The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales


Book Description

" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.




What Lies Buried


Book Description

'Shadow Man is a harrowing and horrific game of consequences' Val McDermid THE BRILLIANTLY COMPELLING SECOND NOVEL IN THE DI LUKAS MAHLER SERIES A missing child. A seventy-year-old murder. And a killer who's still on the loose. Ten year-old Erin is missing; taken in broad daylight during a friend's birthday party. With no witnesses and no leads, DI Lukas Mahler races against time to find her. But is it already too late for Erin - and will her abductor stop at one stolen child? And the discovery of human remains on a construction site near Inverness confronts Mahler's team with a cold case from the 1940s. Was Aeneas Grant's murder linked to a nearby POW camp, or is there an even darker story to be uncovered? With his team stretched to the limit, Mahler's hunt for Erin's abductor takes him from Inverness to the Lake District. And decades-old family secrets link both casesin a shocking final twist. WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MARGARET KIRK'S DEBUT NOVEL SHADOW MAN: 'Gripping' 'Kept me on my toes right to the end' 'Another great detective is born' 'Shadow Man has a taut plot, maintains suspense cleverly and is crisply written' 'The city of Inverness is almost a character in its own right' 'A top-notch crime thriller, full of intricate twists with a disturbing insight into the mind of a cold blooded killer' 'Dark and atmospheric, I just couldn't put it down'




Becoming Dangerous


Book Description

"Edgy and often deeply personal, the twenty-one essays collected here come from a wide variety of writers. Some identify as witches, others identify as writers, musicians, game developers, or artists. What they have in common is that they've created personal rituals to summon their own power in a world that would prefer them powerless. Here, they share the rituals they use to resist self-doubt, grief, and depression in the face of sexism, slut shaming, racism, patriarchy, and other systems of oppression"--




The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales


Book Description

Explores neurological disorders and their effects upon the minds and lives of those affected with an entertaining voice.




Bowing to Elephants


Book Description

In Bowing to Elephants, a woman seeking love and authenticity comes to understand herself as a citizen of the world through decades of wandering the globe. During her travels she sees herself more clearly as she gazes into the feathery eyes of a 14,000-pound African elephant and looks for answers to old questions in Vietnam and the tragically ravaged landscape of Cambodia. Bowing to Elephants is a travel memoir with a twist―the story of an unloved rich girl from San Francisco who becomes a travel junkie, searching for herself in the world to avoid the tragic fate of her narcissistic, alcoholic mother. Haunted by images of childhood loneliness and the need to learn about her world, Dimond journeys to far-flung places―into the perfumed chaos of India, the nostalgic, damp streets of Paris, the gray, watery world of Venice in the winter, the reverent and silent mountains of Bhutan, and the gold temples of Burma. In the end, she accepts the death of the mother she never really had―and finds peace and her authentic self in the refuge of Buddhist practice.




A Very Important Teapot


Book Description

"A Very Important Teapot is a comedy thriller revolving around the hunt for a lost cache of Nazi diamonds in Australia.Dawson is an ordinary bloke who has been out of work for several months and who spends his time at the pub, the rugby club and the local drama group, where he is forlornly pursuing the love of Rachel Whyte. Rachel, however, is infatuated with a solicitor called Pat Bootle, who has recently appeared out of nowhere.Dawson is surprised but delighted when his best friend, Alan Flannery, offers him some unspecified work in Australia. Dawson has no idea what the work entails but the mysterious arrival of a tea service with a code hidden in the teapot lid makes him suspicious. Flannery, actually the head of a minor branch of MI6, has received a memory stick from Sean MacGuffin of Irish Intelligence. It reveals the approximate location of a cache of diamonds stolen by the Nazis. However, MacGuffin had also passed the information to the Russians.Flannery spots an opportunity to get rich and sends the unwitting Dawson to find the diamonds. Other parties join the hunt including Riley Bigg, a local mobster, Pat Bootle, who is actually working for German Intelligence, a Russian hitman and a British official being blackmailed by the Russians. Two local police officers, Iain Innes and Elaine Bates, become suspicious about Dawson and also attempt to find out what is happening.Dawson, kidnapped by Riley Bigg, is rescued by Bootle and they go on the run together. Meanwhile, Lucy Smith, a genuine MI6 employee and Martin Evans, a journalist, also fly to Australia and eventually meet up with Dawson. They too join the hunt. Flannery is also finally forced to travel there as well, following a visit from two gentlemen from Russian Intelligence.The story concludes at a disused mine in Victoria. Dawson and Lucy, helped by Innes, Bates, Bootle and Laurie McGee, a local Australian in the occasional employ of MI6, recover the diamonds, most of which end up back in Germany."




The Art of Concentration


Book Description

We are all overwhelmed with technological input in our daily lives – whether it is our mobile phone ringing, our Blackberry bleeping or emails that pour in endlessly – we are all becoming hyperstimulated and unable to switch on (concentrate) or switch off (relax) because we’re all on permanent standby. As a result, we have lost the art of concentrating properly. Luckily, this cutting edge personal development book is here to help readers navigate their way through the deluge and provides the tools we need to learn how to concentrate and focus. Rooted in scientific fact and research, it includes a detailed look at how your brain works, what inhibits brain function and concentration and covers things such as lack of down-time, distraction, poor lifestyle habits and stress. Featuring techniques and exercises to help improve concentration, it is guaranteed to help us all improve the way we work and the way we live our lives.




Novel 11, Book 18


Book Description

A brilliant novel by the Norwegian master Dag Solstad Bjorn Hansen, a respectable town treasurer, has just turned fifty and is horrified by the thought that chance has ruled his life. Eighteen years ago he left his wife and their two-year-old son for his mistress, who persuaded him to start afresh in a small, provincial town and to devote himself to an amateur theater.In time that relationship also faded, and after four years of living alone Bjorn contemplates an extraordinary course of action that will change his life forever. He finds a fellow conspirator in Dr. Schiotz, who has a secret of his own and offers to help Bjorn carry his preposterous plan through to its logical conclusion. But the sudden reappearance of his son both fills Bjorn with new hope and complicates matters. The desire to gamble with his comfortable existence proves irresistible, however, taking him to Vilnius in Lithuania, where very soon he cannot tell whether he’s tangled up in a game or reality. Dag Solstad won the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for Novel 11, Book 18, a concentrated uncompromising existential novel that puts on full display the author’s remarkable gifts and wit.




Land of Love and Ruins


Book Description

“Oddný Eir is an authentic author, philosopher and mystic. She weaves together diaries and fiction. She is the writer I feel can best express the female psyche of now and has bridged the gap between rural Iceland and Western philosophy. A true pioneer!!!!!!!!” —Björk The winner of the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize in 2012, Land of Love and Ruins is the debut novel by a daring new voice in international fiction: Oddný Eir. Written in the form of a diary but with fantastical linguistic verve, the narrator sets out on a universal quest: to find a place to belong—and a way of being in the world. Paradoxically, her longing to settle down drives her to embark on all kinds of journeys, physical and mental, through time and space, in order to find answers to questions that concern not only her personally, but also the whole of humankind. She explores various modes of living, ponders different types of relationships and contemplates her bond with her family, land and nation; trying to find a balance between companionship and independence, movement and stability, past, present, and future. An enchanting blend of autobiography, diary, philosophical inquiry, and fantasy, Land of Love and Ruins is a richly imagined and utterly unique book about being human in the modern world.




This Naked Mind


Book Description

This Naked Mind has ignited a movement across the country, helping thousands of people forever change their relationship with alcohol. Many people question whether drinking has become too big a part of their lives, and worry that it may even be affecting their health. But, they resist change because they fear losing the pleasure and stress-relief associated with alcohol, and assume giving it up will involve deprivation and misery. This Naked Mind offers a new, positive solution. Here, Annie Grace clearly presents the psychological and neurological components of alcohol use based on the latest science, and reveals the cultural, social, and industry factors that support alcohol dependence in all of us. Packed with surprising insight into the reasons we drink, this book will open your eyes to the startling role of alcohol in our culture, and how the stigma of alcoholism and recovery keeps people from getting the help they need. With Annie’s own extraordinary and candid personal story at its heart, this book is a must-read for anyone who drinks. This Naked Mind will give you freedom from alcohol. It removes the psychological dependence so that you will not crave alcohol, allowing you to easily drink less (or stop drinking). With clarity, humor, and a unique blend of science and storytelling, This Naked Mind will open the door to the life you have been waiting for. “You have given me my live back.” —Katy F., Albuquerque, New Mexico “This is an inspiring and groundbreaking must-read. I am forever inspired and changed.” —Kate S., Los Angeles, California “The most selfless and amazing book that I have ever read.” —Bernie M., Dublin, Ireland