Based on real events, this story shows how a team of international volunteers worked together to save priceless artifacts after a flood. When the Arno River floods the city of Florence, Italy in 1966, it leaves slimy, smelly mud everywhere. A young girl watches students from around the world, many from the US, help save the town's rare treasures, earning themselves the nickname Gli Angeli del Fango, the Mud Angels.
Beautiful Wall takes us on a profound journey through the deserts of the Southwest where the ever-changing natural landscape and an aggressive border culture rewrite intolerance and ethnocentric thought into human history. Inextricably linked to his Mexican ancestry and American upbringing, Ray Gonzalez's new collection mounts the wall between the current realities of violence and politics, and a beautiful, never-to-be-forgotten past. Ray Gonzalez is the author of fifteen books of poetry. The recipient of numerous awards, including a 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southwest Border Regional Library Association, he is a professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
With the help of her ever-present guardian angel, Marguerite, her affectionate horse, Dancer, and a mercurial cat, Tina embarks on a metaphysical journey that takes her through time and space. She learns valuable lessons that teach her how to cope with a variety of heart-wrenching problems, from her grandmother's inflexible personality to her mother's protracted illness. Concepts from the fields of quantum physics and metaphysics will be explored by Tina, and as she applies them in her personal life, she experiences the emotional growth and development that enables her to take control of her seemingly out of control life.
"Secret societies, immortality, murder mysteries and Las Vegas all in one book? Shut up and take my money." —John Scalzi The Incrementalists—a secret society of two hundred people with an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories. Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else's, has loved Celeste—and argued with her—for most of the last four hundred years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules—not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world. "Watch Steven Brust. He's good. He moves fast. He surprises you. Watching him untangle the diverse threads of intrigue, honor, character and mayhem from amid the gears of a world as intricately constructed as a Swiss watch is a rare pleasure." —Roger Zelazny At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
An art conservator heads back to Florence, to solve the mystery of a painting and a crime that still haunts her In 1966, when Florence’s Arno River unleashed its worst flood in four hundred years, killing people and destroying much of the city, the teenage Kate Holland felt compelled to act. She became one of the “angels of the flood,” helping to restore Florence, and in the process she fell in love with the city—as well as with David, one of her fellow volunteers. She also forged a transformative friendship with a local girl, Francesca. But a shattering accident left Francesca dead and forced Kate to return to England. Now a successful art conservator, Kate is plunged back into her Florentine past. David turns up at one of her lectures, and she confides to him that an anonymous dealer has been sending her some unsettling paintings. The works have been altered in ways that suggest a message for Kate specifically. For instance, a female figure is overpainted with blood that echoes Francesca’s fatal injury. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, Kate and David set off for Italy. Francesca’s family had dark secrets, and their power lingers. Are the signals in the paintings a trap, or a cry for help?
'An unputdownable thriller' Gregory Dowling 'It is no surprise to find that Philip Gwynne Jones lives in Venice... art and architecture interweave into a story that builds to an almost surreal climax' Daily Mail 'Gwynne Jones's talent for evoking place and atmosphere is clear as ever' Literary Review _______________ It's the night of 12 November 2019. The worst flooding in 50 years hits the city of Venice. 85% of La Serenissima is underwater. Gale force winds roar across the lagoon and along the narrow streets. And the body of Dr Jennifer Whiteread- a young British art historian, specialising in the depiction of angels in Venetian painting - is found floating in a flooded antique bookshop on the Street of the Assassins. As the local police struggle to restore order to a city on its knees, Nathan Sutherland - under pressure from the British Ambassador and distraught relatives - sets out into the dark and rain-swept streets in an attempt to discover the truth behind Whiteread's death. The trail leads to the "Markham Foundation", a recent and welcome addition to the list of charities working to preserve the ancient city. Charming, handsome and very, very rich, Giles Markham is a well-known and popular figure in the highest Venetian social circles, and has the ear of both the Mayor and the Patriarch. But a man with powerful friends may also have powerful enemies. And Nathan is about to learn that, in Venice at least, angels come in many forms - merciful, fallen and vengeful... _______________ Praise for Philip Gwynne Jones 'Superb - always gripping, beautifully constructed and vivid' Stephen Glover 'Clever and great fun' The Times 'Sinister and shimmering, The Venetian Game is as haunting and darkly elegant as Venice itself' L.S. Hilton, bestselling author of Maestra 'The Venetian setting is vividly described... good, fluid writing makes for easy reading' Literary Review 'Un-put-downable . . . If you love Venice, you'll love this because you'll be transported there in an instant. If you've not been to Venice, read this book and then go. If you like intrigue, and a clever plot, you'll love this book' Amazon reviewer, 5***** 'The lively, colourful narrative scuds along as briskly as a water taxi...you'll enjoy the ride' Italia Magazine
Two stories, one harrowing tale. Switching between 2014 and 991 AD, history endeavours to repeat itself. If DCI William Constable is to catch a killer and expose an international drug trafficking ring before it is too late, he will need to stray from the path to which fate has called him.
This is an introduction into what it really means to be a U.S. Navy SEAL in today's U.S. Navy-in the sea, in the air, and on the land. The U.S. Navy's elite specialists are among the most highly trained forces capable of undertaking dangerous missions into enemy territory. Hollenbeck takes you through the relentless twenty-five week training, including "hell" week, when soldiers are put through five days of training with fewer than 4 hours of sleep.About the Author and Photographer:Cliff Hollenbeck and Dick Couch followed SEAL Class 228 through months of rigorous training. Their words and photos are one of the most accurate portrayals of this demanding program ever put into print.
What is depression? An “imagined sun, bright and black at the same time?” A “noonday demon?” In literature, poetry, comics, visual art, and film, we witness new conceptualizations of depression come into being. Unburdened by diagnostic criteria and pharmaceutical politics, these media employ imagery, narrative, symbolism, and metaphor to forge imaginative, exploratory, and innovative representations of a range of experiences that might get called “depression.” Texts such as Julia Kristeva’s Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia (1989), Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon (2000), Allie Brosh’s cartoons, “Adventures in Depression” (2011) and “Depression Part Two” (2013), and Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia (2011) each offer portraits of depression that deviate from, or altogether reject, the dominant language of depression that has been articulated by and within psychiatry. Most recently, Ann Cvetkovich’s Depression: A Public Feeling (2012) has answered the author’s own call for a multiplication of discourses on depression by positing crafting as one possible method of working through depression-as-“impasse.” Inspired by Cvetkovich’s efforts to re-shape the depressive experience itself and the critical ways in which we communicate this experience to others, Re/Imagining Depression: Creative Approaches to “Feeling Bad” harnesses critical theory, gender studies, critical race theory, affect theory, visual art, performance, film, television, poetry, literature, comics, and other media to generate new paradigms for thinking about the depressive experience. Through a combination of academic essays, prose, poetry, and interviews, this anthology aims to destabilize the idea of the mental health “expert” to instead demonstrate the diversity of affects, embodiments, rituals and behaviors that are often collapsed under the singular rubric of “depression.”
