The Island Of Bicycle Dancers

Love, sex, death....and English as a foreign language. The Island of Bicycle Dancers is the coming-of-age-story of twenty-year-old Yurika Song, a Korean-Japanese woman who comes from Japan to New York City for a summer to work with her Korean relatives and improve her English. Yurika's friends back home have always joked that she is half-sushi/half-kim-chi. But cross-Asian ethnicities turn out to be far less jarring than her introduction to New York life, the world of bicycle messengers and the street culture in which they thrive. On one level this is a splendid tale of mistaken love-Yurika falls hard for an attractive, but dangerous, Puerto Rican bicycle messenger nicknamed "Bone." But on another, deeper level, our heroine finds freedom in this new language, which to her "is like a huge octopus, very clever and sometimes hard to catch but with so many wild and beautiful writhing limbs."

Traces American writers whose roots are in all parts of Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East.

Memoirs, autobiographies, and diaries represent the most personal and most intimate of genres, as well as one of the most abundant and popular. Gain new understanding and better serve your readers with this detailed genre guide to nearly 700 titles that also includes notes on more than 2,800 read-alike and other related titles. The popularity of this body of literature has grown in recent years, and it has also diversified in terms of the types of stories being told—and persons telling them. In the past, readers' advisors have depended on access by names or Dewey classifications and subjects to help readers find autobiographies they will enjoy. This guide offers an alternative, organizing the literature according to popular genres, subgenres, and themes that reflect common reading interests. Describing titles that range from travel and adventure classics and celebrity autobiographies to foodie memoirs and environmental reads, Life Stories: A Guide to Reading Interests in Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Diaries presents a unique overview of the genre that specifically addresses the needs of readers' advisors and others who work with readers in finding books.

Relatable essays focused primarily on being at a "certain stage of life" from a renowned speaker and author. This collection of essays about ordinary events invites the reader to reflect on how God can be found throughout life. Matthews offers a personal and authentic voice that resonates with a wide audience—particularly women—in an easily accessible and understandable manner. These timely reflections are in keeping with the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry’s call to “live into being the Jesus Movement by committing to evangelism and the work of reconciliation— beginning with racial reconciliation . . . across the borders and boundaries that divide the human family of God.” Through thoughtful, poignant, humorous, and authentic reflections—shared from her journal and weekly email blogs—Matthews invites the reader to redefine themselves. This book is a wonderful resource for personal reflection, and a great gift for colleagues, friends, and family members.

Explore the volcanic peaks of the Marquesas or shop in Papeete's vibrant marketplace. All the essentials to discovering this tropical paradise are presented in an easy-to-use format. Photos & illustrations. Maps.

Provides historical and travel information for visitors to Polynesia and Melanesia, including Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji Islands, New Caledonia, and Solomon Islands

Rody proposes a new paradigm for understanding the changing terrain of contemporary fiction. She claims that what we have long read as ethnic literature is in the process of becoming 'interethnic'. Examining an extensive range of Asian American fictions, she offers readings of three especially compelling examples.

"Largely by reason of its isolation, the tiny volcanic island of Tikopia in the South Pacific, has managed to retain its traditional Polynesian culture far more than most Pacific islands. Almost seventy years after the life of the island community was detailed by anthropology student Raymond (later Sir Raymond) Firth, the present author, Julian Treadaway, made several visits to Tikopia, sharing the life of his Tikopian host families for many months at a time, and noting remarkable continuity with the time of Firth's visits and even before. Comparing the present with the past observed by these earlier visitors, Treadaway's stories provide a fascinating account of this continuity and change. With a meticulously observant yet empathetic eye and an easy style, Treadaway records the day-to-day life of the community - detailing the distinctive marriage, funeral, circumcision and other ceremonies; everyday activities such as house-building and growing, catching and preparing food; and unique Tikopian customs of, amongst other things, crawling into houses and ritualistic crying. Through these stories he poses the question that hangs over Tikopia and all such communities: how best can traditional societies benefit from the modern world without completely losing their distinctive culture and identity?"--Cover.