Death Be Not Proud chronicles Johnny Gunther's gallant struggle against the malignant brain tumor that claimed his life at the age of seventeen. This poignant memoir opens with a vivid portrait of Johnny by his father, highlighting a young man of extraordinary intellectual promise. Johnny excelled in physics, math, and chess, yet remained an active, good-hearted, and fun-loving teenager.

The heart of this memoir is the description of the agonizing months during which Johnny's parents, Gunther and his former wife Frances, tried everything in their power to halt the spread of Johnny's cancer and to make him as happy and comfortable as possible. Despite the challenges, Johnny strove to complete his high school studies, and the scene of his graduation ceremony from Deerfield Academy is one of the most powerful and heartbreaking moments in the book.

Throughout his illness, Johnny maintained his courage, wit, and quiet friendliness, leaving a lasting impact on those around him. He passed away on June 30, 1947, less than a month after his graduation.

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a disturbing and fiercely beautiful account of growing up Chinese-American in California. The young Kingston lives in two worlds: the America to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother's "talk stories."

Her mother tells her traditional tales of strong, wily women warriors - tales that clash puzzlingly with the real oppression of women. Kingston learns to fill in the mystifying spaces in her mother's stories with stories of her own, engaging her family's past and her own present with anger, imagination, and dazzling passion.

As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother’s “talk stories.” The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother’s tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingston’s sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured myths and memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new understanding of her family’s past and her own present.

In the end, love is more important than everything and it will conquer and overcome anything. Or that’s how Damon saw it, anyway. Damon wanted a book that talked a lot about love.

Damon Courtenay died on the morning of April Fool’s Day. In this tribute to his son, Bryce Courtenay lays bare the suffering behind this young man’s life. Damon’s story is one of life-long struggle, his love for Celeste, the compassion of family, and a fight to the end for integrity.

A testimony to the power of love, April Fool’s Day is also about understanding: how when we confront our worst, we can become our best.