When two young foxes set out to explore the forest, they encounter all kinds of creatures. Some of them are friendly, while others would like nothing more than to eat the two young explorers! Rusty and Ginger may be able to outfox bears, bobcats, cougars, and wolves, but can they unlock the mysterious box that awaits them on Treasure Island? And will the little girls they meet there turn out to be friends or foes?Sent to me for review purposes, this book just arrived yesterday. The first thing that caught my eye as I opened the package was the spectacular cover photo - and all the pictures inside are just as glorious. Full colour photos of foxes, deer, wolves and other animals all illustrate an adorable story perfect for young children. Tim Ostermeyer's skills as a photographer really shine through on every page of Adventures of Rusty and Ginger Fox.
Join Rusty and Ginger as they travel through the woods. Author Tim Ostermeyer's beautiful wildlife photography provides a fox's-eye view of the forest. With a charming story to guide the way, and a fact page of wildlife information for every animal introduced in the book, readers can explore nature alongside Rusty and Ginger.
Pairing detailed instructions with clear, step-by-step photography, this dynamic guide of spinning techniques and demonstrations explores an array of fiber possibilities—such as wool, glitz, and sari silk—to create unique yarn for fiber art projects. Designed for the advanced beginner to the intermediate spinner, this reference covers a variety of subjects such as spinning fundamentals, techniques for wool and silk, spinning with nontraditional materials, introducing add-ins, and creating plying effects. Additionally, the comprehensive tutorial offers information on easy home dyeing and directions for using a drumcarder to blend colors and fibers.
The other day I was noticing the old books on my book shelf. Old, meaning books that were "born" a long long time ago. Books that were published AND printed a long long time ago. (Not simply books that have been sitting on our shelves forever!)And it made me wonder what old books other readers have in their collection.My answer is that I definitely have a few antique books, and I could easily see myself becoming a collector (if I only had the income). The two clearest examples I have are both more of the "look don't touch" category - but not because I don't want to, but because I can't read them!
So this week, write a post sharing with us what old antique books you may have on your shelves, and tell us the story behind them. Did you inherit from a relative? Are you a collector of old and rare books? Did you just discover a certain book in a used book store and couldn't pass it up? What's the very oldest book you have? Do you even like old books? Or do they creep you out? Do you read and enjoy your old books, or is it more a "look and don't touch" thing?
Pairing detailed instructions with clear, step-by-step photography, this dynamic guide of spinning techniques and demonstrations explores an array of fiber possibilities—such as wool, glitz, and sari silk—to create unique yarn for fiber art projects. Designed for the advanced beginner to the intermediate spinner, this reference covers a variety of subjects such as spinning fundamentals, techniques for wool and silk, spinning with nontraditional materials, introducing add-ins, and creating plying effects. Additionally, the comprehensive tutorial offers information on easy home dyeing and directions for using a drumcarder to blend colors and fibers.I don't often see books on spinning at my local bookstore, so when I do, I tend to take a closer look. The last one I found was Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning. Get Spun captured my attention right away with the colourful illustrations and ideas. Although the book is short, coming in at only 120 pages, it's packed full of wonderful ideas and inspiration.
Kate Morton's two previous books The House At Riverton and The Forgotten Garden have both been incredible best-sellers where I work, and have gotten a lot of readers talking. Now, her new book Distant Hours is looking like it's going to follow the trend. To be honest, I haven't read any of them, though I'm thinking I should give at least The Forgotten Garden a try. Both the descriptions and the reviews make the book look quite intriguing.
"Close your eyes tightly--tightly--and keep them closed . . ."
From a Victorian Ireland of magic, poetry and rebellion, Ida Jameson, an amateur occultist, reaches out for power, but captures Laura Armstrong, a modern-day graphic artist instead. Now, for the man or demon she loves, each woman must span a bridge through Hell and across history . . . or destroy it.
"Every passionate man is linked with another age, historical or imaginary,
where alone he finds images that rouse his energy." W. B. Yeats
Anchored in fact on both sides of history, Laura and Ida, modern rationalist and fin de sicle occultist, are linked from the moment Ida channels Laura into the body of celebrated beauty and Irish freedom-fighter Maud Gonne. When Laura falls--from an ocean and a hundred years away--passionately, Victorianly in love with the young poet W. B. Yeats, their love affair entwines with Irish history and weaves through Yeats's poetry until Ida discovers something she wants more than magic in the subterranean spaces in between.
With her Irish past threatening her orderly present and the man she loves in it, Laura and Yeats--the practical materialist and the poet magus--must find a way to make love last over time, in changing bodies, through modern damnation, and into the mythic past to link their pilgrim souls . . . or lose them forever.
THE FIRST MAJOR WORK IN NEARLY A DECADE BY ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREAT THINKERS—A MARVELOUSLY CONCISE BOOK WITH NEW ANSWERS TO THE ULTIMATE QUESTIONS OF LIFE
When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the nature of reality? Why are the laws of nature so finely tuned as to allow for the existence of beings like ourselves? And, finally, is the apparent “grand design” of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion—or does science offer another explanation?
The most fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and of life itself, once the province of philosophy, now occupy the territory where scientists, philosophers, and theologians meet—if only to disagree. In their new book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by both brilliance and simplicity.
In The Grand Design they explain that according to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence or history, but rather that every possible history of the universe exists simultaneously. When applied to the universe as a whole, this idea calls into question the very notion of cause and effect. But the “top-down” approach to cosmology that Hawking and
Mlodinow describe would say that the fact that the past takes no definite form means that we create history by observing it, rather than that history creates us. The authors further explain that we ourselves are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe, and show how quantum theory predicts the “multiverse”—the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature.
Along the way Hawking and Mlodinow question the conventional concept of reality, posing a “model-dependent” theory of reality as the best we can hope to find. And they conclude with a riveting assessment of M-theory, an explanation of the laws governing us and our universe that is currently the only viable candidate for a complete “theory of everything.” If confirmed, they write, it will be the unified theory that Einstein was looking for, and the ultimate triumph of human reason.
A succinct, startling, and lavishly illustrated guide to discoveries that are altering our understanding and threatening some of our most cherished belief systems, The Grand Design is a book that will inform—and provoke—like no other.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mercedes Lackey presents three exciting short urban fantasy novels featuring three resourceful heroines and three different takes on the modern world and on magics both modern and ancient.
Arcanum 101: Diana Tregarde, practicing witch, romance novelist, Guardian of the Earth. Studying at Harvard, Diana is approached by Joe O’Brian, a young cop who has already seen more than one unusual thing during his budding career. The distraught mother of a kidnap victim is taking advice from a “psychic” and interfering in the police investigation. Will Diana prove that the psychic is a fake? Unfortunately, the psychic is not a fake, but a very wicked witch—and the child’s kidnapper.
Drums: Jennifer Talldeer, shaman, private investigator, member of the Osage tribe. Most of Jennie’s work is regular PI stuff, but Nathan Begay brings her a problem she’s never seen before. His girlfriend, Caroline, is Chickasaw to his Navaho, but that’s not the problem. Somehow, Caroline has attracted the attention of an angry Osage ghost. Thwarted in love while alive, the ghost has chosen Caroline to be his bride in death.
Ghost in the Machine: Ellen McBridge: computer programmer extraordinaire, techno-shaman. The programmers and players of a new MMORPG find that the game’s “boss,” a wendigo, is “killing” everyone—even the programmers’ characters with their god-like powers. A brilliant debugger, Ellen discoveres that the massive computing power of the game’s servers have created a breach between the supernatural world and our own. This wendigo isn’t a bit of code, it’s the real thing . . . and it’s on the brink of breaking out of the computers and into the real world.
This volume follows two stories: one written by Snyder and one written by King. Snyder's story is set in 1920's LA, we follow Pearl, a young woman who is turned into a vampire and sets out on a path of righteous revenge against the European Vampires who tortured and abused her. This story is paired with King's story, a western about Skinner Sweet, the original American Vampire-- a stronger, faster creature than any vampire ever seen before with rattlesnake fangs and powered by the sun.
The wild magic is taking its toll on the land, and even Vanyel, the most powerful Herald-Mage to ever walk the world, is almost at the end of his strength. But when his Companion, Yfandes, receives a call for help from neighboring Lineas, both Herald-Mage and Companion are drawn into a holocaust of dark magic that could be the end of them both. Original.Magic's Promise is the second book of the Last Herald Mage Trilogy set in the world of Valdemar, and the sequel to Magic's Pawn. While not my favourite of the books, this one does have some of the most memorable bits of dialogue that have left me laughing every single time I've read the book. Of course, they don't make that much sense if you don't know the story or the characters, but still...
"Where in Havens has our peacock gone?"There are others too, that I'd meant to quote as well, but the page numbers have escaped me for the moment. Anyway, the story picks up at least a decade after the ending of Magic's Pawn, but it drops us right into the action of the events, leaving us to pick up the basics of what's been going on over the first few chapters. To be honest, the time frame is left unstated, but there are clues like the ages of various characters, i.e. Medren.
"He got lost somewhere south of Horn," Vanyel replied. "I last saw him singing trios with my mind and my wits. I haven't seen either of them in a while either." (Magic's Promise. 35)
It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: the tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again.And, the other book I got sent was a teen book:
As he re-creates these extraordinary events, John Vaillant gives us an unforgettable portrait of this spectacularly beautiful and mysterious region. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers, even sharing their kills with them. We witness the arrival of Russian settlers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, soldiers and hunters who greatly diminished the tiger populations. And we come to know their descendants, who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching and further upset the natural balance of the region.
This ancient, tenuous relationship between man and predator is at the very heart of this remarkable book. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters, and how early Homo sapiens may have fit seamlessly into the tiger’s ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator that can grow to ten feet long, weigh more than six hundred pounds, and range daily over vast territories of forest and mountain.
Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger circles around three main characters: Vladimir Markov, a poacher killed by the tiger; Yuri Trush, the lead tracker; and the tiger himself. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga.
Violet's TV-director dad has traded a job in Vancouver for one in Los Angeles, their run-down house for a sleek ranch-style home complete with a pool, and, worst of all, Violet's mother for a trophy wife, a blonde actress named Jennica. Violet's younger sister reacts by bed-wetting, and her mother ping-pongs from one loser to another, searching for love. As for Violet, she gets angry in ways that are by turns infuriating, shocking, and hilarious.
When her mother takes up with the unfortunately named Dudley Wiener, Violet and her friend Phoebe decide that they need to take control. If Violet's mom can't pick a decent man herself, they will help her snag George Clooney.
In Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom, Susin Nielsen has created a truly original protagonist in Violet and a brilliant new novel that will delight readers into rooting for her, even when she's at her worst.
In Magic's Pawn, an ancient age in the history of Valdemar comes to life--an age when the kingdom was ravaged by the ungoverned fury of bandit warlords, ferocious ice dragons, and the wild magic of wizards. A new addition to Lackey's Valdemar kingdom--and her most powerful series to date!The story of Vanyel, told in the Last Herald Mage Trilogy is honestly my favourite of Mercedes Lackey's many books set in the world of Valdemar, although of the three, Magic's Price (the third book) is my all-time favorite. Magic's Pawn tells of Vanyel's early years and the events that shaped him into who he was: his family and his first love.
