Books about Somehow from Amazon.com

This tender book, carefully edited by Susan Elizabeth Ryan, was chosen from among six handwritten manuscripts of the same title by the prolific American modernist painter and writer Marsden Hartley. Hartley "presents the scholar with an untidy field of inquiry," Ryan writes gently. Partly inspired by his friend Gertrude Stein's "autobiography" of Alice B. Toklas, it tells the story of a life at the center of the early modernist art movement in America, chiefly among the Alfred Stieglitz crowd. For this book, Ryan, in an extensive introduction, fills in many blanks, such as Hartley's homosexuality and the extreme sadness of his childhood after his mother's death when he was 8. The main text is a model of intellectual inquiry, self-doubt, and frequently mordant observations: "The summer in Paris was gay and amusing--there is always one summer in Paris when it is that." Or, "O, the wild rough gaiety of the Marseillaises when they are not murdering and thieving." --Margaret Moorman.
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Apartheid. It's about suffering, about violence Here are ten stories and autobiographical accounts, by southern African writers of various races. Some of the writers -- Nadine Gordimer, Mark Mathabane, Doris Lessing -- are well-known; all of them deserve to be. Their stories, individually and as a group, create a moving, sometimes shockingly vivid portrait of what it feels like to grow up in a land where racism is the law."A stunning group of [ten] stories and autobiographical accounts [by such authors as Doris Lessing and Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer] which vividly evoke what it means to come of age in South Africa under apartheid. Whether a portrayal of a major event in a character's life, or a simple recounting of the small details of everyday living, each story makes a powerful impact [and] will remain in the mind of the reader. This title should be in every YA collection." —V.

1988 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
1989 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library).
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This is the book that in hardcover won unanimous praise from reviewers, who called it "beautiful and transcendent" (The Boston Globe), a book that "measures the arc of a culture's mortality in small, personal increments" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), is written "in a poker-faced style that always seems on the verge of exploding into manic laughter or howls of pain" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

They're right. Tony Earley is a writer so good at his craft that you don't read his words so much as inhale them. His first book of nonfiction is one of those unexpected classics, like Ann Lamott's Traveling Mercies, in which a great writer rips open his/her heart and takes the reader inside for a no-holds-barred tour.

In a prose style that is deceptively simple, Earley confronts the big things-God, death, civilization, family, his own clinical depression-with wit and grace, without looking away or smirking.

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On December 7, 1941, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II. Living in Japan is a small group of foreigners who have established residency many years earlier Most of them have businesses that involve trade--import-export, retail stores and wholesale establishments. Their children go to English-language Christian missionary schools taught by American, British, Canadian and other nationalities who all suddenly become enemy aliens most of whom are repatriated or interned. But citizens of allied and neutral nations as well as those who are stateless continue their normal way of life. Like other stateless residents, the Sidlines are permitted to remain in Japan. As the war progresses, devastating air raids leave most of the cities uninhabitable. Life becomes more difficult and the population, both native and foreign, starts feeling the effects of deprivation. The Sidlines experience harrowing events that almost cost them their lives. After the war ends, earning a living becomes a formidable task. In this memoir, George Sidline, who was seven years old in 1941, describes what life was like for his family living in Kobe, including their friendship with American POWs at Marks House, adjacent to the Sidline home. George Sidline was persuaded to write this book by many people who were unaware that foreigners lived in Japan during the war. The book is well illustrated with photos and is a must-read for anyone interested in this little known aspect of the periphery of war in the Pacific..
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Have you ever felt that your intellect, upbringing, education, or even just your ordinary logical reasoning, simply do not permit a serious consideration of something seemingly as illusive as a spiritual life and faith? Has the apparent reality of the world around you made it impossible for you to seek the divine?

At one point or another, we've all gazed at the starry skies and wondered at its otherwordly mystery and beauty. We've all witnessed circumstances beyond our control, leading to events beyond our wildest imagination. We've all felt the quiet awe of feeling like this whole world is a part of something much larger than us. But, all too often, we leave it at that, determined to ignore it, almost ashamed of the thought. See what might happen to your heart, your mind and your soul if, like Darko, you decide to go further.

Somehow is thought-provoking and witty telling of one man's spiritual journey and his mind's ascent to Christian faith from a life molded and ruled by atheism in Communist Eastern Europe--a vivid anatomy of a spiritual awakening..
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