Brian Denman is an ex CIA agent and mercenary turned private investigator who arrives in New Orleans to probe a centuries old myth. It illuminates a modern labyrinth of adventure love and vampires, culminating in an epic battle of destiny and revenge.
A beautifully illustrated meditation on the fullness of life for readers of all ages by by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Olga Tokarczuk. "Olga Tokarczuk’s The Lost Soul, an experimental fable illustrated by Joanna Concejo and translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, resonates with our current moment. . . . What a striking, and lovely, material object it is." —New York Times "The Lost Soul, by Olga Tokarczuk and illustrator Joanna Concejo, is a quiet meditation on happiness, following a busy man who loses his soul. . . It pours a childlike sense of wonder into a once-upon-a-time tale that is already resonating with adults around the world." —The Guardian The Lost Soul is a deeply moving reflection on our capacity to live in peace with ourselves, to remain patient, attentive to the world. It is a story that beautifully weaves together the voice of the Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk and the finely detailed pen-and-ink drawings of illustrator Joanna Concejo, who together create a parallel narrative universe full of secrets, evocative of another time. Here a man has forgotten what makes his heart feel full. He moves to a house away from all that is familiar to him to wait for his soul to return. "Once upon a time there was a man who worked very hard and very quickly, and who had left his soul far behind him long ago. In fact his life was all right without his soul—he slept, ate, worked, drove a car and even played tennis. But sometimes he felt as if the world around him were flat, as if he were moving across a smooth page in a math book that was covered in evenly spaced squares... " —from The Lost Soul The Lost Soul is a sublime album, a rare delicacy that will delight readers young and old. "You must find a place of your own, sit there quietly and wait for your soul." Winner of the Bologna Ragazzi Award, Special Mention 2018, Prix de l'Union Internationale pour les Livres de Jeunesse (IBBY), The White Raven (IJB Munich), and the Łódź Design Festival Award.
A heartfelt exploration of human grief after the loss of a pet by the New York Times bestselling author of Dogs Never Lie About Love. Over 84 million Americans—almost 3/4 of the US population—own a pet, and our society is still learning how to recognize and dignify that relationship with proper mourning rituals. We have only recently allowed the conversation of how to grieve for our non-human family members to come front and center. Lost Companions fills a specific, important demand, a massive need in the market for an accessible, meaningful book on pet loss. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson takes a very personal, heartfelt approach to this difficult subject, allowing readers to explore their own responses and reactions, suggesting ways through and out of grief, as well as meaningful ways to memorialize our best friends. Lost Companions is full of moving, thought-provoking and poignant stories about dogs, cats, horses, birds, wombats and other animals that beautifully illustrate the strong bond humans form with them.
Anna Claire has written these poems with older schoolchildren in mind, hoping they will encourage lively debate and reflection. Many of the poems are personal, and some are tragic but they are based on situations and circumstances that most of us encounter or face at some point during our lifetime. Reflection enables us to respond to others with understanding, and perhaps with the benefit of doing so, we are better equipped to deal with that which might otherwise overwhelm oneself, or those close to us. The human spirit is strong and has amazing abilities to overcome difficulties.
"I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to." And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.
Our story begins in a dusty little town in California, a bustling place called Hollywood... Isobel Ransom is anxious. Her father is away treating wounded soldiers in France, leaving Izzy to be the responsible one at home. But it's hard to be responsible when your little sister is chasing a fast-talking, movie-obsessed boy all over Hollywood! Ranger is directing his very own moving picture... and wants Izzy and Sylvie to be his stars. Izzy is sure Mother wouldn't approve, but scouting locations, scrounging film, and "borrowing" a camera turn out to be the perfect distractions from Izzy's worries. There's just one problem: their movie has no ending. And it has to be perfect—the kind of ending where the hero saves the day and returns home to his family. Safe and sound. It just has to. The Wild West atmosphere of early Hollywood and the home front of a country at war form a fascinating context to award-winning author J. B. Cheaney's new novel about the power of cinema in helping us make sense of an unexpected world. "I Don't Know How the Story Ends will grab you by your shirt and drop you right into the early days of Hollywood and movie making. Peopled with delightful characters who find that real life is not just like the movies, this is a funny, insightful, and touching celebration of friendship and family, the imagination, and the power of the movies."—Karen Cushman, Newbery Award-winning author of The Midwife's Apprentice "This book is a love letter to the art of storytelling, exploring how the creative process becomes something bigger than ourselves. It's a celebration of the way stories help us see our own lives more clearly."—Caroline Starr Rose, author of Blue Birds "J. B. Cheaney masterfully combines a family's pathos in wartime, a vivid sense of old Hollywood (including appearances by the era's superstars), PLUS a suspenseful, creative adventure through an entirely new kind of storytelling: MOVING PICTURES!"—Cheryl Harness, acclaimed author of Mary Walker Wears the Pants and The Literary Adventures of Washington Irving
Fr. Paul Scalia reveals a scholar's mind and a pastor's heart in these inspiring reflections on a wide range of Catholic teachings and practices. Rooted in Scripture, these insights place the reader on a path to a deeper, more meaningful relationship with God. Among the topics explored are deepening one's knowledge of Jesus, partaking of the life of grace through the sacraments, and cultivating the art of prayer as a continuous conversation with God. Each section is introduced by a moving essay by a highly regarded Catholic. Fr. Paul Check, Jim Towey, Scott Hahn, Mary Ellen Bork, Gloria Purvis, Raymond Arroyo, Lizz Lovett, Helen Alvaré, and Dan Mattson offer their personal accounts of being Catholic, which are followed by Fr. Scalia's illuminations. Archbishop Charles Chaput contributes a thought- provoking foreword, which begins the reader's exploration of the many important aspects of the Catholic faith presented in this book.
Drawing on the French existentialists, British punks, the US beats, hippies and yippies, medieval thinkers, anarchists and 1970s back-to-the-landers such as Ivan Illich, Idlereditor Tom Hodgkinson provides a new, simple, joyful blueprint for modern living. He shows that consumer society has led not to a widening of freedoms but to the opposite, and that the key to a free life is to stop consuming and start producing. We are not consumers, we are creators! Following up his cult bestseller How To Be IdIe,Tom Hodgkinson takes us on an inspirational journey towards true freedom and happiness. Read How To Be Freeand learn how to throw off the shackles of anxiety, bureaucracy, debt, governments; housework, moaning, pain, poverty, ugliness, war and waste, and much else besides.
Rachel Huber returns to her hometown of Reflection to care for her ailing grandmother. Twenty years ago, a tragedy occurred in Reflection and everyone holds Rachel responsible. But she has allies in a young woman who was touched by the tragedy and a man who was her childhood friend. It's her grandmother, however, who surprises Rachel with her wise counsel and secrets she's long been concealing.