An Ocean Of Jewels

When Imani Jewel Henderson's mysterious father dies on her 29th birthday, Christmas day, 1999, she begins a journey toward self-love, and faces many challenges. Can she unravel the secrets of her family's disturbing past when she was a foster child? Why did her mother commit suicide and leave her all alone? Why did her father keep notes about a holy river, an Orphan Train, and a murder in 1901? How will she battle depression and alcohol addiction? Will Imani heal from two abusive relationships with married men? How can she repair what she destroyed when she slept with her best friend's husband? Will she ever find the love that will connect her to her Gullah/Geechee heritage? Imani discovers that the answers are hidden in the rich details of her African American family traditions of quilts, folklore, Eva Creek Island, and the affluent town of Jewel Park, New York.

When Imani Jewel Henderson's mysterious father dies on her 29th birthday, Christmas day, 1999, she begins a journey toward self-love, and faces many challenges. Can she unravel the secrets of her family's disturbing past when she was a foster child? Why did her mother commit suicide and leave her all alone? Why did her father keep notes about a holy river, an Orphan Train, and a murder in 1901? How will she battle depression and alcohol addiction? Will Imani heal from two abusive relationships with married men? How can she repair what she destroyed when she slept with her best friend's husband? Will she ever find the love that will connect her to her Gullah/Geechee heritage? Imani discovers that the answers are hidden in the rich details of her African American family traditions of quilts, folklore, Eva Creek Island, and the affluent town of Jewel Park, New York.

They have done time as jewelry and tools, as medicines, currency, and symbols of industry--and they have intrigued people, from beach-combing toddlers to serious scientists, since time began. Native interest meets natural history in this exquisitely illustrated account of the science and culture of seashells. With closeup photography and basic explanations of different shell types--univalves, bivalves, and cephalopods--how they are formed, what mollusks inhabit them, their morphology and life cycles, and much more, this is the book for anyone with an interest in seashells. This book includes information on the bewildering array of shell shapes, colors, sizes, and types, and describes where the different shells can be found throughout the world. As informative as it is visually arresting, the book will appeal to amateur and expert, collector and casual beachcomber.

Treatise on the Hindu Vaishnavite philosophy of Shuddhadvaita (pure monistic) Vedanta of Vallabhacarya, 1479-1531? with critical notes by the translator.

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

Few teachers in the West possess both the spiritual training and the scholarship to lead us along the path to enlightenment. Robert Thurman is one such teacher. Now, in his first experiential course on the essentials of Tibetan Buddhism, adapted and expanded from a popular retreat he led, Thurman -- the first Westerner ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself -- shares the centuries-old wisdom of a highly valued method used by the great Tibetan masters. Using a revered, once-secret text of a seventeenth-century Tibetan master, along with a thorough explanation for contemporary Westerners, The Jewel Tree of Tibet immerses you fully in the mysteries of Tibetan spiritual wisdom. A retreat in book form as well as a spiritual and philosophical teaching, it offers a practical system of understanding yourself and the world, of developing your learning and thought processes, and of gaining deep, transforming insight. Tibetans think of their cherished tradition of Buddhism as a "wish-fulfilling jewel tree" for its power to generate bliss and enlightenment within all who absorb its teachings. Happiness, in fact, is the true goal of Tibetan spirituality, and the wish-fulfilling jewel tree will put you on the road to that reachable goal. This beautiful jewel-tree imagery, which acts like a mandala or a yoga pose to focus your attention on truths larger than yourself, will help you break through worn-out ideas and habits, strengthen positive abilities, develop more energy and creativity, and change your life -- and future -- for the better. As Thurman writes, "Readers learn to cultivate the sensitivity and appreciation to love more fully, feel compassion more intensely, and become a fountain of cheerfulness for all they meet and know." Because the path to enlightenment requires more than sitting in meditation, The Jewel Tree of Tibet offers a rich, intellectually riveting course with many specific spiritual practices, including: eleven steps to create the spirit of enlightenment, here and now; the truths and stories of the ancient Indian and Tibetan sages; and guided meditations to experience the blessings of the wish-fulfilling jewel tree. You can do these practices with others or on your own, while living your daily life. And as you travel this road to deeper self-realization, self-understanding, and infectious happiness, you will also learn how the principles of Tibetan Tantra can open the doors to "infinite compassion and continuity," and how to discover states of consciousness that transcend even death. One of the most explicit teachings of the steps to the path of enlightenment available, explained by a skilled Western teacher, The Jewel Tree of Tibet will enable you to honor the full subtlety and hidden depths of the Tibetan Buddhist path and realize at last its deeper mysteries and rewards -- for yourself and others.

GIFTS FROM THE SEA Gather beautiful beach glass with its mysterious ocean-tumbled shapes and rainbow of bright hues. Add your personal creativity and some basic jewelry making techniques. Enjoy your stunning, wearable, one-of-a-kind keepsakes! With gorgeous color photographs and step-by-step instructions, this book teaches the essential skills, like drilling glass, wire wrapping, and texturing metal, to turn your beach-found bounty into attractive accessories, including:• Adorable bracelets• Stylish pendants• Sparkly earrings• Eye-catching rings