Middle Dreams

Michael Wood has travelled the length and breadth of China, the world's oldest civilization and longest lasting state, to tell a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity, and deep humanity that stretches back thousands of years.

The widening wealth gap is all too familiar to many Millennials and GenZers, especially when home ownership and the lack of debt seem like faraway fantasies. And it's no surprise when they only hold about 4.6% of the country's wealth while Boomers held 22% at around the same age. So what happened to the promise of the American Dream? In this entry of his celebrated Hidden History series, Thom Hartmann uncovers the rise of the American middle class through the progressive policies of FDR, through to its downfall with the increasing privatization and economic deregulations of the Reagan era.

As Reeves shows, the growing separation between the upper middle class and everyone else can be seen in family structure, neighborhoods, attitudes, and lifestyle. Those at the top of the income ladder are becoming more effective at passing on their status to their children, reducing overall social mobility. The result is not just an economic divide but a fracturing of American society along class lines. Upper-middle-class children become upper-middle-class adults.

In 1948, seven hundred thousand Palestinians were forced out of their homes by the first Arab-Israeli War. More than seventy years later, most of their houses are long gone, but millions of their descendants are still registered as refugees, with many living in refugee camps. This group—unlike countless others that were displaced in the aftermath of World War II and other conflicts—has remained unsettled, demanding to settle in the state of Israel. Their belief in a "right of return" is one of the largest obstacles to successful diplomacy and lasting peace in the region.

Imagine living in a mine 2,000 feet underground, in the damp and the dark, and filled with rats! Young Bethan is living a peaceful life in a coal mining town in South Wales. But her world crumbles when her father is badly injured after a section of the mine collapses.Setting her dreams aside for the time being, Bethan must help support her family. Defying the laws forbidding it, she goes to work 2,000 feet underground in the dark, damp, and terrifying coal mine. Her only source of comfort comes in the form of Dobbin, the very pit pony who saved her father’s life. Through this gripping ...

One of the SurfWriter Girls' Best Beach Books "...a gripping story about two people who do not seem to belong together but somehow fit perfectly." — Award Winning Author Alicia Dean Set in contemporary London and California, In Your Dreams! is an emotional roller coaster following an upper-class British actor’s pursuit of an American who is not impressed by or attracted to him just because he’s the leading man in a BBC-TV drama. Jamie’s star is rising and—tired of fake-dating for publicity—he would like to meet a smart lady with compatible interests and values, who is not star-...

In this, his final work, finished only weeks before his passing, Peres offers a long-awaited examination of the crucial turning points in Israeli history through the prism of having been a decision maker and eyewitness. Told with the frankness of someone aware this would likely be his final statement, No Room for Small Dreams spans decades and events, but as much as it is about what happened, it is about why it happened.

This is the tale of an exciting journey along the Silk Road with a young Monk and his newfound guardian, Samir, a larger than life character and the so-called "Seller of Dreams". The man is a scammer; his biggest skill being the ability to talk his way into getting what he wants. While that talking did save Monkey's life, it has left a lot of people furious with Samir— furious enough to hire assassins. Monkey decides to try and save Samir from the attempts on his life—as a way to pay off his debt! If he can save Samir six times, he'll be a free man...but will they all survive that long?

Mr. Collins must marry. If Lizzy won’t have him, then Charlotte certainly will. Mr Collins may be a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man, making him the object of considerable scorn for the Bennet sisters, but Charlotte knows to seize an opportunity when it presents itself. After a week in his irksome company, her friend, Elizabeth, can only see his irritating manner. Whereas Charlotte, after a matter of hours, has already estimated his value and weighed it against the mortification she will undoubtedly have to endure. The opportunity to become the wife of a well-connected ...

What if your childhood daydream wasn’t just a fantasy—but a doorway to the unimaginable? For three years, Jonas Shay has tried to forget Extraordinary, the imaginary world he once escaped to after his mother’s disappearance. With his dad’s help, he buried the daydream, convinced himself it wasn’t real. But now, just shy of thirteen, the whispers are back—talking seagulls, meddling elfins, a world that refuses to stay forgotten. Soon, Jonas learns the impossible: his mother is alive, trapped somewhere inside Extraordinary. Reality slips away as Jonas plunges back into the world ...

In Privilege Lost, Jessi Streib traces the lives of over 100 youth born into the upper-middle-class. Following them for over 10 years as they transition from teens to young adults, Streib examines who falls from the upper-middle-class, how, and why don't they see it coming. In doing so, she reveals the patterned ways that individuals' resources and identities push them onto mobility paths - and the complicated choices youth make between staying true to themselves and staying in their class position.

America's middle class, the driver of so much of our economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing us to confront the fear that we are slipping as a nation - that our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living than we did. It's the dark flipside of the American Dream - an American Nightmare of our own making.

Every family has its fault lines, and when Maggie gets a call from the ER in Maryland where her older sister lives, the cracks start to appear. Ginny, her sugar-loving and diabetic older sister with intellectual disabilities, has overdosed on strawberry Jell-O. Maggie knows Ginny really can’t live on her own, so she brings her sister and her occasionally vicious dog to live near her in upstate New York. Their other sister, Betsy, is against the idea but as a professional surfer, she is conveniently thousands of miles away. Thus, Maggie’s life as a caretaker begins.

In 1948, Israel’s founders sought a “national home for the Jewish people,” where Jewish life would be transformed. The state they ultimately made, says Daniel Gordis, is a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering.

From Fouad Ajami, an acclaimed author and chronicler of Arab politics, comes a compelling account of how a generation of Arab intellectuals tried to introduce cultural renewals in their homelands through the forces of modernity and secularism. Ultimately, they came to face disappointment, exile, and, on occasion, death. For anyone who seeks to understand the Middle East, here is an insider's unflinching analysis of the collision between intellectual life and political realities in the Arab world today.

This is not a book about mysticism, the occult, spirituality, or knowledge foreign to daily intellect. Every human being is born with a middle eye, as are other free moving creatures on our planet. The average person doesn’t rely on the mid-eye; thus it functions at a fraction of its full capacity. In our now civilization, due to partial-use, the mid-eye has atrophied - but never vanishes. The unseen non-physical eye can only exist within a visible physical body. The chapters in this book direct our attention to the enormous capacity of the in-seeing electrical activity of the mid-eye, ...

The Middle Kid is the story of Alex, an ordinary schoolgirl, and her struggle to be noticeable. With an older brother who is set for Olympic glory in the swimming pool and a younger brother who has emerged as a Latin genius, Alex is the middle child and apt to be ignored. Often, she feels she is the only one in her family who feels a responsibility to hold it together. Feeling unappreciated, she knows she needs a plan. With busy parents and brothers with their own interests she first finds comfort in sleeping dreams. When these fail to deliver, she turns to a daytime dream of her own ...

While living for a dream to change the world around them, how do dreamers immerse in their dream and live in it? How do they turn the dream to become their reality? How do they make their happiness and sorrows part of it? What happens to the dream and what happens to the dreamers? find out in this story, see it through the eyes of the people who lived it.

In the late 1970s, Richard convinced his wife Sandra they needed to leave their promising professional careers and comfortable suburban lifestyle and start an azalea nursery in the Blue Ridge Mountain. With no horticultural training or business experience, few mechanical skills, and absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into, numerous misadventures followed. In the first of this multi-book series, Richard begins the couple’s colorful story, a story of triumph and despair, of high expectations and harsh reality, and of the people who touched their lives along the way. ...

Dream Big, Girl: The Gift of Positive Affirmations for Teen Girls 🌸 An inspiring poetry book for teen girls, filled with positive affirmations, self-love, and empowerment. 🌸 Dream Big, Girl is a beautifully written and visually captivating poetry affirmation book designed to uplift, inspire, and encourage young girls to embrace their confidence, resilience, and dreams. This book is a heartfelt gift of words, structured in eight poetic chapters, each focusing on themes like rising above challenges, shining brightly, dancing freely, and standing strong. 💖 What Makes This Book Special...