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Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978
by Kai BirdPulitzer Prize winner Kai Bird&’s fascinating memoir of his early years spent in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon provides an original and illuminating perspective into the Arab-Israeli conflict.In 1956, four-year-old Kai Bird, son of a charming American diplomat, moved to Jerusalem with his family. Kai could hear church bells and the Muslim call to prayer and watch as donkeys and camels competed with cars for space on the narrow streets. Each day on his way to school, Kai was driven through Mandelbaum Gate, where armed soldiers guarded the line separating Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem from Arab-controlled East. Bird would spend much of his life crossing such lines—as a child in Jerusalem, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and later, as a young man in Lebanon. In Crossing Mandelbaum Gate, a narrative that &“rips along like a spy novel&” (The New York Times Book Review), Bird&’s retelling of &“events such as Suez in 1956, the Six Day War of 1967, and Black September in 1970 are as clear and fresh as yesterday&” (The Spectator, UK). Bird vividly portrays emblematic figures like George Antonius, author of The Arab Awakening; Jordan&’s King Hussein; the Palestinian hijacker Leila Khaled; Salem bin Laden; Saudi King Faisal; President Nasser of Egypt; and Hillel Kook, the forgotten rescuer of more than 100,000 Jews during World War II. Bird, his parents sympathetic to Palestinian self-determination and his wife the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, has written a &“kaleidoscopic and captivating&” (Publishers Weekly) personal history of a troubled region and an indispensable addition to the literature on the modern Middle East.
Crossing Ocean Parkway
by Marianna De Marco TorgovnickGrowing up an Italian-American in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of New York city, Marianna De Marco longed for college, culture, and upward mobility. Her daydreams circled around WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) heroes on television—like Robin Hood and the Cartwright family—but in Brooklyn she never encountered any. So she associated moving up with Ocean Parkway, a street that divides the working-class Italian neighborhood where she was born from the middle-class Jewish neighborhood into which she married. This book is Torgovnick's unflinching account of crossing cultural boundaries in American life, of what it means to be an Italian American woman who became a scholar and literary critic. Included are autobiographical moments interwoven with engrossing interpretations of American cultural icons from Dr. Dolittle to Lionel Trilling, The Godfather to Camille Paglia. Her experiences allow her to probe the cultural tensions in America caused by competing ideas of individuality and community, upward mobility and ethnic loyalty, acquisitiveness and spirituality.
Crossing Over
by Ruth Irene GarrettThe story of a courageous woman who left her Amish faith and family for a new life. In her new life, Ruth Irene Garrett's faith in God has been renewed as she has found new freedom and love. "Crossing over" to the modern world has meant many changes for Garrett, as she honestly reveals what really lies behind the reclusive life of the Amish.
Crossing the Bar: The Adventures of a San Francisco Bay Bar Pilot
by Paul LoboThere is nothing placid about San Francisco Bay. Its raucous waters have hosted brutal storms, daring rescues, horrendous accidents, and countless hours of drama and tension. Captain Paul Lobo knows that better than most people. As a licensed harbor pilot in those treacherous waters, Lobo captained nearly 6,500 boats in a thirty-one year career-everything from mega-yachts to the USS Enterprise to the Love Boat. Each trip tells its own story, and Lobo shares many. Here readers will find gripping, tense adventure stories, all well told.Reading Crossing the Bar is like being on the rolling bridge with Lobo. Here are tragic deaths and lives saved, inspiring rescues, devastating storms, and the infamous and horrendous oil spill after the Cosco Busan rammed the Oakland Bay Bridge-which resulted in the first imprisonment of a maritime pilot for making an error.Readers will also find a December sea rescue Lobo assisted with in hurricane strength winds and monstrous seas. Without Lobo’s pilot boat and its crews’ supreme effort, the ship they saved would have foundered on the rocky Marin County, California, coastline with the loss of all hands.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports-books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Crossing the Barriers: The Autobiography of Allan H. Spear
by Allan H. SpearAllan Spear had a long and distinguished career as a historian and as a Minnesota state senator. Perhaps best known for coming out as openly gay during his first term in the Minnesota Senate-becoming one of the first elected officials in the nation to do so-Spear was also a leader of Eugene McCarthy's run for the presidency, an organizer against the war in Vietnam, and a key proponent for the establishment of the African-American studies department at the University of Minnesota.Spear's memoirs are fascinating and moving: in early chapters on his childhood and college years, he writes with great introspection about his growing self-awareness of being gay. Later he writes about his development as an intellectual, particularly as a white man fighting to win legitimacy for the study of African-American history and culture. During his time at the University of Minnesota, Spear became deeply involved with the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) and the antiwar movement. At the same time, Spear became increasingly active in the emerging gay rights movement and began the process of coming out to his friends and colleagues.After a failed run for the Minnesota House in 1968, Spear was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 1972 and served as Senate president from 1993-2000. In 1993, he was instrumental in the passage of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which protected LGBT people from discrimination in housing, education, and employment-an achievement he considered one of the finest of his career. A skilled parliamentarian, he remained a progressive leader in the legislature until his retirement in 2000.Spear passed away on October 11, 2008, leaving his memoir slightly incomplete. A stirring afterword by John Milton completes the story of Spear's life, chronicling the recognition of his accomplishments as a politician and activist during his final years.
Crossing the Borders of Time: A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed
by Leslie MaitlandOn a pier in Marseille in 1942, with desperate refugees pressing to board one of the last ships to escape France before the Nazis choked off its ports, an 18-year-old German Jewish girl was pried from the arms of the Catholic Frenchman she loved and promised to marry. As the Lipari carried Janine and her family to Casablanca on the first leg of a perilous journey to safety in Cuba, she would read through her tears the farewell letter that Roland had slipped in her pocket: "Whatever the length of our separation, our love will survive it, because it depends on us alone. I give you my vow that whatever the time we must wait, you will be my wife. Never forget, never doubt." Five years later - her fierce desire to reunite with Roland first obstructed by war and then, in secret, by her father and brother - Janine would build a new life in New York with a dynamic American husband. That his obsession with Ayn Rand tormented their marriage was just one of the reasons she never ceased yearning to reclaim her lost love. Investigative reporter Leslie Maitland grew up enthralled by her mother's accounts of forbidden romance and harrowing flight from the Nazis. Her book is both a journalist's vivid depiction of a world at war and a daughter's pursuit of a haunting question: what had become of the handsome Frenchman whose picture her mother continued to treasure almost fifty years after they parted? It is a tale of memory that reporting made real and a story of undying love that crosses the borders of time.
Crossing the Boundaries of Life: Günter Blobel and the Origins of Molecular Cell Biology (Convening Science: Discovery at the Marine Biological Laboratory)
by Karl S. MatlinA close look at Günter Blobel’s transformative contributions to molecular cell biology. The difficulty of reconciling chemical mechanisms with the functions of whole living systems has plagued biologists since the development of cell theory in the nineteenth century. As Karl S. Matlin argues in Crossing the Boundaries of Life, it is no coincidence that this longstanding knot of scientific inquiry was loosened most meaningfully by the work of a cell biologist, the Nobel laureate Günter Blobel. In 1975, using an experimental setup that did not contain any cells at all, Blobel was able to target newly made proteins to cell membrane vesicles, enabling him to theorize how proteins in the cell distribute spatially, an idea he called the signal hypothesis. Over the next twenty years, Blobel and other scientists were able to dissect this mechanism into its precise molecular details. For elaborating his signal concept into a process he termed membrane topogenesis—the idea that each protein in the cell is synthesized with an "address" that directs the protein to its correct destination within the cell—Blobel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999. Matlin argues that Blobel’s investigative strategy and its subsequent application addressed a fundamental unresolved dilemma that had bedeviled biology from its very beginning—the relationship between structure and function—allowing biology to achieve mechanistic molecular explanations of biological phenomena. Crossing the Boundaries of Life thus uses Blobel’s research and life story to shed light on the importance of cell biology for twentieth-century science, illustrating how it propelled the development of adjacent disciplines like biochemistry and molecular biology.
Crossing the Boundaries of Life: Günter Blobel and the Origins of Molecular Cell Biology (Convening Science: Discovery at the Marine Biological Laboratory)
by Karl S. MatlinA close look at Günter Blobel’s transformative contributions to molecular cell biology. The difficulty of reconciling chemical mechanisms with the functions of whole living systems has plagued biologists since the development of cell theory in the nineteenth century. As Karl S. Matlin argues in Crossing the Boundaries of Life, it is no coincidence that this longstanding knot of scientific inquiry was loosened most meaningfully by the work of a cell biologist, the Nobel laureate Günter Blobel. In 1975, using an experimental setup that did not contain any cells at all, Blobel was able to target newly made proteins to cell membrane vesicles, enabling him to theorize how proteins in the cell distribute spatially, an idea he called the signal hypothesis. Over the next twenty years, Blobel and other scientists were able to dissect this mechanism into its precise molecular details. For elaborating his signal concept into a process he termed membrane topogenesis—the idea that each protein in the cell is synthesized with an "address" that directs the protein to its correct destination within the cell—Blobel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999. Matlin argues that Blobel’s investigative strategy and its subsequent application addressed a fundamental unresolved dilemma that had bedeviled biology from its very beginning—the relationship between structure and function—allowing biology to achieve mechanistic molecular explanations of biological phenomena. Crossing the Boundaries of Life thus uses Blobel’s research and life story to shed light on the importance of cell biology for twentieth-century science, illustrating how it propelled the development of adjacent disciplines like biochemistry and molecular biology.
Crossing the Boundaries of Life: Günter Blobel and the Origins of Molecular Cell Biology (Convening Science: Discovery at the Marine Biological Laboratory)
by Karl S. MatlinA close look at Günter Blobel’s transformative contributions to molecular cell biology. The difficulty of reconciling chemical mechanisms with the functions of whole living systems has plagued biologists since the development of cell theory in the nineteenth century. As Karl S. Matlin argues in Crossing the Boundaries of Life, it is no coincidence that this longstanding knot of scientific inquiry was loosened most meaningfully by the work of a cell biologist, the Nobel laureate Günter Blobel. In 1975, using an experimental setup that did not contain any cells at all, Blobel was able to target newly made proteins to cell membrane vesicles, enabling him to theorize how proteins in the cell distribute spatially, an idea he called the signal hypothesis. Over the next twenty years, Blobel and other scientists were able to dissect this mechanism into its precise molecular details. For elaborating his signal concept into a process he termed membrane topogenesis—the idea that each protein in the cell is synthesized with an "address" that directs the protein to its correct destination within the cell—Blobel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999. Matlin argues that Blobel’s investigative strategy and its subsequent application addressed a fundamental unresolved dilemma that had bedeviled biology from its very beginning—the relationship between structure and function—allowing biology to achieve mechanistic molecular explanations of biological phenomena. Crossing the Boundaries of Life thus uses Blobel’s research and life story to shed light on the importance of cell biology for twentieth-century science, illustrating how it propelled the development of adjacent disciplines like biochemistry and molecular biology.
Crossing the Boundary
by Kevin PietersenDescribed by the media as 'the David Beckham of cricket', Kevin has become the poster boy for English cricket. But he is also in possession of a prodigious talent - fearless, bold and with unflappable nerves. His unique batting style has produced hundreds of runs and many outstanding innings, culminating in his extraordinary triumph at the 2005 Ashes. Yet with the highs, come the lows, and he gives his version of events during the 2006/07 Ashes when England were defeated by Australia.Crossing the Boundary recounts Kevin's remarkable journey so far - from growing up in his native South Africa and the opposition he faced from the national cricket board; his move to England and burgeoning career at Hampshire to winning a place on the England team. It provides a rare insight into the mind of an international cricketer, on and off the pitch. Reflecting his youthful charisma and his bullish confidence, this is a sporting memoir like no other.Full of personal anecdotes and insight from numerous sporting legends such as Shane Warne, Ian Botham, and Nasser Hussain, this is the riveting story of one of the most significant cricketers of our time.
Crossing the Continent
by Michel Tremblay Sheila FischmanBorn in Providence, Rhode Island, to a Cree mother and a French father, Réauna, affectionately known throughout Tremblay's work as "Nana," was sent with her two younger sisters, Béa and Alice, to be raised on her maternal grandparents' farm in Sainte-Maria-de-Saskatchewan, a francophone Catholic enclave of two hundred souls. At the age of ten, amid swaying fields of wheat under the idyllic prairie sky of her loving foster family, Nana is suddenly told by her mother, whom she hasn't seen in five years and who now lives in Montreal, to come "home" and help take care of her new baby brother.So it is that Nana, with her faint recollection of the smell of the sea, embarks alone on an epic journey by train through Regina, Winnipeg, and Ottawa, on which she encounters a dizzying array of strangers and distant relatives, including Ti-Lou, the "she-wolf of Ottawa."To our delight, Michel Tremblay here takes his readers outside Quebec for the first time, on a quintessential North American journey - it is 1913, at a time of industry and adventure, when crossing the continent was an enterprise undertaken by so many, young and old, from myriads of cultures, unimpeded by the abstractly constructed borders and identities that have so fractured our world of today.This, the first in Tremblay's series of "crossings" novels, provides us with the back-story to the characters of his great Chronicles of Plateau Mont-Royal, particularly of his mother, "The Fat Woman Next Door ..." and his maternal grandmother, who, though largely uneducated, was a voracious reader and introduced him to the world of reading and books, including Tintin adventure comics, mass-market novels, and The Inn of the Guardian Angel, which fascinated the young Tremblay with its sections of dramatic dialogue, inspiring the many great plays he would eventually write.
Crossing the Desert: The Power of Embracing Life's Difficult Journeys
by Payam ZamaniUSA Today Bestseller Publishers Weekly Bestseller Publisher Marketplace Bestseller At the age of 16, he escaped persecution and made his way to America as a refugee. At 28, he secured a billion-dollar IPO. Today, he&’s redefining what it means to be an entrepreneur by building a new model of capitalism. In the summer of 1987, Payam Zamani fled Iran. As a member of the Baha&’i Faith, he had already survived years of religious persecution at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. Taking the only path available to him, he escaped to Pakistan through the Emptiness Desert: a harrowing five-day trek through one of the hottest, driest, and most hostile regions on the planet. Twelve years later, he and his brother set records when the company they founded hit a $1.2 billion valuation on Wall Street. He was rich—on paper. But in the wake of yet another Wall Street meltdown, he learned the hard way that modern capitalism can be harmful to the human soul. In 2015, Payam set the example he wanted to see by merging his business acumen with his spiritual beliefs and founding a new company—One Planet Group—this time without letting Wall Street or the venture capital world dictate the terms. Today, One Planet Group is proving that it&’s not only possible but necessary to build strong businesses while taking care of our employees, customers, communities, and the planet. Crossing the Desert gives readers an intimate look at how the paths we choose, the values we embrace, and the systems we decide to participate in (or not) can make or break us, not only financially, but spiritually. Payam&’s story is a timely reminder that enduring and embracing life&’s most difficult journeys can lead us to a brighter future—not only for ourselves, but for the people around us, and even the world.
Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure
by Julian SmithBanff Award Winner: “Like David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, this is two stories, of an explorer and of the author’s search for him, and both are compelling.” —Library JournalIn 1898 the dashing British adventurer Ewart “the Leopard” Grogan fell head-over-heels in love—but before he could marry, he needed the approval of his beloved’s skeptical aristocratic stepfather. Grogan, seeking to prove his worth and earn her hand, set out on an epic quest to become the first man to walk the entire length of Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo, a feat, as the New York Times put it, “hitherto thought by many explorers to be impossible.” A little more than a century later, American journalist Julian Smith also found himself madly in love with his girlfriend of seven years . . . but terrified by the prospect of marriage. Inspired by Grogan’s story, which he discovered by chance, Smith decided to face his fears of commitment by retracing the explorer’s amazing—but now forgotten—4,500-mile journey for love and glory through Africa. Crossing the Heart of Africa is the unforgettable account of these twin adventures, as Smith beautifully interweaves his own contemporary journey with Grogan’s larger-than-life tale of cannibal attacks, charging elephants, deadly jungles, and romantic triumph.“Not only a modern-day travelogue, but also a great historical account of a charming trailblazer, and the story of a modern-day relationship.” —Miami Herald“Smith, a talented travel writer . . . evokes Grogan, his adventures, and his world with both insight and panache . . . and matchless skill.” —The Washington Post“A rapturous adventure narrative that shows love really does conquer all.” —Hampton Sides, New York Times–bestselling author of In the Kingdom of IceGold Prize Winner, Society of American Travel Writers Western Writing AwardsBanff Mountain Book Competition Winner, Special Jury MentionAmerican Society of Journalists and Authors Award Winner: Best Book (Memoir)
Crossing the Horizon: A Novel
by Laurie NotaroSoar back to the fearless 1920s with #1 New York Times bestselling writer Laurie Notaro--beloved author of The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club--in a stunning historical novel that tells the true, little-known story of three aviatrixes in a race to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.Ten thousand feet in the sky, aviatrixes from London to Paris to New York--fueled by determination and courage--have their eyes on the century's biggest prize. The year is 1927, and Amelia Earhart has not yet made her record-breaking cross-Atlantic flight. Who will follow in Charles Lindbergh's footsteps and make her own history? Three women's names are splashed daily across the front page: Elsie Mackay, daughter of an Earl, is the first Englishwoman to get her pilot's license. Mabel Boll, a glamorous society darling and former cigar girl, is ardent to make the historic flight. Beauty pageant contestant Ruth Elder uses her winnings for flying lessons and becomes the preeminent American girl of the sky. Inspired by true events and real people, Notaro vividly evokes this exciting time as her determined heroines vie for the record. Through striking photos, meticulous research, and atmospheric prose, Notaro brings Elsie, Mabel, and Ruth to life, pulling us back in time as the pilots collide, struggle, and literally crash in the chase for fame and a place in aviation history.
Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's Odyssey in World War II
by Alvin B. KernanIn this memoir of life aboard aircraft carriers during World War II, Alvin Kernan combines vivid recollections of his experience as a young enlisted sailor with a rich historical account of the Pacific war. Kernan served in many battles and was aboard the Hornet when it was sunk by torpedoes in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. "One of the most arresting naval autobiographies yet published."--Sir John Keegan. "An honest story of collective courage, evocative, well-written, and fixed before the colors fade."--Kirkus Reviews. "[Kernan] recounts a wonderful and exciting American story about a poor farm boy from Wyoming who enlisted in the Navy. ... [He] has written eight other books. I will go back and read them all."--John Lehman, Air & Space. "Details ... make the moment vivid; that is what it was like, on the Hornet in its last hours."--Samuel Hynes, New York Times Book Review.
Crossing the Line
by Nick McKenzieAn explosive exposé and testament to the power of investigative journalismIn mid-2017, whispers from Australia's most secretive and elite military unit reached Walkley Award-winning journalist Nick McKenzie. McKenzie and veteran reporter Chris Masters began an investigation that would not only reveal shocking information about Australia's most famous and revered SAS soldier but plunge the two reporters into the defamation trial of the century. For five years, McKenzie waged an epic fight for the truth to be acknowledged, persuading special forces soldiers to reveal dark secrets about the murders of prisoners and civilians involving Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith. This fight to investigate allegations of war crimes and murder took McKenzie across Australia and to Afghanistan, and from the newsroom to the courtroom. It would see him sued for defamation by Ben Roberts-Smith, who denied the allegations. The reporter had to confront the powerful forces that could destroy his career and silence brave SAS soldiers who were prepared to speak up.An enthralling and meticulously researched book, Crossing the Line tells the untold story of how a small group of brave soldiers and two determined reporters exposed one of the greatest military scandals in Australian history.
Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever
by Kareem Rosser"A marvelous addition to the literature of inspirational sports stories." - Booklist (Starred Review)"This remarkable and inspiring story shines." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)An inspiring memoir of defying the odds from Kareem Rosser, captain of the first all-black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship. "Crossing the Line will not just leave you with hope, but also ideas on how to make that hope transferable” (New York Times bestselling author Wes Moore). Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in “The Bottom”, a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly’s Fairmount Park, Kareem’s brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers’ fascination with her misfit animals, Lezlie Hiner, founder of The Work to Ride stables, offers them their escape: an after school job in exchange for riding lessons.What starts as an accidental discovery turns into a love for horseback riding that leads the Rossers to discovering their passion for polo. Pursuing the sport with determination and discipline, Kareem earns his place among the typically exclusive players in college, becoming part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team—all while struggling to keep his family together.Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever is the story of bonds of brotherhood, family loyalty, the transformative connection between man and horse, and forging a better future that comes from overcoming impossible odds.
Crossing the Line: Lessons From a Life on Duty
by John SutherlandA RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'A love letter to police officers and the most vulnerable people they protect and serve' CHRISTIE WATSON, author of THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS'Extraordinary . . . urgent and compelling. We all have lessons to learn from this book' SIMON MAYOThere is much more to policing than tackling crime. Every one of us will need the help of an officer at some point in our lives, often when we're at our most vulnerable. Yet how much do we really know about the realities of policing? Using real life stories from his twenty-five years of service with the Metropolitan Police, John Sutherland invites us beyond the cordon tape to bear witness to all he has seen. In doing so, he offers a hopeful vision for how we can tackle some of the biggest challenges facing society today. Includes a new Afterword on policing during the Covid-19 pandemic
Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands
by Sarah B. TowleIt was family separation and “kids in cages” that drove Sarah Towle to the U.S. southern border. On discovering the many-headed hydra that is the U.S. immigration system—and the heroic determination of those caught under its knee—she could never look away again. Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands charts Sarah’s journey from outrage to activism to abolition as she exposes, layer by “broken” layer, the global deterrence to detention to deportation complex that is failing everyone—save the profiteers and demagogues who benefit from it.Deftly weaving together oral storytelling, history, and memoir, Sarah illustrates how the U.S. has led the retreat from post-WWII commitments to protecting human rights. Yet within the web of normalized cruelty, she finds hope and inspiration in the extraordinary acts of ordinary people who prove, every day, there is a better way. By amplifying their voices and celebrating their efforts, Sarah reveals that we can welcome with dignity those most in need of safety and compassion. In unmasking the real root causes of the so-called “crisis” in human migration, she urges us to act before we travel much farther down our current course—one which history will not soon forgive, or forget.
Crossing the Pass of Clouds: An Army Photographer's Vietnam Journal
by Lon HolmbergCrossing the Pass of Clouds: An Army Photographer’s Vietnam Journal is an intimate portrait of the last years of the Vietnam War in 147 black-and-white pictures and a series of vignettes written by photographer Lon Holmberg. As the photographer for American Commanding General Creighton Abrams, Holmberg had the opportunity to document pivotal moments involving a range of influential historical figures. Among the many remarkable images Holmberg has captured are photographs of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, US Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger during his journey to China, a trip that paved the way for President Nixon’s historic visit the following year. In Crossing the Pass of Clouds, Holmberg presents a captivating and deeply personal account of his experiences during his service as an army photographer in Vietnam in 1971. Through a combination of vivid narration and poignant images, this memoir provides an intimate glimpse into the complexities of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, both for the country and for the narrator. Holmberg recounts his assignment in the Ashau Valley in the north (a significant infiltration route for the North Vietnamese Army); a daring reconnaissance mission across the border in Laos; and his time at a firebase in central Vietnam near the enigmatic Hai Van Pass (known in English as the Pass of Clouds). Yet even as Holmberg’s photographs look squarely at the realities of war, they also explore beyond it, illuminating the faded elegance of Saigon, the lives of indigenous communities and of farmers working in fields, and the eventual transition of Vietnam into an industrialized society.
Crossing the Plains with Bruno
by Annick SmithDogs, like humans, have memories, instincts, fears, and loyalties. But, as far as we know, dogs do not get swept up in nostalgia, speculation, or self-analysis. Although they have hopes, they are not driven by regrets. In Crossing the Plains with Bruno, Annick Smith weaves together a memoir of travel and relationship, western history and family history, human love and animal love centering around a two week road trip across the Great Plains she and her 95 pound chocolate lab, Bruno, took in the summer of 2003. It is a chain of linked meditations, often triggered by place, about how the past impinges on the present and how the present can exist seemingly sans past.Traveling from her rural homestead in Montana to pick up her nearly 100-year-old mother from her senior residence on Chicago's North Side and bring her to the family's beach house on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan, Smith often gets lost in memory and rambling contemplation. Bruno's constant companionship and ever present needs force her to return to the actual, reminding her that she, too, is an animal whose existence depends on being alert to the scents, sights, hungers, and emotions of the moment.Passing through wide open spaces, dying ranch towns, green cornfields, and Midwestern hamlets, Annick is immersed in memories of her immigrant Hungarian Jewish family, her childhood days in Chicago, her early marriage, and ultimate immigration west. Triggered by random encounters along the way, she's taken back to life as a young mother, her career as a writer and filmmaker who produced the classic A River Runs Through It, the death of her husband, and the thrill of a late romance. A lifetime of reflection played out one mile at a time.Crossing the Plains with Bruno is a story narrated by a woman beset by the processes of aging, living with the imminent reality of a parent's death, but it is the dog that rides shotgun, like Sancho Panza to Don Quixote, that becomes the reminder of the physical realities outside our own imaginations.
Crossing the River Kabul: An Afghan Family Odyssey
by Kevin McLeanBaryalai Popal sees his Western-educated professors at Kabul University replaced by communists. He witnesses his classmates “disappearing.” The communist takeover uproots Popal from his family and home. Thus begins Crossing the River Kabul, the true story of Popal’s escape from Afghanistan and his eventual return. Kevin McLean weaves together Popal’s stories in this memoir, which is also a fascinating look at Afghanistan from the viewpoint of Popal and generations of his politically influential family. From the exile of Popal’s grandfather from Kandahar in 1898 to his father’s tutoring of two boys who as adults would play important roles in Afghanistan—one as king and the other as president—to his uncle’s presence at the fateful meeting that led to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Popal’s family history is intertwined with that of his nation. Popal fled his country following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1980. After being imprisoned as a spy in Pakistan, he managed to make his way to Germany as a refugee and to the United States as an immigrant. Twenty years later he returned to Afghanistan after 9/11 to reclaim his houses, only to find one controlled by drug lords and the other by the most powerful warlord in Afghanistan. Popal’s memoir is an intimate, often humorous portrait of the vanished Afghanistan of his childhood. It is also the story of a father whose greatest desire is to see his son follow in his footsteps, and a son who constantly rebels against his father's wishes. Crossing the River Kabul is a story of choice and destiny, fear and courage, and loss and redemption.
Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain
by Russ Ford Todd C. Peppers Charles PeppersThe Reverend Russ Ford, who served as the head chaplain on Virginia’s death row for eighteen years, raged against the inequities of the death penalty—now outlawed in Virginia—while ministering to the men condemned to die in the 1980s and 1990s. Ford stood watch with twenty-eight men, sitting with them in the squalid death house during the final days and hours of their lives. In July 1990 he accidentally almost became the 245th person killed by Virginia’s electric chair as he comforted Ricky Boggs in his last moments, a vivid episode that opens this haunting book.Many chaplains get to know the condemned men only in these final moments. Ford, however, spent years working with the men of Virginia’s death row, forging close bonds with the condemned and developing a nuanced understanding of their crimes, their early struggles, and their challenges behind bars. His unusual ministry makes this memoir a unique and compelling read, a moving and unflinching portrait of Virginia’s death row inmates. Revealing the cruelties of the state-sanctioned violence that has until recently prevailed in our backyard, Crossing the River Styx serves as a cautionary tale for those who still support capital punishment.
Crossing the Threshold of Hope
by Vittorio Messori Pope John Paul IIA great international bestseller, the book in which, on the eve of the millennium, Pope John Paul II brings to an accessible level the profoundest theological concerns of our lives. He goes to the heart of his personal beliefs and speaks with passion about the existence of God; about the dignity of man; about pain, suffering, and evil; about eternal life and the meaning of salvation; about hope; about the relationship of Christianity to other faiths and that of Catholicism to other branches of the Christian faith. With the humility and generosity of spirit for which he is known, John Paul II speaks directly and forthrightly to all people. His message: Be not afraid!
Crossing the Water: Eighteen Months on an Island Working with Troubled Boys -- A Teacher's Memoir
by Daniel RobbOff the coast of Cape Cod lies a small windswept island called Penikese. Alone on the island is a school for juvenile delinquents, the Penikese Island School, where Daniel Robb lived and worked for three years as a teacher. By turns harsh, desolate, and starkly beautiful, the island offers its temporary residents respite from lives filled with abuse, violence, and chaos. But as Robb discovers, peace, solitude, and a structured lifestyle can go only so far toward healing the anger and hurt he finds not only in his students but within himself. Lyrical and heartfelt, Crossing the Water is the memoir of his first eighteen months on Penikese, and a poignant meditation on the many ways that young men can become lost.