She was sent to the world as a child bathed in flames and secrets. Her name is Linn, she knows she is connected to the mythic Old Ones the creators and protectors of the known world. None know why they left. Only that with out them the world has been plunged into chaos and death as the powerful Red King seeks to claim the world for his own using his own stolen powers. Now an adult Linn must set out on a quest to find her place in this world and discover not only her connection to the Old Ones. Each new discovery reveals more enemies and more secrets. In her search Linn finds others like her who are the last of their kinds. They offer to aid in her search in hopes that maybe her completing her quest will aid the world and bring back the Old Ones. The more Linn learns about her past the more dire her future becomes. The Red King plots and waits around every corner. The fate of the world rests in the hand of one who has no idea just how powerful she really is.
When young Devon is forbidden from marrying his beloved by the Elders of the agrarian Cypress Corners community, he begins to question not only their authority, but why the sky is metal and the ground is not, and other troubling questions.
Julia Harmon was still a teenager the day George Benson swooped into her life. He stole her heart and folded her into his life with ease. She was barely into her twenties when she caught George with another woman. The devastation of his betrayal threatened to ruin Julia. When tragedy struck, there was no way to know her husband's ghost would track her from Vermont to the West Coast. There were plenty of twists in her quest to be free of George, but no shortcuts. She had to travel that long, difficult road to gain back the pieces of herself that had been smothered in her marriage. In the process, her personal dreams took wing.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory teamed up to write The Obsidian Trilogy, set in a wondrous world filled with magical beings, competing magic systems, and a titanic struggle between good and evil. That world proved so popular with the creators and readers alike that Lackey and Mallory have returned to it with The Phoenix Unchained, Book One of The Enduring Flame, the opening volume of a new epic fantasy trilogy. After a thousand years of peace, much Magick has faded from the world. The Elves live far from humankind. There are no High Mages, and Wild Mages are seen only rarely. Bisochim, a powerful Wild Mage, is determined to reintroduce Darkness to the world, believing that it is out of Balance. Tiercel, a young Armethalian nobleman, is convinced that High Magic is not just philosophy. He attempts a spell—and draws the unwelcome attention of Bisochim. Tiercel survives Bisochim's attack and begins trying to turn himself into a High Mage. Next in line to be Harbormaster of Armethalieh, Harrier instead finds himself regularly saving Tyr's life and meeting magickal people and creatures. To Harrier's dismay, it seems that he must become a hero. In The Phoenix Unchained, Harrier and Tiercel begin a marvelous journey to uncover their destinies. Along the way, they meet a charming female centaur, several snooty Elves, and the most powerful dragon their world has ever known. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
What is the consequence of allowing the pain of your past to create your life today? Kim's compelling story is a case study in how our thoughts affect our reality. It shows how miracles happen when we embrace our own worth and become who we are meant to be. Even though she has tried to outrun the pain all her life, in 2006, Kim, a successful businesswoman, comes face to face with her haunted past. Almost twelve years have passed since her intense emotional pain had turned into crushing migraine headaches. She now finds herself not only addicted to painkillers and alcohol, but also dealing with a mind that refuses to leave her alone. She begins to pray ... to die. Instead of dying, Kim experiences the miracle that brings her to sobriety. She finds herself very much alive and leading the life of her dreams. It is now that she receives the answer to her lifelong question, Why did all of this happen to a nice girl like me? Kim's story is powerful and written with courageous honesty. It takes the reader into the mind of a woman struggling to leave her past behind and find her self-worth. It's through recovery that Kim finds spirituality and begins to walk the path into a life better than she'd ever imagined she could live. This book is an inspirational must-read for anyone seeking to enrich the quality of his or her life.
This book tells the story of the German Democratic Republic from “the inside out,” using the lens of generational change to deconstruct an intriguing array of social identities that had little to do with the “official GDR” version authoritarian rulers regularly sought to impose on their citizens. The author compares the “identities” of five societal subgroups (GDR writers and intellectuals; pastors and dissidents; women; youth; and working-class men), exploring the policies defining their lives and status before/during/after the 1989 Wende, as well as the diverging “exit, voice and loyalty” dilemmas encountered by each. The “dialectical” components treated in this work center on the extent to which eastern identities were lost, found and reconfigured across three generations, from 1949 to 1989, from 1990 to 2005, then up to 2020. It explores how the existence of a separate East German state and the socialization processes imposed on each subculture has not only complicated the search for national unity since 1990 but also -- perhaps more controversially—invoked new challenges directly related to ongoing East-West structural disparities since unification and the treatment of eastern Germans by often more privileged western Germans.
Self-Help/Spirituality “Every now and then you come across an author whose words transform your life and inspire you forever. The wisdom, insight, stories, and gentle guidance within the pages of Stand Like Mountain proved to be a blessing in my life. I am eternally grateful. This tenth anniversary edition not only reinvigorates the human spirit, it's a celebration of life. Timeless and ageless wisdom is never out of style on the human journey.” --Joan Lunden, Author of Joan Lunden's Wake-up calls Times of stress may bring feelings of panic and mayhem, but when we call upon our inner resources, stress also provides the opportunity for spiritual growth. However, o ur path to our ultimate purpose is often blocked by guilt, greed, laziness, worry, and most destructive of all: fear and anger. In his inspiring and insightful book Stand Like Mountain , Flow Like Water , renowned expert on stress management, Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D., teaches you how to maneuver around these troublesome roadblocks and outlines the key to life: Balance--to stand secure and grounded like a mountain, but to flow like water. To help you reach your goals and destinations, Seaward points out that the mind, body, and spirit must be in harmony during our journey from the tumultuous sea of stress to the unfaltering rock of our spirituality. We can do so by relying on our natural-born inner resources (muscles of the soul) as our guides. This Tenth Anniversary Edition is filled with the most up-to-date insights and compelling stories regarding the mind-body-spirit connection and includes Dr. Seaward's latest stress-busting and healing strategies to help you: • Identify your innate resources to cope effectively to stressors • Strengthen the muscles of your soul for life's challenges • Deepen your soul-searching process to gain personal insights • Maintain a sense of balance and inner peace in a stressed-filled world • Identify and transition peacefully through the Seasons of the Soul Dr. Seaward's extensive research and teachings on the connection between stress and spirituality will soothe and harmonize your spirit and give you the tools to enhance and sustain connectedness with yourself, your purpose, and nature around you.
Few things get our compassion flowing like the sight of suffering. But our response is often shaped by our ability to empathize with others. Some people respond to the suffering of only humans or to one person’s plight more than another’s. Others react more strongly to the suffering of an animal. These divergent realities can be troubling—but they are also a reminder that trauma and suffering are endured by all beings, and we can learn lessons about their aftermath, even across species. With Phoenix Zones, Dr. Hope Ferdowsian shows us how. Ferdowsian has spent years traveling the world to work with people and animals who have endured trauma—war, abuse, displacement. Here, she combines compelling stories of survivors with the latest science on resilience to help us understand the link between violence against people and animals and the biological foundations of recovery, peace, and hope. Taking us to the sanctuaries that give the book its title, she reveals how the injured can heal and thrive if we attend to key principles: respect for liberty and sovereignty, a commitment to love and tolerance, the promotion of justice, and a fundamental belief that each individual possesses dignity. Courageous tales show us how: stories of combat veterans and wolves recovering together at a California refuge, Congolese women thriving in one of the most dangerous places on earth, abused chimpanzees finding peace in a Washington sanctuary, and refugees seeking care at Ferdowsian’s own medical clinic. These are not easy stories. Suffering is real, and recovery is hard. But resilience is real, too, and Phoenix Zones shows how we can foster it. It reveals how both people and animals deserve a chance to live up to their full potential—and how such a view could inspire solutions to some of the greatest challenges of our time.
Legacy of Ash is an unmissable fantasy debut--an epic tale of intrigue and revolution, soldiers and assassins, ancient magic and the eternal clash of empires. A shadow has fallen over the Tressian Republic. Ruling families -- once protectors of justice and democracy -- now plot against one another with sharp words and sharper knives. Blinded by ambition, they remain heedless of the threat posed by the invading armies of the Hadari Empire. Yet as Tressia falls, heroes rise. Viktor Akadra is the Republic's champion. A warrior without equal, he hides a secret that would see him burned as a heretic. Josiri Trelan is Viktor's sworn enemy. A political prisoner, he dreams of reigniting his mother's failed rebellion. And yet Calenne Trelan, Josiri's sister, seeks only to break free of their tarnished legacy; to escape the expectation and prejudice that haunts the family name. As war spreads across the Republic, these three must set aside their differences in order to save their home. Yet decades of bad blood are not easily set aside. And victory -- if it comes at all -- will demand a darker price than any of them could have imagined.
This book collects the efforts of a team of scholars working at the University of Torino under the auspices of the Project WWS (World-Wide Style). Focusing on diverse areas of inquiry into the transformations of the American city, the essays in this volume provide perspectives for understanding the complexity of urban cultures in the United States in the late 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries. Organized thematically, this book includes contributions in three main areas. The first area covers studies in U.S. history and history of ideas at the turn of the 20th century, in light of its migration/immigration processes as well as in its representations of national greatness and cultural hegemony as reflected in World's Fairs. The second area covers analyses of American literature in the double perspective of the recent emergence of a new form of «global novel», as well as the developments of new subgenres of urban fiction. A third area on inquiry focuses on new practices of organized religion in North America arising from the regionalization of the American metropolis in recent decades.
