In her second novel, Jill G. Hall, author of The Black Velvet Coat, brings readers another dual tale of two dynamic women from two very different eras searching for fulfillment. San Francisco artist Anne McFarland has been distracted by a cross-country romance with sexy Sergio and has veered from her creative path. While visiting him in New York, she buys a pair of rhinestone shoes in an antique shop that spark her imagination and lead her on a quest to learn more about the shoes’ original owner. Almost ninety years earlier, Clair Deveraux, a sheltered 1929 New York debutante, tries to reside within the bounds of polite society and please her father. But when she meets Winnie, a carefree Macy’s shop girl, Clair is lured into the steamy side of Manhattan—a place filled with speakeasies, flappers, and the beat of “that devil music”—and her true desires explode wide open. Secrets and lies heap up until her father loses everything in the stock market crash and Clair becomes entangled in the burlesque world in an effort to save her family and herself. Ultimately, both Anne and Clair—two very different women living in very different eras—attain true fulfillment . . . with some help from their silver shoes.

Fairy tales of Russian native peoples, including Chukchi, Evenk, Yukagir, etc.

Once there was a gypsy queen who wore on her wrist a chain of six lucky charms - a golden crown, a silver horse, a butterfly caught in amber, a cat's eye shell, a bolt of lightning forged from the heart of a falling star, and the flower of the rue plant, herb of grace. The queen gave each of her six children one of the charms as their lucky talisman, but ever since the chain of charms was broken, the gypsies had been dogged with misfortune. Book Two: The Silver Horse 13th-14th August 1658 Emilia and her cousin Luka have the gypsy crown, and are travelling with their menagerie in search of the Hearne tribe. They hope that this family, to whom they will soon be related, will surely help release their kin from gaol. Luka and Emilia find the Hearnes horseracing on the Downs above Epsom. But Emilia must compete to win their support. Will she have to give up her beloved mare in exchange for the Hearne family's charm - a small silver horse? And can they escape Coldham again? Book Two in the exciting new six-book series by bestselling author, Kate Forsyth. Winner of the Aurealis Awards' best Children's Long Fiction 2007

This collection of stories describes events or episodes in the life of a varied group of individuals during the most dramatic period of American history—the settlement of the American West. The reader will witness the hardship and suffering of the Donner-Reed Party; the heroism of Portugee Phillips, the messenger bringing news of the Fetterman Massacre; the tragic events connected to Major John W. Powell's exploration of the Grand Canyon; and the disastrous effort of the Minnesota Sioux to drive the white interlopers from their traditional hunting grounds. There is a glimpse of the rough and tumble life in the gold rush towns of Alaska and Colorado, a failed attempt at a robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, and the violent death of Jack Slade, a former manager of a stage coach station in Julesburg, Colorado, mentioned in Mark Twain's book, Roughing It. Historical notes at the end of the tales provide the reader with actual facts and a broader context in which these events took place.

their origin, history, uses, and abuses

No mystery is too challenging for the infamous detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson. Holmes is at his best when the job seems impossible—or just plain absurd. From cases involving a strange group for red-headed men to a missing thumb, Holmes uses his powers of observation and deduction to solve even the weirdest mysteries. Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first twelve original Sherlock Holmes short stories as serials in the UK's Strand Magazine from 1891-1892. This unabridged collection of the stories is taken from the book form, originally published in 1892.