Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise

Author: Raquel Cepeda

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1451635877

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An award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker chronicles her personal year-long journey to discover the truth about her ancestry through DNA testing, sharing her findings as well as her insights into controversies surrounding modern Latino identity.


Paradise City

Paradise City

Author: Sébastien Cuvelier

Publisher: Gost Books

Published: 2020-10-12

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9781910401477

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Sébastien Cuvelier?s journey to Iran was inspired by a manuscript written on travels to Persepolis made by his late uncle in 1971. In this book, the photographs from Sébastien?s time in Iran are layered on top of his late uncle?s diary as a conversation between the two journeys. The book follows Sébastien?s search through both the contemporary and ancient landscapes of Iran to locate an elusive, dreamlike version of paradise.


Children of Paradise

Children of Paradise

Author: Laura Secor

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2016-02-02

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 0698172485

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The drama that shaped today’s Iran, from the Revolution to the present day. In 1979, seemingly overnight—moving at a clip some thirty years faster than the rest of the world—Iran became the first revolutionary theocracy in modern times. Since then, the country has been largely a black box to the West, a sinister presence looming over the horizon. But inside Iran, a breathtaking drama has unfolded since then, as religious thinkers, political operatives, poets, journalists, and activists have imagined and reimagined what Iran should be. They have drawn as deeply on the traditions of the West as of the East and have acted upon their beliefs with urgency and passion, frequently staking their lives for them. With more than a decade of experience reporting on, researching, and writing about Iran, Laura Secor narrates this unprecedented history as a story of individuals caught up in the slipstream of their time, seizing and wielding ideas powerful enough to shift its course as they wrestle with their country’s apparatus of violent repression as well as its rich and often tragic history. Essential reading at this moment when the fates of our countries have never been more entwined, Children of Paradise will stand as a classic of political reporting; an indelible portrait of a nation and its people striving for change.


Destination Paradise

Destination Paradise

Author: Francesca Borri

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2018-11-13

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1609808444

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A breathtaking work of political reportage steeped in a deep understanding of the roots of Islamist terrorism. Western tourists are not always aware that the Maldives, a tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, is a Muslim country, or that the Republic of Maldives is the non-Arab country with the world's highest number of foreign fighters per capita. Despite being considered a luxury tourist destination, the Maldives is in fact one of the most over-populated countries, devastated by poverty, social segregation, heroin, and criminality. Tourists living in one tiny bright enclave, the people in the vast darkness. All the wealth coming from tourism is concentrated in the hands of a few businessmen who collude with the despotic government. The Maldives is a fertile breeding ground for ISIS, which enlists more of its foreign fighters per capita from there than anywhere else. Francesca Borri spent time with them, and with their families and friends, all of whom are drivers, waiters, cleaners in tourist resorts. And she let them speak. As she writes, "While the rest of the world watched the Olympics, everyone here was watching the battle of Aleppo. And rooting for al-Qaeda."


Moving to the Dominican Republic

Moving to the Dominican Republic

Author: Ross Weber

Publisher:

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781449532031

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Moving to the Dominican Republic: The Paradox of Paradise is the hilarious yet serious story of an American moving to the Dominican Republic. It is a must read for anyone who has wondered what it would be like to live in the Caribbean. Ross Weber uses humor and real life experiences to describe the culture shock and other setbacks of making the transition from living in the United States to living in the Dominican Republic. Ross includes personal stories as well as unique observations to describe the ups and downs of living on an Island. If you have visited the Dominican Republic you will love this book. If you are planning to go to the Dominican Republic, the great lessons in this book will help you prepare. If you are interested in international living, or possibly retiring in the Caribbean, this is the perfect book for you!


The Flower of Paradise

The Flower of Paradise

Author: J.G. Kennedy

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 1987-03-31

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1556080123

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This book concerns the use of the drug qat in North Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic), a country lying on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. However, because this substance is so interwoven into the fabric of society and culture, it is also necessarily about Yemen itself. The history and culture of South Arabia are still relatively unknown to the rest of the world, and the drug qat, so widely used there, is equally unknown. Thus, the material we present here should be of interest to all of those concerned with drug use, those who wish to understand more about Yemen and the Middle East, and to the Yemenis themselves. Another purpose is to develop some general understandings about sub stance uses and their effects which are less clouded by the mass hysteria and political considerations which often obscure drug issues in our own society. Examination of drug-use patterns in a country where millions of people are users on a regular basis, and where there has been familiarity with the drug for several hundred years, offers an opportunity to achieve perspectives not possible in countries with different attitudes and without such histories. I am not sanguine about the prospects of our abilities to learn from others or from the past, but I do not think we should abandon hope of doing so.


Zahra's Paradise

Zahra's Paradise

Author: Amir

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2011-09-13

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1596436425

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Set in the aftermath of Iran's fraudulent elections of 2009, Zahra's Paradise is the fictional graphic novel of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has vanished into an extrajudicial twilight zone.


Songy of Paradise

Songy of Paradise

Author: Gary Panter

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

Published: 2017-05-24

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13: 1683960289

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Fantagraphics is proud to present a major, all-new book by Gary Panter. Songy of Paradise is an inspired interpretation of John Milton’s retelling of the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan after being baptized by John the Baptist and fasting for forty days and nights in the Judaean Desert. Panter’s version doesn’t rely on Milton’s words, but faithfully follows the structure of Milton’s Paradise Regained, with one notable exception: Jesus has been replaced by a hillbilly, Songy, who is on a vision quest before being tempted by a chimeric Satan figure. Gary Panter is one of America’s preeminent artists, designers, and cartoonists, whose work defined the L.A. punk scene and the vibrant work of the television show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Songy of Paradise presents Panter’s singular vision in an ornate, hardcover format that does justice to Panter’s densely packed pages, with a stunning two-color stamping on cloth covers. It will be an art object, a brilliant literary experiment, and the most eye-popping graphic novel of 2017.


A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise

A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise

Author: Sandy Allen

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-01-23

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1501134051

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“Compelling…A bracing work of art and a loving tribute” (Los Angeles Times), this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before. Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. As a child, Sandy had been told Bob was “crazy,” that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than Sandy had been alive, and what little Sandy knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009 Bob mailed Sandy his autobiography. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences more than sixty, single-spaced pages, the often-incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a “true story” about being “labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic,” and arrived with a plea to help him get his story out to the world. “Searing” (O, The Oprah Magazine), “enthralling” (Star-Tribune, Minneapolis), and “a marvel” (Esquire), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise shows how Sandy translated Bob’s autobiography, artfully creating a gripping coming-of-age story while sticking faithfully to the facts as he shared them. Sandy also shares background information about their family, the culturally explosive time and place of their uncle’s formative years, and the vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America more broadly. The result is a heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of a young man striving for stability in his life as well as his mind, and an utterly unique lens into an experience that, to most people, remains unimaginable. “Thrilling…Gorgeous…a watershed in empathetic adaptation of ‘outsider’ autobiography” (The New Republic), A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is a dazzlingly, daringly written book that’s poised to change conversations about schizophrenia and mental illness overall.


Stranger Than Paradise

Stranger Than Paradise

Author: Jamie Sexton

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-04-24

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 0231851022

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A low-budget breakout film that wowed critics and audiences on its initial release, Stranger Than Paradise would prove to be a seminal film in the new American independent cinema movement and establish its director, Jim Jarmusch, as a hip, cult auteur. Taking inspiration from 1960s underground filmmaking, international art cinema, genre cinema, and punk culture, Jarmusch’s film provides a bridge between midnight movie features and a new mode of quirky, offbeat independent filmmaking. This book probes the film's production history, initial reception, aesthetics, and legacy in order to understand its place within the cult film canon. In examining the film's cult pedigree, it explores a number of threads that fed into the film—including New York downtown culture of the early 1980s and Jarmusch’s involvement in music—as well as reflecting on how the film's status has developed alongside Jarmusch’s subsequent output and reputation.