A Toast to Love and Sacrifice
A Toast to Love and Sacrifice

Author: Andrea Rachiele

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2008-11-14

Total Pages: 596

ISBN-13: 9781418435424

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book comprises three tales written in "classical" verse (i.e., strict rhythms and rhyme.) Although in the form of fairy tales and fables, they deal with important social and historic issues. "A Tale of Dancing Chair" decries racial discrimination and expounds the idea that, regardless of outside help, success comes to those who don't shy away from hard work, are willing and able to use creative potential to the fullest, and stand up to bigotry, injustice, and unfair judgement. "A Tale of Captive Puffins . . ." reflects upon events in the history of Russian/Soviet Jewry in the twentieth Century. To recognize historic prototypes of the fable's characters, one should read up on history of Tsarist Russia and Soviet Union, Weimar and Nazi Germany. However, it is not a prerequisite: the Tale is intended to trigger reader's interest in those chapters of history. "A Tale of Boy Nightingale . . . " is intended to make dents in prejudices against unconventional" (gay and lesbian) families. It proclaims love, respect, and loyalty as traits identifying and holding together families, asserts that friendship between children from different families is greatest hope and strongest weapon in the struggle against prejudices still prevalent in society.

Stone Field, True Arrow
Stone Field, True Arrow

Author: Kyoko Mori

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Published: 2014-07-22

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 1466876298

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Maya Ishida is no stranger to sorrow. Torn from her artist father in her native Japan, raised by her cold, ambitious mother in Minneapolis, she has finally put together a life with few disruptions: a safe marriage and a quiet life weaving clothes in a country studio. The past is no more than a story she vaguely remembers; the present is a gray landscape of solitary pleasures and modest expectations. After her father dies, Maya is pulled back into the memory of their parting. In his many stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and of the tennyo, a mythic Japanese figure, he had taught her that love means making the sacrifice of letting go. And so she had walked away from him without looking back. Twenty-four years later, holding her father's last sketch, Maya knows she can avoid looking back no longer. She must question her placid marriage, her decision not to become an artist, and even the precarious peace she has made with her mother before she can be released--to feel passion, risk change, and fall in love. Kyoko Mori's young adult novel, Shizuko's Daughter, was hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "a jewel...one of those rarities that shine out only a few times in a generation." In Stone Field, True Arrow, her first novel for adults, she sheds brilliant light on eternal questions about life and love.