Paly ~ Class of '61

 For current information and updates on all things Paly, check out the Alumni and Friends of Palo Alto High School website: direct link, click HERE or here > www.palyalumni.net

BOOKS FROM CLASS AUTHORS

THE ROAD TO TANGIBLE HOPE:

An Ethiopian Woman's Tale of Survival, Strength, and Inspiration  - October 2023

   Author: Telile Yoseph with Janet Graham Dean
  Audio Book: Narrated by Janet Graham Dean                                          Available in all formats - Amazon

The Road to Tangible Hope 

“Lily Yoseph puts the lie to ‘there’s nothing we can do.’ Beginning by finding sponsors for poor girls from her native Ethiopia, she has assembled a cracker-jack team, now serving 140 girls, who are dedicated not only to their learning, but their safety. She’s a force of nature. The shape of compassion itself. Read this story and be prepared to be moved.” 

—Peter Coyote | Zen Buddhist priest, author and actor 

“The Road to Tangible Hope chronicles the remarkable life of author Lily Yoseph: a moving tale of one woman’s indomitable determination to survive amidst some of the darkest hues of the human experience.” 

—James Redford | filmmaker, environmentalist 

Note from the author: Sadly, James Redford passed prior to this printing. He was actively encouraging me to share my story and I will forever remember his warm and thoughtful support. 

“Lily Yoseph's book is a powerful testament to the indomitable human spirit and the strength that lies within each of us to overcome adversity. It serves as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is always a glimmer of hope. 

Moreover, Lily's commitment to helping young girls in Ethiopia is nothing short of inspiring. Her selfless efforts to uplift and empower others demonstrate the profound impact that one person can make in the lives of many. Through her initiatives, she is creating real change, providing hope, and opening doors to a brighter future for these girls. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone seeking inspiration, courage, and a reminder of the boundless possibilities that exist when we find our own way.”    —Lisa Kristine | Humanitarian Photographer 

 Note: Lily was awarded the Unsung Heroes of Compassion Award by the Dalai Lama in 2014.  - Janet was able to be present at the awards ceremony

A note from Janet: "I wrote a book with my dear friend, Telile Yoseph. The Road to Tangible Hope, An Ethiopian Woman's Tale of Survival, Strength and Inspiration. It's up on all platforms. And, I recorded the AudioBook myself, also up on all platforms. Not bad for 80!  (Editor: Indeed!) I didn't put my name on the cover because I wanted Telile to own her own story and be able to use it to enhance fundraising for our work educating girls in Ethiopia. So I'm sort of a ghost writer although how we wrote the book together is in the introduction below.

Introduction: I met Telile Yoseph, nicknamed Lily, about ten years ago when I attended an inspiring presentation she gave about the work she was doing with young girls in Ethiopia. She first showed us pictures of sick, undernourished, sad little girls. Then we saw pictures of the same girls after she provided them with health care, nutrition, education, and personal mentoring. In the second set of pictures, the girls were glowing with health and confidence. I was sitting there with tears running down my face. I had to help. Soon Lily and I became close collaborators on this mission. Since Lily spoke four languages—two Ethiopian languages, Dutch and English—I became the native English speaker who put Lily’s thoughts on paper. So it was that Lily told me she had amazing stories from her life that she had told no one. Even people close to her did not know the heart-wrenching, life-threatening experiences she had endured. My husband Floyd and I decided to rent a cottage on Vancouver Island, Canada and take Lily there so I could record her life story. Every morning, Lily would cook breakfast for Floyd and me and then he would take off for the day, leaving Lily and me to work on her story. Lily would lay on the floor, her story unfolding in her lovely, low, melodious voice. I would sit on the couch with my computer on my lap recording this amazing, twisted tale of her incredible strength, survival, and especially, her spirit. Please note that this manuscript is short but dense and intense and it is written in direct, short sentences in the cadence of Lily's speech when she speaks in English. In a way, you are hearing Lily speak. This is Lily’s story."

 -  Janet Dean, Tangible Hope Foundation Board Member

                     WITH MY SHADOW    (Poems)
                  - A Bilingual Selection - Hilde Domin 
                  - Translated by Sarah Kafatou - Amazon

This bilingual edition of the poems of Hilde Domin, an outstanding lyric poet of exile and return, brings her work to English-speaking readers for the first time.

Hilde Domin fled Nazi Germany when, as a Jew, she was no longer safe there. For many years she lived in Italy and the Dominican Republic, where she encountered modernist currents in Italian and Spanish poetry. Returning permanently to Germany in the mid-1950s, she quickly found recognition as a poet of memory and reconciliation. For the rest of her long life she wrote and spoke in a tone poised between vulnerability and trust, on behalf of moral and civic values worth living for.

As Sarah Kafatou writes in her Introduction, Domin “is always frugal: she reworks and transforms her repertoire of metaphors, images, themes, and ideas again and again, extending and refining, never explaining too much. Her lyric sensibility is concise, her syntax and vocabulary are simple and apt, her short lines break on the phrase, and she has an uncanny ability to hit the right note at exactly the right moment, according to the rhythm of the breath.”

Domin writes of “people like us we among them,” providing a voice for victims of persecution everywhere. Today, with refugee populations on the move throughout the world and with rising intolerance and polarization, these poems of conscience, and of courage discovered in desperation, will speak directly to every reader.

     PRIVILEGED KILLERS - Paperback – March 6, 2024
  A TRUE STORY - Privileged Killers: and Sociopaths Who Live and Walk among Us -  Amazon

 

The book explores
 Betrayal, deception, and abandonment
 Disconnects between the ideal and real
 White privilege in action
A cautionary tale, though filled with hope
About psychopaths and other Dark Triad individuals who live next door.
A book that has lessons and insights for us all.
About a world most readers know little about –academic criminology
Secret, double lives revealed
Murderers caught but not punished.

"Criminologist Karl Schonborn, who studies how authorities respond to violence, is well acquainted with privileged killers. This classic true-crime work focuses on his experiences with several sociopathic individuals. Four of them, ironically white males, committed monstrous violent crimes. And because each of them was privileged – blessed with brilliance, wealth, talent, or charm – Lady Justice only slapped their wrists despite their homicidal attacks.

What’s shocking is these killers seemingly appeared from nowhere in Schonborn’s everyday life, and each helped erode his long-standing criminal-justice idealism. Professor Schonborn details his interactions with these highly disturbed men, including how a brush with one on parole nearly cost him his life.

Schonborn’s in-depth training in psychology helps him provide us with useful insights about identifying and dealing with the burgeoning numbers of sociopaths who work and live among us."

            CLEFT HEART - New Cover - Second Edition - Amazon

    REMEMBERING THE DISASTROUS BATTLE
                     OF ATTU ISLAND

                    Randall L. Got -  Amazon

This historical novella begins with the graduation day of Albert P. Fong from Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1941. He and two of his best friends Charlie Atwood and Tony Ricci decide to enlist in the Army. Because of their college educations they are admitted to the officer's training school at Fort Benning, Georgia. They call themselves the Springfield Musketeers and adopt the motto, "All for one and one for all". After they complete their training, they become 2nd lieutenants  assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Motorized Infantry Regiment, 7th Army Divisionat at Fort Ord in California. They are trained in desert warfare in anticipation of fighting the Germans in North Africa to help Britain win the war against Germany and Italy in case the U.S. is pulled into WWII .
Unexpectedly, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan and its Axis Allies. Soon Japan invaded the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands which was an American Territory. It was the first time a foreign power did so since the War of 1812. Their occupation of those islands was unopposed by the American military as it established strongholds and airfields to protect their eastern flank of Japan and to gain strategic positions in the Pacific Islands. When the U.S. Army finally started to invade Attu Island on May 11, 1943, the Japanese had over 2,500 soldiers under the command of Colonel Yamasaki. The Springfield Musketeers must battle the most horrendous battle, suffering the second highest casualty rate next to Iwo Jima. Will Albert, Charlie, and Tony survive the Battle of Attu Island? Or will it be, "All for one and one for all", united we stand divided we fall?

ATTENTION - Paly Veterans et al:  Hoping you can provide some additional information for this Paly senior who has done a yeoman's job researching and gathering photos and articles for his book.  If you're interested in contacting him, you can use the Contact Us form and I'll send you his email address or for those who have my email address, contact me directly. 

Many thanks in advance for being willing to help this student out.   Pam  

"When we're connected to others, we become better people."

-- Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture