“I won’t allow her to ruin the wedding!” Marco boomed, his voice reaching the ceiling of the design studio. The famous fashion designer is two and a half months away from marrying his duchess fiancée, Marilena, when his ex-wife, Payton, arrives with their twin girls from San Francisco. Payton, who swore never to return to Milan, has come to entrust the children to her ex-husband’s care. She has a dark secret: it looks as if the same awful disease that killed her mother will take her, as well…
Why do social movements take the forms they do? How do activists' efforts and beliefs interact with the cultural and political contexts in which they work? This book considers the intersections of opportunities and identities, structures and cultures, in social movements.
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Lewis M. Simons’s recollects his 50 years as a foreign correspondent, one whose powerful stories contributed to transforming Asia from Vietnam War-era basket case to a global boomtown that today rivals the United States. Simons’s investigative work led to the toppling of a dictator in the Philippines. He covered the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, bloody coups in Thailand, attempted genocide and societal collapse in Cambodia, and economic advance, decline and rebirth in Japan. He was expelled from India for his exclusive reporting on Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s political misuse of the armed forces. Breaking his own strict rule against becoming personally involved with people whose stories he covered, he saved the life of a dying teenaged Tibetan Buddhist monk. Simons molds the narrative of his lengthy, action-packed career from foxhole mud and backroom dirt. Layered with moments of tenderness and humor, as his camp-following family often accompanies him, the result is a masterful chronicle of war and murder; extreme poverty and suffering alongside repellent wealth and indulgence; wholesale larceny and ruling-class corruption—much of which escaped the scrutiny of other journalists. Readers who appreciate real-life historic drama will be enthralled.
Perfect for readers of This Is Where it Ends, The Border is a gripping drama about four teens, forced to flee home after a deadly cartel rips apart their families. They must now face life-threatening danger and unimaginable sacrifice as they attempt to cross the U.S. border. "Thrilling... often brilliant."—Kirkus One moment changed their lives forever. A band plays, glasses clink, and four teens sneak into the Mexican desert, the hum of celebration receding behind them. Crack. Crack. Crack. Not fireworks—gunshots. The music stops. And Pato, Arbo, Marcos, and Gladys are powerless as the lives they once knew are taken from them. Then they are seen by the gunmen. They run. Except they have nowhere to go. The narcos responsible for their families' murders have put out a reward for the teens' capture. Staying in Mexico is certain death, but attempting to cross the border through an unforgiving desert may be as deadly as the secrets they are trying to escape...
To most, peace of mind trumps all. Texas Governor, John Connally, surviving an assassin’s bullet in U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s car in Dallas, later declared bankruptcy after real estate losses. Yet he was humbly thankful for what life had given him; his time in office for public service. What had he lost – but a few million dollars and a bit of land! John Connally was philosophical about his life. For others, this may be the last thing they achieve; big ambitions, little insecurities, a world within their grasp but somehow always just beyond their reach. Intimations of what could follow may crystallize from unexpected insights. A squirrel putting away nuts in a tree hollow reminds the spender to save. Two male hawks competing for a mate brings suggestions to a woman that her husband is cheating on her. And so on. In response to which, to suspected uncertainties, people then take precautions – individually, collectively... A parent will protect the innocence of a small child – theirs or another. Political leaders “act in concert” to create institutions that enforce peace against threats and realities of autocratic leaders in unpredictable jurisdictions. But still, uncertainties persist. And not necessarily as realities. Rather, they can be concerns. Like seeing the shadow of a mass, smelling the scent or fragrance of something unseen. But still present. An amber light triggered within... turns to red when “the shadow” or “the smell” persists – but fails to materialize. One’s instincts take over... Chaos theory has captured public interest in recent years... along with controlling risk (of whatever nature), predicting history (or at least, determining alternative outcomes). Investors use randomized “Monte Carlo scenarios” first developed for the Manhattan Project. “Country Risk analysis” is also a “specialty” which has evolved specially since third world sovereign debt defaults in the late 1970s. Yes, a corporate client can purchase detailed future analyses giving peace of mind about political stability in countries where investing or creditor company has billions at risk! But The Economist’s The World in 2011 suggests nothing of the popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world. Peace of mind vs uncertainty is the basic substructure of the seemingly disparate and unrelated essay in Evviad.
The problem with being reborn from the ashes is, you have to die first. After the loss of his wife and child in a plane crash, former NYC firefighter Sebastian Martin is nearing alcoholic oblivion when his brother offers him a last-chance job opportunity as an insurance fraud investigator. Despite his reservations, he soon discovers he has an instinct for the job. A move to Dallas, where he learns it's okay to be alive, proves to be his salvation. Investigating fraudulent claims for a dead child and another for a missing husband, in Honduras, leads him to murders, international car thieves, and torture at the hands of a former KGB agent.
A Pulitzer Prize-winner reveals the untold Philippines story--the first full report of the Philippines revolution in which Corazon Aquino triumphed over Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. 24 photographs.
An amusing contemporary saga set in South East London and Edinburgh. Settlers Court is thriving and so are its residents, both old and new. New blood brings fun, joy, intrigue and romance until Albert shows up. The boy genius has a great brain but a mouth with a life of its own. He is soon adopted by the residents as one of their own and then the serious fun begins.
