Each lecture presents learners with a historical and biographical context for each work via a guided tour of the work itself. These musical tours include both piano demonstrations of the piece's compositional structure and selected excerpts drawn from recordings. The course is designed to serve learners as a series of expanded program notes that explores a broad range of orchestral music composed over the last 300 years: from the baroque era, the classical era, the romantic era, and the 20th century. The works featured in the course include some of the most well-known, best-loved, and most frequently performed pieces in the standard repertoire in the forms of symphonies, concertos, tone poems, symphonic poems, and suites

    At seventeen, she’d left Coventry and didn’t look back. But after a messy divorce, she packed up her stuff and drove toward the only place that she knew would accept her. Life hadn’t been easy for Kinsley since she left town. Despite wanting a family desperately, she was childless. She had a college degree but had just been fired… again… She’d spent her entire adult life rebelling against what she was, and that meant hiding her true self from the world. Kinsley left Coventry on a mission to be ordinary. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans… Coventry isn’t your typical small town. It’s home to the most powerful family of witches in the world. Two ancient witch families united when her parents married, and she was supposed to be their leader. Nobody ever asked Kinsley if that’s what she wanted, though. Funny how the universe worked because there she was divorced, childless, and jobless… again… rolling into Coventry in her broken-down car with a U-Haul full of everything she owned. The joyous welcome home party was short-lived, because a dead guy turned up, of all places, behind the diner. Of course, the town’s hunky sheriff starts to give Kinsley the side-eye. But, a lot of people wanted the victim dead, and that only complicates the investigation. There’s a murderer on the loose in Coventry, and Kinsley’s got to learn to harness her powers to avoid the killer’s snare. Oh! And, then there’s Meri, the black cat familiar. Someone decides to grant him one wish for his faithful service to his coven, and it doesn’t go as planned either… Welcome back to Coventry. The events in this story take place thirteen years after Kinsley left Coventry. It can be fully enjoyed on its own and is suitable for all ages. You’ll find no swearing, gore, or adult situations, but you will find magic, mystery, and a hint of lighthearted mayhem.Midnight Magic The Midnight Magic Festival is upon Coventry, and Kinley Skeenbauer is excited to participate for the first time. Since her shop, Summoned Goods & Sundries, is the newest thing in Coventry, she's been invited to provide swag bags and decorations for the festivities. With Meri at her side, Kinsley is ready to pull out all the stops and make this year's Midnight Magic Festival the best her hometown has ever seen. There's just one problem… A new witch, Astra Argent, has moved to Coventry and opened a competing shop across the street from Kinsley's store. When Kinsley comes to work one morning only to find her windows smashed, decorations destroyed, swag bags missing, and Astra's wallet in the glass, she's furious. A confrontation the whole town witnesses goes down in front of Astra's shop, The Summoning Scroll. Thirteen hours later, Astra is found dead on Kinsley's front porch. Her body is sitting in a rocking chair with a cocktail in her hand. The macabre staged scene sends a shockwave through Coventry. Someone wanted Astra dead, and they wanted Kinsley to go down for the crime. Can Kinsley and her friends solve the murder, or will she end up caught in a killer's wicked snare? Come along as Kinsley and friends solve the crime one spell at a time.Sympathetic Magic When someone close to Kinsley is cursed, she turns to a Voodoo Priestess to help her break the awful spell. This seems to be the right solution… until the Priestess turns up dead.And much more!

    But the police want to call it a suicide, since both the Mayor and press are complaining about the dismal closure rate for homicide investigations. Call it a suicide and no one has to solve the case.But ex-cop Sam McGowan knows it was murder. He also knows that anyone living on the top floor of the building should be a suspect, including himself. So Sam decides to get to know his neighbors:A lonely jazz singer more than willing to confess to any crime, past or present;Two young women paying for graduate school by operating a website that reveals a lot more than their SAT scores; The B-movie producer with a swollen prostate and shrinking bank balance; And the brothers at the end of the hall, who just quit their day jobs to sell marijuana for the Mexican mob.The only thing they have in common is a general agree-ment that their dead landlord got what he deserved--and that one of them is probably responsible. As more bodies surface and alliances shift, Sam finds himself jumping back and forth between his old life as a cop and his new one as a murder suspect, unable to decide where he really belongs.

    By investigating previously unknown sources, the book uncovers the real story of how baseball evolved from a gentleman's amateur sport of well-bred play followed by well-laden banquet tables into a professional sport where big leagues operate under their own laws. Offering countless anecdotes and a wealth of new information, the authors explode many cherished myths, including the one which claims that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839. They describe the influence of baseball on American business, manners, morals, social institutions, and even show business, as well as depicting the types of men who became the first professional ball players, club owners, and managers, including Spalding, McGraw, Comiskey, and Connie Mack.Note: On August 2, 2010, Oxford University Press made public that it would credit Dorothy Seymour Mills as co-author of the three baseball histories previously authored solely by her late husband, Harold Seymour. The Seymours collaborated on Baseball: The Early Years (1960), Baseball: The Golden Age (1971) and Baseball: The People's Game (1991).

    Sometimes a woman's gotta be fierce as well as feminine, fiery as well as fragile. And when the legwork required is a roundhouse, when a girl's mantra has to become "I am woman, hear me roar," those are the times it's good to know there's magic in the world...because in super-powered pumps, the shrinking-est Violet or the nervous-est Nellie can do anything. Every step in magic shoes is sure to be a big one. After a single trip to Hiheelia.com, our heroines are safe. Their hearts are not.

    He also shows how this madness came to be–and the lessons that the world still needs to learn.In this true story, the reader will see how an ordinary human being–an innocent child–not only survived the Nazi Nightmare, but achieved the American Dream–and how you can achieve it too.

    Criticized in New York and beloved in Los Angeles, O’Malley is one of the most controversial owners in the history of American sports. He remade the major leagues and altered the course of history in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles when he moved the Dodgers to California. But while many New York critics attacked him, O’Malley looked to the future, declining to argue his case. As a result, fans across the nation have been unable to stop arguing about him—until now. Using never-before-seen documents and candid interviews with O’Malley’s players, associates, and relatives, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Michael D’Antonio finally reveals this complex sportsman and industry pioneer. Born into Tammany Hall connections, O’Malley used political contacts to grow wealthy during the Great Depression, and then maneuvered to take control of the formerly downtrodden Dodgers. After his defeat in a war of wills with the famed power broker, Robert Moses, O’Malley uprooted the borough’s team and transplanted them to Los Angeles. Once in Los Angeles, O’Malley overcame opponents of his stadium and helped define the city. Other owners came to regard him as their guide—almost an unofficial commissioner—and he worked behind the scenes to usher in the age of the players’ union and free agency. Filled with new revelations about O’Malley’s battle with Moses, his pioneering business strategies, and his relationship with Jackie Robinson, Forever Blue is a uniquely intimate portrait of a man who changed America’s pastime forever. His fascinating story is fundamental to the history of sports, business, and the American West.

    Enjoy each of their journeys in overcoming their challenging situations in New York. Note that each is a sweet stand-alone book, but they also are the first two books in the Montana Mail Order Brides Series. Mail Order Bride Leah Leah is a school teacher in Albany, New York during the 1880s who was devoted to her mother until she passed away. Her father lost his business and Leah did not want to spend the rest of her life living with her protective brother. She begins to correspond with a man from Montana who ran an ad for a mail order bride. Could she have found someone who also loves literature and shares so many of her interests? How does Leah handle her brother's negative reactions to the correspondence that now was the focus and light of her life? Can she leave the desperate situation in New York and find that joy that her heart dreams? Or is she destined to live a life without fulfillment? Will Leah find happiness in Montana? What secrets does her love keep to himself that makes him so hard to reach and read? Can Leah help Henry open up his heart or will she give up? Can his scars heal from the past? Book 2: Mail Order Bride Tess Tess is a seamstress in upstate New York during the 1880s. She fears she will be working in the sweltering shop her whole life and never find true happiness by finding a man who loves her. A married friend shows her a newspaper that has ads for mail order husbands and Tess shyly studies it with guarded hope. Tess is quite bashful with a lot of fear, but also worries what her life would be like without a big change. Will she find happiness out west or be stuck in the sweltering shop in New York? Why does Luke withdraw from her emotionally and can he let go of his past loss? Will Tess return home in defeat and be broken inside? Can their love blossom? Note: Each of the books is a stand-alone clean romance without a cliffhanger. They are sweet westerns appropriate for all ages. Book six, Mail Order Bride Jessica, is now available and is also in Kindle Unlimited.

    Then officer Gideon Stone shows up at her door. Calla thought her kitchen was hot enough beforePLAYING GAMES by Meg MaguireWith her plane grounded on Christmas Eve, Carrie Baxter agrees to share a rental car with her secret high school crush. Sure, Daniel Barber is hotter than ever, but he's still just as prickly, too. It's gonna be one looong drive and an unforgettably X-rated night!ALL NIGHT LONG by Debbi RawlinsOverworked paralegal Carly Watts needs Jack Carrington's signature, but he'll do whatever it takes to buy more time before selling his grandfather's company. Including having one very naughty night before Christmas!

    Their happiness is shattered when part of their family is forced to return to Ireland. Rose wants to succeed and stays in New York with her younger sister Maureen. The sisters struggle to survive and barely do so by working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Then, just as Rose is forming friendships and settling in, a devastating fire forces her, Maureen, and their friends to fight for their lives. Surrounded by pain, tragedy, and ashes, Rose wonders if there’s anything left for her in this great land of America.

    But what she finds derails her: the Dunbar ranch is bankrupt, her sister is having a nervous breakdown, and the oil and gas industry has changed the landscape of this small western town both literally and figuratively, tempting her to sell a gas lease to save the family land. There is fencing to be repaired and calves to be born, and no one—except Jackie herself—to take control. But then a gas well explodes in the neighboring ranch, and the fallout sets off a chain of events that will strain trust, sever old relationships, and ignite new ones. Rebecca Clarren's Kickdown is a tautly written debut novel about two sisters and the Iraq war veteran who steps in to help. It is a timeless and timely meditation on the grief wrought by death, war, and environmental destruction. Kickdown, like Kent Haruf's Plainsong or Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone, weaves together the threads of land, family, failure, and perseverance to create a gritty tale about rural America.

    Sydney seems to have it all—a lucrative career, a comfortable life, and a man who looks good on paper—until the Catholic Church, looking to repair some serious image problems, approaches the ad agency she works for to create a positive campaign. Sydney, told by her boss it's her account to lose, stumbles through the novel trying to figure out how to sell religion to a soulless society. She begins a one-sided argument with the Lord himself via riotous, pleading e-mails, all the time asking why He/She had to enter her neat, secular life and make such a mess of it.Complicating things are her best friend Anna's on-again, off-again wedding; the disturbingly handsome priest serving as the church's liaison; and Jake, the new guy, who looks good in real life but comes equipped with all the real-life complications. Susi Rajah's wickedly funny debut novel introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction and gives us a ribald, self-deprecating young woman who eventually discovers that love requires even more faith than religion.

    Now, in a land long-divided by war, two kings chase different dreams for their people. The Black Falcon seeks compromise, independence, and loyalty to tradition. The White Falcon longs for reunification of the Brother Realms, no matter the cost. An attack by assassins shatters a fragile peace, and caught up in the maelstrom are twin brothers: Kieryn: awkward, absentminded, bookish. When voices in his head begin to whisper of murder, Kieryn fears he’s going mad. He soon discovers, however, that he is a vessel for powers that have lain dormant in his family for generations. While his family marches to war, Kieryn must turn his back on those he loves and muster the courage to enter a forbidden world. Crossing beyond the Veil, he encounters the Elarion, the Goddess’s proud, enigmatic First Children. Among them, Kieryn is a spark that awakens ancient memory and smoldering hatred. Yet only the Elarion can help him uncover his family’s past and his hidden gift, though his efforts may cost him his sanity and his soul. Kelyn: a charming knight-in-training and his father’s ideal. Yearning to follow in his father’s footsteps, Kelyn is put to the test when war breaks between the Brother Realms. He soon finds himself an invader on foreign soil, where his preternatural foresight in battle earns him the king’s favor and a reputation as the Swiftblade. But a knight’s vows are easier spoken than kept. As the armies of the Falcon Kings meet blade to blade, lines blur between courage and madness, honor and self-delusion. In this war-torn realm where bard song seals a man’s reputation for all time, Kelyn must choose between personal glory and the lives of his countrymen. Can he become the knight his father hopes he can be, or will his actions threaten his family’s honor and the lives of thousands?

    For one thing, one of his dealers, Max ("the Money Man") Waxman, has just ripped him off. For another, his partner, Carmine Falcone, is in jail and threatening to cooperate with the government unless Masters gets him out fast.Then there are the Feds who have been trying to nail Masters for years. Two Treasury agents, John Vukovich and Richard Chance, are breathing down his neck. Chance is a reckless hotshot who doesn't believe in playing by the rules; he'll get evidence anyway he can. If he catches Masters and makes it stick, he's a hero. But if Chance is caught he's finished - unless he's willing to sacrifice Vukovich to save himself.

    A genuine spiritual movement becomes strangely entangled with elitist aesthetics, the culture of celebrity, multi-million-dollar investment portfolios, sex scandals, and an unsolved crime.Told Rashomon-fashion by a singular mix of hippies, millionaires, intellectuals, and lost souls whose lives are almost unbelievably intertwined, Shoes Outside the Door is the first book to examine the inner workings of the profoundly influential San Francisco Zen Center. In exploring the history of the most important institution in American Buddhism, author Michael Downing provocatively captures the profound ambivalence of people who earnestly seek both inner peace and worldly satisfaction.