Zaire's Golden Babies


Book Description

In the setting of real-life Zaire and the Great Lakes region of central Africa, three bank investigators provoke retaliation by corrupt government officials. An attractive and skilled fraud investigator from Mauritius finds herself working closely, perhaps too closely, with a charming but discredited banker from California and a Zairian lawyer with intriguing skills. The overnight disappearance of hospitalized infants and the flourishing clandestine market in coffee, valuable minerals and ores along the eastern frontier of the country, gradually coalesce to form an ugly puzzle. After government secrets are revealed by the investigators, a suicide thrusts the American to the top position of the African bank where he has been given asylum. The number of abducted infants grows, promising developments appear to bring hope, cruel events turn upon them, and unexpected moves by three powerful women working behind the scenes change everything.




A Staircase of Stories


Book Description




Grains of Golden Sand


Book Description

This book offers an intimate, first-hand look at one of the world's most precarious, endangered species in a precarious, endangered place. While providing adventure and exotic appeal, this book adds a new perspective to readers' understanding of the relationship between humans and what remains of the natural world. 96800x600 Includes art-book quality illustrations throughout, including 16-page full-color insert. Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USJAX-NONE




Rumba Rules


Book Description

Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) from 1965 until 1997, was fond of saying “happy are those who sing and dance,” and his regime energetically promoted the notion of culture as a national resource. During this period Zairian popular dance music (often referred to as la rumba zaïroise) became a sort of musica franca in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. But how did this privileged form of cultural expression, one primarily known for a sound of sweetness and joy, flourish under one of the continent’s most brutal authoritarian regimes? In Rumba Rules, the first ethnography of popular music in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bob W. White examines not only the economic and political conditions that brought this powerful music industry to its knees, but also the ways that popular musicians sought to remain socially relevant in a time of increasing insecurity. Drawing partly on his experiences as a member of a local dance band in the country’s capital city Kinshasa, White offers extraordinarily vivid accounts of the live music scene, including the relatively recent phenomenon of libanga, which involves shouting the names of wealthy or powerful people during performances in exchange for financial support or protection. With dynamic descriptions of how bands practiced, performed, and splintered, White highlights how the ways that power was sought and understood in Kinshasa’s popular music scene mirrored the charismatic authoritarianism of Mobutu’s rule. In Rumba Rules, Congolese speak candidly about political leadership, social mobility, and what it meant to be a bon chef (good leader) in Mobutu’s Zaire.




On a Pincushion, and Other Fairy Tales


Book Description

Introductory section, on p. 1-3, explains how a pebble broach, a jet shawl-pin, and a common pin, together on a pincusion, relate the tales that follow to drown out noise from "chattering" bracelets nearby.




Capture Me & Bind Me


Book Description

The first two books in the dark romance Capture Me trilogy, available for a limited time in one convenient, discounted bundle “Yulia,” he whispers, staring down at me, and I know he feels it too, this pull, this visceral connection between us. He may have all the power, but in this moment, he’s as vulnerable as I am, caught in the grip of the same madness. CAPTURE ME She fears him from the first moment she sees him. Yulia Tzakova is no stranger to dangerous men. She grew up with them. She survived them. But when she meets Lucas Kent, she knows the hard ex-soldier may be the most dangerous of them all. One night—that’s all it should be. A chance to make up for a failed assignment and get information on Kent’s arms dealer boss. When his plane goes down, it should be the end. Instead, it's just the beginning. He wants her from the first moment he sees her. Lucas Kent has always liked leggy blondes, and Yulia Tzakova is as beautiful as they come. The Russian interpreter might’ve tried to seduce his boss, but she ends up in Lucas’s bed—and he has every intention of seeing her there again. Then his plane goes down, and he learns the truth. She betrayed him. Now she will pay. BIND ME He’s determined to break her. For Lucas Kent, his new prisoner is a maddening contradiction: compliant yet defiant, fragile yet strong. He needs to uncover her secrets, but doing so may ruin everything. His obsession could destroy her. She’s determined to escape. For Yulia Tzakova, her captor is the man of both her dreams and her nightmares: tender one moment, cruel the next. She can’t let him crack her, but resisting him may leave her broken. A moment of weakness could cost her everything. ~~~~ "A perfectly dark thrill ride of breathtaking action and scorching hot romance" —Skye Warren, New York Times bestselling author "Blazing hot, captivating, and fast-paced" —Josie Litton, New York Times bestselling author




Complete Fairy Tales


Book Description




Inspired Baby Names from Around the World


Book Description

Thousands of Names and the Blessings They Can Impart This unique guide includes 6,000-plus names from all corners of the globe, and each entry illuminates the name’s distinctive spiritual, historical, and cultural background — its poetry. Names, from the traditional to the newly coined, are fully explained. Pronunciation guide, origin, alternate spellings, and meaning are enhanced by the affirmation carefully chosen for each name. Lists of names by meaning, names by ethnicity, and most popular names by decade provide easy reference. Whether your aim is to honor ancestors, capture a child’s essence, or convey parental hopes, Inspired Baby Names from Around the World will help you greet and bless your new baby with heartfelt meaning.




Reckoning


Book Description

Ten American oil experts kicked out of Iran. Ten wanted men on a hit list stretching clear across the globe. They've stared dying one by one, within weeks of each other, the mode of murder different in every case. The kill count stands at five down, five to go. It's a case of international petroleum politics and its dirtiest and bloodiest. The big energy conglomerate doesn't want to pay the million, but it knows it has to. Because only Richard Dartley, the world's most expensive assassin and the man who never misses can beat a professional terminator every bit as deadly as himself.




This Lovely City


Book Description

An atmospheric and utterly compelling debut novel about a Jamaican immigrant living in postwar London, This Lovely City shows that new arrivals have always been the prime suspects — but that even in the face of anger and fear, there is always hope. London, 1950. With the war over and London still rebuilding, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for labour. Arriving from Jamaica aboard the Empire Windrush, he’s rented a tiny room in south London and fallen in love with the girl next door. Playing in Soho’s jazz clubs by night and pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home — and it’s alive with possibility. Until one morning, while crossing a misty common, he makes a terrible discovery. As the local community rallies, fingers of blame point at those who were recently welcomed with open arms. And before long, London’s newest arrivals become the prime suspects in a tragedy that threatens to tear the city apart. Immersive, poignant, and utterly compelling, Louise Hare’s debut examines the complexities of love and belonging, and teaches us that even in the face of anger and fear, there is always hope.