Harkjoon Paik left his native Korea in the midst of war. His home destroyed and his educational opportunities lost, he left everything and everyone behind in search of a way to accomplish his life goals. He arrived in the United States as an ambitious and optimistic teenager, knowing no one and without resources.

"Tracking the Tiger" is the story of how he survived in the chaos of battle and immigration. He created a new life for himself, making his way with hard work, and went on to earn degrees from Stanford University and Stanford Law School. He began to practice law and, at the age of thirty-eight, became the first native-born Korean to sit on the Superior Court bench in not only California but also the United States.

Judge Paik finds joy in life wherever he goes. He has raised three children of great accomplishment, and he shares many lifelong friendships and some great adventures along the way.

His wife, Beverly Paik, tells the story of her husband's life and career in his voice. They met more than fifty years ago as students at Stanford University. When he granted her access to his diaries, she knew his was a story that needed to be shared with a much bigger audience.

This is their story, one of love and triumph over adversity--and of the undeniable power of hope.

The American West was a far away place to a young girl, only ten years old, living in a small town in Massachusetts in 1947. She had no idea of the changes to her life that would happen after her parents sold all they possessed and turned their old Chevy in the direction of the setting sun.

Watching from her backseat window, this child witnessed not only the unfolding of scenery across the United States, east coast to west coast, but slowly developed awareness of the struggle her family faced to provide daily needs in a world of strangers where newcomers were viewed with suspicion. With no work or prospect of it, knowing no one in the far west, her mother and father became, in effect, like the pioneers of a previous era, searching for a place to settle that would satisfy them.

A coming-of-age story told through vivid memories of her experiences and the persons she encountered along the way, Cricket in the Grass relates a child's learning of self-reliance.

You may have traveled to some of these destinations yourself, but chances are you've never become tangled in the predicaments that this pair of travelers has encountered. Beverly Paik is looking for adventure beyond the ordinary and usually stumbles onto it while her husband, always the skeptic, is traveling with her. The dialogue between them runs like a continuous thread, whether they are stepping onto a glacier from a helicopter or climbing among the ruins of a remote archeological site. The unexpected is always about to happen, whether on the streets of Paris, in a Tibetan monastery, or in the rain forests of Costa Rica.

The highlights of Lost in Venice are the sympathetic and revealing portraits of the people that they meet along the way. There are interesting nuggets of information and commentary deftly tucked into each episode. Whether you are flying halfway round the world or happily ensconced at home, reading these endearing anecdotes will give the illusion of trudging right along beside them. The author claims her stories are ninety percent truth and ten percent fiction. Your challenge is to decide what is fictional and what is real.

Harkjoon Paik left his native Korea in the midst of war. His home destroyed and his educational opportunities lost, he left everything and everyone behind in search of a way to accomplish his life goals. He arrived in the United States as an ambitious and optimistic teenager, knowing no one and without resources.

"Tracking the Tiger" is the story of how he survived in the chaos of battle and immigration. He created a new life for himself, making his way with hard work, and went on to earn degrees from Stanford University and Stanford Law School. He began to practice law and, at the age of thirty-eight, became the first native-born Korean to sit on the Superior Court bench in not only California but also the United States.

Judge Paik finds joy in life wherever he goes. He has raised three children of great accomplishment, and he shares many lifelong friendships and some great adventures along the way.

His wife, Beverly Paik, tells the story of her husband's life and career in his voice. They met more than fifty years ago as students at Stanford University. When he granted her access to his diaries, she knew his was a story that needed to be shared with a much bigger audience.

This is their story, one of love and triumph over adversity--and of the undeniable power of hope.

The American West was a far away place to a young girl, only ten years old, living in a small town in Massachusetts in 1947. She had no idea of the changes to her life that would happen after her parents sold all they possessed and turned their old Chevy in the direction of the setting sun.

Watching from her backseat window, this child witnessed not only the unfolding of scenery across the United States, east coast to west coast, but slowly developed awareness of the struggle her family faced to provide daily needs in a world of strangers where newcomers were viewed with suspicion. With no work or prospect of it, knowing no one in the far west, her mother and father became, in effect, like the pioneers of a previous era, searching for a place to settle that would satisfy them.

A coming-of-age story told through vivid memories of her experiences and the persons she encountered along the way, Cricket in the Grass relates a child's learning of self-reliance.

You may have traveled to some of these destinations yourself, but chances are you've never become tangled in the predicaments that this pair of travelers has encountered. Beverly Paik is looking for adventure beyond the ordinary and usually stumbles onto it while her husband, always the skeptic, is traveling with her. The dialogue between them runs like a continuous thread, whether they are stepping onto a glacier from a helicopter or climbing among the ruins of a remote archeological site. The unexpected is always about to happen, whether on the streets of Paris, in a Tibetan monastery, or in the rain forests of Costa Rica.

The highlights of Lost in Venice are the sympathetic and revealing portraits of the people that they meet along the way. There are interesting nuggets of information and commentary deftly tucked into each episode. Whether you are flying halfway round the world or happily ensconced at home, reading these endearing anecdotes will give the illusion of trudging right along beside them. The author claims her stories are ninety percent truth and ten percent fiction. Your challenge is to decide what is fictional and what is real.