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A child growing up, losing his father right after meeting him, the support and love of a half-brother taking care of him while facing hardships and people's judgments. The journey of a child becoming a man, wishing to spread his wings towards the East.<br><br>A desire to get to know the East, to discover the mystifying country of the rising moon, to take off in an attempt to discover new worlds: this is the dream the protagonist is chasing, without ever giving up while facing the greatest hardships. It is a story of a wonderful friendship, which is tainted by fright, desolation and conflict, yet triumphant in the end over everything. In the eighteenth century, while Europe is filled with new ideas that will lead to the great revolutions, in a castle that seems to belong to a fairy tale, but is more like a golden prison, the lives of three brothers are intertwined. Their personal stories are permeated with disappointment and refused affection. Despite all this, they find in their friendship the strength and courage to follow their dreams. The path to maturity is long and difficult, but during their journey, they discover that nobody is really a prisoner of one's history, that freedom can be seized, even if there is a high price to pay, and that love is stronger than any law. Beyond the accurate historic setting, the story transcends time and applies to everyone.

If you want your company to thrive, you need to break one of the oldest unwritten rules of leadership. Leaders in nearly every industry have learned to keep a professional “distance” between themselves and the people who report to them—to avoid getting too close or too personal. This unwritten rule of leadership is pervasive and quietly destructive, and, little by little, keeping ourselves at arm’s length destroys trust, collaboration, and the very fabric of organizations. When Tom Gartland became president of Avis Budget Group, North America, he wanted the corporate culture to become more "open and connected"—so he started with himself. His message was "business is personal—very personal." As he grew closer and connected more with those he was leading, he became a more effective leader, and those around him were inspired to create unprecedented results. Tom found that when we truly open up and care about the people we work with, we can transform organizations into sanctuaries where people feel a deep connection to one another, a profound sense of being part of an important mission, and extraordinary engagement in their work. The result? Employees who feel valued generate exceptional profits. After applying this business philosophy at Avis, not only did Tom see an increase in employee morale, he also saw a significant increase in the company's bottom line. In Lead with Heart , Tom provides an unconventional approach to business leadership, including advice and strategies on how to open yourself up as a leader, recognize potential in your employees, and increase employees' trust in you and the company. Lead with Heart is the revolutionary leadership book that will help managers and employees at all levels grow their businesses by connecting, honestly and meaningfully, with the people they lead.

A fairy tale for children and adults. Who said that from the sad facts of life you can not be reborn stronger than before? The wizard Scarfutur demolishes the beautiful Cosmopolis where Cammie lives with her animals. Only the dachshund Orestes and the donkey Lewis will believe in the reconstruction...

A stone by any other name… Can lead to murder. Rosemary Grey, who’s just getting settled into the charming town of Paperwick, Connecticut, is looking forward to the holiday season. She’ll be moving into her snug cottage at Jack and Charlie’s farm—so she’ll have her best friends right next door, and she’s loving her new job as a history professor at Paperwick University, home of the Fighting Trout. The fact that she sees the shy Professor Seth McGuire, from the anthropology department, on campus, might have a little something to do with the smile on her face and the spring in her step. But Rosemary soon discovers that the cozy, tucked-away village, has a longstanding mystery in its midst. Thirty-five years ago, what appeared to be a rune-covered megalithic stone was discovered. There were those who believed the runes scattered across the stone were created by the indigenous peoples who’d inhabited the area—but some believed the runes were Norse in origin, lending credibility to the idea that Vikings had once walked the land. None of the theories about the stone could be proved, however, because it went missing almost as mysteriously as it had appeared. Searches proved fruitless and no one could imagine who could possibly slip away with a two hundred fifty-pound slab of granite. Nevertheless, the legend of Bjørn the Lost Viking was born, along with an annual festival that commemorates the stone, the first snow of the winter, and Norse culture. When a twist of fate leads to the discovery of the fabled missing runestone—and a body is found lying next to it—Rosemary and friends will have to separate legend and myth from fact and solve the crime. Seth is targeted as one of the prime suspects, so there’s no time to waste! You’ll want to curl up with a warm, spicy mug of Mrs. Potter’s Glogg and a warm blanket to enjoy this exciting cozy holiday adventure!

Available for the first time as an audiobook, New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s thrilling short story Harlem “People called me Harlem. I dubbed myself after that dangerous neighborhood that I’d never seen. I read life is rough in Harlem, and a black man isn’t expected to live to see twenty-five. I was twenty-three. The clock was ticking.” When Harlem gets off on a murder charge due to insanity, the asylum he’s sent to feels worse than death, with one exception: the beautiful nurse Daphane. As their relationship grows, so do the stakes: she has the ability to help him escape, and he has the ability to set her free from her abusive relationship. Yet Harlem has one big secret: he was perfectly sane when he committed his crime. But in the end, Daphane’s own secret may be the deadliest of all. . . .

“Papa explains the war like this: ‘When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.’ The great beasts, as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly, are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the small chickens.” Once in a great while comes a storyteller who can illuminate worlds large and small, magical and true to life. When the Elephants Dance introduces us to the incandescent voice of Tess Uriza Holthe, who sets her remarkable first novel in the waning days of World War II, as the Japanese and the Americans engage in a fierce battle for possession of the Philippine Islands. The Karangalan family and their neighbors huddle for survival in the cellar of a house a few miles from Manila. Outside the safety of their little refuge the war rages on—fiery bombs torch the beautiful Filipino countryside, Japanese soldiers round up and interrogate innocent people, and from the hills guerillas wage a desperate campaign against the enemy. Inside the cellar, these men, women, and children put their hopes and dreams on hold as they wait out the war, only emerging to look for food, water, and medicine. Through the eyes of three narrators, thirteen-year-old Alejandro Karangalan, his spirited older sister Isabelle, and Domingo, a passionate guerilla commander, we see how ordinary people must learn to live in the midst of extraordinary uncertainty, how they must find hope for survival where none seems to exist. They find this hope in the dramatic history of the Philippine Islands and the passion and bravery of its people. Crowded together in the cellar, the Karangalans and their friends and neighbors tell magical stories to one another based on Filipino myth and legend to fuel their courage, pass the time, and teach important lessons.

In a fusion of fact and fiction, nineteenth-century women institutionalized as hysterics reveal what history ignored “ City of Incurable Women is a brilliant exploration of the type of female bodily and psychic pain once commonly diagnosed as hysteria—and the curiously hysterical response to it commonly exhibited by medical men. It is a novel of powerful originality, riveting historical interest, and haunting lyrical beauty.” — Sigrid Nunez , author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through “Where are the hysterics, those magnificent women of former times?” wrote Jacques Lacan. Long history’s ghosts, marginalized and dispossessed due to their gender and class, they are reimagined by Maud Casey as complex, flesh-and-blood people with stories to tell. These linked, evocative prose portraits, accompanied by period photographs and medical documents both authentic and invented, poignantly restore the humanity to the nineteenth-century female psychiatric patients confined in Paris’s Salpêtrière hospital and reduced to specimens for study by the celebrated neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his male colleagues. Maud Casey is the author of five books of fiction, including The Man Who Walked Away , and a work of nonfiction, The Art of Mystery: The Search for Questions . A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the St. Francis College Literary Prize, she teaches at the University of Maryland.

Revenge may be best served cold… But the right pie can be murder. Key Lime pie shop owner, Marilyn Hayes, moved to the sublime paradise of Key West after her divorce to make a new life for herself and her daughter. With unshakable determination, and a killer recipe for Key Lime pie, she grew her home-based business into a thriving enterprise and opened a shop across the street from the beach. Life was sunny and sweet, until murder walked into Marilyn’s quirky little shop, bringing with it a whole heap of trouble. When a man is found dead, and her daughter is implicated in the crime, Marilyn reluctantly becomes an amateur sleuth, sniffing out clues and putting herself in danger in the process. Will her determination and smarts lead her to catch a criminal? Or, will she get caught up in a dangerous game of cat and mouse? Find out in this fast-paced Culinary Cozy Mystery!

“It is a book for the living as well as for the dying.”—Lama Govinda We are in the midst of a powerful psychedelic renaissance. After four decades of hibernation, the promise of the psychoactive ’60s—that deeper self-awareness, achieved through reality-bending substances and practices, will lead to greater external harmony—is again gaining a major following. The signs are everywhere, from the influence of today’s preeminent psychedelic thinker Daniel Pinchbeck, to the renewed interest in the legacy of Terence McKenna, and to the upsurge of collective, inclusive (and overtly tripped-out) cultural phenomena like the spectacle of Burning Man. The Psychedelic Experience, created in the movement’s early years by the prophetic shaman-professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), is a foundational text that serves as a model and a guide for all subsequent mind-expanding inquiries. In this wholly unique book, the authors provide an interpretation of an ancient sacred manuscript, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, from a psychedelic perspective. The Psychedelic Experience describes their discoveries in broadening spiritual consciousness through a combination of Tibetan meditation techniques and psychotropic substances. As sacred as the text it reflects, The Psychedelic Experience is a guidebook to the wilderness of mind and an indispensable resource from the founding fathers of psychedelia.

The Coyote Cowboys each made a vow to a fallen comrade and have one year to carry out their task… Local hero Remington Cross has only painful memories of Marietta, Montana. He may want ranch work, but he’ll take it anywhere but here. Still, loyalty brings Remy to Marietta determined to locate Jace’s godchild, ensure his physical and financial security, then close this chapter for good. But a smoldering encounter with a beautiful bartender threatens his timeline and heart, and when he discovers Jace’s godchild is at risk, he enlists the aid of the enigmatic beauty who’s more no-strings than he is. Shane Knight is no stranger to secrets, and she can tell the haunted ex-soldier is hiding plenty. She’s finished trying to fix wounded bad boys, and after her broken engagement, her heart’s permanently off-limits. When Shane jumps boots first into a red-hot one-night stand, she never anticipates getting tangled up with a sexy cowboy and a child who needs them. It’s a chance for love, family, and a fresh start for them both, but will secrets break the fragile thread of their new beginning?