Easton Studio Press – förlag

“The story of Svalbard's seed vault reads as an amazingly optimistic science fiction story— but these remarkable photos remind us, happily, that's it true. For those of us struggling to keep the planet from cracking, it's a great comfort to know all about this project.” —Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New PlanetThe remarkable story of the Global Seed Vault—and the valiant effort to save the past and the future of agriculture: Now updated with a new chapter by the author and photos from recent improvements in the facilities.Author Cary Fowler, father of the Global Seed Vault, was named a 2024 World Food Prize Laureate.Closer to the North Pole than to the Arctic Circle, on an island in a remote Norwegian archipelago, lies a vast global seed bank buried within a frozen mountain. At the end of a 130-meter long tunnel chiseled out of solid stone is a room filled with humanity’s precious treasure, the largest and most diverse seed collection ever assembled: more than a half billion seeds containing the world’s most prized crops, a safeguard against catastrophic starvation.The Global Seed Vault, a visionary model of international collaboration, is the brainchild of Cary Fowler, renowned scientist, conservationist, and biodiversity advocate. In SEEDS ON ICE, Fowler tells for the first time the comprehensive inside story of how the “doomsday seed vault” came to be, while the breathtaking photographs offer a stunning guided tour not only of the private vault, but of the windswept beauty and majesty of Svalbard and the enchanting community of people in Longyearbyen.With growing evidence that unchecked climate change will seriously undermine food production and threaten the diversity of crops around the world, SEEDS ON ICE offers a personal and passionate reminder that we shouldn’t take our reliance on the world of plants for granted—and that, in a very real sense, the future of the human race rides on this frozen and indispensable biodiversity.

Joe Lazer—one of the world’s leading voices on the art and science of business storytelling—is out with a new book revealing how to master storytelling and future-proof your career in the AI Age.The conventional wisdom today says that if you want to succeed in the next age of work, all you need to do is learn how to use AI. But the future or work won’t be won by the best prompt engineers. It’ll be won by those those who lead, persuade, influence, and inspire. By the communicators and the critical thinkers. And there’s one cognitive superpower that unlocks all those crucial soft skills: storytelling.Make AI your primary skillset, and you’ll become an assistant to a machine. Master storytelling first—and then amplify your abilities with AI—and you’ll make yourself irreplaceable. The clock is ticking. Which path will you take?For the past 15 years, best-selling author, Joe Lazer has been one of the world’s leading voices on the art and science of business storytelling. In Super Skill, Lazer reveals how to become a master storyteller and win the AI Age. Through 15 science-backed principles, cutting-edge AI techniques, and real-world stories of neuroscientists, Neanderthals, founders, and filmmakers, he’ll show you how to hone your storytelling superpowers, build a following, and future-proof your career.With rave reviews, Super Skill is a must-read for marketers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, executives, and anyone else who wants to supercharge their most unique human advantages in the age of AI.

Originally published in 1973, when it won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, reprinted and revised several times since, They're Playing Our Song is a classic oral history of American popular music. Now further updated with new material and new photographs, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in the Great American Songbook of the 20th century, these classic and timeless songs and lyrics are as popular today as ever.

The Cosmic Ocean shares the treasures that Paul K. Chappell, a West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran, who grew up in a violent household, has extracted from trauma. To explain how these treasures--which take the form of timeless truths--can help us solve our personal, national, and global problems, this book uses personal stories and extensive research to journey through time, around the world, and into every facet of the human condition. To survive and progress as a global human family, Chappell explains that we need a paradigm shift that can transform our understanding of peace, justice, love, happiness, and what it means to be human. To help create this paradigm shift, The Cosmic Ocean explores diverse subjects such as empathy, rage, nonviolent struggle, war, beauty, religion, philosophy, science, Gandhi, the Iliad, slavery, human sacrifice, video games, sports, and our shared humanity.

This book comes from first hand experiences, both in word and in pictures. It offers a partial record of a community and an institution coming together to accommodate an event while deflecting its potential violence. The history of the New Haven Green bridges over four centuries. It has served as a place for worship, for grazing cattle, staging revolutions, witness to hangings, and various campaigns. On the day before and on May Day of 1970, Yale University and New Haven prepared to host an agitated congregation of young civil rights activists with a diverse list of causes, but focused mainly on freeing Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader. This book gives a glimpse of that diversity; diverse in cause, attitude, and dress. Marked changes in mood evolved over the approximate 32 hours. Yale and New Haven could be proud of avoiding real violence and blood shed. Like an archeological record, it exhibits not only the New Haven Green on that one day, but marks a broader shift in direction for a county at large. For those who were there, it seems painfully near. For later generations, it is likely a remote abstraction.

How is critical thinking taught? How will the next generation cope with an ever-changing and increasingly complex world? These are questions that the Grand Strategy program at Yale seeks to address. The Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy seeks to revive the study and practice of grand strategy by devising methods to teach that subject at the graduate and undergraduate levels, by training future leaders to think about and implement grand strategies in imaginative and effective ways, and by organizing public events that emphasize the importance of grand strategy. The program defines "grand strategy" as a comprehensive plan of action, based on the calculated relationship of means to large ends. Never an exact science, grand strategy requires constant reassessment and adjustment. Flexibility is key. Traditionally believed to belong to and best-developed in the politico-military and governmental realms, the concept of grand strategy applies--and ISS believes is essential--to a broad spectrum of human activities, not least those of international institutions, non-governmental organizations, and private businesses and corporations.For fifteen years, the Grand Strategy program has been cultivating leadership skills of undergraduates and graduate students of Yale University. In Linda Kulman's compelling book, we learn about this remarkable program from the inside, sharing the stress of the "murder boards," the revelation of applying the classics to current geopolitical situations, and the crucial importance of fast decision-making under duress. Teaching Common Sense weaves together on-site reporting, archival research, and original survey data into an intellectual history of the Grand Strategy program.

From French scholar and author Claudine Lesage, comes Edith Wharton in France, an examination of Wharton’s years (1907-1937) in France. Lesage, with her innate knowledge of French culture, uses previously unknown or untranslated sources to provide a unique look into French society and Wharton’s place within it. Edith Wharton in France chronicles Edith Wharton’s dogged efforts to penetrate the Byzantine levels of French high society, her love for the French and Italian countryside, and her consuming passion for the Mediterranean garden. While Lesage is initially skeptical of Wharton’s ability to “become French,” this work ultimately portrays a woman of indomitable spirit who ultimately succeeds in fashioning a French home of her own making in her beloved adopted country.Lesage’s work illuminates the intertwined characters and important relationships of Wharton’s life in France, many of them overlooked or minimized in earlier biographies. Prominently featured in the account are the French novelist Paul Bourget and his wife Minnie, whose meticulous diary entries over a 35-year period provide a fresh look at Wharton’s active social life both in Paris and on the French Riviera.A still more intimate look into Wharton’s French circle is provided by her extensive correspondence with the Frenchman Léon Bélugou, a widely travelled mining engineer, writer and well-known figure in Parisian high society. Spanning more than 25 years, the letters portray a mutual intellectual kinship and devoted friendship. Other newly discovered highlights include letters presented as evidence in Wharton’s French divorce proceedings, a mysterious autobiographical essay written by Wharton’s lover, American journalist Morton Fullerton, and numerous photographs never before published. The author of multiple works of translation, as well original French texts on Wharton and Conrad, Lesage had access to unexamined and untranslated French sources. She presents Wharton’s life from the perspective of a native French woman, capturing a unique view of Wharton trying to navigate through the ancient layers of French society and master its often maddeningly obscure rules, all the while commenting on the horrors of World War I and the cataclysmic changes in the arts and culture of Paris.

NEW CENTENNIAL EDITION FOR 2020 Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald honeymooned for five months in the summer of 1920 in a modest gray house in Westport, Connecticut. It was an experience that had a more profound impact on both of their collective works than any other place they lived.It was, for Scott and Zelda, their honeymoon. Having just gotten married and after being kicked out of some of New York city's finest hotels, they were, for the first time, in their very own place, albeit for only five months. It was a time that Scott Fitzgerald called "the happiest year since I was eighteen."He had, after all, just achieved success with his first novel, This Side of Paradise, and was suddenly awash with money. The Fitzgeralds lived a wild life of drinking, driving and endless partying while living in suburban Connecticut. As it happens, living near the beach, they were neighbors to a larger-than-life reclusive multi-millionaire, F.E. Lewis.Historian Richard Webb grew up in Westport a few doors down the street from where the Fitzgeralds had lived some forty years earlier. Fascinated with the Fitzgeralds, when Webb learned that author Barbara Probst Solomon, who grew up across the river from the F.E. Lewis estate, proposed in the New Yorker that Westport was the real setting for Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, he was stirred to actively researching her claim.Boats Against the Current tells the real story behind the famous novel and its tragic hero, debunking the long-held belief that the book was solely inspired by the Fitzgerald’s time in Great Neck, across the Sound in Long Island, and lays out enough information about the fascinating Mr. Lewis that it is difficult not to believe that author Webb has located the true inspiration for one of the most captivating and iconic characters in American literature, the great Gatsby himself.Illustrated with a fantastic array of never-before-seen photos from the Lewis family, as well as the scrapbooks of the Fitzgeralds, period newspaper clippings, and a myriad of compelling stories about Scott, Zelda and their fantastically wealthy neighbor. A companion book to the documentary Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story, Boats Against the Current also recounts Webb’s own journey of making the film with fellow Westporter and filmmaker, Robert Steven Williams. The Great Gatsby may be one of America's essential novels. Boats Against the Current is an essential document for anyone who has read the book and wondered at the fantastical world whose story it tells.

When they first began working on this book, the authorsthought they would simply write the story of Linda Killinger’s grandparentswho, with seven of their thirteen kids, took a fifteen-month trip across thecountry visiting relatives and the national parks, in their brand new 1930Model A Ford. Very quickly, they realized this was not just a simplestory. Instead, they began to see it as a reveal of how this moment of historyaffected not only their grandparents’ family, but the generations to come, inthe same way these historic events have affected so many other families. Levi’sDream presents a living history of twentieth-century America.   All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated tocharity via The Kerry and Linda Killinger Foundation. Visit our website,thekillingerfoundation.org.

Becoming Forest openswith Aishling—the young Irish woman at the heart of this story—as she visitsher grandmother in California following her grandfather’s death. Aishling findsher grandfather’s journal and reads about a trip he made to India years ago tovisit the original Bodhi Tree, the place where the Buddha found enlightenment.  At the end of the journal, she finds a letter addressed toher from her grandfather asking for her help passing along his message of “deepsecurity” to her generation as they deal with the climate crisis and theuncertain future ahead. Aishling goes to India to follow in her grandfather’spath to find a way of responding to his request. There she meets and falls inlove with a young Buddhist monk, who is also on a quest. As they walk together alongthe roads of India, they gather unexpected and invaluable insights from eachother and come closer to the answers they both seek. Thirty years later, Aishling’s daughter Tara isvisiting her in Ireland. Tara is grieving the death of her father and also thedestruction of the forests from drought and fire. She is also searching for a wayto heal the burnout she and her friends are experiencing while working tocombat climate change. Becoming Forestweaves together threads of Native American and Celtic spirituality withBuddhist understanding and connection to the natural world, creating a tapestrywhich holds both the despair and awakening of Aishling

A Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist for Social Justice.In a Whole New Way is a photographic self-portrait by New Yorkers who are serving a term of probation. The book also lifts the veil on this “second-chance” justice intervention that has spread from its origins in 1841 Boston to most of the world today.If all Americans serving a term of probation were gathered in one locale, they would constitute the third-largest city in the country. Yet few of us understand what the sanction involves. Nor do many Americans realize that the originally rehabilitative practice became punitive following the 1972–92 crime wave. In many jurisdictions, it still is. Probation unfortunately has become a staging area for incarceration rather than its alternative.In a Whole New Way shows how hundreds of determined city residents on probation, along with neighborhood allies, undertook to change this. Equipped with cameras and new artistic sensibilities provided by the editors’ nonprofit Seeing for Ourselves, they set off in a whole new way to reform the sanction of probation, returning it to the rehabilitative and positive program it was originally intended to be. In the process, they found themselves transformed.The result of their journey is this unique collection of stunning photographs, accentuated by deeply personal captions and lengthier testimonies, that reveal the reality of life in probation. The stories of these participants powerfully undercut their own—and probation’s—derogatory popular image. The true goal of this book is to reform the entire justice system toward decarceration.In a Whole New Way is both the sequel to the editors’ Project Lives (2015), the globally acclaimed volume resulting from a similar effort with New Yorkers living in public housing—a work catapulting Seeing for Ourselves to the front tier of“participatory photography” practitioners worldwide—and the source of today’s award-winning eponymous documentary film, airing on select public television stations in 2023.

In Doing More with One Life, best-selling author Piasecki welcomes the reader into his home, revealing the heart-breaking early death of his father, and his deep respect and love for the women in his life, especially his mother, who devoted her life to her children, both foster and biological. He explores the life-shaping moments in his personal history and imagines what is to come next in a series of well-wrought vignettes.Piasecki’s upbringing was laced with poverty and trauma. He began reading at an early age, seeking out the wisdom and relevance from the “magical clan of writers” who helped him strengthen his writing muscle and feed into his creative hunger. Bruce’s journey to becoming a writer is spiritual and practical, as he discovers and uncovers what is truly valuable in a life. As well as being a writer, Piasecki is also an environmentalist, a speaker on climate and society, and AHC Group founder. He has also founded the family-endowed Creative Force Foundation. Doing More with One Life can be read as biography, or inventive memoir, or even as magical realism. Piasecki leaves that choice up to his reader. Readers and followers of Piasecki’s expansive career in environmental and community issues will be deeply moved by his tales of loss and his determination to make himself—and his world—into something profoundly better.

In these 25 true stories, a widely published philosopher recounts 60 years of interaction with people in all walks of life – some extremely famous, others complete strangers – from hospitals to restaurants, concert halls to airplanes, in private conversations and nationally broadcast interviews. Stories can be heartbreaking, distracting, funny, shocking, inspiring, revealing, and sometimes unforgettable – and all those attributes appear here. There’s no substitute for learning what it’s like to be someone else, to see the world as that other person does and reconsider our own views in light of that learning. These compelling and accessible stories motivate and enable us to do that, illuminating the unexpected relationships among all domains of human concern, the wellsprings of creativity, the elusive character of good judgment, and the pathways to social justice. They help us see more clearly what we care most about: deep features of human character and difficult choices, of social structures, of the power of imagination, of how to take account of the importance of what cannot be counted, and of bogus boundaries and assumptions that can repress clear thinking in any domain. These stories will make the reader more powerful in service of those values.

The most pressing question in these uncertain times may well be, How can we bring healing and protection to the Earth? It was this very question that Cynthia Jurs carried with her in 1990 as she climbed a path high in the Himalayas, to meet an “old wise man in a cave”—a venerated lama from Nepal. In response to her question, the old lama gave her a formidable assignment based on an ancient practice from Tibet: she must procure earth treasure vases made of clay and potent medicines, fill them with prayers and symbolic offerings, and bury them around the world where healing is called for.   Thus begins the journey of a lifetime—sometimes harrowing, but always shining with beauty at the threshold between urgency and the timelessness of the sacred. In Summoned by the Earth we accompany this passionate and creative Buddhist teacher, as she attempts to fulfill the daunting task. Ultimately, the path from the wise man’s mountain cave winds around the world, bringing Cynthia into relationship with elders, activists, diverse ecosystems and communities. One by one, as the humble clay pots are planted in the Earth, the power of an ancient technology of the sacred comes alive and a global community grows to protect the Earth and learn how to become vessels of healing.   Along the way, we come face to face with the troubles burdening our communities everywhere while encountering some of the people leading the way to unexpected solutions and surprising new visions. We meet survivors of the Liberian civil war, and an ex-combatant who puts down his AK47 to take up mindfulness practice in order to create lasting peace. There’s the Hero Women in Congo, who are resisting femicide and defending the sanctity of their bodies and the world’s second largest rainforest. And there’s the indigenous elders everywhere, from the outback of Aboriginal Australia to the Native pueblos of northern New Mexico, who, in keeping their lifeways alive, are stewarding their sacred lands and regenerating ecosystems vital to our collective survival.     Through all these cultures and communities, the path leads us to a cave above the Los Alamos National Laboratory, back to the cave in Nepal where it all began, and finally, to another cave high on Mount Parnassus in Delphi where the Oracle, in service to the Goddess Gaia, once divined how we may best live in balance. Over and over, we touch the heart of the world, only to discover by journey’s end that the heart of the world is everywhere and that our assignment now is to recognize we are a global family and wake up together.  As many of us wonder what we can do in this eleventh hour, Summoned by the Earth offers a riveting account of one woman’s response to the challenges we face, and is an irresistible invitation to become “sacred activists” heeding the call of the Earth.

From the United Nations Security Council, through community organizing that changed the paradigm of municipal redevelopment, to the revolutionary post–Watergate Congress and his role spearheading new environmental, anti-cancer, and global vaccine health initiatives, Andy Maguire was on the front lines in seminal moments of recent American history.Ahead of the Curve is the riveting story of how Andy learned to accumulate power and leverage it for the public good. Andy’s terms in Congress coincided with the tumultuous times of the Israeli Six-Day War and the reform era of New York Mayor John Lindsay. After a successful unorthodox campaign in a staunch Republican district, he helped revive a hidebound House of Representatives and led an important new environmental movement there. Pacesetting international development work came next.Andy learned early on that no single person can create real change, discovering how to take risks, use power, build teams, spot compromises, and mobilize diverse interests to get constructive change done. His story is more than an inspiring memoir, and more than a portrait of a committed changemaker pursuing the common good. It also is a coming-of-age tale and an implementation handbook that shows others how to continue Andy’s work.This vivid insider’s view of fifty years of world history by Michael Takiff, bestselling author of A Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton as Told by Those Who Knew Him, is both a compelling read and a beacon of hope for the current era.Ahead of the Curve is an exceptionally valuable and important book for those who seek to confront today’s challenges to American democracy and a stable world order.

A collection of witty, dramatic, and moving stories from twenty top lawyers, revealing the human side of landmark cases and the comical absurdities of a life in the law In Legal Briefs: The Ups and Downs of Life in the Law, editor Roger Witten takes us behind the scenes of some of the most fascinating court cases of the last few decades, while introducing us to the sometimes strange, and sometimes comical situations these lawyers have experienced during their long careers. This collection features twenty lawyers of varying backgrounds and expertise writing with pizzazz, humor, and passion about such significant events as the Watergate break-in; the 9/11 Commission; the Iranian hostage crisis, and more. They write of tackling issues concerning money in politics and Citizens United; same-sex parental custody rights; and the contempt charge against Martin Luther King Jr. And we are also treated to intimate portraits of some unique clients and towering figures in the legal world. This book will delight all readers, not just those with a specific interest in the law. As Roger Witten writes in the introduction, these stories “reveal the ups and downs of a life in the law by telling stories that are dramatic, moving, and/or amusing Some are tongue-in-cheek. Others are serious but never dull.”

A young journalist uncovers the dark, long-buried truth behind why a talented singer abandoned her family decades ago in this engrossing novel.In Carol Hoenig’s previous novel, Without Grace, it is believed that Grace Finley walked out on her husband and two young children to fulfill a selfish dream of becoming a famous singer, leaving behind rumors and questions among her family and townsfolk in the mountains of Upstate New York.Now in Before She Was a Finley, it is years later when Adele, a reluctant young journalism student is assigned to “get” a story from a local nursing home where she comes across elderly Grace Finley. Over time, Grace slowly takes Adele back to the 1930s and subsequent years that follow as she provides bits and pieces that eventually reveal the dark truth as to why she walked out on her family carrying only a guitar and suitcase. Adele knows that the class assignment was simply to write about a local person, and even though journalists aren’t supposed to be a part of the story, she cannot shake what she discovered and wants to do more to set the record straight. But is there anyone still alive who would care?In reviewing Without Grace, North Country Public Radio said, “We need more North Country novels like Without Grace, novels with a keen sense of place. Before She was a Finley answers that call.

A step-by-step guide to crafting a business plan that secures funding and turning your great idea into a funded reality The secrets behind creating compelling and successful business plans that are sure to attract financial backers and help business owners stay on track are revealed step-by-step in this invaluable guide. Containing clear, detailed explanations of the guidelines that banks, venture capital firms, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) use to grant loans and other financial support to businesses, this crucial resource equips potential business owners with a wealth of knowledge on lending procedures. This guide includes hundreds of useful ideas for developing, operating, marketing, and building a profitable business. Also included are copious examples and resources for further study. By demonstrating how to make each business plan uniquely suited to a particular endeavor—such as home-based businesses, sole proprietorships, and franchise operations— this comprehensive handbook ensures that anyone can embark on a new business venture with confidence and clarity. The newly updated Third Edition includes:Increased focus on Social Entrepreneurship or Social Ventures.Updated examples, including ventures that apply the latest technology. An expanded section that presents eight fundamental thinking tools that underlie entrepreneurial success and creativity. These include how to nurture your creativity and develop and test ideas without spending a penny.A new and expanded section on establishing feasibility before creating a full business plan. Expanded tools for researching business ideas, interviewing potential customers, and developing a competitive analysis to judge your ideas against potential competitors.A simple and direct Venture Assessment Tool to specify the issues that are essential for success and enables you to evaluate the potential of your venture.

A patient advocacy guide that helps you transform your fear into strength, navigate the healthcare system, and reclaim your life with dignity and hope.Sixty percent of Americans live with at least one chronic health condition and over a lifetime, many people will face multiple surgeries or life-changing diagnoses. A scary diagnosis can be overwhelming, launching patients and their loved ones into a world of fear, uncertainty, and complexity. Scary Diagnosis is a uniquely compassionate and empowering book that helps patients, families, and caregivers navigate the emotional and practical challenges that follow a serious medical diagnosis.Author Edward Rogoff draws on his own experience with chronic illness and shares compelling stories from others who have faced similar journeys. Through these narratives, he reveals how individuals can move from fear to strength, advocate for themselves, and navigate the healthcare system, while maintaining their sense of control and dignity.Scary Diagnosis is filled with real-life examples and valuable perspectives to help readers approach the challenges ahead with resilience and determination.

A unique collections of photographic “sunprints” capturing the souls of plants. Since we imagine something intentional about a community both in its formation and its function as a new entity, there is something both baffling and attractive about the idea of a “plant community.” Do plants know what they’re doing? Some claim our attention: good to eat, good to smell, get stuck to your clothes. For a majority, plants or plant communities arouse a restricted admiration: lawn. A lawn can be a plant community, an atrocious one to be sure. But I’m thinking of plant communities in the eyes of God, where the plants foregather in ancient times and set out toward infinity. These deserve the word community, and the individuals who make them up are original in the extreme, as they must be: they live in a tough town.It is our luck that the eternal aspects of these daredevils have fallen to the eye of artist Lindy Smith who has used the sun in ways known best to her to reveal the souls of plants as lives, as archetypes, as semaphore. Their shapes seem to belong to dreams while for all their unexpectedness they are no more accidental than dreams. What we see emerges from the lives they’ve lived in deep time; their importance hangs over them as an aura. We long to say their names: milkweed, mullein, bulrush, fescue, rush, yarrow. Or, on the other hand, sumpweed, pigweed, spurge. They belong to the things we see for the first time while recognizing we’ve known them always, hence the longing to absorb their eternal forms. Creation—we have it by our fingertips, just. Smith’s images Smith has discovered the souls of so many plants I thought I knew and left their essential signatures on my mind that I will never see them in the same way again, or more to the point, forget them again. I wish I knew enough about the process to understand what help the sun has been in finding these plants out. But here they are, seen by an artist, and what help it is.—from the Preface by Tom McGuane

Daughters of Fire is a gripping adventure of romance, intrigue, myth, and murder set amid the cultural tensions of today’s Hawaiʻi.Winner of the Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Silver Finalist Award for Popular FictionA visiting astronomer falls in love with a Hawaiian anthropologist who guides him into a Polynesian world of volcanoes, gods, and revered ancestors. The lovers get caught up in murder and intrigue as developers and politicians try to conceal that a long-dormant volcano is rumbling back to life above the hotel-laden Kona coast. The anthropologist joins forces with an aging seer and a young activist, and these three Hawaiian women summon their deepest traditions to confront the latest, most extravagant resort as the eruption and the murder expose deep rifts in paradise.Tom Peek’s mystical and provocative novel picks up Hawaiʻi’s story where James Michener left off. Daughters of Fire illuminates how the islands’ post-statehood transformation into a tourist mecca and developers gold mine sparked a Native Hawaiian movement to reclaim their culture, protect sacred land, and step into the future with wisdom and aloha.Includes an illustrated map and 9 original pen-and-ink drawings created for the novel by John D. Dawson. Also includes a Reading Group Guide. Originally published in 2012, Daughters of Fire has become a classic of modern Hawaiian fiction. This edition includes a new introduction by the author.

A groundbreaking interdisciplinary history of the century-long battle over our planet's most vital intellectual property: the seed. Unnatural Selection demonstrates how America's intellectual property laws reshaped global agriculture with consequences we're still grappling with today.Seeds and planting materials are central to the agricultural system that feeds us all. Yet there has been surprisingly little interest in seriously analyzing the legal and political processes through which intellectual property rights and policy are constructed for this all-important biological diversity. Concentrating on the American experience, Unnatural Selection offers a comprehensive history and insightful sociological analysis of the struggle to own, control, and benefit from agriculture’s plant diversity. Unnatural Selection elucidates the seldom-told story of how the United States acquired seeds of non-native crops from abroad in the 1800s and multiplied and distributed them to farmers to encourage experimentation and crop adaptation to local conditions, thus promoting the spread of agriculture on the continent. It was one of the largest and most consequential agricultural experiments in human history. In the United States it also gave rise to the modern seed and nursery industry which began to push for legal mechanisms to protect and advance their interests in the marketplace. Cary Fowler provides the most complete history to date of the origins of the Plant Patent Act of 1930 and the Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970. He examines how Congress and the Courts expanded these intellectual property rights, and then how and with what effect these issues of control and ownership became international controversies in the 1980s—controversies that continue, largely unresolved, to this day. Features a new preface by the author.

The industrial consolidation of agriculture is systematically destroying the genetic diversity of our crops, recreating the conditions for famine in an age of technological agriculture. Shattering is an expert look at the dramatic decline of genetic diversity in agriculture, and the threat it poses to our food supply.It was through control of the shattering of wild seeds that humans first domesticated plants. Now control over those very plants threatens to shatter the world's food supply, as loss of genetic diversity sets the stage for widespread hunger.Large-scale agriculture has come to favor uniformity in food crops. More than 7,000 U.S. apple varieties once grew in American orchards; 6,000 of them are no longer available. Every broccoli variety offered through seed catalogs in 1900 has now disappeared. As the international genetics supply industry absorbs seed companies—with nearly one thousand takeovers since 1970—this trend toward uniformity seems likely to continue; and as third world agriculture is brought in line with international business interests, the gene pools of humanity's most basic foods are threatened.The consequences are more than culinary. Without the genetic diversity from which farmers traditionally breed for resistance to diseases, crops are more susceptible to the spread of pestilence. Tragedies like the Irish Potato Famine may be thought of today as ancient history; yet the U.S. corn blight of 1970 shows that technologically based agribusiness is a breeding ground for disaster.Shattering reviews the development of genetic diversity over 10,000 years of human agriculture, then exposes its loss in our lifetime at the hands of political and economic forces. The possibility of crisis is real; this book shows that it may not be too late to avert it.This book was originally published in 1990 and remains as relevant today as it was then.

John Edward Rossi isn’t the man you’d expect from his name. Adopted at age four, he is Hawaiian in looks, but New Jersey-raised, where he has spent thirty-one years struggling to blend in. He runs the family business, and is engaged to Angela Mancini. Marriage is his chance to finally assimilate into local society. His best friend has taken a job with a gambling company in Hawaii. When Jimmie is found murdered on Maui, John is compelled to return to his birthplace to bring his friend’s body home and to reassure Jimmie’s mother that justice will be served. The moment he steps off the plane, Maui feels alive to him—refreshing, intoxicating, and strangely familiar. He soon realizes that Jimmie’s murderer is not the man they have in jail. Plus he is spellbound by Lani, the accused suspect’s beautiful and mesmerizing Hawaiian attorney. Determined to find Jimmie’s killer, he is led into a perilous confrontation with Charles N. Brewster, a wealthy and powerful casino owner. Meanwhile, Angela’s father dispatches goons to Maui to drag John back for marriage to his daughter. And a mysterious gang of Tongans is pursuing him around the island. But John Rossi is undeterred—Hawaii has become home.Paul Konwiser’s intimate knowledge of Hawaiian culture and lore imbues his novel with credibility and compassion. Island of Shadow and Light sweeps readers into a vivid story of identity, danger, and discovery, where the brilliance of Hawaii’s beauty collides with shadows of greed and violence.

Even when you’re cooking for yourself, healthy, simple, and delicious meals are within reach. Ronald Johnson was a self-taught professional chef and caterer whose many cookbooks are among the best for home cooks with busy lives who need simple recipes that always work.Even if you have always disliked cooking for yourself, in THE ART OF COOKING FOR ONE, Johnson’s helpful approach will allow you to discover the true joy of cooking for one. Why not treat yourself to a feast? Who better to serve than yourself? “Make culinary hay while the sun still shines down each day,” as Ron advises in the Introduction.This delightful and insightful cookbook is full of wit and often playful opinions about cooking, eating, and living. Known as an extraordinary experimental poet as well as an accomplished chef, RJ’s personality seeps through every page and will keep you entertained as you dine by candlelight with just your shadow for company.Each part of THE ART OF COOKING FOR ONE presents simple, wholesome, and delicious dishes, using readily available, affordable ingredients and reducing unnecessary waste. And he encourages us to cut corners as needed; if the season is wrong for fresh vegetables, for instance, the author suggests workarounds that will be equally satisfying. Johnson’s generosity and spirit shines through every page, reassuring us that we are capable of making great things to eat, and deserving of the bounty. “Go ahead and use a package stuffing mix,” he gently consoles us. “No one is perfect.” But the meals you cook from this collection will be.

When America fractures, one town becomes the last line of Resistance.Daniel Goodman came to Duck Springs to disappear.Haunted by war, drowning in regret, and numb to the life he once fought for, the former Marine retreats to a remote mountain community in Washington’s Cascade Range with nothing left to lose. But in the quiet rhythms of small-town life, he rediscovers something he thought was long dead. Purpose.Then the country burns.A brutal coup ignites a second American Civil War. Militias rise. Cities collapse into chaos. And when rogue forces close in on the isolated town of Duck Springs, Goodman finds himself standing beside farmers, hunters, veterans, and neighbors determined to defend the only home they have left.The Duck Springs Defiance is a gritty, emotionally charged military thriller about survival, redemption, sacrifice, and the power of community when the world falls apart. Blending tense combat, philosophical depth, and deeply human relationships, it explores what happens when broken people are forced to decide what, and who, is worth fighting for.Perfect for fans of modern military fiction, survival thrillers, and character-driven stories in the vein of One Second After and American War.Step into a town that refuses to surrender.

“How can you describe a force?” Margaret Fuller’s friend Sam Ward asked after the pioneering feminist died in 1850 at age forty. Called by Henry James a “ghost” haunting American transcendentalism, Fuller comes to life in this historical novel—not as a pale specter but a passionate firebrand. Sparks Fly Up: The Lost Story of Margaret Fuller is a character- and plot-driven story of a brilliant woman who manages to infuriate and inspire peers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville.Fuller wrote the first American book on women’s rights and was the first female newspaper columnist and war correspondent. She shocked New England conservatives with her revolutionary zeal, affair with a young Italian soldier, and “illegitimate” child. On the cusp of returning to the States from Italy, she died in a shipwreck. Lost with Fuller was her manuscript on the Italian struggle for freedom (the Risorgimento).Uniting in Concord, Massachusetts, her friends squabble over how to memorialize her life. In this transformative, meticulously researched—and sure to be much discussed—view, some are proud of her ambition and others scandalized.Strong female allies fight to preserve Fuller’s legacy. A charming cad is not a fan. Thoreau must choose sides. Whitman is an aspiring poet disguised as a hack reporter, and Melville finds Fuller’s story rousing. All are galvanized in a tour-de-force, cinematically thrilling, final scene. “If you have knowledge,” Fuller wrote, “let others light their candles in it.” Sparks Fly Up: The Lost Story of Margaret Fuller shows how her light emboldens and radiates—then and now. As the characters wrestle with the question of “me” versus “we,” their ethical dilemmas are evergreen.

Wall Street Journal Bestseller! New Updated Edition!Read this book:If you want to grow your sales and increase revenues…If you want to become a valued resource in your industry…If you want to stop losing and start winning…IF YOU WANT TO GET RICH AND BUILD A POWER NICHEIf You Want to Get Rich Build a Power Niche is the magic bullet written by a rainmaker lawyer, “not” an academic in an ivory tower, that shows readers how to implement the strategic marketing process of building a Power Niche step-by-step.Any individual, regardless of their experience level, can potentially build a multi-million-dollar business by implementing the strategic marketing process of building a Power Niche. The Power Niche is based on the theory that ownership (monopoly power) in a small niche is dramatically stronger than having little or no ownership in a larger market.If You Want to Get Rich Build a Power Niche explains in easy-to-understand terms a very simple but effective way to augment the sales and marketing program of almost any individual and company. From startups to larger established companies and firms, this technique can be used by individuals at the beginning of their careers or by sales superstars who want to do even better. The technique shown in this book can also be implemented by professionals who work in personal services industries such as legal, financial, insurance, consulting, and accounting firms or by those who work to sell and market products. Unlike other “how–to” books, this guide is derived from the actual day-to-day experience of one of the most successful real estate lawyers in the toughest market for legal services in the world: New York City. Bruce M. Stachenfeld shows readers exactly how to build their power niche and find success.