Accident of Birth

Accident of Birth
Author: Heather Neff
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2010-04-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307510239

A woman must decide between two lovers and two worlds—Africa and America—in a riveting, courageous journey “A modern romance with global scope . . . Not since Marita Golden’s Migrations of the Heart has a writer so deftly played the heartstrings that swing between Africa and African Americans.”—Veronica Chambers Reba Freeman’s current husband, Carl, has given her all the wealth a suburban wife could hope for. But Reba’s life is turned inside out once she learns that her first husband, Joseph Thomas, is being held by the World Court for crimes against humanity. Joseph, a gifted Liberian student, had dreams of returning to his native land with his wife and educating his people, yet because of mysterious circumstances, Reba didn’t accompany him to Liberia. Now, twenty years later, she must decide if helping her first husband is worth the risk of losing her comfortable world. Alternating between present-day action and flashbacks, Accident of Birth creates an intricate tapestry of suspense, drama, and romance. Neff boldly exposes the rift between American comforts and the traumas of the world we choose to ignore, creating a moving novel that readers will talk about for a long time.

By Accident of Birth

By Accident of Birth
Author: Thomas E. Simmons
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2022-11-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504079264

From the Civil War to the Cuban independence movement to WWI, this historical epic follows the incredible life of a woman tragically bound to bloodshed. War brings about many strange events, but none stranger than the bullet that impregnated sixteen-year-old Annielise Quinn at the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863. After passing through the groin of a Confederate soldier, the bullet lodged itself in her pelvis. Such was the portentous beginning of Beverly Bethany Quinn, the “bullet baby” whose life was fated never to escape the perils of war. By 1915, Bethany thinks she has finally found peace, until a call from the British Crown brings a shocking revelation. To aid the Allies in the Great War overseas, England would like to purchase a cache of rifles owned by her family’s sugar mill in Cuba—a cache that Bethany never knew existed. Years ago, Bethany and her uncle Jonathan supplied guns to the Cuban rebels against Spain. Has her uncle doomed her from beyond the grave to take part in slaughter once again? In preparation for the journey of her “special cargo,” Bethany sits down with her mother’s old diary, returning to that fateful day in 1863, and unfolding an epic journey of war, survival, love, and betrayal spanning decades and nations.

Fatal Accidents of Birth

Fatal Accidents of Birth
Author: Harsh Mander
Publisher:
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2016-11-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789386338129

This volume collects seventeen stories of women and men who, simply because they were born poor, or a particular gender, or into a certain caste or religion, fell prey to the many atrocities and indignities endemic to contemporary India. Some resisted, survived, and soldier on. Some did not. Lachmi Kaur lost almost all the male members of her family in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. She then overcame despair to singlehandedly bring up her children and grandchildren with fierce love and pride. With great courage of conviction, Krishan Gopal, a Dalit man from Nimoda in Rajasthan, decided to build his own shrine to Hanuman after being forbidden from the village temple by his upper-caste neighbours. What followed was persecution, violence and exile from the village which lasted all his life. At twenty-eight, Dandapani defied his family--which could not accept him for what he was--left home, and underwent a sex-change operation. Now known as Dhanam, she lives with her extended family of eunuchs in a Chennai shanty. And, in a chilling first-person account, Raheem tells of his village in Muzaffarnagar which, after cynical political manipulation, went from amity to a communal conflagration in just a week. Fatal Accidents of Birth is a powerful, challenging book. It tells us of the many ways in which we inflict violence upon each other--most of all by choosing to not see. And as it does so, this necessary book ensures that these stories will find their rightful place in our consciousness.

Religion, an Accident of Birth

Religion, an Accident of Birth
Author: Charles Richard Hurst
Publisher:
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2015-04-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9780991528257

In this final edition edition of Hurst's Religion, an Accident of Birth, the author takes us deeper on his journeys. From a war torn Middle East to the streets of Juarez Mexico, we see the unfolding of not only the works of a great physician, but the love of a humanitarian and his life's work. Hurst, truly a doctor without borders, explores not only his trials during the Vietnam war, the trepidations of secret border crossings in the desert many years later, and the exotic alleyways of the far east, but also the hearts and souls of mankind. In his final work, Hurst begs us to look deeper, not only at our beliefs, but at our purpose as human beings who have the ability to strive and go beyond our interpersonal borders. "We have seen a tremendous amount of history in our lifetime and so much injustice related to religion. Nothing new. When a Hindu mentioned religion as "an accident of birth," I knew I had it to build a book around it. This was to be a book to demand integrity in religion, whether Christian, Muslim, or otherwise." - CR Hurst.

An Accident of Geography

An Accident of Geography
Author: Richard C. Blum
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Total Pages: 445
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1626343357

Advances in global development have helped lift hundreds of millions of people from poverty in recent decades, but major challenges in fighting poverty remain. Billions of people continue to have little or no access to the basic necessities of life: clean water, food, shelter, education, and medical care. The random location of their birthplace limited much of what is possible in many of their lives. Yet legions of dedicated people today are proving that with the right approaches and resources, disciplined efforts to fight poverty can succeed—and with greater scale and impact than ever. In An Accident of Geography, author Richard C. Blum profiles many of them while narrating his inspiring personal story—accomplished private-equity investor especially in Asia, humanitarian, public policy advocate, and creator of an unprecedented, multidisciplinary curriculum in poverty and development studies that has attracted thousands of students on the ten campuses of the University of California and beyond. Blum offers practical guidance on what works best: giving poor people a greater voice in the field and applying key principles of 21st-century management, engineering, and development philanthropy. Put your accident of geography to work in helping others, and yourself Be the change maker you see in the mirror. ​All author proceeds from the sale of An Accident of Geography will be donated to projects advancing global development.

The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction

The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction
Author: Daniel Brook
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2019-06-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0393247457

A technicolor history of the first civil rights movement and its collapse into black and white. Brutal slavery existed all over the New World, but only America followed emancipation with a twisted system of segregation. The Accident of Color asks why. Searching for answers, Daniel Brook journeys to the places that resisted Jim Crow the longest. In the cosmopolitan port cities of New Orleans and Charleston, integrated streetcars plied avenues patrolled by integrated police forces for decades after the Civil War. This progress was ushered in during Reconstruction when long-free, openly biracial communities joined in coalition with the formerly enslaved and allies at the fringes of whiteness. Tragically, their victories—including integrated schools—and their alliance itself were violently uprooted by segregation along a stark, new black-white color line. By revisiting a turning point in the construction of America’s uniquely restrictive racial system, The Accident of Color brings to life a moment from our past that illuminates the origins of the racial lies we live by.

Giving Kids a Fair Chance

Giving Kids a Fair Chance
Author: James Joseph Heckman
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2013
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262019132

Current social and education policies directed toward children focus on improving cognition, yet success in life requires more than smarts. Heckman calls for a refocus of social policy toward early childhood interventions designed to enhance both cognitive abilities and such non-cognitive skills as confidence and perseverance. This new focus on preschool intervention would emphasize improving the early environments of disadvantaged children and increasing the quality of parenting while respecting the primacy of the family and America's cultural diversity. Heckman shows that acting early has much greater positive economic and social impact than later interventions -- which range from reduced pupil-teacher ratios to adult literacy programs to expenditures on police -- that draw the most attention in the public policy debate. At a time when state and local budgets for early interventions are being cut, Heckman issues an urgent call for action and offers some practical steps for how to design and pay for new programs.