But just when it seems her search is over, a stranger hands her a parcel containing an antique comb—and an address.That scrap of paper leads Anna to the Seoul apartment of the poor yet elegant Hong Jae-hee. Jae-hee recounts an epic tale that begins with the Japanese occupation of Korea and China during World War II, when more than two hundred thousand Korean women were forced to serve the soldiers as “comfort women.” Jae-hee knows the story well—she was one of them.As Jae-hee’s narrative unfolds, Anna discovers that the precious tortoiseshell comb, with its two-headed ivory dragon, has survived against all odds through generations of her family’s women. And as its origins become clearer, Anna realizes that along with the comb, she inherits a legacy—of resilience and courage, love and redemption—beyond her wildest imagination. Revised edition: This edition of Daughters of the Dragon includes editorial revisions.

    Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale. The novel traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her strategic duels with her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy. Panchaali is a fiery female redefining for us a world of warriors, gods, and the ever-manipulating hands of fate.

    Tears of the Desert is the first memoir ever written by a woman caught up in the war in Darfur. It is a survivor's tale of a conflicted country, a resilient people, and the uncompromising spirit of a young woman who refused to be silenced.Born into the Zaghawa tribe in the Sudanese desert, Halima was doted on by her father, a cattle herder, and kept in line by her formidable grandmother. A politically astute man, Halima's father saw to it that his daughter received a good education away from their rural surroundings. Halima excelled in her studies and exams, surpassing even the privileged Arab girls who looked down their noses at the black Africans. With her love of learning and her father's support, Halima went on to study medicine, and at twenty-four became her village's first formal doctor.Yet not even the symbol of good luck that dotted her eye could protect her from the encroaching conflict that would consume her land. Janjaweed Arab militias started savagely assaulting the Zaghawa, often with the backing of the Sudanese military. Then, in early 2004, the Janjaweed attacked Bashir's village and surrounding areas, raping forty-two schoolgirls and their teachers. Bashir, who treated the traumatized victims, some as young as eight years old, could no longer remain quiet. But breaking her silence ignited a horrifying turn of events.In this harrowing and heartbreaking account, Halima Bashir sheds light on the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives being eradicated by what is fast becoming one of the most terrifying genocides of the twenty-first century. Raw and riveting, Tears of the Desert is more than just a memoir--it is Halima Bashir's global call to action.

     At last, the master Says, "That's hard to explain." And That is all she says.This unsatisfying answer sets Wabi Sabi on a journey to uncover the meaning of her name, and on the way discovers what wabi sabi is: a Japanese philosophy of seeing beauty in simplicity, the ordinary, and the imperfect. Using spare text and haiku, Mark Reibstein weaves an extraordinary story about finding real beauty in unexpected places. Caldecott Medal-winning artist Ed Young complements the lyrical text with breathtaking collages. Together, they illustrate the unique world view that is wabi sabi. A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book for 2008!

    Too much love, too much attention, and had too many big dreams.   It was how she ended up abandoning her two daughters, Connie and Reesy to chase after a man and the promise of a dream life.   But Charlotte never anticipated how her world would be irrevocably changed.  Now, twenty-seven years later, her whole world shifts yet again with a letter from one of her daughters.  And the past is about to bust wide open.   Reesy has always been obsessed with something.  Obsessed with finding her birth mother. Obsessed with her sister’s life. Obsessed with her own adopted daughter never finding out that Reesy is really her aunt.  With a neglected husband, who is unknowingly drifting further and further away, a sister who is trying to escape her well-meaning clutches, and a daughter becoming more and more curious about her true parentage, finding the mother she always dreamed about seems to be an answered prayer to Reesy.  That is until Reesy is brought crashing back to earth to find that her perfect life is in tattered pieces.Connie has always expected too little. Too little from the man she’s been living with for years. Too little from her modest jewelry business.  And too little from her relationships, or lack thereof, with her daughter, mother and sister. And too little from herself.  Until she discovers she is pregnant again and decides that this time she is keeping her baby, sending her life and her relationship into a tailspin.  And rediscovering the mother who left them behind is the last thing she wants.  Thrown back together again, in a maelstrom of shocking truths, Charlotte, Reesy and Connie will discover on their journey to forgiveness and redemption that you just might have to sin first in order to be saved.

    But even in the face of such soul- wrenching griefs, there is hope. "The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain," writes Dr. Carlfred Broderick, former president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists. "It is resource in event of pain." His unforgettable, real- life examples illustrate the matchless power of the gospel to help us rise above even abuse or injustice. A perfect gift for anyone who is going through hard times.

    But over many years, as more and more land was cleared, Kenya was transformed. When Wangari returned home from college in America, she found the village gardens dry, the people malnourished, and the trees gone. How could she alone bring back the trees and restore the gardens and the people?Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, says: Wangari Maathai's epic story has never been told better--everyone who reads this book will want to plant a tree!With glowing watercolor illustrations and lyrical prose, Claire Nivola tells the remarkable story of one woman's effort to change the fate of her land by teaching many to care for it. An author's note provides further information about Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. In keeping with the theme of the story, the book is printed on recycled paper.

    She hates the hardships of life in Kfar Etzion - an isolated kibbutz south of Jerusalem - clearing rocky hillsides, bathing in rationed cups of trucked-in water, and being confined behind barbed wire. Her own dreams have nothing to do with national self-realization; she longs for steaming bubble baths and down comforters, but most of all for a place on earth where she can feel safe. She is in love with Amos, but refuses to acknowledge these feelings. She knows he will never leave his homeland and Tonia plans to emigrate to America. But can she really begin a new life there? Tonia's story in The Lonely Tree is interwoven with the true story of Kfar Etzion, a kibbutz that was overrun by the Arab Legion during pre-War of Independence hostilities.

    Rauan Klassnik's HOLY LAND is not a book for the faint of heart. His poems--dreamlike fables that conflate the domestic and quotidian with the dangerous and the perverse--are bathed in tears and blood: a trip to the bank becomes a journey to Auschwitz; bullets and gore find equivalence in rivers, birds and lush grass. In Klassnik's startling vision, 'the world knows what you want, and it knows what you need. It brings you bodies. And it brings you a gun.--Gary Young

    In charming and memorable vignettes, Carol Bodensteiner captures rural life in middle America, in the middle of the 20th Century. Bodensteiner grew up on a family-owned dairy farm in the 1950s, a time when a family could make a good living on 180 acres. In these pages you can step back and relish a time simple but not easy, a time innocent yet challenging. If you grew up in rural America, these stories will trigger your memories and your senses, releasing a wealth of stories of your own. If the rural Midwest is foreign territory to you, Carol's stories will invite you into a fascinating and disappearing world.

    Martinsville, Louisiana, a seventeen-year-old black boy was scheduled for execution by electric chair. Willie Francis had been charged with murder; his trial had been brief; his death sentence never in doubt. When the executioners flipped the switch, Willie screamed and writhed as electricity coursed through his body. But Willie Francis did not die.Having miraculously survived, Willie was informed that the state would attempt to execute him a second time within a week. The ensuing legal battle went all the way to the Supreme Court, asking: Could the state electrocute someone twice? A gripping narrative about a brutal crime and its shocking aftermath, The Execution of Willie Francis offers a heroic—and ultimately tragic—tale of one man's quest for moral justice in a nation still blinded by race.

    

    on pilgrimage, shrines, beautiful writing.

    1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana, a country that is indeed fortunate.Still engaged to the estimable Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, Mma Ramotswe understands that she should not put too much pressure on him, as he has other concerns, especially a hair-raising request from the ever persuasive Mma Potokwane, matron of the orphan farm. Besides Mma Ramotswe herself has weighty matters on her mind. She has been approached by a wealthy lady to check up on several suitors. Are these men interested in the lady or just her money? This may be a difficult case, but it's just the kind of problem Mma Ramotswe likes and she is, as we know, a very intuitive lady.In the Company of Cheerful LadiesPrecious is busier than usual at the detective agency when she discovers an intruder in her house on Zebra Drive—and perhaps even more baffling--a pumpkin on her porch. Her associate, Mma Makutsi, also has a full plate. She's taken up dance lessons, only to be partnered with a man with two left feet. And at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, where Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is already overburdened with work, one of his apprentices has run off with a wealthy older woman. But what finally rattles Mma Ramotswe’s normally unshakable composure is a visitor who forces her to confront a difficult secret from her past.

    . . . You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. --Mother Teresa Lifelong educator Mary Poplin, after experiencing a newfound awakening to faith, sent a letter to Calcutta asking if she could visit Mother Teresa and volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity. She received a response saying, You are welcome to share in our works of love for the poorest of the poor. So in the spring of 1996, Poplin spent two months in Calcutta as a volunteer. There she observed Mother Teresa's life of work and service to the poor, participating in the community's commitments to simplicity and mercy. Mother Teresa's unabashedly religious work stands in countercultural contrast to the limitations of our secular age. Poplin's journey gives us an inside glimpse into one of the most influential lives of the twentieth century and the lessons Mother Teresa continues to offer. Upon Poplin's return, she soon discovered that God was calling her to serve the university world with the same kind of holistic service with which Mother Teresa served Calcutta. Not everyone can go to Calcutta. But all of us can find our own meaningful work and service. Come and answer the call to find your Calcutta!

    Outraged that her country was illegally imprisoning people at Guantanamo, she volunteered to translate for the prisoners. She spoke their language, understood their customs, and brought them Starbucks chai, the closest available drink to the kind of tea they would drink at home. And they quickly befriended her, offering fatherly advice as well as a uniquely personal insight into their plight, and that of their families thousands of miles away. For Mahvish Khan the experience was a validation of her Afghan heritage—as well as her American freedoms, which allowed her to intervene at Guantanamo purely out of her sense that it was the right thing to do. Mahvish Khan's story is a challenging, brave, and essential test of who she is —and who we are.

    The Freedom Riders, as they came to be known, were determined to open up the South to civil rights: it was illegal for bus and train stations to discriminate, but most did and were not interested in change. Over 300 people were arrested and convicted of the charge "breach of the peace."The name, mug shot, and other personal details of each Freedom Rider arrested were duly recorded and saved by agents of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a Stasi-like investigative agency whose purpose was to "perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi." How the Commission thought these details would actually protect the state is not clear, but what is clear, forty-six years later, is that by carefully recording names and preserving the mug shots, the Commission inadvertently created a testament to these heroes of the civil rights movement.Collected here in a richly illustrated, large-format book featuring over seventy contemporary photographs, alongside the original mug shots, and exclusive interviews with former Freedom Riders, is that testament: a moving archive of a chapter in U.S. history that hasn't yet closed.

    Over the past three decades, the film and its eccentric stars have become cult icons, inspiring fashion tributes by the likes of Phillip Lim and John Galliano, a hit Broadway musical adaptation that swept up three Tony Awards in 2007, and an upcoming HBO movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as the famed odd couple. Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures , the latest installment in a series that includes photo-biographies of John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, and others, presents the most in-depth look at the life of Little Edie since the Maysles’ film vaulted her into the public consciousness. Conceived by members of the Beale family, the book traces a line from Edie’s childhood through her heady days as a young socialite and her later years at Grey Gardens, the decrepit East Hampton estate where she and her mother lived in near-total isolation for decades. Featuring over 150 newly uncovered photographs and letters, Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens offers unprecedented access to the personal history of this twentieth-century woman of mystery.

    Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh’s garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as restorative, nourishing, necessary havens.With Gardens, Robert Pogue Harrison graces readers with a thoughtful, wide-ranging examination of the many ways gardens evoke the human condition. Moving from from the gardens of ancient philosophers to the gardens of homeless people in contemporary New York, he shows how, again and again, the garden has served as a check against the destruction and losses of history. The ancients, explains Harrison, viewed gardens as both a model and a location for the laborious self-cultivation and self-improvement that are essential to serenity and enlightenment, an association that has continued throughout the ages. The Bible and Qur’an; Plato’s Academy and Epicurus’s Garden School; Zen rock and Islamic carpet gardens; Boccaccio, Rihaku, Capek, Cao Xueqin, Italo Calvino, Ariosto, Michel Tournier, and Hannah Arendt—all come into play as this work explores the ways in which the concept and reality of the garden has informed human thinking about mortality, order, and power.Alive with the echoes and arguments of Western thought, Gardens is a fitting continuation of the intellectual journeys of Harrison’s earlier classics, Forests and The Dominion of the Dead. Voltaire famously urged us to cultivate our gardens; with this compelling volume, Robert Pogue Harrison reminds us of the nature of that responsibility—and its enduring importance to humanity.

    Señor Calvera is worried. He can’t figure out what to give Grandma Beetle for her birthday. Misunderstanding the advice of Zelmiro the Ghost, Señor Calvera decides not to get her one gift, but instead one gift for every letter of the alphabet, just in case. Una Acordéon: An accordion for her to dance to. Bigotes: A mustache because she has none. Cosquillas: Tickles to make her laugh… only to find out at the end of the alphabet that the best gift of all is seeing her friends. Morales’s art glows in this heart-warming original tale with folklore themes, a companion book to her Pura Belpré-winning JUST A MINUTE.Just In Case is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year, the winner of the 2009 Pura Belpré Medal for Illustration and a Pura Belpré Honor Book for Narrative.Latino Interest. In English with Spanish vocabulary.

    This innovative new musical won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Book and is soon to be a Spike Lee film. Singer-songwriter and performance artist Stew brings to the stage the story of a young black musician traveling from L.A. to Amsterdam to Berlin and back, all in search of "the real." Heartfelt and hilarious, the soulful songs "pass" from gospel, punk, blues, jazz, and rock. The 15 songs are arranged in standard piano/vocal format with the melody in the piano part. Includes: Amsterdam * The Black One * Love like That * Mom Song * Must Have Been High * Work the Wound * Youth's Unfinished Song * and more.

    These are useful skills in the lawless backcountry of Brazil, where ruthless land barons called "colonels" feud with bands of outlaw cangaceiros, trapping innocent residents in the cross fire.Emília, whose knowledge of the world comes from fashion magazines and romance novels, dreams of falling in love with a gentleman and escaping to a big city.Luzia also longs to escape their little town, where residents view her with suspicion and pity. Scarred by a childhood accident that left her with a deformed arm, the quick-tempered Luzia finds her escape in sewing and in secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life.But when Luzia is abducted by a group of cangaceiros led by the infamous Hawk, the sisters' quiet lives diverge in ways they never imagined. Emília stumbles into marriage with Degas Coelho, the son of a doctor whose wealth is rivaled only by his political power.She moves to the sprawling seaside city of Recife, where the glamour of her new life is soon overshadowed by heartache and loneliness. Luzia, forced to trek through scrubland and endure a nomadic existence, proves her determination to survive and begins to see the cangaceiros as comrades, not criminals.In Recife, Emília must hide any connection to her increasingly notorious sister. As she learns to navigate the treacherous waters of Brazilian high society, Emília sees the country split apart after a bitter presidential election. Political feuds extend to the countryside, where Luzia and the Hawk are forced to make unexpected alliances and endure betrayals that threaten to break the cangaceiros apart. But Luzia will overcome time and distance to entrust her sister with a great secret—one Emília vows to keep. And when Luzia's life is threatened, Emília will risk everything to save her.An enthralling novel of love and courage, loyalty and adventure, that brings to life a faraway time and place, The Seamstress is impeccably drawn, rich in depth and vision, and heralds the arrival of a supremely talented new writer.

    Culled from over 200 hours of footage collected for the film, the book provides a candid and alarming retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials, Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts. Together, these voices reveal the principal errors of U.S. policy that largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today--and what we could and should do about them now.No End In Sight marks the first time Americans will be allowed inside the White House, Pentagon, and Baghdad's Green Zone to understand for themselves the disintegration of Iraq-- and how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war.

    When bombs begin to fall on his city, Ali turns to his pen, writing sweeping and gliding words to the silent music that drowns out the war all around him. Gorgeously illustrated with collage, pencil and charcoal drawings and, of course, exquisite calligraphy, this timely and yet universal story celebrates art and history but also offers young children a way to understand all they see and hear on the news. Silent Music is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

    Asian Studies. This sometimes disturbing, always illuminating collection of stories centers around China's Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, which, as we learn, continues even today, with both sides still hold out, and with "apologies forthcoming." Xujun Eberlein lived in China during that tumultuous period and now makes her home in America. "Xujun Eberlein is a fresh voice in American fiction, a Chinese writer with a remarkably shrewd, interesting tongue....There is a richness in her vision that sets it apart" -- Jay Parini. "The stories have a subtly addictive momentum" -- Sven Birkerts.

    Dating back to the time before the first missionary presence arrived in the islands, the tradition of Huna is more than just a philosophy of living—it is intertwined and deeply connected with every aspect of Hawaiian life.     Blending ancient Hawaiian wisdom with modern practicality, Serge Kahili King imparts the philosophy behind the beliefs, history, and foundation of Huna. More important, King shows readers how to use Huna philosophy to attain both material and spiritual goals. To those who practice Huna, there is a deep understanding about the true nature of life—and the real meaning of personal power, intention, and belief. Through exploring the seven core principles around which the practice revolves, King passes onto readers a timeless and powerful wisdom.

    A quarterly mook (magazine/book hybrid) that's a combination fashion magazine, culture guide, and art book, the Bible caters to fans of two separate but related fashions: Gothic and--to a greater extent--Lolita. Volume 1 of the U.S. edition offers content from four volumes of this definitive Japanese mook for the first time in English, along with exciting original content covering the Gothic and Lolita culture in North America.

    

    The Case for Civility is a proposal for restoring civility in America as a way to foster civility around the world. Influential Christian writer and speaker Os Guinness makes a passionate plea to put an end to the polarization of American politics and culture that—rather than creating a public space for real debate—threatens to reverse the very principles our founders set into motion and that have long preserved liberty, diversity, and unity in this country.Guinness takes on the contemporary threat of the excesses of the Religious Right and the secular Left, arguing that we must find a middle ground between privileging one religion over another and attempting to make all public expression of faith illegal. If we do not do this, Guinness contends, Western civilization as we know it will die. Always provocative and deeply insightful, Guinness puts forth a vision of a new, practical "civil and cosmopolitan public square" that speaks not only to America's immediate concerns but to the long-term interests of the republic and the world.

    In the early 1960s, when Bob Zellner's professors and classmates at a small church school in Alabama thought he was crazy for even wanting to do research on civil rights, it was nothing short of remarkable. Now, in his long-awaited memoir, Zellner tells how one white Alabamian joined ranks with the black students who were sitting-in, marching, fighting, and sometimes dying to challenge the Southern "way of life" he had been raised on but rejected. Decades later, he is still protesting on behalf of social change and equal rights. Fortunately, he took the time, with co-author Constance Curry, to write down his memories and reflections. He was in all the campaigns and was close to all the major figures. He was beaten, arrested, and reviled by some but admired and revered by others. The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, winner of the 2009 Lillian Smith Book Award, is Bob Zellner's larger-than-life story, and it was worth waiting for.

    The Second Edition newly includes A Prisoner in the Caucasus, Father Sergius, and After the Ball, in addition to Michael Katz 's new translation of Alyosha Gorshok. Together these stories represent the best of the author 's short fiction before War and Peace and after Anna Karenina. Backgrounds and Sources includes two Tolstoy memoirs, A History of Yesterday (1851) and The Memoirs of a Madman (1884), as well as entries expanded in the Second Edition from Tolstoy 's Diary for 1855 and selected letters (1858 95) that shed light on the author 's creative process.Criticism collects twenty-three essays by Russian and western scholars, six of which are new to this Second Edition. Interpretations focus both on Tolstoy 's language and art and on specific themes and motifs in individual stories. Contributors include John M. Kopper, Gary Saul Morson, N. G. Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, Harsha Ram, John Bayley, Vladimir Nabokov, Ruth Rischin, Margaret Ziolkowski, and Donald Barthelme.A Chronology of Tolstoy 's life and work and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.

    It is a disciplined art form in which the arrangement is a living thing where nature and humanity are brought together.Ikebana: The Art of Arranging Flowers, a classic Ikebana text, has now been completely updated for modern readers. Written by Shozo Sato, a well-respected and renowned Ikebana expert, this book presents a fascinating overview of the history of Ikebana to present day, and introduces classic Ikebana styles such as Rikka, Seika and Moribana to Freestyle. The reader is familiarized with the tools of Ikebana and the basic Ikebana flower-arranging techniques. Simple and detailed instructions guide Ikebana enthusiasts through the process of making dozens of stunning arrangements.

    Hafen of the First.Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints testifies, "The Savior has strength to compensate not only for our sins but also for our inadequacies, not only for our mistakes but also for our sins committed in ignorance, our errors of judgment, and are unavoidable imperfections."This expanded edition integrates three chapters from The Belonging Heart, another of Elder Hafen's landmark works, to strengthen his message that the Atonement is a doctrine of human development, not just a doctrine that erases black marks. He bears witness that "because of the Atonement, we can learn from our experience without being condemned by it."The Broken Heart invites us to share more fully in what the Atonement of Jesus Christ can do for both our personal growth and our peace of mind when we invite that power into our lives.

    With this first series you will be able to recognize the 24 hieroglyphs comprising the ancient Egyptian alphabet, also known as the uniliteral hieroglyphs or sound signs.Learn Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs – Series 1 – Alphabet includes 71 vocabulary words and 56 determinatives. You will learn how to pronounce the hieroglyphs and you will learn all about transliteration and how scholars write them. There are quizzes with a total of 214 questions.There are 5 individual tutorial ebooks in the Learn Hieroglyphs Series each purchased separately, and they are:1. Series 1 - Alphabet: also called uniliterals which represent a single consonant sound hence the prefix uni in uniliteral2. Series 2 – Biliterals: which are the result of combining 2 alphabet sound signs into one new hieroglyph hence the prefix bi in biliteral3. Series 3 – Triliterals: which are the result of combining 3 alphabet sound signs into one new hieroglyph hence the prefix tri in triliteral4. Series 4 – Determinatives: added to words to determine and/or reinforce the exact meaning of a word5. Series 5 – Hieroglyph Sign List: coming soonOnce you begin studying the hieroglyphs in this series start looking at Ancient Egyptian wall paintings, artifacts, literature, etc and see how many hieroglyphs you recognize. Remember though that they could be written right to left (the most common way), left to right or vertically.

    It is a time when world-renowned artist Rembrandt van Rijn is at the height of fame among his patrons--and when his young son Titus longs to imitate his father and become a great painter. At first, Rembrandt rebuffs Titus's attempts at drawing, telling the boy he is too young to learn art. But gradually, the master painter is won over by his son's enthusiasm and persistence, and he begins to teach a very happy Titus the basic techniques of drawing from life. Here is a warmhearted story for children, with illustrations that capture the atmosphere of seventeenth-century Holland and suggest some of the genius that radiates from Rembrandt's own magnificent paintings.

    Outside, dark clouds roll in and the rain starts to fall. As animals scatter to find cover, a young boy and his dadaji (grandfather) head out into the rainy weather.The two sail paper boats. They watch the peacocks dance in the rain, just as the colorful birds did when Dadaji was a boy. They pick mangoes and Dadaji lifts up his grandson so he can swing on the roots of the banyan tree, just as Dadaji did when he was young. Finally, when the two return home, hot tea and a loving family are waiting.Author Kashmira Sheth s affectionate, sensitive story provides a look into Indian life and the shared moments and memories that bind generations together. Illustrator Yoshiko Jaeggi s colorful and fanciful watercolor illustrations recreate the lush Indian landscape during monsoon season, and capture the bond of love that unites a grandfather and his grandson.

    Combative and lyrical, moving and relentlessly inquiring, "Ammi" offers a way of seeing our history and our future that is impossible to ignore.

    But, as Bob Greene writes, “just when in our lives we give up on capturing the freedom and bright mornings of our world when it was new, sometimes something happens to keep the sun high in the sky a while longer. Sometimes we find something we weren’t even aware we were looking for."For fifteen years beginning in the 1990s, Greene stepped into a universe that, out in the country every summer night, is hiding in plain sight: the touring world of the great early rock bands who gave America the car-radio and jukebox music it still loves best. Singing backup with the legendary Jan and Dean as they endlessly crisscross the nation, Greene takes us to football stadiums and minor-league ballparks, to no-name ice cream stands and midnight diners, to back roads and carnival midways as he tells a riveting story of great fame and lingering sorrow, of unexpected friendship and lasting dreams, of the things that keep us going in the face of all the things that threaten to stop us.Striking chords of recognition and yearning, When We Get to Surf City glistens with cameos by the men and women with whom Greene traveled the United States on his deliriously unlikely journey, including Chuck Berry, Martha and the Vandellas, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beach Boys, the Monkees, the Kingsmen, James Brown, Lesley Gore, the Drifters, Little Eva, and the Coasters.All of them—not just the people on the stage, but the people in the audiences, too—are seeking their private versions of the mythical destination Jan and Dean came up with all those years ago: Surf City as the perfect, cloudless place we all believe is out there, if only we can find it.Hilarious and heartbreaking, moving and brilliant, this is the trip of a lifetime, a travelogue of the heart, accompanied by a thundering guitar chorus of Fender Stratocasters. It is a story destined to touch readers not just today, but for generations to come, as long as the music itself echoes.

     Sample the flavor of the country region by region, with new full-color detailed maps of towns and regions and comprehensive listings of hotels and restaurants. Find out all you need for sights, beaches, markets and festivals listed town by town, from a home stay in the floating village of Lake Titicaca to a morning flight over the magical Nazca Lines. And with the absorbing in-depth section on the Inca heartland and a step-by-step route of the Inca trail, this is a guide not to be missed.

    Are you tired of worrying about things you can't control? Do you feel distracted or overwhelmed by the daily demands of living? Do you wonder if it's even possible to make space in your busy life to become the person you really want to be? In her down-to-earth style, popular author and speaker Merrilee Boyack presents eight pairs of contrasting characterisitics, inviting women to consider their own tendencies: Faithful or fearful? Focused or distracted? Peaceful or worried? She then discusses how we can move from where we are to where we want to be without feeling guilty or discouraged.

    But an ill-fated decision to fight in Vietnam changes his life forever: cut off from his Native American community, he fathers a child with another woman. When he returns home a hero, he finds his tribe in conflict over the decision to hunt a whale, both a symbol of spirituality and rebirth and a means of survival. In the end, he reconciles his two existences, only to see tragedy befall the son he left behind.Linda Hogan, called our most provocative Native American writer, with "her unparalleled gifts for truth and magic" (Barbara Kingsolver), has written a compassionate novel about the beauty of the natural world and the painful moral choices humans make in it. With a keen sense of the environment, spirituality, and the trauma of war, People of the Whale is a powerful novel for our times.

    Includes Japan, China, Thailand, Russia, Iran, Israel, India, Australia, South Africa, Italy, Ireland,Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States.

    Empowered by their close bond, they espoused vehemently anti-Nazi views in a Europe swept up in fascism and were openly, even defiantly, gay in an age of secrecy and repression. Although their father’s fame has unfairly overshadowed their legacy, Erika and Klaus were serious authors, performance artists before the medium existed, and political visionaries whose searing essays and lectures are still relevant today. And, as Andrea Weiss reveals in this dual biography, their story offers a fascinating view of the literary and intellectual life, political turmoil, and shifting sexual mores of their times.            In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain begins with an account of the make-believe world the Manns created together as children—an early sign of their talents as well as the intensity of their relationship. Weiss documents the lifelong artistic collaboration that followed, showing how, as the Nazis took power, Erika and Klaus infused their work with a shared sense of political commitment. Their views earned them exile, and after escaping Germany they eventually moved to the United States, where both served as members of the U.S. armed forces. Abroad, they enjoyed a wide circle of famous friends, including Andre Gide, Christopher Isherwood, Jean Cocteau, and W. H. Auden, whom Erika married in 1935. But the demands of life in exile, Klaus’s heroin addiction, and Erika’s new allegiance to their father strained their mutual devotion, and in 1949 Klaus committed suicide.             Beautiful never-before-seen photographs illustrate Weiss’s riveting tale of two brave nonconformists whose dramatic lives open up new perspectives on the history of the twentieth century.

    His groundbreaking book on climate change, The End of Nature, is considered "as important as Rachel Carson's classic Silent Spring"* and Deep Economy, his "deeply thoughtful and mind-expanding"** exploration of globalization, helped awaken and fuel a movement to restore local economies.Now, for the first time, the best of McKibben's essays—fiery, magical, and infused with his uniquely soulful investigations of modern life—are collected in a single volume. Whether meditating on today's golden age in radio, the natural place of biting black flies in our lives, or the patriotism of a grandmother fighting to get corporate money out of politics, McKibben inspires us to become better caretakers of the Earth—and of one another.*The Plain Dealer (Cleveland )**Michael Pollan

    It is based on an episode in the Mahabharata, where Yayati, one of the ancestors of the Pandavas, is given the curse of premature old age by his father-in-law, Shukracharya, who is incensed by Yayati's infidelity.

    From street workers to female students in newly formed academies, children who work in family businesses, and pickpockets who steal from visiting photographers, these are the faces of young Afghanis who universally wish for peace in their neighborhoods, in their country, in their lifetimes.Award-winning photojournalist Tony O’Brien and filmmaker Mike Sullivan went to Afghanistan to interview and photograph children of a wide range of ages, from varied ethnic backgrounds, and with very different daily lives. As each one tells his or her story the reader is placed right in the middle of everyday life as it is lived by children in the midst of one of the world’s most enduringly conflict-ridden countries.

    Bloc Life collects first hand testimony of the people who lived in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania during the Cold War era, and reveals a rich tapestry of experience that goes beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political corruption. In fact, many of the people remember their lives under communism as 'perfectly ordinary' and even hanker for the 'security' that it offered.From political leaders, athletes and pop stars, to cooks, miners and cosmonauts, the stories collected in Bloc Life evoke the moods, preoccupations and experiences of a world that vanished almost overnight.

    If he bargains well, he can purchase a red rabbit lantern for himself. But he must purchase everything on his mother's list first! This heart-warming story will resonate with both children and adults, as they learn about the wonderful Chinese Moon Festival and the rewards that come from putting others first. Set in China, this story offers an opportunity to learn about Chinese customs through the accessible story of a young boy who has his heart set on buying a lantern for the festival. This book includes informative notes about life in rural China and the Moon Festival, celebrated in October. Personal and Social Development - Lin Yi faces a moral dilemma, and learns that doing the right thing for its own sake is the best course of action, and that luck may shine on those who act morally.

    In what seems an open-and-shut case, he is charged with the murders of two police officers and his own wife. On hand for his arrest and charged with his safekeeping is rooki

    Gorgeous, sensuous prose and edgy, taboo-breaking subject matter combine to create a collection quite unlike anything else being published today.A prostitute takes shelter with a group of young anarchists. A sister goes missing, mailing a trail of encoded postcards from destinations across the globe. The daughters of a Montreal bagel-shop owner navigate the tricky terrain of being young, Sikh, and female, one growing larger while the other fades. A woman watches with lust and longing as the object of her affections, her pregnant roommate, is pursued by an unsavory suitor. And a precocious child spies on her adoptive mother, trying to grasp the secret of her mother’s hidden obsession and of her own unexplained origins.The seven stories and two novellas in Mother Superior are a heady blend of misfits and mothers, of sisters and complex, mysterious others. Nawaz traces the scars left by family secrets and sings the complex, captivating language of lust and of love.

    A product of her guarded upbringing, she is naive in the ways of love until dashing Manuel Enriques declares his love for her. By accident, Gabriella uncovers the plot of British spy. Manuel embarks on a dangerous mission save the town from being overthrown by the British. Gabriella herself is caught in trap.

    This Bardic teaching tale is set in a fictional third-century Ireland when Christianity is sweeping across the Celtic Isles. During this time of crisis, love blooms between Ethne, a Druid healer, and her patient, a Fennid warrior. Their passionate affair suffers a tragic blow when Ethne is called upon to become the high queen.Told from the Druid perspective, Hopman recreates the daily life, magical practices, politics, and spiritual lives of the ancient Celts during this historic turning point. Druid holy days, rites, rituals, herbal lore, and more are brought to life in this Celtic fantasy--illuminating Druidic teachings and cultural wisdom.

    One round tortilla, two scoops of rice, and a load of other tasty ingredients add up to one delicious burrito!"One round tortilla/Una tortilla redondaTwo scoops of rice/Dos cucharadas de arrozThree spoonfuls of beans/Tres cucharadas de frijoles"Bold graphic numerals and shaped pages to count in English and Spanish make this book a great way to reinforce multiple basic concepts! David Diaz's signature art is an indispensable ingredient, adding flavor to a burrito bursting with fun.

    These are poems about: what it means to be from the north; a town divided along color lines; and a family dealing with its history of secrets. At its core, this collection is about the life of a Cree girl and the places she finds comfort and escape.

    In August 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit boldly—and illegally—fixed a rope between the tops of the still-young Twin Towers, a quarter mile off the ground. At daybreak, thousands of spectators gathered to watch in awe and adulation as he traversed the rope a full eight times in the course of an hour. In Man on Wire, Petit recounts the six years he spent preparing for this achievement. It is a fitting tribute to those lost-but-not-forgotten symbols of human aspiration—the Twin Towers. 120 black & white illustrations

    As Three Kings' Day approaches, Hildamar and Santiago mourn the loss of their sunny home and wonder about their future in their adopted city. But when a storyteller and librarian named Pura Belpré arrives in their classroom, the children begin to understand just what a library can mean to a community. In this fitting tribute to a remarkable woman, Lucía González and Lulu Delacre have captured the truly astounding effect that Belpré had on the city of New York.

    Her father was a drunken, gambler, and wife-beater who, one cold night, got arrested after a violent intrusion. Her entire circle of relatives consisted of nothing but formers-former drug-addicts, former gangsters and gang-bangers, former alcoholics, former everything. Yep, her life was nothing but a huge load of crap. And she hadn't even started high school yet. After surviving a scorching summer heat, Esperanza enters the unfamiliar world of high-school with a tight knot in her stomach. On the very first day, she is sucked into a blunder of catastrophic events beginning with accidentally running into the world's BIGGEST bully. Now, she has made herself the prime target for a main course. And, to top it all off, she has to see this girl everyday in P.E! P.E.-the one class Esperanza truly despises the most. Could life be any worse for her? Well, her family could take in a relative hopped up on drugs, a probable shooting can take place right in front of her, and Esperanza could also sit and listen to the crazed ranting of her loud psychotic mother. Oh, wait, all that does happen. To make things even easier, her best friend, Carla, won't stop trying to marry her off to her twin brother, Carlos. And she has these two puny siblings constantly vying for her attention. God, it's a wonder she doesn't strap herself in a straight jacket and pretend to be Elvis. Nonetheless, Esperanza attempts to get through it all. She is a smart and ambitious young kid struggling to survive her life while fighting to make her mark on the world. Her story is filled with pain, strength, and too much loud bickering. It carries a voice enriched with barrio slang and sarcastic humor. Esperanza illustrates what persistent Latino youth can achieve when they get back up after a fall and keep on walking straight into college. "Esperanza is an admirable and too real story of many Latino youths lacking role models, who find themselves lost and isolated in the paved jungles of the inner cities and overwhelmed by the dissonance of barrio life. Sandra C. Lopez has created a resilient and likeable character, Esperanza, who seems closer to a naked truth-seeker than to a barrio kid-desperately trying to get out of a crappy world, but not knowing exactly where she was going to. Highly Recommended." Andrea Alessandra, University of California, Berkeley "Sandra Lopez is a fresh and resonant voice from the Hispanic rainbow." Ray Michael Baca Author-"Brotherhood of the Light"

    Here readers discover how Great Mother Snake created and peopled the world with plants and creatures, what makes frogs croak, why kangaroos have pouches, and just what it is that makes platypuses so special. The illustrations are by the aboriginal artist and storyteller Francis Firebrace, whose distinctive, colorful work is known throughout Australia and beyond. He uses the four traditional colors of aboriginal art (black, white, red, and yellow), as well as his experiences as a member of the Yorta-Yorta, to make these stories live on the page. A beautiful, imaginative book to open new frontiers in children’s minds, Stories from the Billabong shows a master storyteller and distinguished artist each at the height of their powers.

    Do women still confront the attitude that a dedicated artist will avoid having children for the sake of her career? In The Divided Heart, Australia’s most respected artists, writers and actors speak frankly about the wrench between motherhood and their artistic life. Rachel Power navigates through the divided heart of the artists to reveal the shocking, funny and moving truth of the overwhelming demands of motherhood and the undiminished passion for their work.

    Project Pearl is the powerful account of the delivery, in June 1981, of 1 million Bibles into China by a tugboat and barge manned by twenty dedicated missionaries. The delivery was blanketed in prayer and took place right under the noses of the People's Liberation Army, naval patrol boats, and coastal radar of China's Guangdong Province. The bravery and vision of those involved in Project Pearl provoked Chinese printing presses to print Bibles as well, and gradually the availability of God's Word began to stoke the flames of the now evident Chinese revival.

    Born and raised in India Caryl saw first hand the effects that Hinduism had on the people of that nation. After leaving India as a young adult, she became involved in the counter-culture New Age movement, only to find that the elements of Hinduism and the New Age were very much the same. Later as a Christian, Caryl discovered that this same spirituality had entered the Christian church through various avenues. This fascinating and compelling apologetic biography shows the spirituality that lies behind the New Age movement, its dangers, and its deception. It also shows how much of the New Age philosophy has entered the Christian church through various avenues, such as yoga and meditation.

    But the theory of perspective that changed the course of Western art originated elsewhere-it was formulated in Baghdad by the eleventh-century mathematician Ibn al Haithan, known in the West as Alhazen. Using the metaphor of the mutual gaze, or exchanged glances, Hans Belting-preeminent historian and theorist of medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary art-narrates the historical encounter between science and art, between Arab Baghdad and Renaissance Florence, that has had a lasting effect on the culture of the West.In this lavishly illustrated study, Belting deals with the double history of perspective, as a visual theory based on geometrical abstraction (in the Middle East) and as pictorial theory (in Europe). How could geometrical abstraction be reconceived as a theory for making pictures? During the Middle Ages, Arab mathematics, free from religious discourse, gave rise to a theory of perspective that, later in the West, was transformed into art when European painters adopted the human gaze as their focal point. In the Islamic world, where theology and the visual arts remained closely intertwined, the science of perspective did not become the cornerstone of Islamic art. Florence and Baghdad addresses a provocative question that reaches beyond the realm of aesthetics and mathematics: What happens when Muslims and Christians look upon each other and find their way of viewing the world transformed as a result?

    In a quiet town an American teacher who has lost her Japanese lover to death begins to lose her own self. On a remote road amid fallow rice fields, four young friends carefully take their own lives—and in that moment they become almost as one. In a small village a disaffected American teenager stranded in a strange land discovers compassion after an encounter with an enigmatic red fox, and in Tokyo a girl named Love learns the deepest lessons about its true meaning from a coma patient lost in dreams of an affair gone wrong.

    Lacey, the most unlikely heroine, has been betrayed and abused by the men in her life. Andy has lost everyone he ever loved tragically. This 1920's mountaintop romance breaks every rule.

    Tips for family traditions, connecting generations, children, gift giving, how to grow myrrh and much more. Try the scrumptious quot;Cookie Canisterquot; recipes. Read about families who experienced Christmas firsts. This is a book to help you un-complicate Christmas, rediscover the real source of joy and usher in the celebration of faith, family and a Savior. This book is written by six well-known authors: Cathy Messecar, Trish Berg, Terra Hangen, Brenda Nixon, Karen Robbins and Leslie Wilson. Trish Berg is a national speaker and author of Rattled and The Great American Supper Swap. She has been a featured speaker for MOPS International and Hearts at Home and interviewed on ABC, Focus on the Family and Midday Connection. Trish lives in Ohio with her husband, Mike and their four children. www.TrishBerg.com. Terra Hangens articles appear in dozens of magazines on subjects including Bible gardening, penguins, flowers and herbs, bicycle soldiers and prayer. A contributing author to Rainy Day Book and the garden columnist for www.positivelyfeminine.org, she and her husband live in coastal California, where she enjoys gardening while her cats nap in the sun. http: terragarden.blogspot.com Cathy Messecar is a newspaper columnist, author of The Stained Glass Pickup and speaker. She lives on Leaning Tree Acres Farm with her husband, David, in Montgomery, Texas. www.CathyMessecar.com http: stainedglasspickup.blogspot.com Brenda Nixon, M.A.as the former parenting expert for Kansas City's Fox4 Noon News, she speaks to issues affecting today's families, helping parents and professionals understand child development and parenting issues. She is the author of The Birth to Five Book: Confident Childrearing Right from the Start RevellSpring '09, a speaker, media personality and educator and offers free discipline tips at www.BrendaNixon.com. Karen Robbins, freelance writer and speaker, is also a world traveler, SCUBA diver, Mother of five and the grandmother of six. She writes regularly for Positively Feminine.org and Lake Erie Living Magazine and has contributed to several compilation books. Karen lives with her husband, Bob, in Independence, Ohio. www.KarenRobbins.com Leslie Wilson pens a weekly humor column, Reality Motherhood and makes thousands laugh each year through Hearts at Home, MOPS and Early Childhood PTAs. Shes a contributing author to the Groovy Chicks Road Trip series, Chicken Soup for the Mother of Preschoolers Soul and dozens of parenting magazines. Visit www.RealityMotherhood.co

    A long-time resident, Meyer has, for the past two years, lived as no other Westerner—in a shared courtyard home in Beijing’s oldest neighborhood, Dazhalan, on one of its famed hutong (lanes). There he volunteers to teach English at the local grade school and immerses himself in the community, recording with affection the life stories of the Widow, who shares his courtyard; coteacher Miss Zhu and student Little Liu; and the migrants Recycler Wang and Soldier Liu; among the many others who, despite great differences in age and profession, make up the fabric of this unique neighborhood.Their bond is rapidly being torn, however, by forced evictions as century-old houses and ways of life are increasingly destroyed to make way for shopping malls, the capital’s first Wal-Mart, high-rise buildings, and widened streets for cars replacing bicycles. Beijing has gone through this cycle many times, as Meyer reveals, but never with the kind of dislocation and overturning of its storied culture now occurring as the city prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.           Weaving historical vignettes of Beijing and China over a thousand years through his narrative, Meyer captures the city’s deep past as he illuminates its present. With the kind of insight only someone on the inside can provide, The Last Days of Old Beijing brings this moment and the ebb and flow of daily lives on the other side of the planet into shining focus.

    Du Bois and the Problems of the Twenty-First Century and Du Bois's Dialectics, Reiland Rabaka's Africana Critical Theory innovatively identifies and analyzes continental and diasporan African contributions to classical and contemporary critical theory. This book represents a climatic critical theoretical clincher that cogently demonstrates how Du Bois's rarely discussed dialectical thought, interdisciplinarity, intellectual history-making radical political activism, and world-historical multiple liberation movement leadership helped to inaugurate a distinct Africana tradition of critical theory. With chapters on W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Negritude (Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor), Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral, Africana Critical Theory endeavors to accessibly offer contemporary critical theorists an intellectual archaeology of the Africana tradition of critical theory and a much-needed dialectical deconstruction and reconstruction of black radical politics. These six seminal figures' collective thought and texts clearly cuts across several disciplines and, therefore, closes the chasm between Africana Studies and critical theory, constantly demanding that intellectuals not simply think deep thoughts, develop new theories, and theoretically support radical politics, but be and constantly become political activists, social organizers and cultural workers - that is, folk the Italian critical theorist Antonio Gramsci referred to as "organic intellectuals." In this sense, then, the series of studies gathered in Africana Critical Theory contribute not only to African Studies, African American Studies, Caribbean Studies, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Postcolonial Studies, but also to contemporary critical theoretical discourse across an amazingly wide-range of "traditional" disciplines, and radical political activism outside of (and, in many instances, absolutely against) Europe's ivory towers and the absurdities of the American acade

    However, on arriving in the promised land, he finds neither lots of willing leggy lovelies nor a warm welcome from his long-lost Greek cousins. Instead, he gets banged up in a detention center in a small border town. As Gazi and his fellow immigrants try to find jobs, they begin to plan their future lives in Greece, imagining riches and successes which always remain just beyond their grasp. The sheer absurdity of their plans and their new lives is overwhelming. Both detached and involved, ironic and emotional, Kapllani interweaves the story of his experience with meditations upon border syndrome—a mental state, as much as a geographical experience—to create a brilliantly observed, amusing, and perceptive debut.

    Saddled with a mean and bedridden mother; an older, increasingly bitter schoolmarm of a sister; and a lovely but mainly absent father, Issy dreams of leaving her miserable life behind for a life on the mainland, maybe even in a big city such as Toronto.What reason is there for her to stay? But there's one thing holding her back: Issy is illiterate. She can't read at all and never could. How far can she really go?

    In their long-time talks, the former eunuch told his young friend lots of inside stories about the "last emperor" and the royal family. Sun allowed Jia to record these stories with a tape-recorder and a video-tape-recorder.Jia had already published the Chinese edition of the eunuch's biography and a Japanese-language edition.So far, Jia has written six books on the royal family. Jia said he wanted to translate his books into major foreign languages to help foreign readers better understand the history of China.(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2009)http://www.china.org.cn/books&mag...Los Angeles Times Review - "Biography of last Chinese eunuch reveals a tumultuous life"http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwor...New Phoenix Intl LlcForeign Language Teaching &Foreign Language Teaching and Research P

    Author Keven McQueen dissects some of Kentucky's more bizarre aspects of death, pulled directly from the history pages. Discover the reaper's creative side, meet the disgusting ghosts of Louisville and find out more than you wanted to know about old-fashioned embalming techniques. You will find it quite engrossing and just plain gross.

    This new kind of science fiction was set in a place called galactic suburbia, a literary frontier that was home to nearly 300 women writers. These authors explored how women’s lives, loves, and work were being transformed by new sciences and technologies, thus establishing women’s place in the American future imaginary.Yaszek shows how the authors of galactic suburbia rewrote midcentury culture’s assumptions about women’s domestic, political, and scientific lives. Her case studies of luminaries such as Judith Merril, Carol Emshwiller, and Anne McCaffrey and lesser-known authors such as Alice Eleanor Jones, Mildred Clingerman, and Doris Pitkin Buck demonstrate how galactic suburbia is the world’s first literary tradition to explore the changing relations of gender, science, and society.Galactic Suburbia challenges conventional literary histories that posit men as the progenitors of modern science fiction and women as followers who turned to the genre only after the advent of the women’s liberation movement. AsYaszek demonstrates, stories written by women about women in galactic suburbia anticipated the development of both feminist science fiction and domestic science fiction written by men.

    More than simply a landscape of trees and flowering shrubs, a Japanese garden provides a place of serenity and rest, filled with peaceful spots that lend themselves to meditation and contemplation. Japanese Gardens celebrates and illustrates this ideal, showcasing the exquisite natural beauty of more than 20 quintessentially Japanese gardens—big and small, urban and rural, traditional and contemporary.The expert author-and-photographer team behind this book excels at capturing and explaining the essential elements and techniques that distinguish Japanese garden design from that of other countries. The featured sites reflect a cross-section of Japanese culture and history including large feudal period gardens, temple and Zen gardens and private countryside gardens. The mountain flower garden, tea garden, rock garden and bonsai garden alike are all celebrated and appreciated in this beautiful book.

    Now he’s a man bent on getting a little payback. And who better to start with than the recently widowed Mrs. Tiffany Covington?Tiffany is both thrilled and afraid when she discovers Corey has returned to the small West Texas town of Wayback. She’s ready to repay old debts…question is…will Corey accept her currency of exchange?

    Doug's father owns the Douglas Ford Wood Company, and Doug usually helps his dad around the scrap wood yard located in the side lot next to their house. But after Doug loses his school textbooks one day he is faced with the prospect of paying for new books and must join his father in the backbreaking work of delivering wood throughout the city and suburbs. Doug, who knows all of his father's delivery drivers, takes this opportunity to unravel the mystery of a man named Jim Hines whom he always hears about but has never seen. In discovering Hines's identity, Doug also learns much about the realities of racism in Depression-era Detroit. As she tells Doug's story, author Jean Alicia Elster incorporates rich descriptions of daily life, including glimpses into Detroit's auto factories and unions, northern-style segregation, and color distinctions within the African American community. Elster also introduces readers to the Fords' neighborhood, a racially mixed community of Eastern European immigrants and southern blacks. Readers from the ages of eight through twelve will enjoy the entertaining and educational story in Who's Jim Hines?

    He could handle a saber, a pistol, a rudder, or a golf club; he handled women by necessity and men for pleasure. He spoke the Italian of his archduchess mother, the German of his archduke father, the English of his British royal friends, the Polish of the country his father wished to rule, and the Ukrainian of the land Wilhelm wished to rule himself. In this exhilarating narrative history, prize-winning historian Timothy D. Snyder offers an indelible portrait of an aristocrat whose life personifies the wrenching upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, as the rule of empire gave way to the new politics of nationalism. Coming of age during the First World War, Wilhelm repudiated his family to fight alongside Ukrainian peasants in hopes that he would become their king. When this dream collapsed he became, by turns, an ally of German imperialists, a notorious French lover, an angry Austrian monarchist, a calm opponent of Hitler, and a British spy against Stalin. Played out in Europe's glittering capitals and bloody battlefields, in extravagant ski resorts and dank prison cells, The Red Prince captures an extraordinary moment in the history of Europe, in which the old order of the past was giving way to an undefined future-and in which everything, including identity itself, seemed up for grabs.

    As the companion volume to the PBS series, Martin Yan's China brings the ancient country's beauty to the table with gorgeous dishes, breathtaking photographs, and fascinating information about the food, history, and culture of China. Just in time for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Yan is poised to charm and entice a new generation of readers with his expert knowledge of Chinese traditions and his flair for Asian cuisine. As always, Yan's 100 recipes introduce new flavors and techniques to the kitchen, yet are simple enough for any home cook to effortlessly embark on a culinary journey through China.

    With a fresh sense of humor and human understanding, these stories skillfully bridge the gap between miracles and tragedies, prejudice and transcendence, and oppression and liberation. From the comical exploration of the hypocrisy expressed at funerals to the spiritual mission of a magical tortilla, the collection draws upon a wide range of emotions but comes together in a singular, powerful voice that reflects the holiness found in everyday life.

    As you identify the symptoms of grief and learn the steps to recover from even the most heartbreaking loss, you or your loved one will find the help needed to overcome pain and sorrow.

    Theodore de Bary offers a selection of essential readings from his immensely popular anthologies Sources of Chinese Tradition, Sources of Korean Tradition, and Sources of Japanese Tradition so readers can experience a concise but no less comprehensive portrait of the social, intellectual, and religious traditions of East Asia. Volume 1 samples writings from the earliest times to 1600, illuminating life in early China and the first imperial age, as well as the profound impact of Daoism, Buddhism, the Confucian revival, and Neo-Confucianism; the origins of Korean culture and political structures, up through the Choson dynasty; and major developments in early and medieval Japan. De Bary maintains his trademark balance of source materials, including seminal readings in the areas of history, society, politics, education, philosophy, and religion, thereby continuing his own tradition of providing an exceptional resource for teachers, scholars, students, and the general reader.

    Book annotation not available for this title.Title: The Food & Cooking of RussiaAuthor: Makhonko, Elena/ Whitaker, Jon (PHT)Publisher: Natl Book NetworkPublication Date: 2009/09/15Number of Pages: 128Binding Type: HARDCOVERLibrary of Congress:

    Beautiful woodcuts illustrate these strong, clear and encouraging poems that tell stories of Micmac life.

    Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, American cinema “grew up” in response to the sexual revolution, and movie audiences came to expect more knowledge about what happened between the sheets. In Screening Sex, the renowned film scholar Linda Williams investigates how sex acts have been represented on screen for more than a century and, just as important, how we have watched and experienced those representations. Whether examining the arch artistry of Last Tango in Paris, the on-screen orgasms of Jane Fonda, or the anal sex of two cowboys in Brokeback Mountain, Williams illuminates the forms of pleasure and vicarious knowledge derived from screening sex.Combining stories of her own coming of age as a moviegoer with film history, cultural history, and readings of significant films, Williams presents a fascinating history of the on-screen kiss, a look at the shift from adolescent kisses to more grown-up displays of sex, and a comparison of the “tasteful” Hollywood sexual interlude with sexuality as represented in sexploitation, Blaxploitation, and avant-garde films. She considers Last Tango in Paris and Deep Throat, two 1972 films unapologetically all about sex; In the Realm of the Senses, the only work of 1970s international cinema that combined hard-core sex with erotic art; and the sexual provocations of the mainstream movies Blue Velvet and Brokeback Mountain. She describes art films since the 1990s, in which the sex is aggressive, loveless, or alienated. Finally, Williams reflects on the experience of screening sex on small screens at home rather than on large screens in public. By understanding screening sex as both revelation and concealment, Williams has written the definitive study of sex at the movies.Linda Williams is Professor of Film Studies and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include Porn Studies, also published by Duke University Press; Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson; Viewing Positions: Ways of Seeing Film; and Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the “Frenzy of the Visible.”A John Hope Franklin Center BookNovember424 pages129 illustrations6x9 trim sizeISBN 0-8223-0-8223-4285-5paper, $24.95ISBN 0-8223-0-8223-4263-4library cloth edition, $89.95ISBN 978-0-8223-4285-4paper, $24.95ISBN 978-0-8223-4263-2library cloth edition, $89.95

    This book traces for the first time in English the court’s evolution from a nomadic institution to a more sedentary one over the course of a century that began gloriously for France and ended in the horrors of civil war.  Robert Knecht, a renowned expert on Renaissance France, explores the political and cultural importance of the French court through seven reigns from Charles VIII to Henry III, including the tumultuous regency of Catherine de' Medici. Against a sharp precis of political events, he details the structure, daily activities, and festivals of the court. Sumptuously illustrated throughout, this is an enthralling account of an opulent and dynamic institution in which image and representation were key.