of-age as a post-Roman center of power, lead a nation attempting to re-define itself culturally and religiously. The idealistic culture of the kings, queens and nobility of this time bear remarkable similarity to that of the Founding Fathers of America a millennium later. More Info
PRICE: $16.00
Iwo Blasted Again
by Ray Elliott
Iwo Jima Marine veteran Jack Britton has carried the horror of combat and the loss of his young wife and his buddies with him for the past 60 years. Now, in the last 36 hours of his life in a hospital intensive care unit, he revisits those aspects of his life and grapples with his long-suffering questions about fate and self-doubt through a psychological phenomenon known as sundown syndrome. More Info
PRICE: $21.95
Wild Hands Toward the Sky
by Ray Elliott
A coming-of-age story of the time during and after World War II, “Wild Hands Toward the Sky” introduces young, fatherless John Walter McElligott as he grows up — lonesome and longing — in a rural Illinois farm community. He and his mother now live with his aunt and uncle, but he is inescapably drawn to the other men of the area who served in the war and returned — especially his older cousin, Sam, who was injured during the D-Day invasion and fought on through Europe until the end of the war. Out of their own respect for John Walter's father, who was killed on Guadalcanal, these veterans treat the boy with a calculated deference and are compelled to teach him their hard-earned lessons about life, responsibility, duty and honor. John Walter tries to apply their lessons to his own life as he struggles to find his place and learn who he is destined to become amid the sheltered, quiet life of the rural Midwest that, too, is on the brink of change in the aftermath of the war. More Info
PRICE: $28.00
Pin A Medal On Me
by Geil Evans Butler
In 1954, only a few years after the end of World War II, Geil Evans Butler and her young daughter, Bonnie, traveled to Japan to join Butler's husband, who was a U.S. Air Force sergeant stationed there. Apprehensive and homesick at first, Geil Butler describes life in a new and different culture, as well as the journey of personal growth she experiences with a range of emotions. More Info
PRICE: $15.00
Bittersweet: The Story of the Heath Candy Co.
by Richard J. Heath with Ray Elliott
Many families dream of starting a business and creating a long-lasting legacy for future generations. After a humble childhood filled with economic hardship, L.S. Heath pursued that dream for his family... More Info
PRICE: $24.95
Good Morning—But The Nightmares Never End
by Charlie Dukes
Good Morning is one combat soldier's experience as an infantryman on the front lines of World War II Europe, as a prisoner of war in a German work camp and as a displaced, disillusioned veteran shortly after the war's end. More Info
PRICE: $21.95
Born In the Illinois Cornfields
by Alvin Decker
A non-fiction book about a young boy growing up during the Depression on an Illinois farm. The author paints vivid pictures in your head of what it was like to use an outhouse, milk the cows and work the cornfields with "real horse power." More Info
PRICE: $12.50
Bait
by Donald E. Stephen
A Vietnam War memoir by Martinsville, Ill., farmer Donald E. Stephen who served in Vietnam as an Army infantry platoon leader in 1970-71. Stephen, a Special Forces-trained officer went to Vietnam as a 24-year-old soldier and led men barely out of high school through days of prolonged fighting and uncertainty in the jungles of Vietnam. More Info
PRICE: $8.95
Writings From the Handy Colony
edited by Helen Howe, Don Sackrider and George Hendrick
A collection of previously unpublished writings from the Handy Writers' Colony, supported by James Jones, after the success of From Here to Eternity, and his mentor Lowney Handy, in Marshall, Illinois. More Info
PRICE: $17.95
