What Mama Didn t Tell Me About Menopause is a funny and poignant look at a particularily difficult time for a woman. You ll laugh, cry and even have some A-HA moments as you read this book again and again."

Siam at the turn of the 19th century. Four families in the southern peninsula of Siam (Thailand) are tied together by ambition, revenge, love and tragedy.

A young girl describes how she and her grandmother make jewelry from all kinds of beads. Includes information about the history of beads.

Anthropologists have long been fascinated with the Seminoles and have often remarked upon their ability to adapt to new circumstances while preserving the core features of their traditional culture. This study traces the emergence of these qualities in the late prehistoric and early historic period in the Southeast and demonstrates their influence on the course of Seminole culture history.

Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon have taken an ancient practice and made it new. A String and a Prayer recounts the history and symbolism of prayer beads, teaches basic techniques for stringing beads and a host of other objects into prayer beads, and offers a variety of prayers and rituals to use those beads on a daily basis. Beads have appeared throughout history. Prayer beads are used in the spiritual practices of cultures as diverse as the African Masai, Native Americans, Greek and Russian Orthodoxy, as well as the religious rituals of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism. But prayer is highly personal. By infusing prayer beads with personal associations, we can keep our spirituality fresh. The beads are a device to help build and rebuild meaningful ritual in our lives. With myriad ideas about what makes objects sacred and where to find sacred objects -- from the personal, perhaps beads from a grandmother's broken rosary, to the unusual, maybe seashells from far away found in a thrift store -- A String and a Prayer offers many suggestions for different ways that beads can be made and used, exploring the creative roles they can play in our relationships, ceremonies, and rituals. "You are the expert, trust yourself. Let the instructions be a guide to your own creativity," write the authors.

The Native American rescue artist goes back on the job in “another excellently engineered thriller” from the New York Times–bestselling mystery author (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review). After two decades protecting innocent victims on the run, and a year after getting shot on the job, Jane McKinnon, née Whitefield, has settled into the quiet life of a suburban housewife in Amherst, New York. But that all changes when she sees all eight female leaders of the Tonawanda Seneca clan parked in her driveway in two black cars. Jimmy, a childhood friend of Jane’s from the reservation, has been accused of murdering a local white man. But instead of turning himself in, he’s fled, and no one knows where he’s hiding. At the clan mothers’ request, Jane retraces a walking trip she and Jimmy took together when they were fourteen in hopes that he has gone the same way again. But it turns out the police are the least of Jimmy’s problems, and soon enough Jimmy and Jane are on the run together in this “first-rate suspense” novel from the Edgar Award–winning author (Booklist, starred review). “Whitefield is an indelible figure—whip-smart, resourceful, brave and big-hearted.” —The Seattle Times “Jane Whitefield is unique in the annals of detective fiction. She is a throwback to a tribal world, still loyal to the beliefs of the Seneca Indians and still adhering to the call of a lost era. Thomas Perry has once again resurrected a remarkable character who seems imbued with a strange immortality and an unusual morality, and he is to be congratulated.” —The Washington Times

In stories and pictures, this book shows how people of all faith traditions use prayer beads as a spiritual tool and a means of expressing their creativity. Every major world religion has a tradition of praying with beads and all are explored here, including the history and use of beads and specific prayers. Describes in detail and with diagrams how to make sets of prayer beads for personal use.

French Beading is a bead-and-wire art from the Renaissance used primarily to make flowers. Learn the art from designer Lauren Harpster in this new publication made specifically for beginners who've never touched beads or wire, but is also an excellent resource for experienced French Beading artists. This title is a hard copy of my Learn French Beading: Beginner Course video series on YouTube. Instructions for accessing the videos are included inside the book (Videos will be available after Feb 29th). *Part 1 is the "Getting Started" guide. Before making French Beaded Flowers it is very important to understand the materials needed to make them. This section explores tools, beads, wire, and other supplies in detail, though not all of them will be necessary for this course. *Part 2 is the "Technique Guide", which contains six lessons that teach the techniques included in this course - Continuous Loops, Continuous Crossover Loops, Continuous Wraparound Loops, Fringe, Basic Frame, and Lacing. These lessons are important for learning French Beading terms and abbreviations, and how to read French Beading patterns. I like to teach techniques separately from flower patterns because there's so much more I can teach you about an individual technique than what I can cover in a single flower pattern. There are also some variations of the techniques that are not used in the practice patterns, but are included for education and reference. This section is also intended to be a one-stop technique reference so you can quickly look up specific techniques while working with other flower patterns. Each lesson has a video demonstration so you can see the techniques in action, but they also contain picture and written instructions for the techniques. *Part 3 contains four wildflower patterns that I've developed specifically for helping you practice the base techniques learned in Part 2 - Lavender, Dame's Rocket, Blue Virgin's Bower, and Black-Eyed Susan. The patterns have been written with beginners in mind and contain a high level of detail, so they're a great way to dip your toes into the art. This section is important for seeing practical application of the techniques, reinforcing the ability to read patterns, and learning how to assemble and shape a variety of flowers. I have also made video demonstrations of each of the flowers. While I demonstrate flower parts fully in the videos, I only show techniques as they are used in that particular flower. So you can start with Part 3 if you use the videos, but I do recommend that you go back through the lessons in Part 2. *Part 4 will demonstrate how to arrange the flowers from Part 3 to make a wildflower arrangement. I am not a professional florist, but I'd like to share what I've learned about arranging beaded flowers. This section is included only in the book version of the course.

Knitting and beading can blend. Projects include spool-knitted wire and bead jewelry, elegant purses highlighted with beaded fringes, and more.

Game designers, authors, artists, and scholars discuss how roles are played and how stories are created in role-playing games, board games, computer games, interactive fictions, massively multiplayer games, improvisational theater, and other "playable media." Games and other playable forms, from interactive fictions to improvisational theater, involve role playing and story—something played and something told. In Second Person, game designers, authors, artists, and scholars examine the different ways in which these two elements work together in tabletop role-playing games (RPGs), computer games, board games, card games, electronic literature, political simulations, locative media, massively multiplayer games, and other forms that invite and structure play. Second Person—so called because in these games and playable media it is "you" who plays the roles, "you" for whom the story is being told—first considers tabletop games ranging from Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs with an explicit social component to Kim Newman's Choose Your Own Adventure-style novel Life's Lottery and its more traditional author-reader interaction. Contributors then examine computer-based playable structures that are designed for solo interaction—for the singular "you"—including the mainstream hit Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and the genre-defining independent production Façade. Finally, contributors look at the intersection of the social spaces of play and the real world, considering, among other topics, the virtual communities of such Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) as World of Warcraft and the political uses of digital gaming and role-playing techniques (as in The Howard Dean for Iowa Game, the first U.S. presidential campaign game). In engaging essays that range in tone from the informal to the technical, these writers offer a variety of approaches for the examination of an emerging field that includes works as diverse as George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series and the classic Infocom game Planetfall. Appendixes contain three fully-playable tabletop RPGs that demonstrate some of the variations possible in the form.