Passport through Darkness


Book Description

As she shares her extraordinary stories of fighting human trafficking as an ordinary mom, Kimberly Smith offers hope for readers who wonder if God is calling them to greater things.




Passport to Heaven


Book Description

“You have a call, Elder Wilder.” When missionary Micah Wilder set his sights on bringing a Baptist congregation into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he had no idea that he was the one about to be changed. Yet when he finally came to know the God of the Bible, Micah had no choice but to surrender himself—no matter the consequences. For a passionate young Mormon who had grown up in the Church, finding authentic faith meant giving up all he knew: his community, his ambitions, and his place in the world. Yet as Micah struggled to reconcile the teachings of his Church with the truths revealed in the Bible, he awakened to his need for God’s grace. This led him to be summoned to the door of the mission president, terrified but confident in the testimony he knew could cost him everything. Passport to Heaven is a gripping account of Micah’s surprising journey from living as a devoted member of a religion based on human works to embracing the divine mercy and freedom that can only be found in Jesus Christ.




Out of Darkness


Book Description

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book "This is East Texas, and there's lines. Lines you cross, lines you don't cross. That clear?" New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive. Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion—the worst school disaster in American history—as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people. "[This] layered tale of color lines, love and struggle in an East Texas oil town is a pit-in-the-stomach family drama that goes down like it should, with pain and fascination, like a mix of sugary medicine and artisanal moonshine."—The New York Times Book Review "Pérez deftly weaves [an] unflinchingly intense narrative....A powerful, layered tale of forbidden love in times of unrelenting racism."―starred, Kirkus Reviews "This book presents a range of human nature, from kindness and love to acts of racial and sexual violence. The work resonates with fear, hope, love, and the importance of memory....Set against the backdrop of an actual historical event, Pérez...gives voice to many long-omitted facets of U.S. history."―starred, School Library Journal




The Passport as Home


Book Description

This is the story of an illustrious Romanian-born, Hungarian-speaking, Vienna-schooled, Columbia-educated and Harvard-formed, middle-class Jewish professor of politics and other subjects. Markovits revels in a rootlessness that offers him comfort, succor, and the inspiration for his life’s work. As we follow his quest to find a home, we encounter his engagement with the important political, social, and cultural developments of five decades on two continents. We also learn about his musical preferences, from classical to rock; his love of team sports such as soccer, baseball, basketball, and American football; and his devotion to dogs and their rescue. Above all, the book analyzes the travails of emigration the author experienced twice, moving from Romania to Vienna and then from Vienna to New York. Markovits’s Candide-like travels through the ups and downs of post-1945 Europe and America offer a panoramic view of key currents that shaped the second half of the twentieth century. By shedding light on the cultural similarities and differences between both continents, the book shows why America fascinated Europeans like Markovits and offered them a home that Europe never did: academic excellence, intellectual openness, cultural diversity and religious tolerance. America for Markovits was indeed the “beacon on the hill,” despite the ugliness of its racism, the prominence of its everyday bigotry, the severity of its growing economic inequality, and the presence of other aspects that mar this worthy experiment’s daily existence.




Black Passport


Book Description

The archetype of the war correspondent is freighted with an outsize heroic mythos to which world-renowned conflict photographer Stanley Greene is no stranger. Black Passport is his autobiographical monograph-cum-scrapbook, and it transports the viewer behind the news as Greene reflects upon his career, oscillating between the relative safety of life in the West and the traumas of wars abroad. This glimpse of the polarities that have comprised Greene's life raises essential questions about the role of the photojournalist, as well as concerns about its repercussions: what motivates someone to willingly confront death and misery? To do work that risks one's life? Is it political engagement, or a sense of commitment to telling difficult stories? Or does being a war photographer simply satisfy a yearning for adventure? Black Passport offers an experience that is both exceptionally personal and ostensibly objective. Built around Greene's narrating monologue, the book's 26 short, nonsequential "scenes" are each illustrated by a portfolio of his work.




A Brilliant Darkness


Book Description

On the night of March 26, 1938, nuclear physicist Ettore Majorana boarded a ship, cash and passport in hand. He was never seen again. In A Brilliant Darkness, theoretical physicist Joao Magueijo tells the story of Majorana and his research group, "the Via Panisperna Boys," who discovered atomic fission in 1934. As Majorana, the most brilliant of the group, began to realize the implications of what they had found, he became increasingly unstable. Did he commit suicide that night in Palermo? Was he kidnapped? Did he stage his own death? A Brilliant Darkness chronicles Majorana's invaluable contributions to science -- including his major discovery, the Majorana neutrino -- while revealing the truth behind his fascinating and tragic life.




Passport to the World


Book Description

Travel the World in the Comfort of Your Own Home Here is an out-of-the-ordinary geographic journey of 26 language groups from Armenian to Zulu! Discover various cultures and customs, fill up your passport with stickers from the countries you visit, and learn that children from around the world are often a lot like you! Did you know: • The language journey began just over 4,000 years ago at the Tower of Babel. • There is a huge slab of limestone in Bolivia that has some 5,000 dinosaur footprints. • A traditional Christmas Eve dinner in Lithuania includes 12 dishes, one for each of the Apostles. • All Bengali literature was rhymed verse if written before the 19th century. Passport to the Worldhelps you encounter people and places all over the world, including facts about countries, their capital cities, maps, flags, populations, and religions. This is a fun and fact-filled adventure you can share with others through interactive games included in the back of this book and in your very own passport. Now, grab your passport and get ready, steady, and go! Winner of the USA Book News “Best Books 2011” Awards in the ‘Children’s Religious’ Category




A Journey Through Darkness


Book Description

Many of us may live our lives without ever stopping to think What if I couldnt see? We hardly ever ask ourselves this question because, to say the least, we take or eyes for granted. I, like most people, had never thought about it until 11th January 2008. My mother came to wake me up that morning and asked what I was still doing in bed and confidently I replied, It is still dark outside Mum. She told me it was 8am and the sun was shining bright (a typical African morning!). I rubbed my eyes, opened them wider and yelled out, I cant see! I cant see! That was the beginning of a long journey through darkness.




Black Sea


Book Description

NEW Updated Edition Winner of the Art of Eating Prize 2020 Winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Best Food Book Award 2019 Winner of the Edward Stanford Travel Food and Drink Book Award 2019 Winner of the John Avery Award at the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards for 2018 Shortlisted for the James Beard International Cookbook Award ‘The next best thing to actually travelling with Caroline Eden – a warm, erudite and greedy guide – is to read her. This is my kind of book.’ – Diana Henry ‘Eden’s blazing talent and unabashedly greedy curiosity will have you strapped in beside her’ - Christine Muhlke, The New York Times 'The food in Black Sea is wonderful, but it’s Eden’s prose that really elevates this book to the extraordinary... I can’t remember any cookbook that’s drawn me in quite like this.’ – Helen Rosner, Art of Eating judge This is the tale of a journey between three great cities – Odesa, Ukraine’s celebrated port city, through Istanbul, the fulcrum balancing Europe and Asia and on to tough, stoic, lyrical Trabzon. With a nose for a good recipe and an ear for an extraordinary story, Caroline Eden travels from Odesa to Bessarabia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey’s Black Sea region, exploring interconnecting culinary cultures. From the Jewish table of Odesa, to meeting the last fisherwoman of Bulgaria and charting the legacies of the White Russian émigrés in Istanbul, Caroline gives readers a unique insight into a part of the world that is both shaded by darkness and illuminated by light. In this updated edition of the book, Caroline reflects on the events of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent impact of the war on the people of the wider region. How Odesa, defiant against shelling and blackouts, has gained UNESCO protection while in Istanbul, over lunch with a Bosphorus ship-spotter, she finds out about the role of the Black Sea in the war and how Russians are smuggling stolen grain from Ukraine. Meticulously researched and documenting unprecedented meetings with remarkable individuals, Black Sea is like no other piece of travel writing. Packed with rich photography and sumptuous food, this biography of a region, its people and its recipes truly breaks new ground.




Facing the Congo


Book Description

This book transports readers into the jungles and crocodile-infested waters of sub-Saharan Africa. The author travels a river barge teeming with merchants, mothers, prostitutes, fishermen, and spiritual followers, then launches his quest to confront the Congo River by descending its longest navigational stretch.