Coasting

From the national bestselling, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Bad Land comes “a lively, intensely personal recounting of a voyage into a gifted writer's country and self” (The New York Times Book Review). Put Jonathan Raban on a boat and the results will be fascinating, and never more so than when he’s sailing around the serpentine, 2,000-mile coast of his native England. In this acutely perceived and beautifully written book, the bestselling author of Bad Land turns that voyage–which coincided with the Falklands war of 1982-into an occasion for meditations on his country, his childhood, and the elusive notion of home. Whether he’s chatting with bored tax exiles on the Isle of Man, wrestling down a mainsail during a titanic gale, or crashing a Scottish house party where the kilted guests turn out to be Americans, Raban is alert to the slightest nuance of meaning. One can read Coasting for his precise naturalistic descriptions or his mordant comments on the new England, where the principal industry seems to be the marketing of Englishness. But one always reads it with pleasure.

Elise had a new job, flat and relationship – and they were all making her utterly miserable. Then the obvious solution hit her: run 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain. Over the next 301 days, she saw Britain at its most wild and wonderful, and discovered that running away doesn’t solve your problems – but it's more fun than dealing with them.

"For me, it captures the character of the western North Carolina mountains." -Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump Centering on Asheville and trekking out for sixty miles in all directions, this lighthearted, personal guide focuses on all the attractions of the region. Western North Carolina, bordering Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia, attracts five million visitors annually. This region offers the tourist and resident breathtaking natural beauty, charming shops, restaurants, and accommodations that range from rustic to elegant. The authors point out that many books have been written about this area's waterfalls, parks, biking, rafting, and camping in great detail, but Coasting the Mountains covers what they liked best about everything. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Judy Barnes, Jolane Edwards, Carolyn Lee Goodloe, and Laurel Wilson are all good friends who spend a great deal of their time traveling, so they can attest to the information being provided to their readers. They are also the authors of Coasting: An Expanded Guide to the Northern Gulf Coast . They live in Point Clear, Alabama.

Calle Stevens wasn’t what one would call a risk-taker. She was steady. She was even. She was . . . pregnant. Her life was ruined. She was an assistant coach for the professional hockey team, the San Francisco Gold. She didn’t have any family in the area, didn’t have a partner. How was she going to have a baby? But then… Cooper. A star player for the team, he’d found out about the baby, and as much as she tried to push him away, he refused to keep his distance. And as the weeks went by, she didn’t want him to stay away. She wanted him to come even closer.

“My teachers say I’m coasting, that I just do ‘well enough.’ But why do I want to waste my time on super boring stuff?” Casey is bright, but doesn’t apply himself at school. Instead, he coasts—doing just well enough to get by, and ignoring homework and projects that don’t interest him. What does interest Casey is art. He loves to draw, make music, and create. Sometimes this enthusiasm interferes with learning and gets him into trouble. With help from his school principal, Casey learns to apply his passions to his schoolwork. Told in humorous rhyme, this lively story will speak to bored students and to any kid who can—and wants to—do better. The book concludes with tips and information to help parents, teachers, counselors, and other adults foster dialogue with any kid wrestling with underachievement.

Reproduction of the original.