Ten short stories include the tale of Queen Cimorene's Frying Pan of Doom, a yarn about a magical blue chipmunk with a passion for chestnuts, and a story about an enchanted wizard's daughter.

Masha, the eighteen-year-old daughter of Rasputin, is sent to live in the imperial palace with Tsar Nicholas's family, where she tends the ailing Prince Alyosha, with whom she exchanges comforting family stories when the royal family is arrested.

Traditional stories about curses which we know are always bad, and enchantments which are sometimes good!

'One of the most strikingly lyrical voices writing about the lives of Indian women' -- Amitav Ghosh 'Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni turns the Ramayana around by telling it in the voice of Sita ... this inversion is a gift - it presents us a with a way to know an already well-known story better and to love an already beloved story more' -- Arshia Sattar 'This inspired evocation of the goddess Sita is an epic song of strength and solidarity told with joy and intensity. It brings to life the personalities and predicaments of the Ramayana' -- Namita Gokhale 'Among the many, many Ramayanas there are now even - thankfully - some "Sitayanas", but I know of none with the special magic that Chitra Divakaruni ... brings to the telling' -- Philip Lutgendorf 'Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sita ... is an epitome of courage and self-respect, showing a path for all women. While weaving a familiar story, Chitra provides deep and surprising insights' -- Volga 'An incomparable storyteller' -- Denver Post 'Divakaruni's stories are irresistible' -- The New York Times Book Review 'Divakaruni's storytelling talents put her right up there with the best' -- Miami Herald 'In recasting the Ramayan as a love story Divakaruni accords Sita parity with Ram, revealing her innate strength. By giving primacy to her thoughts and feelings this also becomes the private tale of Shri and Shrimati Ramchandra Raghuvanshi, two wonderful people who loved each other but who broke up. To readers well-acquainted with that tragedy of modern times, the failed marriage, it will appeal. The ending, however, surpasses all expectations.' -- The Sunday Standard 'The success of both The Palace Of Illusions and The Forest Of Enchantments hinges acutely on the skill with which Divakaruni deploys the narratorial voice.' -- Mint 'The Forest of Enchantments is one of the simplest and most beautiful retellings of Sage Valmiki's epic.' -- Jetwings 'Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni does justice to the women of Ramayana ... The Forest of Enchantments is not just a retelling of a much-told epic, rather it is a book that tells it like it is - balanced and non-judgmental.' -- Huffpost 'A work ... of pluralities and possibilities ... This is the Sitayan we will give to our daughters, that they may imbibe Sita's strength, and even more proudly to our sons, who will learn how a woman is to be treated' -- The Wire 'Banerjee is markedly feminist ... Her spin on the most pivotal moment of Sita's life, the agnipariksha episode, is a moment of feminist brilliance. Her Sita answers all the questions we would have had when listening to the Ramayana while leaving us with plenty of food for thought.' -- The New Indian Express 'Divakaruni's retelling reminds her readers that the Ramayana, besides being a morality tale, is a love story at its heart' -- Huffpost 'Divakaruni and her women characters are a formidable pair' -- The Wire The Ramayana, one of the world's greatest epics, is also a tragic love story. In this brilliant retelling, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni places Sita at the centre of the novel: this is Sita's version. The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity and honour, it is also about women's struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men, as Chitra transforms an ancient story into a gripping, contemporary battle of wills. While the Ramayana resonates even today, she makes it more relevant than ever, in the underlying questions in the novel: How should women be treated by their loved ones? What are their rights in a relationship? When does a woman need to stand up and say, 'Enough!'

Magic, During suggests, has helped shape modern culture. Devoted to this deceptively simple proposition, During's work gets at the aesthetic questions at the very heart of the study of culture. How can the most ordinary arts—and by “magic,” During means not the supernatural, but the special effects and conjurings of magic shows—affect people?

“An extraordinary work of intellectual history as well as a scholarly tour de force, a bracing polemic, and a work of Christian prophecy...McCarraher challenges more than 200 years of post-Enlightenment assumptions about the way we live and work.” —The Observer At least since Max Weber, capitalism has been understood as part of the “disenchantment” of the world, stripping material objects and social relations of their mystery and magic. In this magisterial work, Eugene McCarraher challenges this conventional view. Capitalism, he argues, is full of sacrament, whether one is prepared to acknowledge it or not. First flowering in the fields and factories of England and brought to America by Puritans and evangelicals, whose doctrine made ample room for industry and profit, capitalism has become so thoroughly enmeshed in the fabric of our society that our faith in “the market” has become sacrosanct. Informed by cultural history and theology as well as management theory, The Enchantments of Mammon looks to nineteenth-century Romantics, whose vision of labor combined reason, creativity, and mutual aid, for salvation. In this impassioned challenge to some of our most firmly held assumptions, McCarraher argues that capitalism has hijacked our intrinsic longing for divinity—and urges us to break its hold on our souls. “A majestic achievement...It is a work of great moral and spiritual intelligence, and one that invites contemplation about things we can’t afford not to care about deeply.” —Commonweal “More brilliant, more capacious, and more entertaining, page by page, than his most ardent fans dared hope. The magnitude of his accomplishment—an account of American capitalism as a religion...will stun even skeptical readers.” —Christian Century

Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts, opens up her Book of Shadows, the Witch's tome of spells, recipes, and secrets, to share them with the world. Here you will find everything from the essentials of how to create and cast your own spells to detailed recipes and rituals from Laurie's years of experience as a high priestess and Witch.

William Sharp (1855-1905) was a prolific writer; friend and confidant to the literati of the day; an active member of the occult world of the late Victorian period; and a man who spent his life cloaked in layers of secrets - the most important being that he was the pen behind the writings of the mysterious Fiona Macleod. He kept her true identity a closely guarded secret. Many famous people - W.B. Yeats, "AE", MacGregor Mathers, Dante Gabriel Rossetti - were involved in Sharp's short life; he was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Yeats' secret Celtic Mystical Order; and he and Fiona Macleod were involved with the mysterious Dr. Goodchild whose ancient bowl was proclaimed by many to be the Holy Grail. But the enduring legacy of these two fascinating writers is the wealth of Faery magical lore contained in the writings of Fiona Macleod. For the first time this book reveals previously unknown secrets from the life of William Sharp and shows clearly how to recover the Faery lore contained in Fiona Macleod's literary output. These writings are not only about the Realm of Faery, they are the first authentic first-hand accounts from the Realm of Faery, revealing previously unknown Faery gods and goddesses, Faery belief, lore and magic. The Little Book of the Great Enchantment adds significantly to the corpus of serious writings on this greatly misunderstood subject.

"This book uncovers a largely overlooked strand of American modernism in Cornell's work that engaged with current issues through the metaphysical aspects of vernacular objects and experiences"--

Winner of the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award "A charming book about enchantment, a profound book about fairy tales."—John Updike, The New York Times Book Review Bruno Bettelheim was one of the great child psychologists of the twentieth century and perhaps none of his books has been more influential than this revelatory study of fairy tales and their universal importance in understanding childhood development. Analyzing a wide range of traditional stories, from the tales of Sindbad to “The Three Little Pigs,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “The Sleeping Beauty,” Bettelheim shows how the fantastical, sometimes cruel, but always deeply significant narrative strands of the classic fairy tales can aid in our greatest human task, that of finding meaning for one’s life.