In his palace at Inuyama, Lord Iida Sadamu, warlord of the Tohan clan, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Its surface sings at the tread of every human foot, & no assassin can cross it. But sixteen-year-old Otori Takeo, his family murdered by Iida's warriors, has the magical skills of the Tribe
- preternatural hearing, invisibility, a second self
- that enable him to enter the lair of the Tohan. He has love in his heart & death at his fingertips.. . Lian Hearn's stunningly powerful bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor, is an epic story for readers young & old. Set in a mythical, feudal, Japanese l&, a world both beautiful & cruel, the intense love story of two young people takes place against a background of warring clans, secret alliances, high honour & lightning swordplay. The first novel in the epic Tales of the Otori series, Across the Nightingale Floor is followed by Grass For His Pillow & Brilliance of the Moon.

...

In his palace at Inuyama, Lord Iida Sadamu, warlord of the Tohan clan, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Its surface sings at the tread of every human foot, & no assassin can cross it. But sixteen-year-old Otori Takeo, his family murdered by Iida's warriors, has the magical skills of the Tribe
- preternatural hearing, invisibility, a second self
- that enable him to enter the lair of the Tohan. He has love in his heart & death at his fingertips.. . Lian Hearn's stunningly powerful bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor, is an epic story for readers young & old. Set in a mythical, feudal, Japanese l&, a world both beautiful & cruel, the intense love story of two young people takes place against a background of warring clans, secret alliances, high honour & lightning swordplay. The first novel in the epic Tales of the Otori series, Across the Nightingale Floor is followed by Grass For His Pillow & Brilliance of the Moon.

...

Add sophistication & charm to your quilts with the projects inspired by the quilts of the British Isles. The frame or medallion quilt projects echo the historical quilts that greatly influenced American quilt makers in the 19th century. In addition there are strippy quilts easily made using the accurate step-by-step directions & reflecting more of the tradition of British quilts. Each quilt or project is named for a memory of Bettina's travels on her many trips. Travel with tour guide Bettina Havig & catch her enthusiasm for these traditional quilts. The lure of the quilts will unfold as you share in her travels. Medallion quilts are impressive & stylish. & they are infectious you can't make just one. Fortunately there are patterns & instructions for several. You will want to make them all! ...

Across the Ravaged Land is the third & final volume in Nick Brandt's trilogy of books documenting the disappearing natural world & animals of East Africa. The book's title, combined with the titles of Brandt's first two books, captures the change he has witnessed: On this Earth, a shadow falls across the ravaged l&. The book offers a darker vision of the world that Brandt has been photographing for the last decade, a world still filled with a stunning beauty, but now tragically tainted & fast disappearing at the hands of man. In addition to a range of new, starkly powerful portraits of animals; elephants, lions, leopards, hyenas, that appear to be posing especially for the photographer as if in a studio, Brandt introduces some new themes. For the first time, humans make an appearance in his photographs. On the jacket, a crouched ranger supports the weight of two giant tusks of an elephant killed by poachers. One new series of photographs has hunters' trophies placed back in the epic landscapes where once these creatures roamed. Another features perfectly preserved animals calcified by the salts of a Rift Valley soda lake. In both instances, the subjects appear strangely alive & sentient in death. Brandt also contributes two essays summing up his photographic odyssey, which has taken more than a decade of intensive work to complete. One details his work from the perspective of conservation, giving a broad overview of the wave of destruction of wildlife & habitat across Africa & describing the work his Big Life Foundation is doing to preserve the Amboseli ecosystem of Kenya & Tanzania. The other discusses technical aspects of his project. ...

The War is just over. In Venice, a city elaborately & affectionately described, the American Colonel, Richard Cantrell, falls passionately in love with Renata, a young Italian countess who has 'a profile that could break your or anyone else's heart'. Cantrell is embittered, war-scarred & old enough to be Renata's father, but he is overwhelmed by the selflessness & freshness of the love she is offering. But this is no fairy tale. The fighting may be ended, but the wounds of war have not yet healed. & for some, the longed-for peace has come too late. ...

Richard Cantrell is an American colonel living in Venice just after the Second World War. The fighting has left him scarred & embittered, a middle-aged man with a heart condition. It seems that only the love of Renata, a nineteen-year-old countess can save him. But Cantrell is living in the shadow of war, every move he makes dictated by old battle instincts, & it is possible that for him the longed-for peace may have come too late. ...

The War is just over. In Venice, a city elaborately & affectionately described, the American Colonel, Richard Cantrell, falls passionately in love with Renata, a young Italian countess who has 'a profile that could break your or anyone else's heart'. Cantrell is embittered, war-scarred & old enough to be Renata's father, but he is overwhelmed by the selflessness & freshness of the love she is offering. But this is no fairy tale. The fighting may be ended, but the wounds of war have not yet healed. & for some, the longed-for peace has come too late. ...

The minute that Marubetta meets Lucius, she hates him
- pompous, stuck-up nephew of a Roman official! He thinks that, as a Briton,
...

Newly engaged to Geoff, schoolteacher Thea Partington couldn't be happier. She has her career, her adored show ponies & enjoys a close-knit family life at their farm on the Wirral.
But all this is about the change when Irish vet Dominic joins the local practice & Thea is attracted to him
A ramshackled property on Partington land stands empty -- an ideal home for the engaged pair. Renovations begin.. . & Thea is thrust into a series of waking dream of the history of the house, revealing uncanny parallels, stormy relationships & fearful consequences.
Dominic is a man with a past. He loves Thea but believes he is fated. But are the fates on their side?


...

In the Hindu world-view, threshold is a profoundly important concept that represents a passage between one space & place & another, creating a visual bridge between the secular & the sacred. Accordingly, the literal threshold a person crosses when entering & exiting a home or business symbolizes the threshold one crosses between the physical & spiritual realms of existence. Hindus have long believed it is possible to affect a person's well-being by using diagrams to sanctify the threshold space. The diagrams do so by trapping ill will, evil, bad luck, or negative energy within their colorful & elaborate configurations, thereby cleansing those who traverse the space & sending them on their way with renewed spirit, positive energy, & good luck & fortune. The creation of the threshold diagrams is steeped in Indian history & culture going back thousands of years. Practiced by women, it was long considered a vernacular art. But, as this pioneering book reveals, the diagrams represent highly sophisticated mathematical & cosmological underpinnings that have been handed down from one generation of women to the next. ...