Beside The Fire

First published in 1963, James Baldwin's A Fire Next Time stabbed at the heart of America's so-called ldquo;Negro problemrdquo;. As remarkable for its masterful prose as it is for its uncompromising account of black experience in the United States, it is considered to this day one of the most articulate and influential expressions of 1960s race relations. The book consists of two essays, ldquo;My Dungeon Shook mdash; Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation,rdquo; and ldquo;Down At The Cross mdash; Letter from a Region of My Mind.rdquo; It weaves thematic threads of love, faith, and family into a candid assault on the hypocrisy of the so-say ldquo;land of the freerdquo;, insisting on the inequality implicit to American society. ldquo;You were born where you were born and faced the future that you facedrdquo;, Baldwin writes to his nephew, ldquo;because you were black and for no other reason.rdquo; His profound sense of injustice is matched by a robust belief in ldquo;monumental dignityrdquo;, in patience, empathy, and the possibility of transforming America into ldquo;what America must become.rdquo;

Describes the experiences of a newcomer to the Yukon when he attempts to hike through the snow to reach a mining claim.

Arnold Mindell, Ph.D., shows how working with power, rank, revenge and abuse helps build sustainable communities. Mindell is the co-founder of processwork and author of numerous books, including "Quantum Mind" "The Deep Democracy of Open Forums" and "The Leader as Martial Artist". He has appeared on national radio and television and works internationally with multi-racial and highly conflicted groups.

CLOSE TO THE FIRE Westen Series, contemporary romantic suspense, Book 3 They once were lovers: After ten years of keeping his distance to the one woman he's always loved, Fire Chief Deke Reynolds is finally ready to set aside his grief and confess his guilt to Elizabeth "Libby" Wilson about his part in her brother's death. Libby's own guilty secret has kept her from sharing her life with the man who stole her heart as a teen and awakened her body as a young woman. Danger has forced them together again: A fire and their odd connection to a new teenager at the local half-way house have this couple finally sharing their secrets with each other. With an arsonist on the loose, threatening the town of Westen and its citizens, have Libby and Deke waited too long to find their love again? CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS Westen small town series, book 4, novella It’s been a long dangerous year for the town folks of Westen. A celebration is just what they need. It’s four days before Christmas and the town is not only decked out in their holiday best, but looking forward to the wedding of Sheriff Gage Justice and his love, Deputy Bobby Roberts. First Bobby’s lawyer sister, Chloe comes to town looking over her shoulder, which has the quiet deputy, Wes Strong wondering what has her running scared. Then problems start to happen with the wedding plans. Has Chloe brought trouble to Westen? Or does someone in town want to ruin the wedding this close to Christmas?

House and Fire is the 2013 winner of the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize, chosen by Fanny Howe.

Henning Mankell's last novel, about an aging man whose quiet, solitary life on an isolated island off the coast of Sweden is turned upside down when his house catches fire. Fredrik Welin is a former surgeon who retired in disgrace decades earlier to a tiny island on which he is the only resident. He has a daughter he rarely sees and his mailman Jansson is the closest thing he has to a friend, and to an adversary. He is perfectly content to live out his days in quiet solitude. One autumn evening, he is startled awake by a blinding light--only to discover that his house is on fire. With the help of Jansson, he escapes the flames just in time wearing two left boots. Dawn reveals that everything he owns is now a smoldering pile of ash and his house is destroyed--forcing him to move into an abandoned trailer on his island. A local journalist, Lisa Modin, who wants to write a story about the fire, comes into his life. In doing so, she awakens in him something that he thought was long dead. Soon after, his daughter comes to the island with surprising news of her own. Meanwhile, the police suspect Fredrik of arson because he had a sizable insurance claim on his house. When Fredrik is away from the archipelago, another house goes up in flames and the community realizes they have an arsonist in their midst. After the Fire is an intimate portrait of an elderly recluse who is forced to open himself up to a world he'd left behind.