Serendipity's Footsteps


Book Description

From Nazi Germany to a modern-day orphanage in the American South, three girls separated by decades and thousands of miles are about to give up when a single pair of shoes binds them all together. Dalya is the daughter of a cobbler in 1930s Berlin, and though she is only fifteen, she knows she will follow in her father’s footsteps. When she is forced into a concentration camp one violent November night, she must leave behind everything she knew and loved. Ray is a modern-day orphan, jagged around the edges in every possible way. She sees an impulsive escape to New York as her only chance at happiness; there, she knows she’ll be able to convert her sorrows into songs. Pinny is an unwavering optimist and Ray’s unintended travel companion on her passage to a new life. She inherited from her eccentric mother a fascination with shoes as a means of transformation and expression. A single pair of shoes entwines these lives. How these women connect across different times and places is an unforgettable story of strength, love, bravery, memory, and the serendipity that binds us all together.




The Serendipity of Hope


Book Description

Institutions are very precious. If any idea is going to persist into the future, then it needs an institution to keep it going. Each of us comes to understand, often only gradually over the decades, how some influences from our earlier life have affected us. Some will have been inspiring. Some will have given us direct models of how to behave or how not to behave. Indeed, it is often the case that the deeper an influence turns out to have been, in the long run, the less likely it is that we noticed it at the time it was happening. For this reason, it has become necessary to find the time to reflect on and express gratitude for the institutions that helped form who we are and the work that we do. This collection of essays explores the impact of one institution on twenty-five participants, twenty-five years after we worked together. The Institution was Liverpool Hope University College and is now Liverpool Hope University. By telling and reflecting on our stories, we aim to encourage others to think about their own experiences and, ultimately, our earnest hope is that a greater awareness of this aspect of university life will help to transform our collective understanding of the nature of universities in particular, and of communities, institutions, or societies in general. But there was something special about belonging to a community called Hope.




California Serendipity in Desert and High Sierra


Book Description

Andreas M. Cohrs presents an awesome guide to the less visited regions of California, as well as a glance into what makes up the Golden state and its glittering mentality. Through a chain of serendipitous events, Cohrs gained access to the belongings of the late backpacking icon, Colin Fletcher. Based on the outdoor guru’s original maps, notes, and photos, fifty years later he retraced The Walker’s hitherto untraceable thousand-mile journey along the lengthy spine of California, across the state’s enchanting deserts and over the snow-laden high sierra. With maps accompanying each chapter, drawn by Fletcher’s carto- grapher david Lindroth, more than 100 photos, and with stories from the trail, Cohrs tells a compelling tale of one of the most varied and fascinating regions on our planet. Yet, as the title reveals, California serendipity is more than a hiking guide that lays Fletcher’s original route at your feet for the first time. It takes the reader on a crash course through the state’s early history and its unique nature into finding the only true answer to Fletcher’s concern whether his 1958-trip could ever be repeated. With his narrative travel writing, Cohrs conveys the intimate sensations of what it means to venture upon a four-month trek, unpretentious but up close and affective, and why serendipity will travel with you, rewarding you with the most unexpected encounters, when you take the right turn.




Serendipity


Book Description

The second generation of Pacific historians, who began their careers in the 1970s and 1980s, is gradually fading from the academic scene. They have made fundamental contributions to the field of Pacific history, enduring in their impact, and the identity of the discipline is now firmly established. This volume is not so much about their individual research but, rather, their improbable journeys into Pacific history—why and how they came to it in the first place. Almost without exception, they did not choose Pacific history but rather stumbled into the field through serendipity. They came from forays into African, Indian, East Asian, French, British imperial, and other fields, and were enticed into Pacific history through chance or the efforts of kindly mentors. All this is evident in the values and understandings they bring to the subject. The one commonality that binds them is a love of the islands that have been the center of their lifetime work. Many distinguished Pacific historians of the last four to five decades are represented in this collection. Serendipity presents fourteen autobiographical chapters in which the contributors trace their paths as Pacific historians. They offer their sources of inspiration, supporters, and publications that shaped them as historians. With a significant focus on the importance of teaching and mentoring that they both received and provided, their writing not only illuminates their lives, but the state of Pacific history as an academic field. The experiences of the contributors are moving, replete with sorrows and regrets, as well as of achievements and satisfactions. Part of these careers were spent working in areas other than scholarship, such as high school teaching, consultancies, volunteering, teaching English as a second language, or doing menial jobs just to keep going. Serendipity is a pathbreaking form of historiography and essential to the Pacific history field.




Film Review


Book Description

The year's releases in review, with necrologies and brief articles.




Listen to Your Footsteps


Book Description

Kojo Baffoe embodies what it is to be a contemporary African man. Of Ghanaian and German heritage, he was raised in Lesotho and moved to South Africa at the age of 27. Forever curious, Kojo has the enviable ability to simultaneously experience moments intimately and engage people (and their views) sincerely, while remaining detached enough to think through his experiences critically. He has earned a reputation as a thinker, someone who lives outside the box and free of the labels that society seeks to place on us. Listen to Your Footsteps is an honest and, at times, raw collection of essays from a son, a father, a husband, a brother and a man deeply committed to doing the internal work. Kojo reflects on losing his mother as a toddler, being raised by his father, forming an identity, living as an immigrant, his tussles with substance abuse, as well as his experiences of fatherhood, marriage and making a career in a fickle industry. He gives an extended glimpse into the experiences that make boys become men, and the battles that make men discover what they are made of, all the while questioning what it means to be ‘a man’.




Meet the Authors


Book Description

A collection of writers of upper elementary and middle school books discuss their work, each author includes a list of selected titles, words from the author, and a list of selected titles, words from the author, and a writing activity for you and your students.




Finding Serendipity


Book Description

A magical journey into the land where stories come from “[A] sweet-toned, summer-fun story.” —The New York Times Book Review When Tuesday McGillycuddy and her beloved dog, Baxterr, discover that Tuesday's mother—the famous author Serendipity Smith—has gone missing, they set out on a magical adventure. In their quest to find Serendipity, they discover the mysterious and unpredictable place that stories come from. Here, Tuesday befriends the fearless Vivienne Small, learns to sail an enchanted boat, tangles with an evil pirate, and discovers the truth about her remarkable dog. Along the way, she learns what it means to be a writer and how difficult it can sometimes be to get all the way to The End. This title has Common Core connections. Finding Serendipity by Angelica Banks, with illustrations by Stevie Lewis, is the first in a series. that continues with book two, A Week Without Tuesday. “This enchanting story . . . celebrates the imagination and the connection writers feel with their stories. Spunky characters; spot-on pacing, providing perfectly timed plot revelations; and fully imagined worlds make this a charming winner.” —Booklist, starred review “With cinematic imagery and keen wit, the authors construct an inventive novel.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Young writers will find inspiration in the tale—especially those who have a story within them but might be too shy to tell it.” —The New York Times Book Review




Set Your Phaser to Stun


Book Description

Book Summary This book is a scientific investigation into the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, which demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that we are being visited by extraterrestrial Beings from another World. This story involves two unrelated cases of abduction. The first case is the well known Betty and Barney Hill case that was published in The Interrupted Journey in 1961, and Captured in 2007. The second case involves a married couple named Kay and Erik Wilson whose experiences were published in The Alien Jigsaw in 1993 and its accompanying Researcher’s Supplement in 1994. Information from both of these cases have been merged together to prove that the star map that Betty Hill drew was not only real, but it was actually Earth based. The Wilson case proved to be the key in unlocking the door. Like Betty Hill, once again, a brave soul had the courage to ask the Beings where they come from; and as a result of this unique one on one conversation between Erik Wilson and a Grey, without realizing it, he was given major clues to find their home world. Set Your Phaser To Stun! reveals that Betty’s star map is real and the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis has been purposely skewed to deceive the public. When Carl Sagan involved himself in this dispute many years ago, he claimed Betty’s star map only showed meaningless random dots, which were not specific points of reference for any known stars. This book proves that Sagan was wrong and was involved in what some people claim to be scientific misconduct relating to the UFO subject. The stars that Betty Hill drew of the star map she was shown in 1961 are anything but random. Set Your Phaser To Stun! takes a fresh new look at the Betty and Barney Hill case and examines previous interpretations of the star map, with particular emphasis on Marjorie Fish’s Zeta Reticuli Interpretation. This new research, which began in the year 2000, uncovers the fact that some of our closest neighborhood stars are linked in a network of trade and exploration by a highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization that is less than 50 light years away from us. The real shock is the location of Sol, our sun, and the role humans play in the aliens’ agenda. For far too long the establishment has systematically denied the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis has any substance. This opinionated stance has been based on the urgent need to control the dissemination of news that they feared would ultimately damage the fabric of our society should it be released. An extreme political drama of the highest order has been blocking disclosure. The Military Industrial Complex has been unwilling to relinquish control to civilian authorities and there is a grave fear that disclosure will have a severe, negative impact on our Religious Institutions worldwide. They fear allowing the public access to information which would severely challenge the traditional belief that humanity is unique and has a special relationship to God. The official position on this subject is based upon the idea that society is not prepared to handle the psychological impact of the knowledge that we are not alone in the universe. They have even gone so far as resorting to scientific misconduct because they are deeply afraid of possible societal upheaval. Fortunately, in May of 2008, a remarkable turn of events occurred within the Catholic Church when astronomer Father Gabriel Funes wrote in the Vatican Newspaper that “intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.” He moved further toward official legitimization of the acceptance of other life by calling the aliens our “Brothers and Sisters.” This was the beginning of a slow and well planned acclimation process of one billion Catholics worldwide. It has often been stated that we would have to rewrite history if contact with an alien civilization ever took place. Set Your Phaser To Stun!- is the beginning of that process.




Dragonchaser


Book Description

HARDBACK EDITION