poison queen history Audiobooks

Ayahuasca is a powerful tool for transformation, that more and more Westerners are flocking to drink in a quest for greater self-knowledge, healing and reconnection with the natural world. This formerly esoteric, little-known brew is now a growth industry. But why? Ayahuasca is a psychoactive tea that has a long history of ritual use among indigenous groups of the Upper Amazon. Made from the ayahuasca vine and the leaves of a shrub, ayahuasca is associated with healing in collective ceremonies and in more intimate contexts, generally under the direction of specialist – an ayahuasquero . These are experienced practitioners who guide the ceremony and the ‘drinkers’ experience. Ayahuasca has gained significant popularity these days in cities around the world. Ceremonies happen nightly and Hollywood stars, Wall Street players and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs now drink the brew. Why? What effect might ayahuasca be having on our culture? Could it be the LSD of our time? Does the brew, which seems to inspire environmental action, simplified lifestyles and more communitarian behaviour, act as an antidote to frenzied consumerist culture? In When Plants Dream , Pinchbeck and Rokhlin explore the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental impact that ayahuasca is having on society. Part 1 covers the background; what ayahuasca is, where it is found, and its cultural origins. Part 2 explores the role and practices of the ayahuasquero in both Amazonian and Western cultures. Part 3 examines the medicinal plants of the Amazon, looking particularly at the ingredients in ayahuasca and their therapeutic qualities, covering the most up-to-date biomedical research, psychedelic science and psychopharmacology. Part 4 looks more closely at how ayahuasca is perceived and used today, covering law, the drug wars, media and money. Lastly in Part 5 Pinchbeck and Rokhlin question the future of ayahuasca. When Plants Dream is the first book of its kind to look at the science and expanding culture of ayahuasca, from its historical use to its appropriation by the West and the impact it is having on cultures beyond the Amazon.

It’s hard enough being barely above average, when your brothers include the deadliest swordsman of the realm, a saint, prodigies – and the greatest hero of the Middle Ages. But what if you haven’t seen your Queen of Love in years, and she's imprisoned by a one-armed religious zealot and lethal librarians? Even worse, your only allies are vicious killers, with rather bad manners and outsized appetites. Who all want to murder your heroic brother. The result – in a world of pedantic misrule, feckless magic, and courage both dauntless and daunted – is either High Adventure or an Identity Crisis. Or both.

Mitch Rapp has worked for a number of presidents over his career, but Anthony Cook is unlike any he’s encountered before. Cunning and autocratic, he feels no loyalty to America’s institutions and is distrustful of the influence Rapp and CIA Director Irene Kennedy have in Washington. Meanwhile, when Kennedy discovers evidence of a mole scouring the Agency’s database for sensitive information on Nicholas Ward, the world’s first trillionaire, she convinces Rapp to take a job protecting him. In doing so, he finds himself walking an impossible tightrope: Keep the man alive, but also use him as bait to uncover a traitor who has seemingly unlimited access to government secrets.

From Sylvia Day, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Crossfire novels, comes Taking the Heat , a novella of the Shadow Stalkers--where men in uniform are trained to enforce the rules. Out of uniform, those rules are made to be broken. He had three days to fix everything. Three days to remind her of how good they were together. She was a captive audience... Layla Creed and Deputy US Marshal Brian Simmons have a history that is as hot and heartbreaking as it is unforgettable. Now their paths have crossed once again. This time things are twice as hot. Layla--a protected witness--has to come out of hiding and testify in a sensational murder trial. But as far as Brian's concerned, there's an even more pressing problem. Once Layla testifies she'll get sucked back into the Witness Protection Program. A new identity, a new location, a new occupation--and a new inspector to check up on her. In other words, out of his life forever. There is one more option--take Layla and go on the run. Rekindling what they once had should be easy. But a stranger in their shadow has plans of his own, forcing Brian and Layla to risk everything in the name of love.

This practical guide provides you with all the essentials of beekeeping that will help make your backyard beekeeping a breeze. It introduces some concepts, tools, and resources that can handle your beehive, plan your first colony, with sound advice for caring for your bees so that you can enjoy the harvest of your hard work.<br><br>Learn all you need to know in starting your colony with this how-to guide for a beekeeping This practical guide provides you with all the essentials of beekeeping that will help make your backyard beekeeping a breeze. It introduces some concepts, tools, and resources that can handle your beehive, plan your first colony, with sound advice for caring for your bees so that you can enjoy the harvest of your hard work. Partly a history book and part handbook, this illustrated manual covers important aspects of the ancient hobby of beekeeping in a modern and simple to understand way. In this book, you will learn how to manage hives safely, harvest your own honey, with other simple ideas on how to store and market the honey and beeswax you produce. Other things to expect in this book, include: Practical information on the workings of a hive, how and where to set up hives to increase the chances of maximum success, buying and installing quality bees, and feeding bees Suggested effective for dealing with common hive pests and diseases, including possible reasons for colony collapse disorder (CCD), backed up with studies and research. Guide for enjoying rich and bounty honey harvests, with instructions to aid you processing, storing and marketing the products from your hives, as well as how to make products from your harvest Guidance for different seasons that ensure your hives stay healthy, strong and refreshed throughout their life cycle Identify when your hive goes queenless to ensure your bees do not start producing infertile eggs that can jeopardize the survival of your hive. If you’re new to beekeeping, Beginning Beekeeping is the perfect companion to get you started!

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.

Ecosystems require balance to survive, and when that balance is compromised, as in the extinction of a resource or a species, disaster can fall onto the system as a whole. This vital management of resources can be seen in economic systems, as well. A healthy ecosystem is like a healthy economy, with competing mechanics inadvertently working in concert to sustain itself. In both of these worlds, we observe that when a healthy distribution of resources is achieved, systems can not only function, but flourish. The United States’ recycling system has the potential to create over one million new jobs and remove a massive amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. A functional recycling system can also save money by providing manufacturers with high quality materials to generate new items. However, this potential has yet to be embraced. Unlike the layers of systems seen in a thriving and healthy forest, our recycling system is bottlenecked, clustered, and contaminated. How can the United States – one of the leading nations on innovation and technology – lag behind in the most obvious of resource recovery systems? Where in the history of recycling did we veer so far off course as to continue hovering at a dismal 34% recycling rate, while other nations have rates double that or more? In the years following World War II there was a rise in recycling efforts but in recent years there has been a great decline. Americans want to recycle, and to know that their actions make a difference. They want confirmation that their time spent sorting recyclables from trash isn’t wasted. But while we see many efforts to support recycling much of our waste still ends up in landfills. Throughout Reduce, Reuse, Re-imagine, Beth Porter provides a great resources about recycling, explaining the complexity, guiding individual action, and contextualizing its history. This book reveals how we arrived at this state of dysfunction, and what steps we need to employ to be an active participant in strengthening our recycling system. Nature knows how to recycle itself, decomposing waste back into the soil to continue the circle of growth. We should follow its lead.

Change The World By Changing Yourself Find answers: Today, it’s easy to get outraged by world events, frustrated by our own personal battles, and disenfranchised from government and leadership. Born of moral indignation, informed by decades of study, and seasoned by a life of devoted self-cultivation, Monk Yun Rou’s Mad Monk Manifesto has the answers we’re looking for, organically cohering personal prescriptions and calls to social and political action in one powerful document. Discover venerated wisdom: Based on ancient Chinese wisdom such as Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching , Mad Monk Manifesto is part tour guide to consciousness, part recipe for personal development, part prescription for environmental salvation, and part handbook for social change. In approximately 70,000 words, the book’s six chapters (framed by an introduction and afterward) follow the traditional Taoist prescription for changing the larger world by changing ourselves first. Improve yourself―and the world: In the same way ripples move away from a stone dropped into a pond, Mad Monk Manifesto begins with our personal lives, discussing topics such as diet, exercise, meditation, and mind/body practice, and spreads to our public environment, describing ideas such as what we can do to improve the community, the government, and the world. Full of everything from advice for a healthy, conscious lifestyle to suggested actions we can take to enhance the lives of friends, family, coworkers, and community members, Mad Monk Manifesto highlights spirituality and service, the goals of an awakened life. Learn something new: Each chapter of Mad Monk Manifesto is creative and fresh, offering proactive solutions in single-paragraph exhortations and prescriptions against a backdrop of lessons from Chinese history, the wisdom of ancient sages like Lao Tzu, and stories born of author Monk Yun Rou's journey from privileged Manhattanite to practicing Taoist monk. Inspirational and informative, exhortative and prescriptive, this modern Alan Watts creates a complete and immersive experience for everyone who picks up his Mad Monk Manifesto ―a portrayal of everything from the mundane to the sublime through the lens of the philosophy best known from George Lucas’ Star Wars saga, the Green Movement, and surf and hippie cultures. Emerge with a new way of seeing life, a series of concrete steps to take for personal transformation, and an action plan for working in the community to provoke change. Mad Monk Manifesto is precisely what the world needs at a time of unprecedented environmental disasters, international instability, and divisive and unreliable leadership. After reading this book, you will learn: How to relax, rectify, and rebalance life How to bolster the community and deepen culture How to effect positive change in commerce, government, power, and the environment For readers of Alan Watts, Ursula Le Guin, and Change Your Thoughts―Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

AN AMAZON BEST SELLING BOOK FOR KIDS! This entertaining, illustrated, middle grade chapter book is the series opener. Sign up for the spelling bee? No way! If there's one thing 10-year-old Texan Sophie Washington is good at, it's spelling. She's earned straight 100s on all her spelling tests to prove it. Her parents want her to compete in the Xavier Academy spelling bee,but Sophie wishes they would buzz off. That's until her irritating classmate, Nathan Jones, challenges her. There's no way she can let Mr. Know-It-All win. Studying is hard when you have a pesky younger brother and a busy social calendar. Can Sophie ignore the distractions and become Queen of the Bee? Here's what Goodreads reviewers say about Sophie Washington: Queen of the Bee: "Another great Sophie Washington book. Super cute. My 11-year-old loves these books." "As someone with a 10-year niece who is in fifth grade like Sophie, I believe that she would love this book and the rest of the Sophie Washington series by Tonya Duncan Ellis." "This series will go far. The story is down to earth, realistic and easy to read." This is the first book in the Readers' Favorite five star rated Sophie Washington book series that includes: Sophie Washington: Queen of the Bee (Book 1) Sophie Washington: The Snitch (Book 2) Sophie Washington: Things You Didn't Know About Sophie (Book 3) Sophie Washington: The Gamer (Book 4) Sophie Washington: Hurricane (Book 5) Sophie Washington: Mission Costa Rica (Book 6) Sophie Washington: Secret Santa (Book 7) Sophie Washington: Code One (Book 8) Sophie Washington: Mismatch (Book 9) Sophie Washington: My BFF (Book 10) Kids Ages 8-12 Click above to get your copy today!

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!