John Colvin's career as one of Her Majesty's Representatives in Foreign Parts never scaled the greatest heights of the ambassadorial ladder, but it did lead to two unusual postings, which he describes in this book. In 1966 he was sent to Hanoi at a time when the Vietnam War began to assume its full rigour, and his verdict on the American involvement, contrary to the widely-held view, is that they did not leave Indo-China without credit or achievement. His next posting was as Ambassador to the People's Republic of Mongolia. His memories of that remote but lovely country, which dwell as much upon topographical as political aspects, provide an insight into life in what was then a Russian satellite state, far removed from the centre of world affairs.

Ashley is a successful half Black-half Latina female living a glamorous lifestyle of a Hollywood movie star, or so it would seem, if you re on the outside looking in. Truth is, she is tired of failed relationships and is fearful of being alone. She struggles to find love and begins to question herself. Lilian cashed in on the normal life of a housewife early, marrying the guy all the girls wanted back in high school, house, white picket fence, etc...she was living the American Dream. Her dream life soon becomes one that resembles a nightmare, leaving her vulnerable. After an invitation and a lot of persuasion from her friend Ashley, Lillian decides to leave the security of her long time home in New York and move to Los Angeles. It is there that she realizes maybe she has more in her life to change than she may have initially thought. Around The World Twice is a story about two best friends whose lives are synonymous, despite the different social circles they traveled in. It is a story

An exciting new book about renewal by the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry In the searing poems of his new collection, Twice Alive, the Pulitzer Prize–winner Forrest Gander addresses the exigencies of our historical moment and the intimacies, personal and environmental, that bind us to others and to the world. Drawing from his training in geology and his immersion in Sangam literary traditions, Gander invests these poems with an emotional intensity that illuminates our deep-tangled interrelations. While conducting fieldwork with a celebrated mycologist, Gander links human intimacy with the transformative collaborations between species that compose lichens. Throughout Twice Alive, Gander addresses personal and ecological trauma—several poems focus on the devastation wrought by wildfires in California where he lives—but his tone is overwhelmingly celebratory. Twice Alive is a book charged with exultation and tenderness.