A Scattering of Jades

A Scattering of Jades PDF Author: Alexander C. Irvine
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780765340986
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
When the great fire of 1835 burns New York City's downtown, Archie Prescott thinks he's lost everything. In the midst of ancient magic and a crafty demon-god, Archie soon finds himself with the power to save the world--or drown it in sacrificial blood.

A Scattering of Jades

A Scattering of Jades PDF Author: Alexander C. Irvine
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780765340986
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
When the great fire of 1835 burns New York City's downtown, Archie Prescott thinks he's lost everything. In the midst of ancient magic and a crafty demon-god, Archie soon finds himself with the power to save the world--or drown it in sacrificial blood.

A Scattering of Jades

A Scattering of Jades PDF Author: T. J. Knab
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Offers an extraordinary glimpse into the Aztec civilization -- a mysterious culture that revered its poets, worshiped its kings and ritualized human sacrifice. The Aztec empire reached its height between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, culminating in the reign of Motecuzoma. Aztec cities surpassed those of Europe in size and grandeur, and their art and aesthetics were the most sophisticated of all nature American cultures. Among the ancient Aztecs, a clever turn of phrase was considered a precious stone -- a 'scattering of jades" was an Aztec metaphor for elegant speech. This literary gem collects Aztec myths, prayers, proverbs and poems, many translated from the original Nahuati for the first time, presenting an evocative picture of one of the most exotic and advanced civilizations in the Americas.g.

A Scattering of Jades

A Scattering of Jades PDF Author: Thelma D. Sullivan
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816523375
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Long before Europeans came to America, the Aztecs created a unique culture based on myth and a love of language. Myths and poems were an important part of their culture, and a successful speech by a royal orator was pronounced "a great scattering of jades." A Scattering of Jades is an anthology of the best of Aztec literature, compiled by a noted anthropologist and a skilled translator of Nahuatl. It is a storehouse of myths, narratives, poems, and proverbs—as well as prayers and songs to the Aztec gods that provide insight into how these people's perception of the cosmos drove their military machine. Featuring a translation of the Mexicayotl—a work as important today for Mexico's concept of nationhood and ideology as it was at the time of the Conquest—these selections eloquently depict the everyday life of this ancient people and their unique worldview. A Scattering of Jades is an unsurpassed window on ancient Mesoamerican civilization and an essential companion for anyone studying Aztec history, religion, or culture.

One King, One Soldier

One King, One Soldier PDF Author: Alex Irvine
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 034547855X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
The story says that one day a Fisher King will rise to heal the land. In the 1950s, they’re still waiting. . . . “A captivating historical thriller, a great spine-tingling romp through history in search of the Holy Grail. Fans of The Da Vinci Code will love this!”—Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland and Paradise Alley At the turn of the twentieth century, a baseball player named George Gibson embarks upon a mystical journey to the Congo. His mission: to shepherd a powerful relic to its home in Abyssinia. But poet-turned-grail seeker Arthur Rimbaud is after what Gibson possesses—as others before him have been for millennia. A half century later, after receiving an honorable discharge from the Korean War, twenty-year-old Lance Porter vows to put his civilian life back together—which means heading to commie-infested Berkeley to see his high school sweetheart, Ellie. But after Lance gets cold feet, he encounters instead a drunk, gay poet named Jack Spicer, who spews crazy stories about Lance being the Fisher King. It appears that the bearing of the grail has been bequeathed to young Lance, much to his shock and disbelief. Can a legacy born in the deserts of Ethiopia truly be reemerging in the bohemian bars of New York City and San Francisco? And is a vet with a lost soul really worthy of its care? Alexander C. Irvine has breathed a refreshing burst of air into the Arthurian legend. In One King, One Soldier, ancient characters and Irvine’s pitch-perfect historical accuracy merge with a gritty, dark portrait of America in the cold-war ’50s. Here, three stories come brilliantly together in an edgy mix of baseball, imperialism, poetry, and grail mythology.

Buyout

Buyout PDF Author: Alex Irvine
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 0345513428
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
From acclaimed author Alexander C. Irvine comes a gritty near-future thriller in the paranoid, prophetic vein of Philip K. Dick and Richard K. Morgan. One hundred years from now, with Americans hooked into an Internet far more expansive and intrusive than today’s, the world has become a seamless market-driven experience. In this culture of capitalism run amok, entrepreneurs and politicians faced with rampant overcrowding in the nation’s penal system turn to a controversial new method of cutting costs: life-term buyouts. In theory, buyouts offer convicted murderers the chance to atone for their crimes by voluntarily allowing themselves to be put to death by the state in exchange for a one-time cash payment, shared among their heirs and victims, based on a percentage of what it would have cost taxpayers to house and feed them for the rest of their natural lives. It’s a win-win situation. At least that’s what Martin Kindred believes. And Martin is a man who desperately needs something to believe in, especially with his marriage coming apart and the murder of his brother, an L.A. cop brutally gunned down in the line of duty, unsolved. As the public face of the buyout program, Martin is a lightning rod for verbal and physical abuse–but he embraces every challenge, knowing his motives are pure. But when evidence comes to light that a felon in line for a buyout may have been involved with his brother’s death, Martin’s professional detachment threatens to turn into a personal vendetta that will jeopardize everything–and everyone–he holds dear. Inspired by today’s politics, Buyout is an unforgettable look at an all-too-believable future . . . and one man’s struggle to do the right thing.

Brave New Worlds

Brave New Worlds PDF Author: John Joseph Adams
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
ISBN: 159780455X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 852

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Book Description
You are being watched. Your every movement is being tracked, your every word recorded. Your spouse may be an informer, your children may be listening at your door, your best friend may be a member of the secret police. You are alone among thousands, among great crowds of the brainwashed, the well-behaved, the loyal. Productivity has never been higher, the media blares, and the army is ever triumphant. One wrong move, one slip-up, and you may find yourself disappeared -- swallowed up by a monstrous bureaucracy, vanished into a shadowy labyrinth of interrogation chambers, show trials, and secret prisons from which no one ever escapes. Welcome to the world of the dystopia, a world of government and society gone horribly, nightmarishly wrong. What happens when civilization invades and dictates every aspect of your life? From 1984 to The Handmaid's Tale, from Children of Men to Bioshock, the dystopian imagination has been a vital and gripping cautionary force. Brave New Worlds collects the best tales of totalitarian menace by some of today's most visionary writers, including Neil Gaiman, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Ursula K. Le Guin. When the government wields its power against its own people, every citizen becomes an enemy of the state. Will you fight the system, or be ground to dust beneath the boot of tyranny?

It's All In The Frijoles

It's All In The Frijoles PDF Author: Yolanda Nava
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439147221
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Collected folktales, lullabies, poems, sayings, and dichos from well-known and beloved Latin figures, both past and present—from actor Edward James Olmos and author Isabel Allende to Nobel laureate Octavio Paz and Saint Teresa de Avila. Do you wish you could remember all the words to the childhood songs your grandmother taught you, so you could sing them to your children? Have you ever found yourself repeating the dichos, or proverbs, your parents used to lecture you with? If you are looking for a way to get back in touch with your culture, It's All in the Frijoles is the perfect start. A treasure trove of cherished folktales, lullabies, poems, and dichos, this rich collection of Latino wisdom includes inspiring recollections and anecdotes by well-known and beloved figures, both past and present -- from actor Edward James Olmos and author Isabel Allende to Nobel laureate Octavio Paz and Saint Teresa de Avila. It's All in the Frijoles is certain to evoke with fondness many a childhood memory of essential teachings learned from parents and grandparents, including: El hombre debe ser feo, fuerte, y formal. A man should be homely, hardy, and honorable. El consejo de la mujer es poco y él que no lo agarra es loco. The advice of a woman is very scarce and the person who does not heed it is crazy. Pueblo dividido, pueblo vencido. A people divided, a people conquered. It's All in the Frijoles captures and perpetuates the essence of Latino tradition and is destined to become a family treasure that is passed down from generation to generation. This legacy of wisdom provides food for thought not only for Latinos but also for people of all other ethnic backgrounds.

Each and Her

Each and Her PDF Author: Valerie Martínez
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816549001
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
In 2004 twenty-eight women and young girls were murdered in Ciudad Juárez and the surrounding areas. The tragedy escalated to fifty-eight murders in 2006, then again to eighty-six in 2008, and current estimates top four hundred deaths. Now poet Valerie Martínez offers a poetic exploration of these events, pushing boundaries—stylistically and artistically—with vivid poems that contextualize femicide. Martínez departs from traditional narrative to reveal the hidden effects and outcomes of the horrific and heart-wrenching cases of femicide. These poems—lyric fragments and prose passages that form a collage—have an intricate relation to one another, creating a complex literary quilt that feels like it can be read from the beginning, the end, or anywhere in between. Martínez is personally invested in the topic, evoking the loss of her sister, and Each and Her emerges as a biography of sorts and a compelling homage to all those who have suffered. Other authors may elaborate on or investigate this topic, but Martínez humanizes it by including names, quotations, realistic details, and stark imagery. The women of Juárez, like other women around the world, are ravaged by inequality, discontinuity, politics, and economic plagues that contribute to gender violence. Martínez offers us a poignant and alarming glance into another world with these never-before-told stories. Her refreshing and explosive voice will keep readers transfixed and intrigued about these events and emotions—removed from us and yet so close to the heart.

Mapping And Imagination In The Great Basin

Mapping And Imagination In The Great Basin PDF Author: Richard V. Francaviglia
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 0874176409
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
The Great Basin was the last region of continental North America to be explored and mapped, and it remained largely a mystery to Euro-Americans until well into the nineteenth century. In Mapping and Imagination in the Great Basin, geographer-historian Richard Francaviglia shows how the Great Basin gradually emerged from its “cartographic silence” as terra incognita and how this fascinating process both paralleled the development of the sciences of surveying, geology, hydrology, and cartography and reflected the changing geopolitical aspirations of the European colonial powers and the United States. Francaviglia’s interdisciplinary account of the mapping of the Great Basin combines a chronicle of the exploration of the region with a history of the art and science of cartography and of the political, economic, and cultural contexts in which maps are created. It also offers a compelling, wide-ranging discussion that combines a description of the daunting physical realities of the Great Basin with a cogent examination of the ways humans, from early Native Americans to nineteenth-century surveyors to twentieth-century highway and air travelers, have understood, defined, and organized this space, psychologically and through the medium of maps. Mapping and Imagination in the Great Basin continues Francaviglia’s insightful, richly nuanced meditation on the Great Basin landscape that began in Believing in Place.

Landscape And Power In Ancient Mesoamerica

Landscape And Power In Ancient Mesoamerica PDF Author: Rex Koontz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429979045
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
From the early cities in the second millennium BC to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan on the eve of the Spanish conquest, Ancient Mesoamericans created landscapes full of meaning and power in the center of their urban spaces. The sixteenth century description of Tenochtitlan by Bernal Diaz del Castillo and the archaeological remnants of Teotihuacan attest to the power and centrality of these urban configurations in Ancient Mesoamerican history. In Landscape and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica, Rex Koontz, Kathryn Reese-Taylor, and Annabeth Headrick explore the cultural logic that structured and generated these centers.Through case studies of specific urban spaces and their meanings, the authors examine the general principles by which the Ancient Mesoamericans created meaningful urban space. In a profoundly interdisciplinary exchange involving both archaeologists and art historians, this volume connects the symbolism of those landscapes, the performances that activated this symbolism, and the cultural poetics of these ensembles.