Good Morning Hanoi

Returning once again to Viet Nam, where more than thirty years previously they had been correspondents during the Vietnam War, Iain Finlay and Trish Clark take up the job of coaching a team of young Vietnamese people at the Voice of Vietnam radio network in Hanoi. Here, Iain and Trish describe their experiences and their encounters with the New Viet Nam. They describe with warmth and humor the various people they work with, and the personalities they meet and get to know in and around the small courtyard where they live. This is a warm, fascinating book about modern Viet Nam, as revealed through the lives of ordinary people.

It's not often that someone stumbles into entrepreneurship and ends up reviving a community and starting a national economic-reform movement. But that's what happened when, in 1983, Judy Wicks founded the White Dog Café on the first floor of her house on a row of Victorian brownstones in West Philadelphia. After helping to save her block from demolition, Judy grew what began as a tiny muffin shop into a 200-seat restaurant-one of the first to feature local, organic, and humane food. The restaurant blossomed into a regional hub for community, and a national powerhouse for modeling socially responsible business. Good Morning, Beautiful Business is a memoir about the evolution of an entrepreneur who would not only change her neighborhood, but would also change her world-helping communities far and wide create local living economies that value people and place as much as commerce and that make communities not just interesting and diverse and prosperous, but also resilient. Wicks recounts a girlhood coming of age in the sixties, a stint working in an Alaska Eskimo village in the seventies, her experience cofounding the first Free People store, her accidental entry into the world of restauranteering, the emergence of the celebrated White Dog Café, and her eventual role as an international leader and speaker in the local-living-economies movement. Her memoir traces the roots of her career - exploring what it takes to marry social change and commerce, and do business differently. Passionate, fun, and inspirational, Good Morning, Beautiful Business explores the way women, and men, can follow both mind and heart, do what's right, and do well by doing good.

An extraordinary wide-ranging collection of essays with “distinctive wordplay and quirky opinions…Christopher Buckley is good company whether you’re looking for two quick pages and a smile, or want to linger” (The New York Times Book Review). Christopher Buckley, like his terrific volume But Enough About You, contains multitudes. Tackling subjects ranging from “How to Teach Your Four-Year-Old to Ski” to “A Short History of the Bug Zapper,” and “The Art of Sacking” to literary friendships with Joseph Heller and Christopher Hitchens, he is at once a humorous storyteller, astute cultural critic, adventurous traveler, and irreverent historian. Reading these essays is the equivalent of being in the company of a tremendously witty and enlightening companion. Praised as “both deeply informed and deeply funny” by The Wall Street Journal, Buckley will have you laughing and reflecting in equal measure. This is a rare combination of big ideas and truly fun writing.

Explore the travel/tourism possibilities of this exotic yet tourist-friendly country Vietnam Tourism presents a unique ethnographic-semiotic analysis of some of the most important touristic icons in Vietnamese culture. In addition, it offers a firsthand analysis of many aspects of daily life in Vietnam and a semiotic analysis of Vietnam’s dominant cultural symbols. A twelve-page photo section brings vibrant images of this unique country to life. Vietnam Tourism also presents an essential overview of what Vietnam has to offer tourists, looking at the exciting possibilities—and the potential pitfalls—of visiting this extraordinary country. Although Vietnam is a Third World country, it has excellent tourism companies and many wonderful sites—from Halong Bay and Hue to extraordinary temples and beautiful beaches. The book paints a vivid portrait of this country’s hidden gems and popular tourist destinations, exploring the problems and possibilities Vietnam faces in developing its tourism industry. In Vietnam Tourism, you’ll find information that is essential for anyone who needs to be “in the know” about this increasingly popular tourist destination. This reader-friendly book will leave you better informed about: the rapid construction of hotels in important tourist sites: there are now hotels of all kinds—from super luxurious ones to middle-range, three-star hotels, down to very primitive hotels—in most of the country’s important tourist venues daily life in Vietnam’s teeming cities, in its religious enclaves, and in its unique rural areas the meaning and relevance (semiotics) of commonplace objects in Vietnam, including Pho (a traditional soup that is often eaten for breakfast and is found everywhere in the country), conical straw hats, spring rolls, pith helmets, dong (Vietnamese currency), water puppetry, etc. important sites that tourists often visit, including the Ho Chi Minh museum, Ha Noi, the Cu Chi Tunnels, the unforgettable Cao Dai Cathedral at Tay Ninh, the Mekong Delta, and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) images of Vietnam created by travel writers—what the tourist guidebooks have to say, and how they relate to the reality of the author’s personal experience in Vietnam After reading Vietnam Tourism, you (and your students) will have a wealth of knowledge to draw upon. This is an ideal book to read before visiting Vietnam yourself—or recommending/planning a trip for others. The fresh insights it presents will help make any trip to the region more rewarding for the traveler.

Fabbers, slabbers and fakies were dehumanizing slurs for fabricated humans. Bricks, however, was the People’s favorite. The Sentience Laws were created to protect the rights of Bricks, but the laws didn’t last long. Banished to the remote isolation of the Settlement, Paul and Raine are sentenced to live the rest of their lives in the wilderness. Escape and freedom will depend on Marcus Anderson, the man responsible for all the suffering that’s been endured since the invention of biomites—the synthetic stem cells used to fabricate halfskins and Bricks. Marcus needs them in order to find the “powers-that-be,” the man he believes is truly responsible for the world’s suffering. Their journey will take them to a tiny island in the South Atlantic, where the truth is much closer than they realize. That’s where they will discover the “powers-that-be”. And so much more. INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR WHAT GENRE DO YOU PREFER? Science fiction, dystopia, technothriller and, to some extent, young adult. I do have a series of novellas in the vampire genre. Yeah, I know. Doesn’t fit. That character, Drayton, came out of nowhere when I was at a community theatre production of Dracula. I figured that an immortal vampire would more likely become compassionate and wise as he grew older. The technothriller Halfskin is similar to vampires in that technology promises immortality and complete control of our bodies. But then what? WHY A SYNTHETIC STEM CELL? Organic life is too nilly-willy. We’re limited by our DNA. Give it to the scientists to perfect this vehicle that carries us around because it is a vehicle. If we no longer have organic bodies, if every one of our cells is replaced by something manmade all the way down to the neurons and synapses, then what are we? What if our world is just a computerized environment, ala The Matrix? Would we know the difference? Look, we’re printing organs today. I’m not, but someone is. Some genius has figured out how to push play and heart or liver or kidney comes down the chute. Halfskin takes the idea into the distant future and explores whether this leads to more happiness or just more of the same. Because more money, more problems. DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER JOB BESIDES AUTHOR? Day job, I’m a college horticulture teacher. Writing is a passion. No plans to change it. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Breathe. WHAT TALENT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE? Omnipresent supergalactic oneness. IF WE HAD A CUSTOM THAT ALLOWED US TO EAT OUR CHILDREN, WHAT KIND OF SAUCE WOULD YOU USE? Ketchup, the miracle condiment. ARE OUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES STEALING OUR SOUL? AND IF SO, DO YOU MAKE OFFERINGS TO YOUR TOASTER? I offer white bread and the toaster gives back crunchy, brown bread. Never doubt a true miracle.

For fans of Bladerunner and Brave New World comes a new twist… Perfection has arrived. Synthetic stem cells mean no more organ failure, no more pharmaceuticals. No cancer. The human race is stronger, smarter and prettier. Is it better? Cali Richards is a nanobiometric engineer who has been her younger brother’s guardian since their parents died. She’s lost too many people in her life to lose another. When the government declares the Halfskin Laws will shut down anyone with too many synthetics, she decides to hide him. But even brilliance can succumb to the pressure of suffering. And synthetics can’t cure insanity. Follow their twisting, slippery grip on reality as they strive to find happiness in a world that has everything it could possibly want. REVIEWS FOR HALFSKIN “This, quite frankly, is one of the best books I’ve read.” –John Gregory Hancock, Amazon Reviewer“WOW.” –Amanda Taylor, Amazon Reviewer“I was not expecting the twists…” –Amazon Reviewer“Hated finishing this book… many hours of enjoyment.” –Eleanor Wendlberger, Amazon Reviewer“Halfskin is one of the best science fiction stories I’ve read this year.” –ACFlory, Amazon Reviewer“Twisty turny, unexpectedness!!!!!! LOVED THE BOOK!” –Aisha-Kimberly Hashmi, Amazon Reviewer“One of the best stories i[sic] have read in a long time!” Brian, Amazon Reviewer“I was absolutely hooked from page 1!” –Amazon Reviewer AWARDS Underground Reviews 2015 Top Pick Award

"Containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the President", 1956-1992.