Yuri's Brush with Magic


Book Description

Yuri's Brush with Magic by Maureen Wartski is an intelligent novel for preadolescents. Featuring Japanese folktales told in a contemporary setting, Wartski's adventure novel explores the complexity of family relationships and how generations-old misunderstandings can cause rifts that affect the children--and how to heal those rifts. Nine-year-old Tammy is worried--her mother lies in a coma and her father is overwhelmed. Out of nowhere her great-aunt, "Mean Yuri" Hamada, appears to whisk Tammy and her older brother, Ken, off to Emerald Isle. Ken plots to return home by impeding Yuri's resolve with acts of extreme brattiness. But Tammy is captivated by Yuri's storytelling, the way her brush brings old Japanese folktales to life on her canvas, her aunt's past. She's as concerned about a buried nest of loggerhead turtle that may not hatch. Wartski skillfully blends these subplots with themes of renewal and transformation.




The Lady Witch And Her Cat (Yuri)


Book Description

Witches love their familiars! When Lena gets a new pet, she expresses her love for her by sharing one of a witches most important tools. Her broom! See how they share a new experience together in this fun, short one off!




The Voyage of the Miscreation


Book Description

A ship with a motley crew of monster hunters. A scholar mage searching for the secrets of Wyld Magic. Can they overcome their differences to capture dangerous monsters? Captain Mynta and the crew of the Miscreation have fallen on hard times. To save her ship, she agrees to escort Mage Ameyron and his team of researchers to capture Seirenia’s deadliest monsters. They have to work together—but everyone on board has something to hide, and one has a secret that could doom them all. When the mage insists on catching his subjects alive, the monster-killing crew is forced to go against years of experience. Tensions rise as the passengers clash with the captain. And the monsters hold their own surprises. As the missions get more dangerous, the seafaring group can’t get distracted by personal relationships. But Mynta can’t hide her love for a certain woman forever, and the close quarters of the ship spark new romances between passengers and crew. The bonds they forge may be the thing that saves them—or tears them apart. One mistake and the monsters win. The Voyage of the Miscreation is an episodic novel in six parts, spinning off the main storyline from the Wyld Magic series. A character-driven epic fantasy adventure romance with an ensemble cast, featuring gay and straight relationships as well as gender nonconforming characters. If you like magic, monsters, and browncoat-wearing captains, then you’ll enjoy this tale on the high seas.




Favorite Children's Stories from China & Tibet


Book Description

This colorfully illustrated multicultural children's book presents Chinese and Tibeten folk and fairytales and other stories--providing insight into a rich literary culture. Favorite Children's Stories from China and Tibet is a captivating collection of stories from different parts of China and Tibet. Enter a mythical world where animals speak and play tricks on each other. Also depicted are humans who perform both good and bad magic, humans who become animals, animals who become human, magic pancakes, wishing cups, fairy boats, and a Tibetan creation story. These unique stories are fresh and charming, filled with humorous insights into Tibetan and Chinese culture and history--including the influence of the moon and importance of festivals. They make perfect new additions to story time or bedtime reading, and readers of all ages will find much to love within these pages. Chinese and Tibeten folk tales include: A Chinese Cinderella The Country of the Mice The Wishing Cup The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey A Hungry Wolf The King of the Mountain How the Deer Lost His Tale The Children's Favorite Stories series was created to share the folktales and legends most beloved by children in the East with young readers of all backgrounds in the West. Other multicultural children's books in this series include: Asian Children's Favorite Stories, Indian Children's Favorite Stories, Indonesian Children's Favorite Stories, Japanese Children's Favorite Stories, Singapore Children's Favorite Stories, Chinese Children's Favorite Stories, Korean Children's Favorite Stories, Balinese Children's Favorite Stories, and Vietnamese Children's Favorite Stories.




Einstein Studies in Russia


Book Description

This volume presents a selection of contributions by Russian scholars - historians and philosophers to science - to the Einstein Studies industry, broadly construed. This work explores the historical and foundational issues in general relativity and relativistic cosmology, Einstein's contributions to early quantum mechanics and the rise of Dirac's quantum electrodynamics. It also includes a detailed description of the physics colloquium Einstein established and coordinated in 1912-1913 and comments on his brief interest in the construction of the plane wing in 1916. most scholars. Materials from various Russian archives shed new light on the famous exchange (regarding the first evolutionary cosmological models) between Einstein and Alexander Friedmann in the early 1920s and on the role of Boris Podolsky and Vladimir Fock in the emergence of quantum electrodynamics. The little-known correspondence between Einstein and a famous German pilot Paul Erhardt suggests that during World War I, the former was involved with aero- and hydrodynamics research and ways of improving airplane design. Other articles introduce new approaches to important foundational questions in general relativity and cosmology.




Always Human


Book Description

Always Human is a beautifully drawn, sapphic graphic novel about a developing relationship between two young women in a near-future, soft sci-fi setting. First serialized on the popular app and website WebToon, Always Human amassed over 51 million views and nearly 700,000 subscribers. Now, for the first time, this incredible story has been reformatted for a print edition! Along with the sequel Love and Gravity, get ready to fall in love with this ground-breaking story of support and romance. "This beautifully illustrated slice-of-life tale that shows two young women of color getting to know each other and creating a relationship is so warm and charming that readers will hardly notice how much they are learning about how to better interact with folx who are different from themselves and the importance of not making assumptions." -- Kirkus Reviews "...soft, expressive art adds a visceral charge to the couple's very human experiences, which range from excitement and affection to pain and doubt." -- Publisher's Weekly "This wholesome plot focuses on building understanding, offering mutual support, and budding self-acceptance, as well as the importance of asking rather than making assumptions; avoiding othering; and regarding all those in one's orbit with compassion...A charming, sensitive story of love and acceptance." --School Library Journal " In a technologically advanced near future, two young women bumble through their first dates and fights together as they enjoy the exhilaration of new love....Always Human by Ari North is an endearingly feel-good sapphic romance set against a diverting futuristic backdrop." --Samantha Zaboski, Shelf Awareness In the near-future, people use technology to give the illusion of all kinds of body modifications-but some people have "Egan's Syndrome," a highly sensitive immune system that rejects these "mods" and are unable to use them. Those who are affected maintain a "natural" appearance, reliant on cosmetics and hair dye at most to help them play with their looks. Sunati is attracted to Austen the first time she sees her and is drawn to what she assumes is Austen's bravery and confidence to live life unmodded. When Sunati learns the truth, she's still attracted to Austen and asks her on a date. Gradually, their relationship unfolds as they deal with friends, family, and the emotional conflicts that come with every romance. Together, they will learn and grow in a story that reminds us no matter how technology evolves, we will remain . . . always human. Rendered in beautiful detail and an extraordinary color palette, Always Human is a sweet love story told in a gentle sci-fi setting by a queer woman cartoonist, Ari North. Published in partnership with media advocacy organization GLAAD, this empowering book positively represents LGBTQ families.




Six of Crows - Chapters 1 and 2


Book Description

Download the first two chapters of Six of Crows for free! Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price-and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone.... A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.




Realist Magic


Book Description

Object-oriented ontology offers a startlingly fresh way to think about causality that takes into account developments in physics since 1900. Causality, argues, Object Oriented Ontology (OOO), is aesthetic. In this book, Timothy Morton explores what it means to say that a thing has come into being, that it is persisting, and that it has ended. Drawing from examples in physics, biology, ecology, art, literature and music, Morton demonstrates the counterintuitive yet elegant explanatory power of OOO for thinking causality. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.




The Manchurian Candidate


Book Description

The classic thriller about a hostile foreign power infiltrating American politics: “Brilliant . . . wild and exhilarating.” —The New Yorker A war hero and the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Sgt. Raymond Shaw is keeping a deadly secret—even from himself. During his time as a prisoner of war in North Korea, he was brainwashed by his Communist captors and transformed into a deadly weapon—a sleeper assassin, programmed to kill without question or mercy at his captors’ signal. Now he’s been returned to the United States with a covert mission: to kill a candidate running for US president . . . This “shocking, tense” and sharply satirical novel has become a modern classic, and was the basis for two film adaptations (San Francisco Chronicle). “Crammed with suspense.” —Chicago Tribune “Condon is wickedly skillful.” —Time




Universe of the Mind


Book Description

Universe of the Mind A Semiotic Theory of Culture Yuri M. Lotman Introduction by Umberto Eco Translated by Ann Shukman A major book by one of the initiators of cultural studies. "Universe of the Mind is an ambitious, complex, and wide-ranging book that semioticians, textual critics, and those interested in cultural studies will find stimulating and immensely suggestive." --Journal of Communication "Soviet semiotics offers a distinctive, richly productive approach to literary and cultural studies and Universe of the Mind represents a summation of the intellectual career of the man who has done most to guarantee this." --Slavic and East European Journal Universe of the Mind addresses three main areas: meaning and text, culture, and history. The result is a full-scale attempt to demonstrate the workings of the semiotic space or intellectual world. Part One is concerned with the ways that texts generate meaning. Part Two addresses Lotman's central idea of the semiosphere--the domain in which all semiotic systems can function--presented through an analogy with the global biosphere. Part Three focuses on semiotics from the point of view of history. A seminal text in cultural semiotics, the book's ambitious scope also makes it applicable to disciplines outside semiotics. The book will be of great interest to those concerned with cultural studies, anthropology, Slavic studies, critical theory, philosophy, and historiography. Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman is the founder of the Moscow-Tartu School and the initiator of the discipline of cultural semiotics.