Misplaced

In war-torn Vietnam, a young Amerasian girl struggles to find herself. Witnessing the horrors of war, and manas inhumanity to man, she finds no place in her life is safe and the only person she can count on is herself. A ahalf-breed, a as she is referred to by other children, Angelina Wentz Memon finds little acceptance from others as she grows older. Experiencing frustrating multiple setbacks with Vietnamese governmental red tape, it appears as if she may never realize her dream of moving to America. Once in her newly adopted country, she adapts quickly and thrives, excelling in her studies and educating family members to become productive US citizens. The inspiration for this journey? The unspoken bond between father and daughter. Two connected souls unwillingly separated by nearly half the world. Their unwavering love and mutual admiration provides the catalyst for a long-awaited and overdue reunion of a father and daughter who had been separated when she was just three days old.

Citizens of industrialized countries largely share a sense that national and international governance is inadequate, believing not only that public authorities are incapable of making the right policy decisions, but also that the entire network of state and civil society actors responsible for the discussion, negotiation, and implementation of policy choices is untrustworthy. Using agro-environmental policy development in France, the United States, and Canada as case studies, ric Montpetit sets out to investigate the validity of this distrust through careful attention to the performance of the relevant policy networks. He concludes that distrust in policy networks is, for the most part, misplaced because high levels of performance by policy networks are more common than many political analysts and citizens expect.

Philosophy/Ethics The ‘sacrifice of the intellect’ is today mostly either a convenience or a contrivance. The marketeer assuages the consumer by her own feigned idiocy, the parish pirate invites the listless into his own fraudulent faith. It is exceedingly rare, in my estimation, to discover an authentically latter-day saint. But the ignominious fate of faith in our own time is mimicked by the corresponding downfall of reason, which in its turn is mostly used to calculate social control, warfare, or at best, economic trends. Could it be, for the first time in the history of human consciousness, that both reason and faith, in the face of their respective sacrifices, need one another more than ever, the separated siblings and estranged lovers that they are? That we live inside the question of our own existence should not be seen as a too-cunning conundrum, generating only misery and angst, pathos and melancholy. Rather it is the very thrownness of being which we are; resolute in our being-ahead, caring in our anxiety, concernful in our running along. Who better to respond to such a question that, though it bears the historicity of existence alone, marks us in our essence with a history of ontology that is shared and which constitutes our specific nature? (From the book) “Though it is not directly a part of my job as a critical philosopher, offending as many people as possible as succinctly as possible is a commonplace effect of my work.” So Loewen opens ‘The Return of the Martyr,’ a wickedly funny and equally perceptive critique of the moral panics surrounding the issue of gender identity and other fashionable faux pas. And this is merely one of the over twenty singularly insightful essays collected here for the first time. Nothing is beyond a reasoned and rational reproach, and each piece serves as a role model for the rest of us to take up the torch of a truly transformative ethics.” (From the publisher)

Captain Benjamin Nyman Vizcarra, son of the wealthiest man in Mexico, has everything a young man could want. But in the days leading up to the Mexican Revolution of 1910, he finds himself questioning whether he can support the old regime--and more and more distracted by his brother's bewitching fiancee, Isabel. Accused and convicted of his father's murder after a fateful late-night encounter, Benjamin relives the events that led to his imprisonment. As he plots escape, a new question begins to form: will he run, or will he stay to confront his mistakes and win back the woman he loves? -- back cover.

When Aspyn gets kidnapped by one of the biggest pimps known to East Riverside, her life completely turns inside out. She learns the skills needed for survival and enters a world of unraveling chaos. Not only does she have to comply with a lifestyle that she didn't sign up for, she has to figure out how to escape and go back to the life that she once lived. This epic poem has become an outlet for the voices under captivity and brings awareness of injustices in society. Through Aspyn's journey, she learns the value of life itself and realizes that not all stories end with a happily ever after.

Though most Christians refrain from predicting exactly when our world will end, many believe that when earth's finale does arrive, it will be a catastrophe. They expect that before Christ comes back to reclaim His own, Satan will escape his chains and return to wreak havoc on our planet. Details vary, but the general assumption is the same: things will get much, much worse before they get better. But is this really what the Bible teaches? Leaving aside the theological terms that often confuse and muddle this question, Douglas Wilson instead explains eschatology as the end of the greatest story in the world - the story of humanity. He turns our attention back to the stories and prophecies of Scripture and argues for "hopeful optimism": the belief that God will be true to His promises, that His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that the peace and good will we sing about at Christmas will one day be a reality here on earth.

A provocative account of the decayed relationship between the U.S. and Arab world, and a powerful recommendation for how it can be salvaged