TAKE THIS (Codhill Press)
Oh, the complications of love, marriage, family! They’re all here in Take This. Steven Lewis handles his characters with gentleness and insight. If only all our faults could be judged by someone as compassionate as Steven Lewis.
—Ellen Bass, Like a Beggar
Steve Lewis knows that for many in the boomer generation, the Merry Pranksters’ bus is now a Winnebago. But he also knows that the thrill of the trip is undiminished, the route, quite possibly, just as insane, the destination equally unknown. Along the way, Lewis documents—with tenderness, insight, and outright hilarity—all those ways in which the volatile forces and unpredictable circumstances that forge family bonds may be stronger than the errant behaviors that sometimes fray them.
—Akiko Busch, The Incidental Steward: Reflections on Citizen Science
Take This is a soulful gem of a novel, chronicling the last days of Robert Tevis, a psychotherapist with a big heart and no regrets. At turns funny and tender, author Steven Lewis takes readers on end-of-life road trip that leads them into territory that redefines love.”
—Sally Koslow, The Widow Waltz
FEAR AND LOATHING OF BOCA RATON: A HIPPIE'S GUIDE TO THE SECOND SIXTIES
"Fear and Loathing of Boca Raton" is a bit like the response to a Zen Koan, a mindful extended reflection on the seemingly paradoxical wants and needs of the Question Authority Generation: a guided, self-guided, non-manual manual that captures the spirit and imagination of a spirited and imaginative generation still charting uncharted territory. In this fresh and present journey into the second Sixties (way way way out beyond the unholy trinity of Viagra, statins, and early bird specials), the reader finds resonant and funny and unpredictable licks on everything from post-fifty sex, drugs, and rock and roll to vivid recollections of Vietnam and Woodstock to compellingly impolitic advice about staying hip and relevant into and through the counter-culture's collective dotage.
Complete Guide for the Anxious Groom:
How to Avoid Everything that Could Go Wrong on Her Big Day
Although men traditionally set the marital ball in motion once the knee has hit the floor and the stuttering question is popped, the momentum quickly shifts into the control of the bride and her mother-or the indecipherable orchestrations of a wedding coordinator named Franz. From that point on, the future groom is typically clueless about the responsibilities and rights of the male partner during the wedding planning process.
Format: Paperback
Published: May 2004
The ABC's of Real Family Values:
The Simple Things that Make Families Work
An inspiring primer for parents on the basic and forgotten values children learn at homeThe contemporary family does not look exactly like it did fifty or a hundred years ago. Along the way it has become a little stretched and worn, patched and remodeled in ways that have changed its appearance but not its purpose -- to guide children from infancy to moral self-sufficiency. Parents are doing their best to navigate -- lead, follow, push, drag -- their children safely across the busy streets of modem life and learn a few lessons along the way themselves.The ABCs of Real Family Values offers inspiring, entertaining, and personal stories on values that keep children anchored and hold the family together. Formatted on the model of children's books of ABCs, this guide contains a collection of 52 essays, arranged alphabetically, on the following topics: Affection, Discipline, Fidelity, Humor, Manners, Obligations, Resilience, Tradition, and much more.-- Inspiring and accessible as the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, wise and simple as Life's Little Instruction books.-- The ABCs of Real Family Values is an anecdotal book with a positive, reaffirming message, celebrating the triumph of the contemporary family, not its disintegration.-- Includes meaningful quotes on parenting from prominent literary and cultural sources.
Format: Paperback
Published: June 1998
Zen and the Art of Fatherhood:
Lessons from a Master Dad
Motorcycles, business management, investing--Zen has been successfully applied to nearly every possible endeavor. Now, in this personal and completely delightful account of the triumphs and defeats he has faced in three decades of raising seven children, Lewis takes Zen philosophy to the most monumental level yet--the incredible journey of mutual understanding sought by father and child. Line drawings.
Format: Paperback
Published: May 1997
A MONTH ON A BARRIER ISLAND
Photographs by Tom Nolan; Poems by Steve Lewis
"When poet Steve Lewis vacations, he vacates nothing; his recreation is literally re-creating; the poems literally (and littorally) explicate, lifting away layer after layer of inessentials until only a zen-like calm remains."
Gary Allen, The Herbalist in the Kitchen and anthologist of Human Cuisine
In this beautiful book we are witnesses to the splendor of a radiant summer month on a barrier island. Through Nolan’s stunning photography and Lewis’ evocative poetry we settle into the perfection that infuses living in the fullness of family and love – with all its ebbs and flows.
Mihai Grunfeld, Leaving-Memories of Romania
This book contains a radiance of spirit that comes from the hearts of two fine men and will grace both your eyes and ears. Have you ever put your ear to a shell? Dug your toes into the sand? Lost yourself between the sea and the sky? Smelled the ocean before you see it? If you have, open this book and do it again!
Larry Winters, Making and Unmaking of a Marine
Published: December 2010