'Welcome to another bookamabob from the Meerkat Tales. This time we are teaching you how to do arithmetic. Only joking! Actually we are telling you a tale of great derring-do. My great granddaddy Vitaly was always tell me that winnings is not as important as the playing. Personally I think it is good to both.' Cheeky meerpup Bogdan has the day off school to take part in the final of the Meerkovian Grand Prix. But will the young meerkat be able to cope with dirty mongoose tactics that lie between him, the podium and the rousing Meerkovo Anthem? Also available: Aleksandr and the Mysterious Knightkat, Maiya in the Beautiful Ballet, Sergei's Space Adventure, Vassily the King of Rock, Yakov Saves Christmas

This cultural history of the travelling freak show in America chronicles the rise and fall of the industry as attitudes about disability evolved. From 1840 until 1940, hundreds of freak shows crisscrossed the United States, from the smallest towns to the largest cities, exhibiting their casts of dwarfs, giants, Siamese twins, bearded ladies, savages, snake charmers, fire eaters, and other oddities. By today’s standards such displays would be considered cruel and exploitative—the pornography of disability. Yet for one hundred years the freak show was widely accepted as one of America’s most popular forms of entertainment. Robert Bogdan’s fascinating social history brings to life the world of the freak show and explores the culture that nurtured and, later, abandoned it. In uncovering this neglected chapter of show business, he describes in detail the flimflam artistry behind the shows, the promoters and the audiences, and the gradual evolution of public opinion from awe to embarrassment. Freaks were not born, Bogdan reveals; they were manufactured by the amusement world, usually with the active participation of the freaks themselves. Many of the "human curiosities" found fame and fortune, until the ascent of professional medicine transformed them from marvels into pathological specimens.

In revealing the source of the ideology of whiteness in the imagination, Cassuto turns to images of blackness in American literature and culture from 1622 to 1865, examining such texts as Swallow Barn, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Typee, and Moby Dick.

This concise, applied, and very clearly written introduction to qualitative research methods can be used effectively in a semester, or year-long course. This introductory-level text provides the reader with a background for understanding the uses of qualitative research in education (and other professions) examining its theoretical and historical underpinnings, and providing the "how-to's" of doing qualitative research. This new edition places qualitative research within current debates about research methods and alternative ways of knowing. While the authors approach the subject from a sociological perspective, they also take care to reflect the many changes in conceptualization of qualitative research brought by post-structural and feminist thought. New to This Edition: - Rewritten Chapter 5, "Data Analysis, " places more emphasis on the interpretive aspect of research and research writing. - Expanded coverage of action or practitioner research (Chapter 7) highlights a topic that is of immediate use. - Added emphasis on technology and qualitative analysis software in qualitative research helps students to use and incorporate technology efficiently. Links to useful research websites have also been integrated throughout. - Expanded coverage of such topics as formal research designs, work with different cultures, critical race theory, and the debate over quantitative vs. qualitative research. - New end-of-chapter summaries, questions, and field assignments have been added to make this text easy to use with students. - A new Instructor's Manual/Test Bank is available online to adopters by contacting your local representative.

Spirits trapped in his head plague a man with no past… For Vincent Donnelly, waking up in a field in the middle of nowhere was just the beginning. Frantic and terrified, he has no idea who he is, or how he got there. Nor does he know the five dead bodies lying next to him. All he knows for sure is that he hears whispering in his head. Voices that are not his own… This digital box set contains books 1–3 of the Jigsaw of Souls series: Curse of the Necromancer (Book 1): With no memories or friends to rely on, Vincent finds himself drawn to the town of Alder Falls. Somehow, he is certain this place is connected to his hazy past. But the local townsfolk urge him to leave before nightfall. For when the sun sets, the dead walk these shadowy streets and prey upon the living... The Witch’s Wrath (Book 2): As he struggles to piece together his dark past, Vincent finds out he is not the only one who hears the whispers of the dead. A local townswoman from the quaint town of Burnham, Massachusetts has found a way to communicate with a powerful ghost. And this malevolent force is bent on transforming everyone into something less than human… The Blood Bargain (Book 3): Still with no idea who he really is or what led him to his fate, Vincent travels back to where it all started. There, discovers that he was part a ritual gone wrong in the past… A ritual intended to use him as a host for a being of pure Chaos... Join Vincent as he pieces together the puzzle of his past. Grab your copy of Jigsaw of Souls Series Books 1–3 today!

A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture “Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining.” —Wall Street Journal “Don’t trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman’s own laugh-out-loud whodunit.” —Parade Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?

THE level plains and steppes of South Russia were known to the ancients as the broad channel followed by the ebb and flow of every fresh wave of conquest or migration passing between Europe and Asia. The legions of Rome and Byzance found this territory as impossible to occupy by military force as the high seas...