Download or read book Blind Willow Sleeping Woman written by Haruki Murakami and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-10-09 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the surreal to the mundane, twenty-four stories that “show Murukami at his dynamic, organic best” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). "A warning to new readers of Haruki Murakami: You will become addicted.... His newest collection is as enigmatic and sublime as ever." —San Francisco Chronicle Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit Murakami’s ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and entertaining.

Download or read book Cairo written by G. Willow Wilson and published by Vertigo. This book was released on 2007 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In bustling modern-day Cairo, the lives of a drug runner, a down-on-his-luck journalist, an American expatriate, a young activist, an Israeli soldier, and a genie are interwoven as they navigate the city's streets and spiritual underworld to find a stolen hooka sought by a wrathful gangster-magician.

Download or read book The Butterfly Mosque written by G. Willow Wilson and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In this satisfying, lyrical memoir,” an American woman discovers her true faith—and true love—by converting to Islam and moving to Egypt (Publishers Weekly). Raised in Boulder, Colorado, G. Willow Wilson moved to Egypt and converted to Islam shortly after college. Having written extensively on modern religion and the Middle East in publications such as The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times Magazine, Wilson now shares her remarkable story of finding faith, falling in love, and marrying into a traditional Islamic family in this “intelligently written and passionately rendered memoir” (The Seattle Times, 27 Best Books of 2010). Despite her atheist upbringing, Willow always felt a connection to god. Around the time of 9/11, she took an Islamic Studies course at Boston University, and found the teachings of the Quran astounding, comforting, and profoundly transformative. She decided to risk everything to convert to Islam, embarking on a journey across continents and into an uncertain future. Settling in Cairo where she taught English, she soon met and fell in love with Omar, a passionate young man with a mild resentment of the Western influences in his homeland. Torn between the secular West and Muslim East, Willow—with her shock of red hair, shaky Arabic, and Western candor—struggled to forge a “third culture” that might accommodate her values as well as her friends and family on both sides of the divide. Part travelogue, love story, and memoir, “Wilson has written one of the most beautiful and believable narratives about finding closeness with God” (The Denver Post).

Download or read book The Woman in the Willow written by Christine Dente and published by Biggerstorybooks. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Woman in the Willow A Powerful Tale of Hope and Redemption Christine Dente delivers a moving story about a woman struggling to forget her traumatic past by hiding away in her backyard haven. The Woman in the Willow offers an exquisite invitation to engage in life's flowering and flow despite the heart's instinct to tighten and close. Catherine Hathaway has no intention of letting another child into her life. Retired schoolteacher Miss Hathaway longs to be left alone inside her beautiful backyard garden. Just because the new family next door includes a precocious but lonely five-year-old named Tazzy, doesn't mean the seventy-year-old womanmust open her haven or her heart to the neglected girl. Catherine is having enough trouble, losing her balance and her vision, without the disruptions of the unsettling memories that the child provokes. Catherine's eight-foot fence keeps her precious dog Percy safe in the yard, but can't keep Tazzy out. The spirited child finds a way through the unlocked gate, drawn by sweet Percy and the enchantments of the backyard garden. When she appears with suspicious red marks on her arm and other signs of abuse, Catherine spies on the family, convinced that the single mother is abusive like her own mother was. The mysterious willow tree hovers throughout Catherine's story. A refuge from her past, it is now the crown jewel of her garden. Waving from the creek's edge behind Catherine's home, the enchanting tree has a life and story of its own. Memories of the sister she lost and the mother who left her sweep Catherine toward her destiny with the willow, the river, and the child she must find to save her life. Can this disenchanted old woman rise from the flood of grief and loss? Will she find the spirit of God moving among the ferns and birds of her haven? What part will the willow play in transforming Catherine from the woman she is into the one she wants to become? Journey with Catherine in her search for growth and flowering in old age.

Download or read book The Willow Wren written by Philipp Schott and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The touching and nuanced portrait of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany through the eyes of a resourceful German boy. Ludwig is an odd and introverted child, growing up in Hitler’s Germany. While Ludwig’s father, Wilhelm, is a senior Nazi and a true believer, Ludwig escapes the unfolding catastrophe by withdrawing into nature and books. Eventually, when the Allied bombing campaign intensifies, Ludwig is sent to a Hitler Youth camp, where his oddness makes him a target for bullying. As the war turns against Germany, the Hitler Youth camp becomes ever more severe and militaristic, and the atmosphere spirals towards chaos. After the Nazis abandon the camp, Ludwig returns home, and his father is presumed dead. With Ludwig’s mother descending into depression, the 11-year-old bears increasing responsibility for the survival of the family as starvation sets in under Russian occupation. Soon, it will be impossible to leave the Russian zone, so Ludwig decides that he must rally his despondent mother and lead her and his three younger siblings in an escape attempt to the west. Based on a true story, The Willow Wren is a unique, touching exploration of extremism, resilience, and the triumph of the small.

Download or read book Songs of Willow Frost written by Jamie Ford and published by Allison & Busby. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American, has lived at Seattle's Sacred Heart Orphanage since his mother disappeared five years ago. During a trip to the movie theatre, William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother.

Download or read book Geisha written by Tina Skinner and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive assembly of geisha images ever compiled in a book, this rich assembly of nearly 600 exquisite postcard photographs - produced primarily between 1900 and 1940 -- offers a window into the rarified world of Japan's now-extinct licensed pleasure districts. Historical background and imagery explore the lives and talents of Japan women in the early 20th century, and prove a captivating page turner.

Download or read book Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon written by Erin B. Waggoner and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-03-24 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buffy the Vampire Slayer has remained an enduring feature of late 1990s pop culture, spawning television spin-offs, rabid fans, and significant scholarly inquiry. Though there have been numerous books devoted to the work of Joss Whedon, this collection of fifteen essays is the first to focus specifically on the sexual rhetoric found in his oeuvre, which includes Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, as well as Buffy. Topics covered include the role of virginity, lesbianism and homoeroticism in the shows and the comics, the nature of masculinity and femininity and gender stereotypes, an exploration of sexual binaries, and a ranking of the Buffy characters on the Kinsey scale of sexuality. Together these essays constitute a much-needed addition to the expanding body of Whedon gender scholarship.

Download or read book The Darkening written by Yvonne Navarro and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-05-04 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Willow sets off on a trail of vengeance and magick-gathering to prepare a spell that will bring Tara back to life.

Download or read book Sex and the Slayer written by Lorna Jowett and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2005-04-15 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author aims "to demonstrate in this book not how "feminist" or "progressive" the show is but how it represents femininity, masculinity, and gender relations, including sexuality, and how this relates to the context of genre. The book aims to draw out ... patterns of gender representation and to relate these to relevant contexts".--Intro.

Download or read book A Girl Named Willow Krimble written by Giuseppe Bianco and published by . This book was released on 2011-01-19 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: So, you've just discovered that the person who has tormented, mocked and humiliated you for the past three years is lying in the school parking lot, bleeding internally from a hit and run accident. No one else is around and you need to get to a life-and-death family emergency of your own before it is too late. What would you do? Oh, did I mention you have the secret ability to heal others just by touching them? This is just one of the many situations 13-year-old Willow Krimble must face in this Web Novel, A Girl Named Willow Krimble.Willow lives with her mother and older brother, Wyatt; she loves hanging out with her best friend, the feisty and sarcastic Razzel Fiora, and she has a close relationship with her grandmother. Seems pretty normal, right? It might be if the two most popular girls in middle school, Shayla Stergus and Snella Burenbine, did not taunt and remind her, on a daily basis, that she was born without her left leg.Forced to maneuver through obstacles most teenagers would not need to tackle, Willow is suddenly blessed (or cursed?) with the unusual power to heal others through touch. Ever selfless, Willow's desire to help the injured and sick thrusts her into a world where she is given immense responsibility, putting the needs of others before her own, all the while trying to maintain her secret.Willow's adolescent journey takes her through an emotional cyclone where she finds joy and purpose in helping an array of patients, from an old man with Alzheimer's, to a mauled animal in a pet store. But Willow soon finds out there are limitations to her ability and, no matter how hard she might try, she cannot save everyone.Through the intermingling of joy and pain, Willow is repeatedly tested to discover just how strong she can be, how strong she has been her entire life, and how everyone possesses the ability to effect another person's world, with or without a secret power.

Download or read book A Little More than Kin written by Ernest Hebert and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-29 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second novel of the Darby Chronicles follows Ollie Jordan, a man with no education, no mentors, and a serious Freudian hang-up. A family history of poverty, stubborn pride, and a culture that runs contrary to mainstream society have robbed Ollie and his people of opportunity, even hope. They live by a culture of "succor and ascendancy." When Ollie is evicted from his shack, he breaks his drinking rules and heads out into the wilderness with his disabled son, Willow, literally chained to him. Father and son are doomed. How that doom plays itself out, as experienced by the disturbed but insightful Ollie Jordan, is what makes A Little More Than Kin unique in contemporary American literature. Hebert gives his rural underclass protagonist the depths of a tragic hero. Though A Little More Than Kin is action-packed and its prose is clean, hard, lyrical, and sometimes very funny, the book is at its heart an exploration into a brilliant mind that has laid waste to itself. This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy prose that explores the human psyche at its most perverse.

Download or read book The Aesthetics of Culture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer written by Matthew Pateman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the TV screen as elsewhere, there is often more than meets the eye. For decades, television has offered not just entertainment, but observations--subtle and otherwise--on society. This book examines the cultural commentary contained in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, a show that ran for seven seasons (1997-2003) and 144 episodes. On the surface, Buffy is the marriage of a high school drama to gothic horror. This somewhat unusual vehicle is used to present, via the character of Buffy, fairly typical views of late 20th century culture-teenage problems; issues regarding a broken home; and the search for meaning and validation. In addition, subtler themes, such as cultural views of knowledge, ethnicity and history, are woven into the show's critique of popular culture. Organized into two sections, this volume offers an in-depth examination of the show: first, through the lens of Buffy's confrontation with culture, and second, from the complex perspectives of the individual characters. Issues such as values, ethical choices and the implications of one's actions are discussed--without ever losing sight of the limitations of a medium that will always be dominated by financial concerns. The final chapter summarizes what Buffy has to say about today's society. An appendix lists Buffy episodes in chronological order.

Download or read book Blood Body and Soul written by Tamy Burnett and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-04-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ever-popular "Whedonverse" television shows--Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse--have inspired hundreds of articles and dozens of books. Curiously, the focus of much of the scholarship invokes philosophical, ethical, metaphysical and other cerebral perspectives. Yet, these shows are action-adventure shows, telling stories through physical bodies of many varied and unique forms. Characters fight and die, suffer grave injuries and traumas, and are physically transformed. Their bodies bear the brunt of their battles against evil, corruption and injustice. Through 17 insightful and captivating essays, this collection centers the physical spectacle of these televisual series. Chapters examine how both disabled and super-powered individuals navigate their differing levels of ability; how the practice of medicine and medical practitioners are represented; and how wellness is understood and depicted, both physically and mentally. Other essays focus on storylines involving specific body parts, the intersection of literal and metaphorical trauma and the processes of recovery from injury, illness and impairment. Each author offers a unique and thought-provoking analysis in an area previously under-explored or altogether missing from existing scholarship on the Whedonverse.

Download or read book Son of Enoch written by E.O. Shiflett and published by Outskirts Press. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3). Thomas Hunt is a homeless person trying to survive from one day to the next. When overwhelming pain causes him to surrender to God, he is shocked to learn that he will be God’s Last Prophet. A sense of urgency is ignited in his soul, and with the help from a set of brother and sister twins and an old flame, Thomas begins to change lives and show the world the true power of God’s Holy Spirit. But their new movement is a threat to the existing power structure that has turned the world into chaos and conflict. This battle between the secular world and God’s plan has been determined since the beginning of time; however, humanity must be saved one soul at a time, and those in control of the world have no intention of letting Thomas succeed… Son of Enoch is a stirring story that brings insights from the Old Testament Prophets into today’s secular world and highlights the necessity of faith. God loves all of us, but as scripture points out, all of us should accept Him, some will accept Him, but none must.

Download or read book The Bird King written by G. Willow Wilson and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of NPR’s 50 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Decade: A fifteenth-century palace mapmaker must hide his powers in the time of the Inquisition . . . Award-winning author G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year and established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain. Her dearest friend, Hassan, the palace mapmaker and the one man who doesn’t leer at her with desire, has a secret—he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As the two traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate. “Wilson has a deft hand with myth and with magic, and the kind of smart, honest writing mind that knits together and bridges cultures and people.” —Neil Gaiman, author of Norse Mythology “A triumph . . . one of the best fantasy writers working today.” —BookPage “A treasure-house of a novel, thrilling, tender, funny, and achingly gorgeous. I loved it.” —Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy

Download or read book Warrior And The Sparrow written by Crystal Inman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Willow is a simple woman who keeps her father's house. A loner by design, she exists unnoticed among the village beauties. That is, until the day a stranger tears through town hell-bent on fulfilling a prophecy no matter the price. Tait needs Willow. It's as simple and complicated as that. Dark days loom for their entire world. A sleeping sickness has spread all the way to the royal kingdom while a madman lets loose a disease on the masses that tears apart the very fabric of humanity. A powerful warrior destined from birth for a dangerous quest. A world ravaged by an evil presence that will stop at nothing short of complete domination. A remarkable woman who risks everything she is or ever will be to save both.