At school in the late 1960s a Ghanaian fellow pupil brought to Richard Laister's attention the historic links between the West Indies, West Africa, the Atlantic slave trade, and the Voodoo religion. Forty years later, the author slipped away to explore these historic connections. In this book he describes a series of extended journeys above the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, focussing on Voodoo as a lens through which to observe the traditional ways of life still practised in this part of the world. Ghana, Togo, Burkino Faso and Benin remain, so he discovers, hardly touched by Western tourism and the cultural steamroller of globalisation. Arriving in Accra, Richard is welcomed by a retired colonel of the Ghanaian army, who is the first of several West Africans he meets to lament the passing of colonial rule. The Colonel provides a rare opportunity to attend a Voodoo funeral, where the corpse, dressed as a bride, is seated upon a throne to receive her guests. Here the author first discovers, Legba, god of entrances, crossroads, mirrors, and sunlight - a divine messenger, trickster, and Janus-faced herald of joy and terror. The funeral is a prelude to a series of adventures, in which comical and macabre incidents combine to form a unique West African mix. In every village the author finds sacrificial altars dedicated to Legba, who emerges as a universal object of veneration. From Ghana, Richard busses north to Ouagadougou, and then to Benin, heartland of Voodoo, where he receives a blessing from a powerful sorcerer. He survives a riot in Lome, Togo, in which there are many casualties, only to visit the President of the Republic's palace - a mysterious mock French chateau, whose owner has not crossed its portal for 20 years due to a curse. The author's odyssey through West Africa leads him to question rational interpretations of reality, reminding us of Scipio Africanus who more than 2,000 years ago declared, 'Out of Africa, always something strange emerges!'

Is it really better to burn out than to fade away? Aldo Evans is a desperate man. Fired from his job and deeply in debt, he struggles to balance a broken family life with his passion for music. Luce Figura is a troubled woman. A rhythmic perfectionist, she is haunted by childhood trauma and scorned by her religiously devout mother. Ross McArthur is a wise ass. Orphaned as an infant, his interests include game shows, home-grown weed, occasional violence and the bass guitar. They are Public Alibi. A rock n’ roll band going nowhere fast. But when the sharp-suited, smooth talking producer Gappa Bale offers them a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make their dreams come true, they are caught up in a maelstrom of fame, obsession, music and murder. This book contains graphic sex and violence, and is not suitable for readers under the age of 18.

This collection studies the representations of the character of the monarch in literature and cinema. Being a person, an institution, a character archetype and a narrative role, the characters of the monarch and other royal or regal characters oscillate between humanity and the non-human. As such, they are hybrid forms of existence and subjectivity. The authors of this collection explore this hybridity across large spectra of genres, historical periods and cultural contexts. Some of the most prolific and widely read scholars analyze the archetype of the monarch on the page, the stage and the screen. They cover large swathes of intersecting creative and interpretive territories including ancient epic and religious poetry, Arthurian legends, British Renaissance and modern drama, British horror films and Hollywood crime and sports films. This collection also features interviews with six prominent comic book writers and artists, who discuss the influence of classical royal archetypes on their works.

Afrocentric Books presents the second installment in the Afromyth Fantasy Series. This anthology contains fourteen fantasy stories featuring characters of the African diaspora, stories that will take you from the American antebellum South, where an African god searches for his voice, to the far-flung future, where a caravan of ships makes harbor in a Saharan sea. Follow a young boy who, with the help of ancestral magic, learns what it truly means to be a warrior. Take a spirit journey as a young girl learns to be a goddess. Afromyth Volume 2 is an eclectic collection of tales whose fantasy themes run the gamut from romance to horror, including a story of a woman whose sanity is tested by her family's demons. Within these pages, a healer unlocks an ancient power, a woman rides the gods, and a god rides a bike. Explore new worlds through the eyes of characters of indigenous African descent.

A National Book Award Finalist with five starred reviews and multiple awards! A New York Times Notable Book * A Time Magazine Best YA Book Of All Time* Publishers Weekly Flying Start * Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * ALA Booklist Editors' Choice of 2017 (Top of the List winner) * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Best Book of the Year * BookPage Best YA Book of the Year An evocative and powerful coming-of-age story perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jason Reynolds In this stunning debut novel, Pushcart-nominated author Ibi Zoboi draws on her own experience as a young Haitian immigrant, infusing this lyrical exploration of America with magical realism and vodou culture. On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?

Great grimoire with exclusive Voodoo rituals. This book covers the loas and their offerings, corresponding days, colors, and candles. Powerful spells with voodoo dolls for love binding, health, counterattack, and destroying enemies. Original Haitian voodoo. Includes Voodoo self-initiation rite, as well as detailed recipes for crafting powders, oils, and essences. Learn to prepare an altar, invoke the ancestors, and use veves in rituals and invocations. Glossary of terms and much more, all within 120 pages.

Meet Maya Hope. Double-dipped in cocoa with brick-house curves, she's a lover of jazz, a political poet, and a sociologist. Her best friend and roommate, Athena Jackson, is her opposite in every way -- a petite ex-cheerleader who's always blaring rap, grinding out rhymes, and ready to take the next man home. When Maya is forced to pinch-hit in an audition and bust Athena's rhymes, she finds herself on an undercover escapade in the wild world of hip-hop as the raw, sexy, roughneck Jezebel. After striking a deal with her own personal devil, Maya sets off on the tempting roller-coaster ride of a lifetime -- finding music, more fun than she's ever had, and even a man or two...but not without consequences. Brimming with electric sensuality, Dare is an unforgettable, envelope-pushing odyssey of two gutsy women playing by their own rules.

Setting out a history of cyberspace and its relationship with the discipline that was to become digital humanities, this book is an account of an often-forgotten period of internet history in the 1990s when this medium was in its infancy. It provides a detailed account of the concepts of 'cyberspace' and the 'virtual', which were characteristic of a perception that using the internet allowed users to enter a separate space from everyday life- a world elsewhere. In doing so, it argues that this libertarian idea of the internet framed it as a new frontier, where the rules of the everyday world did not and should not apply, and where the individual could find freedom. These early norms and the regrettable lack of regulation that was a consequence of them, this book argues, contributed to many of current issues with internet media. including of toxic communication, disinformation and over-commercialisation

The Second Edition of Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices is a collection of 78 articles that examine the social aspects of computerization from a variety of perspectives, many presenting important viewpoints not often discussed in the conventional literature. A number of paired articles comprise thought-provoking head-on debate. Fields represented include computer science, information systems, management, journalism, psychology, law, library science, and sociology. This volume introduces some of the major controversies surrounding the computerization of society and helps readers recognize the social processes that drive and shape computerization. Division into eight provocatively titled sections facilitates course planning for classroom or seminar use. A lead article for each section frames the major controversies, locates the selections within the debates, and points to other relevant literature. - A fully revised and updated version of the first anthological treatment of the subject - Organized to facilitate course planning for classroom or seminar use - Provides coverage of the influence of computers on a wide variety of fields including computer science, information systems, management, journalism, psychology, law, library science, and sociology

Revenge, something we all crave at some point in our lives... fortunately for the world, we don't often do anything about it. Here's a fascinating set of stories about people who did do something about it, horribly, fatally, bloodily... it's a great read - as all Thirteen anthologies are - and the next time someone offends you, it will be one way of getting your own back, imagining them caught up in one of these horror stories!