When a seemingly routine medical procedure results in her mother's premature death, Anne Panning is left reeling. In her first full-length memoir, the celebrated essayist and short story writer draws on decades of memory and experience, piecing together hard truths about her own past and her mother's. We follow Panning's winding path from rural Minnesota to the riverbanks of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. A stark, poignant tale of two women deeply connected, yet forever apart, Dragonfly Notes is a testament to the prevailing nature of love, whether in the form of a rediscovered note, a sudden moment of unexpected recall, or sometimes, simply, the sight a dragonfly flitting past.
Generations ago, ships full of refugees from a vast war accidentally blew into a narrow, sheltered harbor between the cliffs of two mountain ranges. The people called the vast and fertile valley beyond the harbor the Vale and settled there. The Vale was also home to wild animals, dragons, and magical creatures called elves...and magic. As the years passed, humans with no actual magical talent came to be born with a Gift--a single ability. Among the Gifted, only healers are widely accepted, but for others fear and distrust has led to prejudice, persecution, and even murder. Although elves, humans and dragons essentially live in peace together, the nearly immortal elves are intent on preserving the Vale's isolation from the rest of the world. At any cost. Shak is anything but a simple soldier with a clear-cut mission in life. He's consumed with the relentless need for revenge against a man who was once his best friend. But that obsession is far from his only. Shak can't forget he'd abandoned two helpless children during a battle. Though the deed that he can't forgive himself for happened in the past, far from changing, he can't get past it...until his grandmother, a witch, offers him the chance to redeem the dishonorable act. Those same children he'd left to their fate are in dire straits. To rescue them, he must travel to the mysterious and treacherous Crystal Valley and then find a way to get them back where they belong. Further complicating his life, the Crystal Valley holds a secret that threatens two armies, and Shak alone can save them. With an unequivocal mission staring him in the face, he discovers his enemy is close by--actually following him--and vengeance could at last be his. At a crossroads, he has no choice but to determine which task he'll undertake... and which to give up forevermore.
Shak is anything but a simple soldier with a clear-cut mission in life. He's consumed with the relentless need for revenge against a man who was once his best friend. But that obsession is far from his only. Shak can't forget he'd abandoned two helpless children during a battle. Though the deed that he can't forgive himself for happened in the past, far from changing, he can't get past it...until his grandmother, a witch, offers him the chance to redeem the dishonorable act. Those same children he'd left to their fate are in dire straits. To rescue them, he must travel to the mysterious and treacherous Crystal Valley and then find a way to get them back where they belong. Further complicating his life, the Crystal Valley holds a secret that threatens two armies, and Shak alone can save them. With an unequivocal mission staring him in the face, he discovers his enemy is close by--actually following him--and vengeance could at last be his. At a crossroads, he has no choice but to determine which task he'll undertake... and which to give up forevermore.
Two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly apprehended as enemy agents. By the time they are freed, the city is already under siege. Over in the imperial capital the young emperor, Alvdan, is becoming captivated by a remarkable slave, the vampiric Uctebri, who claims he knows of magic that can grant eternal life. In Collegium, meanwhile, Stenwold is still trying to persuade the city magnates to take seriously the Wasp Empire's imminent threat to their survival. In a colorful drama involving mass warfare and personal combat, a small group of heroes must stand up against what seems like an unstoppable force. This volume continues the story that so brilliantly unfolded in Empire in Black and Gold - and the action is still non-stop.
'One of the most unforgettable books I have read in the last few years... What a writer! What a thinker! What a woman!' Fiammetta Rocco From the award-winning author of Dust comes a magical, sea-saturated, coming-of-age novel that transports readers from Kenya to China and Turkey. On an island in the Lamu Archipelago lives a solitary, stubborn child called Ayaana and her mother, Munira. When a sailor, Muhidin, enters their lives, the child finds something she has never had before: a father. But as Ayaana grows into adulthood, forces of nature and history begin to reshape her life, leading her to distant countries and fraught choices. Selected as a descendant of long-ago Chinese shipwrecked sailors Ayaana is sent to study in China. Leaving her resourceful single mother, she is forced to grow up fast. Whether it's the scarred captain of the Chinese shipping container that transports Ayaana or the son of Turkish shipping magnate who trades in refugees, Owuor never loses a profound sense of empathy for her characters. She evokes a fascinating kind of beauty in this dangerous, chaotic world and its ever-shifting oceans and trade. Told with a glorious lyricism, The Dragonfly Sea is a transcendent story of love and adventure, and of the inexorable need for shelter in a dangerous world. 'One of Africa's most exciting voices ... The Dragonfly Sea is a continent-hopping novel of epic proportions.' Refinery29 'In its omnivorous interest in the world, The Dragonfly Sea is a paean to both cultural diffusion and difference . . . as much as [the novel] traces the globe, it also depicts an internal pilgrimage, its heroine in rose attar a broken saint.' New York Times 'Owuor continues to break ground among contemporary African writers.' Vanity Fair
On Dragonfly Wings – a Skeptic's Journey to Mediumship, is a candid and personal search for the meaning of life, of death and of grief. It aims to give hope to those who have lost a loved one and to those who are about to pass beyond – hope that this is not an end. Written for lay people, rather than experienced spiritualists or mediums, and for anyone who is curious about exploring further, it provides practical tools to help readers find their own spiritual truth and path. ,
Generations ago, ships full of refugees from a vast war accidentally blew into a narrow, sheltered harbor between the cliffs of two mountain ranges. The people called the vast and fertile valley beyond the harbor the Vale and settled there. The Vale was also home to wild animals, dragons, and magical creatures called elves...and magic. As the years passed, humans with no actual magical talent came to be born with a Gift--a single ability. Among the Gifted, only healers are widely accepted, but for others fear and distrust has led to prejudice, persecution, and even murder. Although elves, humans and dragons essentially live in peace together, the nearly immortal elves are intent on preserving the Vale's isolation from the rest of the world. At any cost. Shak is anything but a simple soldier with a clear-cut mission in life. He's consumed with the relentless need for revenge against a man who was once his best friend. But that obsession is far from his only. Shak can't forget he'd abandoned two helpless children during a battle. Though the deed that he can't forgive himself for happened in the past, far from changing, he can't get past it...until his grandmother, a witch, offers him the chance to redeem the dishonorable act. Those same children he'd left to their fate are in dire straits. To rescue them, he must travel to the mysterious and treacherous Crystal Valley and then find a way to get them back where they belong. Further complicating his life, the Crystal Valley holds a secret that threatens two armies, and Shak alone can save them. With an unequivocal mission staring him in the face, he discovers his enemy is close by--actually following him--and vengeance could at last be his. At a crossroads, he has no choice but to determine which task he'll undertake... and which to give up forevermore.
Experience the fantastic adventure filled with magical objects, secret sects, and life as we know it on the line! Mixing magic and physics, Ted Sanders has created an epic story that has the feel of classic fantasy but twists it into something new and innovative. From the moment Horace F. Andrews sees the sign from the bus—a sign with his own name on it—everything changes. The sighting leads him underground, to the House of Answers, a hidden warehouse full of mysterious objects. But there, he finds only questions. What is this curious place? Who are the strange, secretive people who entrust him with a rare and immensely powerful gift? And what is he to do with it? When Horace finds the Box of Promises in the curio shop, he quickly discovers that ordinary-looking objects can hold extraordinary power. From the enormous, sinister man shadowing him to the gradual mastery of his newfound abilities to his encounters with Chloe—a girl who has an astonishing talent of her own—Horace follows a path that puts the pair in the middle of a centuries-old conflict between two warring factions in which every decision they make could have disastrous consequences.
Nine-year-old Adi is the clumsiest kid ever. After she oversleeps, misses her school bus, and hears her parents fighting, Adi wants nothing more than to escape for a while. But after her mother drops her off at school, Adi has no idea her wish is about to come true. During first period recess, Adi follows a dragonfly inside a bush on the playground. But suddenly, a violent thunderstorm approaches, the ground trembles, the earth cracksand Adi finds herself precariously hanging from a branch above a huge hole. Moments later Adis arms give out, and she plunges far beneath the earth into a strange new world. Adi quickly learns that she has been called to this land for a purpose and that she has a journey to complete. Adis new dragonfly friend, Flutter, says that she has been to the kingdom before, but Adi cannot remember anything about it. As Adi begins her expedition, she makes a mistake that transports her back to her own worldwhere she makes a shocking discovery. In this charming fantasy tale, a young girl is swept away on an exciting and dangerous adventure, where she soon realizes she must summon the courage to help save a dying landbefore it is too late.
This book is an engaging introduction to dragonflies for a general reader, incorporating facts, conservation information, illustrations, and the author's personal stories.
