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|  | | Bringing Progress to Paradise: What I Got from Giving to a Mountain Village
Bringing Progress to Paradise is the first in the sequence of books about Rasley's adventures in the Himalayas and his unique relationship with the Edenic village of Basa, Nepal.
What does it mean to bring progress--schools, electricity, roads, running water--to paradise? Can our consumer culture and desire to "do good" really be good for a community that has survived contentedly for centuries without us? br />
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In October 2008, climbing expedition leader and attorney, Jeffrey Rasley, led a trek to a village in a remote valley in the Solu region of Nepal named Basa. His group of three adventurers was only the third group of white people ever seen in this village of subsistence farmers. What he found was people thoroughly unaffected by Western cons | |  | | False Prophet?
"False Prophet?" is a rant against the unfairness of the legal system. It's also the story of love lost and found, murder, conspiracy and political intrigue. Attorney Jack Ross loses his soul and his wife. He finds redemption by litigating the case of an African-American preacher and prophet.
Jack's existential crisis almost overwhelms him. He is disgusted by the law, his partner is an alcoholic, and his wife demands they have a baby and then leaves him. But Jack is a fighter. With the help of an arm-breaking buddy and a hot young reporter, Jack sets out to right the wrongs done to his prophet-client.
Inspirational mystery, romantic suspense and political/legal thriller i>False Prophet?/b>/i> is a story of love lost and found and a rant against the legal system. Jack Ross loses his soul but finds redemption helping an African-American preacher sue for libel. In the midst of an existential crisis, Jack's wife leaves and his partner is in alcohol rehab. But with the help of an arm-breaking buddy and a hot young reporter, Jack sets out to right the wrongs done to his Christian prophet-client. The pursuit of justice leads to political conspiracy, real estate fraud, kidnapping and murde | |  | | GODLESS -- Living a Valuable Life Beyond Beliefs
"Godless synthesizes the wisdom of ancient animism Rasley has learned from the Rai people of Nepal, Quaker values, and the classic American philosophy of Pragmatism to describe a values-based way of living and decision-making.
The contemporary history of religious and political ideologies is bloody. From the Nazi Holocaust to beheadings by Islamic Jihadist terrorists, fanatics have divided the world into believers and heretics. Their propaganda has persuaded followers to torture and slaughter unbelievers. The cure for the pathology of fanatical beliefs is to discard religious doctrines and political ideologies.Let shared values be the guides of personal and policy decisions. i>Godless illuminates/b>/i> a way forward into a more harmonious and peaceful future. It offers a remedy for dysfunctional urban commu | |  | | Islands in My Dreams
Personal essays about island adventures
An island is a place to be alone or to experience intimate community. Islands can be an escape from the bonds of normal life and an embrace with a local culture far different from your own. Escape to an island may be a singular jewel of experience. br />
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I wanted to experience islands more deeply than that of tourist. I explored the islands described in this anthology as a traveler with an attitude of curiosity and adventure. br />
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The personal essays and stories in this book reflect some of what I have gained and what I have dreamed of islands as a spiritual seeker and | |  | | Light in the Mountains -- A Hoosier Quaker Finds Communal Enlightenment
Affluent kids at a wealthy suburban high school, after viewing a slideshow about Basa village, asked me, "Why do the Basa kids seem so much happier than we are. We have so much and they have so little. Yet, they are happy and we are stressed and anxious."
In Light in the Mountains I compare and contrast the culture of those American adolescents with the children of Basa. In doing so I reveal what I have learned about the communal bonds of Basa village and why it is such a happy place.
"Light in the Mountains" won the 2013 award for best travel book cover from Authors dB.
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div class="productDescriptionWrapper">What is real community? In i>Light in the Mountain/b>s/b>/i> Jeff Rasley relates what he discovered in the unique and ancient communal practices of the Rai people in remote Basa Village in the Nepal Himalayas. Rasley was welcomed into the community, not as stranger or even guest, but as "Dhai"-- brother. The villagers taught the explorer-adventurer the true meaning of communal hospitality. Rasley has returned each year to Basa and has helped to build an elementary scho | |  | | Monsters of the Midway: The Worst Team in College Football?
A small town Hoosier boy enrolls in the University of Chicago in 1968. Amidst student demonstrations against the Viet Nam War and the military-industrial complex the University of Chicago resurrects its football program, which has been dead for 30 years. Demonstrators occupy the Administration Building and the football field. So, Jack Blair decides to join the team. His radical-feminist girl friend is not pleased.
span>Was this ragtag band of precocious intellectuals the worst, or the most courageous, team in college football? From 1892 until the 1930s the legendary Monsters of the Midway dominated college football.span> /span>However, in 1939 the University of Chicago dropped out of the Big Ten and killed its varsity football program./span>span>br />
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But now, it's 1969 and football is back.span> /span>The resurrection of Chicago football hasn't brought the Monsters back to life.span> /span>The team plays more like the lab mice of the Midway.span> /s | |  | | Pilgrimage: Sturgis to Wounded Knee and Back Home Again, a Memoir
Memoir of discovery of family history involving the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee. It starts with a road trip to Sturgis Bike Week and ends in the Nepal Himalayas.
strong>An antiwar book that starts with Motorcycles and Native Americans/strong>: The Lakota Sioux once ruled the Black Hills of the Dakota Territories on horse back. Now, in August the Black Hills are filled with the roaring iron horses of bikers riding to the Bacchanalia of Sturgis Bike Week. Jeff Rasley set out for Sturgis to whoop it up with his biker friends. An unplanned detour through his family history led him to the site of one of the worst massacres in U.S. military history, Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation. br />
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One of the author's ancestors fought in the S |
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