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In Search of Paradise

In Search of Paradise
Author: Li Zhang
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2012-09-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0801458196

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A new revolution in homeownership and living has been sweeping the booming cities of China. This time the main actors on the social stage are not peasants, migrants, or working-class proletariats but middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs in search of a private paradise in a society now dominated by consumerism. No longer seeking happiness and fulfillment through collective sacrifice and socialist ideals, they hope to find material comfort and social distinction in newly constructed gated communities. This quest for the good life is profoundly transforming the physical and social landscapes of urban China. Li Zhang, who is from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, turns a keen ethnographic eye on her hometown. She combines her analysis of larger political and social issues with fine-grained details about the profound spatial, cultural, and political effects of the shift in the way Chinese urban residents live their lives and think about themselves. In Search of Paradise is a deeply informed account of how the rise of private homeownership is reconfiguring urban space, class subjects, gender selfhood, and ways of life in the reform era. New, seemingly individualistic lifestyles mark a dramatic move away from yearning for a social utopia under Maoist socialism. Yet the privatization of property and urban living have engendered a simultaneous movement of public engagement among homeowners as they confront the encroaching power of the developers. This double movement of privatized living and public sphere activism, Zhang finds, is a distinctive feature of the cultural politics of the middle classes in contemporary China. Theoretically sophisticated and highly accessible, Zhang's account will appeal not only to those interested in China but also to anyone interested in spatial politics, middle-class culture, and postsocialist governing in a globalizing world.


Search for Paradise

Search for Paradise
Author: Jens Naumann
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 579
Release: 2012-08-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1479709220

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Jens Naumann, a typical energetic young man of 17 had just moved out of his parent’s home in Northern British Columbia, moving into a railway camp as an employee with the British Columbia Railway. All goes well as Jens enjoys his new found freedom, treasuring his driver’s license and its associated freedom of travel. Then on a wintry day in 1981, fate rears its ugly head and strikes him blind in his left eye. Jens quickly rearranges his life to accommodate his new found fear - that of losing his remaining eye now that the true vulnerability of his eyesight is revealed. As his life continues onwards despite the initial readjustment, he finds ultimate happiness in his new marriage to his young wife Lorri, and just when life stands at its threshold of paradise exploring fatherhood along with the beauty of travel and thrill, his worst nightmare becomes reality not once, but twice in the most bizarre series of unforeseen incidents of bad luck; as Jens is totally blinded with no foreseeable chance of seeing again according to the best medical experts. Jens tries his best to adjust to this unwanted situation, exploring conventional methods of rehabilitation to live with blindness, as well as using imaginative, totally unheard - of activities in order to pass his time in a hope of someday being able to see again despite all the odds stacked against him. Close to the turn of the century, Jens unexpectedly receives news of an American Medical Device Engineer, Dr. William H. Dobelle, inviting blind adults as patients for his newly developed artificial vision system designed to provide limited vision via visual cortex stimulation. Dr. Dobelle claims that his system has a good chance in functioning based on previous experimenting with volunteers, at the same time classifying the surgical procedure as minor. The system and its related components is complicated; consisting of not only the implants, but a series of “electrical sockets” protruding from the patients head to which an array of computer boxes and stimulator hardware is connected and worn by the patient. Jens is determined to be one of the patients, regardless of the remoteness of the chance of being one out of literally millions of blind people in the World possibly lining up to have this procedure in hopes of ending their blindness for once and for all. To his absolute surprise, Jens is accepted as the first patient for this procedure and slowly builds a relationship with Dr. Dobelle as Jens overcomes obvious barriers of raising enough money for the very expensive procedure, as well as fighting the challenges of relentless forces working against him for his involvement in the Dobelle vision project. Armed with preconceived ideas of how a research institute should be run, Jens travels overseas for the various stages of the procedure, only to find the most astonishing facts of what goes on in the heart of a renowned medical research institute. Not only is Jens looking at the workings of the Dobelle Institute from the view of a patient, but in short time Jens is hired by the firm as Patient Representative, providing further exploration yet on the inner most details concerning a research company and its treatment of the 15 additional implanted patients. Throughout the book, Jens describes the devastation, exhilaration, disappointment, elation, and confusion that attempts at sight recovery, medical intervention, media propaganda, and ethical boundaries conjure in the most illustrative intensity. The manner in which the book ends is most indescribable; one could view it as the final straw, the beginning of a new era, the curse of the unforgiven, the sadness of a crushing reality, the beginning of a good job left unfinished; or that of the birth of a new expert compelled to unleash the new found knowledge for the whole World to thrive. Just as many questions are answered, many more yet are opened and left so far undiscovered. Search for Paradise is ce


West of the Equator

West of the Equator
Author: Cheryl Bartlam DuBois
Publisher: Frederick Fell Publishers
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2005-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780883911297

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West Of The Equator is a satirical account of one man's spiritual journey, as told by his spirit guide, Ian - a well seasoned West Indian merchant sailor who narrates the story of a Chicago stock trader who goes to the West Indies and buys a 75' catamaran to set out in search of Paradise. Instead, he finds a female captain who turns out to be the love of his life, chaos, mayhem, and, eventually, true happiness but only after he faces unbelievable trials and is stripped of everything he owns along the journey. In this humbled state, he discovers that he is, in fact, the island, his life the vessel, and that everything he'd every truly needed had been aboard all along. It is a very funny satirical look at life in Paradise and the Zen of sailing.


Birds of Paradise

Birds of Paradise
Author: Tim Laman
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2012
Genre: Birds of paradise (Birds)
ISBN: 1426209584

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In this dazzling photo essay, Laman and Scholes present gorgeous full-color photographs of all 39 species of the Birds of Paradise that highlight their unique and extraordinary plumage and mating behavior.


Pursuit of Paradise

Pursuit of Paradise
Author: Georgene S. Dreishpoon
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1450247601

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In l967, when Georgene Dreishpoon and her husband Irving read a National Geographic article about the Bahamas, a mental seed was planted that would sprout seven years later when they embarked on an unforgettable and magical ferry ride to the island of Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas. In her fascinating memoir, Pursuit of Paradise, Dreishpoon shares her experiences as a member of an American family who sought a fishing retreat in the Bahamas and, in the process, discovered lifelong friendships and ultimately faced the fact that even in paradise, the realities of life lurk in the background. For sixty days a year, the Dreishpoons left their life in America and lived on an island that captured their imaginations and their souls. Through entertaining anecdotes, Dreishpoon provides a glimpse into how her family immersed themselves in a new culture, learned to communicate with local inhabitants, and acquired a taste for new food--all while cherishing their time together as they experienced a new adventure. Pursuit of Paradise chronicles nearly twenty-five years of amazing stories of one family's extraordinary experiences on a beautiful Bahamian island that affected their philosophy of living and loving forever.


My Father's Paradise

My Father's Paradise
Author: Ariel Sabar
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1565129962

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In a remote corner of the world, forgotten for nearly three thousand years, lived an enclave of Kurdish Jews so isolated that they still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Mostly illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers and humble peddlers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born. Yona's son Ariel grew up in Los Angeles, where Yona had become an esteemed professor, dedicating his career to preserving his people’s traditions. Ariel wanted nothing to do with his father’s strange immigrant heritage—until he had a son of his own. Ariel Sabar brings to life the ancient town of Zakho, discovering his family’s place in the sweeping saga of Middle-Eastern history. This powerful book is an improbable story of tolerance and hope set in what today is the very center of the world’s attention.


The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise

The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise
Author: Jim L. Bowyer
Publisher: Levins Publishing
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780997672602

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In ''The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise, '' Dr. Jim L. Bowyer clearly documents an ethically bankrupt position that underlies much of our environmental policy. High consumption in wealthy countries usually goes hand-in-hand with resistance to domestic raw materials extraction and half-hearted interest in recycling. Because of this, the world's wealthiest countries increasingly rely on imported raw materials from poorer nations to fuel consumption. This, in turn, allows citizens of wealthy countries to smugly enjoy high levels of consumption with minimal exposure to the environmental impacts of that consumption. Bowyer concludes, ''Contrary to common practice today, high consuming nations need to be asking, 'Why not in my back yard?'''


The Half Known Life

The Half Known Life
Author: Pico Iyer
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2023-01-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 059342025X

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INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER From “one of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time” (Brain Pickings): a journey through competing ideas of paradise to see how we can live more peacefully in an ever more divided and distracted world. “Masterful…A book of inner journeys told through extraordinary exteriors…One of his very best.” —Washington Post Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it’s in our midst—or just across the ocean—if only we can find eyes to see it. Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so many seeming paradises turn into warzones? And does paradise exist only in the afterworld – or can it be found in the here and now? For almost fifty years Iyer has been roaming the world, mixing a global soul’s delight in observing cultures with a pilgrim’s readiness to be transformed. In this culminating work, he brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives.


Paradise

Paradise
Author: Toni Morrison
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2014-03-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0804169888

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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


Paradise Lust

Paradise Lust
Author: Brook Wilensky-Lanford
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2011-08-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802195636

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A “certainly weird . . . strangely wonderful . . . [and] often irresistible” search to find the real Garden of Eden (The New York Times Book Review). Where, precisely, was God’s Paradise? St. Augustine had a theory. So did medieval monks, John Calvin and Christopher Columbus. But when Darwin’s theory of evolution changed our understanding of human origins, shouldn’t the desire to put a literal Eden on the map have faded away? Not so fast. This “gloriously researched, pluckily written historical and anecdotal assay of humankind’s age-old quixotic quest for the exact location of the Biblical garden” (Elle) explores an obsession that has consumed scientists and theologians alike for centuries. To this day, the search continues, taken up by amateur explorers, clergymen, scholars, engineers and educators—romantic seekers all who started with the same simple-sounding Bible verses, only to end up at a different spot on the globe: Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, the North Pole, Mesopotamia, China, Iraq—and Ohio. Inspired by an Eden seeker in her own family, “Wilensky-Lanford approaches her subjects with respect, enthusiasm and conscientious research” (San Francisco Chronicle) as she traverses a century-spanning history provoking surprising insights into where we came from, what we did wrong, and where we go from here. And it all makes for “a lively journey” (Kirkus Reviews).