A wanna-be punk rocker who writes Haiku poetry, 15 year-old Sam, is fed up with his middle-class parents, his geeky best friend, and his inability to do the raddest skateboard tricks. Then he meets Clay.

On a bone-chilling New Year's Day, when all the mountain roads are slick with ice, Clay's mother, Anneth, insists on leaving her husband. She packs her things, and with three-year-old Clay in tow, they inch their way toward her hometown along the treacherous mountain roads. That journey ends in the death of Clay's mother. It's a day that comes to haunt her only son, who's left without a family and a history. This is the story of how Clay Sizemore, a coal miner in love with his town but unsure of his place within it, finds a family to call his own. And it's the story of the people who become part of the life he shapes: Aunt Easter, always filled with a sense of foreboding and bound to her faith above all; Uncle Paul, quietly producing quilt after quilt; Dreama, beautiful and flighty; Evangeline, the untameable daughter of a famous gospel singer; and Alma, the fiddler whose song wends its way into Clay's heart. Together, they all help Clay to fashion a quilt of a life from what treasured pieces are around him. Authentic and moving, Clay's Quilt is both the story of a young man's journey and of Appalachian people struggling to hold on to their heritage.

Here is a comprehensive and up to-do-date presentation of the origins, and properties of clay minerals at the Earth ́s surface. The text reviews the relatively simple laws that govern the chemical or isotopic composition and the crystalline structure of clays, and then discusses their genesis and alteration. Concluding chapters show that clay minerals can form in variety of different environments: meteorites, lavas, subduction zones, among others.

"How Clays Work - Science & Applications of Clays & Clay-like Minerals in Health & Beauty" is part of the "Mineral Healing" book series. The first book in the series is "Earth's Humble Healers." In the second book I write in more detail about why clays and clay-like minerals - muds, diatomite, zeolite, work the way the do. I have been researching uses and applications of clays in natural health and beauty for a number of years. Having read quite a few great books about clays for a clay user like you and me, I have not yet come across a non-scientific book which would talk about properties of clays and explain the science behind them. Most of the books I have read are either purely scientific, or consumer oriented, but with very little information of how and why clays work the the way they do. So I decided to write a book for those like myself, who like to dig deep into the subject. Why is it that some clays have such potent detoxifying properties? How does it happen? I was not happy with the explanations I saw. I wanted to learn it in more detail, to prove to myself that the assertion that clays can "ingest" toxins - both organic (e.g.pesticides) and inorganic (heavy and radioactive metals) and take them out of the body environment has a scientific foundation under it. I did my research, and this book is a result of it. I apologise in advance if some (only some) of the information in the book may come across as a bit too "scientific." "How Clays Work" is for those of you who would like to learn more about this wonderful mineral. Apart from cation (ion) exchange, it covers other phenomena - such as absorption, adsorption and intercalation as the properties playing an important part in detoxification processes. There is also a lot of detailed information about muds (which some people confuse with clays), and chapters about zeolite and diatomaceous earth. The section about mud is comprehensive covering types of mud, their origin, composition and how they work with the body. And for those of you who would like to learn about toxins - there is a section in the book about toxins - biological, environmental and metabolic. And of course, heavy metals. The book describes what they are, how they get into the body and how they affect us. It is quite detailed, if you are interested in learning about the subject from one source. You will also find quite a bit of information about various types of clays, their properties, and how they can be applied in health and beauty. This book is aimed at natural health and beauty practitioners working with clays, product developers, health shop owners. Wouldn't it be good to learn why clays work the way they do and explain it to your customers? But more than anything, this book is written for every one of you who is interested in learning about clays and why they play such an important role in detoxification and health maintenance. I hope that you enjoy reading the book. Please do leave feedback after you've read it. And of course - get in touch with me if you have any questions. All the best!

Originally published in French, this updated and expanded English translation offers a definitive treatment on clays and effects on human health including the long history of clays used as pharmaceutical and therapeutic agents, the origins of clays, their structural properties and modes of action.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic, beloved novel of two boy geniuses dreaming up superheroes in New York’s Golden Age of comics, now with special bonus material by the author “It's absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal—smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read.”—The Washington Post Book World One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Decade • Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize A “towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book” (Newsweek), hailed as Chabon’s “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939. A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink. Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America’s finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age. Winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award and the New York Society Library Book Award

Kids will love learning to work with clay! These 52 projects use air drying, easy to clean up clay, making them perfect for home or the classroom!

15 basic target types and strategies for breaking them.