The World In Pancho S Eye

Born into a family of cattlemen on the southern Arizona border at the beginning of the Great Depression, Mikey Summers is raised by people who are wilder than the animals under their care. Maggie, his mother, is quick to love, but also quick to fight, loves contention as much as peace, likes to run and play, but is decent with a fine moral sense. She does hard work as though tapping for a dance, but can be as mean and ill-tempered as she is decent and good. Paul Summers, his father, loves to cowboy, ride broncs, get drunk with Maggie's brothers, be Maggie's husband as long as it is fun, but tries not to get serious about any of it. When Maggie reminds him that he will have to stop running and playing and be responsible, he only grins. As his parents and uncles and their families work and play hard to keep their world from dying of drought, disease, and the Depression, Mikey revels in its fathers, mothers, horses, dirt, dogs, cows, and trees and learns that he must fight his own battles to keep it. Based on J. P. S. Brown's own experiences growing up and ranching in Mexico and Arizona, The World in Pancho's Eye offers an honest and heartfelt portrayal of the life of working cowboys and the love they and their families have for the job.

"Original and illuminating."—The New York Times Book Review In her most ambitious work since In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez tells the story of a woman whose poetry inspired one Caribbean revolution and of her daughter whose dedication to teaching strengthened another. Camila Henriquez Urena is about to retire from her longtime job teaching Spanish at Vassar College. Only now as she sorts through family papers does she begin to know the woman behind the legend of her mother, the revered Salome Urena, who died when Camila was three. In stark contrast to Salome, who became the Dominican Republic's national poet at the age of seventeen, Camila has spent most of her life trying not to offend anybody. Her mother dedicated her life to educating young women to give them voice in their turbulent new nation; Camila has spent her life quietly and anonymously teaching the Spanish pluperfect to upper-class American girls with no notion of revolution, no knowledge of Salome Urena. Now, in 1960, Camila must choose a final destination for herself. Where will she spend the rest of her days? News of the revolution in Cuba mirrors her own internal upheaval. In the process of deciding her future, Camila uncovers the truth of her mother's tragic personal life and, finally, finds a place for her own passion and commitment. Julia Alvarez has won a large and devoted audience by brilliantly illuminating the history of modern Caribbean America through the personal stories of its people. As a Latina, as a poet and novelist, and as a university professor, Julia Alvarez brings her own experience to this exquisite story. Julia Alvarez’s new novel, Afterlife, is available now.

Early in July of 2015, tennis will celebrate the 40th anniversary of what might be the greatest upset in the annals of tennis. There have been other key matches in which the disparity between the favourite and the victorious underdog may have been more pronounced by standards of the sport. But none has been more resonant, or flush with meaning and contrasts. For this was not just a contest between a mercurial, seemingly unstoppable prodigy and an undemonstrative veteran, it also embodied a clash of values in a rapidly changing world, and in the sport itself. This is the story of two tennis greats lives, from the local park courts of their boyhood to the summer of 1975 an this most resonant of Wimbledon finals, which Ashe won to become the first black male Champion. However, like the best sports books written, this is much more than a just a story about one match, but a metaphor for a changing world, the end of an era and a last triumph for the passing guard.

"Brilliant.... A loving and detailed celebration of a diverse, beautiful and often astounding people."—Laurence Gonzales, Chicago Tribune They are sometimes called the people who died twice, once at the hands of the Spaniards and their brutal process of civilization, then at the hands of Anglos, practicing a subtler exploitation. They are Latinos, the fastest-growing minority in the United States. Earl Shorris's deeply moving narrative—enlivened by biographical sketches of Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, and many others struggling with the burden of a rich and terrible history—illuminates every aspect of the Latino experience in America, from language to education to social and political organization. "[A] powerful, beautifully-written and thoughtful book...likely to remain unequaled in its sweep and profundity for some time to come."—J. Jorge Klor de Alva, The New York Times Book Review "A smart, perceptive and wonderfully readable book.... Should be required reading for anyone who would hope to understand America."—Gerald Volgenau, Boston Globe

Old-style incident, humour and high adventure, Pancho II is a fable of late 1950s rural and partly urban Mexico... He’s back! The Raconteur Ranchero Reprobate, the benevolent brigand - Pancho! Pancho returns in this second instalment, the Old Ranchero, the irrepressible, not-so-saintly, self-supposed savant. Pancho aims for perpetual youth in audacious activity and misadventure, breathing vitality and good humour into everyone he meets, be they friend or stranger. In three seasons of the year he strides along a fire-stream of emotion, experience, and hard earned enlightenment. The incorrigible old man shares a rippling run of badinage with his ranchero compañeros; and dear friends, the Ramos family, notably young Juan and doña María, better known as mamá. No plot as such, rather a series of vignettes; a chronicle of events covering a winter and spring (the Prequel), and an autumn (the Sequel); linked through seasonal happenings and the experiences of the prominent characters, their quirks of personality developing along the way. From the Feast of Candelaria of winter to the Day of the Dead of autumn, Pancho stormed and strutted the stage of life, touching the lives of a great host of folk, from lowly campesinos to the highest ranking hombres in this exotic, romantic land that is Mexico! This novel will be enjoyed by those looking for a light and warm-hearted read, particularly anyone interested in Mexico.

At odds with the suffocating tsunami inching closer and closer stand a women and man alone together on a beach, calmly living their last moments through each other's eyes and ignoring the eternity beginning to enshroud them. A Thai boy stands on top of a boulder, staring dully at the scene, piss running down his gangly leg. He does not curse his short, unfulfilled life, but instead wonders what two people in love say to each other moments before the end. Was it a wasted life? Did they have regrets? Back down on the beach, as the first splashes of the wall of water rain down on them, their lives are relived in the blink of an eye amidst visions of youth, smiles, delight, exile, sickness, green mountains, regret, ageing and acceptance. Likeable, page-turning, and deeply moving, Tsunami Eyes is a tale that will involve you, awaken you, and go a little bit towards helping you to not take those you love for granted.

Horses is an A-Z companion to perhaps the most loved of all domesticated animals. The book's entries include a wealth of unexpected, fascinating and serendipitous information, from horse-slang phrases to horses in British pub signs, and from the horse in advertising to the horse as a food item. Themes such as the horse in warfare and the horse in folklore abound. These features add up to a richly satisfying accumulation of information about the horse's role in human culture and society over two millennia. Horses will not only be a helpful reference source and congenial bedside book for those who work with or enjoy horses, but also a satisfying and browsable companion for the inquisitive general reader.