To the casual visitor Santa Marta is a sub-tropical paradise, a small sister of Jamaica, Bermuda and Nassau, unmentioned in the colour-splashed brochures of travel agents: an island where the sun shines throughout the year on the sandy beaches of innumerable coves, on the cane-fields and coconut plantations, on the shingled hits of the peasant villages and the fine houses of the white planters handed down through generation after generation, from the Sugar Barons of a past century. But this was not how the newspaper columnist, Bradshaw, saw it when he arrived on his first trip to the Caribbean. Bradshaw found Santa Marta a smouldering volcano. This novel is a brilliantly successful evocation of the atmosphere and the problems of life on a West Indian island. It is a dramatic story, packed with incident and thrilling in this mounting tension. It weaves into the fortunes of a small group of islanders the ambitions and jealousies, the hopes and fears, the complexes and inhibitions of a people to whom the tint of the skin is more important than wealth, or power, or skill, whose tangled history has bequeathed a heritage of passion in an island where the blood never cools.
Following his spiritual journeys to the South and West described in Dance of the Four Winds, Villoldo prepares for the journey to the North, where lies the wisdom of the ancient Inca shamans. At the "Island of the Sun," a sacred site in Bolivia, Villoldo uncovers a profound secret about the journey to the East--the journey home.
In Trinidad, in the wake of 1970's Black Power rebellion, we follow Sonnyboy, Singer King Kala, and their town's folk through experiments in music, politics, religion, and love--and in their day-to-day adventures. Humorous and serious, sad and uplifting, Is Just a Movie, is a radiant novel about small moments of magic in ordinary life. Earl Lovelace's books include While Gods Are Falling, winner of the BP Independence Award; the Caribbean classic The Dragon Can't Dance; and Salt, which won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize. For Is Just a Movie, he has won the Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature by the Regional Council of Guadeloupe and the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
Perfect for fans of the Percy Jackson and Seven Wonders series, Island of the Sun is the second book in an epic, fast-paced middle grade adventure trilogy by acclaimed author Matthew J. Kirby. Eleanor and her friends have shut down the mysterious Concentrator in the Arctic, but their mission is far from over. The earth is still spinning out of its orbit and growing colder by the day. Their only chance is to find the other Concentrators embedded around the world and deactivate them before it’s too late. But doing so won’t be easy. The Global Energy Trust has branded Eleanor, her mother, and their friends international terrorists and is tracking their every move. The G.E.T. will stop at nothing to harness the power of the Concentrators in order to preserve the select few people its leaders deem worthy, and Eleanor is soon forced to ask herself whether it’s worth risking the lives of the entire human race for a slim chance to save it.
I Spy the Sun in the Sky will engage young readers with its take on the I-Spy game. The delightful illustrations by Italian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli will enchant small children and the lap book format will ensure that they pick it up again and again.
First published in 1957, this tells of Santa Marta, which to the casual visitor is a sub-tropical paradise, a small sister of Jamaica, Bermuda and Nassau, unmentioned in the colour-splashed brochures of travel agents: an island where the sun shines throughout the year on the sandy beaches of innumerable coves, on the cane-fields and coconut plantations, on the shingled hits of the peasant villages and the fine houses of the white planters handed down through generation after generation, from the Sugar Barons of a past century. But this was not how the newspaper columnist, Bradshaw, saw it when he arrived on his first trip to the Caribbean. Bradshaw found Santa Marta a smouldering volcano. This novel is a brilliantly successful evocation of the atmosphere and the problems of life on a West Indian island. It is a dramatic story, packed with incident and thrilling in this mounting tension. It weaves into the fortunes of a small group of islanders the ambitions and jealousies, the hopes and fears, the complexes and inhibitions of a people to whom the tint of the skin is more important than wealth, or power, or skill, whose tangled history has bequeathed a heritage of passion in an island where the blood never cools.
Ireland is home to some of the world's oldest astronomically-aligned structures, giant stone monuments erected over 5,000 years ago. Despite their apparent simplicity, these megalithic edifices were crafted by a scientifically knowledgeable community of farmers who endeavoured to enshrine their beliefs in a stellar afterlife within the very fabric of their cleverly-designed stone temples.Finally back in print, this reissued edition presents evidence suggesting the builders of monuments such as Newgrange and its Boyne Valley counterparts were adept astronomers, cunning engineers and capable surveyors. Their huge monuments are memorials in stone and earth, commemorating their creators' perceived unity with the cosmos and enshrining a belief system which resulted from a crossover between science and spirituality.As investigation of this awe-inspiring civilisation of people continues on many levels, evidence is emerging that significant archaeological sites dating from deep in prehistory are linked - not just through mythology, archaeology and cosmology - but through an arrangement of complex, and in some cases astonishing, alignments. Some of these alignments of ancient sites stretch from one side of Ireland to another.While the accounts of the lives of some prominent Irish saints appear to be steeped in folklore and mystery, it seems from new interpretations of the literature that the cosmic world view which existed in Neolithic Ireland experienced a continuity right into the Early Christian period.Join us on this fascinating exploration of stones, stars and stories."The sheer amount of information contained within the book is mind-boggling. It is well thought out and structured . . . The more you read the evidence the more convinced you become."- Astronomy & Space magazine"Refreshing and fascinating . . . a wonderful magical book, sumptuously illustrated and a must for anyone who loves to delve deep into our past." - Kenny's Irish Bookshop"A fascinating insight into Ireland's ancient burial sites" - Irish Independent"A monument" - Drogheda Independent"It is a beautiful book and very well written. The information that you collected is outstanding." - Barbara Carter, co-author, The Myth of the Year and The Goddess and the Bull"The authors . . . reach interesting and challenging conclusions about the significance of ancient astronomical knowledge. The book is jammed with colour illustrations, maps and photographs. A thoroughly interesting read!" - Archaeology Ireland."An essential book that demonstrates just how much the beliefs and practicesof our ancestors were influenced by the movement of the stars, in particularthose of the constellation Cygnus - the celestial swan and Northern Cross -once seen as a source of life and the destination of the soul in death. Amust have tome for all those passionate about what remains of our fastdisappearing ritual monuments of the prehistoric age." - Andrew Collins, author of The Cygnus Mystery
Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply. More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.
