In 1960s Palau, life was raucous, laughable, and harrowing. I lived with a Palauan family in a decrepit old shack of plywood and cardboard which almost burned down. When my elusive heart throb finally led me to her room one night, I barely avoided coming under the knife. I could never have imagined I would find myself stranded one stormy night on a reef infested with sea snakes; or find myself positioned in the middle of a riot between locals and the US Coast Guard. But whether diving with Life Magazines Stan Wayman, fending off sharks for underwater photographer Doug Faulkner, fishing with Lee Marvin, or searching for starfish, it was mostly all good.
The companion to PBS’s Kimchi Chronicles, this beautiful, poignant, and transportive Korean cookbook features stunning photography and more than 90 recipes for every meal of the day—with a foreword by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In the PBS series Kimchi Chronicles, Marja Vongerichten and three-star Michelin chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten gave viewers an insider’s look at Korea as they traveled the country and experienced its authentic flavors and cultural traditions. As the show's companion cookbook, The Kimchi Chronicles includes a recipe for every dish featured, such as Jean-George’s Fast, Hot Kimchi, Spice-Rubbed Korean Chicken, Grilled Stuffed Squid, Bibimbap, and Seafood and Scallion Pajeon, and explains how they can be easily duplicated in an American kitchen. Chef Vongerichten also offers original dishes with a lighter, modern flair that show how the flavors of the Korean table can be readily integrated into any meal. With tips and tricks for stocking your pantry, choosing the proper tools, and more, The Kimchi Chronicles is an informative, inspiring, and entertaining introduction to Korean food.
When Rimi learns the real reason behind Shusei’s betrayal, it strengthens her resolve to bring him back from the point of no return, but her failure to provide Kojin with a suitable dish still hangs over her head. On top of everything else, the interrogation over her kidnapping begins. While Shohi stands as the judge, a misunderstanding puts him at odds with his chancellor, leading to a worst-case scenario: Kojin announces his plans to resign and leave the capital! Get ready for the tangled web of emotions unraveling in the ninth volume of Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower!
An unforgettable coming-of-age story, Until We're Fishblends the romance, violence, mood, and ethos of the Cuban Revolution with a young man's hopeless and heroic first love. With the truth of experience and the lyricism of poetry, Rodríguez Drissi constructs an exquisite, gossamer tale of revolution and hearts set adrift. A Don Quixote for our times, Until We're Fish is an intimate exploration into the souls of people willing to sacrifice everything to be free.
The Vatican Chronicles is a tongue-in-cheek novel about the most dangerous act of nuclear terrorism in the twenty-first century, a romp of international intrigue and espionage by a man who spent thirty-three years in the field. The explosive story begins in Washington and focuses on the most recent shipment of plutonium by Japan from Cherbourg to Nagasaki—a shipment that could produce three hundred Nagasaki-size bombs. A bizarre attack on His Holiness at the Vatican’s summer palace and the murder of a well-known cardinal in the Vatican hospital lead a much-loved and popular pope and an unloved and unpopular intelligence agency to form an unlikely joint venture to save a key priest at an obscure monastery near Kyoto. As readers, we are treated to a Japan no Westerner is permitted to see, and made privy to a Vatican initiative so daring it may not be revealed. The harrowing escapade of nuclear terrorists will succeed unless a handful of Americans and Japanese, aided by the Vatican, can discover who is behind the threat and stop them. Wikipedia defines roman à clef (French for novel with a key) as “a novel about real life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people. The reasons an author might choose roman à clef format include writing about a controversial subject and/or reporting inside information (and) the opportunity to turn the tale the way the author would like it to have gone.”
From New York Times bestselling author Anne Rivers Siddons comes a bittersweet and finely wrought story of friendship, family, and Charleston society. At twelve, Emily Parmenter knows alone all too well. Left mostly to herself after her beautiful young mother disappeared and her beloved older brother died, Emily is keenly aware of yearning and loss. Rather than be consumed by sadness, she has built a life around the faded plantation where her remote father and hunting-obsessed brothers raise the legendary Lowcountry Boykin hunting spaniels. It is a meager, narrow, masculine world, but to Emily it has magic: the storied deep-sea dolphins who come regularly to play in Sweetwater Creek; her extraordinary bond with the beautiful dogs she trains; her almost mystic communion with her own spaniel, Elvis; the dreaming old Lowcountry itself. Emily hides from the dreaded world here. It is enough. And then comes Lulu Foxworth, troubled daughter of a truly grand plantation, who has run away from her hectic Charleston debutante season to spend a healing summer with the quiet marshes and river, and the life-giving dogs. Where Emily's father sees their guest as an entrée to a society he thought forever out of reach, Emily is at once threatened and mystified. Lulu has a powerful enchantment of her own, and this, along with the dark, crippling secret she brings with her, will inevitably blow Emily's magical water world apart and let the real one in—but at a terrible price. Poignant and emotionally compelling, Sweetwater Creek draws you into the luminous landscape of the Lowcountry, with characters that will linger long after you've turned the last page.
This is the story of a handful of boys in 650BC Israel who encounter lifes challenges head on. Good friends, family, faith in God and trust that total strangers can be relied upon even when there seems to be no other choice. Perhaps family life 2650 years ago was not as different as we hope to see them today. Husbands are commanded to love their wives, sons adore their fathers, and daughters display the Godlike feminine qualities of their mothers. But regardless of the times we live in, life is full of hardship and danger. How we react to that danger tells the lord and mankind who we really are. Jacob listened for an hour or more, putting together the story as they talked on and off about why they were here and who had sent them. Finally he decided that is was futile to try to save anyone: evidently there was no one left to save. As far as he knew he was the sole survivor of the once proud little village of Hamadi. It was hard for him to control his emotions as he sat in his hiding place and listen to the soldiers talk of the atrocities they had performed upon his people, but then his thoughts turned to Lehi and Ishmael.
Maverick, innovator, entrepreneur, environmentalist and sheer force of nature, Francis Toribiong would have been a unique and significant individual no matter where in the world he was born. As it turned out, he was born in the island nation of Palau in the Western Pacific at just the right time to apply his special set of skills and attributes to the task of helping his country find its place in the world. In the 1980s and 1990s, he arguably did more than anyone to build Palau’s economy and help it develop into an independent, forward-looking nation. And, improbably, he achieved this via the sport of scuba diving. Francis Toribiong is a Pacific Islander like no other. He is the father of Palau tourism, a scuba diving pioneer, and an effective, tireless ambassador for both his country and its abundant marine and land resources. He was born poor and had no academic leanings. Yet he was driven to succeed by a combination of duty, faith, a deep-seated determination to do the right thing and an absolute refusal ever to compromise his values. For his whole life, he has been a devoted friend to strangers and an implacable opponent to anybody who, through malevolence or negligence, threatens Palau’s considerable natural treasures. He has also been the perfect host to generations of scuba divers from all over the world, who have visited Palau to see those treasures for themselves. And, as well as all that, he was Palau’s first ever parachutist – known throughout the islands as the Palauan who fell from the sky. They were speaking both literally and figuratively. He was so completely different from all of his contemporaries in terms of his demeanor, his ambitions and his vision, that it was as if he had come from outer space. Palau had never seen anybody quite like him and there was no historical precedent for what Francis Toribiong did. He had no operations manual to consult and no examples to follow. He wrote his own life. Francis Toribiong was the first Palauan ever to seek and seize the international narrative. No Palauan, in any context or field, had previously thought to go out into the world and say: “This is Palau – what we have is wonderful. Come and see!” This is his astonishing story.
Jeremy Walker is 44, handsome, refined and world famous for his lavishly illustrated children's books. His life is ordered, comfortable - until he is seduced by a beautiful 16-year-old runaway. Belinda: innocent yet passionate, she becomes his elegant muse and lover. His portraits of her, shocking and erotic, are the finest work he has ever done - yet to reveal them could destroy his career for ever. As his passion for her deepens, so does his obsession with the past she will not talk about. Terrified of losing her, he is unable to live with her silence; and as he probes for the truth, he finds himself swept up in the world Belinda has fled from, a world of Hollywood money, lust and dark family secrets.
Laura set the bassinet down gently and backed away, smiling at us. Eugene nudged me, but I was shaking so hard, I couldn't pick up the baby. Eugene quickly scooped him up instead and cuddled him before placing him in my arms. Little Martín stared at me intently and then... he smiled. From the emotional moment when they first met, Eugene and Mary Beth were entranced by the three-month-old baby they'd traveled to Mexico to adopt. Then life took an unexpected turn. Bureaucratic bungling, political wrangling, Mexican holidays, and plain bad luck repeatedly delayed the adoption's final approval. Meanwhile, Eugene returned to the U.S., leaving Mary Beth in Puerto Vallarta with Martín. The Martin Chronicles-originally a series of email messages Mary Beth sent home to family and friends-recounts the trials and joys of a first-time mother with limited Spanish skills who was determined to make the best of a precarious situation. This heartwarming, lively narrative reveals a growing love not only for an adopted baby, but for his native country as well. Through comic adventures, budding friendships, and cultural celebrations, The Martin Chronicles gives an account of one family's incredible saga to bring their baby home.
