The Charm Buyers describes extraordinary beauty and turbulent change: Tahiti during the last years of French nuclear testing in the Pacific in the 1990s. Marc Antoine Chen, the troubled heir of black pearl cultivators, narrates his journey through a labyrinth of elusive truths. As a child, Marc lives in a dreamlike world with his great-grandmother A-tai and her stories of a semi-nomadic Hakka culture that no longer exists. The Hakka, originally brought from China to Tahiti to work in cotton in the nineteenth century, settled in communities throughout the South Pacific. On the verge of adulthood, Marc falls in love with the calm and confident Marie-Laure Li, but when she leaves to study in France, Marc drifts, becoming the lover of the enigmatic painter Aurore du Chatelet. Years later, Marie-Laure returns, suffering from a debilitating malady—one of many illnesses surfacing in the wake of nuclear testing—and Marc is offered a strange, magical proposal in exchange for the life of his once beloved. A supernatural, shamanic reality exists together with the traditions of the Hakka, set against the background of the French colonial past and the Ma‘ohi struggle for independence. The Charm Buyers presents a world in transition and its people—black pearl cultivators, artists, taro farmers, politicians, smugglers, and shamans.

Dozens of beginner-friendly decorating and furniture projects inspired by the trendy rustic country style are organized by room and feature step-by-step photo instructions for options ranging from drop cloth curtains and a barn wood sofa table to a vintage breadboard and fabric-covered books.

Lawrence Dworin's guide covers a variety of topics essential to the purchase and renovation of homes for profit. Included are chapters on remodeling for profit, selecting the right house, using real-estate agents, buying a home, getting the appropriate financing, repairing structural and mechanical problems, decorating the interior, selling the house, and keeping rental property.

This is an insightful look into the real fashion industry from someone who has worked within it for 27 years. The book is for all fashion creatives, including fashion designers, established and emerging, fashion students and graduates, brands and labels. It explains in great detail the day to day issues faced and offers very simple yet effective solutions. The book also provides a comprehensive buyer, agent and showroom directory which is often an area those new to the industry misunderstand.

A bag of baffling clues A string of mysterious deaths A race to expose the truth … When mystery author Tiggy Jones launches Mystery Week in her local town in Devon, she opens a donated bag of ‘mystery items’ to entertain the audience. But the first thing she holds up has a nasty dark stain on it. Is it blood? Or is someone playing a trick to embarrass her? Tiggy rescues the moment and takes the bag home, only to discover it’s full of perplexing evidence. With her curiosity piqued, she begins to untangle connections between the clues. Why has the isolated distillery at Larrington Hall on Dartmoor seen so many deaths over the last twenty years? Does the 500-year-old legend behind its exclusive blue liqueur hide a dangerous secret? And when Tiggy gets close to uncovering one truth too many, will the purpose behind the bag of evidence turn deadly? Join Tiggy Jones, with her dog Raider, as she discovers that researching a mystery novel is usually safe but investigating a murder or two is perilous. Get it now. A Deadly Concoction is the third book in the addictive Tiggy Jones Mystery Series. Small town English mysteries with an edge – and a dog: A Scrap of Silk and A Missing Signature.

This book combines ethnography, philosophy, and musical analysis for an in-depth look into the social context and musical praxis of gamelan gong gede, the largest gamelan orchestra of bronze gongs and percussion on the island of Bali. The Hindu-Balinese notion of three human qualities called triguna serves as an interpretive framework for categorizing the musical repertoire, according to both widespread religious knowledge and more esoteric wisdom. (Series: KlangKulturStudien/SoundCultureStudies - Vol. 2)

Your financial health is more than a mere collection of debits and credits on a balance sheet. In fact, the numbers on a financial statement represent a series of decisions that, if made strategically, can ensure that each of us maintains our desired standard of living at every age and stage of life. Many people think that key financial choices are too complicated to make on their own. However, with the right information and guidance, we can all secure our own financial future. Your Money and Your Life is more than your average guide to financial planning and retirement. Acclaimed author and speaker Robert Z. Aliber helps readers to make efficient and effective financial decisions at key moments throughout their lives, such as where to go to college; if and when to buy a home; how much insurance, if any, to buy; how to manage savings and retirement; when the time is right to approach a professional advisor; and how to proceed with estate planning. With an eye toward the issues that are most pressing in today's economy, Aliber clearly explains the sophisticated concepts that underpin everyday money management—with the goal of making this guide the go-to reference in your financial planning library, regardless of your age or wealth. Readers of this book will come away with the sense that Aliber is their own financial planner, offering strategies that will help to guide them toward security in the present and the future. Your Money and Your Life is filled with examples to which readers will be able to relate, as well as checklists of "actionables" to help make their plans realities.