Travel

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How Not to Travel
“Where are you going next? I won’t go there!”
Norman L. Lofland and Betty J. Lofland
About the Book
Norman L. Lofland and Betty J. Lofland share the lessons they learned traveling, teaching, and living abroad in their memoir, How Not to Travel.
The couple started their teaching careers at Bethel College, a Mennonite liberal arts college in North Newton, Kansas. In 1963, interesting adventures developed after a travel agent friend inspired them to apply for jobs in Beirut, Lebanon.
The Loflands never imagined that they would end up teaching four decades abroad. Their adventures included meeting the Shah of Iran; having an audience with Colonel Muamar Khaddafi; interacting with Yasser Arafat before the Israelis bombed the Palestinian headquarters; driving a Karmann Ghia from Beirut to London and back, as well as from Beirut to Tehran and back; designing a theatre in Tehran with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West architects; and perhaps most important, exchanging ideas with students in Lebanon, Iran, Tunisia, China, Macau, and North Cyprus.
Join the Loflands as they recall the highs, the lows, and the life lessons they learned amid the reality of war, revolution, and exotic living.
About the Author
Norman L. Lofland attended Anderson College in Indiana and then served in the U.S. Army before earning a bachelor of arts in Speech, Drama, and English Literature from Wichita State University, Kansas, a master of arts in drama from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D in drama from Carnegie Mellon University. His wife, Betty J. Lofland, earned a bachelor of arts in English from McPherson College, Kansas, and a master of arts in history from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut. After more than fifty years of teaching – forty-four of them abroad – the Loflands spend their retirement in Pasadena, California, and Macau, China.
Paperback $26.99 Hardback $34.99 E-book $2.99
Here and There
A Perspective in Igbo Diaspora
Mathias Chinonyere Mgbeafulu
About the Book
This book ‘Here and There: A perspective in Igbo Diaspora’ attempts to present a concise narrative of the worldwide migration of the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria through the lens of its diaspora. The migration that produced the diaspora in its various forms is not just a response to the internal Nigerian environment, but also relates to the changing nature of the global forces. With historical insights, the author investigates the different phases in centuries of Igbo diaspora with notes on voluntary and involuntary movements. It highlights the ways in which new movements are connected to older flows, and how displacements across physical borders are intimately linked to the reworking of conceptual borders in both sending and receiving states.
The book cast some new lights on the contemporary history of the Igbo through the experiences of the larger Igbo people now settled mostly across the western world, largely in North America and Britain, and is gradually spreading to Asia and the eastern hemisphere. The progenitors of these migrations left centuries ago through the Atlantic world and there are recent arrivals too who are trotting through land, sea and air. Placing the migration and diaspora settlements in historical contexts, the book shows how the experiences of Igbo in various metropoles across the world have been shaped by the social dynamics and politics of settlement locations as much as the transnational connections and the economic forces of globalization.
Around the globe, people leave their homes to better themselves, to satisfy needs, and to care for their families. They also migrate to escape undesirable conditions, ranging from paucity of economic opportunities to violent conflicts at home. This book shows how the Igbo have spread globally from its original heartland in southern Nigeria. It examines the social, economic, and political factors that propel households to decide to send members abroad, along with the cultural beliefs and traditions that can limit migration and accentuates the connections between the different phases of Igbo migratory communities. ‘Here and There’ provides a valuable portrait of the Igbo in countries other than Nigeria and articulates how Igbo diaspora can better be engaged and mobilized for maximum advantage. Issues of diaspora transnational social practice and community building, identity, institutionalized racism and the centrality of culture and homeland euphoria are highlighted and presented as fresh perspectives on relocation and resettlement. It stands as a valuable contribution to the wider literature on migration and diasporas.
About the Author
Mathias Chinonyere Mgbeafulu (MA, Ed. S), educator and freelance writer, born in Nkume, Nigeria and lives in United States. He served both as a Social Mobilization Officer, (MAMSER) and NOA as a Principal Orientation Officer (1989 -1997), during which he coordinated the task of mobilizing Nigerians for lasting democracy in areas of Imo State; a mission accomplished with the enthronement of democratic rule in 1999. Mgbeafulu is currently an educator with Detroit Public Schools.
Mgbeafulu earned his bachelor and master’s degrees from Abia State University Uturu in Nigeria before proceeding to United States. He has since obtained additional degrees in Business Administration and Education. An avowed Igbo diaspora activist and field operative, Mgbeafulu has led Igbo community in Michigan as President, served World Igbo Congress as a member of its Board of Directors. He was Secretary General of Council of Igbo States in America and Imo State Congress of America. He was also the founding editor-in-chief of Orlu Regional Assembly (ORA USA) news magazine – ORA Newsflash.
Mgbeafulu has written extensively on migration and topical issues. His other book, Migration and the Economy: Igbo Migrants in the Nigerian Economy – 1900 – 1970’ was published in 2003. He is married to Mary Nkechi Mgbeafulu and both are blessed with four children – Victor, Angelica, Justin and Joel.
Paperback $38
An Irishman by Now
An American Boy’s Tale of Passion and Discovery in Rural Ireland
R. Michael McEvilley
About the Book
““…Excellent, a rattling good story… a serious pleasure to read… (McEvilley is) a born storyteller.”
–Eamonn Sweeney, literary critic, best-selling author, journalist, Cork, Ireland
Mickey Monaghan never intended to tell anyone that he was adopted. After all, his adoptive aunt and uncle had instilled in him–since age 3 when they had brought him from America to their sheep farm in Ireland—that he’d be “looked down upon” if people knew.
But at age 22, as he nears college graduation with business and political aspirations, his parish priest Father McDermott and his long-time best friend Caitlin O’Connor confront him with their own concerns for his future. Father McDermott is troubled by Mickey’s philandering lifestyle, and Caitlin by an oddly disturbing slip of his tongue about family secrets; and both Father McDermott and Caitlin can see what Mickey won’t–that he and Caitlin belong together.
Add in a death at Mickey’s hands and his reckless tryst with a married woman, and he’s ready to open up. Alas, his own secrets lead to others–and to a tale more startling than any of them had imagined.”
About the Author
R. Michael McEvilley practiced law in Cincinnati, Ohio until retirement. He now resides in Kentucky with his wife, Irish trad singer Mai. He has four children and five grandchildren. He began work on this, his first novel, after reading his newspaper horoscope suggesting he “do something creative.”
E-book $2.99 Paperback $15.26
THE WHEELCHAIR GOES EAST
Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China: May 2018
Mike Fox
About the Author
Mike Fox is a semi-retired British civil servant with a passion for travelling, reading, anything that moves on railway lines, and badminton (which he continues to play badly). He is married to Sylvia, who has a passion for dogs and music. They have two adult sons, Nathan and David, who fled the nest many years ago, and Katy, a loveable but naughty border collie who thinks she’s in charge (and probably is). Mike’s travel genre also has an emphasis on travelling
for the disabled, largely because his wife, Sylvia, who usually travels with him, has Parkinson’s disease and gets around mostly with the aid of a wheelchair.
Mike loves encountering new situations, people and cultures, and observing the world around him. He has been particularly inspired by travel writers such as Paul Theroux and Bill Bryson, sharing something of the former’s love of trains and the la er’s sense of humour – plus the fact that both of these writers get past mere description of the places they visit and share their profound perceptions of their travel experiences and their encounters along the way, some which he finds humorous, some poignant, all of them fascinating.
E-book $2.99 Paperback $16.99