The Cowrie Necklace is a graphic account of the struggle for meaning in life. The poems are a carefully woven sizzling and cracking attempt to mirror society. The poet runs a long and wide gamut of poetic themes which include the intricacies of joy and sadness, God and the devil, nature and nurture, good and evil, love, deceit and treachery. The narrative style is reminiscent of Wole Soyinka, Francesco Nditsouna and D.H. Lawrence. The Cowrie Necklace is a must read.
Discover the Cowrie Shells and Learn How to Read the Messages of Ifá and the Higher Spiritual Planes Divination with cowrie shells is one of the oldest known spiritual practices in the world. Originated by the Yoruba people of West Africa, cowrie shell divination is a powerful technique for connecting to the wisdom of ancestors, spirits, and deities. This book shares the history of cowrie shell divination and shows you how to open the portals of spiritual communication with the shells and related divination systems, such as cola nuts and coconuts. Written by a long-time practitioner, African Cowrie Shells Divination provides the meaning of the sixteen shell combinations as well as tips and variations for readings based on the specific question being asked. Discover the powerful messages of the Orishas and the mystical divination techniques of Candomblé, Santería, and other traditions of the African diaspora. Explore the instructive stories known as patakkís and apply their guidance to your life. The cowrie shells are sacred magical tools. With the history, theories, and hands-on instructions in this guide, you will learn how the shells can be used to answer your most important questions and achieve your true destiny.
An Indie Next Pick A Silver 2019 Nautilus Book Award Winner A Kirkus Reviews 2019 Best of the Year Selection Westworld meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this stunning fantasy adventure from debut author Charlotte Nicole Davis. Aster, the protector Violet, the favorite Tansy, the medic Mallow, the fighter Clementine, the catalyst THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls—they know their luck is anything but. Sold to a “welcome house” as children and branded with cursed markings. Trapped in a life they would never have chosen. When Clementine accidentally kills a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by Arketta’s most vicious and powerful forces, both human and inhuman, their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one Good Luck Girl to another, a story that only the youngest or most desperate would ever believe. It’s going to take more than luck for them all to survive. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Originating in the sea, especially in the waters surrounding the low-lying islands of the Maldives, Cypraea moneta (sometimes confused with Cypraea annulus) was transported to various parts of Afro-Eurasia in the prehistoric era, and in many cases, it was gradually transformed into a form of money in various societies for a long span of time. Yang provides a global examination of cowrie money within and beyond Afro-Eurasia from the archaeological period to the early twentieth century. By focusing on cowrie money in Indian, Chinese, Southeast Asian and West African societies and shell money in Pacific and North American societies, Yang synthsises and illustrates the economic and cultural connections, networks and interactions over a longue durée and in a cross-regional context. Analysing locally varied experiences of cowrie money from a global perspective, Yang argued that cowrie money was the first global money that shaped Afro-Eurasian societies both individually and collectively. He proposes a paradigm of the cowrie money world that engages local, regional, transregional and global themes.
First published in 1944, The Building of Jalna is one of sixteen books in the Jalna series written by Canada's Mazo de la Roche. In The Building of Jalna, Adeline, an impulsive bride with an Irish temper, and her husband, Captain Whiteoak, select Lake Ontario as the site of their new home. De la Roche chronicles their trials and tribulations during the building of the house, the swimming and skating parties, and the jealousies and humourous events that arise. This is book 1 of 16 in The Whiteoak Chronicles. It is followed by Morning at Jalna.
Explore friendship, love, revenge, life and death in the pages of From Hereabout Hill. A spell-binding collection of short stories from the nation's favourite storyteller, Michael Morpurgo. Michael Morpurgo demonstrates why he is considered to be the master story-teller with this diverse collection of stories for children. Included in this collection of short stories is a poignant tale about civil war, where a young girl hides from enemy soldiers in a public toilet; a haunting story of a little girl swept out to sea while collecting cowrie shells; and the moving account of two brothers, who, over the years, create a mental picture of their absent father. Michael Morpurgo has written more than one hundred books for children and won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children's Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times.
A Science Friday Best Science Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year A Tampa Bay Times Best Book of the Year A stunning history of seashells and the animals that make them that "will have you marveling at nature…Barnett’s account remarkably spirals out, appropriately, to become a much larger story about the sea, about global history and about environmental crises and preservation" (John Williams, New York Times Book Review). Seashells have been the most coveted and collected of nature’s creations since the dawn of humanity. They were money before coins, jewelry before gems, art before canvas. In The Sound of the Sea, acclaimed environmental author Cynthia Barnett blends cultural history and science to trace our long love affair with seashells and the hidden lives of the mollusks that make them. Spiraling out from the great cities of shell that once rose in North America to the warming waters of the Maldives and the slave castles of Ghana, Barnett has created an unforgettable history of our world through an examination of the unassuming seashell. She begins with their childhood wonder, unwinds surprising histories like the origin of Shell Oil as a family business importing exotic shells, and charts what shells and the soft animals that build them are telling scientists about our warming, acidifying seas. From the eerie calls of early shell trumpets to the evolutionary miracle of spines and spires and the modern science of carbon capture inspired by shell, Barnett circles to her central point of listening to nature’s wisdom—and acting on what seashells have to say about taking care of each other and our world.