Pearl hopes for happiness, but destiny is drawing her deep into the shadows of her family's tainted past. Raised in a New Orleans mansion filled with kindness and laughter, Ruby Landry's daughter Pearl dreams of becoming a doctor. But, after a cruel accident befalls one of Pearl's twin brothers, her tormented mother flees back to her Cajun roots, and Pearl's dreams of success swirl away with the hurricane winds. In the warm embrace of a gentle Cajun man, she discovers a refuge. But until the shocking truths of her heritage are finally uncovered, Pearl will never be able to find true peace of mind.
While traveling in the south of India, fourteen-year-old John and his mother encounter the Irish missionary Amy Carmichael and find themselves drawn into helping the work of the Dohnavur Fellowship.
The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.
Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth. With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra’s long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world’s amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag. Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.
The first novel in the spellbinding Landry family series. The only family Ruby Landry has ever known are her loving grandparents. Although her mother is dead and she has never met her mysterious father, Ruby is grateful for all she has, especially when her attraction for handsome Paul Tate blossoms into a wonderful love. But Paul's wealthy parents forbid him to associate with a poor Landry, and when Ruby's grandmother dies, she is forced to seek out the father she has never known in his vast New Orleans mansion. There, in a house of lies, madness and cruel torment, a shameful deception comes to light, and Ruby must cling to her memories of Paul: for only their love can save her now.
"Showcasing jewels and bringing them to life, these 40 stories are an intriguing blend of art, science, history and psychology, tracing the lives of jewels and all those connected to them. The authors have brought their considerable knowledge and experience of handling jewellery and gemstones to compiling a lavishly illustrated book of stories in which the jewels are not always the most expensive or 'important' to have passed through the saleroom, but rather are those that have an intriguing history or provenance attached to them.Spanning diverse cultures and countries, different time periods and design eras, the stories allow us into the private lives of those who have loved and lost jewellery, who have owned and treasured, commissioned, designed, created, given and received it, and who have marked the most memorable moments of their lives with it." --
Provides a crystal clear roadmap for personal transformation. This book is not about the kind of happiness you see on billboards or television commercials. It is about being present right now for the ups and downs of life in a loving and compassionate way. It is about being ourselves fully and being responsible for what we are creating in our lives. It is about being willing to heal our wounds so that we can reconnect with the joy that is our birthright.
To know the Self, is to know the All. This little book presents the essence of the process of spiritual awakening with insight and clarity. Containing 81 verses similar to the Tao Te Ching, it radiates truth in a simple but profound way that makes it accessible to readers.
A photographic album from the island of Roatan, largest of the Bay Islands, Roatan Magic includes chapters on the island's geography, history, culture, traditions, flora, fauna and diverse people. In the photographs of Roatan Magic, Roatan's mosaic of cultures, ethnic groups, natural environment and freedom of lifestyle come alive.
Her high school graduation just days away, Gabriel Landry is blissfully happy - until rich cannery owner Octavious Tate waylays her near a secluded pond and shatters her innocence, forever. Pregnant and desolate, Gabriel agrees to a shocking plan that will allow Octavious' frigid wife, Gladys, to claim the baby as her own. But nothing can prepare Gabriel for the terrible moment when Gladys takes her baby away. Drifting in a world of gloom, Gabriel is only comforted by chance glimpses of her son, until a hunting party brings handsome Creole millionaire Pierre Dumas to the bayou. Falling desperately in love, Gabriel will not heed the voice warning her that their joy may bring her more grief than she can bear.
