More Power To Ya

"Some playwrights have a gift to amuse; Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig has a darker gift. Anyone with romantic notions of Chinese culture will be unsettled by the jagged, unsentimental portrait of modern urban China."(Chicago Reader) Poetic and devastating, sensuous and politically acute, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's China Plays explore the forces of global capital as they explode within the lives of everyday people in contemporary China. This volume collects together the three plays in the series, including Cowhig's exploration of the human cost of development in China's socialist market economy (The World of Extreme Happiness), of justice and revenge amidst ecological and economic catastrophe (Snow in Midsummer), and the tale of the trade in blood that brought the AIDS crisis to rural China (The King of Hell's Palace). In addition to Cowhig's plays, the volume includes a host of supplemental materials including an editorial preface and three (previously published) brief essays responding to each play by the editor, Joshua Chambers-Letson; a new introduction by theatre/performance scholar and dramaturg Christine Mok that explores the key themes in Cowhig's body of work; a summary discussion between Cowhig, Chambers-Letson, and Mok, on Cowhig's process and the political and aesthetic currents animating her work. The World of Extreme Happiness: "Fearless, zippily-paced, and satirical . . . Cowhig forces us down the long hard look path" (Independent) Snow in Midsummer: “Gripping and affecting... graceful and impassioned” (Times) The King of Hell's Palace: "A medical-scandal drama that we can't afford to ignore" (Telegraph)

Put a veteran mechanic on your bookshelf. From simple 15-minute jobs such as lubing cables and bolting on new air cleaners to more advanced tasks such as cam changes and swapping heads, this how-to guide offers carefully selected projects you can do in a weekend. Color photographs guide you step-by-step through each performance project. Explains why each project should be done and what performance gains you can expect.

A bucket list is a list of things to do before you die. This book is a guide to ways to live before you die. Whether you have a bucket list or not, the stories and insights in this book offer you seven clear ways to lighten--and enlighten--your life before you kick the bucket. George Simons and Walt Hopkins (international consultants in their mid-seventies) have learned a lot about living well while getting older--and they generously and intimately share those learnings with men and women concerned about aging.

Aaron the Wayshower is the author’s spokesman who appears in each of a series of novels to combat some form of subhuman behavior. In Preacher Sean, Antiterrorist, he visits Nothern Ireland (1989-1990) to combat the sad twenty-year reality of Christians killing other Christians in the name of Christ. Most readers should easily become interested in what Aaron says and does. He’s not just another great teacher (Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad). He is the procreator of a Life-Stream which includes Earthlings as a tiny fraction of his total Progeny. Even more important, the totality of his responsibilities is similar in scope to that which each of us must one day assume!

East Before South is the tale of a very long trip that began, innocently enough, with a fabulous party in Rio de Janeiro. The journey will take you on a ride in rattletrap buses, dugout canoes, camel trucks, army convoys, sea ferries, and clapped-out trains. It will take you through places not on any map. With hundreds of (sometimes) irreverent travel anecdotes of the kind you just won’t find in any other travel book, it’s the unvarnished truth. It will show you the world the way it really is. From Rio, the road took me across the heartland of Brazil to Belem at the mouth of the mighty Amazon and upriver into the heart of the jungle. Then down the coast for the Carnaval and further down still, hugging the beaches, toward Argentina and Buenos Aires. Tango. To the very tip of the continent: wind-blasted Patagonia. Up again, a yoyo trip, north to Salta, and through the unofficial border to Bolivia’s wild west. Then: a transcontinental flight to Europe: family and friends in Poland, then —Quickly!— across the Baltic Republics to the Russian border, where I was arrested and deported before I could properly enter the country. Two days later, back again, toward Moscow again, and farther east still, always east, on the Tran Siberian Express bound for Ulan Bator. A weeklong journey across the wasteland of Siberia to Mongolia: there are roads there, yes, like there are tracks on Mars. The Mongolians have a saying: “Two Chinese are worth one Korean. Two Koreans are worth one Japanese. Two Japanese are worth one Mongolian.” But that, of course, is a lie. South, then, toward Beijing and then more south to Shanghai and more south still to Hong Kong: stopping in places for reasons that are never specifically clear, the road taking me ever farther from the beginning. Hot-air balloon over Guilin. Then Bangkok in a blur: after a day of intensive culinary tuition, I can now burn Thai food with as much efficiency as I burn everything else. Then an island where I've been before —Ko Samui— which is no longer the same. Back to Bangkok. To Borneo. Back to Bangkok. To Manila. Then Alaska. Then half-neglected, half-lost, the ancient city of Leh: prophetic words on the roof of the world, their truth distilled to its crudest essence. Then, finally, South Korea: “The Soul of Asia” as proclaim the tourist slogan slapped across the fleet of taxis that cruise the wide boulevards of Seoul. From Korea, from Japan, around the Ring of Fire: Taipei, albeit ever so quickly: touch-and-go, really. KL for a massage. Singapore for the Singapore Sling. Then from the coffee plantations and volcanoes of Java to the primary rainforests and spiritual smorgasbord of Sulawesi and Bali: surfers’ paradise. Indonesia encompasses over 13,000 islands with 336 ethnic groups and a borderless rainbow babel of different languages, cultures and traditions. In addition to coffee-colored Hindus, Christians and Buddhists, this is the home of more Muslims than all the Middle East. Linking the islands is the lingua franca of Bahasa and an underlying songline of history: animist religions are uniting threads that cross oceans, adding layers of meaning to the word “multicultural”. Here some Muslims drink beer and arak in addition to java; some worship Buddha, Vishnu, Krishna, and Jesus in addition to Allah; while others leave offerings to good and evil pagan spirits (tourists included). In fact, clutched in the talons of the mythical Garuda, the national airline and state crest, is the motto “Unity in Diversity”. I muse about that in an undertaker’s shop, where he sells coffins and Coca-Cola side-by-side, and at the same time, it seems. There was much more. I hitched rides on logging trucks and dugout canoes, traveling often alone, crisscrossing language-zones and time-zones, transfixed by an idea of the world…, a way around it. The fourth book of the Travelogues, "East Before South" is a story of that trip.

A white-knuckled thrill ride that will keep your eyes glued to the page. Blood: For shape shifter Alec Graves, nothing is more important than family. Duty: Life in the pack requires sacrifices. No matter the cost, Alec always gets the job done. Consequences: Alec will be forced to choose between duty and love, between right and wrong. Before the final note plays, he'll learn the true meaning of sacrifice. Publisher's Note: Bound is a YA Urban Fantasy novel, and is one possible entry point into the books that make up the Reflections Universe. The Reflections Universe is a series of YA Paranormal books featuring vampires, shape shifters, werewolves and more, which have been written so they can be safely enjoyed by both young adults and older readers alike. Bound is followed by Hunted, and is one of several free YA books available from Dean. The Reflections Universe: Some stories are too full of teen urban fantasy goodness to fit into just one series! Dean Murray is the successful author of multiple clean young adult paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and epic fantasy series which collectively have more than 480,000 copies in circulation. Keywords: Free, Freebie, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, YA, Free Book, Vampires, Werewolves