From the mists of Japanese prehistory, through the medieval ages, up to today, the bestiary of Japanese folklore contains a wide range of monsters. There are women with extra mouths in the backs of their heads, water goblins whose favorite food is human anus, elephant-dragons which feed solely on bad dreams, dead baby zombies, talking foxes, fire-breathing chickens, animated blobs of rotten flesh that run about the streets at night... "The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons" is a massive illustrated bestiary choc full of yokai. It features over one hundred traditional Japanese monsters, each one beautifully illustrated in full color by yokai artist Matthew Meyer. Each yokai is described in detail, including origins, habitat, diet, and legend, based on translations from centuries-old Japanese texts. Read this book, and the next time you watch an anime or a Godzilla movie, you'll be able to recognize their folkloric ancestors dating back centuries. You'll find out about all of the strange mythical animals you can see at temples and shrines, on beer can labels, and even on Japanese money. Meet the predecessors to Pokemon, Power Rangers, scary J-horror girls, and all of the strange creatures that pop up in Japanese video games. "Night Parade" will turn anyone with a passing interest in Japanese folklore into a full-blown yokai expert!

    There are still witches who whisper upon tied knots to curse or heal, sorceresses who shapeshift into animals or household objects, magicians who cast spells for love or good fortune, and common folk who seek their aid for daily problems big and small. Sharing the extensive knowledge she inherited from her mother and grandmother, including spells of the “Old Believers” previously unknown to outsiders, Natasha Helvin explores in detail the folk history and practice of Russian sorcery and Eastern Slavic magical rites, offering a rich compendium of more than 300 spells, incantations, charms, and practical rituals for love, relationships, career success, protection, healing, divination, averting the evil eye, communicating with spirits and ancestors, and a host of other life challenges and daily situations, with complete step-by-step instructions to ensure your magical goals are realized. She explains how this tradition has only a thin Christian veneer over its pagan origins and how the Slavic pagan gods and goddesses acquired new lives as the saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church. She details how the magical energy for these spells and rituals is drawn from the forces of nature, revealing specific places of power in the natural world as well as the profound power of graveyards and churches for casting spells. She explores the creation of amulets and talismans, the importance of icons, and the proper recital of magical language and actions during spells, as well as how one becomes a witch or sorceress. Offering a close examination of these two-thousand-year-old occult practices, Helvin also includes Slavic folk advice, adapted for the modern era. Revealing what it means to be a Slavic witch or sorceress, and how this vocation pervades all aspects of life, she shows that each of us has magic within that we can use to take control of our own destiny.

    A woman had wanted to leave him. You're not going anywhere, he told her. Later that day, a police officer reports to the house and finds some human tissue and organs in a bag left out for garbage. The person of interest in the case is a steelworker named Sam Pirrera, who lives in the house. But who is the victim? Sam's current estranged wife, Danielle? It is known that they had a stormy relationship; Sam had assaulted her as his coke addiction returned. Forensic detectives find traces of blood in the basement, and then the entire corpse, dismembered, the parts hidden behind a false wall and packed in boxes, each of the parts wrapped and doused in gasoline. The victim's identity is discovered through prints to be a prostitute named Maggie Karer. The dismemberment, defensive mutilation, is so calculated and deliberate, the detectives wonder, are there more victims? But Pirrera's first wife was named Beverly, and a woman named Lesa Davidson shows up at the police station to say she hasn't heard from her daughter-Beverly-in eight years. And Sam's estranged wife, Danielle, who is in fact alive, tells police that Sam had once told her he had killed his first wife and dumped her parts in a vat of molten steel at a steel plant. Detectives now pursue a double murder case, led by veteran homicide detective Peter Abi-Rashed, who had once chased a young Sam Pirrera on the streets of Hamilton's east end many years before. The outcome is shocking - and a mystery remains.

    But there are also tales told for pleasure about magic, treasure and adventure - even the first ever Cinderella story.

    Now, in this important work of historical restoration, Amos Elon takes us back to the beginning, chronicling a period of achievement and integration that at its peak produced a golden age second only to the Renaissance.Writing with a novelist's eye, Elon shows how a persecuted clan of cattle dealers and wandering peddlers was transformed into a stunningly successful community of writers, philosophers, scientists, tycoons and activists. He peoples his account with dramatic figures: Moses Mendelssohn, who entered Berlin in 1743 through the gate reserved for Jews and cattle, and went on to become "the German Socrates;" Heinrich Heine, beloved lyric poet who famously referred to baptism as the admission ticket to European culture; Hannah Arendt, whose flight from Berlin signaled the end of the German-Jewish idyll. Elon traces how this minority-never more than one percent of the population-came to be perceived as a deadly threat to national integrity, and he movingly demonstrates that this devastating outcome was uncertain almost until the end.A collective biography, full of depth and compassion, The Pity of It All summons up a splendid world and a dream of integration and tolerance that, despite all, remains the essential ennobling project of modernity.(less)

    

    And what interests him most about these people is their humanity, in all its glorious complexity. They get angry—at God for demanding so much, and at people, for doing so little. They make mistakes. They get frustrated. But through it all one constant remains—their love for the people they have been charged to teach and their devotion to the Supreme Being who has sent them. In these tales of battles won and lost, of exile and redemption, of despair and renewal, we learn not only by listening to what they have come to tell us, but by watching as they live lives that are both grounded in earthly reality and that soar upward to the heavens.From the Hardcover edition.

    Small though that number is, it is inflated by dozens of skippers with only a few weeks or months at the helm of a club. If we were to define "real" managers as those who have managed a thousand games - not, after all, a terribly high bar to hurdle, fewer than seven full seasons - we would find that fewer than one hundred men qualify. Now Bill James, "the guru of baseball" (Newsweek), takes on the challenge of chronicling that history, including a decade-by-decade snapshot of baseball strategy from the 1870s through the 1990s.

    He was eager to begin his first practice, but it turned out to be more than he bargained for. In just two years, in September, 1918, the entire village was sickened in rapid succession in the flu pandemic that killed quickly and indiscriminately throughout the world. It was wartime, and Nixon was unable to find help., This story is an up close and personal account of what it was like to be sick with the HINI type virus in 1918. It is a tale of a dedicated doctor whose selflessness, compassion and courage helped the villagers survive in the pandemic that killed more people in a year than the Black Death killed in a century...

    Oddly enough, scientists began to understandthis fascinating fluid only within the past one hundred years and how its microscopiccomponents nourish the entire body.Whether the tales of vampires, medieval medical practices, and Mayan sacrificialrites captivate or terrify, this comprehensive investigation into blood’s past and presentwill surely enthrall. And if this account is a little bloodcurdling, well, that’s half thefun!

    There are 10 quotes from each of these great men and women of God. Listen to the heart and passion of Oswald Chamber, C.S. Lewis, Gen. William Booth, Dietriech Bonhoeffer, E.M. Bounds, A.B. Simpson, Kathryn Kuhlman, Charles Spurgeon, Aimee Semple McPherson and Charles Finney.

    . . and How to Break Them encourages improvisation and play, while explaining Justin Warner's unique ideas about "flavor theory"-like color theory, but for your tongue. By introducing eleven laws based on familiar foods (e.g., "The Law of Peanut Butter and Jelly"; "The Law of Coffee, Cream, and Sugar"), the book will teach you why certain flavors combine brilliantly, and then show how these combinations work in 110 more complex and inventive recipes (Tomato Soup with "Grilled Cheese" Ravioli; Scallops with Black Sesame and Cherry). At the end of every recipe, Justin "breaks the law" by adding a seemingly discordant flavor that takes the combination to a new level.

    A trip across Siberia on the longest continuous railway track in the world is undoubtedly the journey of a lifetime. It's also a convenient way to reach China, Mongolia, or Japan. Tickets are not expensive or difficult to arrange. Readers can now travel almost anywhere they want in Siberia: we tell them how to organize a trip, where to get tickets, and where to go.>Kilometer-by-kilometer route guide -- covering the entire routes of the Trans-Siberian, Trans-Manchurian, and Trans-Mongolian railways with thirty-eight strip maps in English, Russian, and Chinese: readers can see where they are as they travel>Siberia and the railway -- the detailed history of Siberia, the construction of the railway and the running of the Trans-Siberian today are of great interest not only to visitors but also to armchair travelers>City guides with maps -- the best sights, places to stay, and restaurants for all budgets: Moscow, St Petersburg, Ulan Bator, Beijing, and twenty-three towns in Siberia>Nutshell information on Minsk, Berlin, Baltic Republics, Helsinki, Hong Kong, and Tokyo>Rail fares and timetables>Seventh edition includes seventy maps>Plus Russian and Chinese phrases

    Combining quality scholarship and sacred spiritual instruction, Living Judaism is a thought-provoking reference and guide for those already steeped in Jewish life, and a comprehensive introduction for those exploring the richness and grandeur of Judaism.

    She has been known as the Queen of Heaven, Mother of Nature, Giver of Riches and Justice, Goddess of Love, Magic, and Healing—and as a benevolent, universal goddess who helps anyone who calls on her. Ms. Regula has been a Priestess of Isis with the Fellowship of Isis for over eighteen years, and is an ordained reverend with the Temple of Isis. Now she shares her decades of study, research, and worship so you can discover the inner secrets of Isis, that ancient goddess of the Sun and Moon, Stars and Earth. In fact, Isis is not "just" an Egyptian Goddess. Here you will see Isis in Her full glory as a universal goddess, present throughout history in all times and places. "The Mysteries of Isis" is filled with practical information on all aspects of the modern worship of Isis. Your journey begins with a jubilant Isian rite at dawn and ends under the stars as the goddess' deepest mysteries are revealed to you. These chapters encompass many exercises, rituals, magic, prayers, and more to help you forge a unique personal alliance with Isis. With this book you can: - Dedicate your own temple, altar and shrine to Isis - Learn the previously secret divination technique of the sacred scarabs - Celebrate the special festivals of the Isian calendar - Perform purification and healing rites and spiritual cleansings from the Isian tradition - Create your own ritual tools, including amulets and sistrums - Become an initiate of the four key mysteries of Isis - Draw love to you with modern, ethical, uniquely Isian spells When you take Isis as your personal goddess, your worship and connection with the Divine will be immeasurably enriched. Find out how this goddess can transform your life with "The Mysteries of Isis."