From our side is a collaborative effort of younger scholars in southern Africa and the Netherlands who are interested in the relationship between development and ethics, from a Christian point of view. The 17 chapters that make up the book have been produced through a unique set of partnerships, in which the authors have intentionally worked with practitioners who are working in the development arena.

On his 18th birthday, Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a congenital, progressive disease marked by night-blindness, tunnel vision and, eventually, total blindness. In this penetrating, nervy memoir, which ricochets between meditation and black comedy, Knighton tells the story of his fifteen-year descent into blindness while incidentally revealing the world of the sighted in all its phenomenal peculiarity. Knighton learns to drive while unseeing; has his first significant relationship--with a deaf woman; navigates the punk rock scene and men's washrooms; learns to use a cane; and tries to pass for seeing while teaching English to children in Korea. Stumbling literally and emotionally into darkness, into love, into couch-shopping at Ikea, into adulthood, and into truce if not acceptance of his identity as a blind man, his writerly self uses his disability to provide a window onto the human condition. His experience of blindness offers unexpected insights into sight and the other senses, culture, identity, language, our fears and fantasies. Cockeyed is not a conventional confessional. Knighton is powerful and irreverent in words and thought and impatient with the preciousness we've come to expect from books on disability. Readers will find it hard to put down this wild ride around their everyday world with a wicked, smart, blind guide at the wheel.

There are some things that you can't really understand until they happen to you - and divorce is one of them. In this crazy time marked by emotional and financial upheaval, even the strongest, most optimistic women need the support of those who've been there. In this book, readers get the real deal on divorce - from the real women who lived to tell about it. Readers will laugh and cry along with: Ariana, whose abusive husband never allowed her to have a job, parlays her first job in retail into designing clothes for department stores nationwide; Carla, whose lazy ex tries to take the money her hard-working parents left to her - and gets his karmic due; and Michelle, who discovers her "compulsive" spending is easy to control once she rids herself of a philandering husband. In this book, thirty-five divorced women reveal the naked truth about what went wrong, why they got divorced and how they survived the transition. Most important, they learn that they, too, can survive this tumultuous time in their lives - only to emerge stronger, wiser and happier.

Greece, it has been said, is where art became inseparable from life. The country evokes a richly embroidered tapestry of images, from old monuments rife with history to idyllic isles of glass-blue sea and blinding-white stucco dwellings. Greece enchants its visitors with its beauty, tradition, and spirit. In this eloquent collection, women share firsthand experiences of the people, history, and landscapes of Greece. Their essays go beyond ordinary travelogue to capture the ways in which Greece has shaped lives and influenced decisions. In expressing their love for the country, these women share stories as visceral as they are poignant, as entertaining as they are endearing. Whether they are seasoned travelers or armchair adventurers, Greece aficionados or those just beginning to learn about the country, readers of this compelling collection will gain a better understanding of Greece and how experiences abroad can impact their lives.

A Walk Against the Stream is a true story of love set against a background of war in Rhodesia.

What is the experience of being an adopted person really like? An honest look at how adoption can affect the individual, families and partners. Claire Cashin was adopted. In her youth, she experienced many personal problems because her birth mother 'gave her away'. This led her in search of her biological mother. This is a true and very honest account of adoption, search and reunion. It examines in depth how adoption can affect the individual and their loved ones. It does not shy away from the reality of what a reunion can mean and how hard it can be at times, or indeed what joy it can add to peoples lives. The story describes in fascinating detail what the reality can be like for many adopted people and what challenges their families may face as they mature and wonder about the circumstances of their adoption. It attempts to offer advice to anyone considering searching for their own answers, from someone who has gone through the process, made the mistakes, learned some lessons along the way and is still smiling. This book describes the mistakes and triumphs she made along the way and how the news of a new birth family has affected her adopted family in Cork, and changed Claire forever. It gives hope and advice to families who wish to help and understand the dynamics involved in adoption and reunion.

"Blood Brothers" is M.J. Akbar's amazing story of three generations of a Muslim family - based on his own - and how they deal with the fluctuating contours of Hindu-Muslim relations. Telinipara, a small jute mill town some 30 miles north of Kolkata along the Hooghly, is a complex Rubik's Cube of migrant Bihari workers, Hindus and Muslims; Bengalis, poor and 'bhadralok'; and Sahibs who live in the safe, 'foreign' world of Victoria Jute Mill. Into this scattered inhabitation, enters a child on the verge of starvation, Prayaag, who is saved and adopted by a Muslim family, converts to Islam and takes on the name of Rahmatullah. As Rahmatullah knits Telinipara into a community, friendship, love, trust and faith are continually tested by the cancer of riots. Incidents - conversion, circumcision, the arrival of plague or electricity - and a fascinating array of characters - the ultimate Brahmin, Rahmatullah's friend Girija Maharaj, the workers' leader, Bauna Sardar, the storyteller, Talat Mian, the poet-teacher, Syed Ashfaque, the smiling mendicant, Burha Deewana, the sincere Sahib, Simon Hogg, and then the questioning, demanding third generation of the author and his friend Kamala - interlink into a narrative of social history as well as a powerful memoir. "Blood Brothers" is a chronicle of its age, its canvas as enchanting as its narrative, a personal journey through change as tensions build, stretching the bonds of a lifetime to breaking point and demanding, in the end, the greatest sacrifice. Its last chapters, written in a bare-bones, unemotional style, are the most moving as the author searches for hope amid raw wounds with a surgeon's scalpel.

"My Hand on the Tiller" is an account of the author's sailing experiences over his lifetime. Gordon Findlay is a classic boat enthusiast and has sailed on many different sailing vessels, from the smallest dinghies to the largest square riggers. He has owned a variety of different boats over the years and some of these are described in the text. Gordon also describes some of his favourite places on the West Coast of Scotland, as well as his experiences in Tall Ships and at Classic Yacht Festivals in different parts of Europe This book is for sailing enthusiasts with a particular interest in traditional boats and Scottish waters. There are many photographs and a large appendix with details of yachts and tall ships as well as a comprehensive glossary and a list of useful websites.

'inspiring stories ... alongside beautifully illustrated sweet and savoury recipes.' BBC GOOD FOOD '[An] inspiring London bakery ... empowering tales are interspersed with illustrated recipes.' DELICIOUS. Inspirational stories. Irresistible bakes. From the perfect sponge cake to a foolproof focaccia, discover Luminary Bakery in over 70 delicious recipes. A social enterprise founded to support women experiencing disadvantage by teaching them how to bake, it has become a hub of creativity and community. Learn to create their iconic cinnamon buns, perfect pastries or a banoffee birthday cake. From simple bakes to showstoppers, the secrets of each bread, cake or stress-free dessert are accompanied by stories from the Luminary family. Heartwarming, joyful and above all, inspiring, every recipe in this classic collection is a story of Rising Hope.

Dark Dreams: Australian refugee stories is a unique anthology of essays, interviews, and stories written by children and young adults. The stories are the finest of hundreds collected through a nationwide schools competition in 2002. The essays and stories represent many different countries and themes. Some focus on survival, some on horrors, some on the experiences and alienation of a new world. This book will have a a key role to play in schools across Australia. Eva Sallis's first novel Hiam won The Australian Vogel and the Dobbie Literary Awards. She is co-founder of Australians Against Racism and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide. 'Stories to melt the hardest heart.' - Helen Garner 'We have not been allowed to know the (recent) refugees as human beings ...These stories change all that and force a personal response from the reader.' - Phillip Adams

In Tales from the Scale, author Erin J. Shea - creator of the immensely popular "Lose the Buddha" weight-loss blog - puts together the best rants of some of the most prominent diet bloggers online today, creating a raw, real, and radically different look at losing weight. The Twinkie Defense: how they got fat in the first place; The Inner Fat Girl: the little voice that longs for an identity beyond her body; The Tenth Circle of Hell: Weight-in Day - facing the worst enemy: the scale; Fatty Clothes: for when you've given up

To learn more about Lily & Me or the author visit my web site at http: //home.netscape.ca/ rodgl/

While searching for a home to buy, Cindy and her family settled for the house on the hill. It wasn''t long before Cindy was aware there was something other than her family in the house. It started with small occurrences that eventually turned into a nightmare. Every night at midnight, she would awake by being hit by something she could not see. No one was there yet her eyes would be fixed on the wall. Later when things began to materialize, she realized, the wall was an entrance to hell.

A young lad struggles through puberty, then fights hard to uphold a promise made to his father to remain a virgin until marriage which results in many humorous sexual scenarios requiring great self-discipline.

Danvers State gives an insider's view of what really went on at the state run insane asylum. The book provides details about the facility's dark past and the melancholy lives of her inhabitants. It brings to light the harsh treatment of mental illness in decades past.

High-pitched childish screams explode into the air, unrelenting, shot through with blind terror. A wounded animal - A torture chamber - I know her well-oh, how well I know her I have heard her screams often. That child is me. Carolyn Bramhall grew up in what seemed to outsiders to be a normal home, with hard-working parents, surrounded by apparently caring relatives. She graduated from Bible college, married, found a job a youth worker. Then nightmares and panic attacks started to swamp her. Dhe, her husband and two small children moved to work in America, but the internal stresses grew worse - and a host of other personalities started to make their presence felt. In due course 109 separate entities, each created to carry some aspect of truly ghastly past pain, would identify themselves. What could she possibly do?

Colin Miller was born in 1940 in Rollesby, a village near Great Yarmouth in the heart of Broadland Norfolk. In Rollesby, as in so many other rural communities at this time, drinking water was from a well, the lavatory was a bucket in an outside privy, transport was a bicycle or a bus, and entertainment was provided by the radio, whist drives at the village hall or a rare visit to the cinema. As the 1940s and '50s progressed this way of life changed dramatically, some would say disappeared - and Colin Miller chronicles these developments through the eyes of a Norfolk schoolboy and teenager. Developing themes such as school days, health, work, entertainment, sport and leisure, this honest and thoughtful account also includes brief extracts from the local newspapers, reporting local events and illustrating the social change experienced by the author.

When an enigmatic stranger promises to cure a young Englishman's recurring bouts of asthma it seems too good an opportunity to miss. At the time there was no indication that in the process he would end up being possessed by a 1500 year old Hawaiian Kahuna with a mission. A Kahuna, or priest magician, well versed in the ancient arts of enacting the death spell, sorcery and the native healing rituals of the time. A man, whose life since birth, had been dedicated to the service of the gods, but who had miraculously found the love of a young island woman with whom he shared the secrets of his art. It soon becomes apparent that this powerful kahuna has travelled across time and space from the island of Kaua'i to fulfil a promise. A promise made over the dead body of his beautiful apprentice to somehow let her know of the depth of his unspoken love for her. To finally free his spirit, he is honour bound to make restitution for calling upon the gods to bring swift and violent death to the warriors who killed her, thus violating the code by which he had vowed to live. Helping him fulfil his promise, was to expose the Englishman, and those close to him, to a series of bizarre and magical events that took him close to the edge of madness.

The manager of an exclusive boutique hotel (who shall remain nameless) exposes the low-life styles of the rich and famous.

And we're not talking just loud all-night bashes...

The anonymous author has encountered lavish drug parties, gorgeous call girls, naked guests falling out of windows, $9,000 bottles of wine, astronomical telephone porn bills, bathtubs of Evian, and on more than one occasion, dead sheep. And every dirty word of it is true.

This is a trawl through the decadence and debauchery of the ultimate service industry--where money not only talks, but gets guests the best room, the best service, and also entitles them to behave in any way they please.

In a series of thirty-one whimsical and poignant essays, the pop culture journalist records his search for love and his perfect soulmate, reflecting on his diverse experiences from mother love, through the yearnings of adolescence, and the perils of dating.

This book is the story of just one newly graduated nurse told in her own words in her letters home saved by her parents and friends. All these collected letters, oppressed memories, and commentary, which spell out the details and background for Letters Home. It is one of the few stories of nurses in the Pacific area. drawings and documents - and a broken leg at the age of 19, came together here in a warm, honest, sometimes graphic description about a time in history that is slipping from our collective memory. clips and film, but the role of nurses has not until recently been well recorded. Nurses too are part of The Greatest Operation facing unknown places, unknown dangers, extreme physical discomfort and physical exhaustion. They served alongside America's finest troops, cared for them when they were sick and injured. They mourned for those who could not make it home. October 1997, are women who served and are serving in the uniform of the United States are being honored and remembered for their service in the many branches of the Armed Forces. This book gives a glimpse into the Southwest Pacific area in WWII through the eyes of one nurse who saw and recorded how it was.