Dan Boothby had been drifting for more than twenty years, without the pontoons of family, friends or a steady occupation. He was looking for but never finding the perfect place to land. Finally, unexpectedly, an opportunity presented itself. After a lifelong obsession with Gavin Maxwell's Ring of Bright Water trilogy, Boothby was given the chance to move to Maxwell's former home, a tiny island on the western seaboard of the Highlands of Scotland. Island of Dreams is about Boothby's time living there, and about the natural and human history that surrounded him; it's about the people he meets and the stories they tell, and about his engagement with this remote landscape, including the otters that inhabit it. Interspersed with Boothby's own story is a quest to better understand the mysterious Gavin Maxwell. Beautifully written and frequently leavened with a dry wit, Island of Dreams is a charming celebration of the particularities of place.

"My family has been forced to live like an island with no political party, president, or official language. We are not of any "new world" Columbus discovered. We are not Dominican enough or American enough to call either place home. We live and love with one foot on the ground and one foot in the sea." This is how Jasminne Mendez describes what it was like for her to grow up a Dominican American military brat. Always feeling like a foreigner in both lands because people want to know "where you from," and "how do you know Spanish?" In "Island of Dreams," author Jasminne Mendez, addresses these questions and their complicated answers in a multi-genre memoir that effortlessly blends poems and short stories to offer a glimpse into the challenges, joys, hopes, fears and disappointments she and her family faced being Dominican in America. Her work explores everything from the love/hate relationship she had with her hair and her mother, to the many memorable but sometimes unpleasant family vacations and holidays she shared with her parents, siblings, primos, t�os, y t�as. These captivating stories and poems are about family, food, love, culture, self-discovery, assimilation, and the American dream. They are about a young girl who respects the richness and abundance of her cultural history, but who struggles to form her own identity because her Dominican values conflict with her American self and all she wants to do is find a place to call home. Join memoir-writer Jasminne Mendez in this luscious recalling of her family's multi-faceted sojourn of family ties and their meaning, glorious cooking and eating, belonging and not belonging, and so many other complicated forays into the storied past. Sarah Cortez, author, "Walking Home: Growing Up Hispanic in Houston."Jasminne builds bridges between many worlds. Her potent voice conjures images of the Dominican Republican, Texas, Houston, the world. I've had the pleasure of seeing her perform in person. She is amazing in 3D. Actually, she performs in 6D-adding spirit, whimsy, and the future. She code-switches so brilliantly that you don't notice that she has jumped from Spanish to English to Spanglish to universal themes and back. Her work not only stands up on the page but takes on new meaning with potency, shattering barriers, breaking borders. This book will boggle your mind and thrill you. Tony Diaz, "El Librotraficante," founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say

SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR In Island Dreams, Gavin Francis combines stories of his own travels with psychology, philosophy and myth, shedding new light on the importance of islands and isolation in our collective consciousness. Francis draws on thirty years of island adventures from the Faroe Islands to the Aegean, from the Galapagos to the Andaman Islands. He contrasts these quests for freedom with the demands for commitment required as a doctor, community member and parent. Island Dreams riffs on the twin poles of rest and motion, independence and attachment, never more relevant than in today’s ever-connected world.

All adventures have humble beginnings, and Roberts voyage is no exception. While on a harmless road trip with his family, he stopped off to have a picnic with some of his wifes great-aunts. One of the auntsa known fortunetellerpulled out her runes, and for some reason Robert felt pulled to her. She read his fortune that innocent day, but his reading would change his life forever. While crossing a darkened lake nestled in the Wisconsin North Woods, Robert falls into the Otherworld of the Spirit of Man. He leaves his body behind, allowing his spirit to travel freely, with the guidance of a wizard mentor. The balance that keeps humankind from destroying itself has been fatally tipped, and Robert is our only hope for survival. He must search for a Healer who can mend the rift before its too late. The Archipelago of Dreams uses the medium of symbolic fantasy to explore the Waking Dreamthe dream that is human life. Robert has found a link to his dream self, and it is in this dreamlike state that he must accomplish his mission. He cannot do it alone. With the help of a wizard, a tree warrior, and an ancient dream Healer, humanity can be saved. But will the rift be mended, or will Robert be trapped in the spirit realm forever?

Sakai works for a construction company that builds high rise buildings in Tokyo, but gets introduced to parts of the city he's never seen after meeting a mysterious young woman.

Finally in English, Island of Shattered Dreams is the first ever novel by an indigenous Tahitian writer. In a lyrical and immensely moving style, this book combines a family saga and a doomed love story, set against the background of French Polynesia in the period leading up to the first nuclear tests. The text is highly critical of the French government, and as a result its publication in Tahiti was polarising.

Andrea has to spend a month with her Aunt Madelyn and then is forced to go on a mission for the museum where her aunt works. But the artifact they have come for is stolen, and when one of the group is murdered, Andrea begins to ask questions and finds herself in danger!

Susan Marks went with a Photographer to a Party in Birmingham arranged by her boss the Editor of a fashion magazine but when her Photographer became ill Susan had to find a replacement Partner, Luckily she found a 6' 4" Hunk to take his place but thing became a lot more serious and when the party was cancelled Susan couldn't walk away and slowly fell in love, but was she making a mistake, it was to late to stop now.

"In the winter of 1982, long before she became the watercolor artist and author we know today, Susan Branch, 34-years-old and heartbroken from the sudden and unexpected end of her marriage in California, "ran away from home" to the Island of Martha's Vineyard hoping to gain perspective. It was meant to be temporary, a three-month time-out from the daily grind of being broken up and miserable, but within days of her arrival, alone and not quite in her right mind, Susan "accidentally" bought a tiny one-bedroom cottage in the woods - which is how she discovered she was moving 3,000 miles away from everyone and everything she had known and loved. Funny, observant, touching, and addictive (you are not going to want this book to end), based on the diaries she has kept all her life, Susan Branch relates her inspirational tale of lost love and self discovery, her search for roots, purpose, and destiny with laugh-out-loud honesty. A road map for overcoming loss, following your heart, and making dreams come true, charmingly hand-lettered and watercolored in Susan's inimitable style, there are diary excerpts, recipes, and hundreds of photographs."--Provided by Amazon.com.

After a long-term relationship breaks up, Kaden is on his own once more. He decides to visit one of the Greek Islands, a tick against a bucket-list dream. On the picturesque island of Spetses, he meets tour guide Jed. Not only is the man another New Zealander, but as sexy as he is knowledgeable. After a slow burn, their relationship ignites with passion, but in the back of Kaden’s mind is the thought of whether a holiday romance can ever become something more solid and lasting. Especially when there’s half a world between him and Jed. Will the encounter become just a memory, or can the men find a way to make things work when the holiday is over and Jed’s back in the real world?