Author Ken McAlpine stands in his front yard one night in Ventura, California, trying to see the stars. His view is diminished by light pollution, making it hard to see much of anything in the sky. Our fast-paced, technologically advanced society, he concludes, is not conducive to stargazing or soul-searching. Taking a page from Thoreau's Walden, he decides to get away from the clamor of everyday life, journeying alone through California's Channel Islands National Park. There, he imagines, he might be able to "breathe slowly and think clearly, to examine how we live and what we live for." In between his week-long solo trips through these pristine islands, McAlpine reaches out to try to better understand his fellow man: he eats lunch with the homeless in Beverly Hills, sits in the desert with a 98-year-old Benedictine monk, and befriends a sidewalk celebrity impersonator in Hollywood. What he discovers about himself and the world we live in will inspire anyone who wishes they had the time to slow down and notice the wonders of nature and humanity. To learn more about the author, visit his website at www.kenmcalpine.com.

Jasminne Mendez didn’t speak English when she started kindergarten, and her young, white teacher thought the girl was deaf because in Louisiana, you were either black or white. She had no idea that a black girl could be a Spanish speaker. In this memoir for teens about growing up Afro Latina in the Deep South, Jasminne writes about feeling torn between her Dominican, Spanish-speaking culture at home and the American, English-speaking one around her. She desperately wanted to fit in, to be seen as American, and she realized early on that language mattered. Learning to read and write English well was the road to acceptance. Mendez shares typical childhood experiences such as having an imaginary friend, boys and puberty, but she also exposes the anti-black racism within her own family and the conflict created by her family’s conservative traditions. She was not allowed to do things other girls could, like date boys, shave her legs or wear heels. “I wanted us to find some common ground,” she writes about her parents, “but it seemed like we were from two different worlds, and our islands kept drifting farther and farther apart.” Despite her father’s old-style approach to raising girls, he valued education and insisted his daughters do well in school and maintain their native language. He took his children to hear Maya Angelou speak, and hearing the poet read was a defining moment for the black Dominican girl who struggled to fit in. “I decided that if Maya Angelou could be the author of her own story and rewrite her destiny to become a phenomenal woman, then somehow, so could I.” Teens—and adults too—will appreciate reading about Mendez’s experiences coming of age in the United States as both black and Latina.

Two islands as different as night and day. Two people whose backgrounds are worlds apart meet at the Barbados International airport. Teacher Laura decides to leave an unfulfilled life on Holy Island, off the rugged Northumbrian Coast after the death of her grandmother. Before her grandmother dies, she reveals a box of letters and photographs of Laura’s early life. Laura is astonished to learn that part of her childhood was spent in Barbados. Curious about her past Laura arrives in Barbados grieving and filled with questions. She meets the handsome, wealthy and ostensibly superficial American pilot Blake Degas. Blake is yet to meet a woman who can resist his charm and believes Laura will be no exception. But all is about to change as Laura unravels her family’s story which leads to a life changing discovery. Two people, two pasts! Can Laura and Blake overcome their inner demons, or will they forever remain Islands apart?

Jasminne Mendez writes about her childhood in this memoir about identity as she ultimately assumes aspects of both her parents' culture and society at large to become Dominican American.

Seeking to convalesce from a serious illness and finish a literary project, New York book editor Claire Doheney house-sits an oceanfront mansion on Chappaquiddick Island, where she falls in love with a mysterious loner who harbors a devastating secret.