Her powers could doom her world. Possessing all seven Gifts of magic, Crystu is destined to be one of the leaders of her people, the Guardians of the planet of Reyth. She's twenty-one, powerful, and her people's ancient enemy makes an astounding proposal ? The Shadowbringer, a survivor of the war three millennia ago, offers godhood if she will mother a new race of magic users for him. Their children will be strong enough to free him from his long imprisonment, and, together, they will conquer the world. His followers, gifted with portions of his power, are prepared to destroy everyone and everything Crystu holds dear to persuade her to accept his offer. The Guardians have been training for generations to prepare for the day when the Shadowbringer begins a new War of Magic and that day has arrived. But where will he strike first? Volume 1 of the Guardians of Reyth. Please note that this is not a standalone story.
After the conclusion of the cataclysmic War of Magic, the Lord of Light imprisoned His last enemy. The remaining First Ones joined with some of the survivors of the People and begat children. The Lord of Light gifted magic to those children and their descendants, so that they could find, serve, and protect, the other scattered survivors. At that time, they were known as the Rykatean people (meaning 'Gifted people' in the language of the First Ones), because all had all seven Gifts of Power." Book of Light: History of the Protectorates - The Rebuilding. This is a short story about the last hours of that war. It is the first prequel intended to give the background of the world of Reyth, in which the series 'Guardians of Reyth' is set. It introduces three characters who make occasional appearances in the main narrative.
Seldar, an experienced Sorcerer and Guardian, travelling for more than twenty-five years with Arella, his bonded Ponfour, is about to have his life turned upside down. Trerin, a young warrior-shapeshifter, dreams of bonding with a beautiful Sorceress and earning a statue in the Hall of Heroes. Their God, however, has plans for them that neither expects. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Daria, something is killing villagers and townsfolk while they sleep. Seldar has encountered similar deaths before and knows that worse is coming. Only the magic of the Guardians of Reyth can restore safety to that realm before the population is wiped out, but how can they fight something that's invisible and insatiably hungry for human flesh? This is a standalone novel and can be read without having read any others in the series.
Tam, a young boy in a land of Sorcerers, learns that his best friend caused the accident which killed Tam's mother eight years previously. What happens that day helps to define the man that he will become. Tam is one of the main characters in a forthcoming fantasy series - Guardians of Reyth. Due in 2017. This is the second prequel intended to introduce the world of Reyth and the people who live in it. It's a short novella of c12,000 words
A young woman, prisoner of war in a world of magic, reminisces about her Graduation Day in an attempt to impress her captors that she is strong. Her captors puzzle her by the fact that although they seem weak, they won the recent war against her people. Strangest of all, they insist on forgiving her for her part in recent events. She struggles to understand why her people's strength was defeated by weakness. This novella is one of a series of short stories intended to introduce the world of Reyth
When Ned is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle in Thunder's Pocket, he's not very pleased. But from the moment a bird flies into the train carriage on his journey there, Ned realises this isn't going to be an ordinary seaside holiday. Has the eccentric sculptor, Marlot Corby, really put a curse on Ned's aunt? What secrets will he find in Marlot's house and gardens? Life in Thunder's Pocket is going to be anything but dull.
While the Xiantu quietly invade the port city of Bain, Tyreen's attention is on the snow mountain that has appeared near the Perrestian town of Angate. The creatures within it will kill everyone in the town if not destroyed. Lord Jareth sends Tam and Crystu, along with a small force of Sorcerers, Warriors, and Soldiers to save the town, but there is a deadly conspiracy at work in Angate which threatens all of them. Meanwhile, Seldar and Trerin, on their way to Bein, begin to realise that something is very wrong in the Kingdom of Light... Volume 2 of the epic fantasy series Guardians of Reyth.
When Ned is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle in Thunder's Pocket, he's not very pleased. But from the moment a bird flies into the train carriage on his journey there, Ned realises this isn't going to be an ordinary seaside holiday. Has the eccentric sculptor, Marlot Corby, really put a curse on Ned's aunt? What secrets will he find in Marlot's house and gardens? Life in Thunder's Pocket is going to be anything but dull.
A platinum-haired beauty living in the wilds of the Wyoming Territory, Jessica Randall catches the eye--and the heart--of Duncan Frazer when he returns to the area after years of exile.
Built in the fifth century b.c., the Parthenon has been venerated for more than two millennia as the West’s ultimate paragon of beauty and proportion. Since the Enlightenment, it has also come to represent our political ideals, the lavish temple to the goddess Athena serving as the model for our most hallowed civic architecture. But how much do the values of those who built the Parthenon truly correspond with our own? And apart from the significance with which we have invested it, what exactly did this marvel of human hands mean to those who made it? In this revolutionary book, Joan Breton Connelly challenges our most basic assumptions about the Parthenon and the ancient Athenians. Beginning with the natural environment and its rich mythic associations, she re-creates the development of the Acropolis—the Sacred Rock at the heart of the city-state—from its prehistoric origins to its Periklean glory days as a constellation of temples among which the Parthenon stood supreme. In particular, she probes the Parthenon’s legendary frieze: the 525-foot-long relief sculpture that originally encircled the upper reaches before it was partially destroyed by Venetian cannon fire (in the seventeenth century) and most of what remained was shipped off to Britain (in the nineteenth century) among the Elgin marbles. The frieze’s vast enigmatic procession—a dazzling pageant of cavalrymen and elders, musicians and maidens—has for more than two hundred years been thought to represent a scene of annual civic celebration in the birthplace of democracy. But thanks to a once-lost play by Euripides (the discovery of which, in the wrappings of a Hellenistic Egyptian mummy, is only one of this book’s intriguing adventures), Connelly has uncovered a long-buried meaning, a story of human sacrifice set during the city’s mythic founding. In a society startlingly preoccupied with cult ritual, this story was at the core of what it meant to be Athenian. Connelly reveals a world that beggars our popular notions of Athens as a city of staid philosophers, rationalists, and rhetoricians, a world in which our modern secular conception of democracy would have been simply incomprehensible. The Parthenon’s full significance has been obscured until now owing in no small part, Connelly argues, to the frieze’s dismemberment. And so her investigation concludes with a call to reunite the pieces, in order that what is perhaps the greatest single work of art surviving from antiquity may be viewed more nearly as its makers intended. Marshalling a breathtaking range of textual and visual evidence, full of fresh insights woven into a thrilling narrative that brings the distant past to life, The Parthenon Enigma is sure to become a landmark in our understanding of the civilization from which we claim cultural descent.
The Idyll Inn, the setting for Joan Barfoot’s brilliant eleventh novel, Exit Lines, is a pastel-hued care facility designed for seniors “with healthy incomes but varying hopes, despairs, abilities and deformities.” In scathing detail, Barfoot describes the Idyll Inn’s plastic plants, inoffensive art and pallid recreational activities, all familiar to any reader who has had occasion to visit such a place — or to live in one. Running the show (or so she thinks) is priggish administrator Annabelle Walker, charged with keeping the residents happy, or at least as happy as is required to keep a tidy profit flowing to far-away investors. But not all residents of the Idyll Inn choose to acquiesce. Sylvia Lodge, one of the Idyll Inn’s first residents, prides herself on her steely backbone, despite crippling arthritis. Affluently widowed, she has selected the Idyll Inn as a less objectionable alternative to a perilous dwindling at home. She coolly refuses to be bossed, certainly not by Annabelle Walker (about whose family Sylvia keeps a dark secret), or by her estranged daughter, Nancy, from whom she keeps yet another, even more explosive, secret. Sylvia is determined to unapologetically lay claim to her lifetime of choices, responsibilities and blame, not yet aware that her icy solitude will shortly be broken by the company of three soon-to-be-intimate friends. Given the facility’s small population, the Idyll Inn’s new inhabitants are bound to have crossed paths. And indeed many have. Wheelchair-confined George Hammond, once a handsome shoe store—owner with a stay-at-home wife and adored daughter, long ago cupped Sylvia’s feet in his hands and admired her well-formed calves. He has done far more with Greta Bauer, his former clerk, whose loneliness as a young immigrant widow with children rendered her available for a comfortable and seemingly uncomplicated affair. Now deposited under the same roof by absent children, the former lovers are in a position to reflect on the consequences of their choices. Completing the newly formed coterie of friends is tiny Ruth Friedman, a retired Children’s Aid worker who keeps many of the city’s darkest secrets, and whose passionate late-in-life marriage to fellow social worker Bernard did not include children of their own. Now also widowed, her grief unfathomably deep, she has taken to cheerfully reading horrifying news stories aloud to her new friends, who are soon to discover that these daily doses of gloom are less for their edification than they are in service of a desperate project for which Ruth needs their complicity. In the wryly funny and wholly compassionate Exit Lines, acclaimed author Joan Barfoot once again treats her readers to an intimate encounter with some fascinating characters engaged in the fight of their lives. Sylvia, George, Greta and Ruth are at times tender, angry, hilarious and deeply flawed, but always utterly and captivatingly human. How do we treat the elderly in our lives? How do we intend to grow old ourselves? Will we ever come to the end of longing? Exit Lines brings to the surface these and other fundamental questions about the nature of life, and its closing.
For the first time ever, all three books in Joan Wolf's Dark Ages series are available in one ebook volume: The Road to Avalon Shimmering with pageantry, emotion and the court’s passionate intrigues, here is the epic story of Arthur—the conqueror, the once and future king, who vanquished the Saxons and loved but one woman, the beautiful Morgan of Avalon. She was the lover his country forbade him to wed but could never keep him from desiring. Held captive by deep feelings, the two dream of one future together…until fate sweeps them into a world where love is balanced on the knife’s edge of danger. Never before has the telling of the story of Arthur made the drama of this charismatic king more real or more moving. Here, a legend and a tale so vigorous with heroic deed and conflict, so glowing with wondrous love, are brought close enough for us to experience all the unforgettable emotions of Avalon…and all the magical moments of Camelot… Born of the Sun This compelling saga about a beautiful Celtic princess who gives her heart to a Saxon prince explodes with the passions of love and war. When the Saxon army, in its bloody charge against the Celts, captures the child-princess Niniane, they bring her to Cynric, King of the West Saxons. Enchanted by her innocence and beauty, he makes Niniane a favored prisoner. But she soon discovers that the King’s court abounds with tempestuous intrigues and tormented rivalries. And when the adulterous and envious Queen arranges for a duel between the King’s beloved illegitimate son and her own son, heir to the throne, intrigue turns to deadly peril. With this epic novel of the star-crossed passion that swept the Celts and Saxons to the brink of war—and two lovers to the edge of oblivion--Joan Wolf brilliantly brings alive a little-known but fascinating age. The Edge of Light There once was a king’s reign when England’s fate was forever decided, when the Danes swooped in to conquer, and one splendid ruler stood between savagery and a glorious new dawn. The Edge of Light is the magnificent tale of those faraway times, of that monarch, Alfred the Great, and of the woman he could not help but love… The beautiful Elswyth, Princess of Mercia, is a woman-child already promised to a lord of the realm. Young Prince Alfred, fifth son of King Ethelwulf of Wessex, never dreamed he would don the crown of Britain, though he was destined to become its greatest king. Two headstrong lovers vow to fight to change the world rather than forfeit their passion—in a grand and glorious saga that explodes with the passions of love and war.
There's so much we still don't know about tornados, hurricanes, snowstorms, and weather. The dangerous, on-the-edge life of a storm chaser on the hunt to discover how nature's fury works will surely engage any young reader. Filled with bold graphics, vivid full-color photography, and easy activities to be done at home, this book is the definitive "inside scoop" into the brave lives of storm chasers. Key concepts in physics and Earth science are presented in such an accessible, fun way that readers won't even realize they're learning complex science concepts.
There once was a king’s reign when England’s fate was forever decided, when the Danes swooped in to conquer, and one splendid ruler stood between savagery and a glorious new dawn. The Edge of Light is the magnificent tale of those faraway times, of that monarch, Alfred the Great, and of the woman he could not help but love… The beautiful Elswyth, Princess of Mercia, is a woman-child already promised to a lord of the realm. Young Prince Alfred, fifth son of King Ethelwulf of Wessex, never dreamed he would don the crown of Britain, though he was destined to become its greatest king. Two headstrong lovers vow to fight to change the world rather than forfeit their passion—in a grand and glorious saga that explodes with the passions of love and war.
Get to know Hecate, a student of witchcraft, in this twenty-seventh Goddess Girls adventure! Eleven-year-old Hecate loves being a student at Hexwitch School but gets nervous about things that could go wrong. To try and stem her anxious feelings, she gathers all the facts about different situations—that way, she will always be prepared if disaster strikes. After stumbling into a pet cemetery, Hecate meets Melinoe, who calls herself a ghost herder. She is in charge of leading the ghosts of pets and other animals to the River Styx in the Underworld. But Melinoe doesn’t notice when one of her ghost animals follows Hecate home! More and more of the lost ghosts gather with Hecate, and she learns they have unfinished business left on Earth and refuse to enter the Underworld. The deceased pets are counting on Hecate, but Melinoe isn’t too thrilled with having competition! Can Hecate help the animals without making a new enemy?
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga, Third Edition walks readers through the basics of stretching, breathing, and meditation. This third edition is completely reformatted to include twice as many illustrations (300+)! A must-have for anyone interested in giving yoga a try-non-intimidating and easy-to-follow exercise
A study of common and exotic food in Shakespeare's plays, this is the first book to explore early modern English dietary literature to understand better the significance of food in Shakespearean drama. Food in Shakespeare provides for modern readers and audiences an historically accurate account of the range of, and conflicts between, contemporary ideas that informed the representations of food in the plays. It also focuses on the social and moral implications of familiar and strange foodstuff in Shakespeare's works. This new approach provides substantial fresh readings of Hamlet, Macbeth, As you Like It, The Winter's Tale, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus, Pericles, Timon of Athens, and the co-authored Sir Thomas More. Among the dietaries explored are Andrew Boorde's A Compendyous Regyment or a Dyetary of Healthe (1547), William Bullein's The Gouernement of Healthe (1595), Thomas Elyot's The Castle of Helthe (1595) and Thomas Cogan's The Hauen of Health (1636). These dieteries were republished several times in the early modern period; together they typify the genre's condemnation of surfeit and the tendency to blame human disease on feeding practices. This study directs scholarly attention to the importance of early modern dietaries, analyzing their role in wider culture as well as their intersection with dramatic art. In the dietaries food and drink are indices of one's position in relation to complex ideas about rank, nationality, and spiritual well-being; careful consumption might correct moral as well as physical shortcomings. The dietaries are an eclectic genre: some contain recipes for the reader to try, others give tips on more general lifestyle choices, but all offer advice on how to maintain good health via diet. Although some are more stern and humourless than others, the overwhelming impression is that of food as an ally in the battle against disease and ill-health as well as a potential enemy.
Meg, Mitchell, Charlie, David and Alexander. A sagacious tale of beginnings, endings and a special second chance, told by one woman and four exceptional men spanning more than fifty-seven years.
It should have been a marriage made in heaven. Cheviot was aristocratic and gorgeous—a man tempered by his father’s downfall and his own experiences at war. Sarah was artistic and free-thinking, shaped by the best education her nouveau riche grandfather could afford. But there was one problem. The marriage was arranged. The Duke of Cheviot needed money. Sarah’s grandfather wanted a title. And so, what could have been a perfect love affair was begun in a most imperfect way.
First comes marriage. Then comes love. Then things start to get really complicated. Desperate to help her ailing mother, Delphie Carteret agrees to a sham wedding ceremony to her cousin, Gareth. Her mother will be guaranteed annuity for life, and Gareth's obligation to marry before his sick uncle passes is fulfilled. The plan is perfect. But perfect plans usually go awry. Not only is the marriage ceremony valid, but Gareth's dying uncle makes a miraculous recovery. An imposter is threatening Delphie's identity and her life, and the whole family is on the brink of scandal. As Gareth and Delphie try to mastermind a way out of this mess, they begin to discover that what's between them may be surprisingly real... Praise for Joan Aiken: "Ingenious...a country-dance in high style, twirled to the tune of a proven virtuoso." —Kirkus Reviews for The Five-Minute Marriage "Delightful and humorous." —Historical Novels Review for Eliza's Daughter
Of the three surgeons who accompanied Custer’s Seventh Cavalry on June 25, 1876, only the youngest, twenty-eight-year-old Henry Porter, survived that day’s ordeal, riding through a gauntlet of Indian attackers and up the steep bluffs to Major Marcus Reno’s hilltop position. But the story of Dr. Porter’s wartime exploits goes far beyond the battle itself. In this compelling narrative of military endurance and medical ingenuity, Joan Nabseth Stevenson opens a new window on the Battle of the Little Big Horn by re-creating the desperate struggle for survival during the fight and in its wake. As Stevenson recounts in gripping detail, Porter’s life-saving work on the battlefield began immediately, as he assumed the care of nearly sixty soldiers and two Indian scouts, attending to wounds and performing surgeries and amputations. He evacuated the critically wounded soldiers on mules and hand litters, embarking on a hazardous trek of fifteen miles that required two river crossings, the scaling of a steep cliff, and a treacherous descent into the safety of the steamboat Far West, waiting at the mouth of the Little Big Horn River. There began a harrowing 700-mile journey along the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers to the post hospital at Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck, Dakota Territory. With its new insights into the role and function of the army medical corps and the evolution of battlefield medicine, this unusual book will take its place both as a contribution to the history of the Great Sioux War and alongside such vivid historical novels as Son of the Morning Star and Little Big Man. It will also ensure that the selfless deeds of a lone “contract” surgeon—unrecognized to this day by the U.S. government—will never be forgotten.
The Gardens of Covington joyously celebrates women and friendships, families and love, laughing through the tears, thinking with the head and the heart. The ladies, so real and inspiring, will make you wish they were your neighbors. If this is your first visit to the small town of Covington, you'll feel comfortably at home in the white farmhouse with the yellow shutters on Cove road that once again teems with warmth and fresh hope for today and tomorrow. If it's your second visit, you'll be thrilled to sit on the front porch once again and catch up with old friends and neighbors. Hannah, cool-headed and calm, battles to save their beloved hills from the rapacious development that has already ruined Loring Valley, only five minutes form Cove Road. Amelia, giddy with a newfound love, abandons the ladies and her photography to please her dashing new beau. And Grace is driven to prove she has an eye for business when she and her steady companion, Bob Richardson, open the Cottage Tearoom. New friends and neighbors are introduced. Eccentric Lurina Masterson, an eighty-one-year-old bride, brings tears of joy to all when, wearing her childhood dream of white satin, she married "Old Man," who is ninety-one. And George Maxwell, the ladies' closest neighbor, provides an inspired solution to preserving Covington's lush hills and valleys. Joan Medlicott writes lovingly about the complexity and tenderness of women. she writes with honesty about relationships, about love and passion, about commitment and friendship, as well as about the intricate bonds between parents and their children. As you join the ladies of Covington through their highs and their lows, their joys and their sorrows, you will not want the book to end, nor will you wish to leave their world behind you.
Nature has the upper hand in this compelling story of the North Fork of the Flathead, Montana, adjacent to Glacier National Park. Participate in the family adventures and remarkable events that were a daily occurrence in one of the few remaining wild areas in the lower ’48. True tales from the past and present interweave in a parade of unique human characters, as does action at the loneliest border crossing in America. Learn of the interaction between predators and their plight as they attempt to survive in this remnant of habitat. Follow the wildlife researchers as they trap, collar, then monitor grizzlies, cougars, wolves and coyotes. Details of wildlife research in the field can be extraordinary. This tells it like it is. Pity poor Luke, a male grizzly crippled by a gunshot. Admire Thunder, old for a coyote, in spite of wolves and humans. Stay away from the “Dollman”, living deep within Canadian forests. Beware of the tire-slasher as he travels the lonely road. What really did happen at the cabin of the infamous Madam Queen, who instigated murder? Hardship, fires, flood—all are part of the North Fork history.
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