Hundred Gifts

"With the holidays around the corner, empty nester Bren Epperson realizes that for the first time in decades, she has no large family to cook for and no celebration to create. Her daughter has moved to Thailand, her son has ditched college to backpack around the world, and her husband has disappeared into the basement to indulge his midlife crisis. So Bren starts teaching a holiday cooking class, and it's a hit--until Virginia Mash, the old lady living upstairs, bursts in, complaining of the noise, the smells, and the mess. Rather than retaliate, Bren suggests that the class shower Virginia with kindness--that they give her one hundred gifts. So they embark on a plan to lift a heart. Along the way, amid knitting and making and baking, they'll discover that family celebrations can be reborn and that the very best gifts can't be bought--they're from the heart"--

Explores the Safavid and Ottoman empires through the lens of gifts. When the Safavid dynasty, founded in 1501, built a state that championed Iranian identity and Twelver Shi'ism, it prompted the more established Ottoman Empire to align itself definitively with Sunni legalism. The political, religious, and military conflicts that arose have since been widely studied, but little attention has been paid to their diplomatic relationship. Sinem Arcak Casale here sets out to explore these two major Muslim empires through a surprising lens: gifts. Countless treasures—such as intricate carpets, gilded silver cups, and ivory-tusk knives—flowed from the Safavid to the Ottoman Empire throughout the sixteenth century. While only a handful now survive, records of these gifts exist in court chronicles, treasury records, poems, epistolary documents, ambassadorial reports, and travel narratives. Tracing this elaborate archive, Casale treats gifts as representative of the complicated Ottoman-Safavid coexistence, demonstrating how their rivalry was shaped as much by culture and aesthetics as it was by religious or military conflict. Gifts in the Age of Empire explores how gifts were no mere accessories to diplomacy but functioned as a mechanism of competitive interaction between these early modern Muslim courts.

"Packs a punch worthy of the Thunderer himself. It rocks!" -- Joanne Harris, author of The Gospel of Loki "Holdt wows in her Norse mythology inspired debut an electrifying adventure" -- Publishers Weekly, starred review A dead man, walking between the worlds, foresees the end of the gods. A survivor searching for a weapon releases a demon from fiery Muspelheim. A village is slaughtered by Christians, and revenge must be taken. The bonds between the gods and Midgard are weakening. It is up to Hilda, Ragnar, their tribesmen Einer and Finn, the chief's wife Siv and Tyra, her adopted daughter, to fight to save the old ways from dying out, and to save their gods in the process. Following in the steps of Neil Gaiman & Joanne Harris, the author expertly weaves Norse myths and compelling characters into this fierce, magical epic fantasy.

Guest Authors The Third Collection contains exciting, stimulating stories and tantalizing, terrorizing tales carefully selected from only the world's most reclusive, rarely read, and virtually unknown authors. These twelve selections have been methodically chosen, and guaranteed, to consume your mentality, enlighten your awareness, entertain, and magically mystify you. This Third Collection targets all those everywhere who are young at heart, which of course is everyone, for their reading enjoyment. The contributing authors in this Collection are Rupert "Rip" Tile, Ghast Lee Tale, "Bum" P. Rode, U. B. Smartt, Nathaniel "Nate" Shure, Smoke N. Gunn, Ester Whipple, and Sandford "Sandy" Beach. Do you have the courage? Do you dare read this book? Within these pages you can know what True Love really is, learn the origin of one of our most popular beverages, see how some people earn money, and find The Solution for It. Also, learn of a brewing Revolt, experience a couple made for each other in My Twin Flame, and see how May Belle Vega became The Richest Woman in the West. Enjoy a Holiday Gift, get ready for The Senior Prom, and help investigate a murder on South Padre Island. Then witness The Forest Incident, and take an action packed Sea Cruise. Go ahead, take a deep breath, open the cover, dive in, and enjoy!