A Song Of Stone

'Exhilarating... a work of imagination and arresting originality' Sunday Telegraph The war is ending, perhaps ended... For the castle and its occupants the troubles are just beginning. Armed gangs roam its lawless land, where each farm and house supports a column of dark smoke. Taking to the roads with the other refugees, anonymous in their raggedness, seems safer than remaining in the ancient keep. But the lieutenant of an outlaw band has other ideas, and the castle becomes the focus for a dangerous game of desire, deceit and death... Praise for Iain Banks: 'The most imaginative novelist of his generation' The Times 'His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readers' Ken MacLeod, Guardian 'His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent' Neil Gaiman 'An exceptional wordsmith' Scotsman

There is a mystery in a chapel, and a man who must find the answer. Heavy-drinking, chain-smoking, television pro Ian Graham just wanted a new paying job, but when he arrives at Scotland’s mysterious Rosslyn Chapel to shoot a dramatic for-TV documentary, he’s thrown a different fate altogether - one from 1307 to be exact. When he wakes up seven hundred years away from his own life, Ian must live as an initiate of the Order of the Temple, seek the forgotten truth of Rosslyn’s past, and escape the doom of the Templars before he can’t return.

'The Song of the Stone Wall' is a beautifully written narrative poem by Hellen Keller. It tells the story of Keller's contribution to the construction of a wall on her property that allowed her to explore beyond her previous boundaries. Here's an excerpt of the work: "Come walk with me, and I will tell / What I have read in this scroll of stone / I will spell out this writing on hill and meadow / It is a chronicle wrought by praying workmen."

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first novel in the beloved Big Stone Gap series, now a major motion picture written and directed by Adriana Trigiani, starring Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, John Benjamin Hickey, Jane Krakowski, Anthony LaPaglia, and Jenna Elfman This edition features behind-the-scenes bonus material from the film—including photos, excerpts from the script, and favorite recipes from on the set “Delightfully quirky . . . chock-full of engaging, oddball characters and unexpected plot twists.”—People (Book of the Week) It's 1978, and Ave Maria Mulligan is the thirty-five-year-old self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She’s also the local pharmacist, the co-captain of the Rescue Squad, and the director of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the town’s long-running Outdoor Drama. Ave Maria is content with her life—until, one fateful day, her past opens wide with the revelation of a long-buried secret that will alter the course of her life. Before she knows it, Ave Maria is fielding marriage proposals, trying to claim her rightful inheritance, and planning the trip of a lifetime to Italy—one that will change her view of the world and her own place in it forever. Millions of readers around the world have fallen in love with the small town of Big Stone Gap, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and its self-proclaimed spinster. Full of wit and wonder, hilarity and heart, Big Stone Gap is a gem of a book, and one that you will share with friends and family for years to come. WINNER OF THE LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA ANNUAL LITERARY AWARD Don’t miss any of Adriana Trigiani’s beloved Big Stone Gap series BIG STONE GAP • BIG CHERRY HOLLER • MILK GLASS MOON • HOME TO BIG STONE GAP

Based on first-hand historical materials, this book explores the various aspects of literary communication during the Song Dynasty in China. The book investigates the single-channel dissemination of poetry and ci works, the dissemination of literary collections, the dissemination through wall inscriptions, the oral dissemination of Song ci, the remuneration and commercialization of literature in the Song Dynasty, the paths to fame for Song writers, the non-literary factors in the dissemination of literature and the dissemination of literary works through paintings and songs. The author provides insights into the six major questions in the study of literary communication: Who disseminates, where, how, what, to whom and the effects of dissemination. The author also seeks to provide detailed answers to the following questions. What was the role of female singers in both domestic and official entertainment? What were the costs and prices of the books? Who paid the authors? What methods did writers use to gain fame and social recognition? This work will be essential reading for scholars and students of Chinese studies, communication studies and media and cultural studies.