The final book in the lively, fun series for tween girls--just right for Disney Channel fans! With her powers under control and things with Jonathan on track, Sophie can now focus on learning the whole truth about her dad (not to mention trying to figure out how she can save him and bring him back to their family). Fortunately, she's got Malik, her djinn-guide, to help her as she navigates carpet-flying, learns how to make herself invisible, and braces herself for what promises to be a very exciting adventure. But if it brings her dad back, it will all be worth it!
A deep exploration of the regenerative and magical secrets of sacred masculinity hidden in familiar myths both ancient and modern • Reveals the restorative fungi archetype of Osiris, the Orphic mysteries as an underground mycelium linking forests and people, how Dionysus teaches us about invasive species and playful sexuality, and the ecology of Jesus as depicted in his nature-focused parables • Liberates Tristan, Merlin, and the Grail legends from the bounds of Campbell’s hero’s journey and invites the masculine into more nuanced, complex ways of dealing with trauma, growth, and self-knowledge Long before the sword-wielding heroes of legend readily cut down forests, slaughtered the old deities, and vanquished their enemies, there were playful gods, animal-headed kings, mischievous lovers, trickster harpists, and vegetal magicians with flowering wands. As eco-feminist scholar Sophie Strand discovered, these wilder, more magical modes of the masculine have always been hidden in plain sight. Sharing the culmination of eight years of research into myth, folklore, and the history of religion, Strand leads us back into the forgotten landscapes and hidden secrets of familiar myths, revealing the beautiful range of the divine masculine, including expressions of male friendship, male intimacy, and male creative collaboration. In discussing Dionysus and Osiris, Strand encourages us to think like an ecosystem instead of like an individual. She connects dying, vegetal gods to the virtuous cycle of composting and decay, highlighting the ways in which mushrooms can restore soil and heal polluted landscapes. Exploring esoteric Christianity, the author celebrates the Gnostic Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas, imagining the ecology that the Rabbi Yeshua would have actually been referencing in his nature-focused parables. Strand frees Tristan, Merlin, and the Grail legends from the bounds of Campbell’s hero’s journey and invites the masculine into more nuanced, complex ways of dealing with trauma, growth, and self-knowledge. Strand reseeds our minds with new visions of male identity and shows how each of us, regardless of gender, can develop a matured ecological empathy and witness a blossoming of sacred masculine powers that are soft, curious, connective, and celebratory.
A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Sophie is no ordinary house spider. She's an artist and takes great pride in her work. Every web she spins is more wonderous than the one before. But the guests at Beekman's Boardinghouse don't like spiders. Everywhere Sophie goes guests scream and shoo her away. No one there wants anything to do with Sophie and her magnificent creations - no one except the young woman up on the third floor who is busy 'weaving' something herself; and when she runs out of yarn, Sophie knows that the time has finally come to create the masterpiece of a lifetime.
A charming, meticulously researched, and illuminating look at how technology infiltrates every aspect of raising children today, filled with helpful advice parents can use to best navigate the digital landscape, and ultimately learn to trust their own judgment. There’s an app or device for nearly every aspect of parenting today: monitoring your baby; entertaining or educating your toddler; connecting with other new parents for tips, tricks, and community—virtually every aspect of daily life. But it isn’t a parenting paradise; the truth is much more complicated. The mother of two young daughters, journalist Sophie Brickman wondered what living in a tech-saturated world was doing to her and her children. She turned to experts, academics, doctors, and innovators for advice and insight. Baby, Unplugged brings together Brickman’s in-depth research with her own candid (sometimes hilarious) personal experience to help parents sort through the wide and often confusing tech offerings available today and to sort out what’s helpful and what’s not. Filled with relatable and entertaining stories as well as practical takeaways, Baby, Unplugged is destined to become a touchstone for parents today, giving them the permission to forge their own path through the morass of technological options, to restore their faith in themselves, and to help them raise good, social, and engaged people in the modern world.
Meet the master of magical creatures: Sophie Johnson! She’s an expert on unicorns…or so she thinks! Sophie is a unicorn expert. She dresses up her toys, stuffed animals, and even her baby brother as unicorns! But living with enchanted animals can be tricky business. And Sophie is so caught up in teaching others that she fails to notice the magic right under her nose. This funny and fresh picture book tells the story of a unicorn hiding in plain sight and a little girl who is totally oblivious to his presence!
From streets where poverty is a living, tangible presence to the majestic splendour of the Taj Mahal, the contradictions and fascinations of unexpected adventures in India are vividly brought to life in this story about Sophie, the principal character from whom the book takes its name. Invited there to join an old school friend mysteriously connected to her by a peculiar English flower, Sophie experiences a land of exotic customs and breath-taking monuments. After encountering an enigmatic spiritual teacher and eventually acquiring wealth beyond her wildest dreams, she is ultimately faced with a unique opportunity to become an agent of heroic change in the struggling world of a poor, angelic housemaid.
STOP!!! Sophie’s scream shook Sandeep to the core and he slammed on the brake. They came to a screeching halt. ‘What happened?’ But Sophie didn’t have to answer… the roaring landslide thundered down and the path ahead vanished before their eyes. ‘How did you know!!’ The shock and bewilderment were mutual. Sophie had no idea what happened. She knew something had warned her, but what? What was this voice she heard in her head? There was something about her that she herself didn’t understand… Why did the outhouse give her an uneasy feeling? There’s a deep secret in the house, a mystery she couldn’t fathom. She needed to plan her every move. Something within her told her, she needed to be more careful. She sensed something diabolical in the house.
Although Sophie's Choice by William Styron won the American Book Award for fiction, it met with some very mixed reviews. Some critics regarded the novel as bombastic and melodramatic-in short, a colossal failure. In William Styron's "Sophie's Choice," Rhoda Sirlin demonstrates that Sophie's Choice is Styron's most audacious, original, and artistically successful novel to date. First, this book will counter the many critics who have assailed the novel as anti-Semitic. Sirlin then counters the argument that Sophie's Choice is a sexist novel and that Styron and his youthful alter ego, Stingo, are misogynists. Finally, Sirlin explores the novel's powerful theme-absolute evil, showing that while insisting on the power and inextinguishability of evil in human beings and nature, Styron ultimately provides a compassionate vision of humanity struggling for meaning in an indifferent universe. Through this examination, Sirlin shows that Styron must be appreciated as one of the most audacious and humane voices in contemporary literature.
Adam and Sophie Dean's good-enough marriage could easily have lasted forever. But Adam succumbs to pressure from his mistress to leave Sophie, and in the course of his carefully prepared farewell speech, Sophie has a revelation: unless she leaves him in the family home in the role of primary caregiver, he'll have a severely diminished role in the lives of their two sons. So while Adam continues to live in the suburban house he despises-with his two children and his angry mistress, who'd never planned for this turn of events-Sophie sets out alone into an alluring new life nearby, close enough to see her sons every day, but far removed from her former life of domestic drudgery. As she and Adam grow into their new roles, they discover what it actually means to act in their children's best interests, and that the end of a marriage can be a beginning.
