For twenty-five years, Debby Irving sensed inexplicable racial tensions in her personal and professional relationships. As a colleague and neighbor, she worried about offending people she dearly wanted to befriend. As an arts administrator, she didn't understand why her diversity efforts lacked traction. As a teacher, she found her best efforts to reach out to students and families of color left her wondering what she was missing.
Then, in 2009, one 'aha!' Moment launched an adventure of discovery and insight that drastically shifted her worldview and upended her life plan. In Waking Up White, Irving tells her often cringe-worthy story with such openness that readers will turn every page rooting for her-and ultimately for all of us. Wall of Dust is a story of the human spirit-of the pain of loss and the struggle to recover. Aisha, a Palestinian schoolteacher, becomes deranged after most of her class is accidentally killed by a missile fired from an Israeli gunship. She begins a strange ritual, throwing stones at the 'security barrier,' the eight-meter tall concrete wall that separates much of the West Bank from Israel.
She shouts the name of each dead child and hurls a stone at the concrete monolith. Initially alone, she is soon joined by others and her little ritual takes the form of a mass protest. At several points she might be stopped, or worse, but she is helped in small but significant ways by several other characters, Israeli and Palestinian. Each character who intercedes has experienced a loss-a career dead end, a family estrangement, a crisis of faith, a simple loss of hope-that guides their actions. The acts are small and personal: a sniper misses a shot, a teacher comforts, a stranger embraces, a father forgives, an Islamist relents.
Lyrically written, full of compassion for the people of Palestine and Israel and for the land they inhabit together, Wall of Dust is a story of revelation, redemption, and the persistence of hope. Despite the vigorous study of modern American fiction, today's readers are only familiar with a partial shelf of a vast library. Gordon Hutner describes the distorted, canonized history of the twentieth-century American novel as a record of modern classics insufficiently appreciated in their day but recuperated by scholars in order to shape the grand tradition of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner.
In presenting literary history this way, Hutner argues, scholars have forgotten a rich treasury of realist novels that recount the story of the American middle-class's confrontation with modernity. Reading these novels now offers an extraordinary opportunity to witness debates about what kind of nation America would become and what place its newly dominant middle class would have-and, Hutner suggests, should also lead us to wonder how our own contemporary novels will be remembered. This is the story of a rare sort of American genius, who grew up in grinding poverty in Camden, Maine. Nothing could save the sensitive child but her talent for words, music, and drama, and an inexorable desire to be loved. When she was twenty, her poetry would make her famous; at thirty she would be loved by readers the world over. Vincent Millay was widely considered to be the most seductive woman of her age. Few men could resist her, and many women also fell under her spell.
His most recent effort is his very first solo record, One Bird On a Wire. With a style that owes just as much to Jon Brion as it does J Dilla, Budo is carving out an impressive niche in today's music industry.
From the publication of her first poems until the scandal over Fatal Interview twenty years later, gossip about the poet's liberated lifestyle prompted speculation about who might be the real subject of her verses. Using letters, diaries, and journals of the poet and her lovers that have only recently become available, Daniel Mark Epstein tells the astonishing story of the life, dedicated to art and love, that inspired the sublime lyrics of Edna St. Vincent Millay. We all know we should eat better, exercise more, get better quality rest, and so on.
Tell us something we don t know, right? After all, every statistic we have about Americans and our health proves that no matter how good our intentions are, we are failing to change the habits that undermine our well-being.
But how do we achieve our healthy living goals when they re so daunting? Who has the time, the willpower, the resources to do all that nutritious eating, muscle building, restful sleeping, and work-life balancing? Carla Birnberg and Roni Noone have the answer to thatthe answer is you. You have the power to make healthier living easy and exciting, just by adopting one simple mantra: 'What you can when you can.' It s all you need. What You Can When You Can (#wycwyc) is a book, a movement, a mindset, and a lifestyleone that harnesses the power of small steps to let you achieve your health and fitness goals on YOUR terms.
The #wycwyc (pronounced 'wickwick') philosophy applies to anything and everything that contributes to a healthy, happy life: nutrition, exercise, physical and mental rejuvenation, and so much more.' Uncover the historical truth about Buddhist warrior monks with this informative and enlightening book. Film, television and popular fiction have long exploited the image of the serene Buddhist monk who is master of the deadly craft of hand-to-hand combat. While these media overly romanticize the relationship between a philosophy of non-violence and the art of fighting, When Buddhists Attack: The Curious Relationship Between Zen and the Martial Arts shows this link to be nevertheless real, even natural. Exploring the origins of Buddhism and the ethos of the Japanese samurai, university professor and martial arts practitioner Jeffrey Mann traces the close connection between the Buddhist way of compassion and the way of the warrior. This zen book serves as a basic introduction to the history, philosophy, and current practice of Zen as it relates to the Japanese martial arts.
It examines the elements of Zen that have found a place in budo-the martial way-such as zazen, mushin, zanshin and fudoshin, then goes on to discuss the ethics and practice of budo as a modern sport. Offering insights into how qualities integral to the true martial artist are interwoven with this ancient religious philosophy, this Buddhism book will help practitioners reconnect to an authentic spiritual discipline of the martial arts.
A thoughtful, insider view of The Five Percenters-a deeply complex and misunderstood community whose ideas and symbols influenced the rise of hip-hop. Misrepresented in the media as a black parallel to the Hell's Angels, portrayed as everything from a vicious street gang to quasi- Islamic revolutionaries, The Five Percenters are a movement that began as a breakaway sect from the Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1960s Harlem and went on to impact the formation of hip-hop. References to Five Percent language and ideas are found in the lyrics of wide-ranging artists, such as Nas, Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, and even Jay-Z. The Five Percenters are denounced by white America as racists, and orthodox Islam as heretics, for teaching that the black man is Allah. Michael Muhammad Knight ('the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature' -The Guardian) has engaged this culture as both white and Muslim; and over the course of his relationship with The Five Percenters, his personal position changed from that of an outsider to an accepted participant with his own initiatory name (Azreal Wisdom).
This has given him an intimate perch from which to understand and examine the controversial doctrines of this influential movement. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight strips away years of sensationalism to offer a serious encounter with Five Percenter thought. Encoded within Five Percent culture is a profound critique of organized religion, from which the movement derives its name: Only Five Percent can act as 'poor righteous teachers' against the evil Ten Percent, the power structure which uses religion to deceive the Eighty- Five Percent, the 'deaf, dumb, and blind' masses. Questioning his own relationship to the Five Percent, Knight directly confronts the community's most difficult teachings. In Why I Am a Five Percenter, Knight not only illuminates a thought system that must appear bizarre to outsiders, but he also brilliantly dissects the very issues of'insiders' and 'outsiders,' territory and ownership, as they relate to religion and privilege, and to our conditioned ideas about race.
One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with. Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage. Told in alternating voices from two YA superstars, this collaborative novel features a double helping of the heart and humor that have won them both legions of fans. When Michael Muhammad Knight sets out to write the definitive biography of his 'Anarcho-Sufi' hero and mentor, writer Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey), he makes a startling discovery that changes everything. At the same time that he grows disillusioned with his idol, Knight finds that his own books have led to American Muslim youths making a countercultural idol of him, placing him on the same pedestal that he had given Wilson. In an attempt to forge his own path, Knight pledges himself to an Iranian Sufi order that Wilson had almost joined, attempts to write the Great American Queer Islamo-Futurist Novel, and even creates his own mosque in the wilderness of West Virginia.
He also employs the 'cut-up' writing method of Bey's friend, the late William S. Burroughs, to the Qur'an, subjecting Islam's holiest scripture to literary experimentation.
Burroughs vs. The Qur'an is the struggle of a hero-worshiper without heroes and the meeting of religious and artistic paths, the quest of a writer as spiritual seeker. 'When you're on a three-and-a-half month voyage around the world, you ought to be able to sit and consider the sea.' Will Post, a celebrated and sometimes controversial columnist, is a professor on the MV Explorer's Semester at Sea program, sailing around the world teaching the ups and downs of travel writing, while navigating the discomfort of three months at sea, as well as the uncomfortable truths that many of their stops bring up-poverty, colonialism, and violence, to name a few. A novel of loneliness, death, and friendship, The Williamson Turn deftly explores what it is to be an American traveling the world, and how our relationships to each other can be comforting, challenging, and at times alienating. It is a novel of torch-passing and nostalgia, of dealing with how life turned out, whether or not it was as planned. Kluge's deft writing and sharp reflections, The Williamson Turn and its hero Will Post are not soon forgotten.
Baltimore reporter Jason Currant is a classic burnt-out case: scarred by Vietnam and a recent divorce, he casts a jaded eye on the world, trusting no one. Then comes an improbable call from Iowa.
His idealistic former brother-in-law has been charged with raping a fifteen-year-old girl. Could gentle Gabriel, who has devoted himself to organizing exploited workers, possibly commit such an act? His socialist friends respond with an emphatic no, blaming an out-of-control police force for setting him up. Jason is not so sure. Traveling to Iowa, Jason encounters a vivid group of characters: Simon, the committed socialist willing to sacrifice anyone, even Gabriel, for the cause; Grey, Gabriel's Native American wife who sees all but reveals nothing; Leroy, the victim's father whose powerlessness and misguided anger lead him to violence; Costello, a policewoman hopelessly caught between her corrupt colleagues and her desire to do the right thing; and in the center, the enigmatic Gabriel, both saintly and naive.
Set against a backdrop of industrial and moral decay, Wrestling with Gabriel offers a gripping tale about the search for truth and justice. By the time the jury reaches its verdict, one thing is clear: Gabriel's fate will be decided but the larger questions will remain unanswered. Like Iris Murdoch, David Lynn has written a political novel that transcends the genre by confronting the moral complexities that go along with a commitment to an an ideal. A remarkable accomplishment by a gifted short story writer, Wrestling with Gabriel is both a profound book and compelling story. In these nineteen stories, David H. Lynn presents a vivid tapestry of human experience.
From India to England, California to Detroit, we see the way in which people's lives and ambitions inevitably collide. They fight for property and torture each other's dogs. They rekindle old romances and build new futures in foreign lands. Following David Lynn around the world, we meet strangers who seem both exotic and familiar and find that their aspirations and fears look much like our own. While many of the stories have appeared previously in publications like the Michigan Quarterly Review, Ontario Review, Triquarterly, Story Quarterly, Salt, Glimmer Train, and Salmagundi, the collection also includes four never-before-published stories.
Smith's Yellowbird was the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas First Book Award recipient. David Lynn, editor of the prestigious Kenyon Review notes, 'Yellowbird is a marvelous achievement-full of wit, invention, and emotional power.
There is a wildness of spirit here and a searing honesty. I was entirely caught up while reading Yellowbird and only reluctantly came to the end.' University of Oklahoma Professor of English and Native American Studies, Geary Hobson, writes, 'Have you ever found yourself carefully scrutinizing mid-19th Century daguerreotypes-as if halfway expecting the cut of Prince Albert topcoats and the stylish flair of ribbon clusters of the clothing of the well-dressed fathers and mothers and their children will somehow reveal what the faces aren't offering, what they can't offer?
Yellowbird, with its several strands of intricately woven narratives of a past century's voices, is just such a similar act, one in which the reader is not only rewarded with a deeper and clearer understanding of the people in that olden day, but also of our own century and its multi-faceted assemblage of voices and faces.' Yellowbird is an important collection, essential for readers of Native American Studies, fiction, and women's studies. 'A hugely absorbing first novel from a writer with a fluid, vivid style and a rare knack for balancing the pleasure of entertainment with the deeper gratification of insight. More, please.' -Maggie Shipstead, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) 'A story about Russia, the United States, friendship, identity, defection, and deception that is smart, startling, and worth reading regardless of when you were born.'
-Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine 'Holt's beguiling debut. In which there is no difference between personal and political betrayal, vividly conjures the anxieties of the Cold War without ever lapsing into nostalgia.' - The New Yorker Sarah Zuckerman and Jennifer Jones are best friends in an upscale part of Washington, D.C., in the politically charged 1980s. Sarah is the shy, wary product of an unhappy home: her father abandoned the family to return to his native England; her agoraphobic mother is obsessed with fears of nuclear war.
Jenny is an all-American girl who has seemingly perfect parents. With Cold War rhetoric reaching a fever pitch in 1982, the ten-year-old girls write letters to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov asking for peace. But only Jenny's letter receives a response, and Sarah is left behind when her friend accepts the Kremlin's invitation to visit the USSR and becomes an international media sensation. The girls' icy relationship still hasn't thawed when Jenny and her parents die tragically in a plane crash in 1985. Ten years later, Sarah is about to graduate from college when she receives a mysterious letter from Moscow suggesting that Jenny's death might have been a hoax. She sets off to the former Soviet Union in search of the truth, but the more she delves into her personal Cold War history, the harder it is to separate facts from propaganda. You Are One of Them is a taut, moving debut about the ways in which we define ourselves against others and the secrets we keep from those who are closest to us.
In her insightful forensic of a mourned friendship, Holt illuminates the long lasting sting of abandonment and the measures we take to bring back those we have lost. Fighter, faker, student, spy: heart-pounding action and spine-tingling suspense intertwine in an electrifying debut for fans of emotional thrillers with just the right dash of high school drama. Seventeen-year-old Reagan Elizabeth Hillis is used to changing identities overnight, lying to every friend she's ever had, and pushing away anyone who gets too close. Trained in mortal combat and weaponry her entire life, Reagan is expected to follow in her parents' footsteps and join the ranks of the most powerful top-secret agency in the world, the Black Angels. Falling in love with the boy next door was never part of the plan.
Now Reagan must decide: Will she use her incredible talents and lead the dangerous life she was born into, or throw it all away to follow her heart and embrace the normal life she's always wanted? And does she even have a choice? Find out if you are ready to join the Black Angels in debut author Kristen Orlando's You Don't Know My Name, the captivating and emotional first book in the Black Angel Chronicles, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads. Praise for You Don't Know My Name 'This is my ideal sort of book, full of tension, action, romance, family issues, and a girl struggling to figure out her identity!' -Sara Shepard, #1 New York Times Best Selling author of The Pretty Little Liars series 'This one's a page-turner.' - Booklist 'A solid addition to high school collections, especially those with patrons who love stories of spy craft and secret identities, with a splash of romance' - School Library Journal.
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This monograph features Beijing-born artist's acclaimed scrolls, sculptures, and drawings. In his stunning impressionistic works, Yun-Fei Ji takes on the thousand-year-old practice of Chinese scroll painting, employing ink on paper as his primary medium, and landscape as his central subject. Rather than adopting the idealism characteristic of traditional scroll painting, Ji presents the gritty reality of life in contemporary China. In this comprehensive monograph, Ji's works bridge the gap between modernity and tradition. Essays explore themes of community, dislocation, and environmental degradation as well as Chinese folklore and its rapid decline in his native country's culture.
Do you struggle out of bed each morning and sway lifelessly across the room, mouth agape, arms hanging slack, murmuring unintelligibly? Well, take heart: you're not alone!
But these other staggering, limp, perpetually drowsy folks just happen to be zombies-and it turns out they can teach us a lot about enjoying life. And only here, between the covers of this book, will you learn their secrets to happiness. Learn how to slow down and move at your own pace, become your own boss, and just devour those irritating people who get in your way.
And there's more, because zombies can offer no-nonsense advice on love, playing to your strengths, and on becoming more adaptable. When rural Ohio college professor Peter Mellor dies in an automobile accident during a zombie outbreak, he is reborn as a highly intelligent (yet somewhat amnesiac) member of the living dead. With society crumbling around him and violence escalating into daily life, Peter quickly learns that being a zombie isn't all fun and brains. Humans-unsympathetic, generally, to his new proclivities-try to kill him at nearly every opportunity. His old friends are loath to associate with him.
And he finds himself inconveniently addicted to the gooey stuff inside of people's heads. As if all this weren't bad enough, Peter soon learns that his automobile accident was no accident at all. Faced with the harrowing mystery of his death, Peter resolves to use his strange zombie 'afterlife' to solve his own murder. Skillfully combining the genres of horror, humor, and film noir, Zombie, Ohio weaves an enthralling and innovative tale that any fan of the current zombie craze is sure to relish. Followers of detective and horror fiction alike will find something to love about Zombie, Ohio-a tale of murder, mystery, and the walking dead.