Serpent's Gift

Serpent's Gift PDF Author: Helen Elaine Lee
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
The lives of two African-American families who unite after a breadwinner dies. A son becomes a writer of folk stories and oral history, and it is he who provides the novel with its social and historical content.

Serpent's Gift

Serpent's Gift PDF Author: Helen Elaine Lee
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
The lives of two African-American families who unite after a breadwinner dies. A son becomes a writer of folk stories and oral history, and it is he who provides the novel with its social and historical content.

The Serpent Gift

The Serpent Gift PDF Author: Lene Kaaberbol
Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books
ISBN: 1782692290
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
The third book in the thrilling fantasy adventure series, The Shamer Chronicles A watching face in a market crowd, a mist-shrouded figure on the moor, a haunting presence seen only when he wants to be seen? Sezuan, possessor of the Serpent Gift for lie and illusion, is a chilling and ambiguous figure at the best of times. He is also Dina's father. And when he comes to claim the daughter he has never seen, the Shamer and her family are catapulted into reckless flight and danger. With nowhere else to turn, Dina must learn to see through her father's deceit and use her own powers to her advantage.

The Serpent's Gift

The Serpent's Gift PDF Author: Jeffrey J. Kripal
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226453820
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
“Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.” With those words in Genesis, God condemns the serpent for tempting Adam and Eve, and the serpent has shouldered the blame ever since. But how would the study of religion change if we looked at the Fall from the snake’s point of view? Would he appear as a bringer of wisdom, more generous than the God who wishes to keep his creation ignorant? Inspired by the early Gnostics who took that startling view, Jeffrey J. Kripal uses the serpent as a starting point for a groundbreaking reconsideration of religious studies and its methods. In a series of related essays, he moves beyond both rational and faith-based approaches to religion, exploring the erotics of the gospels and the sexualities of Jesus, John, and Mary Magdalene. He considers Feuerbach’s Gnosticism, the untapped mystical potential of comparative religion, and even the modern mythology of the X-Men. Ultimately, The Serpent’s Gift is a provocative call for a complete reorientation of religious studies, aimed at a larger understanding of the world, the self, and the divine.

The Shamer’s Daughter

The Shamer’s Daughter PDF Author: Lene Kaaberbol
Publisher: Pushkin Children's Books
ISBN: 1782692266
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
The first step into the thrilling middlegrade fantasy world of The Shamer Chronicles Dina has unwillingly inherited her mother's gift: the ability to elicit shamed confessions simply by looking into someone's eyes. To Dina, however, these powers are not a gift but a curse. Surrounded by fear and hostility, she longs for simple friendship. But when her mother is called to Dunark Castle to uncover the truth about a bloody triple murder, Dina must come to terms with her power - or let her mother fall prey to the vicious and revolting dragons of Dunark.

The Serpent and the Rainbow

The Serpent and the Rainbow PDF Author: Wade Davis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451628366
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
A scientific investigation and personal adventure story about zombis and the voudoun culture of Haiti by a Harvard scientist. In April 1982, ethnobotanist Wade Davis arrived in Haiti to investigate two documented cases of zombis—people who had reappeared in Haitian society years after they had been officially declared dead and had been buried. Drawn into a netherworld of rituals and celebrations, Davis penetrated the vodoun mystique deeply enough to place zombification in its proper context within vodoun culture. In the course of his investigation, Davis came to realize that the story of vodoun is the history of Haiti—from the African origins of its people to the successful Haitian independence movement, down to the present day, where vodoun culture is, in effect, the government of Haiti’s countryside. The Serpent and the Rainbow combines anthropological investigation with a remarkable personal adventure to illuminate and finally explain a phenomenon that has long fascinated Americans.

The Serpent's Gift

The Serpent's Gift PDF Author: Helen Elaine Lee
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
"One of the most striking and heartening developments in American letters in recent years has been the flowering and attendant celebration of African-American writers and of books that have introduced to readers everywhere people, situations, and events that have, hitherto, largely been ignored, denied, or unknown. Now comes Helen Elaine Lee's supremely assured The Serpent's Gift, a first novel that gives to us - with the fullest emotional resonance, humor, and exultation in the novelist's art - the intertwined stories of two families from early in this century to our own times." "Central to this haunting (and sometimes haunted) novel are the mothers, a study in contrast in strength and rigidity, Ruby Staples and Eula Smalls, and their children: LaRue Smalls, adventurer, storyteller, and chronicler of his people; his sister Vesta, intimidated by life from an early age, yet determined, valiant even, to hold her disparate family together; and Ouida Staples, a rare beauty who elects, in the face of convention, to spend her life with another woman. Each will face trials and challenges and sometimes be transformed, shedding like the serpent, an old skin, reborn by the art of invention." "From its opening pages, which recount in eerily compelling detail, the death that will bring these people together, to its almost pastoral conclusion, The Serpent's Gift creates a world that is both realistic in its detail and lyrical in its presentation - it is a superb, triumphant debut."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Serpent King

The Serpent King PDF Author: Jeff Zentner
Publisher: Ember
ISBN: 0553524046
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Named to ten BEST OF THE YEAR lists and selected as a William C. Morris Award Winner,The Serpent King is the critically acclaimed, much-beloved story of three teens who find themselves--and each other--while on the cusp of graduating from high school with hopes of leaving their small-town behind. Perfect for fans of John Green's Turtles All the Way Down. "Move over, John Green; Zentner is coming for you." —The New York Public Library “Will fill the infinite space that was left in your chest after you finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” —BookRiot.com Dill isn't the most popular kid at his rural Tennessee high school. After his father fell from grace in a public scandal that reverberated throughout their small town, Dill became a target. Fortunately, his two fellow misfits and best friends, Travis and Lydia, have his back. But as they begin their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. His only escapes are music and his secret feelings for Lydia--neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending--one that will rock his life to the core. Debut novelist Jeff Zentner provides an unblinking and at times comic view of the hard realities of growing up in the Bible belt, and an intimate look at the struggles to find one’s true self in the wreckage of the past. “A story about friendship, family and forgiveness, it’s as funny and witty as it is utterly heartbreaking.” —PasteMagazine.com “A brutally honest portrayal of teen life . . . [and] a love letter to the South from a man who really understands it.” —Mashable.com “I adored all three of these characters and the way they talked to and loved one another.”—New York Times

The Angel and the Serpent

The Angel and the Serpent PDF Author: William E. Wilson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253203267
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
"The Angel and the Serpent is a book which combines scholarship and literary grace, and which recreates for us both the world of the Rappites and the Owenites.Ó ÑHenry Steele Commager, ÑThe New York Times Book ReviewÒWilson writes with clarity and humor and has given us a work which will be valuable both to the cultural historian and to the general reader.Ó ÑSt. Louis Globe DemocratÒ. . . exceedingly valuable addition to Indiana historiography.Ó ÑIndianapolis TimesHere is the story of George RappÕs German Harmonists and Robert OwenÕs IdealistsÑthe two vastly different communities that shaped the history of New Harmony, Indiana. Both the Rappites and the Owenites came to New Harmony to conduct communal living experimentsÑRapp expecting the millennium; Owen believing he had brought the millennium with him. Although the two men were motivated by different ideas, they shared the same goal: to see their people live together in happiness and peace. Their two experiments are probably the best known and most interesting efforts at establishing alternate or Utopian communities in America.

The Serpent and the Moon

The Serpent and the Moon PDF Author: Princess Michael of Kent
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743251067
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Set against the stunning backdrop of Renaissance France, The Serpent and the Moon is a true story of love, war, intrigue, betrayal, and persecution. At its heart is one of the world's greatest love stories: the lifelong devotion of King Henri II of France to Diane de Poitiers, a beautiful aristocrat who was nineteen years older than her lover. At age fourteen, Henri was married to fourteen-year-old Catherine de' Medici, an unattractive but extremely wealthy heiress who was to bring half of Italy to France as her dowry. When Catherine met Henri on her wedding day, she fell instantly in love, but Henri could see no one but the beautiful Diane. When Henri eventually became king, he and Diane ruled France as one. Meanwhile, Catherine took as her secret motto the words "Hate and Wait" and lived for the day Diane would die and she could win Henri's love and rule by his side. Fate had another plan. Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, herself a descendant of both Catherine and Diane, imbues this seldom-told story with an insider's grasp of royal life. The Serpent and the Moon is a fascinating love story as well as a richly woven history of an extraordinary time.

Children of the Serpent Gate

Children of the Serpent Gate PDF Author: Sarah Ash
Publisher: Spectra
ISBN: 0553901974
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
In this third novel in her acclaimed Tears of Artamon saga, Sarah Ash once again transports readers to a realm where sorcery collides with political intrigue . . . and where one man haunted by a dark legacy is locked in a fierce struggle between the forces of good and evil battling for supremacy within him. . . . Gavril Nagarian is believed dead—perished in the heat of battle. But the Lord Drakhaon of Azhkendir lives on. Now he is entrusted with a sacred mission: to rescue the aged Magus, who has been kidnapped and in whose possession are the five priceless rubies that compose the fabled Tears of Artamon. Ancient law decrees that whoever possesses the coveted stones has the power to impose his rule over the five princedoms in the Empire of New Rossiya. But the task exacts a cost. The Drakhaoul that destroyed his forebears has penetrated Gavril’s psyche and is gaining power over his soul. With the dark forces inside him seeking immortality, Gavril must feed on the blood of innocents—or die. Toppled by the loss of the Tears of Artamon, Emperor Eugene of Tielen is tormented by his own daemon. Now he must defend his lands against King Enguerrand of Francia, who claims ownership of the Tears. But both men share a common goal: to destroy Gavril Nagarian and the Drakhaoul that lives within him once and for all. Ingenious and unforgettable, Children of the Serpent Gate delivers a thrilling conclusion to the epic trials of a man of honor in a world run amok—a calamity that can be laid to rest only by an Emperor’s Tears.