Beyond the Rice Fields

Beyond the Rice Fields
Author: Naivo
Publisher: Restless Books
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2017-10-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1632061325

The first novel from Madagascar ever to be translated into English, Naivo’s magisterial Beyond the Rice Fields delves into the upheavals of the nation’s precolonial past through the twin narratives of a slave and his master’s daughter. Fara and her father’s slave, Tsito, have shared a tender intimacy since her father bought the young boy who’d been ripped away from his family after their forest village was destroyed. Now in Sahasoa, amongst the cattle and rice fields, everything is new for Tsito, and Fara at last has a companion to play with. But as Tsito looks forward toward the bright promise of freedom and Fara, backward to a twisted, long-denied family history, a rift opens that a rapidly shifting political and social terrain can only widen. As love and innocence fall away, their world becomes defined by what tyranny and superstition both thrive upon: fear. With captivating lyricism and undeniable urgency, Naivo crafts an unsentimental interrogation of the brutal history of nineteenth-century Madagascar as a land newly exposed to the forces of Christianity and modernity, and preparing for a violent reaction against them. Beyond the Rice Fields is a tour de force about the global history of human bondage and the competing narratives that keep us from recognizing ourselves and each other, our pasts and our destinies.

From Rice Fields to Killing Fields

From Rice Fields to Killing Fields
Author: James A. Tyner
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2017-10-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0815654227

Between 1975 and 1979, the Communist Party of Kampuchea fundamentally transformed the social, economic, political, and natural landscape of Cambodia. During this time, as many as two million Cambodians died from exposure, disease, and starvation, or were executed at the hands of the Party. The dominant interpretation of Cambodian history during this period presents the CPK as a totalitarian, communist, and autarkic regime seeking to reorganize Cambodian society around a primitive, agrarian political economy. From Rice Fields to Killing Fields challenges previous interpretations and provides a documentary-based Marxist interpretation of the political economy of Democratic Kampuchea. Tyner argues that Cambodia’s mass violence was the consequence not of the deranged attitudes and paranoia of a few tyrannical leaders but that the violence was structural, the direct result of a series of political and economic reforms that were designed to accumulate capital rapidly: the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of people through forced evacuations, the imposition of starvation wages, the promotion of import-substitution policies, and the intensification of agricultural production through forced labor. Moving beyond the Cambodian genocide, Tyner maintains that it is a mistake to view Democratic Kampuchea in isolation, as an aberration or something unique. Rather, the policies and practices initiated by the Khmer Rouge must be seen in a larger, historical-geographical context.

Return to the Enchanted Island

Return to the Enchanted Island
Author: Johary Ravaloson
Publisher: AmazonCrossing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Antananarivo (Antananarivo, Madagascar)
ISBN: 9781542093514

In this exhilarating prize-winning novel--only the second to be published in English from Madagascar--a young man comes of age amidst the enchanted origin myths of his island country. Named after the first man at the creation of the world in Malagasy mythology, Ietsy Razak was raised to perpetuate the glory of his namesake and expected to be as illuminated as his Great Ancestor. But in the chaos of modernity, his young life is marked only by restlessness, maddening insomnia, and an adolescent apathy. When an unexpected tragedy ships him off to a boarding school in France, his trip to the big city is no hero's journey. Ietsy loses himself in the immediate pleasures of body and mind. Weighed down by his privilege and the legacy of his name, Ietsy struggles to find a foothold. Only a return to the "Enchanted Island," as Madagascar is lovingly known, helps Ietsy stumble toward his destiny. This award-winning retelling of Madagascar's origin story offers a distinctly twenty-first-century perspective on the country's place in an ever-more-connected world.

The Years of Rice and Salt

The Years of Rice and Salt
Author: Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Spectra
Total Pages: 777
Release: 2003-06-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0553897608

With the same unique vision that brought his now classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know. . . . “A thoughtful, magisterial alternate history from one of science fiction’s most important writers.”—The New York Times Book Review It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur—the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed. But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been—one that stretches across centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation. Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson navigates a world where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions, while Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power—and even love—in this bold New World. “Exceptional and engrossing.”—New York Post “Ambitious . . . ingenious.”—Newsday

Must Be Magic

Must Be Magic
Author: Patricia Rice
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1611380111

...humor, emotional intensity, and sensuality with a touch of the supernatural, Must Be Magic is a highly recommended read and a 'keeper.'"- RT Book Reviews, 4 ½ Stars Can a perfumed enchantress and a surly agronomist work together? Society beauty Lady Leila Staines has always been the black sheep of her family: dark where her sisters are fair, and lacking their magical gifts. Now widowed, she's determined to do what she can to nurture whatever talent she might possess by cultivating a new breed of roses to enhance her intoxicating perfumes. But she’s no gardener and needs help... Wary, plain-spoken aristocrat Dunstan Ives long ago fled a decadent society that held him responsible for the mysterious death of his wife. Instead, he wrapped himself in science and the society of plants. He has no interest in helping a bewitching viscountess grow useless flowers—until he realizes that they're both victims of vicious minds, and he cannot see another woman harmed in his name. MAGICAL MALCOLM SERIES IN ORDER Merely Magic Must Be Magic Trouble With Magic This Magic Moment Much Ado About Magic Magic Man

Go Long!

Go Long!
Author: Jerry Rice
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2007-01-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0345497082

Jerry Rice has been called the best pro football player ever. In spite of Rice’s legendary gridiron skills, or even his ability to transform himself into an instant ballroom-dance prodigy on ABC’s hit TV series Dancing with the Stars, the surprising fact is, a guy like Jerry Rice is made and not just born. In Go Long! Rice shares the inspirational lessons and empowering practices that have helped him attain success, both on the football field and off. Through the ups and downs of Rice’s life and incomparable career, we discover how self-motivation, determination, and humility are the keys to achievement and true fulfillment. It’s been a long journey for Jerry Rice, from his childhood in Starkville, Mississippi, to a certain berth in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As a kid, he was always working toward something, even if he wasn’t sure what it was. Rice honed his hand-eye coordination by catching airborne bricks tossed by his siblings while on the job with their bricklayer father, and he ran–everywhere. From these humble beginnings, Rice blazed a path to greatness in college and the NFL–a trip that was fueled by tireless effort and belief in a few simple principles, among them that achievement is a voyage, not a destination; that modesty and perseverance, not talent, are what determine how far you will go; and that everyone should strive to be a role model. Rice even demonstrates these rules in action, breaking down the greatest games from his stellar career. Go Long! is an inspiring book by a living sports legend. More than that, however, it is the story of how Jerry Rice awakened the champion within, illustration how we can unlock the greatness within ourselves.

Monkey Bridge

Monkey Bridge
Author: Lan Cao
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 274
Release: 1998-06-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0140263616

Hailed by critics and writers as powerful, important fiction, Monkey Bridge charts the unmapped territory of the Vietnamese American experience in the aftermath of war. Like navigating a monkey bridge—a bridge, built of spindly bamboo, used by peasants for centuries—the narrative traverses perilously between worlds past and present, East and West, in telling two interlocking stories: one, the Vietnamese version of the classic immigrant experience in America, told by a young girl; and the second, a dark tale of betrayal, political intrigue, family secrets, and revenge—her mother's tale. The haunting and beautiful terrain of Monkey Bridge is the "luminous motion," as it is called in Vietnamese myth and legend, between generations, encompassing Vietnamese lore, history, and dreams of the past as well as of the future. "With incredible lightness, balance and elegance," writes Isabel Allende, "Lan Cao crosses over an abyss of pain, loss, separation and exile, connecting on one level the opposite realities of Vietnam and North America, and on a deeper level the realities of the material world and the world of the spirits." • Quality Paperback Book Club Selection and New Voices Award nominee • A Kiriyama Pacific Rim Award Book Prize nominee

A Grain of Rice

A Grain of Rice
Author: Helena Clare Pittman
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2018-06-12
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 152476552X

Over 200,000 copies sold! Now with a newly refreshed design, this classic mathematical folktale tells the story of a clever farmer who outwits the Emperor of China and becomes the wealthiest man in the world—all starting with one grain of rice. When a humble farmer named Pong Lo asks for the hand of the Emperor’s beautiful daughter, the Emperor is enraged. Whoever heard of a peasant marrying a princess? But Pong Lo is wiser than the Emperor knows. And when he concocts a potion that saves the Princess’s life, the Emperor gladly offers him any reward he chooses—except the Princess. Pong Lo makes a surprising request. He asks for a single grain of rice, doubled every day for one hundred days. The baffled Emperor obliges—only to discover that if you’re as clever as Pong Lo, you can turn a single grain of rice into all the wealth and happiness in the world! A Bank Street Best Book of the Year for 9 to 12 Praise for A Grain of Rice: “Gracefully illustrated. . . . This original story set in fifteenth-century China will captivate readers and perhaps teach them a little about mathematics.” —Booklist “Clever and quietly told in simple, yet evocative language.” —Kirkus Reviews “Any young reader (with calculator handy) will enjoy the tale.” —Scientific American “[A] book that is wise and humorous, and one to be perused and savored.” —School Library Journal

The Life of Rice

The Life of Rice
Author: Richard Sobol
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2010
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 076363252X

Evocative photographs document the farming process of one of Thailand's most valuable crops, from the beginning of the growing season at the Royal Plowing Ceremony, to the painstaking work of transplanting and harvesting rice plants, to the sharing of a delicious meal.