I received Kenneth Grahames The Wind in the Willows as a present on my seventh birthday. My mother probably read it to me at least fifty times in the next few years. A cousin suggested it as a gift for me. One of her teachers fi nished out class time reading aloud from her favorite books, of which The Wind in the Willows was one. I later learned that my cousins teacher continued to read it every other year for the rest of her life. Her devotion to it and the comment of an adult fictional character on TV that The Wind in the Willows was her favorite book convinced me that it isnt just for children and that I could go back to it. I now read it once a year.

In this stimulating collection of essays, twenty scholars apply new theoretical approaches to the fiction and poetry of southern writers ranging from Poe to Dickey, from Faulkner to Hurston. Departing from earlier traditions of southern literary scholarship, this book seeks not to create a new orthodoxy but to suggest the diversity of critical tools that can now be used to explore the literature and culture of the South. Including essays based on deconstructionist, feminist, and Marxist theory, the book features contributions from such critics as Henry Louis Gates, Harold Bloom, Fred Chappell, and Joan DeJean. Yet, for all their variety, the essayists share the same central concern. "We have in common," writes Jefferson Humphries, "one thing that sets us apart from our elders in our conception of the South and our approach to southern literature: the basic assumption that the meaning and significance of literature is not in the immanence of the literary object, or in history, but in the complex ways in which the literary, the historical, and all the 'human sciences' that study both, are interrelated." Instead of simply taking "the South" for granted, the contributors to this volume see it as a text and an idea--as something whose ideological underpinnings, complexities, and contradictions must be subjected to close reading and questioning. Southern Literature and Literary Theory represents a major effort to redefine the relationship of southern writing and the South itself to the larger world.

Poetry. With patience and precision, Hannah Brooks-Motl's third collection of poems, EARTH, explores the grand themes of love, family, economy, and home with the skill of a true craftsman. As the measured compositions of these poems shift, so do their near-sculptural forms, and a feeling both classical and contemporary develops. At times a paean to poetry, other times a critique of it, EARTH is a breakthrough collection by a poet who's ceaselessly sharp intellect continues to use poetry to gain insight into not only her own wants and needs, but ours, and those of poetry itself.

A serious linguistic analysis of Tolkien's Sindarin language. Includes the grammar, morphology, and history of the language.

Chronicling sixteenth-century Spain to the present day, Beyond Human aims to decentre the human and acknowledge the material historicity of more-than-human nature. The book explores key questions relating to ecological equity, justice, and responsibility within and beyond Spain in the Anthropocene. Examining relations between Iberian cultural practices, historical developments, and ecological processes, Maryanne L. Leone, Shanna Lino, and the contributors to this volume reveal the structures that uphold and dismantle the non-human–human dichotomy and nature-culture divide. The book critiques works from the Golden Age to the twenty-first century in a wide range of genres, including comedia, royal treatises, agricultural reports, paintings, satirical essays, horror fiction and film, young adult and speculative literature, poetry, graphic novels, and television series. The authors contend that Spanish cultural studies must expose the material historicity that entangles today’s ecological crises and ecosocial injustices with previous, future, and contemporary entities. The book argues that this will require the simultaneous decentring of the human and of the Anthropocene as an ecocritical framework. By standardizing ecosocial analysis and widening avenues for ecopedagogical approaches, Beyond Human participates in the ecocentric transformation of Hispanic cultural studies.

Are you ready to fully connect with your own creatively unfolding inner truths? That challenge -- and opportunity -- confronts readers of Journey to the Inner Circle, and Beyond: One Man's Search for His True Self, a true story by noted trainer/coach/movement specialist Blaise Eagleheart. In exploring the depths of Blaise's mid-1980s experiences, readers will be creatively moving through their own personal life journey. "These freeing inner worlds are the one common thread all Mankind has that will allow anyone to ascend to the higher aspects within the God Consciousness that they are," Blaise explains. Be prepared to enter into a world of illusion, of feeling, of question, of sensitivity, of awareness, and of truth. Be open enough to seriously question the realities that exist and circulate within your current life concept and belief structure. Blaise writes, "As I peeled the layers away, I knew that to find the answers I would have to give up my life to the intelligence that first consummated my life journey at the moment of my conception. The evolution of the journey from the outer world in Chapter 1 to the experience of my death in Chapter 11 -- my ideas, my questions, my insights and my knowledge -- all was transcribed to paper in the event I did not survive the journey. To find the truth I had to be willing to give up my existence, not intellectually, but emotionally, and through experience, not through words." Author Blaise Eagleheart lives in Victoria, B.C., where he is the owner and operator of Natural Movement Centre. He is an Integrated Movement Specialist, Medical Exercise Specialist and Personal Trainer. As someone who has always 'walked his own creative path, ' Blaise became passionately aware of how the mind, body and emotions are functionally integrated and how they operate individually and collectively. He has openly shared his awareness with others to make the world a better place. Blaise has always been a warrior, consciously confronting illusionary beliefs to find his own experiential truths. He physically trained as a fanatic throughout his twenties, challenging his self-imposed beliefs in order to find the endless possibilities of his creative movements through unorthodox training methods. He played and coached rugby at club, Island and Provincial levels, before immersing himself in the martial art of Chien Lung. He also studied Eastern healing arts and other energy-based disciplines. He then opened a dojo with his Teacher, where he taught biomechanics of movement and life skills, as well as martial art classes for children and adults. Blaise continues to incorporate this martial art philosophy in his work at Natural Movement Centre. Contact Blaise Eagleheart through www.NaturalMovementCentre.com.

Sailor flees her home to avoid an attack by gang members. She stashes herself in the garage of her neighbor, Timi, who invents equipment at a military black site and who also tinkers in his garage. One of the gang members, Rocky, tails her into the garage, so Sailor takes her chances with Timi’s invisibility device still under development instead of facing the gang’s violence. Rather than become invisible, Sailor transports to a world, Notia, in another universe, but Rocky pursues her there. The ruler or caretaker for that territory, Slick, dips into the minds of all living creatures as easily as dipping a toe into water. Meanwhile, Timi supposes his device killed his neighbor, so he struggles with ironing out the final kinks in it while his boss, the colonel, schemes to get his hands on it. Sailor’s driving urge to return home pales with the possible military invasion of Notia by the colonel. Compounding that with the decimation of Earth as well leaves Sailor, Timi, and Slick as the only three to avert the destruction of two worlds. The story celebrates individualism and friendship. It also challenges the notion that striving toward a goal is the only way to reach it. As Slick says, “A better strategy sometimes is to escape what binds you to your particular rut, break through the barriers restraining you, so to speak, and then your paths to possibilities open up.”

An American Library Association “Best Books for Young Adults” A VOYA “Best Books for Young Adults” “Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal.” —The New York Times Pursued by Trollocs and Myrddraal, Rand and his friends find refuge in the deserted city of Shadar Logoth. But their wandering—and the many dangers they face—are far from over. For from the lips of a dying Aiel girl they learn that the Dark One means to blind the Eye of the World. Having barely escaped capture and death, Rand finds himself face to face with Aginor: a wielder of the One Power and an ally of the Dark One. In the battle that follows, Rand will discover his true identity...and destiny. “The most ambitious American fantasy saga [may] also be the finest. Rich in detail and his plot is rich in incident. Impressive work, and highly recommended.”—Booklist “Recalls the work of Tolkien.”—Publishers Weekly “This richly detailed fantasy presents fully realized, complex adventure. Recommended.”—Library Journal “The definitive American fantasy saga.” —Chicago Sun-Times

This volume brings together sixteen articles on the religions, literatures and histories of South and Central Asia in tribute to Patrick Olivelle, one of North America’s leading Sanskritists and historians of early India. Over the last four decades, the focus of his scholarship has been on the ascetic and legal traditions of India, but his work as both a researcher and a teacher extends beyond early Indian religion and literature. ‘Religion and Identity and South Asia and Beyond’ is a testament to that influence. The contributions in this volume, many by former students of Olivelle, are committed to linguistic and historical rigor, combined with sensitivity to how the study of Asia has been changing over the last several decades.

V. 1 The war in the North ; v. 2 The middle Colonies ; v. 3 The war in the South.