"As a kid growing up in Manhattan, William Helmreich played a game with his father they called "Last Stop." They would pick a subway line and ride it to its final destination, and explore the neighborhood there. Decades later, Helmreich teaches university courses about New York, and his love for exploring the city is as strong as ever. Putting his feet to the test, he decided that the only way to truly understand New York was to walk virtually every block of all five boroughs--an astonishing 6,000 miles. His epic journey lasted four years and took him to every corner of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Helmreich spoke with hundreds of New Yorkers from every part of the globe and from every walk of life, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former mayors Rudolph Giuliani, David Dinkins, and Edward Koch. Their stories and his are the subject of this captivating and highly original book. We meet the Guyanese immigrant who grows beautiful flowers outside his modest Queens residence in order to always remember the homeland he left behind, the Brooklyn-raised grandchild of Italian immigrants who illuminates a window of his brownstone with the family's old neon grocery-store sign, and many, many others. Helmreich draws on firsthand insights to examine essential aspects of urban social life such as ethnicity, gentrification, and the use of space. He finds that to be a New Yorker is to struggle to understand the place and to make a life that is as highly local as it is dynamically cosmopolitan."--Publisher's description.
"There's a cancer, and it's killing our democracy. A poor man has to sell his soul to get elected. I cry for this country." On February 29, 2000, ninety-year-old Doris “Granny D” Haddock completed her 3,200-mile, fourteen-month walk from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. She walked through 105-degree deserts and blinding blizzards, despite arthritis and emphysema. Along her way, her remarkable speeches — rich with wisdom, love, and political insight — transformed individuals and communities and jump-started a full-blown movement. She became a national heroine. On her journey, Haddock kept a diary — tracking the progress of her walk and recalling events in her life and the insights that have given her. Granny D celebrates an exuberant life of love, activism, and adventure — from writing one-woman feminist plays in the 1930s to stopping nuclear testing near an Eskimo fishing village in 1960 to Haddock’s current crusade. Threaded throughout is the spirit of her beloved hometown of Dublin/Peterborough, New Hampshire — Thornton Wilder’s inspirations for Grovers Croner in Out Town — a quintessentially American center of New England pluck, Yankee ingenuity and can-do attitude. Told in Doris Haddock’s distinct and unforgettable voice, Granny D will move, amuse, and inspire readers of all ages with its clarion message that one person can indeed make a difference.
From critically acclaimed author Brian McLaren comes a brilliant retelling of the biblical story and a thrilling reintroduction to Christian faith. This book offers everything you need to explore what a difference an honest, living, growing faith can make in our world today. It also puts tools in your hands to create a life-changing learning community in any home, restaurant, or other welcoming space. The fifty-two (plus a few) weekly readings can each be read aloud in 10 to 12 minutes and offer a simple curriculum of insightful reflections and transformative practices. Organized around the traditional church year, these readings give an overview of the whole Bible and guide an individual or a group of friends through a year of rich study, interactive learning, and personal growth. Perfect for home churches, congregations, classes, or individual study, each reading invites you to Cultivate an honest, intelligent understanding of the Bible and of Christian faith in 21st century Engage with discussion questions designed to challenge, stimulate, and encourage Reimagine what it means to live joyfully and responsibly in today's world as agents of God's justice, creativity, and peace If you're seeking a fresh way to experience and practice your faith, if you're a long-term Christian seeking new vitality, or if you feel out of place in traditional church circles, this book will inspire and activate you in your spiritual journey.
Walk through the seasons with these 12 walks and visit 12 outstanding locations. Routes range from 9 to 14 miles for a full day out. Interesting commentary on the c ountryside accompanies concise instructions and clear maps. '
When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, 11-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan. By a Newbery Medal-winning author.
A Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize A New York Post Must-Read "Part family heirloom, part history lesson, The Hundred-Year Walk is an emotionally poignant work, powerfully imagined and expertly crafted."--Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan's Inheritance "This book reminds us that the way we treat strangers can ripple out in ways we will never know . . . MacKeen's excavation of the past reveals both uncomfortable and uplifting lessons about our present."--Ari Shapiro, NPR Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million people--half the Armenian population--were killed. In The Hundred-Year Walk MacKeen alternates between Stepan's courageous account, drawn from his long-lost journals, and her own story as she attempts to retrace his steps, setting out alone to Turkey and Syria, shadowing her resourceful, resilient grandfather across a landscape still rife with tension. Dawn uses his journals to guide her to the places he was imperiled and imprisoned and the desert he crossed with only half a bottle of water. Their shared story is a testament to family, to home, and to the power of the human spirit to transcend the barriers of religion, ethnicity, and even time itself. "I am in awe of what Dawn MacKeen has done here . . . Her sentences sing. Her research shines. Her readers will be rapt--and a lot smarter by the end."--Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion "Harrowing."--Us Weekly
In Walking with Friends, D.J. Gregory, a thirty-yearold who has cerebral palsy, describes his year of traveling with the PGA tour and walking every course. For D.J., this experience has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream as well as a search for inspiration, but it has also become a source of inspiration for countless others. D.J. started watching golf with his father when he was twelve years old. While becoming a professional player, joining the amateur ranks, or even becoming a caddy were never realistic considerations because of his cerebral palsy, being able to walk the courses that the golfers—D.J.’s heroes— played was a dream D.J. never gave up on. Over the course of the 2008 PGA tour, D.J. teamed up with the PGA and made his dream come true. It was the ultimate challenge (D.J. compares walking 18 holes of golf for him to running a 10K with a couple of sandbags tied around your waist; he walked each round—four tournament rounds, plus a practice round—of every tournament), and the ultimate journey. At each of the PGA Tour events, D.J., with the help of a cane, walks the course and counts each step (and each fall) alongside a different golfer. Filled with detailed descriptions of the courses and tournaments as well as revealing conversations with players, Walking with Friends is a one-of-a-kind story about tough lies, majestic greens, colorful characters, and the walk of a lifetime.