"This little story is another true happening that took place in Cotton Wood Acres. Charlie was a very powerful animal, for God created him that way. However, in order to be useful he also had to be sensible. Here again, God designed it that man should have dominion over the animals. That man should care for and use them for his own well-being. Never to abuse, nor misuse them, for they too "like we" have feelings of pain and discomfort." -- from inside book, page 3.
Finally, the truth about cats is out of the bag! If cat lovers are from Venus, then cats hail from another planet altogether. Mischievous and aloof one moment, affectionate the next, the cat is a confounding creature right down to its question mark of a tail. What cat owner hasn’t wondered what goes on inside that mysterious kitty brain? In this companion to It’s a Dog’s Life . . . but It’s Your Carpet, veterinary specialist Dr. Justine A. Lee answers your questions about all things feline in this entertaining and enlightening guide. An animal lover with two cats of her own, Dr. Lee combines scientific research with irreverent humor to address questions ranging from the common to the offbeat, including: • Do cats always land on their feet? • Can I train my cat to use the toilet? • Do cats have belly buttons? • How do I stop my cat from begging for food at 5:45 a.m.? • Can cats really predict death or cancer? • How can I make my antisocial cat more social? Dr. Lee also shares helpful hints on what to look for in a veterinarian. (Helpful Hint No. 1: Find a veterinarian who owns a cat.) She also reveals what every veterinarian wants you to know about being a smart consumer and pet owner. With tips on dealing with kitty’s more irksome behaviors (yes, she has some), advice on looking out for her health and well-being, and plenty of laughs, It’s a Cat’s World . . . You Just Live in It helps cat owners love and understand their quirky feline companions more than ever.
"Life or movie: Which comes first?" is a glimpse into an aspiring screenwriter's mind as he tries to figure out the inner workings of high concept movies. The author starts out with the premise that there are very easy rules that govern storytelling, rules which are universal and tolerate no exceptions. That is how he was led to discard traditional perspectives of movie analysis one after the other (Field, Campbell, Jung, Freud) which all proved to be unfaithful to observable facts. The author proposes then a change of paradigm and a different look at storytelling: fiction is like magic; you cannot explain it or it will break the spell, ruin the magic. But when you think about it, there are no two rational ways of making a rabbit appear from a hat.
Her loyalties will be tested. "[The series is] an absolute joy to read! I laughed out loud. Repeatedly. Bite Me, Try Me, Fang Me." - @ Books With Bite What's a vampire slayer to do when San Antonio's vampire leader goes missing and rogue vampires are suddenly on the rise? Find him and bring him back--no matter what the cost--before the vacuum of power pits vampire against vampire in a deadly showdown for supremacy . . . with her boyfriend Austin's immortal life at stake. When she discovers that her ex, Shade, may have been "accidentally" responsible, Val Shapiro's problems take on a whole new dimension and her loyalty to everyone in her life will be tested. Parker blue lives in the wilds of Colorado with her own faithful hellhound, and she's hard at work on the next Val Shapiro book in the Demon Underground Series.
Harvest of Thorns tells the story of Benjamin Tichafa who grows up in Rhodesia in the 1960s. From a conservative, religious family, but exposed to the heady ideas of the black nationalist movements, the young student is pulled in different directions. Isolated and troubled at boarding school, he is provoked into leaving, making his way to Mozambique, and joining the freedom fighters. There, in the crucible of a bitter civil war of liberation, the young man develops into manhood. Returning, hardened, at independence, he feels that little has changed, not least within his own family circumstances, and asks himself what it means to be free in the new Zimbabwe.
Growing up in a rural Hampshire village during the immediate post-war years, Peter and his companions lead a carefree existence roaming the countryside at will and finding adventures round every corner. Their great hero is an artist living hermit-like on the edge of the forest, universally known as Jimmy the Saint. Jimmy holds them spellbound with tales of the village’s past: Chirper Edwards the ineffectual town-crier; No-Good Naughton and Freddy the Fop, the Squire’s disreputable forebears; Stoyan the Jutish warrior, and Morgana the pagan goddess. How smugglers once swaggered along tunnels beneath the Square, highwaymen shared their loot at Harry’s turnpike and mythical creatures – the grampus, screech-owl and cockatrice – awaited unsuspecting wayfarers in the neighbouring woodland. But all is not as it seems, nor Jimmy the man they’d taken him to be, as Peter – now a university lecturer – discovers by chance some forty years later. He and his wife, Helen, set out to trace such rumours to their source, discover the truth behind the man’s sudden disappearance and the background he’d never discuss. The story that emerges is one of espionage and insanity, homicide and betrayal, with Jimmy implicated at every stage. As the evidence mounts and the pace of the investigation quickens Peter realizes that he, too, has played a part in his hero’s downfall. The clues have been there all along, revealed in Mappa Mundi, Jimmy’s final picture, the search for which uncovers a narrative darker and more sinister than anything the artist himself could have imagined. Chorus Endings is a fast-moving, light-hearted novel with unexpected twists and darkly sinister undertones. As such it will appeal to fans of authors such as Robert Harris and Anne Tyler alike.
Bringing social theory and philosophy to bear on popular movies, novels, myths, and fairy tales, The Gift and its Paradoxes explores the ambiguity of the gift: it is at once both a relation and a thing, alienable and inalienable, present and poison. Challenging the nature of giving as reciprocal, the book engages critically with the work of Mauss and develops a new theory of the gift according to which the gift cannot be reduced to a model of exchange, but must instead entail a loss or sacrifice. Ultimately, the gift is examined in the book as the impossible occurrence of gratuitous giving. In addition to exploring the conditions of possibility and impossibility of the gift, the book draws on the thought of figures such as Derrida, Serres, Simmel, Cixous, Irigaray and Heidegger to argue for the relevance of the phenomenon of the gift to broader issues in contemporary social sciences. It takes up questions concerning the constitution of community and the processes by which people are included in or excluded from it, gender relations, materiality, the economy, and the possibility that death itself could be a gift, in the form of euthanasia or self-sacrifice. A rigorous yet accessible examination of the phenomenon of the gift in relation to a range of contemporary concerns, The Gift and its Paradoxes will appeal to scholars and students within sociology, philosophy, anthropology, political theory and film and literature studies.
THE MAYOR’S SON DIES. THE CITY DESCENDS INTO CHAOS. ***** Kane Kulpa is an ex-con with a conscience. Vincent Bayonne is the troubled detective that put him away. Now, these two friends struggle to maintain order as the city's underworld reaches a tipping point. Detective Bayonne breaks his personal code for a higher good, and Kane Kulpa realizes he's his own worst enemy. In a damaged town where it’s hard to tell the guilty from the innocent, how do you keep the peace? A hard-boiled crime thriller that’s perfect for fans of Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and James Sallis!
Under apartheid, black South Africans experienced severe material and social disadvantages occasioned by the government’s policies, and they had limited time for entertainment. Still, they closely engaged with an array of textual and visual cultures in ways that shaped their responses to this period of ethical crisis. Marshaling forms of historical evidence that include passbooks, memoirs, American “B” movies, literary and genre fiction, magazines, and photocomics, Black Cultural Life in South Africa considers the importance of popular genres and audiences in the relationship between ethical consciousness and aesthetic engagement. This study provocatively posits that states of oppression, including colonial and postcolonial rule, can elicit ethical responses to imaginative identification through encounters with popular culture, and it asks whether and how they carry over into ethical action. Its consideration of how globalized popular culture “travels” not just in material form, but also through the circuits of the imaginary, opens a new window for exploring the ethical and liberatory stakes of popular culture. Each chapter focuses on a separate genre, yet the overall interdisciplinary approach to the study of genre and argument for an expansion of ethical theory that draws on texts beyond the Western canon speak to growing concerns about studying genres and disciplines in isolation. Freed from oversimplified treatments of popular forms—common to cultural studies and ethical theory alike—this book demonstrates that people can do things with mass culture that reinvigorate ethical life. Lily Saint’s new volume will interest Africanists across the humanities and the social sciences, and scholars of Anglophone literary, globalization, and cultural studies; race; ethical theories and philosophies; film studies; book history and material cultures; and the burgeoning field of comics and graphic novels.
Why does my dog lick his balls? Admit it; you’ve always wanted to know. Well, finally there’s a professional out there who’s not too embarrassed to answer–bone-fide veterinarian, critical-care specialist, and dog lover Dr. Justine A. Lee. It’s a Dog’s Life . . . but It’s Your Carpet takes you behind the scenes to look at the training and off-the-record opinions of a certified vet, and answers all the questions you’ve always wanted to ask about your dog, including: Is a dog's nose a good indicator of his health? Can a Chihuahua and a Great Dane mate? Why do dogs eat their own poop? What's the smartest breed? Can I get my dog's ears pierced? Why does my dog roll around in rotting feces? If I mix food coloring with Fluffy's kibble, will it make her poop easier to find in the yard? Written by one of two hundred veterinary board-certified emergency critical-care specialists in the world, It’s a Dog’s Life . . . but It’s Your Carpet offers factual and funny answers to some of the most common, offbeat questions about our beloved companions. Whether you’re looking for advice on pet rearing, solutions to your dog's most frustrating habits, explanations of his weirdest quirks, or simply a good laugh, this book is sure to inform–and entertain–dog lovers of every breed.
