Find a Way


Book Description

NOW THE NETFLIX FILM NYAD, STARRING ANNETTE BENING AND JODIE FOSTER Hillary Clinton said that Find a Way would stay with her through the general election: “When you’re facing big challenges in your life, you can think about Diana Nyad getting attacked by the lethal sting of box jellyfishes. And nearly anything else seems doable in comparison.” When Diana Nyad arrived on the shore of Key West after fifty-three hours of grueling swimming across an epic ocean, she not only set a world record—becoming the first person to swim the shark-infested waters between Cuba and Florida with no cage for protection—she also succeeded in fulfilling a dream she first chased at age twenty-eight and at long last achieved when she was sixty-four. Now, in a riveting memoir, Diana shares a spirited account of what it takes to face one’s fears, engage one’s passions, and never ever give up. For no matter what life may throw at you, or how many times you may have experienced defeat, it is always possible—as long as you commit to living life to the nth degree, no regrets—to “find a way."




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Book Description

Autobiography of Diana Nyad, a world marathon swimming champion who has gained victories and suffered defeats while attempting to conquer many of the world's most challenging bodies of water.




Self Made


Book Description

For readers of #GIRLBOSS and viewers of Shark Tank—a global revolution in entrepreneurship is under way, inspiring women to blaze a trail of financial self-reliance and become self-made. Featuring a foreword by Suze Orman. What does it mean to be self-made? It’s not just about having money, but financial empowerment is where it begins. It means getting out of survival mode, where you are one problem away from catastrophe. It means changing your mindset from instant gratification to goal orientation. It means being able to sleep at night without worry. It means being rich in every way: rich in money, rich in family, rich in love, rich in time—abundant! For Nely Galán—entrepreneur, TV producer, and real estate mogul—helping women to become self-made is a movement and a mission. Galán pulls no punches. She is the straight-talking friend and mentor you’ve always wanted, and here she shares valuable, candid, no-nonsense lessons learned on her own path to becoming self-made (“There is no Prince Charming”; “Think like an immigrant”; “In your pain is your brand”; “Don’t buy shoes, buy buildings!”). You’ll read inspiring stories of women who started and grew businesses out of ingenuity, opportunity, and need. You’ll find exercises to help you identify your goals and your strengths. You’ll learn tips and tricks for saving money, making money, and finding “hidden money” that can help jump-start your self-made dreams. When you become self-made, the change in you inspires change in those around you, because one of the greatest rewards of a self-made life is seeing how the sparks from your personal revolution can light a fire in others. So come, join the Self-Made movement. The revolution starts inside of you! Praise for Self Made “A much-needed and wise book that teaches women not to fear money but to see it as a means of reaching our dreams. Nely shows us how to become money courageous instead of finance fearful. I want to give this book to so many women (and men) I know. Thank you, Nely.”—Sandra Cisneros “Nely Galán and I have traveled the country together helping women grow their businesses and live their dreams. I know firsthand that Nely is the ultimate self-made woman and your best girlfriend. Her generosity of spirit jumps off the page as she shares the secrets of her hard-won success and her contagious confidence.”—Nell Merlino, creator of Take Our Daughters to Work Day and founder of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence “Self Made teaches women to unleash their spark and hustle. Nely inspires readers to use what they have to get what they want on their path to becoming self-made.”—Tory Johnson, “Deals & Steals” contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Shift “You are not truly complete as a woman until you feel confident and empowered to make decisions about your money. Throughout my career, I have seen how a woman who takes ownership of her financial life is transformed and liberated, and how that in turn has a tremendous impact on her children. This is my belief and my personal experience, and it’s why Self Made resonates so strongly with me.”—Maria Elena Lagomasino, CEO of WE Family Offices and member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company, the Coca-Cola Company, and Avon Products, Inc. From the Hardcover edition.




Telex from Cuba


Book Description

Coming of age in mid-1950s Cuba where the local sugar and nickel production are controlled by American interests, Everly Lederer and KC Stites observe the indulgences and betrayals of the adult world and are swept up by the political underground and the revolt led by Fidel and Raul Castro. 75,000 first printing.




Letters from Cuba


Book Description

Pura Belpré Award Winner Ruth Behar's inspiring story of a Jewish girl who escapes Poland to make a new life in Cuba, where she works to rescue the rest of her family The situation is getting dire for Jews in Poland on the eve of World War II. Esther's father has fled to Cuba, and she is the first one to join him. It's heartbreaking to be separated from her beloved sister, so Esther promises to write down everything that happens until they're reunited. And she does, recording both the good--the kindness of the Cuban people and her discovery of a valuable hidden talent--and the bad: the fact that Nazism has found a foothold even in Cuba. Esther's evocative letters are full of her appreciation for life and reveal a resourceful, determined girl with a rare ability to bring people together, all the while striving to get the rest of their family out of Poland before it's too late. Based on Ruth Behar's family history, this compelling story celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the most challenging times.




Waiting For Snow In Havana


Book Description

A childhood in a privileged household in 1950s Havana was joyous and cruel, like any other-but with certain differences. The neighbour's monkey was liable to escape and run across your roof. Surfing was conducted by driving cars across the breakwater. Lizards and firecrackers made frequent contact. Carlos Eire's childhood was a little different from most. His father was convinced he had been Louis XVI in a past life. At school, classmates with fathers in the Batista government were attended by chauffeurs and bodyguards. At a home crammed with artifacts and paintings, portraits of Jesus spoke to him in dreams and nightmares. Then, in January 1959, the world changes: Batista is suddenly gone, a cigar-smoking guerrilla has taken his place, and Christmas is cancelled. The echo of firing squads is everywhere. And, one by one, the author's schoolmates begin to disappear-spirited away to the United States. Carlos will end up there himself, without his parents, never to see his father again. Narrated with the urgency of a confession, WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA is both an ode to a paradise lost and an exorcism. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times in our lives when we are certain we have died-and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn.




Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s "The Cuban Swimmer". A Journey of Self-assertion


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject American Studies - Comparative Literature, grade: excellent, Mansoura University, course: drama, language: English, abstract: "The Cuban-swimmer" is a seven-scene play in which Milcha Sanchez-Scott depicts the individual’s need of self assertion as a major theme. Self assertion, according to her, is a metaphor standing for one’s true identity, a symphony combining one’s individuality as well as one’s cultural legacy. The play follows the life of the Suarezs, a displaced Cuban family who rode the ocean to take refuge in the United States. They have migrated from Cuba in search of a secure sense of self-worth. The central character among these people is Margarita Suarez, a nineteen-year-old Cuban girl, who tries to win a swimming race in the ocean as a Cuban not as an American. Margarita takes part in this race in search not only of the “Cuban pride” but also of her own self-assertion. In her play, Sanchez-Scott uses Margarita’s story as an allegory for the whole immigration experience which Latin Americans had to go through. Milcha Sanchez-Scott was born in a multicultural family. Her father was a Colombian man who lived in Mexico; her mother is Indonesian with Chinese-Dutch roots. Jane T. Peterson holds that “her [Milcha’s] heritage reflects a diversity of ethnic and cultural influences”. She is regarded as a playwright of powerfully expressive plays. Her works consistently reflect her concern with racial and political issues, particularly with the Latin woman’s struggle for spiritual survival. Latin American heritage and the sense of this culture form the ultimate base of Sanchez-Scott’s material. Much of her writing reveals her concern for Latin women and their families. Peterson is clear about the idea that “Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s work frequently explores woman’s experiences in Hispanic-American bicultural context”.




Travels in Cuba


Book Description

Even for an experienced traveler like Charlie, Cuba is a place unlike any he has visited before — an island full of surprises, secrets and puzzling contradictions. When Charlie’s artist mother is invited to visit a school in Cuba, the whole family goes along on the trip. But the island they discover is a far cry from the all-inclusive resorts that Charlie has heard his friends talk about. Charlie has never visited a country as strange and puzzling as Cuba — a country where he often feels like a time traveler. Where Havana’s grand Hotel Nacional sits next to buildings that seem to be crumbling before his very eyes. Where the streets are filled with empty storefronts and packs of wild dogs, but where flowers and sherbet-colored houses may lie around the next corner, and music is everywhere. Where there are many different kinds of walls — from Havana’s famous sea wall to the invisible ones that seem aimed at keeping tourists and locals apart. Then the family heads “off the beaten track,” traveling by hot, dusty bus to Viñales, where Charlie makes friends with Lázaro, who often flies from Miami to visit his Cuban relatives. The boys ride a horse bareback, find a secret cache of rifles inside a little green mountain and go swimming with small albino fish in an underground cave. A rent-a-wreck takes the family into the countryside, where they find an abandoned hotel inhabited by goats, and a modern resort filled with tourists. And as he goes from one strange and marvelous escapade to another, Charlie finds that his expectations about a place and its people are overturned again and again. Key Text Features illustrations Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6 Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.




Cuba Diaries


Book Description

Isadora Tattlin is the American wife of a European energy consultant posted to Havana in the 1990s. Wisely, the witty Mrs. Tattlin began a diary the day her husband informed her of their new assignment. One of the first entries is her shopping list of things to take, including six gallons of shampoo. For although the Tattlins were provided with a wonderful, big house in Havana, complete with a staff of seven, there wasn't much else money could buy in a country whose shelves are nearly bare. The record of her daily life in Cuba raising her two small children, entertaining her husband's clients (among them Fidel Castro and his ministers and minions), and contending with chronic shortages of, well . . . everything (on the street, tourists are hounded not for money but for soap), is literally stunning. Adventurous and intuitive, Tattlin squeezed every drop of juice--both tasty and repellent--from her experience. She traveled wherever she could (it's not easy--there are few road signs or appealing places to stay or eat). She befriended artists, attended concerts and plays. She gave dozens of parties, attended dozens more. Cuba Diaries--vividly explicit, empathetic, often hilarious--takes the reader deep inside this island country only ninety miles from the U.S., where the average doctor's salary is eleven dollars a month. The reader comes away appalled by the deprivation and drawn by the romance of a weirdly nostalgic Cuba frozen in the 1950s.




Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba


Book Description

In this widely hailed book, NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten fuses the story of the Bacardi family and their famous rum business with Cuba's tumultuous experience over the last 150 years to produce a deeply entertaining historical narrative. The company Facundo Bacardi launched in Cuba in 1862 brought worldwide fame to the island, and in the decades that followed his Bacardi descendants participated in every aspect of Cuban life. With his intimate account of their struggles and adventures across five generations, Gjelten brings to life the larger story of Cuba's fight for freedom, its tortured relationship with America, the rise of Fidel Castro, and the violent division of the Cuban nation.




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