Once Upon A Time Bomb

Once Upon a Time (Bomb) is a charming memoir of a young boy growing up in El Salvador. It tells the story of Alfonso Duque the Thirteenth, a youngster from a poverty-stricken family and a budding poet. Surrounded by hovering women-his mother, aunts, grandmothers, and sisters-little Alfonso still manages to enjoy boyish pranks and endure scraped elbows, knees, and ego while also discovering the pleasures of reading. The womenfolk laughingly describe him on his 'throne' atop the trees or back in the outhouse, where he often escapes to read. This work of innocence is set against a darker backdrop of the growing violence in the Salvadoran countryside and the news coming from the fronts of the Second World War. Argueta incorporates many of the best-loved local folktales into the narrative, the Siguanaba, Chinchintora the Snake, Theodora the Coyote, some of them personalized or hilariously adapted by the women to fit their own circumstances. In the book, the author works through memory, re-encounters a nostalgic past, re-creates paradise, and re-acquaints himself with his poetic roots after years of exile from poetry, his homeland, and the luxury of dreaming.

Not quite four months after the Western Region's election of October 10, 1965, did the localized mayhem in that Region find its way furiously into the center of the nation on January 15, 1966! It was like a whirl-wind of nothing but anarchy and lawlessness. The serious aftermath of the marred and rigged election was that it acted as the last straw that broke the Carmel's back, providing immediate reason for the army to overthrow the government of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. Anarchy ensued; a counter coup led to the death of Major-General Ironsi. Callous barbarous massacre of thousands of easterners in the North followed. With their lives in jeopardy, easterners fled for safety to eastern region; refugee crisis followed. To guarantee their safety, easterners seceded from Nigeria and on May 30th 1967, formed an independent and sovereign nation of the Republic of Biafra. Determined to bring Easterners back, on July 6, 1967 Nigeria invaded Biafra; waged a gruesome thirty-month-civil war against Biafra. Nigeria blockaded Biafra on land, sea and air, to prevent food from entering Biafra. A malnutrition disease, Kwashiorkor that caused the deaths of thousands of Biafrans, followed. Nigeria bombed Biafran civilians, killing thousands. On January 12, 1970 the war ended leaving more than three million people dead in a war that was totally avoidable!

Argues that each individual's life is a never-ending story, and uses the elements of a story to show readers how to understand their lives better, showcasing the "big picture" God writes in each person's story.

After a young stranger walks up to Elizabeth Kenney on campus, and announces that he's her brother, she drops out of school to begin a startling and surprising search of a family she's never taken the time to know. She learns of a wanderlust grandfather, bomber pilot and hero of WWII and Korea, then of her own surgeon father and his idyllic and unbreakable bond with his father. This nostalgic and sometimes spiritual story takes the reader through America's Depression, the wars, and postwar California and Mid-America, where safe tranquility unsuspectingly teeters on the threshold of today's helter-skelter world. Elizabeth becomes torn between the wishes of her affluent, matriarchal grandmother and her own creative needs. So, caught up in the editing of her father's stored journals, Elizabeth creates a modern fairytale that tenderly invites every reader with love, laughter and tears.

Joseph Daniels narrates his family’s origins, beginning with their arrival from England among the 1820 Settlers that landed in Cape Town, South Africa. Starting with nothing except a plot of land and the promise of prosperity in the Dark Continent, his ancestors John Henry and Kathleen Daniels, build a legacy that will intertwine their European heritage and that of the Black, indigenous people of Africa. Generations later, their mixed-race descendant Joseph Daniels, born in the turbulent years leading up to Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, strives to adapt to an environment rife with racial contradictions, political tension, and violence. Joseph shares the tender, harrowing, and humorous moments of his family’s lives, set against a backdrop of Zimbabwe and South Africa’s rich culture and history. Starting with the clash of African kings in Southern Africa, Joseph’s multigenerational tale moves through European colonization, the Rhodesian Civil War, Zimbabwe’s independence, and Robert Mugabe’s long presidency. By the time Joseph comes of age in the 1990s, he must navigate the complexity of his mixed-race Coloured identity while seeking to establish his generational inheritance and legacy. An episodic novel that sweeps across the centuries, Once Upon a Time in Zimbabwe is replete with historical detail and unforgettable characters. At turns adventurous, romantic, thrilling, and heartbreaking, the story of Joseph Daniels and his family is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

Once Upon A Time-bomb is a book about global warming. It is a warning - that the time clock is ticking. It is a book for all ages, in children's book format.

Author Serguei Blinov grew up in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as the son of an engineer and a high school history teacher. Early on in life, he set his sights on becoming a medical doctor. He also met the love of his life, Lioudmila Vertiasheva. She graduated before him as a pediatric medical doctor before getting a job at a maternity hospital. Soon thereafter, Blinov also found himself working in medicine. In this, his memoir, Blinov recalls the hard work it took for him to succeed, the good times, and the badas well as what led him and his family to the United States of America. His honest assessment of life in both the Soviet Union and the United States showcases cultural differences and the positives and negatives of communism and capitalism. If youre interested in learning more about the former Soviet Union and what life there was really like, this personal narrative offers firsthand accounts of villages, agriculture, the educational system, and everyday life. Whats more, Blinov relives his experiences from his first memory to the present, recounting in great detail each event that shaped him into the man he is today.