Lee Daniels

This book is the fourth in a collection of travel essays that the author has published over the course of a ten-year period. Its stories are about the author's travel experiences in places across the U.S., Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. Some of the stories evolved from sections of old travel journals he wrote while in his twenties, while some date back a decade, and others more recent than that. He feels extremely fortunate to have had the ability to live in different places abroad as an exchange student, relief worker, and backpacker in an age when travel was relatively cheap and the world a safer place, with health hazards amounting to nothing more serious than malaria and the occasional bout of dysentery. His wish is that in describing these experiences, readers will regain confidence in the kindness of the human spirit?for without the kindness of strangers he met on my journeys, the author may never have successfully completed them?and become inspired to venture outre-mer, as did Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of our first great travel writers, did in his book by the same name about his travels in Europe in the 19th century.

This book is the companion to the The Book of Weksek, the book of the Weksek religion, a religion founded on shamanic drum journeys. It contains a commentary of the Weksek Book of Days and the Concept Words of Weksek together with tables of the Concept Words arranged in various orders. It also contains instructions on the use of the Book of Days and details of the visions that birthed the religion of Weksek.

This mesmerizing companion book to the award-winning film, The Butler traces the Civil Rights Movement and explores crucial moments of twentieth century American history through the eyes of Eugene Allen—a White House butler who served eight presidents over the course of thirty-four years.During the presidencies of Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, Eugene Allen was a butler in the most famous of residences: the White House. An African American who came of age during the era of Jim Crow, Allen served tea and supervised buffets while also witnessing some of the most momentous decisions made during the second half of the twentieth century, including Lyndon B. Johnson’s work during the Civil Rights Movement and Ronald Reagan getting tough on apartheid. But even as Allen witnessed the Civil Rights legislation develop, his family, friends, and neighbors were still contending with Jim Crow America. Timely, “poignant and powerful” (Kirkus Reviews) The Butler also explores Eugene Allen and his family’s background along with the history of African Americans in Hollywood and also features a foreword by the film’s director Lee Daniels.

The long and storied career of Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. one of the nation's finest speakers, has carried him from work on the civil rights front lines in the South to the National Urban League to positions of influence at the highest level of business and politics. A friend and confidant to presidents, Vernon Jordan has never forgotten the men and women, from Wiley Branton to Martin Luther King, from Fannie Lou Hamer to Whitney Young to Primus King, whose oratorical skill in service to social justice deeply influenced him. Their examples, and voices, mixed with Vernon's own make this book both a history and an embodiment of black speech at its finest, full of emotion, controlled force, righteous indignation, love of country, and awe in front of the challenges ahead.