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Raff Ellis grew up in Carthage, New York, a city tucked away in the Adirondack Mountains. Carthage reached its maturity in the late Nineteenth Century. After World War Two, it’s industries moved south, the new freeways passed by, and its youth moved in search of work.
In these years, America’s cities were growing more consolidated. The urban centers drew hordes of commuters every day and surrounded themselves with suburban housing and vast malls. Dwellers in the megalopolis turned prosperity into privacy, which could also be called disengagement and anonymity.
Carthage was different. It remained quaint, even picturesque. No one had much money. Still, its people were known, interknit, and their lives together had an intensity that inspires the imagination many years later.
Carthage was unique. Yet its story—as conveyed in the recollections and the tales of Raff Ellis—is emblematic of widely shared experience.
Dam Foolishness sketches one place in the American land as a method of probing the American heart.450,647Direct Sale -
[Currently available in a paperback "layflat" and also in hardback bindings.]
As a homeschooling parent, a public school teacher of reading, and a private reading tutor, Karen Louise Davidson tested the most popular methods of teaching reading. They all worked, but none of them worked well enough. Now, Karen reveals the most effective phonics method of all. Number Phonics uses numbers to identify the distinct sounds generated by different letters.
Karen found that children were quick to grasp the logic that a single letter could represent multiple sounds. Once the logic was made clear to them, children could memorize the sounds and could easily pronounce words with number clues below the letters.
She also found that students who had practiced using number clues were able to transition to reading normal text, without the number clues.600,960Direct Sale -
This book bleeds the passions of youth, racked with doubt amid blazing aspirations, words thrown to the wind, women in water, grabbing him by the roots of poetry... This is an offering, a sign, brilliantly naïve yet profound.
— Billy Hayes
Author of Midnight Express and The Midnight Express Letters from a Turkish Prison
A testimony to the vitality of the poetic spirit for poets of any age or Age, and a tribute to this particular poet’s intense energy and vision . . .
— Lee Slonimsky
Author of Wandering Electron600,960Direct Sale -
Three years of war. One hundred-fifty thousand dead. One million refugees. No end in sight. This is the grim reality of the conflict in Syria, one of the great tragedies of the modern era. Yet many people remain confused as to what the fighting is all about.
The Plain Of Dead Cities makes sense of this complex scenario, by delving deep into the wells of Syrian history and examining the vital role that Syria has played in human development over the past 5000 years. Using a unique approach The Plain Of Dead Cities takes the reader of a virtual tour of Syria. The narrator carries you across the country, through the history books and archaeological sites, revealing the political, religious, social, geographical and historical complexities that have led to the current military conflagration.
The Plain Of Dead Cities is as unconventional as the land it describes, part non-fictional memoir and part fiction. The Plain Of Dead Cities is an adventure and a tale, but above all is a tribute to Syria, that most mystical of lands.
600,960Direct Sale -
The book consists of rapier-like literary thrusts into the lives of General George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Andrews (the builder of the Titanic), and Edward Grey (British Foreign Secretary before World War I). However spectacular their failures, it's generally agreed that these men (or, in the case of Edward Grey, the men around them) could have avoided disaster except for arrogance - a flaw that has long characterized the imperial ambition of leaders from both countries.600,960Direct Sale
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Stephen Fife’s powerful lens pinpoints daily drama and delusion in our Twenty-first Century mysterium.
—Jean-Claude van Itallie, author of America Hurrah and The Serpent
Stephen Fife’s poems crystallize those moments when one is walking through a great city—almost always New York—taking in faces, storefronts, the great bridges and skyscrapers, and the most minute details of everyday life. There are portraits and still-lifes, glancing observations and extended meditations—a vast web of human interactions that enable us to enter this world, with pathos and understanding, as both participants and observers.
—Nicholas Christopher600,960Direct Sale -
White Carnations is a collection of 101 very short tales that capture the unfolding Syrian tragedy. It is one writer’s plea in the face of horrific suffering of individuals from all walks of Syrian life. These Kafkaesque tales briefly sketch the nasty turns of fate of individuals trapped at home, subjected to the whimsical atrocities committed by pro-Assad, paramilitary hooligans against helpless, innocent civilians, or forced to flee the war-torn country. (Very short fiction based on fact by a noted Syrian author.)600,960Direct Sale
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600,960Not For Sale
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The story of Syria’s largest unofficial refugee camp. How it was born and how a dissident arts scene transformed the political dialogue and provided catharsis to those facing persecution and exile. This book traces the story of the camp from its beginnings, founded by Palestinians fleeing Israeli violence. The book explores Yarmouk's growth as a vibrant suburb of Damascus, home to 160,000 Palestinians and over 650,000 Syrians.
As cement buildings rose and bustling marketplaces expanded, Yarmouk residents continued to be restrained by dangerous political realities. In this vulnerable space, artists, writers, playwrights, musicians, and filmmakers flourished. Some took risks and bravely spoke out through their work. During the Syrian Civil War, they witnessed and suffered through the decimation of the mukhayyam (camp). Art in Exile tells the story of Yarmouk through their eyes.602,960Direct Sale -
The American government wants to establish a stripped-down diplomatic post in the Equateur, the remotest part of the strife-torn Congo. No diplomatic protections. Not even diplomatic communication links. Officers assigned to staff it refuse to go. They won't serve in that "hellhole."
Enter Fred Hunter, a young US Information Service officer just arrived from training in Belgium. Why not send him? Sink or swim. Let's see if he'll survive.
So Fred goes alone into the Equateur, a typewriter his only friend. Quoting liberally from letters written on that typewriter, this memoir recounts the adventures of Fred's year at the edge of the jungle.
600,960Direct Sale -
The modern Middle East often seems like a web of problems none of which has proven more intractable over the last half century than the Israeli-Arab conflict. One of the core issues is the Israeli claim to ownership of modern-day real estate based on ancient stories that have been enshrined in scripture, promoted by politicians, and buttressed by Hollywood.
In Biblical Time Out of Mind, two revisionist thinkers expose what they argue are the tenuous underpinnings of these claims. Was the Exodus of scripture actually a Hebrew exodus. Was the Moses depicted by Charlton Heston actually a Hebrew leader? Or were they echoes of a much earlier exodus of Hyksos, the invasive people to first conquer and reign over Egyptians?
The authors argue that neither Moses nor the Hebrews were in Egypt until around 1000 BCE--500 years after the earlier Exodus is known to have taken place. They go on to sift through research of an Hyksos evacuation of Egypt led by an Eastern leader who is far different than the Moses with whom we are familiar.
600,960Direct Sale -
Ali Ferzat is the dean of Arab political cartoonists. His caricatures do not spare wealth, influence, or power. They give hope to the disenfranchised, the poor, and the hungry. Ferzat is an authentic Arab voice who nevertheless does not hesitate to buck the tide of majority oopinion. Ferzat's work is a ringing cry for justice that cuts across all cultures.
Ferzat is head of the Arab Cartoonists' Union and has received the distinguished Prince Claus award (Holland).593,960Direct Sale -
The guns in Aleppo have fallen silent. At some point, the war of bombs and bullets and the interior war of one ideology against another will come to an end and Syrians of all stripes will look to their common heritage to rebuild their society.
Aleppo may be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Its ancient Citadel, covered market, and Umayyad mosque are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
In this "children's book for adults," a long time resident of Aleppo takes a tour of the old quarter and provides historical sketches and photos for those who value what was lost and are eager to see the treasures of Aleppo rebuilt and a vigorous civil society restored.600,960Direct Sale -
Ali Ferzat is the dean of Arab political cartoonists. His caricatures do not spare wealth, influence, or power. They give hope to the disenfranchised, the poor, and the hungry. Ferzat is an authentic Arab voice who nevertheless does not hesitate to buck the tide of majority oopinion. Ferzat's work is a ringing cry for justice that cuts across all cultures.
Ferzat is head of the Arab Cartoonists' Union and has received the distinguished Prince Claus award (Holland).593,960Direct Sale -
Congo MemoirFred Hunter arrives in the Congo in 1963, three years after its chaotic independence. He expects heat, jungle, hardship, even violence. Instead he finds the Kivu, a kind of paradise. It lay nestled among Rift Valley lakes. The climate was benign, the beauty extraordinary. It was peaceful, people got along, and an African king lived atop the nearby mountains. Enchanted, his senses alert, he writes about the people and his adventures: the Congolese employee, a womanizing rogue, with whom travels; a Foreign Service family with whom he lodges; an American academic intoxicated by Africa; a lady missionary lost in time; a visit to that African king; mud-trapped, hippos-surrounded, in a deserted game park at nightfall; a Kivu girl with whom he falls in love. The memoir takes you along on these Kivu adventures. It offers glimpses of an Africa that circumstance and conflict keep alive only in memory and memoir.600,960Direct Sale
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Ali Ferzat is the dean of Arab political cartoonists. His caricatures do not spare wealth, influence, or power. They give hope to the disenfranchised, the poor, and the hungry. Ferzat is an authentic Arab voice who nevertheless does not hesitate to buck the tide of majority oopinion. Ferzat's work is a ringing cry for justice that cuts across all cultures.
Ferzat is head of the Arab Cartoonists' Union and has received the distinguished Prince Claus award (Holland).593,960Direct Sale -
The guns in Aleppo have fallen silent. At some point, the war of bombs and bullets and the interior war of one ideology against another will come to an end and Syrians of all stripes will look to their common heritage to rebuild their society.
Aleppo may be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Its ancient Citadel, covered market, and Umayyad mosque are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
In this "children's book for adults," a long time resident of Aleppo takes a tour of the old quarter and provides historical sketches and photos for those who value what was lost and are eager to see the treasures of Aleppo rebuilt and a vigorous civil society restored.600,960Direct Sale -
The American government wants to establish a stripped-down diplomatic post in the Equateur, the remotest part of the strife-torn Congo. No diplomatic protections. Not even diplomatic communication links. Officers assigned to staff it refuse to go. They won't serve in that "hellhole."
Enter Fred Hunter, a young US Information Service officer just arrived from training in Belgium. Why not send him? Sink or swim. Let's see if he'll survive.
So Fred goes alone into the Equateur, a typewriter his only friend. Quoting liberally from letters written on that typewriter, this memoir recounts the adventures of Fred's year at the edge of the jungle.
600,960Direct Sale -
Three years of war. One hundred-fifty thousand dead. One million refugees. No end in sight. This is the grim reality of the conflict in Syria, one of the great tragedies of the modern era. Yet many people remain confused as to what the fighting is all about.
The Plain Of Dead Cities makes sense of this complex scenario, by delving deep into the wells of Syrian history and examining the vital role that Syria has played in human development over the past 5000 years. Using a unique approach The Plain Of Dead Cities takes the reader of a virtual tour of Syria. The narrator carries you across the country, through the history books and archaeological sites, revealing the political, religious, social, geographical and historical complexities that have led to the current military conflagration.
The Plain Of Dead Cities is as unconventional as the land it describes, part non-fictional memoir and part fiction. The Plain Of Dead Cities is an adventure and a tale, but above all is a tribute to Syria, that most mystical of lands.
600,960Direct Sale -
Learning First in Black and White introduces The Design Code Process ®, an idea-generating system developed by Northwest artist and educator, Fred Griffin. Griffin's approach makes it possible for professional graphic designers and illustrators - as well as students and lay artists - to turn out fresh ideas and great designs on deadline.602,960Direct Sale
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Congo MemoirFred Hunter arrives in the Congo in 1963, three years after its chaotic independence. He expects heat, jungle, hardship, even violence. Instead he finds the Kivu, a kind of paradise. It lay nestled among Rift Valley lakes. The climate was benign, the beauty extraordinary. It was peaceful, people got along, and an African king lived atop the nearby mountains. Enchanted, his senses alert, he writes about the people and his adventures: the Congolese employee, a womanizing rogue, with whom travels; a Foreign Service family with whom he lodges; an American academic intoxicated by Africa; a lady missionary lost in time; a visit to that African king; mud-trapped, hippos-surrounded, in a deserted game park at nightfall; a Kivu girl with whom he falls in love. The memoir takes you along on these Kivu adventures. It offers glimpses of an Africa that circumstance and conflict keep alive only in memory and memoir.600,960Direct Sale
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More Info | Author | Kindle
[available in Spring 2019]
Refugees who have fled famine and violence and resettled in the US too often are isolated, disconnected, living in despair. They typically have housing, food, clothing. Yet they miss the large inter-connected families, the all-embracing social fabric, the living culture in which they were raised.
This book tells the unknown story of ordinary Americans who saw a need, created an ingenious solution, worked hard, asked nothing in return—and found that their own lives were uplifted.
Patricia Martin Holt has written a book about “fabric” . . . the fabric of lives in warm, welcoming communities as well as the complex cross-stitched fabrics that she first encountered in Jordan in 1982. When her husband was posted to Amman Jordan, Patricia met a Renaissance woman named Leila Wahbeh and followed her to the local refugee camps. Here, Patricia found women who were creating textiles with intricate designs—and restoring themselves and their families in the process.
Years later in the Atlanta suburbs, Patricia discovered the Peace of Thread movement, which was founded in 2003 by another Renaissance woman—Denise Smith. Here too, Patricia saw that refugee women working with fabric, selling their creations in posh stores and on Esty, were overcoming their isolation, strengthening their families, making some money, and embuing their lives with purpose.
Patricia realized that we can work for world peace without grand gestures, photo ops, or foreign travel. All that is needed is to lend a hand to those in need who live in the same cities and counties where we live.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
Musa Al-Halool is a native of the Syrian city of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River in the Syrian desert and a few years ago claimed by the Islamic State as the center of their so-called caliphate. Now, the city is ruined, the Islamic state has fled, and Syrians like our author whose family homes have been destroyed are giving thought to the biting ironies of life as they pursue their careers in exile.
Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the frying pan of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the fire of war, suffering, and mass murder . . . he presents them as the response of one still-sane voice in the midst of madness.
The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled "Ratstan" . . . or the country of "rats." These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
Musa Al-Halool is a native of the Syrian city of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River in the Syrian desert and a few years ago claimed by the Islamic State as the center of their so-called caliphate. Now, the city is ruined, the Islamic state has fled, and Syrians like our author whose family homes have been destroyed are giving thought to the biting ironies of life as they pursue their careers in exile.
Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the frying pan of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the fire of war, suffering, and mass murder . . . he presents them as the response of one still-sane voice in the midst of madness.
The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled "Ratstan" . . . or the country of "rats." These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
Musa Al-Halool is a native of the Syrian city of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River in the Syrian desert and a few years ago claimed by the Islamic State as the center of their so-called caliphate. Now, the city is ruined, the Islamic state has fled, and Syrians like our author whose family homes have been destroyed are giving thought to the biting ironies of life as they pursue their careers in exile.
Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the frying pan of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the fire of war, suffering, and mass murder . . . he presents them as the response of one still-sane voice in the midst of madness.
The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled "Ratstan" . . . or the country of "rats." These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.600,960Direct Sale -
Cradle of Intrigue uses postwar Syria as a focal point to tell the story of how Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, and Jordan made Syria their target of conspiratorial plots as they sought to gain influence over Damascus. The book’s narrative challenges the notion of an omnipresent CIA and MI6, giving agency to local actors’ decisions to unseat governments and guide their own foreign policies.
(Available as a Kindle eBook only.)
600,960Direct Sale -
Cradle of Intrigue uses postwar Syria as a focal point to tell the story of how Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, and Jordan made Syria their target of conspiratorial plots as they sought to gain influence over Damascus. The book’s narrative challenges the notion of an omnipresent CIA and MI6, giving agency to local actors’ decisions to unseat governments and guide their own foreign policies.
(Available as a Kindle eBook only.)
600,960Direct Sale -
"Steven Schlesser and his sisters lead a privileged childhood in Portland, Oregon financed by their father's business. Dad had developed an innovative way to provide pre-painted material for use in building the cheapest and most-reviled form of housing in the US, immortalized in plaintive country western tunes and brought before the public in Bill Clinton's most sleazy love affairs. We are talking about trailers also known as mobile homes. (The industry preferred the term "manufactured housing.")
After World War II, decent folk took jobs with big corporations that enabled them to qualify for FHA mortgages. They moved into freshly painted two bedroom houses in the suburbs. What about the other half? Seasonal workers, traveling salesmen, low paid factory staff, mothers without a breadwinner, drunks, druggies, failed criminals, perverts--all kinds of losers, outcasts, and hard luck cases moved into urban slums and into even less expensive and less stable neighborhoods: trailer park encampments at the edge of town.
Steven Schlesser and his two sisters grew up in a good neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. As children, they had two loving parents and never worried about money. Brimming with confidence after graduating from college and law school, Steve joined his father's firm. The two created a juggernaut."
600,960Direct Sale -
Fred Hunter arrives in the Congo in 1963, three years after its chaotic independence. He expects heat, jungle, hardship, even violence. Instead he finds the Kivu, a kind of paradise. It lay nestled among Rift Valley lakes. The climate was benign, the beauty extraordinary. It was peaceful, people got along, and an African king lived atop the nearby mountains.
Enchanted, his senses alert, he writes about the people and his adventures: the Congolese employee, a womanizing rogue, with whom he travels; a Foreign Service family with whom he lodges; an American academic intoxicated by Africa; a lady missionary lost in time; a visit to that African king; mud-trapped, hippos-surrounded, in a deserted game park at nightfall; a Kivu girl with whom he falls in love.
The memoir takes you along on these Kivu adventures. It offers glimpses of an Africa that circumstance and conflict keep alive only in memory and memoir.
600,960Direct Sale -
Cradle of Intrigue uses postwar Syria as a focal point to tell the story of how Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, and Jordan made Syria their target of conspiratorial plots as they sought to gain influence over Damascus. The book’s narrative challenges the notion of an omnipresent CIA and MI6, giving agency to local actors’ decisions to unseat governments and guide their own foreign policies.
(Available as a Kindle eBook only.)
600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
In recent years, there has been a strong movement in Latin America for governments to regulate working conditions of child labor. On July 2, 2014, Bolivia passed legislation to allow children to work as young as age 10. This action put Bolivia in violation of the UN Conventions regulating child labor and was strongly condemned by human rights advocacy groups.
“In Child Labor – Legalize? Or Outlaw?” The author describes the child labor movement in Latin America and points out the challenge that many children have to work illegally to survive. They do not have the luxury of waiting for a “perfect” solution.
Although regulations on the working conditions of child labor can protect child workers by law, it is not an effective solution on the ground.
A better policy will be to protect the child workers legally while also providing a “collaborative approach.” The author explores this alternative in her book.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
Musa Al-Halool is a native of the Syrian city of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River in the Syrian desert and a few years ago claimed by the Islamic State as the center of their so-called caliphate. Now, the city is ruined, the Islamic state has fled, and Syrians like our author whose family homes have been destroyed are giving thought to the biting ironies of life as they pursue their careers in exile.
Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the frying pan of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the fire of war, suffering, and mass murder . . . he presents them as the response of one still-sane voice in the midst of madness.
The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled "Ratstan" . . . or the country of "rats." These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.600,960Direct Sale -
East of the Grand Ummayad reveals that for a century a pivotal Middle Eastern country was ruled by men with a secret allegiance—to the Fraternity of Freemasons.
East of the Grand Umayyad is the story of Damascus Freemasonry from 1868 until 1965. It shows how the crème-de-la-crème of Syrian society were Freemasons, men such as Fares al-Khoury and Abdul Rahman Shahbandar (leaders of the anti-colonial movement). This book shows how they contributed to the building of their societies through scholarly work in an academic setting, politics, industry, and philanthropy.
The coups of the Independence period come alive when viewed through the lens of Freemasonry, when the power politics that followed the French withdrawal from Syria and Lebanon set Masonic brothers against one another.
Ultimately, the proud accomplishments of Damascus Freemasons are besmirched by unfounded Zionist ties and the brotherhood is overtaken by a younger and more powerful secret society—The Rotary Club.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
[available in Spring 2019]
Refugees who have fled famine and violence and resettled in the US too often are isolated, disconnected, living in despair. They typically have housing, food, clothing. Yet they miss the large inter-connected families, the all-embracing social fabric, the living culture in which they were raised.
This book tells the unknown story of ordinary Americans who saw a need, created an ingenious solution, worked hard, asked nothing in return—and found that their own lives were uplifted.
Patricia Martin Holt has written a book about “fabric” . . . the fabric of lives in warm, welcoming communities as well as the complex cross-stitched fabrics that she first encountered in Jordan in 1982. When her husband was posted to Amman Jordan, Patricia met a Renaissance woman named Leila Wahbeh and followed her to the local refugee camps. Here, Patricia found women who were creating textiles with intricate designs—and restoring themselves and their families in the process.
Years later in the Atlanta suburbs, Patricia discovered the Peace of Thread movement, which was founded in 2003 by another Renaissance woman—Denise Smith. Here too, Patricia saw that refugee women working with fabric, selling their creations in posh stores and on Esty, were overcoming their isolation, strengthening their families, making some money, and embuing their lives with purpose.
Patricia realized that we can work for world peace without grand gestures, photo ops, or foreign travel. All that is needed is to lend a hand to those in need who live in the same cities and counties where we live.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
In recent years, there has been a strong movement in Latin America for governments to regulate working conditions of child labor. On July 2, 2014, Bolivia passed legislation to allow children to work as young as age 10. This action put Bolivia in violation of the UN Conventions regulating child labor and was strongly condemned by human rights advocacy groups.
“In Child Labor – Legalize? Or Outlaw?” The author describes the child labor movement in Latin America and points out the challenge that many children have to work illegally to survive. They do not have the luxury of waiting for a “perfect” solution.
Although regulations on the working conditions of child labor can protect child workers by law, it is not an effective solution on the ground.
A better policy will be to protect the child workers legally while also providing a “collaborative approach.” The author explores this alternative in her book.600,960Direct Sale -
Congo MemoirFred Hunter arrives in the Congo in 1963, three years after its chaotic independence. He expects heat, jungle, hardship, even violence. Instead he finds the Kivu, a kind of paradise. It lay nestled among Rift Valley lakes. The climate was benign, the beauty extraordinary. It was peaceful, people got along, and an African king lived atop the nearby mountains. Enchanted, his senses alert, he writes about the people and his adventures: the Congolese employee, a womanizing rogue, with whom travels; a Foreign Service family with whom he lodges; an American academic intoxicated by Africa; a lady missionary lost in time; a visit to that African king; mud-trapped, hippos-surrounded, in a deserted game park at nightfall; a Kivu girl with whom he falls in love. The memoir takes you along on these Kivu adventures. It offers glimpses of an Africa that circumstance and conflict keep alive only in memory and memoir.600,960Direct Sale
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More Info | Author | Kindle
Refugees from Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa find themselves isolated after resettling in the US. Used to village culture, they are adrift. "Empower a Refugee" tells the stories of refugees who participated in the Peace of Thread program near Atlanta, GA. Run by compassionate Christians who have found their calling in helping the dispossessed, Peace of Thread involves refugee women in fabric-related craft work.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
Musa Al-Halool is a native of the Syrian city of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River in the Syrian desert and a few years ago claimed by the Islamic State as the center of their so-called caliphate. Now, the city is ruined, the Islamic state has fled, and Syrians like our author whose family homes have been destroyed are giving thought to the biting ironies of life as they pursue their careers in exile.
Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the frying pan of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the fire of war, suffering, and mass murder . . . he presents them as the response of one still-sane voice in the midst of madness.
The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled "Ratstan" . . . or the country of "rats." These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
White Carnations is a collection of 101 very short tales that capture the unfolding Syrian tragedy. It is one writer’s plea in the face of horrific suffering of individuals from all walks of Syrian life. These Kafkaesque tales briefly sketch the nasty turns of fate of individuals trapped at home, subjected to the whimsical atrocities committed by pro-Assad, paramilitary hooligans against helpless, innocent civilians, or forced to flee the war-torn country. (Very short fiction based on fact by a noted Syrian author.)600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
Musa Al-Halool is a native of the Syrian city of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River in the Syrian desert and a few years ago claimed by the Islamic State as the center of their so-called caliphate. Now, the city is ruined, the Islamic state has fled, and Syrians like our author whose family homes have been destroyed are giving thought to the biting ironies of life as they pursue their careers in exile.
Musa Al-Halool developed these stories based on a sense of embitterment toward the Syrian regime. Now, after his country has fallen from the frying pan of an obtuse and rigidly bureaucratic state into the fire of war, suffering, and mass murder . . . he presents them as the response of one still-sane voice in the midst of madness.
The collection opens with eight political fables in a chapter titled "Ratstan" . . . or the country of "rats." These fables introduce themes which are picked up and developed in the later stories or simply serve as counterpoint to the longer pieces.600,960Direct Sale -
More Info | Author | Kindle
In recent years, there has been a strong movement in Latin America for governments to regulate working conditions of child labor. On July 2, 2014, Bolivia passed legislation to allow children to work as young as age 10. This action put Bolivia in violation of the UN Conventions regulating child labor and was strongly condemned by human rights advocacy groups.
“In Child Labor – Legalize? Or Outlaw?” The author describes the child labor movement in Latin America and points out the challenge that many children have to work illegally to survive. They do not have the luxury of waiting for a “perfect” solution.
Although regulations on the working conditions of child labor can protect child workers by law, it is not an effective solution on the ground.
A better policy will be to protect the child workers legally while also providing a “collaborative approach.” The author explores this alternative in her book.600,960Direct Sale -
978,960Not For Sale
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epa03028016 A handout photo made available by the Syrian Arab Neepa03028016 A handout photo made available by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows black smoke rising from an oil pipeline blast, in Homs, Syria, 08 December 2011. The Syrian regime and opposition activists traded accusations on 08 December over the pipeline explosion. The state news agency SANA said the explosion was caused by unidentified gunmen. But activists in Homs claimed the attack had been engineered by pro-government forces _to give themselves an excuse_ to raid dissident areas in the province. The pipeline transports crude oil from eastern Syria to a refinery in Homs and passes near Baba Amr. EPA/SANA/HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++1440,960Not For Sale
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Empower a Refugee:
Peace of Thread & the Backyard Humanity Movement
PATRICIA MARTIN HOLT raised three children while working as a law firm administrator and attending night school. Once armed with degrees in business management and communications, she formed her own management consulting company. She left the business world and moved to the Middle East with her second husband, a hydrology consultant, when he took a position in Amman, Jordan. In exploring her new culture, Holt met Leila Wahbeh and saw the difference one purposeful woman made in the lives of thousands of refugees in camps in and around Amman. Her story became the subject of Holt’s first book, Committee of One, for which Holt was named a Georgia Author of the Year and awarded an Independent Publishers Association Bronze Medal. Back in the States, Holt’s sustained interest in refugee lives drew her to Clarkston, Georgia, a hub of refugee resettlement near her home. In Clarkston, she met Denise Smith, a woman whose faith and personal experience of loss compelled her to find a way to help refugee women rebuild their lives. Smith founded Peace of Thread, a handbag company for which refugee women manufacture one-of-a-kind products. Creating Hope tells the story of this remarkable enterprise and of its founder, volunteers, and unique employees. When not writing, Holt is in her fine craft studio, working in clay.600,960Not For Sale -
Putting It All Together reviews The Design Code Process ®, an idea-generating system developed by northwest artist and educator, Fred Griffin. Griffin's approach makes it possible for professional graphic designers and illustrators - as well as students and lay artists - to turn out fresh ideas and great designs on deadline.
This book is for two types of readers: those with an understanding of design and experience in the field—and those with interest and entry level skills who have never studied design. For experienced artists and designers, this book is a tool to lift oneself out of a creative dry spell. For those who are new to thinking to design, it also serves as a primer in the basics of composition. For either type of reader, these are books that you can return to again and again for inspiration and practical guidance.
602,960Direct Sale -
Tossing Around Ideas develops a creative process based on The Design Code Process ®, an idea-generating system developed by Northwest artist and educator, Fred Griffin. Griffin's approach makes it possible for professional graphic designers and illustrators - as well as students and lay artists - to turn out fresh ideas and great designs on deadline.
The first book in the series (Learning First in Black & White) introduces The Design Code and the last book in the series (Putting It All Together) provides a review plus exercises, tips, and techniques that make it possible to consistently produce excellent graphic designs.
602,960Direct Sale -
Putting It All Together reviews The Design Code Process ®, an idea-generating system developed by northwest artist and educator, Fred Griffin. Griffin's approach makes it possible for professional graphic designers and illustrators - as well as students and lay artists - to turn out fresh ideas and great designs on deadline.
This book is for two types of readers: those with an understanding of design and experience in the field—and those with interest and entry level skills who have never studied design. For experienced artists and designers, this book is a tool to lift oneself out of a creative dry spell. For those who are new to thinking to design, it also serves as a primer in the basics of composition. For either type of reader, these are books that you can return to again and again for inspiration and practical guidance.
602,960Direct Sale -
The guns in Aleppo have fallen silent. At some point, the war of bombs and bullets and the interior war of one ideology against another will come to an end and Syrians of all stripes will look to their common heritage to rebuild their society.
Aleppo may be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Its ancient Citadel, covered market, and Umayyad mosque are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
In this "children's book for adults," a long time resident of Aleppo takes a tour of the old quarter and provides historical sketches and photos for those who value what was lost and are eager to see the treasures of Aleppo rebuilt and a vigorous civil society restored.600,960Direct Sale -
Looking Both Ways is a collection of interlinked essays that explores family, language, politics, identity, and culture, often with a touch of humor. These essays move across time and space, beginning in Egypt and crossing the ocean to follow the author’s travels and the challenges of adapting to American culture and creating a family in her new world.
The collection is divided into four sections. “Making Home,” centers on the notion of home, beginning in Egypt in the 1960s and moving toward the U.S. “In Transit,” examines the connection between place and identity. “With Caution,” engages with the idea of danger, highlighting issues related to being Arab in America. “Time Difference,” begins with the 2011 Egyptian Uprising and delves into the blurring of cultural experience between Egypt and the U.S.
From recounting her attempt to retrieve a stolen nativity camel to relaying her sense of cultural indignation when her husband tells her to follow a recipe, these essays use humor to dive deeper into the experience of what it means to live as an Egyptian in the United States. Other essays confront more difficult topics, such as being called “Osama Bin Laden” by some young boys the day after Bin Laden was killed or experiencing the 2011 Egyptian revolution while living in America.
Together, these essays create the impression of a memoir as they weave together to reflect the larger narrative of immigration. This book explores culture, identity, and displacement, offering a unique vision into the Arab American immigrant experience.600,960Direct Sale -
[Available Sept 1, 2019]
Twenty-five paintings by Helen Zughaib accompanied by text based on favorite stories told by her father about life in Syria and Lebanon in the 1930s and during World War II.
Helen's father was born in the Old Quarter of Damascus during Ottoman times, when Le Grande Syrie included the lands that are now demarked as Syria and Lebanon. His father and mother, first cousins in an arranged marriage, were from the villages of Zahle and Durer Shweir in the Lebanese mountains."Let me tell you a story," Helen's father used to say. What followed were absorbing tales of her father's childhood in Damascus, village life in Lebanon in the late 1930s, amusing relatives, happenings the traditions of in their local Greek Orthodox Church, and major events in her father's young life that lead him to emigrate to the United States in 1946.
Helen Zughaib is an award-winning artist who has developed a distinctive technique working in gouache and ink. She was born in Beirut and, educated in the Middle East, Paris, and the US. She is currently based in Washington.
Zughaib uses folkloric elements and a wide variety of other visual references to express the life and outlook of her family, the village community of her father's young adult life, and her position as an international woman with special insight and empathy for the Middle East and its people.
Critics note the parallels between Zughaib's work as an artist with Arab roots to the art of contemporary "Native, Latin, and African American communities." (Maymanah Farhat)
For More:
Cultural Understanding in the Art of Helen Zughaib (by Maymanah Farhat)
www.onefineart.com/articles/helen-zughaib600,960Direct Sale -
Elizabeth Jenkins, 17, raised on a Congo mission station, is under intense pressure to marry the station doctor, twenty years her senior. Hours before the wedding, Elizabeth flees. She runs toward the wider world beyond the station. She reaches Nairobi, a place of danger for a single woman without a protecting clan. Can she survive?
600,960Direct Sale
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