After spending his first twenty years with his supportive working class parents in a village largely run by middle-class professional values, Richard decides to move away. As a young boy growing up surrounded by farming people, including his father, two uncles and many other family members, his mother had always encouraged him not to end up as a farm worker. After a short spell working for a local furniture company, and running away with an underage girl to Scotland, he goes to sea for a while. Afterwards, slowly but surely, he begins to develop an enjoyable and productive career in forestry, working around the country, each time moving to a higher and better paid job. After nearly thirty years away from his place of birth, although he does visit his family and friends during that time, he decides to move back to where his parents were living, where he develops a new career and finds a new partner. But perhaps he had paid a high price for leaving his home village in the first place!

ÿLes Tatter, born into a hard-working East End family and growing up during the First World War, finds the poverty, hardship and class prejudice around him almost too much to bear. He runs away from home, goes on the road with a pair of kind hearted tramps and finally ends up finding peace and salvation in a monastery. But his hopes turn to ashes again when he receives bad news from home. Who can he turn to when his world collapses around him? A novel of hardship and redemption set in the years after World War One.

This edited volume is first of its kind to document and critically analyse the changes took place snice China’s opening-up and reform and its impact on Dongbei, China’s North-East region, known for its remote and vast landscape, unique and othered culture, rich resources, mighty infrastructures and industries, geopolitical significance. Through presenting up-to-date and multidimensional case studies, the book covers three major aspects of Dongbei, which put people at the heart of our scholarly focus, namely people’s mediated life through traditional and new media; people’s social, cultural, and living spaces; artistic and fictional representations of people’s everyday life.

The author has always enjoyed creative writing, to include short stories and poetry. His background, based on living all over the United States growing up, nine years in the Army with three years served in Europe, and world-wide travels in business, has afforded him the perspective of a multitude of diverse cultures and demographic influences. This book is a compilation that spans all those experiences. The title reflects the range of themes and contextual scope contained in the body of work accrued over a period of 50 years. These experiences span time from adolescence to retirement, through love, marriage, divorce, personal loss, and death. These poems comprise a variety of subjects and themes which cover most of the emotional aspects of life experienced by all human beings. The author believes there are strong common reference points which readers will relate to and enjoy. It reads easy and does not require any formality of poetry study or structure to be able to appreciate. Readers are invited to come along on this journey that reveals the experience of a full life well lived.

A Black immigrant journeys from the Caribbean to Canada—and through multiple musical personas—in a “deeply moving” memoir “suffused with poetic prose” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). As a clever, willful boy in a tiny village in the tropical forests of Trinidad—raised by his indomitable grandmother, Miss Excelly, and her King James Bible—Antonio Michael Downing is steeped in the legacies of his scattered family, the vibrant culture of the island, and the weight of its colonial history. But after Miss Excelly’s death, everything changes. The eleven-year-old seems to fall asleep in the jungle and wake up in a blizzard: he is sent to live with his devoutly evangelical Aunt Joan in rural Canada, where they are the only Black family in a landscape starkly devoid of the warm lushness of his childhood. Isolated and longing for home, Downing begins a decades-long journey to transform himself through music and performance. A reunion with his birth parents, whom he’s known only through story, closes more doors than it opens. Instead, Downing seeks refuge in increasingly extravagant musical personalities: “Mic Dainjah,” a boisterous punk rapper; “Molasses,” a soul crooner; and, finally, an eccentric dystopian-era pop star clad in leather and gold, “John Orpheus.” In his mid-thirties, increasingly addicted to escapism, attention, and sex, Downing realizes he has become a “Saga Boy”—a Trinidadian playboy archetype—like his father and grandfather before him. When his choices land him in a jail cell, Downing must face who he has become. “Lush language and sensory details make the fascinating events of this memoir pop. An authentic, entertaining, and timely account of a creative immigrant’s experiences.” —Booklist “Downing’s elegant, engaging memoir will have particular significance to readers from the Caribbean diaspora, but it will be understood by any reader who has ever had their world suddenly upended and needed to make it whole again.” —Library Journal “A rich memoir about how far some folks have to travel just to arrive where they began.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

This is the account of two men who believe that we are created for deep, meaningful, and emotionally intimate relationships. The authors have found these relationships with their wives, and they are models for their children. They experience this kind of relationship with each other. They share how vital these relationships are through their non-profit: Someone To Tell It To. They create safe environments for people to share the stories of their lives openly and unashamedly. They encourage others to find safe people in their lives to foster relationships that provide true support, unconditional love, and grace. This book shares the authors stories and the stories of others who are seeking meaning and purpose in their lives, especially when faced with challenges and questions. Someone To Tell It To may remind us that we are not alone in our fears, or in our feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty. Readers may be motivated to create more vital connections in their lives, connections that can be life-giving and soul-enriching, that can bring peace in the dark seasons of our lives. Having someone to tell it to, as author Miles Franklin writes, is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.

When Calloway returns to school after the winter break, high school only becomes more difficult, and not academically. Beatrice, the girl who he's had his eye on since the beginning of high school, finally acknowledges him. Calloway doesn't understand what any of it means. They are still trying to locate the portal, and when chance strikes, they believe they found the answer. But now they have to decide what to do, Should they tell Weston or go on their own? Hawk's torments are ever present for Calloway. When it becomes too much, Calloway turns to his mentor, Mr. Avey, for help. There's only so much Calloway can take. With graduation, prom, and the Hara-kirs chasing them every step of the way, Calloway and his two friends have to stay a step ahead. If not, the game could end for good.