All around the world people are affected by and in awe of a full moon. In this poetic exploration of the lunar wonder, places near and far provide the backdrop for discovering celebrations, beliefs, customs and facts about the moon. From Broadway to Hong Kong to the International Space Station, the various perspectives, sparkling verses and depth of information create a fascinating rendering of a familiar, yet remarkable sight.
Translated by William McNaughton, former chair at Hong Kong University, and poet David Young at Oberlin College, these poems showcase Qin Guan, a relatively unknown 11th -century master of Chinese verse whose company could include the likes of the esteemed Li Po (Li Bai) and Du Fu. Praised by the illustrious Wang An-shih, Guan was a disciple of Su Shih (Su Dongpo) one of China's masters of multiple literary forms, and who strived to loosen the poetic conventions of the day. As an acolyte would, Qin Guan blew out the conventional even more by writing about his encounters with courtesans, a subject considered to be a major indiscretion by Chinese society in Keifing. He wrote is a style called t'zu, a lyrical form that McNaughton likens to "cabaret songs" or "words to music" often chosen by the courtesans to sing during their professional entertainments. Quong lived a tumultuous life during the Northern Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1127) Political clashes led to a string of banishments and exiles, his poetry was shunned for its sensuality, and he suffered from the vicissitudes of love-all of which moved him to write these brief, incandescent poems of departure and "long goodbyes."
A Time Magazine 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time selection! A Reader’s Digest Best Children’s Book of All Time! This stunning fantasy inspired by Chinese folklore is a companion novel to Starry River of the Sky and the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award finalist When the Sea Turned to Silver In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer. Grace Lin, author of the beloved Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat returns with a wondrous story of adventure, faith, and friendship. A fantasy crossed with Chinese folklore, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a timeless story reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz and Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Her beautiful illustrations, printed in full-color, accompany the text throughout. Once again, she has created a charming, engaging book for young readers.
Pure Winds Bright Moon depicts the untold odyssey of a runaway, stowaway youth from 1800's Japan who sailed into New York Harbor in 1899. In 1906, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving on five battleships as a trusted officer's steward to heroic captains and commanders. He also served under Admirals and other high-ranking officers at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Because of his long and honorable 30-year military service, in 1942, he became the only Japanese male of record in U.S. history to have been Honorably Exempted from incarceration in America's WWII Japanese concentration camps. It further covers his unprecedented triumph as among the first Japanese to be naturalized in 1919, racially-intolerant Pensacola, Florida, as well as being among the first in U.S. history. Astonishingly, his citizenship was upheld on appeal while the citizenship of hundreds of other Japanese was denied or revoked. Contrary to alien land laws prohibiting Japanese from owning land, he was also among the first to own property. Pure Winds Bright Moon also encompasses his post-military career as a stately steward to Hollywood's 20th Century Fox Chairman, Joseph Schenck, to legendary singer-showman Al Jolson and to silent screen star Norma Talmadge. In 1969, in the sunset of his career, he was celebrated as the oldest surviving crewmember of the U.S.S. New Jersey, the most celebrated battleship in naval history. This important historical work further recounts the unpublished history of his Hapa-Japanese family's attainment of exemption from being unceremoniously uprooted from their homes and confined in Japanese prison camps along the west coast. It also explores the Army's weird, wonderful and racist Mixed Marriage Policy, which paradoxically, prevented their arrest and recounts their ordeal in coping with race prejudice, harassment and vigilante violence while living unimprisoned in the lion's den of wartime Los Angeles. It further exposes the bloodguilty baiting of the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his war cabinet by obstructing the Pearl Harbor commanders' military operations to search and destroy the Japanese fleet.
This volume weaves together the Scottish otter stories from Gavin Maxwell's three non-fiction books, Ring of Bright Water (1960), The Rocks Remain (1963), and Raven Meet Thy Brother (1969). Maxwell was both an extraordinarily evocative writer and a highly unusual man. While touring the Iraqi marshes, he was captivated by an otter and became a devoted advocate of and spokesman for the species. He moved to a remote house in the Scottish highlands, co-habiting there with three otters and living an idyllic and isolated life – at least for a while. Fate, fame, and fire conspired against this paradise, and it, too, came to an end, though the journey was filled with incident and wonder. Maxwell was also talented as an artist, and his sinuous line drawings of these amphibious and engaging creatures, and the homes they occupied, illustrate his story. This book stands as a lasting tribute to a man, his work, and his passion. It was received and has endured as a classic for its portrait not only of otters but also of a man who endured heartaches and disappointments, whose life embodied both greatness and tragedy. He writes with rare eloquence about his birth, his devotion to the beloved Scottish highlands, and the wildlife he loved, while refusing to ignore the darker aspects of his nature and of nature in its larger sense.
"The author's talent for dramatic, well-timed dialogue, and portrayal of women's friendships and emotions-especially dislikes, jealousy, and fear - intensifies the reader's understanding of palace intrigue."—Booklist, STARRED Review The time for taking hold of her destiny is now At the moment of the Emperor's death, everything changes in the palace. Mei, his former concubine, is free, and Pheasant, the heir and Mei's lover, is proclaimed as the new Emperor, heralding a new era in China. But just when Mei believes she's closer to her dream, Pheasant's chief wife, Lady Wang, powerful and unpredictable, turns against Mei and takes unthinkable measures to stop her. The power struggle that ensues will determine Mei's fate–and that of China. Surrounded by enemies within the palace that she calls home, Mei continues her journey to the throne in The Empress of Bright Moon, the second book in Weina Dai Randel's acclaimed duology. Only by fighting back against those who wish her harm will Mei be able to realize her destiny as the most powerful woman in China.
In 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in "boyish" topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.
'Bright Dead Things buoyed me in this dismal year. I'm thankful for this collection, for its wisdom and generosity, for its insistence on holding tight to beauty even as we face disintegration and destruction.' Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You A book of bravado and introspection, of feminist swagger and harrowing loss, Bright Dead Things considers how we build our identities out of place and human contact - tracing in intimate detail the ways the speaker's sense of self both shifts and perseveres as she moves from New York City to rural Kentucky, loses a dear parent, ages past the capriciousness of youth and falls in love. In these extraordinary poems Ada Limón's heart becomes a 'huge beating genius machine' striving to embrace and understand the fullness of the present moment. 'I am beautiful. I am full of love. I am dying,' the poet writes. Building on the legacies of forebears such as Frank O'Hara, Sharon Olds and Mark Doty, Limón's work is consistently generous, accessible, and 'effortlessly lyrical' (New York Times) - though every observed moment feels complexly thought, felt and lived.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . . Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth. A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.
