Download or read book Monsters under Glass written by Jane Desmarais and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters under Glass explores our enduring fascination with hothouses and exotic blooms, from their rise in ancient times, through the Victorian vogue for plant collecting, to the vegetable monsters of twentieth-century science fiction and the movies, comics, and video games of the present day. Our interest in hothouses can be traced back to the Roman emperor Tiberius, but it was only in the early nineteenth century that a boom in exotic plant collecting and new glasshouse technologies stimulated the imagination of novelists, poets, and artists, and the hothouse entered the creative language in a highly charged way. Decadent writers in England and Europe—including Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde—transformed the hothouse from a functional object to a powerful metaphor of metropolitan life, sexuality, and being replete with a dark underside of decay and death; and of consciousness itself, nurtured and dissected under glass. In a study as wide-ranging, vivid, and beautiful as our beloved exotic blooms themselves, Jane Desmarais charts the history and influence of these humid, tropical worlds and their creations, providing a steamy window onto our recent past.
Download or read book Monsters under Glass written by Jane Desmarais and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters under Glass explores our enduring fascination with hothouses and exotic blooms, from their rise in ancient times, through the Victorian vogue for plant collecting, to the vegetable monsters of twentieth-century science fiction and the movies, comics, and video games of the present day. Our interest in hothouses can be traced back to the Roman emperor Tiberius, but it was only in the early nineteenth century that a boom in exotic plant collecting and new glasshouse technologies stimulated the imagination of novelists, poets, and artists, and the hothouse entered the creative language in a highly charged way. Decadent writers in England and Europe—including Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde—transformed the hothouse from a functional object to a powerful metaphor of metropolitan life, sexuality, and being replete with a dark underside of decay and death; and of consciousness itself, nurtured and dissected under glass. In a study as wide-ranging, vivid, and beautiful as our beloved exotic blooms themselves, Jane Desmarais charts the history and influence of these humid, tropical worlds and their creations, providing a steamy window onto our recent past.
Download or read book The Fortress of Glass written by David Drake and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fortress of Glass by David Drake is the first in the Crown of the Isles trilogy, which will conclude the epic Lord of the Isles series. A true trilogy, the action extends over the whole three-book arc. The Fortress of Glass begins the story of how the new kingdom of the Isles is finally brought into being by the group of heroes and heroines who have been central to all the books in the series. The group includes Prince Garric, heir to the throne of the Isles, his consort Liane, his sister Sharina, her herculean sweetheart Cashel, his sister Ilna, with her adopted child Merota and piratical Chalcus. On giant triremes filled with soldiers and diplomats, they journey to the small kingdoms of the Isles to confirm the succession of Garric and to subdue, if necessary, any local rulers too fond of their own kingship to pledge fealty to Garric. All this is being done in a time when the powers of magic in the Isles have flooded to a thousand-year peak, and even local magicians can perform powerful spells normally beyond their control. Fantastic forces from all angles try to keep them apart and unable to continue the reunification of the Isles. So separately and together, they must fight their way back to the same time and place to combat the mysterious and supernatural menace of The Green Woman in her Fortress of Glass. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book If Your Monster Won t Go To Bed written by Denise Vega and published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of How to Babysit a Grandpa comes a tongue-in-cheek story that is a step-by-step manual for putting your monster to bed. If you have a monster that won’t go to bed, don’t bother asking your parents to help. They know a lot about putting kids to bed, but nothing about putting monsters to bed. It’s not their fault; they’re just not good at it. Read this book instead. It will tell you what to feed your monster before bed (it’s not warm milk), and what to sing to your monster (it’s not a soothing lullaby), and what to read to your monster to send him off to dreamland in no time (the scarier, the better). Just make sure you don’t get too good at putting monsters to bed—or you might have a BIG problem on your hands! Praise for Zachariah OHora: “The text is pitch-perfect, and the art is its match.” —Chicago Tribune (Wolfie the Bunny) “Picture books with hip, quirky illustrations that are not just funny but also have plenty of heart are hard to find. The stylish My Cousin Momo by Zachariah OHora has it all.” —The Boston Globe (My Cousin Momo) [set star] “OHora’s acrylic paintings are the heart of this tale. They clearly show everyone’s feelings . . . and there are brilliant bits of humor and whimsy.” —School Library Journal, starred review (Wolfie the Bunny) “OHora could paint stones in the street and make them funny.” —Publishers Weekly (My Cousin Momo)
Download or read book The Millionaire and the Glass Slipper written by Christine Flynn and published by Silhouette. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Settling down was not on J.T. Hunt's to-do list—until his ailling father delivered an ultimatum. Now the millionaire bachelor was suddenly shopping for a bride. But, happily-ever-after came with strings attached: His prospective wife had to marry him for love. To Amy Kelton it was like a fairy tale. First, she got trapped in an elevator with a tall, dark and sexy stranger. Now "Jared Taylor" had chosen her—a lowly assistant—over her beautiful, successful stepsister. Talk about being swept off your feet! But, when Amy uncovered "Jared's" secret, she had to make a choice—ignore her heart's desire or accept the dashing bachelor's glass slipper and run with it….
Download or read book Kingdom Under Glass written by Jay Kirk and published by Picador. This book was released on 2011-11-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this epic account of an extraordinary life lived during remarkable times, Jay Kirk follows the adventures of legendary explorer and taxidermist Carl Akeley, who revolutionized taxidermy and environmental conservation and created the famed African Hall at New York's Museum of Natural History. Akeley risked death time and again in the jungles of Africa as he stalked animals for his dioramas and hobnobbed with outsized personalities of the era, such as Theodore Roosevelt and P. T. Barnum. Kingdom Under Glass is "a rollicking biography...an epic adventure...[and] a beguiling novelistic portrait of a man and an era straining to hear the call of the wild" (Publishers Weekly).
Download or read book Sea Creatures in Glass written by Scala Arts Publishers and published by . This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delicate jellyfish and anemones, octopus, tentacled squid, and bizarre-looking soft-bodied sea creatures were meticulously recreated in glass by father and son artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the late nineteenth century. Renowned for their beauty and exacting detail, the Blaschka invertebrate models were commissioned by universities and museums throughout the world as teaching models for students of natural science and marine life. Illustrated here for the first time with breathtaking new photography are 60 of the most exquisite models from the exceptional collection of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. Together with Harvard's famous Glass Flowers, a new exhibit of these restored glass animals now comprises the largest Blaschka collection on display in the world. Bursting with intricate details and stunning photography, this elegantly designed book will be a must for all those interested in marine biology, the delicate art of glass craftsmanship, the history of science, and the quiet beauty of the natural world."
Download or read book The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters Volume One written by Gordon Dahlquist and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2011-09-14 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here begins an extraordinary alliance—and a brutal and tender, shocking, and electrifying adventure to end all adventures. It starts with a simple note. Roger Bascombe regretfully wishes to inform Celeste Temple that their engagement is forthwith terminated. Determined to find out why, Miss Temple takes the first step in a journey that will propel her into a dizzyingly seductive, utterly shocking world beyond her imagining—and set her on a collision course with a killer and a spy—in a bodice-ripping, action-packed roller-coaster ride of suspense, betrayal, and richly fevered dreams.
Download or read book The Palace of Glass written by Django Wexler and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An action-packed middle-grade fantasy with classic writing, a resourceful heroine, a host of magical creatures, and no shortage of narrow escapes—for fans of Story Thieves, Inkheart, Coraline, and Harry Potter. For Alice, danger threatens from inside the library as well as out. Having figured out the role her master and uncle, Geryon, played in her father's disappearance, Alice turns to Ending—the mysterious, magical giant feline and guardian of Geryon's library—for a spell to incapacitate Geryon. But, like all cats, Ending is adept at keeping secrets and Alice doesn't know the whole story. Once she traps Geryon with Ending's spell, there's no one to stop the other Readers from sending their apprentices to pillage Geryon's library. As Alice prepares to face an impending attack from the combined might of the Readers, she gathers what forces she can—the apprentices she once thought might be her friends, the magical creatures imprisoned in Geryon's library—not knowing who, if anyone, she can trust.
Download or read book Stained Glass Monsters written by Andrea K Höst and published by Andrea K Hösth. This book was released on 2011-01-03 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creatures from the Eferum are a world-wide problem: creeping through tears in the fabric of space, they feast on every unprotected human they can find. Tyrland has a solution in the Kellian: faster and stronger than humans, they are Tyrland's clawed, shadowy monster hunters. But no matter how faithfully they serve, or how true their sworn word, they are too different, too separate, to ever be entirely trusted. Rennyn Claire is a complication. Secretive and obscenely powerful, she knows entirely too much about a massive new threat to Tyrland's safety. Worst of all, she is linked to a past that the Kellian would rather forget. All three of these things – monsters, Kellian, and an entirely overpowered mage – are about to land in Kendall Stockton's lap. The last thing Kendall wants is to try to play conscience to someone who can swat her like a bug. But innocent lives are at stake, and no-one else seems willing to ask if what is necessary is the right thing to do. And who, exactly, is the monster? Keywords: fantasy, high fantasy, fantasy romance, epic fantasy, australian author
Download or read book Bad Glass written by Richard E. Gropp and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most hauntingly original dark fantasy debuts in years—perfect for fans of Lost and Mark Danielewski’s cult classic, House of Leaves. Something has happened in Spokane. The military has evacuated the city and locked it down. Even so, disturbing rumors and images seep out, finding their way onto the Internet, spreading curiosity, skepticism, and panic. For what they show is—or should be—impossible: strange creatures that cannot exist, sudden disappearances that violate the laws of physics, human bodies fused with inanimate objects, trapped yet still half alive. . . . Dean Walker, an aspiring photographer, sneaks into the quarantined city in search of fame. What he finds will change him in unimaginable ways. Hooking up with a group of outcasts led by a beautiful young woman named Taylor, Dean embarks on a journey into the heart of a mystery whose philosophical implications are as terrifying as its physical manifestations. Even as he falls in love with Taylor—a woman as damaged and seductive as the city itself—his already tenuous hold on reality starts to come loose. Or perhaps it is Spokane’s grip on the world that is coming undone. Now, caught up in a web of interlacing secrets and betrayals, Dean, Taylor, and their friends must make their way through this ever-shifting maze of a city, a city that is actively hunting them down, herding them toward a shocking destiny.
Download or read book The Glass Casket written by McCormick Templeman and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Death hasn't visited Rowan Rose since it took her mother when Rowan was only a little girl. But that changes one bleak morning, when five horses and their riders thunder into her village and through the forest, disappearing into the hills. Days later, the riders' bodies are found, and though no one can say for certain what happened in their final hours, their remains prove that whatever it was must have been brutal. Rowan's village was once a tranquil place, but now things have changed. Something has followed the path those riders made and has come down from the hills, through the forest, and into the village. Beast or man, it has brought death to Rowan's door once again. Only this time, its appetite is insatiable. A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick [STAR] "With stylish prose, richly developed characters and well-realized worldbuilding, Templeman plumbs archetypes of folklore to create a compelling blend of mythic elements and realistic teen experience."-Kirkus Reviews, Starred [STAR] "This has both the stylish beauty of those [classic fairy] tales and the chilling darkness that makes them timeless."-The Bulletin, Starred “The legion of Maggie Stiefvater fans out there ought to look this way.”-Booklist
Download or read book Through a Glass Deadly written by Sarah Atwell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After glassblower Emmeline Dowell befriends troubled newcomer Allison McBride, she finds Allison's husband dead in her studio and her carefully constructed world shattered by the investigation.
Download or read book Throne of Glass written by Sarah J. Maas and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hugely commercial, fabulously addictive fantastical romp - from an author with top-notch digital self-publishing pedigree and legions of fans awaiting publication
Download or read book 06 Wrapped Up in You written by Dan Jolley and published by Graphic Universe ™. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Staci Glass feels cursed-whenever there's a crisis, she's stuck in the middle. Now her best friend, Faith, has a new hobby, and against her better judgment, Staci conjures up the courage to go along. They join a trio of wannabe witches for a magical ceremony in an Incan history exhibit. Their chanting is loud enough to raise the dead, it seems. Why else would a shriveled-up mummy go missing-and a mysterious Incan prince suddenly appear? Prince Pachacutec-or "Chuck"-is a man with a past. He died tragically five hundred years ago, but that's all ancient history as far as Staci is concerned. He is everything she could want-kind, charming, and drop-dead gorgeous. But the witches aren't willing to live and let live. Will Staci fight for Chuck? Or do the witches have a point when they say reanimated corpses make bad boyfriends?
Download or read book Heir of Fire written by Sarah J. Maas and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heir of ash and fire bows to no one. A new threat rises in the third book in the #1 bestselling Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Celaena Sardothien has survived deadly contests and shattering heartbreak, but now she must travel to a new land to confront her darkest truth. That truth could change her life-and her future-forever. Meanwhile, monstrous forces are gathering on the horizon, intent on enslaving her world. To defeat them, Celaena will need the strength not only to fight the evil that is about to be unleashed but also to harness her inner demons. If she is to win this battle, she must find the courage to face her destiny-and burn brighter than ever before. The third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series continues Celaena's epic journey from woman to warrior.
Download or read book The Glass Room written by Simon Mawer and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honeymooners Viktor and Liesel Landauer are filled with the optimism and cultural vibrancy of central Europe of the 1920s when they meet modernist architect Rainer von Abt. He builds for them a home to embody their exuberant faith in the future, and the Landauer House becomes an instant masterpiece. Viktor and Liesel, a rich Jewish mogul married to a thoughtful, modern gentile, pour all of their hopes for their marriage and budding family into their stunning new home, filling it with children, friends, and a generation of artists and thinkers eager to abandon old-world European style in favor of the new and the avant-garde. But as life intervenes, their new home also brings out their most passionate desires and darkest secrets. As Viktor searches for a warmer, less challenging comfort in the arms of another woman, and Liesel turns to her wild, mischievous friend Hana for excitement, the marriage begins to show signs of strain. The radiant honesty and idealism of 1930 quickly evaporate beneath the storm clouds of World War II. As Nazi troops enter the country, the family must leave their old life behind and attempt to escape to America before Viktor's Jewish roots draw Nazi attention, and before the family itself dissolves. As the Landauers struggle for survival abroad, their home slips from hand to hand, from Czech to Nazi to Soviet possession and finally back to the Czechoslovak state, with new inhabitants always falling under the fervent and unrelenting influence of the Glass Room. Its crystalline perfection exerts a gravitational pull on those who know it, inspiring them, freeing them, calling them back, until the Landauers themselves are finally drawn home to where their story began. Brimming with barely contained passion and cruelty, the precision of science, the wild variance of lust, the catharsis of confession, and the fear of failure - the Glass Room contains it all.
