"Sometimes I feel myself to have been the last colonial." This, in his own words, is the extraordinary story of the life and career of Stuart Hall—how his experiences shaped his intellectual, political, and theoretical work and how he became one of his age's brightest intellectual lights. Growing up in a middle-class family in 1930s Kingston, Jamaica, still then a British colony, the young Stuart Hall found himself uncomfortable in his own home. He lived among Kingston's stiflingly respectable brown middle class, who, in their habits and ambitions, measured themselves against the white elite. As colonial rule was challenged, things began to change in Kingston and across the world. In 1951 a Rhodes scholarship took Hall across the Atlantic to Oxford University, where he met young Jamaicans from all walks of life, as well as writers and thinkers from across the Caribbean, including V. S. Naipaul and George Lamming. While at Oxford he met Raymond Williams, Charles Taylor, and other leading intellectuals, with whom he helped found the intellectual and political movement known as the New Left. With the emotional aftershock of colonialism still pulsing through him, Hall faced a new struggle: that of building a home, a life, and an identity in a postwar England so rife with racism that it could barely recognize his humanity. With great insight, compassion, and wit, Hall tells the story of his early life, taking readers on a journey through the sights, smells, and streets of 1930s Kingston while reflecting on the thorny politics of 1950s and 1960s Britain. Full of passion and wisdom, Familiar Stranger is the intellectual memoir of one of our greatest minds.

The Chinese-speaking Muslims have for centuries been an inseperable but anomalous part of Chinese society--Sinophone yet incomprehensible, local yet outsiders, normal but different. Long regarded by the Chinese government as prone to violence, they have challenged fundamental Chinese conceptiosn of Self and Other and denied the totally transforming power of Chinese civilization by tenaciously maintaining connectios with Central and West Asia as well as some cultural differences from their non-Muslim neighbors. Familiar Strangers narrates a history of the Muslims of northwest China, at the intersection of the frontiers of the Mongolian-Manchu, Tibetan, Turkic, and Chinese cultural regions. Based on primary and secondary sources in a variety of languages, Familiar Strangers examines the nature of ethnicity and periphery, the role of religion and ethnicity in personal and collective decisions in violent times, and the complexity of belonging to two cultures at once. Concerning itself with a frontier very distant from the core areas of Chinese culture and very strange to most Chinese, it explores the influence of language, religion, and place on Sino-Muslim identity.

A fascinating adventure on the trail of time. An encyclopedic work well illustrated and laced with anecdotes, quotations, and parables, written by a timesmith who ranges the clockshops of the Precambrian to the restaurant at the end of the universe. Fraser is a leading authority in the world on the study of time.

Things like this do not happen to people like me. It couldn’t possibly be Michael--he died four years ago. The world of Karen Benét, a Silicon Valley executive, is turned upside down when she runs into the stranger-who-has-to-be-Michael. Although Karen values transparency, she is suddenly caught up in clandestine meetings and secrets kept from friends and associates. As Karen and Michael struggle to protect the people they care about, their duplicity is putting those very relationships at risk. When the lie is so big, will the truth set them free?

Recruited by a secret paranormal organization to hunt demons, Jack Harris never guessed the revenge he sought for his partner's death would be this complicated. Jack's worldview is black-and-white—until he is ordered to follow Mersey Bane, a beautiful woman who is also a familiar with shape-shifting abilities. Mersey belongs to the Cadre—a peaceful hermetic order that captures and studies Otherworldly Entities—which is at odds with Jack's organization. As Jack delves deeper into the inner workings of the Cadre, he finds himself drawn to Mersey like a moth to a flame. She may challenge all his beliefs, but she brings color and passion to his world. Jack doesn't know whether what he feels for Mersey is love or lust. But if he doesn't figure it out soon, they may become the hunted instead of the hunters.

Familiar Strangers examines how the Soviet empire was built, and ultimately dismantled, by ethnic outsiders. Scott retells Soviet history from the perspective of the socialist state's internal Georgian diaspora, illuminating processes of mobility within Soviet borders and offering an understanding of empire that transcends the divide between colonizer and colonized.

BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE SERIES OF 2012, "Reviewers' Choice Awards, The Paranormal Romance Guild" NOMINATED FOR BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE by REVIEWERS' CHOICE 2012, Best Paranormal Romance and Best Fantasy Romance by READERS' CHOICE Awards 2012. DESCRIPTION. In a matter of minutes Elora Laiken lost everything familiar. She narrowly missed assassination by escaping in an experimental device that left her in another world where modern day knights, elves, vampires, werewolves, witches, demons and fae became her allies, friends and family. She discovered a place where adventure intersects fairytales, where honor converges with ideals, and she learned that love can find you in the strangest places, when you're least expecting it, even when you're far, far from home. Best selling author, Victoria Danann, brings us a complex, unique, and wonderfully heartwarming serial that begins with this story. If you love romance, paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, strong female leads, alpha males and complex storylines, this series is right for you. 17+ "This book was a ride " "Between the Bind" "If I could write like this, I would never do anything else." -" Books, Books, and More Books" "Night Owl Reviews TOP PICK: " ..".a very complex book that is beautiful and heartwarming. There are numerous laugh out loud moments, as well as several nail biting edge of your seat moments. The adventure quotient is high, but not too much so. The romance in the novel is built in seamlessly, exquisitely enhancing the story." "I have read many vampire novels over the years, some good and some just plain awful. "My Familiar Stranger" is a breath of fresh air to the vampire genre that has been done to death thanks to the overrated Twilight series. "My Familiar Stranger" has an original plot. I thought it was pure genius that the author would set the book in a parallel universe. The characters are all likeable and the dialogue is snappy." - "Coffee Addicted Writer" "Created with a deft hand, each character is so well developed and defined that their voices are unique and specific, although their development is gradual, as befitting of plot and action. The rest of the story is just as well-crafted, almost to the point that you aren't 100% certain that the world described is not just outside your door. The author has done a stellar job in creating the world, those who live within it, and a story-line that both compels you to read as you rush through to see just what happens next..." "- Booked and Loaded " "This book is not the usual paranormal story that I am used to reading. It is way better. ... There are many surprises and in this reviewer's opinion this book had it all." "- The Paranormal Romance Guild" ""My Familiar Stranger" was a wonderfully engrossing paranormal romance with just a dash of science fiction that grabbed me from page one and didn't let go Ms. Danann absolutely knows how to get a series going." "- Bitten by Paranormal Romance " "Go sneak off to your reading nook, get comfy and get ready to dive into a new dimension with horrors, villains and true love that will keep the pages turning till the very end leaving you wanting more, but satisfied " "Addicted to Reading " "Paranormal romance isn't a genre I usually read but after reading the plot, I was intrigued by this book and decided to broaden my reading horizons and give it a try. I'm so glad I did because I devoured the book in less than two days " "Book Nympho"

After surviving a violent sexual assault, author Teena Elrod thought the worst was over. She soon found out it was only the beginning of a nightmare that would control her life for years. The memories and flashbacks would leave her paralyzed in fear. Doors always had to be locked and curtains closed. Something as simple as a camping trip with her family would prove impossible because of safety issues. It was only through the belief and faith in the healing power of the God who created her that this woman was delivered from the fear and from the grips of the enemy who had lured her into believing it was her fate to be broken, fearful and unusable. Now after being totally restored and knowing that God has taken what the enemy intended to destroy her with and uses it for His good, she shares her story believing that others will be healed and restored to live out the destiny they were created for.

McClymond summarizes current scholarship on Jesus and offers a clear, comprehensive, and compelling report on what is known about him here at the start of the 21st century.

A flip through the newspaper or a glance at the evening news reveals a world in which old ways are dying and new worlds are beginning, often in the midst of violence and chaos. In the face of these massive changes and disruptions, many people are questioning their roles as individuals: Why am I here? What is my purpose? In Familiar Strangers, Gotham Chopra travels from China, Sri Lanka, and Kashmir to Chechnya and the Yucatán in search of answers to these age-old spiritual questions. Everywhere he goes, he encounters people who have had to dig within themselves to survive horrible realities and bear heart-wrenching losses. From his New York to Los Angeles flight on September 11, 2001 to a harrowing week spent among young boys toting guns in the contested hills of Kashmir and a sojourn in a small Yucatán village where he witnesses firsthand the collision between the romance of the past and the uncertain promise of the future, Chopra shares the wisdom, idealism, and sense of purpose he found in ordinary people living under extraordinary circumstances. Rich in drama and insights into cultures far different from our own, the stories Chopra recounts articulate, as well, anxieties and fears we all share. While acknowledging that his travels often take him to the extreme edges of civilized society, Chopra shows that the questions that arise in times of peril or in the face of great dangers are not so different from what many of us ask in the course of our daily lives–whether after a grueling eighty-hour work week, a six-hour exam, or a fiery argument with a lover. The challenge, he argues, is to use these moments of revelation as the first step in moving beyond self-imposed fears and limits and embracing new opportunities for spiritual growth.