Today, practicing shamanism doesn't mean you have to live in a rain forest or a desert. Thanks to a modern renaissance of shamanic spirituality, practitioners from all walks of life now use powerful indigenous techniques for healing, insight, and spiritual growth. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman bring together a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual for making these practices accessible and available in our daily lives, including:

• How the original practice of shamanism shaped the world's spiritual traditions and why it is still relevant today
• The art of the shamanic journey--a time-tested meditative method for experiencing important spiritual lessons and truths
• Guidance for avoiding common pitfalls of shamanic practice
• Instruction for working with your dreams, connecting to your spirit guides, healing yourself and your environment

The core of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation-- to communicate firsthand with your spiritual allies and discover your own power. Awakening to the Spirit World takes you through each step of developing a personal connection with your helping spirits to receive wisdom, insight, and healing energy. From an overview of shamanism, to your first journeys and encounters with your power animals, to expanding your skills and insight through long-term practice, here is an in-depth resource for the shamanic arts that includes:

• Creating rituals and ceremonies for healing and transformation
• Reconnecting with nature to heal ourselves and the planet
• Working with your dreams, songs, and artistic vision to strengthen your practice
• Traditional wisdom for children-- healthy rites of passage for each phase of a child's journey to adulthood
• Honoring the cycle of life and death-- shamanic practices to prepare for and celebrate our final transition in this life

Table of Contents

1 What is Shamanism?
2 The Shamanic Journey
3 Reconnecting with Nature
4 Visionary Work with Weather and Environmental Changes
5 The Power of Ceremony and Ritual
6 Dreams
7 Creative Art as a Bridge
8 Working with Sound and Light
9 Death As a Rite of Passage
10 Experiential Work with Death and Dying
11 All Changes Involve Death
12 Our Children Are Our Future
13 Working in Community
14 The Transformational Community
15 The Return of the Shaman

In bestsellers like A Separate Reality and Journey to Ixtlan, Castaneda recounted his purported adventures with Mexican Yaqui Indian sorcerer don Juan Matus. Here he tells how, under don Juan's tutelage, he gained control over his dreams and used dreaming as a launching pad to a pervasive but unseen realm of ancestral spiritual forces, good and evil. He goes through tunnels, enters into the consciousness of trees, meets scouts, emissaries and form-changing blobs of energy. Aided by don Juan's companions and fellow apprentices, Castaneda penetrates a realm of "inorganic beings" who set traps for him and attack him, as if to illustrate don Juan's teaching that consciousness is compelled to grow through life-or-death confrontations. For believers, Castaneda's quest offers a tantalizing glimpse of alternate worlds beyond the rational parameters of our mundane reality. -- Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is a used mass market paperback book in fair to good condition, a good reading copy.

At long last, the Star Wars story of the mysterious Sith Lord Darth Plagueis and his apprentice, Darth Sidious, is revealed!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“The best Star Wars publication to date . . . [James] Luceno takes Darth Plagueis down the dark path and never looks back.”—Newsday

Darth Plagueis: Like all Sith Lords before him, he craves absolute power. But like no Sith Lord ever, he possesses the ultimate power—over life and death

Darth Sidious: In secret he masters the power of the dark side, while publicly climbing to the highest government office.

One desires to rule supreme; the other dreams of living forever. Together, they will destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy. Unless merciless Sith tradition becomes their undoing. . . .

“Luceno draws on his storytelling skill and prodigious knowledge of the [Star Wars] world . . . to craft a complex tale of ambition and desire.”—Library Journal

Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech by Craig Silverman  and Jeff Jarvis

We regret the error: it’s a phrase that appears in newspapers almost daily, the standard notice that something went terribly wrong in the reporting, editing, or printing of an article. From Craig Silverman, the proprietor of www.RegretTheError.com, one of the Internet’s most popular media-related websites, comes a collection of funny, shocking, and sometimes disturbing journalistic slip-ups and corrections. On display are all types of media inaccuracy—from “fuzzy math” to “obiticide” (printing the obituary of a person very much alive and well) to complete and utter ethical lapses. While some of the errors can be laugh-out-loud funny, the book contains a sobering journey through the history of media mistakes (including the outrageous hoaxes that dominated newspapers during the circulation wars of the 19th-century) and a serious muckraking investigation of contemporary journalism’s lack of accountability to the public. It shines a spotlight on the media’s carelessness and the sometimes tragic and calamitous consequences of weak or non-existent fact checking. 

From Publishers Weekly

Blogger Silverman is a man obsessed with pointing out the mistakes of others, though he dreams of a world in which he didn't have to. If media outlets printed their own corrections more thoroughly, amending online content appropriately, embracing their mistakes wholeheartedly, he argues, he wouldn't have to collect and publicize them with such devotion. Having founded regrettheerror.com to tally inaccuracies and corrections in the press, Silverman has set out to chronicle and categorize these errors in his first book. The result is a winding journey through the most glaring, damaging and humorous typos, misprints, misidentifications, fuzzy numbers and obiticides in the history of journalism, from the accidental to the malicious. These chapters are chock-full of amusing historical anecdotes, including the story behind the incorrect headline Dewey Defeats Truman, the case of mistaken identity that galvanized Nobel to create his prestigious awards, and the oft-presumed dead but still living Abe Vigoda. Silverman injects plenty of humor, but mostly he is deeply concerned about the science of journalism, and at the heart of this romp is an argument for increased public participation in the news cycle.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The classic anime Wicked City is based on a series of novels by master horror writer Hideyuki Kikuchi. Tor/Seven Seas is pleased to present these novels to the North American audience for the first time, featuring cover art by Christian McGrath (The Dresden Files).

The Black Guard, whose job it is to protect the boundary between our mortal world and the demonic Dark World, has succeeded in preserving the tenuous peace treaty between the two worlds, averting an all-out war. Now a new threat from the Dark World terrorizes humanity, a monster that invades people's dreams and causes them to commit murder.

Black Guard agents Taki, a hardboiled human, and his sexy demon partner, Makie, must work alongside legendary Black Guard agent Miyuki if they are to defeat the creature and save the world.

Like author Hideyuki Kikuchi's well-known and critically-acclaimed Vampire Hunter D novels (Dark Horse), Wicked City is an epic ten-volume tale of supernatural horror and high-octane action.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST

The author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and Shanghai Girls has garnered international acclaim for her great skill at rendering the intricate relationships of women and the complex meeting of history and fate. Now comes Lisa See’s highly anticipated new novel, China Dolls.

 It’s 1938 in San Francisco: a world’s fair is preparing to open on Treasure Island, a war is brewing overseas, and the city is alive with possibilities. Grace, Helen, and Ruby, three young women from very different backgrounds, meet by chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub. Grace Lee, an American-born Chinese girl, has fled the Midwest with nothing but heartache, talent, and a pair of dancing shoes. Helen Fong lives with her extended family in Chinatown, where her traditional parents insist that she guard her reputation like a piece of jade. The stunning Ruby Tom challenges the boundaries of convention at every turn with her defiant attitude and no-holds-barred ambition.

 The girls become fast friends, relying on one another through unexpected challenges and shifting fortunes. When their dark secrets are exposed and the invisible thread of fate binds them even tighter, they find the strength and resilience to reach for their dreams. But after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, paranoia and suspicion threaten to destroy their lives, and a shocking act of betrayal changes everything.

Praise for China Dolls

“Superb . . . This emotional, informative and brilliant page-turner resonates with resilience and humanity.”—The Washington Post

“This is one of those stories I’ve always wanted to tell, but Lisa See beat me to it, and she did it better than I ever could. Bravo! Here’s a roaring standing ovation for this heartwarming journey into the glittering golden age of Chinese nightclubs.”—Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“A fascinating portrait of life as a Chinese-American woman in the 1930s and ’40s.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A sweeping, turbulent tale of passion, friendship, good fortune, bad fortune, perfidy and the hope of reconciliation.”—Los Angeles Times

“Lisa See masterfully creates unforgettable characters that linger in your memory long after you close the pages.”—Bookreporter

“Stellar . . . The depth of See’s characters and her winning prose makes this book a wonderful journey through love and loss.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“China Dolls plunges us into a fascinating history and offers an accessible meditation on themes that are still urgent in our contemporary world.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“China Dolls is [Lisa See’s] most penetrating since Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.”—The Seattle Times

“A spellbinding portrait of a time burning with opportunity and mystery.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

The story is all too-familiar: On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing eleven workers and creating the largest oil spill in the history of U.S. offshore drilling. But, this wasn’t the first time British Petroleum and its cost-cutting practices destroyed parts of the natural world.  It also was not the first time that BP’s negligence resulted in the loss of human life, ruined family businesses or shattered dreams.  

Journalist Mike Magner has been tracking BP’s reckless path for years and, for the first time, focuses on the human price of BP’s rise to power. From Alaska to Kansas to the Gulf, Magner has talked to people whose lives have been destroyed by BP’s almost unparalleled corporate greed.  

When BP acquired an abandoned Kansas refinery in 1998, it discovered one of the most contaminated groundwater plumes in the U.S. Rather than begin a full cleanup, BP declared there was no cause for concern. A former schoolteacher alarmed by cancer cases in the town pushed her community to take BP to court. 

In 2005, an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery, operating with a raft of safety problems because of neglected maintenance, killed fifteen people including the mother and father of a young woman who was driving there to spend the Easter holidays with her parents.  A year later, thousands of gallons of oil spilled onto Alaska’s North Slope from a corroded BP pipeline. Following a hurricane, BP’s Thunder Horse rig almost sank because of a flaw in its construction, and repair work exposed even more serious problems.  

Poisoned Legacy is the searing true story of the rise and fall of BP, a company that went from being a green maverick promising a world “Beyond Petroleum” to one of the most notorious corporate villains in history.

When his plane is forced to make an emergency landing in a remote area of the Congo basin and rebels seize the aircraft, Lewis Burke, a New York businessman, flees into the rainforest, only to find himself alone in a world where no rules apply and with no apparent way out. As he struggles to survive under the thick canopy of trees, battling thirst and hunger in the unrelenting heat, he confronts his deepest fears-and his greatest disappointments: his crumbling marriage; his distant relationship with his seven-year-old son, Shane; and the lack of meaning in his life. When his wife, Helen, a former volunteer for World Aid, makes the daring decision to find him in Africa, The Curve of the World becomes a story of crossing barriers and regaining love and conviction.

As Helen and Shane journey upriver into the forbidding rainforest, bringing them closer to Lewis, Shane begins to have visions and dreams of his father. But just as Lewis cannot find his way out of the jungle, Helen is thwarted at every turn by the military conflict raging around them. In the end it is an unlikely hero, a young Congolese boy, who courageously guides Lewis through the forest and to a side of himself he thought he had lost.

Powerfully written and mesmerizing in effect, The Curve of the World is a heartrending and heart-pounding page-turner that explores the limits of human resilience and the tenacity of the human spirit.

Here are some of the greatest stories of all time. The familiar titles, like Snow White, are stories about things that are still important to us today, like families and loyalty, friendship and courage, getting along and making dreams come true.

In this book, you will find stories that are favorites already, and others that will be new to you, but sure to become your favorites as well.

This title helps you discover the history and origins of the universe and teaches how to observe the stars and galaxies. It has star charts and profiles of constellations and includes a month-by-month guide to highlights of the night sky.

Ever since early man first gazed up in wonder at the night sky, marveling at the stars and planets, humans have been fascinated by what lies in the infinite darkness outside the confines of earth. Today the technology of telescopes, satellites, and space stations has enhanced our knowledge far beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors.

Some of the points covered that will enhance the reader's knowledge of this fascinating but difficult subject are:
-- The universe and the big bang
-- The solar system
-- The earth and the moon
-- Supernovae
-- Black holes
-- Exploring space

Here is everything the beginner needs to know about the science of astronomy. From the early seventeenth-century observations of Galileo to space ships being sent across unimaginable distances; from the birth of our universe to the discovery of new stars, planets, and galaxies. Learn how to recognize the features of the night sky, and to look backward and forward in time of space

Ian Ridpath has been a full time writer, broadcaster, and lecturer on astronomy since 1972, having previously worked at the university of London Observatory. A fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, he is the editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy and Norton's Star Atlas. Ian has written or edited over 40 books, including several guides to the night sky. His writing has also appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout the world.

Follows a man's thoughts and dreams during a single night. It is also a book that participates in the re-reading of Irish history that was part of the revival of the early 20th century. The author also wrote "Ulysses", "Dubliners" and "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man".

That was the last thing Klaus had to say before we left J.C.' s diner to go our separate ways. On my way home, I decided I would drive by my grandparents' home. Every once in a while I'll do that, even though it's very painful to realize that they're gone now and that house belongs to someone else- a total stranger. When I come to the house, I park in front and just sit there, recalling that during the Prohibition Era this house was a blind pig and my grandmother was the proprietress. As a young boy, I would walk the three miles from my house just to sit on the front porch with "ma" so I could listen to her tell stories about the "old days". It's been thirty years since I've been inside that house, which was a second home to me when I was growing up. I have a feeling that if I were to go inside now, that my grandfather would still be sitting there in his favorite chair wearing nothing but his BVDs (the kind with the back flap that buttons up) reading "True Detective" or "Field and Stream." I am tempted to walk up the front steps and ring the doorbell, but I don't dare. 

Not far here was a little pond and a garbage dump. In the summers of my childhood, I'd go down to the pond and catch tadpoles and pollywogs, or I'd walk over to the dump and scrounge around for hidden treasures amidst the trash. Say, what's happening to me? Maybe I'm dying. No? Then why is my whole life- beginning with my earliest memories- suddenly passing before my eyes? 

It's my birthday, I'm five-years-old old and I'm sitting on a wooden pony on the fifth floor of Hudson's Department Store in downtown Detroit where I'll be getting my first professional haircut. Later that same day, my mother takes me to Sanders for a Hot Fudge Sunday. Cut to that little pond I mentioned. I've been catching pollywogs with a strainer and putting them in a jar when a big kid comes up to me and orders me to leave. I refuse and he wrestles me to the ground, demanding that I say uncle. When I refuse to say uncle, he gives me a good pounding, then takes that jar of mine and empties its contents back into the pond. I don't cry, but holding back the tears, I vow to myself that I'll get him back some day. But I never do. 

So many things from my childhood have disappeared, like that pond, for instance, which is no longer there, and the garbage dump, and the creek where we fished for carp and the bridge that spanned it- all of that's been gone for years. Gone, too, are the vacant lots where we played pick up baseball in the summer, and the woods where we had bonfires in the fall, roasting marshmallows over the fire while warming ourselves. Now that I think of it, my grade school is gone- torn down years ago to make way for a Farmer Jack's. And the schoolyard where we held our marble tournaments before and after school (knuckles down, no hunching) and played kick ball and dodge ball- that schoolyard where I had so much fun- buried and paved-over into a parking lot- gone. Gone the way of the sheeny-man who came into our neighborhood riding an antique horse that clop, clop clopped down our street pulling a wagon full of junk while the sheeny blew his shrill-sounding horn to let the neighborhood know that he had arrived. Gone too, the ice man who carried big blocks of ice with silver tongs for our ice box; and gone- the man who delivered the coal that went rumbling down the coal shoot and into the coal bin, a fascinating place in its own right when you're still young enough to appreciate such things as coal bins All that's gone. 

Within walking distance of my grandmother's house is the movie theater. I'm six and I'm standing in a long line with all the other kids holding a quarter in my hand: the price of admission back then. For a mere twenty-five cents you've gained entrance to that darkened theater to watch three movies, a newsreel, a serial, (Flash Gordon was my favorite.), cartoons and coming attractions. Seven years later, in that same theater, I sit down next to a strange girl and ask her if she would like to neck with me, and she consents, taking my hand in hers and leaning her head on my shoulder. (Necking wasn't really allowed, and if you weren't careful, a very official-looking usherette, who wore a uniform with gold buttons down the front and epaulettes on the shoulders, would shine her flashlight on you.) The last time I drove by the Lincoln Park Show it was advertising itself on the marquee as Adult Entertainment. 

The Depression having ended by the time I was born, my earliest memories begin around the time of World War II. My mother is sitting down at the kitchen table placing little green stamps in her ration book. Once the book is full, she'll go to a redemption center and have the stamps redeemed for money to buy food with. That was the year we planted a victory garden in the vacant lot next to our house. In a similar vein, the kids on our my block had paper drives and collected scrap metal. It was all part of the war effort, for as young boys we were learning how to be patriotic and to love the flag and "the country for which it stands"- America. As a matter of fact, my very first lesson in patriotism came in the form of a warning from the big kids on my block never to let the American flag touch the ground or I'd have to burn it- just one of a number of taboos I learned as a child similar to, but nowhere near as fearful as, "step on a crack and break you mother's back'. 

Where are they now?- my comic book collection and those hundreds and hundreds of matchbooks that I picked out of gutters and found in empty fields on the way home from school. And why? Because, as a kid of nine, I found the endless variety of match covers fascinating. What happened to my Lionel train- the one I woke up to find underneath the Christmas tree, my Red Ryder be-be gun and my American Flyer bike?- where are they now? 

At that age, my indoor world was a world of tinker toys, erector sets, and games- all kinds of games: hockey, basketball, football and my favorite, APBA baseball,- and the radio. Every Sunday, after church, my dad would buy a paper from the paperboy, and when we got home, I would do is spread out the comic section on the living room floor, then turn on the radio and listen to the Sunday comics being read over the air. During the week, when I get home from school, the first thing I do is turn on the radio and listen to my favorite programs: Jack Armstrong, All-American boy, Captain Midnight, (I wear my Captain Midnight decoder ring that glows in the dark), Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and broadcast from WXYZ, our very own Lone Ranger. Hi-o Silver, away. In the evening was Baby Snooks, The Great Gildersleeve, Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, My Friend Irma, Bulldog Drummond, The Shadow, Mr. Keane, Tracer of Lost Persons, Name that Tune, Mr. I.Q., Life with Luigi, and another local favorite, The Green Hornet. 

My outdoor world was the streets, the vacant lots, the fields and the alleys of my neighborhood. In the street we played hockey in the winter and touch football in the fall; in fields and vacant lots we played pick up baseball and built our underground fort where we slept out on hot summer nights playing Hearts and Crazy Eights by candlelight, or we climbed up the rope ladder to our tree house where, with our binoculars, we could spy on all our neighbors. Alleys were for alley-picking and for war games played with cap pistols, be-be guns, and sling shots. We made walkie-talkies out of old tin cans and string, kites using clothes line, parachutes, and model airplanes. In the vacant lot next to my house we played cork ball- if you ask me, the greatest game ever invented. You could play cork ball using a large bobber or an ordinary bottle cork for a ball and a broomstick handle for a bat. A ball that landed in the alley was a triple, on the other side of the alley, a home run.. 

Item: our alleys were paved with cinders back then. The White Street gang lines up on one side, the Garfield Street gang on the other. There's going to be a rock fight. Before you know what's happening, the sky is filled with rocks. You throw, you duck, you throw another rock and then you duck and then something happens- your face is burning and throbbing. You've been hit. My god, you could have lost your eye. You could cry, but you don't. You are a casualty in a rock fight and you will carry a scar beneath your eye for the rest of your life, and you didn't cry- you are a hero. That night, after your father comes home from work, you get your first good licking. In bed that night, you pull the covers over your head and listen to your favorite radio programs before you fall asleep. 

I'm back in the real world again, saddened by the sight of my grandmother's house. Whoever lives there now has let in fall into disrepair. No, I wouldn't want to go inside; it would depress me to see how everything would be different. No, I'll go now. I turn on the engine and head for home. I wonder as I drive past the familiar landmarks of my youth how time has changed so much, transforming Main Street into block after block of blighted buildings. Where there was once an ice cream parlor, a barbershop, and a shoe repair, there are now ugly abandoned or boarded-up buildings. Our two dime stores: Niesner's and Woolworth's, and Winkleman's, a classy women's clothing store, are now a dumpy-looking Dollar Store, a Temporary Jobs Office, and windowless Community Mental Health Center. Cunningham's, with its lunch counter where you could sit and have a chicken salad sandwich and a cup of coffee while you waited for your bus, is gone, and Sanders closed its doors ten years ago. 

Last week I went with J.C. on a delivery run down near the docks in River Rouge and saw the Columbia, one of the two Bob-Lo boats, in dry dock. It's being restored. All the same, there will be no more picnics on the island because Bob-Lo Island, with its roller coaster, its dance hall and its many amusement rides, was sold to private developers and everything was torn down. At one time we had four such amusement parks; now there are none. Gone are the penny arcades of my youth, the slots where for a penny you could get sepia-colored pictures of ballplayers and boxers, movie stars, wrestlers and cowboys. All that's gone. But most tragic was the demolition of Hudson's, as thousands lined-up to watch the spectacle of this great landmark implode into a huge pile of rubble. 

When I think of all that's been lost, I am saddened. One magnificent railway station demolished, the other, Michigan Central, an empty hulk. Now that all of its windows have been busted out, it's nothing more than a vacant shell of a building. And those lavish movie palaces of a bygone era, almost all them gone- closed or destroyed. The great burlesque houses, like the famous Gayety and The Esquire- they, too, have vanished, as have those magnificent ballrooms, the Grande and the Vanity; those proud hotels, the Sheraton Cadillac and the Fort Shelby; and finally, the Vernors' plant- the first one, the one located at the foot of Woodward Avenue where you caught the Bob-Lo boat way back when. I believe it's been more than fifty years since they tore it down. A local product, Vernor's has the distinction of being the first soda pop in America. Today, it is owned by one of America's largest conglomerates: the Pepsi Cola Company. 

I remember the day the carnival came to town and seeing the boy with webbed feet, the bearded lady and the man who had a baby growing out of his stomach. Until the day I die, I'll never forget that man with the baby. Of all the freak shows I've seen, that's the one I'll never forget. How on earth, this six-year-old wondered (as he stood inside that stuffy tent with the smell of sawdust in his nostrils, holding on to his daddy's hand) could a man have a baby growing out of his stomach? How did it happen? That was in the city of Ecorse some fifty years ago on the fourth of July. I remember it well, especially watching the fireworks from atop the Ferris wheel, a burst of sound- boom- then splashes of color lighting up the sky, appearing in an instant, lingering for a moment, then fading away into the dark 

A light goes on inside the house. I turn on my engine and drive off, but before going directly home, I take the overpass that connects suburbia with Detroit. Reaching the highest point of the overpass, I look out at the cityscape, all aglow and spread out like a magic carpet of light. Directly below- the refinery, with its eternal flame; then farther out, the Ambassador Bridge with its colorful beads of light, strung along the bridge from one side- the American side- to the other- the Canadian side; and then, at the farthest point of vision, the mills and factories bordering the river, their myriad lights; candles glowing in the dark, their smoke stacks; vertical canons, sending up ghostly wisps of smoke into the night sky -light to ward-off the coming darkness of a fascistic America ruled by powerful and impersonal corporations in league with a government indifferent to the dreams and aspirations of its people, the working people of America. We cannot let this happen; this relentless juggernaut has to be stopped. If we don't stop it and stop it soon, before it is too late (if it's not already too late), the lights will go out all across America and darkness will cover the land.

Fourteen short stories about what it's like to grow up in the city―the glamour, the mean streets, and the neighborhood.

In these fourteen authentic short stories, young people growing up in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, New York, and elsewhere contend with city realities: a former child-star must resist her mother's dreams of Hollywood to pursue her own interest in archaeology; in a Baltimore courtroom, a boy testifies against a drug dealer who, if freed, will surely want revenge; a block party in Harlem is the setting first for a family argument and then for an act of neighborly kindness....

These stories of young people of all backgrounds―from the privileged to the poor, from immigrant to native-born―beat with the pulse of city life. They neither extol nor condemn but frankly reflect the city's real excitements and perils. For urban teens, these are pages out of daily life. For those who live elsewhere, here is a glimpse into a world so often imagined. Among the authors are Judith Ortiz Cofer, Eugenia Collier, Ann Hood, Cherylene Lee, Paul Many, Walter Dean Myers, Michael Rosovsky, Neal Shusterman, Amy Tan, Elennora Tate, and Kurt Vonnegut.

"Rights of Man" presents an impassioned defense of the Enlightenment principles of freedom and equality that Thomas Paine believed would soon sweep the world. He boldly claimed, 'From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen, not to be extinguished. Without consuming...it winds its progress from nation to nation'. Though many more sophisticated thinkers argued for the same principles and many people died in the attempt to realize them, no one was better able than Paine to articulate them in a way which fired the hopes and dreams of the common man and actually stirred him to revolutionary political action.

Open the mind to new possibilities -

Born out of the ancient Toltec society in the central valley of Mexico, this advanced philosophy incorporates the knowledge of science, art, and the spirit to form a perfect model of transcendence. Toltecs believed humans live in a world of dreams that can lead to self-love and respect--the keys to personal freedom. With this guide, readers can explore the knowledge of the Toltecs, taking charge of their lives and becoming fully aware for the first time.

• Foreword from don Miguel Ruiz, the master of Toltec wisdom and author of The Four Agreements
• Filled with practical tools that readers can employ immediately
• This is the perfect introduction to the subject
• Rosenthal is a Toltec Mentor trained by Ruiz himself

Another perfect beach read from the USA Today bestselling author of While We Were Watching Downton Abbey.  

Madeline, Avery, and Nikki are strangers to each other, but they have one thing in common. They each wake up one morning to discover their life savings have vanished, along with their trusted financial manager- leaving them with nothing but co-ownership of a ramshackle beachfront house.

Throwing their lots in together, they take on the challenge of restoring the historic property. But just as they begin to reinvent themselves and discover the power of friendship, secrets threaten to tear down their trust-and destroy their lives a second time.

Praise for the novels of  the USA Today bestselling Wendy Wax
“Wise and witty...A beautiful book about loyalty, courage, and pursuing your dreams with a little help from your friends. I loved this book!”— Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of A Long Time Gone

“Reading Wendy Wax is like discovering a witty, wise, and wonderful new friend.”—Claire Cook, bestselling author of Must Love Dogs and Time Flies

“A terrific story brimming with wit, warmth, and good humor. I loved it!”—Jane Porter, author of The Good Wife

“Quite a clever, fun little novel.”—USA Today

“Great escape reading, perfect for the beach.”—Library Journal

"Fun . . . heartwarming. . . . A loving tribute to friendship and the power of the female spirit.”—Las Vegas Review-Journal“[Wax] writes with breezy wit and keen insight.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About the Author

Wendy Wax, a former broadcaster, is the USA Today bestselling author of ten novels, including While We Were Watching Downton Abbey, The House on Mermaid Point, and Ocean Beach. The mother of two college-age sons, she lives in the Atlanta suburbs with her husband, and is doing her best to adjust to the quiet of her recently emptied nest.

In Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu gives instructions for developing clarity within the sleep and dream states. He goes beyond the practices of lucid dreaming that have been popularized in the West by presenting methods for guiding dream states that are part of a broader system for enhancing self-awareness called Dzogchen. In this tradition, the development of lucidity in the dream state is understood in the context of generating greater awareness for the ultimate purpose of attaining liberation. 

This revised and expanded edition includes additional material from a profound and personal Dzogchen book, which Chögyal Namkhai Norbu wrote over many years. This material deepens the first edition's emphasis on specific exercises to develop awareness within the dream and sleep states. Also included in this book is a text written by Mipham, the nineteenth-century master of Dzogchen, which offers additional insights into this extraordinary form of meditation and awareness.

Review

"A personal and inspiring account of the higher possibilities of sleep and dreams by an acknowledged master. Must reading for dreamers in search of awakening."—Stephen LaBerge, PhD, director of the Lucidity Institute and author of Lucid Dreaming 

"Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is one of the greatest Tibetan meditation masters and scholars teaching in the West today. His luminous Dream Yoga teachings are invaluable for anyone interested in Buddhist practices and views on dreaming and the afterlife. These profound and liberating wisdom teachings from the ancient Dzogchen tradition of Tibet provide new perspectives on this life, on the nature of reality, and on the nature of consciousness and mind. I myself read this book with great interest and recommend it to my own students."—Lama Surya Das, founder of the Dzogchen Foundation and author of Awakening the Buddha 

"The new edition is sufficiently different from the already pivotal previous version to warrant purchasing it and working seriously with its contents. In the current edition, Rinpoche, who has had clear abilities in dream practices since his youth, expands his initial commentary on the 'practice of the night' with more specific explanations drawn from an intimate and detailed Dzogchen manuscript he has been writing for many years."—The Mirror 

"Provides a valuable practice to help calm the mind in lucid dreaming states so that we can truly deepen our awareness. Dream Yoga is not just about awakening in the dream state, but also bringing it together with our non-dream awareness as well."—Nate DeMontigny, Precious Metal

About the Author

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is a Tibetan master of the Dzogchen tradition. He has been a professor at the Oriental Institute of the University of Naples, Italy, and is the author of many books, including The Crystal and the Way of Light, The Supreme Source, and Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State.

In Explorations in Consciousness, Frederick Aardema, a clinical researcher, provides a profound account of the out-of-body experience, covering some of the most mystifying aspects of this experience. Throughout the book, the author seamlessly weaves in his own travels into different fields of consciousness, including  experiences in the personal field, where he is confronted with the constructs of his own psyche, as well as visitations to collective and archetypal fields of consciousness that appear to have an independent existence beyond the eye of the beholder. Highly original and groundbreaking, Explorations in Consciousness presents a model of reality in which nothing can ever be taken for granted. It proposes that consciousness is embedded within a wider field of possibilities that become real depending on our interaction with the world around us, whether "in" or "out" of the body. Regardless of what you believe about the out-of-body state, this book will challenge and excite you to become an explorer of consciousness. It provides a powerful method to induce the OBE, as well as new tools on how to navigate the entire spectrum of consciousness yourself.

From the Inside Flap

* The Transition Process - A systematic account of the transition process leading into the out-of-body state.

* Fields of Consciousness - A comprehensive overview of the different fields of consciousness that can be accessed in the out-of-body state.

* A Model of Possibilities - A quantum view of reality with direct and practical implications.

* Navigation in the Void - Accessible tools to effectively navigate consciousness by accessing nonlocal space in the out-of-body state.

* The Vigil Method - A powerful six-step guide to moving beyond the physical body.

This is one of the best OBE books I've read in many years and I highly recommend it. It was thoroughly enjoyable. One of the reasons I liked it so much is just because of the author's approach. It really makes you think. Hard.
-- Robert Peterson, Author of Out of Body Experiences, Lessons Out of the Body and Answers Within 

Explorations of Consciousness represents a new height, a new level in the serious intellectual study of altered states, and specifically the so-called "out of body experience." But it is not a dry and pedantic framework, but an exciting, living framework that has a lot to offer people of all levels of interest. If you want a book with sound methods for inducing an OBE, Fred's book has it. If you want a sophisticated critique of past workers in the area of out-of-body experiencing, lucid dreaming and astral projection, Fred's book has it. If you wish to learn cutting edge ideas about this experience, and how it ties to other areas of learning, ranging from psychology to physics, Fred's book has it. It sets a new standard of quality and intellectual sophistication. It serves as a great example. Needless to say, I recommend you read it!
-- Dr. Donald DeGracia, Associate Professor of Physiology, Wayne State University, Author of Do-OBE and Beyond the Physical

With his careful, detailed scientific consideration of the phenomena, Frederick pulls OBEs out from the smoke screen of flimflammery to present them transparently as a comprehensible human experience - in particular, an experience potentially attainable by all.
-- Dr. Kieron O'Connor, Research Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Montreal, Canada

This book has moved the OBE ball down the field farther than anything since Robert Monroe in the 70's and 80's. The greatest contribution here is the way the author looks at the OBE. While rejecting neural reductionism, he also rejects all forms of geographical or 'travel' analogies. Consciousness is nowhere and can never be anywhere. All the apparent 'travel' to this or that world or zone of experience is a phase shift of eternally stationary consciousness. Check it out, finally somebody with a brain has probed into this deeply. It's the best thing in decades on the OBE.
-- Scott Meredith, Author of Juice: Radical Taiji Energetics

I am blown away. Frederick Aardema has written the master textbook of OBEs how it should be taught in schools. To my mind it will rank as one of the future classics of OBE literature and should be required and essential reading for all OBE investigators.
-- Jurgen Ziewe, Author of Multidimensional Man 

Aardema's theory and practice of the OBE deserve careful consideration--his book is bound to become one of the classic texts on the subject.
-- Mathew Fike, Professor of English at Winthrop University

The pastor who has inspired thousands now shares how the power of faith, vision, and renewal can transform lives... 

Whether it's relationship troubles, financial difficulties, job dissatisfaction, or illness, the obstacles people encounter can leave them feeling hopeless and alienated from God and the path He has chosen for them. 

Casey Treat knows all too well about life's challenges- and how to triumph over them by applying the power of faith, vision, and renewal. Imbued with these three essential truths, he has ministered to thousands of people in trouble, guiding them to the wisdom that only God can provide. 

Pastor Treat shows how deepening their faith, clarifying their vision, and embracing renewal can transform people's lives-and start them on the journey to realizing their dreams and achieving success.

About the Author

Casey Treat is the founder and senior pastor of the Christian Faith Center, as well as the founder and president of Dominion College. He is an author and motivational speaker, and hosts a television program called Living on Course. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

In A Plain and Simple Christmas, from the author of the widely popular Kauffman Amish Bakery Series, shunned Anna Mae doesn’t receive the welcome she expects when she pays a visit for Christmas and her world begins to fall apart, leaving her to question her place in her family—and her faith in God.

Set in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Naomi’s Gift reintroduces twenty-four-year-old Naomi King, who has given up her dreams of finding true love. But when a young widower stirs surprising feelings in her, Naomi cautiously opens her heart to him and receives an unexpected response that once again turns her world upside-down.

Author Amy Clipston artfully paints a panorama of simple lives full of complex relationships, and she carefully explores cultural differences and human similarities, with inspirational results.

When television viewing audiences first met Ruby Gettinger, a mild-mannered, sweet-natured, Southern-food addicted Sunday school teacher, her weight was hovering near 500 pounds. As the ad campaign for the show says, Ruby doesn′t know how she got to this weight, but she knows its killing her. Having been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and told by doctors that she would die if she continued to carry all that weight, Ruby is changing her life to save it. Her honesty, optimism and genuine commitment to uncover all the underlying causes of her addiction--mental, physical and emotional--are inspiring millions of others in the process. So too is her progress. (She′s now down to 360 pounds!)

While Style′s cameras have been following Ruby′s personal journey as she sheds the weight, gets healthier, battles discrimination daily, and struggles to recover lost childhood memories, these excerpts, taken from the journal Ruby carries with her everywhere on the show, include her most intimate reflections, insights and discoveries regarding her life "before" and "during" this incredibly transformative experience. It also includes her fears, hopes and dreams for life after her goal is realized. In addition, the book will feature thoughts from the doctors, dieticians, trainers, therapists, friends and family supporting Ruby′s mission. Everyone following and touched by Ruby′s story will want to read this book.

This exquisite novel tells the story of one of the most compelling heroines in modern literature--Emma Bovary. 

"Madame Bovary has a perfection that not only stamps it, but that makes it stand almost alone; it holds itself with such a supreme unapproachable assurance as both excites and defies judgement." - Henry James

Unhappily married to a devoted, clumsy provincial doctor, Emma revolts against the ordinariness of her life by pursuing voluptuous dreams of ecstasy and love. But her sensuous and sentimental desires lead her only to suffering corruption and downfall. A brilliant psychological portrait, Madame Bovary searingly depicts the human mind in search of transcendence. Who is Madame Bovary? Flaubert's answer to this question was superb: "Madame Bovary, c'est moi." Acclaimed as a masterpiece upon its publication in 1857, the work catapulted Flaubert to the ranks of the world's greatest novelists. This volume, with its fine translation by Lowell Bair, a perceptive introduction by Leo Bersani, and a complete supplement of essays and critical comments, is the indispensable Madame Bovary.

Resist temptation…

It seems as though Belinda Drayson-Jones has it all together. Smart and attractive, she is one of the most talented bakers at Lillian's, her family's famed Chicago patisserie. Belinda is one of those women who never shows up late, never makes a faux pas, never does anything that would raise someone's eyebrows. Yet perfection has its price, and the beautiful Ms. Drayson-Jones feels that something is missing from her life. And no one would ever guess the secret she's keeping.

…or give in to love?

Malik Anthony knows plenty about keeping secrets. He has worked with Belinda for years and has been fighting his feelings just as long. Malik always considered her to be unattainable, until one night when their simmering desire suddenly reaches the boiling point. And if he isn't mistaken, Belinda is now coming on to him.

What could be more irresistible than being seduced by the boss's granddaughter? What could be more perfect than giving in?

Mark Volhovsky is a disenchanted teenager living in the crumbling town of Warren, Michigan. One night, when he re-encounters Chicory -- the fearless, blue-hued, imaginary rabbit friend of his childhood -- it opens the door to a strange and disturbing world of magic, mayhem and conspiracy. 

Something sinister is happening around Warren. It's not the hissing creatures showing up in the boy's dreams or the dark strangers knocking at his door, and it's not those pale children who keep lurking in the streets, trying to devour him. Something big is coming, and Mark can't deny it any more than he can deny the giant blue rabbit standing beside him. Should he step out and leave the fight against chaos to the professionals, or can he muster the insanity and compassion that it takes to be a real magician? 

And if he does, will he lose his best friend forever? 

Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!: A Puzzling Novel is a contemporary fantasy story with an experimental flavor -- a tale told in prose, poetry, typography and esoteric imagery. It is, in all senses of the word, a puzzling tale.

Never Alone is a riveting story about author Linda Bartlett and her son's heartbreaking yet inspiring journey; it reveals the seemingly overwhelming challenges they faced and recognizes a child's powerful determination to live against all medical odds, through gut-wrenching bullying, to angelic spiritual enlightenment. This book takes you on a path from the deepest dark valleys to the highest majestic mountaintops. It is about eternal hope and never giving up.

After growing up in a North Central Texas town, Linda Bartlett boarded her first airplane at the age of nineteen and traveled to Germany, where she spent two years. A few years after returning to Texas, she again flew to Europe, where she lived for more than two years in southern Italy while traveling as often as possible to other European countries, developing a love and passion for experiencing different cultures. She also has spent time in Asia and Mexico and has traveled extensively throughout North America. Three years after returning from Italy, her son, Jeffrey, was born; three years later her family expanded with the addition of her daughter, Stephanie. A rocky transition followed, as Linda became a single mom coping with everyday fears of providing for her two children. These fears ultimately became a gift, as her love and passion for helping people led her to a very successful real estate career in both sales and management, while incorporating a positive attitude interspersed with fun and laughter. In fact, her motto was "Turning Dreams into Reality" which is the way she continues to live her life.

In Season (formerly titled VoodooSeason), Jewell Parker Rhodes revisits the sensual, magical landscape of her highly acclaimed debut novel, Voodoo Dreams.

Marie Levant, raised in the North by foster parents, begins her medical residency in New Orlean's Charity Hospital. Plagued by deja vu and haunted by increasingly violent dreams, Marie tries to make a life in a city that seems both foreign and familiar. 

Without warning her world falls apart, for it is voodoo season: the season of heat, humidity, the West Nile virus, of unexplained deaths of young adults all with a mysterious symbol marked in red clay on their foreheads. It is the season of babies cut from their dead mother's wombs. 

It is the season when the Guede, the death gods, haunt Levant--whispering tales, sending memories and dreams of Marie Laveau, a nineteenth century voodooienne, who walked on water and blended African loas with their Catholic saints, whispering tales of a second Marie, who murdered her mother and brought evil to the faith, whispering tales of a third Marie who died in a pool of blood, after abandoning her child to an orphanage. Marie Levant, the fourth Marie, must reclaim her heritage, reclaim the power of voodoo drums transformed to a jazz lament, reclaim her spiritual, womanist power. A contemporary epic and mythic tale, Marie learns "women hand down sight through generations, mother to daughter." She learns that love and passion can be intertwined, marriage and a profession can mix, and that a woman's love can redeem a world. She learns that there is no greater power than a mother's fierce passion and that of a woman secure in her self identity, secure in ancestral heritage as a black woman and a voodoo queen.

About the Author

Jewell Parker Rhodes is the author of the Louisiana Girls children's book trilogy, which includes Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic. The books in this series have received the Parents’ Choice Foundation Award, the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, and the Jane Addam’s Children’s Book Award, among others. Towers Falling, her newest middle grade novel, is a Junior Library Guild Selection, an Amazon's Best Book of the Month, and an ADL Best Kid Lit on Bias, Diversity, and Social Justice selection. Another middle grade book, Ghost Boys, will be published spring of 2018.

Jewell is also the author of six adult novels: Voodoo Dreams, Magic City, Douglass’ Women, Season, Moon, and Hurricane, as well as the memoir Porch Stories: A Grandmother’s Guide to Happiness, and two writing guides, Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors and The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Non-Fiction. Her adult literary awards include the American Book Award, the National Endowment of the Arts Award in Fiction, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Outstanding Writing.

Jewell grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Drama Criticism, a Master of Arts in English, and a Doctor of Arts in English (Creative Writing) from Carnegie Mellon University. Jewell is the Founding Artistic Director and Piper Endowed Chair at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She currently lives in San Jose.

The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate.Illuminating these lives in transition and guiding us through the book's evocative landscapes, familiar and foreign, is the mind of the novelist Nathan Zuckerman. His is the skeptical, enveloping intelligence that calculates the price that's paid in the struggle to change personal fortune and reshape history, whether in a dentist's office in suburban New Jersey, a tradition-bound English Village in Gloucestershire, a church in London's West End, or a tiny desert settlement in Israel's occupied West Bank.

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Aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make money on the Internet turn to affiliate marketing more than any other marketing niche… and with good reason, just look at what these major research firms say:

• Affiliate marketing is now a “multi-billion marketing channel, which comprises more than 200,000 businesses and individuals” (Performance Marketing Association)
• Affiliate marketing is expected to be a $4 billion market by 2014 (Forrester Research)

It’s safe to say that affiliate marketing has turned more “work-from-home” dreams into reality than any other Internet money-making method. Period.

Quite simply, affiliate marketing is a low-risk, high-return strategy for online marketers.

Still, for every one affiliate marketer who succeeds and realizes his or her dream of being able to quit their day job and make more money working for home … several more fail miserably.

The Truth Is You Can’t Just Jump On The Affiliate Marketing Bandwagon & Start Making Money On Instinct

This approach doesn’t work. Chances are you’ll run out of money long before you figure everything out – I personally have seen this happen again and again and again.

I’m sure it would have happened to me as well if I hadn’t been lucky enough to have my own mentor who showed me what costly affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid and how to start making real money with affiliate marketing faster than I could have ever dreamed possible.

Now I want to pass on what my mentor taught me – as well as all that I’ve learned since – to YOU... so you don’t have to struggle and go through the stress of wondering if you’re going to be able to make any money with your new affiliate marketing business!

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Now instead of trying to picture in your mind what you read in an affiliate marketing ebook you can see firsthand exactly what you need to do to start making money as an affiliate marketer. In this course, I willpersonally show you such important affiliate marketing fundamentals as:

• How to research keywords and select the ones that will allow you to drive waves of cash-in-hand, eager buyers to any web page!
  
• How to buy a domain name that will grab prospects attention and entice them to visit your site!
  
• How to get hosting for a price that won’t end up sucking up all your profits!
  
• How to upload/FTP a website even if you have ZERO technical knowledge!
  
• What affiliate marketing really is and how you can lay the foundation you need to become one of the Internet’s most successful affiliate marketers!
  
• How to use CPA Networks to really send your affiliate marketing profits soaring!
  
• How to promote your site/affiliate link as well as or even better than today’s most successful affiliate marketers!
  
• And much more! 

This "brilliant caper" (New York Times) from bestselling author Elmore Leonard is a rollicking tale of modern urban crime featuring a cast of small-time criminals with big-time dreams.

Ernest Stickley Jr. figures his luck's about to change when Detroit used-car salesman Frank Ryan catches him trying to boost a ride from Ryan's lot. Frank's got some surefire schemes for getting rich quick—all of them involving guns—and all Stickley has to do is follow "Ryan's Rules" to share the wealth.

But sometimes rules need to be bent, maybe even broken to succeed in the world of crime, especially when the "brains" of the operation knows less than nothing.

Review

You will look long and hard before you find anyone with a bad word to say about Leonard. About the worst thing I can think of to say about SWAG is that it might be said to make armed robbery look like a enticing career move... if you haven't read him before, you are in for a treat. -- Nicholas Lezard The Guardian

From the Back Cover

The smallest of small-time criminals, Ernest Stickley Jr. figures his luck's about to change when Detroit used car salesman Frank Ryan catches him trying to boost a ride from Ryan's lot. Frank's got some surefire schemes for getting rich quick—all of them involving guns—and all Stickley has to do is follow "Ryan's Rules" to share the wealth. But sometimes rules need to be bent, maybe even broken, if one is to succeed in the world of crime, especially if the "brains" of the operation knows less than nothing.

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul―the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter―environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man―she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz―outré rocker and Walter's college best friend and rival―still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become "a very different kind of neighbor," an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

"Deborah Bedford grabs the reader by the heart and doesn't let go." -- Debbie Macomber, author of A Good Yarn

Though the secret behind Uley Kirland's cap and mining togs is unsuspected in 1880s Tin Cup, Colorado, she longs to shed the clothing of deception…especially when handsome stranger Aaron Brown awakens her heart. But while Uley dreams of being fitted for a wedding gown, the man she loves is being fitted for a hangman's noose, and she's the inadvertent cause of his troubles. The truth will set him free, and Uley will do whatever it takes to save Aaron's life—even risk her own.