"My family has been forced to live like an island with no political party, president, or official language. We are not of any "new world" Columbus discovered. We are not Dominican enough or American enough to call either place home. We live and love with one foot on the ground and one foot in the sea." This is how Jasminne Mendez describes what it was like for her to grow up a Dominican American military brat. Always feeling like a foreigner in both lands because people want to know "where you from," and "how do you know Spanish?" In "Island of Dreams," author Jasminne Mendez, addresses these questions and their complicated answers in a multi-genre memoir that effortlessly blends poems and short stories to offer a glimpse into the challenges, joys, hopes, fears and disappointments she and her family faced being Dominican in America. Her work explores everything from the love/hate relationship she had with her hair and her mother, to the many memorable but sometimes unpleasant family vacations and holidays she shared with her parents, siblings, primos, t�os, y t�as. These captivating stories and poems are about family, food, love, culture, self-discovery, assimilation, and the American dream. They are about a young girl who respects the richness and abundance of her cultural history, but who struggles to form her own identity because her Dominican values conflict with her American self and all she wants to do is find a place to call home. Join memoir-writer Jasminne Mendez in this luscious recalling of her family's multi-faceted sojourn of family ties and their meaning, glorious cooking and eating, belonging and not belonging, and so many other complicated forays into the storied past. Sarah Cortez, author, "Walking Home: Growing Up Hispanic in Houston."Jasminne builds bridges between many worlds. Her potent voice conjures images of the Dominican Republican, Texas, Houston, the world. I've had the pleasure of seeing her perform in person. She is amazing in 3D. Actually, she performs in 6D-adding spirit, whimsy, and the future. She code-switches so brilliantly that you don't notice that she has jumped from Spanish to English to Spanglish to universal themes and back. Her work not only stands up on the page but takes on new meaning with potency, shattering barriers, breaking borders. This book will boggle your mind and thrill you. Tony Diaz, "El Librotraficante," founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say

Dan Boothby had been drifting for more than twenty years, without the pontoons of family, friends or a steady occupation. He was looking for but never finding the perfect place to land. Finally, unexpectedly, an opportunity presented itself. After a lifelong obsession with Gavin Maxwell's Ring of Bright Water trilogy, Boothby was given the chance to move to Maxwell's former home, a tiny island on the western seaboard of the Highlands of Scotland. Island of Dreams is about Boothby's time living there, and about the natural and human history that surrounded him; it's about the people he meets and the stories they tell, and about his engagement with this remote landscape, including the otters that inhabit it. Interspersed with Boothby's own story is a quest to better understand the mysterious Gavin Maxwell. Beautifully written and frequently leavened with a dry wit, Island of Dreams is a charming celebration of the particularities of place.

SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR In Island Dreams, Gavin Francis combines stories of his own travels with psychology, philosophy and myth, shedding new light on the importance of islands and isolation in our collective consciousness. Francis draws on thirty years of island adventures from the Faroe Islands to the Aegean, from the Galapagos to the Andaman Islands. He contrasts these quests for freedom with the demands for commitment required as a doctor, community member and parent. Island Dreams riffs on the twin poles of rest and motion, independence and attachment, never more relevant than in today’s ever-connected world.

Sakai works for a construction company that builds high rise buildings in Tokyo, but gets introduced to parts of the city he's never seen after meeting a mysterious young woman.

All adventures have humble beginnings, and Roberts voyage is no exception. While on a harmless road trip with his family, he stopped off to have a picnic with some of his wifes great-aunts. One of the auntsa known fortunetellerpulled out her runes, and for some reason Robert felt pulled to her. She read his fortune that innocent day, but his reading would change his life forever. While crossing a darkened lake nestled in the Wisconsin North Woods, Robert falls into the Otherworld of the Spirit of Man. He leaves his body behind, allowing his spirit to travel freely, with the guidance of a wizard mentor. The balance that keeps humankind from destroying itself has been fatally tipped, and Robert is our only hope for survival. He must search for a Healer who can mend the rift before its too late. The Archipelago of Dreams uses the medium of symbolic fantasy to explore the Waking Dreamthe dream that is human life. Robert has found a link to his dream self, and it is in this dreamlike state that he must accomplish his mission. He cannot do it alone. With the help of a wizard, a tree warrior, and an ancient dream Healer, humanity can be saved. But will the rift be mended, or will Robert be trapped in the spirit realm forever?

"Ogle captures this island city in all its quirky charm. Her story breezes along in typical Key West fashion--full of gossip and humor, with the jolt of a good cup of Cuban coffee."--Lee Irby, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg Parrotheads, Hemingway aficionados, and sun worshipers view Key West as a tropical paradise, and scores of writers have set tales of mystery and romance on the island. The city's real story--told by Maureen Ogle in this lively and engaging illustrated account--is as fabulous as fiction. In the early 1800s, the city's pioneer founders battled Indians, pirates, and deadly disease and created wealth beyond their imaginations. In the two centuries since, Key West has nurtured tragedy and triumph and has stood at the crossroads of American history. When Florida joined the Confederacy in 1861, Union troops seized control of strategically located Key West and city residents spent four years living under martial law. In the early 1890s, Key West Cubans helped Jose Marti launch the revolution that eventually ended Spain's control of their homeland. A few years later, the battleship Maine steamed out of Key West harbor on its last, tragic voyage. At the turn of the century, Henry Flagler astounded the entire country by building a technological marvel, an overseas railroad from mainland Florida to Key West, more than 100 miles long. In the 1920s and 1930s, painters, rumrunners, and writers (including Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost) discovered Key West. During World War II, the federal government and the military war machine permanently altered the island's landscape. In the second half of the 20th century, bohemians, hippies, gays, and jet-setters began writing a new chapter in Key West's social history. All of these personalities and events are wrapped in Ogle's unique and candid history of the island, an account that will fascinate past and present citizens of the Conch Republic, history buffs who like a well-told tale, and the millions of tourists from all over the world who love this colorful island city. Maureen Ogle is retired from the University of South Alabama.

Susan Marks went with a Photographer to a Party in Birmingham arranged by her boss the Editor of a fashion magazine but when her Photographer became ill Susan had to find a replacement Partner, Luckily she found a 6' 4" Hunk to take his place but thing became a lot more serious and when the party was cancelled Susan couldn't walk away and slowly fell in love, but was she making a mistake, it was to late to stop now.