Leaving It All Behind is a true travel tale told in real time during one family's voyage around the world. It is distinctly not just a recitation of foreign people and places but speaks intimately about a diversity of experiences and ultimately about how much more there is to life than a fancy job title and big paycheck. From time spent as barge captains in France and organic farmers in Italy to days and nights in South African and Nepalese orphanages, and from remote beaches in Croatia and India to the Mekong River and caves of rural northern Thailand, Leaving It All Behind really chronicles a kindred journey from a conventional lifestyle to something more balanced and harmonious, maybe, something more fulfilling. Perhaps, even, to something more real.
Now a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon. Written for the Screen and Directed by Sam Esmail. Executive Producers Barack and Michelle Obama, Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, Nick Krishnamurthy, Rumaan Alam A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Fiction One of Barack Obama's Summer Reads A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher's Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong. From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis. Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?
Have you ever wanted to take a year off from your life? A meandering, serendipitous journey around the world with your family? It sounds impossible. But one day, David Elliot Cohen, co-creator of the bestselling Day in the Life and America 24/7 book series, decided to make this dream a reality. Over the course of six months, he and his wife sold their house, cars, and most of their possessions. He closed his business and pulled their three young children out of school. With only a suitcase, a backpack, and a passport per person, the Cohen family set off on a rollicking round-the-world journey filled with laugh-out-loud mishaps, heart-pounding adventures, and unforeseen epiphanies. In Botswana, the Cohens’s tiny motorboat is charged by a hippo. In Zimbabwe, lions ambush a buffalo outside the family’s tent. In Australia, their young daughter is caught in a riptide and nearly pulled out to sea. In One Year Off, you can join the family on a trek up a Costa Rican volcano, cruise the canals of Burgundy by houseboat, and ride ferries through the Greek Islands. Later, as the Cohens wander further off the tourist trail, you can drive through the villages of Rajasthan, traverse the vast Australian Nullarbor, and discover the charms of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and the hidden shangri-las of northern Laos. Over the course of these adventures, the Cohens learn to live as a family twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend time together without the distractions of modern life. The author rediscovers the world through his children’s eyes and gains new perspective of his own life. This humorous, heartfelt story is the next best thing to taking the trip yourself
Jonathan Langston is a "culture-hero" to many of the South Viet-namese people whom he has befriended. Under the guidance of Re-tired General Alexander Sloan and under the guise of Sloan and Langston's undercover organization called The Foundation, Jon and his Vietnamese friend, Quan, fight to destroy the drug cartels, set up during the Vietnam War, which are trying to control the banking industry in Vietnam and other countries, including America. Factored into the equation is Anh Phon, Quan's wife, and Tuyet, a woman he rescued from death when she was a young girl. During their escape to safety from the North Vietnamese, an old Vietnamese woman tells Tuyet and Jon that they are destined to be together. For both of them, after years of loneliness and unhappiness, Jon swears that this mission for the general and The Foundation will be the last, so that he and Tuyet can be together. What he and Quan, and his army of mountain soldiers, the Montagnards, don't count on is betrayal by top government officials and the kidnappings of Anh Phon, Tuyet, and the general. Only through Jon's shrewd thinking, and the help from his friends, is he able to save those who mean the most to him, so that he can strive to leave his former life behind and begin a new one with Tuyet.
Trauma was a potent influence in the lives of pre-1924 Eastern European Jewish immigrants. They uprooted themselves because of grinding poverty, anti-Semitic discrimination, pogroms, and the violence of World War I. This book’s psychoanalytically-informed life stories, based on 22 in-depth interviews with the immigrants’ adult children, tell the tales of these immigrants and their children. Many of the children believed their parents had left their lives in Eastern Europe behind them. This disavowal—aided by the immigrants’ silence and denial—allowed their children to minimize the trauma and loss their parents suffered both before and after immigrating. I analyze the impact of parental trauma and loss on the second generation. Trauma and loss affected the transmission of memory, and, consequently, often immigrants’ recollections were not passed on to future generations. The topics of trauma and loss in the lives of Eastern European immigrants are relevant in understanding current immigrants to America. Often immigrants’ children tried to repay the debt that they felt was incurred by their parents’ sacrifices. Resilience, accomplishment, and their transition from their immigrant parents’ world to their own full participation in the American milieu characterized the adult lives of the immigrants’ children.
What makes a man? This is a question many men in our society today do not feel equipped to answer, because they were never initiated into manhood themselves. They do not know how to pass on authentic manliness to their sons, so boys get stuck in unending adolescence. Everyone suffers from the resulting crisis of male immaturity, and we see its effects everywhere in our society. Leaving Boyhood Behind shows how we can actually do something to address this crisis. Author Jason Craig, cofounder of Fraternus, a Catholic mentoring program for boys, walks through each stage of initiation into manhood, helping readers understand: • What rites of passage are and why they are necessary for men • Christ’s own rites of passage and initiation • What it means for a young man to put away childhood • The importance of belonging vs. isolation in the life of men • The important role both mothers and fathers place in initiation • Discipline and the masculine identity • Living the ultimate rite of passage, and much more “This book is an invaluable resource for all Catholics who care about the intellectual, physical, and spiritual development of the next generation of men.” — Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, author of Behold the Man: A Catholic Vision of Male Spirituality
"A fascinating glimpse into the consciousness of being an outsider in every possible way, and what it takes to find your path into the life you'd like to lead."--Nylon A riveting memoir of losing faith and finding freedom while a covert missionary in one of the world's most restrictive countries. A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture--and a whole new way of thinking--turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true. As a proselytizer in Shanghai, using fake names and secret codes to evade the authorities' notice, Scorah discreetly looked for targets in public parks and stores. To support herself, she found work at a Chinese language learning podcast, hiding her real purpose from her coworkers. Now with a creative outlet, getting to know worldly people for the first time, she began to understand that there were other ways of seeing the world and living a fulfilling life. When one of these relationships became an "escape hatch," Scorah's loss of faith culminated in her own personal apocalypse, the only kind of ending possible for a Jehovah's Witness. Shunned by family and friends as an apostate, Scorah was alone in Shanghai and thrown into a world she had only known from the periphery--with no education or support system. A coming of age story of a woman already in her thirties, this unforgettable memoir examines what it's like to start one's life over again with an entirely new identity. It follows Scorah to New York City, where a personal tragedy forces her to look for new ways to find meaning in the absence of religion. With compelling, spare prose, Leaving the Witness traces the bittersweet process of starting over, when everything one's life was built around is gone.
Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back--with no idea of where they've been. A riveting mystery for fans of We Were Liars. Eleven years ago, six kindergartners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to. Until today. Today five of those kids return. They're sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn't really recognize the person she's supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they're entirely unable to recall where they've been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max--the only one who hasn't come back. Which leaves Max's sister, Avery, wanting answers. She wants to find her brother--dead or alive--and isn't buying this whole memory-loss story. But as details of the disappearance begin to unfold, no one is prepared for the truth. This unforgettable novel--with its rich characters, high stakes, and plot twists--will leave readers breathless.
At the beginning of World War II, Poland was a country of fiercely independent people, living in villages rich in history, folklore, and a strong sense of pride. It was in one of these villages that a young boy aspiring to be an artist learned hard lessons about freedom, and the terror that comes when it is taken away. As Russian and German forces invade Poland and overturn the political structure, Michael is separated from his family and his friends and sent to a work camp to wait out the war. Throughout the struggles of starvation, work and punishment, with the threat of death hanging over him at all times, Michael finds an internal strength and faith that will eventually reunite him with his family and bring peace and prosperity back to Poland. Now, decades later, Michael is a delighted citizen of the United States and treats the rich history of this melting pot with the same reverence and intimacy as the story of the Three Brothers from his original home. In Leaving Terror Behind, Michael Lindner shows us that Poland and America are not so different after all: both countries are host to a people willing to fight and die for freedom and independence. By sharing his personal experiences, Michael asserts that Americans should treasure the freedom they have, and offers solid advice for all Americans who wish to preserve the independence fought for by their forefathers. Mike Lindner is a survivor of World War 2 and currently resides in North Carolina.
Many people know they need to "get their affairs in order," but few know what that means, much less how to do it. "Leaving Lightly: Getting Your Affairs in Order So All You Leave Behind is Love" is a simple yet comprehensive guide for creating a process to put your affairs in order. The book concentrates on four subject areas: recording personal and financial information, creating health care and legal documents, deciding postmortem care, and digitally recording personal stories and family history. The book travels lightly and, where appropriate, humorously through often scary terrain. Interspersed throughout the book are anecdotes of people who planned ahead and people who didn't, and the effect these actions had on those they loved. Because of the many options available in end-of-life and postmortem care, the knowledge contained in Leaving Lightly will assist you in becoming a savvy consumer, potentially saving hundreds or thousands of dollars. But perhaps one of the greatest gifts of Leaving Lightly is peace of mind for the person charged with cleaning up your affairs. Armed with the knowledge of what you do and do not want in your end of life care, your Clean Up Person will be able to quickly and efficiently carry out your wishes. Making sure that information is decided and recorded before it is needed is the purpose behind Leaving Lightly.
