"Do you dream of world peace and yet sometimes feel powerless to find harmony in your own life? When Lotus Alfred explores her notions of peace through poetry writing, family life suddenly seems more unmanageable than usual. Overwhelmed, she runs off to the beach where she is whisked away to an enchanted island. There, Lotus receives a challenging mission along with a magical pearl that guides to the peace she is seeking"--Page 4 of cover

Princess Arianna Garcia believes something is missing from her life. But there is only one problem: she has no idea what it is. Her father has always controlled her life on the planet of Margaritan. But as she prepares to turn seventeen, Arianna knows that very soon, she will finally acquire the power to control her own world. During a special birthday ceremony, Arianna is chosen to bear the galaxys life sourcea golden pearl. Unfortunately she is also declared to be a Sorceress, clearly not a desirable gift in the kingdom. After all, the last time a sorcerer was called, he was eradicated to another planet for committing murder. Despite Ariannas rank in society, she too is banished to Earth. But when she meets Max, the man she is destined to be with forever, Arianna soon learns that someone is searching for the pearl she bears. Now it is up to her to formulate a plan to save herself, Max, and the future of the universe, before it is too late. The Golden Pearl shares the tale of a teenage princess as she embarks on a thrilling adventure on Earth that tests her limits, special gifts, and the power of everlasting love.

"The greatest novel of physical love which China has produced." - Pearl S. Buck

Reena finally knows who she is, she has become the Queen of her home country; Magata of Margaritan and has married the man of her dreams. But not all is well. The Commander has returned and is fighting much harder, trying to turn the Margaritan citizens against Reena and Max. When the Commander realizes that there is more power in the Bearer's DNA than there is in the Planet's Gemstones, he is out to get them all. As the Bearers' lives and all those who live on Margaritan are being threatened by the Commander and his men. Reena must learn who their allies are and search for the traitor who is working against them. As Reena and Max are joined with the great Creator's daughter, they learn the one thing that could keep the Commander off their world, but at what cost are they willing to pay? With a new dangerous secret, Reena is at even greater risk than all of the others. She holds something of great value, not only does her secret affect her kingdom but the safety of her whole world. The Lotus Pearl, shares the tale of a young new queen and her king as they embark a journey, they discover friends and traitors in the midst of an ever surfacing war.

"The greatest novel of physical love which China has produced." —Pearl S. Buck A saga of ruthless ambition, murder, and lust, The Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei) has been called the fifth Great Classical Novel in Chinese literature and one of the Four Masterworks of the Ming novel. Admired in its own time for its literary qualities and biting indictment of the immorality and cruelty of its age, it has also been denigrated as a "dirty" book for its sexual frankness. It centers on Ximen Qing, a wealthy, young, dissolute, and politically connected merchant, and his marriage to a fifth wife, Pan Jinlian, literally "Golden Lotus." In her desire to influence her husband and, through him, control the other wives, concubines, and entire household, she uses sex as her main weapon. The Golden Lotus lays bare the rivalries within this wealthy family while chronicling its rise and fall. It fields a host of vivid characters, each seeking advantage in a corrupt world. The author of The Golden Lotus is Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng, whose name, a pseudonym, means "Scoffing Scholar of Lanling." His great work, written in the late Ming but set in the Song Dynasty, is a virtuoso collection of voices and vices, mixing in poetry and song and sampling different social registers, from popular ballads to the language of bureaucrats, in order to recreate and comment mordantly on the society of the time. This edition features a new introduction by Robert Hegel of Washington University, who situates the novel for contemporary readers and explains its greatness as the first single-authored novel in the Chinese tradition. This translation contains the complete, unexpurgated text as translated by Clement Egerton with the assistance of Shu Qingchun, later known as Lao She, one of the most prominent Chinese writers of the twentieth century. The translation has been pinyinized and corrected.

"The greatest novel of physical love which China has produced." - Pearl S. Buck

"The greatest novel of physical love which China has produced." - Pearl S. Buck

This beguiling story is woven around the life of Fragrant Lotus, who has her feet bound in the supreme Golden Lotus style when she is six years old. Events in Fragrants Lotus’ life twist and unfold in a series of witty and often wicked ironies, obliterating easy distinctions between kindness and cruelty, history and fable, forgery and authentic work. The novel’s waggish narrator exists in the tension between judgement and description, wryly deflating his reader’s certainties along the way. Written in 1985, The Three-Inch Golden Lotus is a deeply affecting, thoroughly enjoyable literary revelation.

"Looks at the origins of footbinding, the reasons why it was allowed to flourish, and its effects on the women who had to endure it."--Google Books viewed March 4, 2022.