Vacationing on beautiful Sanibel Island off Florida's Gulf Coast, Ellen Bennett has never felt so guilty-or more alive. This wasn't the way things were supposed to turn out. The 45-year-old successful career woman, wife and mother traveled to the island paradise for solitude and a much-needed break from her family. But a chance encounter with a fellow traveler sparks a powerful attraction, forcing Ellen to make a decision that could change her life forever. Against an idyllic backdrop of white sand beaches, azure waters and lush palms, Ellen struggles to subdue a firestorm of emotions. David, the father of three young children, confronts the fault lines in his own marriage that lead to a stunning revelation. Their relationship unfolds as David's family gathers on Sanibel to celebrate his parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Tensions are running high. David's mother is worried about her husband's strange behavior and inexplicable memory lapses. His sisters, Julia, an over-achieving corporate exec, and Maggie, a hard-partying renegade who just announced she's gay and leaving her husband, haven't spoken for months. On the island, a small congregation battles to save a beloved seaside chapel to make room for a lavish oceanfront mansion. Ellen takes up the cause when she meets 76-year-old Liz Taylor, a vivacious widow with a sparkling wit and a secret passion of her own. A compelling and heartfelt novel, Ten Days In Paradise masterfully explores the inner landscapes of marriage and family relationships.

The First Day in Paradise tells the story of a young orphaned family who have been passed on from one set of relations to another, and whose eldest sibling, Adam, becomes enthralled by the impending opening nearby of a gigantic and beautiful shopping-mall by a flamboyant entrepreneur. To the consternation of his aunt and uncle, who run a small business, he joins the staff of one of its stores, and begins a dizzying ascent through the ranks, until circumstances induce him to question whether his entire value-system has become corrupted. Functioning both as social-economic critique, and as a personal moral fable about the conjuration of ambition from present-day consumer culture, The First Day in Paradise is an engrossing and layered tale loosely modelled on Dante's Paradiso, but most of all it's simply a great read.

The inspiring true story of one writer’s wild adventure into the gems and perils of the Big Island of Hawaii, a blue feather as his only talisman. Wild sea turtles, black sand beaches, UFOs, and a volcano goddess living in a lake of lava? That’s only the beginning. Upon landing, Andrew feels instantly welcome. On his first night, a new friend asks him if he’d like to go on a volcano adventure with her. “Are you serious?” he says. “Yes, of course!” After picking up some gas masks the following day, they head to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, hiking down a secret road toward a massive red glow in the distance. By nightfall, Andrew and his new friends are standing on the edge of a huge lake of bubbling lava, radiating a warmth that feels like the sun on a cloudless day. Its beauty leaves him speechless, and they've brought food. His friends call it “extreme picnicking,” but his adventure has only just begun. Ten Thousand Hours in Paradise: Arrival is the first in a 3-volume action-memoir about the consciousness shift that happens when you embrace Hawaii. Volume 1: Arrival is a true page-turner, soaring with pure adventure, unrequited love, deadly lava, mysterious UFOs, ecotourism, and fascinating characters that you’ll never forget.

Elegant, brutal, and profound—this magnificent debut captures the grit and glory of modern Hawai'i with breathtaking force and accuracy. In a stunning collection that announces the arrival of an incredible talent, Kristiana Kahakauwila travels the islands of Hawai'i, making the fabled place her own. Exploring the deep tensions between local and tourist, tradition and expectation, façade and authentic self, This Is Paradise provides an unforgettable portrait of life as it’s truly being lived on Maui, Oahu, Kaua'i and the Big Island. In the gut-punch of “Wanle,” a beautiful and tough young woman wants nothing more than to follow in her father’s footsteps as a legendary cockfighter. With striking versatility, the title story employs a chorus of voices—the women of Waikiki—to tell the tale of a young tourist drawn to the darker side of the city’s nightlife. “The Old Paniolo Way” limns the difficult nature of legacy and inheritance when a patriarch tries to settle the affairs of his farm before his death. Exquisitely written and bursting with sharply observed detail, Kahakauwila’s stories remind us of the powerful desire to belong, to put down roots, and to have a place to call home.

"Hilariously funny…Lydia Millet’s novels raise the bar for boldness." —Rene Steinke, New York Times Book Review In this “comic masterpiece” (Salon), honeymooners Deb and Chip—our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband—befriend a marine biologist who discovers mermaids in a coral reef. As a resort chain swoops in to exploit the shy creatures, the newlyweds unite with other adventurous vacationers to stop the company from turning the reef into a theme park. Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet’s most fun book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories.

This Side of Paradise is a novel about post-World War I youth and their morality. Amory Blaine is a young Princeton University student with an attractive face and an interest in literature. His greed and desire for social status warp the theme of love weaving through the story.

A funny-but-touching tale about everything that can go wrong...and what makes it all right! Tess Nelson is poised to take a well-deserved step up the corporate ladder when it's yanked out from under her. With no job and nothing to fill her days--just a nonrefundable ticket for a trip to Hawaii--Tess decides a tropical vacation is just what she needs. But Tess's journey to paradise is a disaster from the beginning. A sprained ankle at the airport is just the beginning. Then there's the lost contact lens and the lost luggage, the lightning storm at a luau, and the hotel fire. Not to mention the approaching hurricane. And the attractive, annoying young man who keeps crossing her path--and really shaking her up. All Tess wants to do is get her life back under control. But God, it seems, has something else in mind--like opening her heart to everything her life could be.

Dr. Nakshawani in the following work not only corrects the widespread misconception that the Shi’i intellectual tradition despises and curses all Companions, but also clarifies the reason for which some Companions were considered people of Paradise in the Shi’i (and usually the Sunni) tradition. In a few places, the author notes reasons for which the Shi’i tradition does not venerate certain Companions. Discussing controversial history as it relates to Companions and the ahl al-bayt remains a difficult enterprise, where methods and premises, let alone conclusions, substantially differ from scholar to scholar. As an expert of the Shi’i tradition, Dr. Nakshawani presents relevant Shi’i narratives for non-specialists who would otherwise be unaware of them. Thus, the following biographies fill a gap in knowledge about Companions not only revered in the Shi’i tradition, but according to the collective memory of pro-Alid Sunni and Shi’i authors, granted Paradise.

"For Osa, too, these years, from 1924 to 1927, were an especially significant period. After seven years of touring the vaudeville circuit, and seven more of exploring the South Seas and Borneo with occasional lecture tours worked in stateside to raise more capital, the Johnsons' complex at Lake Paradise was the first relatively permanent home the coup had had since that little flat they started out in back in Independence. Osa not only brought all her Kansas skills to bear on turning her Kenya house into a home, she also was largely responsible for managing the roughly two hundred "boys" needed to build the place and keep it running, as well as for organizing the several safaris the Johnsons undertook in the course of those years. When they were on safari (a term which incidentally, the Johnsons introduced to the American lexicon), whenever she was not involved in filming--either providing rifle cover for Martin or performing her own star turn in front of the camera, Osa was hunting and fishing to provide meat for the entire entourage." - May Zeiss Stange "For bravery and steadiness and endurance, Osa is the equal of any man I ever saw. She is a woman through and through. There is nothing 'mannish' about her. Yet as a comrade in the wilderness she is better than any man I ever saw." -- Martin Johnson.

The acclaimed Nobel Prize winner challenges our most fiercely held beliefs as she weaves folklore and history, memory and myth into an unforgettable meditation on race, religion, gender, and a far-off past that is ever present—in prose that soars with the rhythms, grandeur, and tragic arc of an epic poem. “They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” So begins Toni Morrison’s Paradise, which opens with a horrifying scene of mass violence and chronicles its genesis in an all-black small town in rural Oklahoma. Founded by the descendants of freed slaves and survivors in exodus from a hostile world, the patriarchal community of Ruby is built on righteousness, rigidly enforced moral law, and fear. But seventeen miles away, another group of exiles has gathered in a promised land of their own. And it is upon these women in flight from death and despair that nine male citizens of Ruby will lay their pain, their terror, and their murderous rage. “A fascinating story, wonderfully detailed. . . . The town is the stage for a profound and provocative debate.” —Los Angeles Times