After an act of kindness, J.J. Spencer is beaten bloody, arrested for drink driving and fired from his high-flying job. His perfect life seemingly over, J.J. decides he must dedicate himself to helping the very people who unwittingly lost him everything. It is through that journey that a new life is allowed to rise from the ashes.

A rendering of food through the memories of family and of home: over ninety plant-based recipes from George Lee, the creator of Chez Jorge, with Laurent Hsia's images of Taiwan. “An astonishingly accomplished exploration of flavors, ingredients, and traditions.”—Katy Hui-wen Hung (洪惠文), co-author of A Culinary History of Taipei: Beyond Pork and Ponlai “This is a beautiful love letter to Taiwan and a quietly uncompromising work of documentation.”—Hannah Che, author of The Vegan Chinese Kitchen George Lee grew up with his A-Gong (grandfather) in the quiet refuge of Tamsui, Taiwan. He took part in the myriad Taiwanese food traditions his A-Gong nurtured, until he was seventeen, when his A-Gong passed. In observation of the death, he and his family undertook a set of Buddhist funeral customs and abstained from eating meat. For a hundred days, they ate at the monastery and the nuns there taught him to cook. Years later, he revisited the lessons and pieced them into the story of his family’s cooking. Some recipes he shares here are directly from childhood: Han-tsî-bê, an everyday breakfast congee floating with fist-size chunks of golden sweet potatoes, and the quintessential preserve Tshài-póo, crunchy strips of sun-dried daikon radish that salt in the air for a few days in January. Others tread the boundaries between old and new, such as Sòo-lóo-pn̄g, a meatless rendition of the hand-cut pork bits his mom braised in soy sauce and ladled over rice. While writing this book, George wandered all over Taiwan with his friend Laurent Hsia, who took photos along the way. Together, they sought out the foods and places tied to their memories growing up. Like the grandpa who slung a bag of apples along the zebra crossing to exit the morning market, or the old couple on the bus in black and white, sitting side by side and peering forward, the two found themselves . . . always afoot, traveling. A-Gong’s Table follows the rhythm of their footsteps: a pulse that takes you quietly through the book and through Taiwan, from morning to night.

As Amazing Tales—First Series by Ling Mengchu (1580-1644) made a hit, the publisher urged him to write a sequel to it. This gave rise to Amazing Tales—Second Series, which has become another bestseller for the last few centuries. Our English version of the Second Series features 19 stories carefully chosen from the original 40. In fascinating plots and a highly expressive colloquial language, they are mostly about women’s fate, their miserable existence in a polygamous society, their daring struggle for genuine love, and their implications in legal cases. All these shed precious light on the social mosaic of seventeenth-century China.

Was there anyone in the world more tragic than her? He just had to squat on the toilet and cross over to the body of a trash with four spiritual roots. After being duped into learning the Affliction Transformation technique, he would have to go through countless emotional tribulations in order to master the Great Dao and be dumped numerous times from then on.

The Great Wall of China is the largest man-made structure ever built, stretching for over 4,000 kilometres from central Asia, across the Gobi Desert, through the remote, cold mountains of northern China to end on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Nathan Gray, a young New Zealand lawyer, wanted to be the first person in history to walk the entire length of the Great Wall. In October 2000 he set off with four fellow travellers – a Buddhist monk from Singapore, a Jewish photojournalist from Argentina, a Catholic recording artist from Italy and a Mormon golfer.Conceived as an idealistic trek to mark the millennium in cultural, racial and religious harmony, one month in reality bit. Blizzards, lightning strikes, thirst, starvation, snakes and police detention all took their toll. After 3,000 kilometres, having witnessed the fatal stabbing of a Chinese friend and being chased at gunpoint by soldiers, Nathan succumbed to physical and mental fatigue and returned to New Zealand. Unable to accept defeat, he returned three months later to complete the challenge; the final 1,000 kilometres.

Although the lines of the palm of the hand are barely visible in the early light, the monks of the Tofukuji monastery have been about their familiar rounds of daily tasks for several hours. Their routine is simple but faithfully practiced. Within its repetition lies the key to the self and the Buddha who resides within. The daily life of the monastery is portrayed here in ninety-seven watercolor sketches. Drawn during his last years by the Zen monk Giei Sato, these sketches recollect his days as an unsui, an apprentice monk. With humor and steadfast warmth Sato depicts the day of leaving home and the day of returning; the rainy season and the snowy season; the chores, the celebrations, the days of cleaning, and the days of begging. Each of the charming drawings is enhanced by a brief description of the event portrayed, a touch of Zen teaching, or a note on monastic life.

Last stop marriage…first stop passion! Jayne thinks she wants stability more than she wants Dan's love. Dan knows that traveling the world from A to Z is more important than stability. Result: their marriage is over…or is it? When Jayne meets Dan again after they've been apart for a while, he seems to have changed his tune. For a man who hates domesticity, what is he doing with an adorable baby in tow? But, if Dan is finally ready to settle down, Jayne wants to be sure she's the last stop on his itinerary! "Emma Darcy pulls no punches with this emotionally stirring tale that readers will want to savor." —Romantic Times

It was said that the wind and the clouds of the world surged, and the rivers of time surged. People said that the sky and the sky were long and endless, but the stars moved like smoke, and in the end, it was just a wind and moon.