-
Small Steps
SMALL STEPS is a contemporary young adult novel from Louis Sachar, the New York Times bestselling author of the Newbery Award-winning smash hit phenomenon book and movie/DVD sensation Holes, and The Cardturner.
Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is home in Austin, Texas, trying to turn his life around. But it's hard when you have a record and everyone expects the worst from you. The only person who believes in Armpit is Ginny, his ten-year-old disabled neighbor. Together, they are learning to take small steps.
Armpit seems to be on the right path until X-Ray, a buddy from Camp Green Lake, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme. X-Ray's plan leads to a chance encounter with teen pop sensation Kaira DeLeon, the Beyoncé of her time, and suddenly Armpit's life spins out of control. Only one thing is certain: he'll never be the same again.
Combining his signature wit with a unique blend of adventure and deeply felt characters, Sachar explores issues of race, the nature of celebrity, the invisible connections that shape a person's life, and what it takes to stay the course. Doing the right thing is never a wrong choice--but always a small step in right direction.
-
The Occult, Witchcraft and Magic: An Illustrated History
From the days of the earliest Paleolithic cave rituals, magic has gripped the imagination. Magic and magicians appear in early Babylonian texts, the Bible, Judaism, and Islam. Secret words, spells, and incantations lie at the heart of nearly every mythological tradition. But for every genuine magus there is an impostor.
During the Middle Ages, religion, science, and magic were difficult to set apart. The Middle Ages also saw the pursuit of alchemy--the magical transformation of base materials--which led to a fascination with the occult, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism.
The turn of the twentieth century witnessed a return to earlier magical traditions, and today, magic means many things: contemporary Wicca is practiced widely as a modern pagan religion in Europe and the US; "magic" also stretches to include the nonspiritual, rapid-fire sleight of hand performed by slick stage magicians who fill vast arenas.
The Occult, Witchcraft and Magic is packed with authoritative text and a huge and inspired selection of images, some chosen from unusual sources, including some of the best-known representations of magic and the occult from around the world spanning ancient to modern times.
-
For Times Such as These: A Radical's Guide to the Jewish Year
A revolutionary guide to Jewish practice rooted in social justice, feminism, and queer liberation.
This contemporary companion to the Jewish year cycle is not only a bellwether for radical Jews who want their lives and practice to be rooted in their political commitments but also an educational resource in Jewish tradition, holidays, and ritual. With a chapter for each month of the Hebrew calendar, For Times Such as These offers spiritual practices and holiday rituals rooted in movements for racial justice, decolonization, feminism, and queer and trans liberation. Each chapter opens with an invocation by liturgist and healer Dori Midnight and illuminated by artist Sol Weiss. Highlighting each month's spiritual and cultural qualities, Rabbi Ariana Katz and Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg summarize and provide commentary on Torah readings; examine the texts, histories, and contemporary customs of Jewish holidays; and offer questions to reflect on and engage spiritually with the month. This work provides a guide for creative action and ritual making throughout the seasons, an exploration of anti-Zionist Judaism, and spiritual-cultural invitation to embody and expand decolonial, anti-racist, queer, and feminist Jewish practice.
-
Who Was Steve Irwin?
By popular demand, the 100th Who Was...? subject is Steve Irwin! Steve Irwin did not have a typical childhood. Born in Melbourne, Australia, on February 22, 1962, he was raised on the wildlife park his parents owned. He cared for the animals and especially loved reptiles--he got a python for his sixth birthday! At nine years old, Steve was already helping his father wrestle small crocodiles. He became a crocodile trapper after graduating high school, catching the creatures before dangerous poachers could. Steve met his wife, Terri, at his family's park, and instead of a honeymoon, the pair filmed a wildlife documentary that led to the creation of the well-known series The Crocodile Hunter. Tragically, Steve was killed on September 4, 2006 while filming a documentary when a stingray attacked, piercing his heart. He was forty-four years old. However, his life's work obviously still strikes a chord with kids who voted him the winner of the 100th Who Was...? title. -
Little Brother
Marcus, a.k.a "w1n5t0n," is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works-and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school's intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they're mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself. -
Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking
The revered Iron Chef shows how to make flavorful, exciting traditional Japanese meals at home in this beautiful cookbook that is sure to become a classic, featuring a carefully curated selection of fantastic recipes and more than 150 color photos.
Japanese cuisine has an intimidating reputation that has convinced most home cooks that its beloved preparations are best left to the experts. But legendary chef Masaharu Morimoto, owner of the wildly popular Morimoto restaurants, is here to change that. In Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking, he introduces readers to the healthy, flavorful, surprisingly simple dishes favored by Japanese home cooks.
Chef Morimoto reveals the magic of authentic Japanese food--the way that building a pantry of half a dozen easily accessible ingredients allows home cooks access to hundreds of delicious recipes, empowering them to adapt and create their own inventions. From revelatory renditions of classics like miso soup, nabeyaki udon, and chicken teriyaki to little known but unbelievably delicious dishes like fish simmered with sake and soy sauce, Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking brings home cooks closer to the authentic experience of Japanese cuisine than ever before.
And, of course, the famously irreverent chef also offers playful riffs on classics, reimagining tuna-and-rice bowls in the style of Hawaiian poke, substituting dashi-marinated kale for spinach in oshitashi, and upgrading the classic rice seasoning furikake with toasted shrimp shells and potato chips. Whatever the recipe, Chef Morimoto reveals the little details--the right ratios of ingredients in sauces, the proper order for adding seasonings--that make all the difference in creating truly memorable meals that merge simplicity with exquisite flavor and visual impact.
Photography by Evan Sung
-
The Remarried Empress, Vol. 6
Navier and Heinrey have agreed to get married! Heinrey is over the moon, despite the political nature of the arrangement for now, but Navier is still reeling from the news of Sovieshu's plan to divorce her. She must scramble to recover, though, as the emperor wastes no time in announcing his decision. And when the day of the formal trial approaches, Navier plays her and Heinrey's trump card-"I accept this divorce...and request an approval for my remarriage." -
Punch Drunk Love Vol. 1
Get this Mature-rated Boys' Love webtoon/manhwa in English print for the first time! A full-color romantic comedy about a soft man hoping for some hard love...and maybe getting it from the new guy at work. Seon-woo knows he's painfully average in every way, but he can't help pining for the hot new manager at work, Tae-moon. There's no way to tell if Tae-moon is even into men, or if he's the kind of dominant lover that submissive virgin Seon-woo yearns for in his deepest fantasies. All that changes when Seon-woo catches a glimpse of Tae-moon's phone notifications during a meeting. Those steamy messages coming through confirm everything Seon-woo's hoped for. He just needs to convince Tae-moon to give in to a night of passion, where Seon-woo will prove he can take anything Tae-moon throws at him...and then some! -
Orphic Hymns Grimoire
In Orphic Hymns Grimoire, Sara L. Mastros transforms the devotional hymns of Orpheus, the oracular hero of ancient Greece, into a functional, working grimoire for contemporary magicians. The Orphic Hymns have inspired generations of poets, musicians, and playwrights as exemplars of archaic mytho-poetry. In her bold translations, Mastros stays true to the original intent and beauty of the hymns while adding her own contemporary flair. In addition to the new translations, this book also contains fascinating historical and social commentary on the hymns from a feminist, pagan viewpoint, as well as spells and devotional practices for votaries of the Greek gods, and brilliant color-your own-ikons. This second edition includes new commentary and more than eighty ikon illustrations. Additionally, Mastros provides many ideas for deploying the ikons in spellcraft as well as spells that use the ikons themselves.
-
Sold outCirque Du Slay
In this rollicking mystery, perfect for fans of Steven Rowley and Elle Cosimano, the circus becomes the stage for a high-profile murder investigation. With quirky LGBTQ+ amateur sleuths, Cirque du Slay will delight readers looking for a madcap mystery with high-flying excitement! Pint-sized Seattle middle school teacher and gay dating blogger Hayden McCall and his best friend Hollister are invited to a fundraiser for Bakers Without Borders. The celebrity performer, Kennedy Osaka, is the artistic director of Mysterium, an upscale circus arts show combining magic, acrobatics, and a Michelin-star dinner. But Kennedy is a no-show--until she's found dead in her hotel suite. When frenemy Sarah Lee is discovered in the room with the body, Hayden and Hollister are on the case to find the real culprit before Sarah Lee is charged with the crime. The suspects for the murder are as unique as Mysterium itself: a Russian trapeze artist, a cowgirl comedian sharp-shooter, an over-cologned operations director, a feisty, green-haired costume manager, and Adrenalin!, a sexy troop of Romanian male acrobats...If Hayden and Hollister are to clear Sarah Lee of suspicion, they'll have to outsmart a killer for whom trickery is art.Sold out -
Master the Arabic Alphabet, A Handwriting Practice Workbook: Perfect Your Calligraphy Skills and Dominate the Modern Standard Arabic Script
Do you want to perfect your handwriting?
Do you need a trustworthy resource to teach your small children to trace the Arabic alphabet?
Then this workbook is the perfect companion for your studies.
In it, you'll find all the Standard Modern Arabic letters in the isolated, initial, medial and final form variations.
Your benefits:
- Clear large letters make it easy to recognize even the most detailed of the Arabic characters.
- Detailed stroke order instructions provide you with a strong foundation to build your skills.
- Dedicated "Trace and Learn" sections are designed to imprint proper stroke technique unto your muscle memory.
- Font variations are prepared to train your brain to recognize alternative character styles easily.
- Simple pronunciation guidelines prevent you from feeling overwhelmed while helping you to understand the basic sound of each letter.
- As a bonus, for each character, you'll find extra 8.5 x 11 inches pages fully dedicated to the handwriting practice of that letter in all 4 different forms, isolated, initial, medial and final, with and without a guiding background light-gray letter. Feel free to photocopy these pages as you wish to extend the lifetime value of your workbook.
Special information:
As with all Lang Workbooks, this work is a labor of love.
Accordingly, if you are a teacher, a student of Arabic, or homeschooling your children, then you can photocopy any part of this workbook for your own, or your students, personal use.
Learning to write the Arabic script by heart today!
-
Earls Trip
Ted Lasso meets Bridgerton for a 19th century spin on The Hangover in USA Today bestselling author Jenny Holiday's laugh-out-loud bromantic comedy featuring three Regency-era Earls on their annual trip - ride-or-die buddies offering one another unconditional support in everything from Lady problems to family woes. The perfect romp for fans of Evie Dunmore, India Holton, Virginia Heath, Manda Collins, and Suzanne Allain! Even an earl needs his ride-or-dies, and Archibald Fielding-Burton, the Earl of Harcourt, counts himself lucky to have two. The annual trip that Archie takes with his BFFs Simon and Effie holds a sacred spot in their calendars. This year Archie is especially eager to get away until an urgent letter arrives from an old family friend, begging him to help prevent a ruinous scandal. Suddenly the trip has become earls-plus-girls, as Archie's childhood pals, Clementine and Olive Morgan, are rescued en route to Gretna Green. This...complicates matters. The fully grown Clementine, while as frank and refreshing as he remembers, is also different to the wild, windswept girl he knew. This Clem is complex and surprising--and adamantly opposed to marriage. Which, for reasons Archie dare not examine too closely, he finds increasingly vexing. Then Clem makes him an indecent and quite delightful proposal, asking him to show her the pleasures of the marriage bed before she settles into spinsterhood. And what kind of gentleman would he be to refuse a lady? -
Rooftoppers
"The beauty of sky, music, and the belief in 'extraordinary things' triumph in this whimsical and magical tale" (Publishers Weekly) about a girl in search of her past who discovers a secret rooftop world in Paris. Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. True, there were no other recorded female survivors from the shipwreck that left baby Sophie floating in the English Channel in a cello case, but Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help. Her guardian tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive--but "almost impossible" means "still possible." And you should never ignore a possible. So when the Welfare Agency writes to her guardian, threatening to send Sophie to an orphanage, they takes matters into their own hands and flee to Paris to look for Sophie's mother, starting with the only clue they have--the address of the cello maker. Evading the French authorities, she meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers--urchins who live in the hidden spaces above the city. Together they scour the city in a search for Sophie's mother--but can they find her before Sophie is caught and sent back to London? Or, more importantly, before she loses hope? Phillip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials series, calls Rooftoppers "the work of a writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination." -
My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer
Eight years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor of Poetry magazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death. My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faith--responsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious tradition--might look like.
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Religion Books of 2013
Joyful, sorrowful, and beautifully written, My Bright Abyss is destined to become a spiritual classic, useful not only to believers but to anyone whose experience of life and art seems at times to overbrim its boundaries. How do we answer this "burn of being"? Wiman asks. What might it mean for our lives--and for our deaths--if we acknowledge the "insistent, persistent ghost" that some of us call God? -
But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking about the Present as If It Were the Past
"Full of intelligence and insights, as the author gleefully turns ideas upside down to better understand them. . . Replete with lots of nifty, whimsical footnotes, this clever, speculative book challenges our beliefs with jocularity and perspicacity." --Kirkus (starred review) "Klosterman's trademark humor and unique curiosity propel the reader through the book. He remains one of the most insightful critics of pop culture writing today and this is his most thought-provoking and memorable book yet." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) The tremendously well-received New York Times bestseller by cultural critic Chuck Klosterman, exploring the possibility that our currently held beliefs and assumptions about the world will eventually be proven wrong--now in paperback.
But What If We're Wrong? is a book of original, reported, interconnected pieces, which speculate on the likelihood that many universally accepted, deeply ingrained cultural and scientific beliefs will someday seem absurd. Covering a spectrum of objective and subjective topics, the book attempts to visualize present-day society the way it will be viewed in a distant future. Klosterman cites original interviews with a wide variety of thinkers and experts--including George Saunders, David Byrne, Jonathan Lethem, Alex Ross, Kathryn Schulz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene, Junot Díaz, Amanda Petrusich, Ryan Adams, Dan Carlin, Nick Bostrom, and Richard Linklater. Klosterman asks straightforward questions that are profound in their simplicity, and the answers he explores and integrates with his own analysis generate the most thought-provoking and propulsive book of his career. -
The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
Best Book of June 2015 (The Christian Science Monitor)
Book of the Year by the Conference on Christianity and Literature C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J.R.R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades, they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met every week in Lewis's Oxford rooms and in nearby pubs. They discussed literature, religion, and ideas; read aloud from works in progress; took philosophical rambles in woods and fields; gave one another companionship and criticism; and, in the process, rewrote the cultural history of modern times. In The Fellowship, Philip and Carol Zaleski offer the first complete rendering of the Inklings' lives and works. The result is an extraordinary account of the ideas, affections and vexations that drove the group's most significant members. C. S. Lewis accepts Jesus Christ while riding in the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle, maps the medieval and Renaissance mind, becomes a world-famous evangelist and moral satirist, and creates new forms of religiously attuned fiction while wrestling with personal crises. J.R.R. Tolkien transmutes an invented mythology into gripping story in The Lord of the Rings, while conducting groundbreaking Old English scholarship and elucidating, for family and friends, the Catholic teachings at the heart of his vision. Owen Barfield, a philosopher for whom language is the key to all mysteries, becomes Lewis's favorite sparring partner, and, for a time, Saul Bellow's chosen guru. And Charles Williams, poet, author of "supernatural shockers," and strange acolyte of romantic love, turns his everyday life into a mystical pageant. Romantics who scorned rebellion, fantasists who prized reality, wartime writers who believed in hope, Christians with cosmic reach, the Inklings sought to revitalize literature and faith in the twentieth century's darkest years-and did so in dazzling style.