Bombs. Tanks. Missiles. This is the constant reality of 13-year-old Marickha Babyak, a young girl living in Lviv, Ukraine. She wishes for nothing but safety and protection from Russia’s attacks. Her father has left for war and Mari has no one but her mother and her twin siblings. She dreams of the day when she and her family can find peace and safety elsewhere. Her dream comes true and the family manage to escape the carnage in their country. Little do they know what awaits them in this new strange realm.
Told by Annabel Bower after her fourth child Miles was stillborn, Miles Apart offers heartfelt advice on navigating grief and heartache after the loss of a baby at any stage of pregnancy or infancy.
Urged by a mutual friend to give a harried man a ride from California to Minnesota, Molly Winstead is dismayed to learn her passenger is the one person she'd hoped she would never see again. In less than a week, two relative strangers-a pro-golfer with a heart-breaking secret and a librarian with an ingrained attitude-realize that rather than becoming friends, they are truly miles apart. Secrets and attitudes clash in the age-old struggle between love and truth.
Cagney describes an immigrant's experience of longing for home and the need to continue to touch base with that place. Her book not only tells the story of one woman's life, but also pays homage to a beloved homeland and a way of life that is slowly being lost.
How is it that, half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones? In his important new book, Five Miles Away, A World Apart, James E. Ryan answers this question by tracing the fortunes of two schools in Richmond, Virginia--one in the city and the other in the suburbs. Ryan shows how court rulings in the 1970s, limiting the scope of desegregation, laid the groundwork for the sharp disparities between urban and suburban public schools that persist to this day. The Supreme Court, in accord with the wishes of the Nixon administration, allowed the suburbs to lock nonresidents out of their school systems. City schools, whose student bodies were becoming increasingly poor and black, simply received more funding, a measure that has proven largely ineffective, while the independence (and superiority) of suburban schools remained sacrosanct. Weaving together court opinions, social science research, and compelling interviews with students, teachers, and principals, Ryan explains why all the major education reforms since the 1970s--including school finance litigation, school choice, and the No Child Left Behind Act--have failed to bridge the gap between urban and suburban schools and have unintentionally entrenched segregation by race and class. As long as that segregation continues, Ryan forcefully argues, so too will educational inequality. Ryan closes by suggesting innovative ways to promote school integration, which would take advantage of unprecedented demographic shifts and an embrace of diversity among young adults. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written by one of the nation's leading education law scholars, Five Miles Away, A World Apart ties together, like no other book, a half-century's worth of education law and politics into a coherent, if disturbing, whole. It will be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered why our schools are so unequal and whether there is anything to be done about it.
A Year of Mornings collects 236 images--always taken before 10 am without discussion between the two women--from this uniquely 21st century artistic collaboration. The intimacy of these photographs--discarded clothing, a view of a snowy day from the window, a tablecloth--combined with their striking similarities in color and composition defies the reality of their long-distance collaboration. While clearly kindred spirits, the two women have met in person only once. Their friendship is maintained solely online, sustained by a shared love for moments of serenity, solitude, and peacefulness. The annotated photographs in A Year of Mornings radiate an aura of sweetness and light--the promise of a new day.
Alan Sakowitz, a whistleblower of a Madoff-like Ponzi scheme masterminded by Scott Rothstein, fraudster extraordinaire, tells of the story of his decision to turn in Rothstein regardless of the possible dangerous ramifications of such a decision. The saga of Rothstein's rise and fall which included a Warren Yacht, two Bugattis, Governor Crist, the former Versace mansion, The Eagles, and even the murder of a law partner, is the stuff that Hollywood movies are made from. Instead of the mere accounting of such a scandal, Sakowitz uses the Rothstein scheme as a cautionary tale in stark contrast to the stories of humble, ethical individuals living within Sakowitz's neighborhood in North Miami Beach, Florida, Sakowitz's neighbors are people who have spent their lives trying to assist others, not line their pockets, and through these stories Sakowitz creates a sharp dichotomy between the greed, of a Rothstein and its mainstream culture of consumption and the charity, kindness and selflessness of a principle-oriented community. Indeed, Sakowitz speaks to the symptoms of a culture that could create a Scott Rothstein, and, though acknowledging that the easy way out is not simple to dismiss, offers remedies to the growing ills of our entitlement society. The answer, Sakowitz says, lies in thinking first of others, and how one's actions should benefit the lives of friends, not one's short-term gratifications.
Shruti, Simran, Ayush and Samar go through the ups and downs of friendship, love and togetherness. What started as a misunderstanding in college transforms into a full-blown conflict. Is it meaningless to apologise? Well, you will find out after you read the book! Miles Apart talks of the dichotomies that relationships bring. Loving someone is a special feeling indeed. However, love does have its share of crests and troughs. This book is all about the friendship they share and also about the misunderstandings that tend to creep into the picture out of nowhere. ‘Miles Apart’ has something for just about everybody. This book celebrates true love and friendship. All those who wish to revisit their days at college can pick this book right away and you won’t be able to get enough of it!
~We spent a lifetime chasing firefly dreams~ Jaxson and I devised a life list when we were kids in Holmes Chapel. Just a few things on that list: * Climb the Eiffel Tower. * Visit every zoo in the world. * Eat peanut butter every day. But all the promises he made dissolved into dust, so when he comes around years later wanting to go live out our list, I want no part of it...or him. The universe seems to agree with me because everything we try is a disaster. The heart though—it's a tricky beast; I'm just not sure mine is strong enough to survive Jaxson one more time. ***Miles Apart was formerly titled 5,331 Miles. Same book with an updated title and cover!***
