Beyond the Reach of Empire

Beyond the Reach of Empire
Author: Mike Snook
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2013-12-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473831733

In the early 1880s the Mahdi unleashed a spectacularly successful jihadist uprising against Egyptian colonial rule in the Sudan. Early in1884 Cairo bowed to British pressure to withdraw. Beyond the Reach of Empire describes how Major General Charles Gordon was despatched to evacuate Khartoum and turn the Sudan over to self-rule. It goes on to explain how and why the mission backfired, and then homes in on Sir Garnet Wolseley's planning and execution of the long-delayed Gordon Relief Expedition which arrived, according to popular myth, only two days after the city had fallen and Gordon had been killed. Colonel Mike Snook's narrative is characterized by scrupulous attention to detail, an instinctive grasp of the period, and an intimate understanding of its setting. The author argues compellingly that the Khartoum campaign was mismanaged from the outset. The outcome is the exoneration of Colonel Sir Charles Wilson, the man cast in the role of scapegoat, and an indictment of Wolseley's generalship over the course of the last and most deeply flawed campaign of his career. Full review available at http://www.warhistoryonline.com/reviews/beyond-reach-empire-wolseleys-failed-campaign-save-gordon-khartoum-review-mark-barnes.html (please copy and paste into your browser) As featured in Wye Local Magazine.

On This Side of the Desert

On This Side of the Desert
Author: Alfredo Aguilar
Publisher: Wick First Book
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2020-09-08
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781606354063

Winner of the 2019 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize Natalie Diaz, judge i say / my mother's name, / cristina & desert marigolds / crack through a boulder. / i say my father's name, martin / & all the novena candles / in the bed of the truck are aglow. These lines from the book's titular poem "On This Side of the Desert" encapsulate the dominant themes of the collection: the power and meaning derived from the act of naming; the deep interconnectedness of Latinx cultures, a product of strong family traditions and an intimate relationship with the natural world; and a profound spirituality rooted in the sacraments of Catholic orthodoxy. This poem, like many of those in Aguilar's collection is written from the perspective of a young boy growing up along the Mexican border. As Aguilar chronicles the unique challenges faced by border communities where surviving the desert is a perpetual struggle, and the distress of finding "an entire skeleton in torn clothes" is muted by frequency, he also modernizes the traditional pastoral form to encompass both beauty and trauma. This debut book of poetry describes the experience of being raised in southern California as a child of Mexican immigrants in the shadow of the borderlands. Just as the borderlands are defined by the desert, so, too, are its inhabitants defined by their families, their culture shaped from the clay of the Sonoran desert and given life by the nourishing water of their ancestors. In these poems, the desert is recognized for what it truly is--a living, breathing body filled with both joy and pain.

Screams in the Desert

Screams in the Desert
Author: Sue Eenigenburg
Publisher:
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780878085170

Screams in the Desert is an invitation to participate in one woman's cross-cultural journey and the lessons she learns along the way. Sue Eenigenburg's poignant and humorous accounts of life overseas provide insight into issues that many women encounter in the mission field. Join Sue for trips to the zoo, bouts of illness, landmine fields, miscommunications, and other everyday experiences of life in a foreign country. Providing women with examples to learn by, scripture to meditate on, and space to write about personal experiences, Screams in the Desert offers hope and humor to women working cross-culturally.

The Desert Fathers

The Desert Fathers
Author:
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2003-03-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0141907002

The Desert Fathers were the first Christian monks, living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. In contrast to the formalised and official theology of the "founding fathers" of the church, the Desert Fathers were ordinary Christians who chose to renounce the world and live lives of celibacy, fasting, vigil, prayer and poverty in direct and simple response to the gospel. Their sayings were first recorded in the 4th century and consist of spiritual advice, anecdotes and parables. The Desert Fathers' teachings and lives have inspired poetry, opera and art, as well as providing spiritual nourishment and a template for monastic life.

The Immeasurable World

The Immeasurable World
Author: William Atkins
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2018-07-24
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0385539894

Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year (UK) "William Atkins is an erudite writer with a wonderful wit and gaze and this is a new and exciting beast of a travel book."—Joy Williams In the classic literary tradition of Bruce Chatwin and Geoff Dyer, a rich and exquisitely written account of travels in eight deserts on five continents that evokes the timeless allure of these remote and forbidding places. One-third of the earth's surface is classified as desert. Restless, unhappy in love, and intrigued by the Desert Fathers who forged Christian monasticism in the Egyptian desert, William Atkins decided to travel in eight of the world's driest, hottest places: the Empty Quarter of Oman, the Gobi Desert and Taklamakan deserts of northwest China, the Great Victoria Desert of Australia, the man-made desert of the Aral Sea in Kazkahstan, the Black Rock and Sonoran Deserts of the American Southwest, and Egypt's Eastern Desert. Each of his travel narratives effortlessly weaves aspects of natural history, historical background, and present-day reportage into a compelling tapestry that reveals the human appeal of these often inhuman landscapes.

Run Strong, Stay Hungry

Run Strong, Stay Hungry
Author: Jonathan Beverly
Publisher: VeloPress
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2017-11-21
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1937716880

In Run Strong, Stay Hungry, running journalist Jonathan Beverly reveals the secrets of veteran racers who are still racing fast and loving the sport decades after they got their start. Beverly collects the habits and mindsets of more than 50 runners including Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Deena Kastor, Benji Durden, Colleen De Reuck, Dave Dunham, Kathrine Switzer, and Roger Robinson. Run Strong, Stay Hungry shares 9 keys from these veteran racers that let them keep running strong and staying hungry for competition. Are they biomechanically gifted? Stubborn? Simply lucky to have avoided injury? Turns out, there’s a lot more to it. In his comprehensive research, Beverly discovers that these runners all share specific perspectives and habits that allow them to adapt to changing life circumstances, accept declining abilities, and rebound from setbacks. These keys not only keep them on their feet, but also allow them to continue to draw the same enjoyment from the sport whether they are winning championships or finishing in the middle of the pack, cranking out 100-mile weeks and doing blazing speed work on the track, or squeezing in just enough miles into a busy schedule to simply feel fit and fast and occasionally test that fitness in a race. Beverly interviews over 50 runners including Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Deena Kastor, Benji Durden, Colleen De Reuck, Dave Dunham, Kathrine Switzer, and Roger Robinson. From training methods to mental attitudes to finding community among their fellow runners, there are specific keys that help these masters runners to adapt, accept, and rebound from the hurdles that life and aging put in their path. By adopting the practices of these lifetime competitors, you too can enjoy a lifelong, healthy running career as well as boost your enjoyment of running and your racing performance.

California Desert Protection Act of 1993

California Desert Protection Act of 1993
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks, and Forests
Publisher:
Total Pages: 270
Release: 1993
Genre: Law
ISBN:

Strangers in the Desert

Strangers in the Desert
Author: Lynn Raye Harris
Publisher: Harlequin
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2012-02-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0373130570

"Isabella, the wife Sheikh Adan thought was dead, has just walked back into his life on the eve of his wedding to another woman. Now Adan is to be crowned King, Isabella must be his Queen--sharing his desert throne and the royal bed. But gone is the dutiful, pure girl he once knew; in her place is a defiant, sultry woman who makes Adan's blood run hot. A woman who has no memory of being his wife"--Publisher.