It takes couraghe to turn a new leaf, a passion for self-discovery, and a sense of fun. The New Leaf journals, filled with wisdom and surprise, describe a life lived onits own terms. The author echoes our own passions, fears, and hopes in ways that reveal us to ourselves with humor and insight. Its free spirit makes us laugh and coaxes us to be ourselves. Jim Gold brings a love of people, and of music, dance, languages, and cultures to all his work.

As president of Jim Gold International Folk Tours, he organizes tours to countries in the Balkans, Europe, Middle East, and South America. He has taught folk dancing for decades and published over a dozen books, including short fiction, novels, and a volume of his folk dance choreographies. He is also a classical and folk guitarist who founded the Classical Guitar Department at Montclair State University, has appeared on radio and television, and has released three recordings.

Jim has kept journals for over thirty years. They cover allhis pursuits, his struggles to remain gleefully free in a world of restraints, and his hunger to discover the vastness of the world around him and of the inner life. In making the New Leaf journals available to a wider audience, Full Court Press hopes to reveal Gold's keen eye for the truth and the preposterous to readers.