A Postmodern re-imagining of the Great Detective as a traumatized polymath and an Indian doctor. Charlotte Holmes & Dr Watan investigate a new courtesan who may be a Maharaja's illegitimate daughter and Branwell stumbles upon a plot to assassinate the new King. Loyalties are tested and friendships are shattered in the conclusion of the Calcutta Quartet of the Charlotte Holmes Mysteries.
In this groundbreaking anthology, sixteen renowned writers tell the hidden story of the AIDS crisis, illuminating the complex nature of one of the major problems facing the developing world. India is home to almost 3 million HIV cases, but AIDS is still stigmatized and shrouded in denial. Discrimination against HIV-affected individuals in hospitals, schools, and even among families is common, just as discussion about HIV and participation in prevention or treatment programs are not. In this riveting book, sixteen of India's most well-known writers go on the road to uncover the reality of AIDS in India and tell the human stories behind the epidemic.Kiran Desai travels to the coast of Andhra Pradesh, where the sex workers are considered the most desirable; Salman Rushdie meets members of Mumbai's transgender community; William Dalrymple encounters the devadasis, women who have been “married” to a temple goddess and thus are deemed acceptable for transactional sex. Eye-opening, hard-hitting, and moving, AIDS Sutra presents a side of India rarely seen before. From the Trade Paperback edition.
With imaginative lushness and narrative elan, Mehta provides a novel that combines Indian storytelling with thoroughly modern perceptions into the nature of love--love both carnal and sublime, treacherous and redeeming. "Conveys a world that is spiritual, foreign, and entirely accessible."--Vanity Fair. Reading tour.
While endeavoring to tell this story, I needed clarification on which approach to take. I could present this work in an entirely academic format. However, I am reminded of what my comparative religions professor would say at the beginning of his lectures...” Intellectuals are boring. We will attempt to tell the story from the griot format. You may have wondered why I am writing this book. This is the third book in my series from the Yoruba-American Theological Arch ministry. Inspired by the library in the Oyotunji Village in South Carolina, these books are intended to educate our children, students, clients, and followers of our beliefs, customs, and traditions. The first book in the series, “Ile Ifa International,” was presented as a format for beginning worship and establishing your spiritual home, or “Ile,” as we call it. The second book, “The Voodoo Kings,” was presented to emphasize the elders in the Diaspora and their work. Art...art, love of culture and tradition, and respect for elders and teachers are essential to practicing the tradition. Due to the demonization of the tradition in Hollywood and other media sources, the beauty and refinement of art and the genius of the literature have been reduced to the default term “Voodoo” to represent the many manifestations of the tradition throughout the diaspora. We love the practice in all its images and attempt to educate beyond the simplifications. It is their birthright for Yoruba Americans, and you should know which tradition resonates with your soul or spirit. In this latest book. “Bablawo” looks at the Yoruba Americans' future and their vision for the future in the Diaspora.
"Who was Vatsyayana? What motivated this intriguing personality in the third century to compile ancient erotic texts, replete with his witty aphorisms, into the Kama Sutra, the ultimate treatise on love and the art of lovemaking? Kama is a fictionalised account of the life and times of Vatsyayana. Seemingly, a manual for the hedonist about town, the Kama Sutra reveals another tale—written in blood—of broken hearts, lyrical violence, ageless love, and unbridled lust! Set in 273 AD, in a land fraught with war and unrest, Kama is the story of a catastrophic day in a writer-artist’s life that sets him off on a journey unto himself, beyond the boundaries of love, family and betrayal. This fast-paced story of tragedy and triumph beguiles and captivates as it flits seamlessly between an agonising past, an erotic present and a cataclysmic future."
Nonfiction. WHORE CARNIVAL is Shannon Bell's feminist genealogy of prostitution, linking the ancient Greek "hetaera"-the holy courtesan - to the sex industry workers of post-modern Babylon. In these interviews, pleasure texts and "cuntceptual" essays you'll meet the Art Tart and the Slut Goddess, the Scarlot Harlot and the Marquesa, the Dean of Students at the Academy For Boys Who Want To Be Girls, the Mistress of the House of Domination, and many more magical whores and hustlers, sex artists and porno-politicos, all of them with an eye - or some other body part - on the orgiastic issues of sexual and social insurrection.
From “China’s foremost literary satirist” (Financial Times) comes a captivating new novel set at a religious training center in Beijing, focusing on the unlikely love story of a Buddhist nun and a Daoist priest At the Religious Training Center on the campus of Beijing’s National Politics University, disciples of China’s five main religions—Buddhism, Daoism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam—gather for a year of intensive study and training. In this hallowed yet jovial atmosphere, the institute’s two youngest disciples—Yahui, a Buddhist jade nun, and Gu Mingzheng, a Daoist master—fall into a fast friendship that might bloom into something more. This year, however, the worldly Director Gong has an exciting new plan: he has organized tug-of-war competitions between the religions. The fervor of competition offers excitement for the disciples, as well as a lucrative source of fundraising, but Yahui looks on the games with distrust: her beloved mentor collapsed after witnessing one of these competitions. Gu Mingzheng, meanwhile, has his own mission at the institute, centering on his search for his unknown father. Soon it becomes clear that corruption is seeping ever more deeply into the foundation of the institute under Director Gong’s watch, and Yahui and Gu Mingzheng will be forced to ask themselves whether it is better to stay committed to an increasingly fraught faith or to return to secular life forever—and nothing less than the fate of the gods itself is at stake. Illustrated throughout with beautiful original papercuts, animated by Yan Lianke’s characteristically incisive sense of humor, Heart Sutra is a stunning and timely novel that highlights the best and worst in mankind and interrogates the costs of division.
For everyone who's a geek in the streets, a freak in the (Star Wars) sheets—or wants to be—comes a guide for nerds, by nerds. Today's nerds are loud, proud . . . and thirsty. They've stepped away from their action figure collections and toward the infinitely diverse collection of like-minded folk who are as turned on by cosplay as they are by foreplay. But as knowledgeable as they are, nerds aren't always experts when it comes to the logistics of sex. Enter The Con-a-Sutra: A Guide to Full Frontal Nerdity. This book is much more than The Idiot's Guide to Mensa Sex and light years ahead of a collection of IKEA "put tab Blaarf into slot Numdoggal" instruction sheets. Accompanied by classic comic book inspired art, noted fictional sexpert Professor Balls Xxxavier literally and figuratively illustrates the modern nerd's wildest fantasies through a series of hilarious (if occasionally unachievable) sexual positions. Written to be inclusive of LGBTQ nerds, The Con-a-Sutra recognizes that nerds come in all body types, gender identities, and sexual orientations. Whether you prefer "The Splash Page," "Wookiee Nookiee," or "The Wayne Manner," there is something here for everyone—even if only a hysterical and reference-packed break from your favorite smutty fanfic. From viral fan artists to passionate gamers, and from talented cosplayers to bookworms with overflowing comic collections, nerds are found in every demographic of modern society, making this the perfect gift for your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, brother, sister, office-mate, nerd-in-law, or any of the millions of people who proudly belong to a pop culture fandom. A comical compendium of con-friendly coitus, The Con-a-Sutra lets you boldly go where no nerd has gone before.
