A Sandy Path Near The Lake

This book presents the long-awaited autobiography of Kovit Khemananda, a Thai Buddhist artist and spiritual teacher. Kovit's life story begins near his home village of Tha Khura in Southern Thailand, on the shores of Songkhla Lake. He relates growing up surrounded by unique local traditions and abundant natural resources, including flora and fauna. His own powers of observation are transformed into an aesthetic sense, and then into an insightful spiritual quest. Kovit seeks meaning in the Tha ...

Charles Barron McIntosh has devoted a lifetime of scholarship to the history of human activity on Nebraska’s Sand Hills, the spare, beautiful land that occupies much of western Nebraska. From carefully deciphering Native American occupancy through rigorous analysis of thousands of arrowheads, to patiently combing through decades of courthouse land title transaction records, McIntosh has mastered the sweep of centuries of human interaction with the land. We learn how the land shapes humankind, far more than pride would have us believe, and we see that perhaps our real success lies in learning how to live with the land, rather than attempting to master it. The Nebraska Sand Hills reflects McIntosh’s lifetime of learning, reading, questioning, analyzing—in short, everything it means to be a scholar; seldom are these efforts so well demonstrated. His affection for this unique landscape is present on every page.

It is April 2013. Gen Fletcher leaves her husband behind and heads to Little Beaver, Minnesota, to complete the school year for Evelyn Pretsler, a high school teacher who has mysteriously disappeared. As a young educator who does not like being told where she can go and what she can do, Gen has already ignored the naysayers and is more than ready to embrace new experiences. But as Gen arrives in the small isolated town and checks into the Bumblebee Inn, she has no idea that she has unwittingly placed herself smack dab in the middle of a crisis. As the newest stranger in town, Gen soon discovers that the people of Little Beaver are an eclectic group that includes a Native American, a lumberjack poet, and a sheriff unwilling to disclose the details of Pretslers disappearance. As Gen begins immersing herself in her six-week adventure, she learns further information about Pretsler that leaves her with more questions than answers. But when Gen is left to deal with troublesome students in her classroom, what she finds soon draws her into the murder investigation and leaves her teaching career in jeopardy. Dontcha Know? shares the tale of a young womans adventure in a small Minnesota town after she agrees to take over a missing teachers classroom and finds herself embroiled in a complex mystery.

A hike for every interest and ability! Alabama has so many great hikes to offer, including those in national and state parks and forests and in national wildlife refuges. In this book, the emphasis is on the most scenic destinations and unique places that help make Alabama so beautiful, like the rock formations of the Wall of Jericho, or the dunes of Bon Secour. Many hikes described here are off-the-beaten-path treks to lesser-known sites such as Needles Eye and Blue Spring; they show visitors the state’s wide range of beauty and biodiversity. Others take place at various spots along the Pinhoti Trail, the master path through Alabama’s mountains.