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Composing Magic: How to Create Magical Spells, Rituals, Blessings, Chants and Prayer
Par Elizabeth Barrette. 2007
“Like a modern Saraswati [the author] leads us through the brainstorming for a topic, rhythm, meter, poetic form, self-editing, and…
ritual literature.” —Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D., author of Pagan Every DayYou’ve attended rituals that took your breath away. You’ve borrowed spells out of books. You’ve read splendid Pagan poetry in magazines. Now learn to compose all these types of magical writing yourself! Composing Magic guides you through the exciting realm of magical and spiritual writing.You’ll explore the process of writing, its tools and techniques, individual types of composition, and ways of sharing your work with other people. The book shows you how to write:• Basic and advanced forms of poetry• Spells• Chants and rounds• Prayers• Blessings• Solitary and group ritualsEach type of writing includes its history and uses, which cover diverse traditions. Step-by-step instructions lead you through the creative process. Examples demonstrate finished compositions of each type, while exercises help you develop your skills by practicing what you’ve just read. You’ll discover that magical writing has more impact when it comes from the heart. Anyone can develop the skills needed to create effective compositions, but the most successful writers reveal their souls. Composing Magic will also show you ways of deepening your craft through performance and publication. Whether you practice solitary or in a group, this book will help you write with more power, more beauty, and less effort.“A smart, well-crafted book.” —Kenaz Filan, managing editor of newWitch“Composing Magic blends the craft of poetry and the Craft of magic in one dish.” —Chas S. Clifton, author of Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in AmericaThe E.T. Chronicles: What Myths and Legends Tell Us About Human Origins
Par Rita Louise, Wayne Laliberté. 2014
The E.T. Chronicles is a startling and comprehensive examination of ancient myths and legends that describe extraterrestrial visitors and their…
encounters with humanity since the dawn of time. Organized into a chronology that starts with "in the beginning" and ends with the advent of civilization, it brings together myths from many cultures (including the Sumerians, the Greek, the Maya and the Aborigines of Australia) and explores them in the context of current scientific discoveries. The result is a mind-blowing re-visioning of human origins through close reading of ancient texts relating to: • creation• gods and goddesses• heaven• the gods and their toys (space ships or chariots?)• the quest for immortality Could it be that those ancient stories of the gods were more than just the product of someone's fanciful imagination? Is it possible that the writers, chroniclers, and scribes of our distant past actually record an accurate view of our origin? Could it be that we are really children of the stars?Anna Komnene and the Alexiad: The Byzantine Princess and the First Crusade
Par Ioulia Kolovou. 2020
&“Kolovou . . . rescues Anna from the talons of misogynist historians and places her where she belongs as an extraordinary, but…
very human, woman.&” —Beating Tsundoku A woman of extraordinary education and intellect, Anna Komnene was the only Byzantine female historian and one of the first and foremost historians in medieval Europe. Yet few people know of her and her extraordinary story. Subsequent historians and scholars have skewed the picture of Anna as an intellectual princess and powerful author. She has been largely viewed as an angry, bitter old woman, who greedily wanted a throne that did not belong to her. After being exiled to a convent, she composed the Alexiad, the history of the First Crusade and the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118), her father. This book aims to present Anna Komnene—the fascinating woman, pioneer intellectual, and charismatic author—to the general public. Drawing on the latest academic research to reconstruct Anna&’s life, personality and work, it moves away from the myth of Anna the conspirator and &“power-hungry woman&” which has been unfairly built around her over centuries of misrepresentation. It places Anna Komnene in the context of her own time: the ancient Greek colony and medieval Eastern Roman empire, known as Byzantium, with the magnificent city of Constantinople at its heart. At the forefront of an epic clash between East and West, this was a world renowned for its dazzling wealth, mystery and power games. This was a world with Anna Komnene directly at the center.&“Well-written, well-researched, and an overall fascinating read . . . A brilliant addition to women&’s history.&” —Where There&’s Ink There&’s PaperThe diarist&’s account of her life in the early 1920s explores &“the conflict she felt between artistic longings and her…
pre-ordained female fate&” (The Detroit News). Continuing the journey of self-education and self-discovery she began in Linotte, Anaïs Nin discloses a part of her life that had previously remained private. She discusses the period in which she met Hugo Guiler, the young man who later became her husband, and made the wrenching transition from the shelter of her family to the world of artists and models. She also reveals the struggle she faced between her expected role as a woman and her determination to be a writer—a negotiation that still poses difficulties for many of us almost a century after Nin wrote this diary. &“Through sheer nerve, confidence, and will, Nin made of the everyday something magical. This was a gift, indeed, and it&’s a fascinating process to witness.&” —The Christian Science Monitor With a preface by Joaquin Nin-CulmellThe Road to San Giovanni
Par Italo Calvino. 1993
From the Italian author, personal essays featuring his relationship with his father, his love of movies, and fighting fascism during…
World War II. &“In each other&’s presence we became mute, would walk in silence side by side along the road to San Giovanni. To my father&’s mind, words must serve as confirmations of things, and as signs of possession; to mine, they were foretastes of things barely glimpsed, not possessed, presumed.&” —from The Road to San Giovanni In these autobiographical essays, published after Italo Calvino&’s death, the intellectually vibrant writer not only reflects on his own past but also inquires into the very workings of memory itself. From the title essay&’s lyrical evocation of the author&’s relationship with his father, and a charming account of teenage years spent in the glow of the cinema screen, to Calvino&’s reminiscences of his experiences in the Italian Resistance during World War II and of his years in Paris, to his declaration of purpose as a writer in the final essay&’s visionary fragments, these five &“memory exercises&” are heartfelt, affecting, and wise.Praise for The Road to San Giovanni&“Brimming with Calvino&’s beautifully crafted prose, dry humor, and continual questioning . . . Calvino has been very well served by his translator, Tim Parks.&” —Observer&“In five elegant &“memory exercises&” written between 1962 and 1977, Italian fiction writer Calvino (1923-85) presents an affecting self-portrait and offers indirect insights into how he conjured up his imaginary worlds . . . . This sparkling translation concludes with Calvino's lyric, metaphorical, highly elliptical description of his creative process.&” —Publishers WeeklyLost Son: An American Family Trapped Inside the FBI’s Secret War
Par Brett Forrest. 2023
A young American lost in Russia. An FBI-cover up. A mystery leading from Washington to the heart of the Kremlin's…
war in Ukraine. When Billy Reilly vanished, his parents embarked on a desperate search for answers. Was their son&’s disappearance connected to his mysterious work for the FBI, or was it a personal quest gone wrong? Only when Wall Street Journal reporter Brett Forrest embarks on his own investigation does a picture emerge: of the FBI's exploitation of US citizens through a secretive intelligence program, a young man's lust for adventure within the world's conflicts, and the costs of a rising clash between Moscow and Washington.Sept. 11th roused Billy Reilly's curiosity for religions, war, and the world and its people beyond his small town near Detroit. Online, Billy taught himself Arabic and Russian. His passions led him into jihadi Internet forums, attracting the interest of the FBI.An amateur drawn into professional intelligence, Billy became a Confidential Human Source, one of thousands of civilians who assist FBI agents with investigative work, often at great hazard and with little recourse. When Russia stirred rebellion in Ukraine, Billy set out to make his mark.In Russia, Billy's communications dropped. His parents, frantic, asked the FBI for help but struggled to find answers. Grasping for clues, the Reilly family turned to Brett Forrest. Commencing a quest of his own, Forrest applied years' worth of research, along with decades of extensive experience in Russia, illuminating the inner workings of the national-security machine that enmeshed Billy and his family, picking up the lost son's trail.A masterwork of reporting, composed like a thriller, blending political maneuvering and international espionage, Lost Son illustrates one man's coming of age amid new global dangers.Juliet: The Life and Afterlives of Shakespeare's First Tragic Heroine
Par Sophie Duncan. 2023
The enduring cultural legacy of Shakespeare&’s Juliet Capulet — a history "as vital and provocative as the character herself" (Literary…
Review).Romeo and Juliet may be the greatest love story ever told, but who is Juliet? Demure ingénue? Or dangerous Mediterranean madwoman? From tearstained copies of the First Folio to Civil War-era fanfiction, Shakespeare&’s star-crossed heroine has long captured our collective imagination. Juliet is her story, traced across continents through four centuries of history, theatre, and film. As Oxford Shakespeare scholar Sophie Duncan reveals, Juliet&’s legacy stretches beyond her literary lifespan into a cultural afterlife ranging from enslaved African girls in the British Caribbean to the real-life Juliets of sectarian violence in Bosnia and Belfast. She argues that our dangerous obsession with the beautiful dead teenager and Juliet&’s meteoric rise as a defiant sexual icon have come to define the Western ideal of romance. Wry and inventive, Juliet is a tribute to fiction&’s most famous teenage girl who died young, but who lives forever.Precious Ramotswe: A Mysterious Profile (Mysterious Profiles)
Par Alexander McCall Smith. 2009
In this profile, the bestselling author of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series recounts the creation of his popular…
Botswanan sleuth. In 1998, Mma Precious Ramotswe made her debut in Alexander McCall Smith&’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. The Plain Dealer hailed the novel as &“One of the best, most charming, honest, hilarious and life-affirming books to appear in years.&” Decades and many books later, Precious has her own bestselling series, but readers may be wondering how exactly this beloved character came to be. In this profile, the prolific McCall Smith offers readers a behind-the-scenes look at the development of his delightful detective. He recounts his childhood spent in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and working in Botswana in the 1980s. He reveals the inspiration for Precious and discusses the experience of creating the first book and getting it published. Those and other tales are sure to entertain fans of Precious old and new. Praise for Alexander McCall Smith and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series &“The Miss Marple of Botswana.&” —The New York Times Book Review &“Smart and sassy . . . Precious&’ progress is charted in passages that have the power to amuse or shock or touch the heart, sometimes all at once.&” —Los Angeles Times &“The author&’s prose has the merits of simplicity, euphony and precision. His descriptions leave one as if standing in the Botswana landscape. This is art that conceals art. I haven&’t read anything with such alloyed pleasure for a long time.&” —Anthony Daniels, The Sunday Telegraph &“McCall Smith is a master. . . . There&’s beauty and revelation of one kind or another woven expertly into every line.&” —The Christian Science Monitor &“Comfort-food reading, and never more welcome.&” —Kirkus ReviewsA Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition
Par Ernest Hemingway. 1964
Ernest Hemingway&’s classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, now available in a restored edition, includes the original manuscript along…
with insightful recollections and unfinished sketches.Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway&’s most enduring works. Since Hemingway&’s personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined the changes made to the text before publication. Now, this special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published. Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest&’s sole surviving son, and an introduction by grandson of the author, Seán Hemingway, editor of this edition, the book also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, and his first wife Hadley. Also included are irreverent portraits of literary luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Maddox Ford, and insightful recollections of Hemingway&’s own early experiments with his craft. Widely celebrated and debated by critics and readers everywhere, the restored edition of A Moveable Feast brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the unbridled creativity and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.The Key to Tarot: Advice and Exercises to Unlock Your Mystical Potential
Par Sarah Bartlett. 1971
Unlock your own innate psychic potential with this guide to the art of Tarot.The Tarot can help you to make…
crucial decisions, confirm your true desires for the future, and enhance self-understanding.Perfect for beginner and intermediate Tarot enthusiasts, The Key to Tarot provides an overview of Tarot and uses a combination of detailed background information and fun, simple lessons and exercises to help build your skills.Learn all there is to know about reading and interpreting the seventy-eight cards in a Tarot deck and using them for the benefit of yourself and others.In addition, each of the book’s four main sections concludes with a specially designed “masterclass” that takes you to a deeper level of understanding, if you feel ready to do so.Alex Delaware: A Mysterious Profile (Mysterious Profiles #8)
Par Jonathan Kellerman. 2009
The #1 New York Times–bestselling author discusses his early days as a writer and the creation of his beloved psychologist…
and sleuth.In 1985, clinical child psychologist Alex Delaware made his debut in the mystery novel When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman. But how did Kellerman create a character who would go on to win him Edgar and Anthony Awards for best first novel and make him a number-one New York Times–bestselling author? Discover in this short read how Delaware and his friend and partner, police detective Milo Sturgis, came to be. Inside, Kellerman shares his initial struggles with the publishing world and the story behind his first success. He also details when he realized he had a series on his hands and how he developed his heroes into the characters who continue to delight millions of readers decades later.Praise for the Alex Delaware Novels“Startling . . . Charged with suspense. This one is simply too good to miss.” —Stephen King on Over the Edge“Harrowing . . . The work of a novelist of uncommon insight and storytelling skill.” —Los Angeles Times“High-powered . . . Alex Delaware is no ordinary psychologist. . . . He is also a born detective.” —The New York Times“An engrossing thriller. . . . This knockout of an entertainment is the kind of book which establishes a career in one stroke.” —Newsday on When the Bough BreaksBob Lee Swagger: A Mysterious Profile (Mysterious Profiles #6)
Par Stephen Hunter. 2009
The Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling author describes how he created his popular veteran sniper.Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Bob Lee…
Swagger debuted in Stephen Hunter’s military action thriller Point of Impact in 1993. The book was the first of many adventures for the fictional sniper and inspired a hit-movie, as well as a television series. But what led to the invention of such a character?In this quick read, Hunter shares how “the Nailer” came to his kitchen table and subsequently sprang to life. Hunter discusses the real-life hero who served as his inspiration for Swagger, the development of his first villains, and the influence the television show Dragnet had on his writing. He also details how research helped shaped Swagger’s world, and explains what keeps him writing adventure after adventure.Praise for the Bob Lee Swagger Novels“Nobody writes action better than Stephen Hunter and Black Light is one of his best. . . . [The] action scenes play like a movie, the plot is intriguing and the writing is top-notch.” —Phillip Margolin, author of The Burning Man“Stephen Hunter is in a class by himself. Time to Hunt is as vivid and haunting as a moving target in the crosshairs of a sniper scope.” —Nelson Demille, author of Mayday“The best straight-up thriller writer at work today.” —Rocky Mountain News“Thrilling in the manner of ancient storytellers, with battles fierce enough for a war and characters crazy enough to fight them to the death.” —New York Times Book Review“A thinking man’s Rambo.” —Publishers WeeklyProust Was a Neuroscientist
Par Jonah Lehrer. 2008
The New York Times–bestselling author provides an &“entertaining&” look at how artists enlighten us about the workings of the brain…
(New York magazine). In this book, the author of How We Decide and Imagine: How Creativity Works &“writes skillfully and coherently about both art and science&”—and about the connections between the two (Entertainment Weekly). In this technology-driven age, it&’s tempting to believe that science can solve every mystery. After all, it&’s cured countless diseases and sent humans into space. But as Jonah Lehrer explains, science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, when it comes to understanding the brain, art got there first. Taking a group of artists—a painter, a poet, a chef, a composer, and a handful of novelists—Lehrer shows how each one discovered an essential truth about the mind that science is only now rediscovering. We learn, for example, how Proust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliot discovered the brain&’s malleability; how the French chef Escoffier discovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cézanne worked out the subtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deep structure of language—a full half-century before the work of Noam Chomsky and other linguists. More broadly, Lehrer shows that there&’s a cost to reducing everything to atoms and acronyms and genes. Measurement is not the same as understanding, and art knows this better than science does. An ingenious blend of biography, criticism, and first-rate science writing, Proust Was a Neuroscientist urges science and art to listen more closely to each other, for willing minds can combine the best of both to brilliant effect. &“His book marks the arrival of an important new thinker . . . Wise and fresh.&” —Los Angeles TimesBurl: Journalism Giant and Medical Trailblazer
Par Jane Wolfe. 2022
Burl is the story of one man&’s unlikely rise from the coal mines of Appalachia to the pinnacle of journalism.…
After being diagnosed with a fatal kidney disease as a child, Burl Osborne pioneered home dialysis treatment and became the 130th person to undergo a live kidney transplant in 1966—then an unproven, high-risk operation.While managing his challenging illness, Burl distinguished himself early as a writer and reporter with The Associated Press, eventually rising to the top of the wire service&’s executive ranks. Then, against the advice of his colleagues and the newspaper&’s own doctors, he sought an even greater challenge: joining The Dallas Morning News to lead the fight in one of America&’s last great newspaper wars. Throughout his life and career, he garnered respect from business and political leaders, reporters, editors, and publishers around the country. Burl thrusts readers into the improbable and remarkable life of a man at the forefront of both medicine and the golden age of journalism.Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man
Par David T. Hardy, Jason Clarke. 2004
Watching Michael Moore in action—passing off manipulating facts in Bowling for Columbine, spinning statistics in Stupid White Men and Dude,…
Where's My Country?, shamelessly grandstanding at the Academy Awards, and epitomizing the hypocrisy he's made a king's fortune railing against—has spurred authors David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke to take action into their own hands. In Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man, Hardy and Clarke dish it back hard to the fervent prophet of the far left, turning a careful eye on Moore's use of camera tricks and publicity ploys to present his own version of the truth.Postwar documentarians gave us the documentary, Rob Reiner gave us the mockumentary, and Moore initiated a third genre, the crockumentary.How, they ask, does Moore pull off a proletarian, "man-of-the-people" image so at odds with his lifestyle as a fabulously wealthy Manhattanite? And how large of an impact do his incendiary, ill-founded polemics have on the growing community that follows him with near-religious devotion? Loaded with well-researched, solidly reasoned arguments, and laced with irreverent wit, Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man fires back at one of the left's biggest targets—politically and literally.The Sixties: Diaries:1960–1969
Par Christopher Isherwood. 2010
“An intimate portrait of the life of a beautiful if neurotic mind… streaked with gossip, flinty observations, great good humor…
and—despite Isherwood’s fundamental discretion—plenty of frank talk.” — Dwight Garner, New York Times“These diaries are, in their core, a love story…thanks to [them], we bear witness to it all—and are all the richer for it.” — New York Journal of Books“A good writer…intensely self-aware…a fascinating companion…THE SIXTIES [is] accessible to everyone…a true piece of social history.” — Edmund White, New York Times Book Review“The diary entries in The Sixties are a mix of quotidian detail, social observation, moody reverie, gossip and self-rebuke.” — Wall Street Journal“Gossipy, funny, wide-ranging, and revealing…[Isherwood] comes across as approachable, aware, and passionately interested.” — Publishers WeeklyPulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power
Par James McGrath Morris. 2010
Like Alfred Nobel, Joseph Pulitzer is better known today for the prize that bears his name than for his contribution…
to history. Yet, in nineteenth-century industrial America, while Carnegie provided the steel, Rockefeller the oil, Morgan the money, and Vanderbilt the railroads, Pulitzer ushered in the modern mass media. James McGrath Morris traces the epic story of this Jewish Hungarian immigrant's rise through American politics and into journalism where he accumulated immense power and wealth, only to fall blind and become a lonely, tormented recluse wandering the globe. But not before Pulitzer transformed American journalism into a medium of mass consumption and immense influence. As the first media baron to recognize the vast social changes of the industrial revolution, he harnessed all the converging elements of entertainment, technology, business, and demographics, and made the newspaper an essential feature of urban life. Pulitzer used his influence to advance a progressive political agenda and his power to fight those who opposed him. The course he followed led him to battle Theodore Roosevelt who, when President, tried to send Pulitzer to prison. The grueling legal battles Pulitzer endured for freedom of the press changed the landscape of American newspapers and politics. Based on years of research and newly discovered documents, Pulitzer is a classic, magisterial biography and a gripping portrait of an American icon.Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends: My Life
Par John Leguizamo. 2006
“The high point: his breezy honesty.” — Entertainment Weekly“Leguizamo is one of the most excting talents to come along in…
some time.” — USA Today“[Leguizamo is] a remarkably mature writer . . . Astonishing.” — Newsweek“Brutally funny.” — The New York Times“This mix of the glib and the sometimes glam presents a refreshing cultural tonic.” — Publishers Weekly“Leguizamo’s autobiography is as singular as the man himself. ” — Library JournalThe Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait
Par Daniel Mark Epstein. 2011
Through the lens of four seminal concerts,acclaimed poet and biographer DanielMark Epstein offers an intimate, nuancedlook at Bob Dylan: a…
vivid, full-bodiedportrait of one of the most influential artistsof the twentieth century, from his birth tothe Never Ending Tour.Beginning with 1963’s Lisner Auditoriumconcert in Washington, D.C., Epstein revisitsDylan’s astonishing rise as the darling ofthe folk revival, focusing on the people andbooks that shaped him, and his struggle tofind artistic direction on the road in the1960s. Madison Square Garden, 1974, shedslight on Dylan’s transition from folk iconto rock star, his family life in seclusion,his subsequent divorce, and his highly anticipatedreturn to touring. Tanglewood,1997, reveals how Dylan revived his flaggingcareer in the late 1990s—largelyunder the influence of Jerry Garcia—discoveringnew ways of singing and connectingwith his audience, and assembling the greatbands for his Never Ending Tour. In abreathtaking account of the Time Out of Mindsessions, Epstein provides the most completepicture yet of Dylan’s contemporary workin the studio, his acceptance of his laurels,and his role as the éminence grise ofrock and roll today. Aberdeen, 2009, bringsus full circle, detailing the making of Dylan’striumphant albums of the 2000s, as well ashis long-running radio show.Drawing on anecdotes and insights fromnew interviews with those closest to theman—including Maria Muldaur, Happy Traum,D. A. Pennebaker, Nora Guthrie, Ramblin’ JackElliott, and Dylan’s sidemen throughout the years—The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a singulartake on an artist who has transformed generationsand, as he enters his eighth decade,continues to inspire and surprise today.Model Patient: My Life As an Incurable Wise-Ass
Par Karen Duffy. 2000
From Revlon spokesmodel to film actress to one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People," Karen Duffy was living the…
life most of us only dream of. Then her whirlwind life of celebrity parties came to an abrupt, grinding halt when she was stricken with a serious illness in one of its rarest forms: sarcoidosis of the central nervous system.Duffy soon realized that the only way for her to survive was not to take the disease too seriously. Instead of hiding from life, she chose to run toward it. She learned to embrace the chaos of a life-threatening disease with a wit and humor that helped her to find the love of her life at a time when things seemed darkest.Model Patient is a gripping, inspiring, and hilarious memoir that recounts the singular triumphs and tragedies of coping with a chronic, life-threatening disease.