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It was another day at the office. The drawers in my desk were slowly creep open and close. It was a particularly windy on this day, I was on the one hundred and third floor of the world trade center tower two. When it was windy, the building had a built in sway factor of up to four feet in either direction. Some people actually got nauseous from the constant swaying, some would leave the building to get a break. Just another day on the bond trading floor of a major investment bank where I worked. My head hurt from last nights imbibing to the wee hours with friends. I was now in the land of relentless harassment and pressure. Lunch at my desk where I was chained for most of the day. If you ordered a salad to make up for last nights bad decisions, you were endlessly ridiculed. I was very lucky to have the seat I was in, The days were long and tedious but worth the rewards. The city was becoming bloated, glutted, silly with ambition. The buildings were higher, the morals looser, the liquor cheaper. We all drank the kool-Aid. The city was filled with the ethos of the time relishing in frenzy and moneymaking, it was the eighties in New York City. There are few desires more deeply human than the desire to escape whatever reality you are in. The problem is not the nicer your life is, the more resources you have to escape it, but rather the limits of being a person. You are stuck with you. Its the precondition of existence. I wanted incredible things to happen to me, not the slow burning let down of adulthood. I was becoming too many parts of myself, starting to break apart, an urban sauce over cooked. Its a very demanding environment that is geared toward survival of the fittest. Your energy level goes up, along with your radar and your prowess. It sparks a certain aggressiveness. It breeds insincerity, pretentions, dishonesty, affectation, ostentatiousness and irreverence. Not very healthy on any level. Thats when the letter arrived. I had applied to the Peace Corps on an insane impulse, not thinking for a second a Wall Street guy would be of any interest to anybody anywhere in any capacity. The country of choice was the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific. I had never heard of it. I ran off to the library to find out more about this remote island chain in Polynesia. The Peace Corps had accepted me for a two year stint. I would be working for a missionary who would be overseeing the Prison Fellowship International. This was an organization born out of the experience of Charles Colson, former aide to President Nixon. Convicted for a Watergate-related offense, Colson served seven months in prison. During that time he saw and experienced the difference faith in Jesus makes in peoples lives. He became convinced that the real solution to crime is found through spiritual renewal. He wanted to help men and women turn their lives around Through Christ. In 1979, he founded Prison Fellowship International, extending the mission and work beyond the United States. In 1983, Prison Fellowship International received special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Now it’s the largest, most extensive association of national Christian ministries working within the criminal justice field. The grassroots presence enables it to minister to prisoners and their families in culturally relevant ways. The heart of the ministry is their volunteers, that would be me. What a complete and utter shock to my system. What were they thinking? Im not religious, nor do I have any experience in this field or anything like it. Im a Bond salesman on Wall Street. The Kingdom of Tonga was an antidote to New York. It was a type of cleansing. A revival. A chance to see life in the simple light of daily existence. Being there required me to learn how to exist in real life without all the usual escapes and distractions. Now all of my exits had been taken away from me. Pulled right out from under me, like the ground itself.
Twelve-year-old Esther Atoolik tells of the last winter her people spent on King Island, Alaska, in the early 1960's.
the LURE, the LOVE, the LEGEND - That is The Goodbye Lie series - where Little House on the Prairie meets Gone With The Wind ... on Amelia Island, Florida, at the edge of the world ...
Shortlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction A Hurston Wright Legacy Award Nominee Longlisted for the 2023 New American Voices Award A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Powerful stories that explore the legacy of colonialism, and issues of race, immigration, sexual discrimination, and class in the lives of Jamaican women across London, Panama, France, Jamaica, Florida and more The Islands follows the lives of Jamaican women—immigrants or the descendants of immigrants—who have relocated all over the world to escape the ghosts of colonialism on what they call the Island. Set in the United States, Jamaica, and Europe, these international stories examine the lives of an uncertain and unsettled cast of characters. In one story, a woman and her husband impulsively leave San Francisco and move to Florida with wild dreams of American reinvention only to unearth the cracks in their marriage. In another, the only Jamaican mother—who is also a touring comedienne—at a prep school feels pressure to volunteer in the school’s International Day. Meanwhile, in a third story, a travel writer finally connects with the mother who once abandoned her. Set in locations and times ranging from 1950s London to 1960s Panama to modern-day New Jersey, Dionne Irving reveals the intricacies of immigration and assimilation in this debut, establishing a new and unforgettable voice in Caribbean-American literature. Restless, displaced, and disconnected, these characters try to ground themselves—to grow where they find themselves planted—in a world in which the tension between what’s said and unsaid can bend the soul.
As Estrellita leaves her beloved Caribbean island home, she combines all of its features into an ode celebrating its green and eternal beauty.
Fiery colors and hundreds of details evoke the sun–drenched beauty, the sweet smells, and the joyful sounds of a jewel–like little Caribbean island that a young boy rediscovers while on a visit with his best friend. Ages 3–6
Originally published: New York: HarperCollins, 1998.
In this fast-paced survival story set in Hawaii, electronics fail worldwide, the islands become completely isolated, and a strange starscape fills the sky. Leilani and her father embark on a nightmare odyssey from Oahu to their home on the Big Island. Leilani’s epilepsy holds a clue to the disaster, if only they can survive as the islands revert to earlier ways. A powerful story enriched by fascinating elements of Hawaiian ecology, culture, and warfare, this captivating and dramatic debut from Austin Aslan is the first of two novels. The author has a master’s degree in tropical conservation biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Praise for Islands at the End of the World: “A riveting tale of belonging, family, overcoming perceived limitations, and finding a home.”--School Library Journal, Starred "Aslan’s debut honors Hawaii’s unique cultural strengths--family ties and love of home, amplified by geography and history--while remaining true to a genre that affirms the mysterious grandeur of the universe waiting to be discovered."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred "Aslan’s debut is a riveting tale of belonging, family, overcoming perceived limitations, and finding a home."--School Library Journal, Starred
A gripping and original account of how the Civil War began and a second American revolution unfolded, setting Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom. An epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields, 1861 introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes—among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. Their stories take us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the waters of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at its moment of ultimate crisis and decision. Hailed as “exhilarating….Inspiring…Irresistible…” by The New York Times Book Review, Adam Goodheart’s bestseller 1861 is an important addition to the Civil War canon. Includes black-and-white photos and illustrations.