Download or read book Under A Croatian Sun written by Anthony Stancomb and published by Kings Road Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of us have dreamed about upping sticks, leaving the humdrum of urban living for a new life of blue skies, warm sunshine and sparkling seas. For Anthony and Ivana Stancomb, moving from Fulham to Vis was an easy decision. But fitting in with the locals was one of the hardest things they have ever had to do. Under a Croatian Sun takes the reader on a journey from Grey Britain to a ramshackle village in Croatia - a village proudly defined by its tragic history, its unique cafe culture, its fishing industry and its potent alcohol. Faced with a language barrier and not the friendliest of locals, little by little our undaunted couple become islanders in their own right, and melt a few hearts in the process. With the Adriatic Sea as a backdrop, we trace their transformation from foreigners to friends, taking in their adventures on the water, fierce grandmothers, star-cross'd lovers and the establishment of the island's first ever cricket team. This heartwarming accounts of following your heart and not your head, shows how, with a bit of courage and an open mind, home is wherever you make it.
Download or read book Under a Croatian Sun written by Anthony Stancomb and published by Lume Books. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: UNDER A CROATIAN SUN takes the reader on a journey from the grey concrete of London to a ramshackle village in Croatia. This warming account of following your heart shows how, with a bit of courage and an open mind, home is wherever you make it.
Download or read book Notes from a Very Small Island written by Anthony Stancomb and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-17 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reviews for Under a Croatian Sun: 'It's escapism that really works. Full of acute observation, uncontrollable humour and a rousing climax.' - Country Life 'To his credit Stancomb resists the stereotype of the closed-minded British expatriate.' - Independent on Sunday - Pick of the paperbacks 'A thoroughly good read ---An endearing tale of a roller coaster ride.' - Croatia Online 'This is not a tale of your usual English couple. This is such a fantastic read ... both humorous and thought provoking.' - Travellingbookjunkie 'The author presents this quirky little tale in an honest way, even when he is on the receiving end of a joke. You don't need to make a break with your past to enjoy this book. It is a fascinating, humorous and totally believable read.' - Robin's Reviews 'A good read. I enjoyed best the humorous bits.' Tony Rossiter (author of It's Only a Bloody Game) 'A good read.' - Tariq Ali Notes From a Very Small Island is the follow-up to the bestselling 'Under a Croatian Sun', which tells the story of a couple upping sticks and leaving their humdrum life in London for blue skies and cafe life on an island in Croatia. In this second book, the couple continue their attempts to fit in with the village community, but it's not always easy, and more often than not their endeavours involve them in in hilarious disasters. They also now try to start some projects up, but they have to battle with maddening ex-communist authorities and highly suspicious locals. However, through this, they get to see the crippling legacies that communism and the recent war have left in the lives of their new neighbours. Although largely a light hearted tale, the book is also a heartfelt insight into a community trying to adjust to being members of the EU and the ways of the Western World."
Download or read book Running Away to Home written by Jennifer Wilson and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A middle class, Midwestern family in search of meaning uproot themselves and move to their ancestral village in Croatia. "We can look at this in two ways," Jim wrote, always the pragmatist. "We can panic and scrap the whole idea. Or we can take this as a sign. They're saying the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe this is the kick in the pants we needed to do something completely different. There will always be an excuse not to go..." And that, friends, is how a typically sane middle-aged mother decided to drag her family back to a forlorn mountain village in the backwoods of Croatia. So begins author Jennifer Wilson's journey in Running Away to Home. Jen, her architect husband, Jim, and their two children had been living the typical soccer- and ballet-practice life in the most Middle American of places: Des Moines, Iowa. They overindulged themselves and their kids, and as a family they were losing one another in the rush of work, school, and activities. One day, Jen and her husband looked at each other–both holding their Starbucks coffee as they headed out to their SUV in the mall parking lot, while the kids complained about the inferiority of the toys they just got–and asked themselves: "Is this the American dream? Because if it is, it sort of sucks." Jim and Jen had always dreamed of taking a family sabbatical in another country, so when they lost half their savings in the stock-market crash, it seemed like just a crazy enough time to do it. High on wanderlust, they left the troubled landscape of contemporary America for the Croatian mountain village of Mrkopalj, the land of Jennifer's ancestors. It was a village that seemed hermetically sealed for the last one hundred years, with a population of eight hundred (mostly drunken) residents and a herd of sheep milling around the post office. For several months they lived like locals, from milking the neighbor's cows to eating roasted pig on a spit to desperately seeking the village recipe for bootleg liquor. As the Wilson-Hoff family struggled to stay sane (and warm), what they found was much deeper and bigger than themselves.
Download or read book Notes From A Very Small Island written by Anthony Stancomb and published by Lume Books. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Notes From a Very Small Island is the follow-up to the bestselling Under a Croatian Sun, which tells the story of a couple upping sticks and leaving their humdrum life in London for blue skies and café life on an island in Croatia.
Download or read book Under the Tuscan Sun written by Frances Mayes and published by Crown. This book was released on 2003-08-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The beloved memoir of self-discovery set against the spectacular Tuscan countryside that inspired the major motion picture starring Diane Lane—now in a twentieth-anniversary edition featuring a new afterword “This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.”—USA Today For more Frances Mayes, including a tour of her now iconic Cortona home, Bramasole, watch PBS’s Dream of Italy: Tuscan Sun Special! More than twenty years ago, Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned Tuscan villa called Bramasole. Under the Tuscan Sun inspired generations to embark on their own journeys—whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book’s dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes’s signature evocative, sensory language. Now with a new afterword from Frances Mayes, the twentieth-anniversary edition of Under the Tuscan Sun revisits the book’s most popular characters.
Download or read book Probability Sun written by Nancy Kress and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2003-02-17 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Salvation or Annihilation? A strange artifact has been discovered on a distant planet, an artifact that may be the key to humanity's salvation. For we at war with the Fallers, an alien race bent on nothing short of genocide, and this is a war we are losing. The artifact is not only a powerful weapon, but possibly the rosetta stone to a lost superscience . . . a superscience that the Fallers may have already decoded. Or it may be a doomsday machine that could destroy the very fabric of space. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book The Hired Man written by Aminatta Forna and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning Scottish and Sierra Leonean novelist “brilliantly portrays the atmosphere” of Croatia in this haunting tale of war, history, and secrets (The Guardian). Visitors are not common in the small Croatian village of Gost, so Duro is surprised to see a strange car pull up to a well-known farmhouse just outside of town. Laura, a British woman, and her two children are refurbishing the home to be their summer cottage, and Duro agrees to lend a hand, becoming Laura’s confidant along the way. But the rest of the residents of Gost are not so pleased to have outsiders in their midst. As Duro works to shield Laura and her family from the town’s hostility, volatile secrets begin to bubble to the surface—secrets that could threaten everyone in the seemingly sleepy town, even the unwitting new residents. The Hired Man is a story of lost love, dangerous history, and quiet malice. “Not since Remains of the Day has an author so skillfully revealed the way history’s layers are invisible to all but it’s participants, who do what they must to survive” (The Boston Globe).
Download or read book Croatian Tales of Long Ago written by Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-05-28 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collection Croatian Tales of Long Ago is considered to be a masterpiece and features a series of newly written fairy tales heavily inspired by motifs taken from ancient Slavic mythology of pre-Christian Croatia. Croatian Tales of Long Ago are seen as one of the most typical examples of the writing style of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. The book has been compared by literary critics to Hans Christian Andersen and J. R. R. Tolkien due to the way it combines original fantasy plots with folk mythology.
Download or read book Ninety Two in the Shade written by Thomas McGuane and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America's utter South. And Skelton's plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide. Out of their deadly rivalry, Thomas McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose. "Full of surprises and rewards and an exhilaration one feels only rarely." Newsweek on Ninety-Two in the Shade.
Download or read book Holidays After the Fall written by Elke Beyer and published by Jovis Verlag. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every summer season, the sun-drenched coasts of Bulgaria and Croatia turn into densely inhabited, intensively exploited tourism industry hotspots. This book traces the various architectural and urban planning strategies pursued there since the mid 1950s, in order first to create then to further develop modern holiday destinations. It focusses on individual resorts and outstanding buildings have been economically and physically restructured, in a myriad of ways, leaving a legacy of deserted ruins, cautious renovations, exorbitant conversions and on-going public protest.
Download or read book Once Upon a Yugoslavia written by Surya Green and published by New Europe Books. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is 1968. Across America, citizens march for social reform and an end to the Vietnam War. Amid all this, Surya Green--a New York-born, self-absorbed, modern young woman--is a student at Stanford University, blithely pursuing a graduate degree in communication. Her view of life's purpose unexpectedly starts to expand when she says "Yes" when her Stanford film mentor selects her for a writing job at Zagreb Film in Yugoslavia. Family and friends marvel at her courage, or foolishness. The Zagreb studio may be the renowned producer of the first non-American animated film to win an Oscar, but it is in a country most Americans fear and reject as "communist." Green has no idea that her stay in Yugoslavia will ultimately take her beyond national borders to the outermost limits of her mind. Although penned in the first person against the backdrop of Tito's Yugoslavia in historic 1968, Once Upon a Yugoslavia is, paradoxically, most timely. The global economic crisis has compelled people to question excessive consumption and redefine success and the good life while embracing new lifestyle priorities--just as Yugoslavia required of Surya Green decades ago. Once Upon a Yugoslavia addresses this present-day longing while also offering a lively history lesson. History books have objectively described the former Yugoslavia, but Once Upon a Yugoslavia gives personalized look at the everyday lives of people in pre-1989 Eastern Europe that shows how the experience transformed one young woman's American Dream. Chronicling the sights, sounds, and ups and downs of the everyday Yugoslav existence, Green speaks to both the positive and negative aspects of the contemporary phenomenon known as "Yugo-nostalgia." The pros and cons of the American and Yugoslav societies fly to and fro during Surya's conversations with a host of colorful characters--some of whom she lodges with and travels the countryside with, others of whom she dates. In this strange Big Brotherish country of perplexing language, culture, and customs--which gives Surya an early experience of living a monitored life without privacy in a land where paranoia is contagious--more than once readers will hear her sobbing at night. Ultimately, the Yugoslav social experiment--its plus points, at least--were to give Surya Green a considerably altered view of the American values with which she was raised. And it is what led to that perspective--a personal transformation that started for her in explosive, memorable, life-changing 1968 in Tito's Yugoslavia, and continues to this day--which makes Once Upon a Yugoslavia such a unique and remarkable book. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Download or read book Island of the World written by Michael D. O'Brien and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2010-04 with total page 847 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was a political prisoner of the Communist regime in Vietnam for thirteen years, nine of which he spent in solitary confinement. His remarkable faith sustained him during those long years when he would celebrate mass in secret with three drops of wine in the palm of his hand and the host smuggled inside a flashlight by his faithful. His spiritual writings, penned on the back of old calendars, have spread throughout the world inspiring millions. Road of Hope: The Spiritual Journey of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan is an original Salt and Light documentary exploring the man and his message. This powerful film traces the history of Thuan from his privileged upbringing in a powerful political family to decades of war, betrayal and suffering - all experiences which helped form his singular conviction that "Love Conquers All." Featuring interviews with those who knew him best, never before seen family videos, and rare archival footage of Thuan sharing his most revealing insights, Road of Hope offers an unprecedented glimpse into the life of a modern day martyr and saint.
Download or read book The Kingdom Under the Sea written by Joan Aiken and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-03-14 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wonderful new reissued edition of the classic Joan Aiken short story collection illustrated with Jan Pienkowski's iconic silhouettes. These East European fairytales have it all: drama, magic, heroes, fairies, dragons, mermaids, adventure, bravery and beauty...
Download or read book Below Deck written by Dorien Kelly and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not everything is aboveboard... When Mei Lin Wang met young radical social activist Wei Chan she knew it was fate. She didn't know that less than three years later she would be left widowed with a newborn son after a suspicious illness claimed Wei's life. Now, still convinced of their shared destiny, Lin is determined to avenge Wei and continue his work, but she must also protect her son from those responsible for her husband's death. For months Lin has secreted her son below deck on the cruise ship Alexandra's Dream, under cover of her job. It's turned into a game of hide-and-seek with the ship's security officer, Gideon Dayan, whose interest is piqued by the mystery that surrounds her. But through his attraction, Gideon sees his own haunted past when he looks at Lin...and she can't let her past go. Will they finally be able to face the future...together?
Download or read book Under the Sun written by Arthur Dorros and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the harrowing journey of Ehmet, a thirteen-year-old boy from Sarajevo who gets caught up in the ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
Download or read book The Hotel Tito written by Ivana Bodrozic and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most powerful autobiographical novel written about the Yugoslav wars. A timely and deeply accessible book that speaks to what it is like to be displaced by war. Hotel Tito is an award-winning autobiographical novel of the Serbo-Croatian War. Author Ivana Bodrožić was born in the Croatian town of Vukovar, just across the Danube from Serbia. In the fall of 1991, Vukovar was besieged by the Yugoslav People's Army for eighty-seven days. When the army broke the siege, people came up out of the basements where they'd been sheltering from bombardment; women and children were allowed out of the besieged city, but the army bused 400 men from the hospital to a farm on the outskirts where soldiers and Serbian paramilitaries massacred them. Bodrožić's father was among those taken and murdered. In Hotel Tito, after fleeing the war zone their town has become, the mother and two children are housed along with other displaced persons at a former communist school in the village of Kumrovec (the birthplace of Josip Tito). For years they share a single room just large enough for their three beds, waiting to hear whether the narrator's father survived and when they'll be granted an apartment of their own. In the meantime life goes on for the teenage protagonist, first loves bloom and burn quickly, new friendships are acquired and lost, new truths emerge, and new emotions. But she never loses her shy, insightful voice, nor her self-deprecating sense of humor. Hotel Tito is a sensitive and forthright coming of age novel in a time of atrocity and loss.
