This is the fascinating account of Tree's journeys in the remote Highlands of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya--one of the most dangerous regions on Earth. The author travels with a PNG Highlander who introduces her to his complex, traditional world, a world that is changing rapidly as it encounters new ideas, modern technologies, and the economic and political challenges of the 20the century.
Homer provides an enormous challenge to the student; the potentialities of these lengthy texts are legion and the scholarship vast. The author has relied upon her knowledge of symbolic discourse to make a fresh study of the Odyssey, prioritising early neighbouring religions, their mythology, and shamanic practice. The latter has yielded particularly rich material concerning the axis of the world (axis mundi) as a route to the stars and the world of the gods. Man’s shared experience of the night skies has also provided some remarkably consistent patterns for the geography of an Otherworld in the skies and the means to reach the gods residing there. By applying world-wide motifs of the soul journey, the initiatory process and established points of transformation along a solar path, it has been possible to recast the hero’s sea voyage in cosmic terms and give a celestial homeland to the many islands visited by Odysseus and his companions. The result gives a surprising twist to the meaning of the epic and reveals Homer the poet as both philosopher and student of the cosmos. The ‘wine-dark sea’ is revealed as none other than the night sky which serves as backdrop to the hero’s adventures among the stars, and Ithaka itself with its many conflicts finds a place at the very centre of the known universe of Bronze Age Greece.
The Falklands, at the time of this story, were a little known group of islands miles away from anywhere that most people hadn't even heard of. Of course, nearly everyone has now heard of them and most even have a good idea where they are. Back in the late 60's and early 70's they were a sleepy spot on the map where nothing much happened. They didn't bother anyone and no-one bothered them. For two hundred years nothing much had changed in that respect and the modern world had only just begun to impinge on the islanders' way of life. There was no TV and, of course, no internet. Telephone communications to "Home", as the UK was called, were limited to a few minutes per day when a particular satellite passed by and then only from a special room in Port Stanley, its capital. The author was pitched into a way of life that was completely unlike anything most Brits ever experience and this book describes his struggle to adapt to a new way of life at the same time as learning how to teach in extraordinary circumstances. The things that happened to him were unusual, often very funny (in retrospect) and his story gives the reader a unique insight to the Falklands at that time, the place and its people. The islands have, of course, changed dramatically since the war of 1982 and the advent of fishing licences, tourism and, latterly, oil exploration have had a major impact, not to mention the presence of thousands of military personnel. The sovereignty row with Argentina rumbles on and the islanders' future has a dark cloud looming over the horizon. It is in the hands of politicians outside of their homeland. This book depicts an altogether more innocent, unspoilt and peaceful time.
This compilation from one of Canada's most acclaimed writers spans four decades and six volumes. Often bittersweet and occasionally enigmatic, these poems represent Pittman's infinite talent. Targeted at a wide circle of readers, this book gives poetry back to the people, where it truly belongs.
The dead body in the pool is putting a serious dent in Geoff's morning. An ex-pat property manager on the Caribbean island of Bequia, Geoff doesn't want a spotlight shone on the secret past he left behind in Canada, but now he's the suspect in a brutal murder. With no help from the inept local police force, he's drawn into investigating the murder himself, to clear his name. As Geoff finds out more about the circumstances surrounding the killing, and he and his loved ones find themselves in danger, he begins to see a very dark underbelly of the place some people call paradise... Part travelogue, part mystery, Island in the Clouds takes a long, hard look at the reality of living in a place that seems perfect - from the outside, anyway.
Sky Island (1912) is a novel by L. Frank Baum. A sequel to The Sea Fairies (1911), Sky Island was part of a larger series of planned novels that Baum hoped would move beyond the universe he created for his Oz books. Discouraged by poor reviews of The Sea Fairies, however, Baum featured several characters from The Road to Oz (1909) in Sky Island, including Button Bright and Polychrome. A young Californian girl named Trot meets a strange boy from Philadelphia named Button Bright. Using his magic umbrella, he has managed to float across the entire country. Together with the brave Cap’n Bill, they set sail for the mysterious Sky Island, the realm of the Blues and the Pinkies. Separated by the Great Fog Bank, the two peoples live vastly different lives and never attempt to cross their borders. On the Blue side, the three adventurers face the wicked tyrant Boolooroo, who threatens to torture them for disobedience. Despite being imprisoned, they manage to escape, braving the fog to emerge in the happier Pink Country. Soon, they face a new type of danger: a strange set of laws threatens Trot, Button Bright, and the Cap’n with immediate expulsion from Sky Island. Filled with rich, detailed layers of fantasy from the mind of L. Frank Baum, Sky Island is a story about the frail innocence of childhood and the will to persevere that can be found in even the youngest of hearts. Long overshadowed by the film, Baum’s novel is required reading for children, adults with children, and adults who refuse to let life lose its flavor of fantasy. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of L. Frank Baum’s Sky Island is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.
Nina and Adrian are in their late twenties and already feel stuck in the rat race of every day German life. The young couple searches for a way out that unites their longing for adventure, togetherness and unconventionality and finds: the perfect solitary island in the South Pacific! Without further ado, Nina and Adrian quit their jobs (a very liberating feeling by the way) and set off for paradise. Once there, the two live their dream. They harvest bananas and papayas, hang a hammock on the white sandy beach, grill freshly caught fish at the campfire at sunset and sleep under the most beautiful starry sky in the world. But soon reality breaks into their little paradise ...
Peter is a young boy that, after an unfortunate incident with his sister, ends up in the Overworld - a secret place on top of the clouds. The Overworld is under threat from a sinister general who has seized power and seeks to stop all rain. Peter must find the heir to the throne, stop the general and make sure that it rains again - but most of all he wants to find a way home. This book is the first in a series of books. It is followed by "Winter clouds".
When she was twenty-seven, Nell Stevens—a lifelong aspiring novelist—won an all-expenses-paid fellowship to go anywhere in the world to write. Would she choose a glittering metropolis, a romantic village, an exotic paradise? Not exactly. Nell picked Bleaker Island, a snowy, windswept pile of rock in the Falklands. Other than sheep, penguins, paranoia, and the weather, there aren’t many distractions, but as Nell soon discovers, total isolation and 1,085 calories a day are far from ideal conditions for literary production. With deft humor, this memoir traces her island days and slowly reveals the life and people she has left behind in pursuit of her writing. It seems that there is nowhere she can run—an island or the pages of her notebook—to escape the big questions of love, art, and, ambition.
