In Between Places

"There is a map you decide to call a book. A book of the territories youÕve traveled. A map is a meaning you hold against the unknowing. The places you speak in many directions." For Diane Glancy, there are books that you open like a map. In-between Places is such a book: a collection of eleven essays unified by a common concern with landscape and its relation both to our spiritual life and to the craft of writing. Taking readers on a trip to New Mexico, a voyage across the sea of middle America, even a journey to China, Glancy has crafted a sustained meditation on the nature and workings of language, stories, and poems; on travel and motion as metaphors for life and literature; and on the relationships between Native American and Judeo-Christian ways of thinking and being in the world. Reflecting on strip mines in Missouri ("as long as there is anything left to take, human industry will take it") and hog barns in Iowa (writing about them from the hogs' perspective), Glancy speaks in the margins of cross-cultural issues and from the places in-between as she explores the middle ground between places that we handle with the potholder of language. She leaves in her wake a dance of words and the structures left after the collision of cultures. A writer who has often examined her native heritage, Glancy also asks here what it means to be part white. "What does whiteness look like viewed from the other, especially when that other is also within oneself?" And in considering the legacy of Christianity, she ponders "how it is when the Holy Ghost enters your life like a brother-in-law you know is going to be there a while." Insightful and provocative, In-between Places is a book for anyone interested in a sense of place and in the relationship between religion and our stance toward nature. It is also a book for anyone who loves thoughtful writing and wishes to learn from a modern master of language.

Traces the author's 2002 journey by foot across Afghanistan, during which he survived the harsh elements through the kindness of tribal elders, teen soldiers, Taliban commanders, and foreign-aid workers whose stories he collected along his way. By the author of The Prince of the Marshes. Original. 20,000 first printing.

I have written a journal of my struggle with alcoholism over a period of several years of my life. My role of house wife, mother, daughter and friend was familiar, yet I was a stranger to myself. This is the journey of how I got from "there" to "here" and the "places in between." It was the places in between that finally brought me to the end of the struggle and to a personal and loving relationship with myself. The incidents and thoughts I have written about are true, in some cases perhaps even mundane. But it was my life, both the good and the impossible. Some incidents were hilariously funny. Some incidents were horribly cruel. Some things were forgivable, some will never be reconciled. Over the years the lessons I have learned are not only imperative to a good life, but have kept me completely sober for many years. I think this book has value as far as seeing how a life can recuperate, become sane and happy. It is not the story of a famous person; it is not the story of how to beat this addiction. It is not in any way a "how to" book. It is a personal look into the life of a "house wife", mother and wife who had fallen into a threatening abyss and the struggle to once again live without fear or pain or "John Barleycorn." This is the story of how I did........

The New Iranian Cinema has had a fascinating success story in world cinema and critics have hailed Iranian films as alternatives to the homogenising global influence of mainstream Hollywood cinema. Drawing on seminal ideas of 'art cinema', Christopher Gow examines how the success of this cinema and the films of Abbas Kiarostami, its foremost proponent, can be accounted for by the extent to which they fit into a pre-established notion of art cinema. Gow also expands understanding of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema by examining the links between the New Iranian Cinema and emigre Iranian filmmaking, from the uncompromising German films of Sohrab Shahid Saless, to Vadim Perlman's exploration of the Iranian experience of exile in the Oscar-nominated 'House of Sand and Fog'. He reveals how this large and dispersed emigre Iranian cinema challenges our understanding of New Iranian Cinema itself and of national cinema in general.

A beautiful, wordless graphic novel about feeling lost . . . and trying to get back to the place where you think you should be. What happens when you're trapped in the darkness, in emotional pain and turmoil? How can you make your way through that anguish and find joy again? In wordless black-and-white illustrations, John Cei Douglas empathetically shows the struggle to communicate how things feel when we get lost, and the wrenching loneliness that comes with mental-health struggles. His poignant images show a woman, sad and alone, as she drifts powerlessly across a vast and empty universe . . . till she finds her way home. A quietly beautiful meditation on the seemingly endless paths we wander just to be able to return to where we think we should be, All the Places in Between is a comforting reminder that you're not alone on your journey.

This collection of twenty stories delves into the lives of Egyptian characters, from those living in Egypt to those who have immigrated to the United States. With subtle and eloquent prose, the complexities of these characters are revealed, opening a door into their intimate struggles with identity and place. We meet people who are tempted by the possibilities of America and others who are tempted by the desire to return home. Some are in the throes of re-creating themselves in the new world while others seem to be embedded in the loss of their homeland. Many of these characters, although physically located in either the United States or Egypt, have lives that embrace both cultures. "A Game of Chance" follows the actions of a young man when he wins the immigration lottery and then must decide whether or not to change his life. "Cumin and Coriander" takes us inside a woman's thoughts as she tries to come to terms with the path her life has taken while working as a cook for American expatriates in Egypt. "The Top" enters the mind of a man whose immigration results in a loss of identity and sanity. These compelling stories pull us into the lives of many different characters and offer us striking insights into the Arab American experience.