"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?

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.

This book is written so I could share my life and adventuresboth the sadness and the happier times that prevailed. I want people to understand me so that they can better understand a child who was once lost without guidance but triumphed in the end. The island where I grew up held much adventure. Along with the bountiful and lush greenery, exotic fruits, heavenly gardens, and beautiful beachesI experienced much pain and confusion throughout my childhood. This is my story. I wrote it to inspire my children to never give up on each other and love each othercome what may. I pray that future mothers will never abandon their children no matter what the circumstances may be. God always has a way to make things right. Book Review: Island of Dreams Author: Heidy Ramos Reviewed by Cynthia Brian When you read the title and observe the beautiful cover of the Island of Dreams, you are immediately transported to an idyllic coastline filled with jumping fish in azure blue waters, caramel colored beaches boasting a tropical thatched hut, swaying palm trees and an adorable little girl with open, welcoming arms. Ah, you whisper, this does indeed look like a dream island. Then you read the first few paragraphs of the Introduction that begins The year was 1970. The place was Subic Bay. I was four years old at the time. We were huddling together on a street corner. I remember crying and shouting out my mothers name. Mom! Mom! Mom! Dont leave us! The tears fall as the autobiographical story of Heidy Ramos and her numerous siblings living and moving from tiny island to tiny island in the Philippines unravels into a web of abandonment, abuse, and betrayal so raw, so incredibly despicable, so horribly inhumane that you wonder how she survived. She remembers hiding with her brothers and sisters in a cornfield as her mother screamed in agony as she was beaten. Without a word, her mother left for the United States, leaving the children in the care of a belittling grandmother, an elderly grandfather, and a drunken uncle whose favorite past time was abusing the children. The nightmare began anew each day as the children scavenged for food while attempting to avoid the wrath of the beatings. The only solace enjoyed by the children was swimming in the sea. They would swim from island to island, actually hoping to drown, as life was such a living hell. The uncle spent money on alcohol and gambling, while the children starved, living without necessities. They were taunted and teased at school because their mother had abandoned them and no father claimed them. The siblings only had one another to lean on. An older sister smuggled the younger children aboard a ship and took them to a far away island. Heidi recalls this was one of the most frightening days she had ever encountered. When her uncles heard they had escaped, they threatened to kill them all when discovered. Although the sisters intentions were honorable, she and her husband did not have the financial resources to sustain the bigger brood. The neglectful mother returns with a new husband and more children in tow yet refuses to claim her Filipino children as her own. She instructs them to call her Auntie, probably, the author assumes, her mother was ashamed because they were dark skinned while her new American children were blonds. The mother wanted to be part of a high society, not trapped in poverty. Ms. Ramos native language is Tagalog and the book is written as if she is thinking in Tagalog and translating to English. At first the misuse of words, the grammatical errors, and the incorrect sentence structure is distracting. However, as you read the book, you become engulfed in her tear jerk story and realize that the phrasing adds to