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The Year The Swans Came
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Book Synopsis The Year the Swans Came by : Barbara Spencer
Download or read book The Year the Swans Came written by Barbara Spencer and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growing up amidst the ruins of war, four children play among the bridges and cobblestone walkways of an old city, using them as a backdrop for their games. Pieter Bader, the eldest, wants nothing more than to work with their father in the family business, designers of mirrors for royalty since the 17th century, while his young sister, Maidy, dreams of becoming a writer. She has her own special bridge, the smallest in the city, around which she weaves stories of swashbuckling pirates and princesses, dressed all in silver, who wear sandals made from the silken thread of a spider’s web. Her best friend is Ruth, a young Jewish girl whose family returned to the city as refugees after the war. Slightly the older, and both rich and very beautiful, Ruth dreams of marrying Pieter, only for him to vanish from their lives late one night. Is his disappearance linked to the arrival of the swans, feared as cursed and birds of ill-fortune? What will happen when they return six years later, on the morning of Maidy’s sixteenth birthday? And who exactly is the charismatic and mysterious Zande? Follow Ruth and Maidy’s cursed tale of love as they discover what happened to Pieter, how the appearance of Zande will affect both their lives, unleashing events as tragic and fantastical as one of Maidy’s stories.
Book Synopsis How the Swans Came to the Lake by : Rick Fields
Download or read book How the Swans Came to the Lake written by Rick Fields and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A modern classic unparalleled in scope, this sweeping history unfolds the story of Buddhism’s spread to the West. How the Swans Came to the Lake opens with the story of Asian Buddhism, including the life of the Buddha and the spread of his teachings from India to Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and elsewhere. Coming to the modern era, the book tracks how Western colonialism in Asia served as the catalyst for the first large-scale interactions between Buddhists and Westerners. Author Rick Fields discusses the development of Buddhism in the West through key moments such as Transcendentalist fascination with Eastern religions; immigration of Chinese and Japanese people to the United States; the writings of D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and members of the Beat movement; the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki; the arrival of Tibetan lamas in America and Europe; and the influence of Western feminist and social justice movements on Buddhist practice. This fortieth anniversary edition features both new and enhanced photographs as well as a new introduction by Fields’s nephew, Buddhist Studies scholar Benjamin Bogin, who reflects on the impact of this book since its initial publication and addresses the significant changes in Western Buddhist practice in recent decades.
Download or read book Green Swans written by John Elkington and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even leading capitalists admit that capitalism is broken. Green Swans is a manifesto for system change designed to serve people, planet, and prosperity. In his twentieth book, John Elkington—dubbed the “Godfather of Sustainability”—explores new forms of capitalism fit for the twenty-first century. If Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swans” are problems that can take us exponentially toward breakdown, then “Green Swans” are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success—and survival—of humanity now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second. Green Swans draws on Elkington’s firsthand experience in some of the world’s best-known boardrooms and C-suites. Using case studies, real-world examples, and profiles on emergent technologies, Elkington shows how the weirdest “Ugly Ducklings” of today’s world may turn into tomorrow’s world-saving Green Swans. This book is a must-read for business leaders in corporations great and small who want to help their businesses survive the coming shift in global priorities over the next decade and expand their horizons from responsibility, through resilience, and onto regeneration.
Download or read book Swan Song written by Robert McCammon and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a nightmarish, post-holocaust world, an ancient evil roams a devastated America, gathering the forces of human greed and madness, searching for a child named Swan who possesses the gift of life.
Download or read book Leonardo's Swans written by Karen Essex and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2006-01-10 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Isabelle d’Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, born into privilege and the political and artistic turbulence of Renaissance Italy, is a stunning black-eyed blond and an art lover and collector. Worldly and ambitious, she has never envied her less attractive sister, the spirited but naïve Beatrice, until, by a quirk of fate, Beatrice is betrothed to the future Duke of Milan. Although he is more than twice their age, openly lives with his mistress, and is reputedly trying to eliminate the current duke by nefarious means, Ludovico Sforza is Isabella’s match in intellect and passion for all things of beauty. Only he would allow her to fulfill her destiny: to reign over one of the world’s most powerful and enlightened realms and be immortalized in oil by the genius Leonardo da Vinci. Isabella vows that she will not rest until she wins her true fate, and the two sisters compete for supremacy in the illustrious courts of Europe. A haunting novel of rivalry, love, and betrayal that transports you back to Renaissance Italy, Leonardo’s Swans will have you dashing to the works of the great master—not for clues to a mystery but to contemplate the secrets of the human heart.
Download or read book Dane Swan: My Story written by Dane Swan and published by Hardie Grant Publishing. This book was released on 2016-10-10 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dane Swan is a Brownlow medallist, three-time Copeland Trophy winner, premiership player and five-time All Australian. The road to success has been an impressive journey for this AFL player. A laid-back knockabout who loves a party. Swan is the son of VFA legend Billy Swan and grew up in Broadmeadows, also where Eddie McGuire famously comes from. Both have gone on to climb to the top of their professions and both are at Collingwood. Swan was number 58 pick in the National draft of 2001 and even after four seasons had made little impression at Collingwood. But with the aid of fellow players and coach Mike Malthouse, his natural ability developed and by 2009 he was an All-Australian and people were starting to pay attention to the mid-fielder. In 2010 he was a surprised third in the Brownlow and Leigh Matthews Trophy winner, Jim Stynes medallist, Lou Richards medallist, All-Australian and AFLCA Champion player of the Year. In 2011 the Brownlow went to Dane Swan. An old-style footballer, Swan works hard and plays hard. He is one of the AFL's most prolific ball winners and has since become recognised as one of the greatest midfielders of the modern era. In his autobiography, Dane Swan talks about the highs and lows of his AFL career so far. Revealing, fascinating, funny, and brutally honest, this is a must read. He’s got an element of danger about him. He’s from Broady, he’s got tatts, he’s got a sense of humour, he’s his own man, he makes blues and he’s sublime on the field. – Eddie McGuire on Dane Swan There are no airs and graces, what you see is what you get. He’s not trying to be someone he’s not and that’s the beauty of Dane Swan. He’s only always been Dane Swan and you either like him, like most people do, or you don’t. – Liam Pickering Swan is the best mid-fielder in the AFL. – Leigh Matthews
Download or read book Little Swan written by Jonathan London and published by Marshall Cavendish. This book was released on 2009 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A trumpeter swan family stays close together as the cygnets learn how to feed themselves, honk when predators are nearby, and develop flight feathers. Includes facts about the trumpeter swan, the largest waterfowl in the world.
Download or read book Wild Swans written by Jung Chang and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-06-20 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author. An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.
Book Synopsis The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by : Roald Dahl
Download or read book The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar written by Roald Dahl and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2000-05-22 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seven superb short stories from the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is coming soon to Netflix! Meet the boy who can talk to animals and the man who can see with his eyes closed. And find out about the treasure buried deep underground. A clever mix of fact and fiction, this collection also includes how master storyteller Roald Dahl became a writer. With Roald Dahl, you can never be sure where reality ends and fantasy begins. "All the tales are entrancing inventions." —Publishers Weekly
Book Synopsis Swans: Sacrifice And Transcendence by : Nick Soulsby
Download or read book Swans: Sacrifice And Transcendence written by Nick Soulsby and published by Jawbone Press. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I’m no stranger to failure, and I’m aware it can arrive at any minute—as it often has. You have to keep things close to your chest and be aware of what’s really important: the work, not everything around it. If you have faith in the work, then the people will come … it’s an artistic imperative, it has nothing to do with public perception or career or any of that crap. "The name, Swans, it’s synonymous with who I am, but it’s how it’s achieved and it’s achieved by people—those people need to have total commitment to making this sound and to making it utterly incisive and uncompromising. The work is everything and it has to—at least at the time—appear, to me, to be stellar. That’s the prerequisite. It’s an intangible thing where it really speaks and has some truth within it." —Michael Gira Over a span of some three and a half decades, Michael Gira’s Swans have risen from chaotic origins in the aftermath of New York’s No Wave scene to become one of the most acclaimed rock-orientated acts of recent years. The 1980s’ infamous ‘loudest band on the planet’ morphed repeatedly until collapsing exhausted, broken, and dispirited in the late 1990s. Swans returned triumphantly in 2010 to top end-of-year polls and achieve feted status among fans and critics alike as the great survivors and latter-day statesmen of the underground scene. Throughout, Gira’s desire has remained to create music of such intensity that the listener might forget flesh, get rid of the body, exist as pure energy—transcendent—inside of the sound. Through these pages, the musicians responsible tell the tale of one of the most significant bands of the US post-punk era. Drawing on more than 125 original interviews, Swans: Sacrifice And Transcendence is the ultimate companion to Swans and their work from the 1980s to the present day.
Book Synopsis A Company of Swans by : Eva Ibbotson
Download or read book A Company of Swans written by Eva Ibbotson and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-09-04 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Company of Swans is a sweeping tale of romance, freedom and the beauty of dance from award-winning author, Eva Ibbotson, with a new introduction by Joanna Nadin. Weekly ballet classes are Harriet Morton's only escape from her intolerably dull life. So when she is chosen to join a corps de ballet which is setting off on a tour of the Amazon, she leaps at the chance to run away for good. Performing in the grand opera houses is everything Harriet dreamed of, and falling in love with an aristocratic exile makes her new life complete. Swept away by it all, she is unaware that her father and intended fiancé have begun to track her down . . . 'I have binged on Eva Ibbotson . . . her elegantly written, witty and well-observed fables' Nigella Lawson, The Times Rediscover Eva Ibbotson, award-winning author of Journey to the River Sea, in her sweeping historical romances, including The Morning Gift, A Song For Summer and The Secret Countess, originally published as A Countess Below Stairs, Magic Flutes, originally published as The Reluctant Heiress, Madensky Square and A Company of Swans.
Download or read book Capote's Women written by Laurence Leamer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-08-29 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DON’T MISS FX’s FEUD: CAPOTE VS. THE SWANS—THE ORIGINAL SERIES BASED ON THE BESTSELLING BOOK—NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON HULU! New York Times bestselling author Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers—the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his "swans." "There are certain women," Truman Capote wrote, "who, though perhaps not born rich, are born to be rich." Barbara "Babe" Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Hayward, Pamela Churchill, C. Z. Guest, Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy's sister)—they were the toast of midcentury New York. Capote befriended them, received their deepest confidences, and ingratiated himself into their lives. Then, in one fell swoop, he betrayed them in the most surprising and shocking way possible. Bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer delves into the years following the acclaimed publication of Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1958 and In Cold Blood in 1966, when Capote struggled with a crippling case of writer's block. While enjoying all the fruits of his success, he was struck with an idea for what he was sure would be his most celebrated novel...one based on the remarkable, racy lives of his very, very rich friends. For years, Capote attempted to write what he believed would have been his magnum opus, Answered Prayers. But when he eventually published a few chapters in Esquire, the thinly fictionalized lives (and scandals) of his swans were laid bare for all to see, and he was banished from their high-society world forever. Laurence Leamer recreates the lives of these fascinating women, their friendships with Capote and one another, and the doomed quest to write what could have been one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Download or read book Bone Swans written by C.S.E. Cooney and published by Mythic Delirium Books. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection Contains "The Bone Swans of Amandale," 2015 Nebula Award finalist for Best Novella "C. S. E. Cooney is one of the most moving, daring, and plainly beautiful voices to come out of recent fantasy. She's a powerhouse with a wink in her eye and a song in each pocket." —Catherynne M. Valente, New York Times-bestselling author of the Fairyland novels "These stories are a pure joy. C. S. E. Cooney's imagination is wild and varied, her stories bawdy, horrific, comic, and moving-frequently all at the same time. Her characters are wickedly appealing, and her language—O! her language. Lush, playful, poetic, but never obscure or stilted, it makes her magic more magic, her comedy more comic, and her tragic moments almost unbearable." —Delia Sherman, author of Young Woman in a Garden: Stories "Bone Swans is a joy of feathery bones & ghoulish clowns. I adored every word. Like an eyas cries for meat, I cry for more. C.S.E. Cooney's a major talent and these are major talent stories. Who can resist hero rats, pouting swans, feral children, flying carpets and the Flabberghast? So tongue-tied am I with delight I fall back on the usual cliches: gripping, delightful, insightful, rollicking & lyrical—and yet not one cliche is to be found in Bone Swans, only stories of surpassing delicacy and wit, told by a lady of rare talent. Please, ma'am, might I have some more?" —Ysabeau S. Wilce, Andre Norton Award wining author of Flora's Dare A swan princess hunted for her bones, a broken musician and his silver pipe, and a rat named Maurice bring justice to a town under fell enchantment. A gang of courageous kids confronts both a plague-destroyed world and an afterlife infested with clowns but robbed of laughter. In an island city, the murder of a child unites two lovers, but vengeance will part them. Only human sacrifice will save a city trapped in ice and darkness. Gold spun out of straw has a price, but not the one you expect. World Fantasy Award winner Ellen Kushner has called Cooney's writing "stunningly delicious! Cruel, beautiful and irresistible." Bone Swans, the infernally whimsical debut collection from C. S. E. Cooney, gathers five novellas that in the words of Andre Norton Award winner Delia Sherman are "bawdy, horrific, comic, and moving-frequently all at the same time." Cooney's mentor, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Gene Wolfe, proclaims in his introduction that her style is so original it can only be described as "pure Cooney," and he offers readers a challenge: "Try to define that when you've finished the stories in this book." More praise for Bone Swans "Cooney's brilliantly executed collection of five stories is a delicious stew of science fiction, horror, and fantasy, marked by unforgettable characters who plumb the depths of pathos and triumph. ... All of these stories could easily serve as the foundation for novels while also working beautifully at their current length. These well-crafted narratives defiantly refuse to fade from memory long after the last word has been read." —Publishers Weekly, starred review "In five beautifully crafted stories, Cooney builds imaginary worlds full of flying carpets, fairy-tale characters, and children confronted with a postapocalyptic Earth ... Each tale packs in enough plot for a novel, with adventurous characters who brim with wit." —Library Journal, starred review "Writing without ostentation and featuring characters who may be flippant, terse, or even tongue-tied, Cooney produces memorable prose propelled by extraordinary ideas ... Faced with such twisted genius, I'll say no more!" —Locus "A fascinating mashup between the tropes and resonances of the mythic tale with the sensibilities of contemporary action-oriented fantasy: simultaneously lighthearted and serious, full of consequences but also ubiquitous happy endings." —Tor.com
Download or read book Bright Star written by Erin Swan and published by Tor Teen. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Erin Swan's YA fantasy debut, Bright Star, is an action-packed adventure tale of rebellion, romance, and finding one's voice in the heart of a storm. Paerolia has been at peace for two centuries, and all is well in the land—or so it seems. Beneath the surface, a tyrant is rising to power. A traumatic experience in Andra's childhood has left her mute and subdued, a servant in the Chief Judge’s manor. But when an assassination team, led by the secretive and alluring Kael, infiltrates the manor and makes a quick escape, she takes her chance and flees with them. Andra is thrust into the ranks of a secret rebellion—a group of outcasts and believers seeking to overthrow the Chief Judge and replace the corrupt government with new members, ones who will restore and preserve the land they love. Now, the girl who was once an outcast must somehow become the leader Paerolia needs. But she is stronger than she believes—and with the help of a fiercely loyal dragon, she may just be the one to lead them all to victory. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Book Synopsis The Wild Swans by : Hans Christian Andersen
Download or read book The Wild Swans written by Hans Christian Andersen and published by Golden Books. This book was released on 2014-07-22 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Golden Book archives comes a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, gloriously illustrated by Gordon Laite in the late 1960s but never published until now! Gordon Laite’s breathtaking artwork for a Little Golden Book edition of the Andersen fairy tale was found recently in the Golden Books archive. Planned for a 1970 release but never published, this Little Golden Book is finally making its debut for today’s fairy tale fans! And it couldn’t be a lovelier retelling of the story of a determined princess whose loyalty saves her brothers from being turned into swans by an evil queen.
Book Synopsis The Awakening of the West by : Stephen Batchelor
Download or read book The Awakening of the West written by Stephen Batchelor and published by Echo Point Books & Media, LLC. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Awakening of the West is an insightful and elegantly written history chronicling the developing relationship between Buddhism and Western culture. As anyone familiar with the work of Stephen Batchelor (best-selling author of Buddhism Without Beliefs) would expect, The Awakening of the West is presented in a fresh and lively way and backed by thorough research. Using the innovative approach of starting with the present and working back in time, Batchelor makes it easy to connect familiar contemporary Buddhist teachers to their historical roots. He breathes life into history by capturing the personalities and times of famous and lesser-known but important Buddhist figures. After absorbing these stories and their context, readers will not only have a greater appreciation of Buddhism as a religion but can gain insights that can help them develop their own discerning wisdom. The Awakening of the West is a unique, engaging and important book for anyone seeking a greater understanding of Buddhism.
Book Synopsis Geese Are Never Swans by : Kobe Bryant
Download or read book Geese Are Never Swans written by Kobe Bryant and published by Granity Studios. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Packed full of emotion. . . . An influential read with a powerful message.”—Booklist Whether goose or swan, I have wings. And I'll fly. Gus's life is about one thing—swimming. And he knows that the only coach in town who can get him to the Olympics is Coach Marks. So it seems like a simple plan: convince Coach Marks to train him, and everything from there on in is just hard work. Gus has never been afraid of hard work. But there are a few complications. For one thing, Coach Marks was Danny's coach. Danny, Gus's brother, committed suicide after failing to make the national swimming team—a big step on the way to the Olympics. And for another, Gus and Danny didn't exactly get along; Gus never liked living in Danny's shadow. A shadow that has grown even bigger since his death. In this powerful novel about the punishing and the healing nature of sports, Gus's rage threatens to swallow him at every turn. He's angry at his brother, his mother, his coach . . . even himself. But as he works toward his goal and through his feelings, Gus does everything he can to channel this burning intensity into excelling at the sport that he and Danny both loved, and finds solace in the same place he must face his demons: in the water. In addition to Gus's incredible narrative, there are four pieces of original art featured in Geese Are Never Swans. The art was curated by TaskForce, a creative agency that collaborates with the most influential nonprofits, brands, and people taking on the most pressing challenges facing our nation and our world. TaskForce builds capacity and community for those shaping a more empathetic society through public opinion and policy. The artists' interpretations of their work are included in the book.
