Miles Apart

Told by Annabel Bower after her fourth child Miles was stillborn, Miles Apart offers heartfelt advice on navigating grief and heartache after the loss of a baby at any stage of pregnancy or infancy.

How is it that, half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones? In his important new book, Five Miles Away, A World Apart, James E. Ryan answers this question by tracing the fortunes of two schools in Richmond, Virginia--one in the city and the other in the suburbs. Ryan shows how court rulings in the 1970s, limiting the scope of desegregation, laid the groundwork for the sharp disparities between urban and suburban public schools that persist to this day. The Supreme Court, in accord with the wishes of the Nixon administration, allowed the suburbs to lock nonresidents out of their school systems. City schools, whose student bodies were becoming increasingly poor and black, simply received more funding, a measure that has proven largely ineffective, while the independence (and superiority) of suburban schools remained sacrosanct. Weaving together court opinions, social science research, and compelling interviews with students, teachers, and principals, Ryan explains why all the major education reforms since the 1970s--including school finance litigation, school choice, and the No Child Left Behind Act--have failed to bridge the gap between urban and suburban schools and have unintentionally entrenched segregation by race and class. As long as that segregation continues, Ryan forcefully argues, so too will educational inequality. Ryan closes by suggesting innovative ways to promote school integration, which would take advantage of unprecedented demographic shifts and an embrace of diversity among young adults. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written by one of the nation's leading education law scholars, Five Miles Away, A World Apart ties together, like no other book, a half-century's worth of education law and politics into a coherent, if disturbing, whole. It will be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered why our schools are so unequal and whether there is anything to be done about it.

He lost his family…and gained a rival Twenty-five years ago Jack Dolman's life shattered the day his wife left him—and took their four-year-old son. Now a three-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup winner, Jack is focused on the here and now—until he discovers that his ex-wife has died. It's then, when he reluctantly goes to pay his respects, that he comes face-to-face with the son he barely knows…the son who believes Jack abandoned him and plans to seek his revenge by competing against his father on the track! The only person who can mend the fences between the two men is Jack's old flame, Margaret Truesdale. She's never stopped caring for Jack, and she feels it's her duty to help ease his heartache. But the only way to right the wrongs of the past is to reveal secrets long buried.…

Shruti, Simran, Ayush and Samar go through the ups and downs of friendship, love and togetherness. What started as a misunderstanding in college transforms into a full-blown conflict. Is it meaningless to apologise? Well, you will find out after you read the book! Miles Apart talks of the dichotomies that relationships bring. Loving someone is a special feeling indeed. However, love does have its share of crests and troughs. This book is all about the friendship they share and also about the misunderstandings that tend to creep into the picture out of nowhere. ‘Miles Apart’ has something for just about everybody. This book celebrates true love and friendship. All those who wish to revisit their days at college can pick this book right away and you won’t be able to get enough of it!

Urged by a mutual friend to give a harried man a ride from California to Minnesota, Molly Winstead is dismayed to learn her passenger is the one person she'd hoped she would never see again. In less than a week, two relative strangers-a pro-golfer with a heart-breaking secret and a librarian with an ingrained attitude-realize that rather than becoming friends, they are truly miles apart. Secrets and attitudes clash in the age-old struggle between love and truth.

Alan Sakowitz, a whistleblower of a Madoff-like Ponzi scheme masterminded by Scott Rothstein, fraudster extraordinaire, tells of the story of his decision to turn in Rothstein regardless of the possible dangerous ramifications of such a decision. The saga of Rothstein's rise and fall which included a Warren Yacht, two Bugattis, Governor Crist, the former Versace mansion, The Eagles, and even the murder of a law partner, is the stuff that Hollywood movies are made from. Instead of the mere accounting of such a scandal, Sakowitz uses the Rothstein scheme as a cautionary tale in stark contrast to the stories of humble, ethical individuals living within Sakowitz's neighborhood in North Miami Beach, Florida, Sakowitz's neighbors are people who have spent their lives trying to assist others, not line their pockets, and through these stories Sakowitz creates a sharp dichotomy between the greed, of a Rothstein and its mainstream culture of consumption and the charity, kindness and selflessness of a principle-oriented community. Indeed, Sakowitz speaks to the symptoms of a culture that could create a Scott Rothstein, and, though acknowledging that the easy way out is not simple to dismiss, offers remedies to the growing ills of our entitlement society. The answer, Sakowitz says, lies in thinking first of others, and how one's actions should benefit the lives of friends, not one's short-term gratifications.

A Year of Mornings collects 236 images--always taken before 10 am without discussion between the two women--from this uniquely 21st century artistic collaboration. The intimacy of these photographs--discarded clothing, a view of a snowy day from the window, a tablecloth--combined with their striking similarities in color and composition defies the reality of their long-distance collaboration. While clearly kindred spirits, the two women have met in person only once. Their friendship is maintained solely online, sustained by a shared love for moments of serenity, solitude, and peacefulness. The annotated photographs in A Year of Mornings radiate an aura of sweetness and light--the promise of a new day.

An exploration of 365 days of shared experiences between two friends on opposite sides of the country, inspired by their blog, 3191 Miles Apart. Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes share a love of art and design, handmade pleasures, and a well-lived domestic life. Almost a decade ago, they began their first year-long project together, posting a photo from each of their mornings on their blog, 3191 Miles Apart, named for the distance between their homes in Portland, Maine, and Portland, Oregon. 3191 Miles Apart quickly acquired a worldwide following of readers drawn in by the delicate intimacy of their shared experiences. A Year Between Friends celebrates their most recent project together—a visual representation of 2015, month-by-month, side-by-side, but miles apart. In addition to 400 photographs recording their daily inspirations and creative undertakings and a foreword from New York Times bestselling author Molly Wizenberg, this unique collaboration expands on their prior work with over 25 handmade crafts and seasonal recipes, notes on simple living, and personal stories that follow the tide of a year filled with new life, change, and loss. It is an intimate joint portrait revealed through photographic snippets—mending a sweater, making a mobile from a cherished collection, creating fabric dyes from natural materials, baking scones—that defies distance through the celebration of shared moments of calmness, warmth, and family. Both aspirational and down-to-earth, A Year Between Friends is an inspiring visual love letter to friendship and creativity, a timeless reminder to appreciate life one day at a time, to slow down, to cherish simplicity, and to make the extra effort to do things with care and with the people we love.