This is an enthralling first-person narrative of an Atlantic crossing in a 45-foot steel ketch that took an unexpected 280 days owing to problems with the boat, heavy weather, elusive trade winds, crew, and port authorities. The resourceful skipper, who overcame what at times looked like impossible odds, recounts his adventure with grace and humor.
A true-life Catch-22 set in the deeply dysfunctional countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, by one of the region’s longest-serving correspondents. Kim Barker is not your typical, impassive foreign correspondent—she is candid, self-deprecating, laugh-out-loud funny. At first an awkward newbie in Afghanistan, she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about our ability to win hearts and minds in the region. In The Taliban Shuffle, Barker offers an insider’s account of the “forgotten war” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, chronicling the years after America’s initial routing of the Taliban, when we failed to finish the job. When Barker arrives in Kabul, foreign aid is at a record low, electricity is a pipe dream, and of the few remaining foreign troops, some aren’t allowed out after dark. Meanwhile, in the vacuum left by the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban is regrouping as the Afghan and Pakistani governments flounder. Barker watches Afghan police recruits make a travesty of practice drills and observes the disorienting turnover of diplomatic staff. She is pursued romantically by the former prime minister of Pakistan and sees adrenaline-fueled colleagues disappear into the clutches of the Taliban. And as her love for these hapless countries grows, her hopes for their stability and security fade. Swift, funny, and wholly original, The Taliban Shuffle unforgettably captures the absurdities and tragedies of life in a war zone.
New York Times best seller Ever since Gabrielle Stanley Blair became a parent, she’s believed that a thoughtfully designed home is one of the greatest gifts we can give our families, and that the objects and decor we choose to surround ourselves with tell our family’s story. In this, her first book, Blair offers a room-by-room guide to keeping things sane, organized, creative, and stylish. She provides advice on getting the most out of even the smallest spaces; simple fixes that make it easy for little ones to help out around the house; ingenious storage solutions for the never-ending stream of kid stuff; rainy-day DIY projects; and much, much more.
"A story of growing up in turmoil, Rough House recounts a childhood divided between a charming, mercurial, abusive father in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and a mother struggling with poverty in The Dalles. It is also a story of generational trauma, especially for the women - a story of violent men and societal restrictions, of children not always chosen, and frequently raised alone. Tracing her childhood through the working class towns and forests of Washington and Oregon, Ontiveros explores themes of love and loss, parents and children, and her own journey to a different kind of adulthood"--
This book is based on a true story about a man that came into my life and took seven and a half years away from me. women all around should be aware of this type of guy. A guy whom i should have known better not to fall for, but at the same time i did and my time was running short, what was happening to me, to my life. This story is long over due so beware!
David Grossman's masterly fusing of vision, thought, and emotion make See Under: Love a luminously imaginative and profoundly affecting work. In this powerful novel by one of Israel's most prominent writers, Momik, the only child of Holocaust survivors, grows up in the shadow of his parents' history. Determined to exorcise the Nazi "beast" from their shattered lives and prepare for a second holocaust he knows is coming, Momik increasingly shields himself from all feeling and attachment. But through the stories his great-uncle tells him—the same stories he told the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp—Momik, too, becomes "infected with humanity." "A dazzling work of imagination."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
The second in a four-book series of light-hearted beach reads about two divorcees who overcome odds to best their exes by converting a seaside mansion into a small boutique hotel on the Gulf Coast of Florida and all the problems that follow. Two women try to beat the odds as they continue to run their upscale seaside hotel in Florida, finding surprises along the way… Ann Rutherford’s and Rhonda DelMonte Grayson’s lives continue to be full of surprises as they run The Beach House Hotel, their small, upscale hotel on the Gulf Coast in Southwest Florida. Things heat up when Tina Marks (Valentina Marquis, a famous young movie star) is sent to the hotel in secret to lose twenty-five pounds in eight weeks for her next starring role. As much as Ann and Rhonda want to help Tina succeed, the hotel is known for its delicious food as well as its promise of anonymity, and Tina is impossible to deal with. Then, when Rhonda is faced with a “mysterious illness,” Ann’s role becomes even more stressful as she tries to find time for her fiancé, Vaughn Sanders, the star of a television soap opera, who deserves the attention she can’t give him. As Ann discovers, life is about choices, and she’s determined to make the best ones she can to keep Vaughn in her life. A light, “beach read” with humor sprinkled in for readers’ enjoyment. Be sure to read the next books in the series! Dinner at The Beach House Hotel, Christmas at The Beach House Hotel, Margaritas at The Beach House Hotel, and Dessert at The Beach House Hotel. Or read the first book in the series, Breakfast at The Beach House Hotel. And check out Judith Keim’s other series – The Hartwell Women, the Fat Fridays series, the Salty Key Inn series, the Chandler Hill Inn series, the Desert Sage Inn series, and the Seashell Cottage Books that readers are loving. This is a women's fiction novel about a strong women facing challenges and finding love again. A great beach read! Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Family Fiction, Mothers and daughters, Divorced women, Surviving Divorce, survival after divorce, contemporary romance, beach read, Contemporary Romance, Romance Comedy, single moms, finding new love, new beginnings, unlikely friendships, conquering fears after divorce, stories about hotels, new life and love
First published in 1991, this book looks at tense in English, one of the most controversial areas of grammar. Prior to the book’s original publication, the problems and interest in the subject had led to an impressive number of books and articles. Yet, despite the amount of work produced, nothing approaching a consensus had emerged, merely a series of conflicting theories and analyses. Here, Renaat Declerck provides a framework for a theoretical instrument which will enable the linguist to interpret the data correctly. The book is primarily theoretical in nature, but offers descriptive theory and a discussion of the various tenses which will make it a valuable tool for those teaching English. Theoretical and applied linguists will find this an important contribution to the debate on tense and a worthy starting point for future research. The book is not written from the viewpoint of any particular linguistic theory and does not presuppose any knowledge of tense theory, it is a readable and reliable guide to the area.