"City of Pearls is one continuous gift-giver. Sham-e-Ali Nayeem lusciously, unselfishly and most certainly, unapologetically shares with us the magic and glory of story. Stories made from lived lives...full with words and images that speak of...place, purpose, father, family, fragility, strength, beauty, suffering, celebration. Stories to hold us tight...and inspire us to continue dreaming through it all." --Ursula Rucker, author of Supa Sista "I was brought back to the landscapes of my childhood by these sensitive poems. So quietly but firmly do they evoke not only the shattered rocks of Hyderabad but also the ways in which some of us live perpetually between, belong neither to one place nor the other, always in transit, always hoping for news from 'home.'" --Kazim Ali, author of Inquisition "This book is a hamlet, a jewel box, a compass. Sham-e-Ali Nayeem strings the tender odds and ends of memory into a dazzling odyssey across the continents of daughterhood and motherhood. We are born from places as much as people, these poems remind us. City of Pearls soars with the dignity mined from a life lit with leavings." --Yolanda Wisher, author of Monk Eats an Afro "There is nothing more important to love than memory, and Sham-e-Ali's stunning debut collection is full of love. Awash in the fragrance of mourning and yearning, these poems stretch out, split into tributaries, condense into coral clouds - above all, they nourish. Both affectionate and merciless, this book is a "place where it all worked out." It is a gift to breathe with it."--Bao Phi, author of Thousand Star Hotel

Three separate alien societies have claimson Cavanagh's Star. But the new arrivals -- the gethes from Earth -- now threaten thetenuous balance of a coveted world. Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home. But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marines, has not gone unnoticed by Aras, the planet's designated guardian. An eternally evolving world himself, this sad, powerful being has already obliterated millions of alien interlopers and their great cities to protect the fragile native population. Now Shan and her party -- plus the small colony of fundamentalist humans who preceded them -- could face a similar annihilation . . . or a fate far worse. Because Aras possesses a secret of the blood that would be disastrous if it fell into human hands -- if the gethes survive the impending war their coming has inadvertently hastened.

Since Antiquity the natural pearls of the Gulf have been famed as the finest, most lustrous and most plentiful that the world can offer. From the beginnings of trade until the 1930s, these pearls were a major product of the Gulf's coastal peoples. Latterly, from the 17th to the early 20th centuries, rising international demand turned pearling into their economic mainstay. By this time pearls were fished in their millions, and pearling became the pillar of the regional economy, dominating the lives, health and expectations of entire shaikhdoms. The influx of people and wealth to the coast permanently transformed the Gulf, providing the manpower and capital to germinate and nurture the city-states - notably Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah - which endure there today. Despite its formative role, there has until now been no book taking the entire history of pearling as its subject. Dr Carter's ground-breaking work traces its evolution on both the Arabian and the Persian sides of the Gulf, and explores the role it played in shaping the political, social and urban configuration that we see in the region today. It shows the extent to which the Gulf economy became dependent on a single commodity, and how, in that respect, pearling resembled the oil industry that would replace it. Lavishly illustrated, this book covers in unprecedented detail the history, development, conduct, florescence and catastrophic collapse of the industry in the early 20th century. It will fascinate not only those wishing to understand the growth and conduct of the pearl fishery, but also those interested in the history of the region and the origins of the Gulf states, and in the colourful story of the global taste for one of mankind's most highly prized precious stones.

From their creation in the maw of mollusks to lustrous objects of infatuation and conflict, a revealing look at pearls’ dark history. This book is a beautifully illustrated account of pearls through millennia, from fossils to contemporary jewelry. Pearls are the most human of gems, both miraculous and familiar. Uniquely organic in origin, they are as intimate as our bodies, created through the same process as we grow bones and teeth. They have long been described as an animal’s sacrifice, but until recently their retrieval often entailed the sacrifices of enslaved and indentured divers and laborers. While the shimmer of the pearl has enticed Roman noblewomen, Mughal princes, Hollywood royalty, mavericks, and renegades, encoded in its surface is a history of human endeavor, abuse, and aspiration—pain locked in the layers of a gleaming gem.

This book studies 18th-century Yangchow paintings as artistic products shaped by collective social and cultural experiences, and by constant exchanges between the artists and their audience.

A brilliant, lost feminist classic that is equal parts domestic drama and international intrigue. Shirley and Coenraad’s affair has been going on for decades, but her longing for him is as desperate as ever. She is a Toronto housewife; he works for an international organization known only as the Agency. Their rendezvous take place in Tangier, in Hong Kong, in Rome and are arranged by an intricate code based on notes slipped into issues of National Geographic. He recognizes her by her costume: a respectable black dress and string of pearls; his appearance, however, is changeable. But something has happened, the code has been discovered, and Coenraad sends Shirley (who prefers to be known as “Lola Montez”) to Toronto, the last place she wants to go. There the trail leads her through the sites of her impoverished immigrant childhood and sends her, finally, to her own house, where she discards her pearls and trades in her basic black for a dress of vibrant multicolored silk. Helen Weinzweig published her first novel when she was fifty-eight. Basic Black with Pearls, her second, won the Toronto Book Award and has since come to be recognized as a feminist landmark. Here Weinzweig imbues the formal inventiveness of the nouveau roman with psychological poignancy and surprising humor to tell a story of simultaneous dissolution and discovery.

The warm and witty sequel to The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club Slip one . . . Two weddings and a year after her husband's funeral, Jo Mackenzie is finally starting to get the hang of being a single parent. The boys are thriving, the yarn shop is doing well--thanks to Jo's improvements--and she's just about keeping her head above water. Knit two together . . . But a man from Jo's past and a new romance with the hunky local carpenter come along and make life a whole lot more interesting. Cast off . . . Can Jo cope when things get really complicated? Because if knitting really does keep you sane when life starts to unravel, Jo's going to need much bigger needles.