One Love. One Chance. Once Sacrifice. For Sam Mc Grath a brief encounter with a young woman, on a turbulent flight, changes his life. On impulse, crazily attracted to her, her vows to follow her
- all the way to Nepal. Finch Buchanan is flying out as doctor to an expedition. But when she reaches the Himalayas she will be reunited with a man she has never been able to forget. Al Hood has made a promise to his daughter. Once he has conquered this last peak, he will leave the mountains behind forever. Everest towers over the group, silent & beautiful. & the passionate relationship between Finch, Al & Sam
- two men driven by their own demons, & a woman with a dream of her own
- begins to play itself out, with tragic consequences...


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For years I had wandered Australia with an aching heart. Everywhere I had ever travelled across the vast expanse of the fabulous country where I was born I had seen devastation, denuded hills, eroded slopes, weeds from all over the world, feral animals, open-cut mines as big as cities, salt rivers, salt earth, abandoned townships, whole beaches made from beer cans... One bright day in December 2001, sixty-two-year-old Germaine Greer found herself confronted by an irresistible challenge in the shape of sixty hectares of dairy farm, one of many in south-east Queensland that, after a century of logging, clearing & downright devastation, had been abandoned to their fate. She didn`t think for a minute that by restoring the land she was saving the world. She was in search of heart`s ease. Beyond the acres of exotic pasture grass & soft weed & the impenetrable curtains of tangled Lantana canes there were Macadamias dangling their strings of unripe nuts, & Black Beans with red & yellow pea flowers growing on their branches. & the few remaining White Beeches, stupendous trees up to forty metres in height, logged out within forty years of the arrival of the first white settlers. To have turned down even a faint chance of bringing them back to their old haunts would have been to succumb to despair. Once the process of rehabilitation had begun, the chance proved to be a dead certainty. When the first replanting shot up to make a forest & rare caterpillars turned up to feed on the leaves of the new young trees, she knew beyond doubt that at least here biodepletion could be reversed. Greer describes herself as an old dog who succeeded in learning a load of new tricks, inspired & rejuvenated by her passionate love of Australia & of Earth, most exuberant of small planets. ...

` Look for your sister after each dive. Never forget. If you see her, you are safe.` Hana & her little sister Emi are part of an island community of haenyo, women who make their living from diving deep into the sea off the southernmost tip of Korea. One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where Emi is guarding the day`s catch on the beach. Her mother has told her again & again never to be caught alone with one. Terrified for her sister, Hana swims as hard as she can for the shore. So begins the story of two sisters suddenly & violently separated by war. Moving between Hana in 1943 & Emi as an old woman today, White Chrysanthemum takes us into a dark & devastating corner of history
- & two women whose love for one another is strong enough to triumph over the evils of war.
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` Look for your sister after each dive. Never forget. If you see her, you are safe.` Hana & her little sister Emi are part of an island community of haenyeo, women who make their living from diving deep into the sea off the southernmost tip of Korea. One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where Emi is guarding the day`s catch on the beach. Her mother has told her again & again never to be caught alone with one. Terrified for her sister, Hana swims as hard as she can for the shore. So begins the story of two sisters suddenly & violently separated by war. Switch-backing between Hana in 1943 & Emi as an old woman today, White Chrysanthemum takes us into a dark & devastating corner of history. But pulling us back into the light are two women whose love for one another is strong enough to triumph over the evils of war.A riveting, immersive read in the vein of The Kite Runner & Memoirs of a Geisha. ...

Every so often a thriller appears that offers more to the reader than just entertainment. White Crocodile is just that. When emotionally damaged mine-clearer Tess Hardy travels to Cambodia to find out the truth behind her ex-husband`s death, she doesn`t know much about the country or its beliefs. On arrival, she finds that teenage mothers are going missing, while others are being found mutilated & murdered. As local superstitions breed fear, Tess is drawn into a web of lies that stretches from Cambodia to another murder in Engl&, & a violent secret twenty years old. ...

Incredibly moving & beautifully drawn, White Dog Fell From the Sky by Eleanor Morse is an intimate portrait of Africa. Botswana, 1976. Isaac Muthethe thinks that he is dead. Forced to flee his country after witnessing a friend murdered by white members of the South African Defense Force, he finds himself, for the first time, in a country without apartheid. Smuggled across the border from South Africa in a hearse, buried in a coffin, he awakens covered in dust, staring at blue sky & the face of White Dog. Walking along the road into Gaborone, Botswana's capital, White Dog following close behind, a chance encounter with an old school acquaintance changes the course of Isaac's life
- as does the job he finds as gardener for a young American woman, Alice Mendelssohn, who has abandoned her Ph.D. studies in order to follow her husband to Africa. But when Isaac goes missing & Alice goes searching for him, what she finds out will change her life & inextricably bind her to this sunburned, beautiful l&. Eleanor Morse captures the magic of the African landscape & the terror & degradation of life under apartheid in White Dog Fell from the Sky.. .tense & heartfelt. (O, The Oprah Magazine). Magic, friendship, the tragedy of apartheid & the triumph of loyalty are recounted in poetic, powerful prose by this unconventional & intelligent writer. Shattering & uplifting. (Kuki Gallmann, author of I Dreamed of Africa). Morse's writing is lyrical & quite beautiful, with searing descriptions of the dusty earth, unforgiving sun, & stark skies. (Entertainment Weekly). Eleanor Morse has taught in adult education programs, in prisons, & in university systems, both in Maine & in southern Africa. She currently works as an adjunct faculty member with Spalding University's MFA Writing program in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives on Peaks Isl&, Maine.
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Among the explorers made famous for revealing hitherto impenetrable cultures--T. E. Lawrence & Wilfred Thesiger in the Middle East, Richard Burton in Africa--Knud Rasmussen stands out not only for his physical bravery but also for the beauty of his writing. Part Danish, part Inuit, Rasmussen made a courageous three-year journey by dog sled from Greenland to Alaska to reveal the common origins of all circumpolar peoples. Lovers of Arctic adventure, exotic cultures, & timeless legend will relish this gripping tale by Stephen R. Bown, known as ” Canada`s Simon Winchester.” ...

This is the story of a journey like no other, as Jacek Hugo-Bader makes his way across Siberia, from Moscow to Vladivostok, in the middle of winter. Travelling alone in a modified Russian jeep, he traverses a continent that is two-&-a-half times bigger than America, awash with bandits & not always fully equipped with roads. Along the way, Hugo-Bader discovers a great deal of tragedy, but also plenty of dark humour among the reindeer shepherds, nomadic tribes, the former hippies, the shamans, & the followers of some of the many arcane religions that flourish in this isolated, impossible region. ...

The White Funnel Fleet of P&A Campbell had a long & successful association with England`s south coast, with the company`s Bristol Channel steamer excursions perhaps being their best-known operation. Covering the period from the 1880s to the 1950s, from the tentative beginnings when brothers Alexander & Peter Campbell took up the challenge of the busy & tempestuous Bristol Channel, this beautifully illustrated history
- using many rare & previously unpublished images from the archives of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society
- takes the reader through the golden years of the Victorian & Edwardian eras, the difficult years of the 1920s & 1930s, & the resurgence of the late 1940s before the harsh economic pressures of the 1950s led to the company`s decline. Including heart-warming stories from the two world wars, when the ships donned warship grey & swept the sea lanes for mines, as well as fascinating ` White Funnel Trivia`, this book evokes the hey-day of the White Funnel Steamers & their enduring appeal.

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`I defy you to read this book & come away with a mind unchanged` John Jeremiah Sullivan` Als has a serious claim to be regarded as the next James Baldwin` Observer`I see how we are all the same, that none of us are white women or black men; rather, we`re a series of mouths, & that every mouth needs

Filling: with something wet or dry, like love, or unfamiliar & savory, like love` White Girls is about, among other things, blackness, queerness, movies, Brooklyn, love (and the loss of love), AIDS, fashion, Basquiat, Capote, philosophy, porn, Louise Brooks & Michael Jackson. Freewheeling & dazzling, tender & true, it is one of the most highly acclaimed essay collections in years. `A voice that`s new, that comes as if from a different room. I defy you to read this book & come away with a mind unchanged` John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead ` Effortless, honest & fearless` Rich Benjamin, The New York Times` Als is one of the most consistently unpredictable & surprising essayists out there, an author who confounds our expectations virtually every time he writes` David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times `A comprehensive & utterly lovely collection of one of the best writers around` Eugenia Williamson, Boston Globe

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