The Dreaming

"Aloysius wants to sing with his grandmother in the church choir - but he can't carry a tune! When Ali asks her why he can't sing, she tells him that singing is a gift from God, so Ali decidees to search for God to ask for the "gift". In this search he meets unusual characters, among them: Virgil, an Indian taxi driver; a rollerblading girl with orange hair who tries to teach him to sing like Elvis; an Italian boatman; two eccentric sisters who run a homeless shelter; a penniless man who thinks he's Humphrey Bogart; and a weeping bride who wants to sing a song about a rattlesnake at her wedding. Ali's odyssey leads him to big truths about the world. Back at home, he wonders if one of those strange people could have been God in disguise. When he sings a song about a rabbit, he sings well - not as well as others - but not too badly. Satisfied at last, he thanks God and goes to sleep." -- Back cover

W.E.H. Stanner's words changed Australia. Without condescension and without sentimentality, in essays such as 'the Dreaming' Stanner conveyed the richness and uniqueness of Aboriginal culture. In his Boyer Lectures he exposed a 'cult of forgetfulness practised on a national scale,' regarding the fate of the Aborigines, for which he coined the phrase 'the great Australian silence'. And in his essay 'Durmugam' he provided an unforgettable portrait of a warrior's attempt to hold back cultural change. 'He was such a man,' Stanner wrote. 'I thought I would like to make the reading world see and feel him as I did.' The pieces collected here span the career of W.E.H. Stanner as well as the history of Australian race relations. They reveal the extraordinary scholarship, humanity and vision of one of Australia's finest essayists. Their revival is a significant event. With an introductory essay by Robert Manne.

All’s fair in war. But what about love? If you liked the Kushiel series or The Priory of the Orange Tree, check out this sweeping epic starring a bisexual warrior princess with a taste for dominance! Valya is a warrior. It is her strong will that holds the steppe, the freest, wildest, most war-like of the provinces of Zem’, and it is her strong sword that defends it from raiders. But now, as a growing demand for Zemnian slaves threatens her people, a call from the Empress in Krasnograd requires Valya to leave her native land behind and take up her other duty, as unpopular heir to the Wooden Throne. In order to save her beloved Zem’ from the enemies both outside and inside its borders, Valya must find out what secrets her sister princesses are keeping, face up to her scandal-ridden past, and woo the son of the woman she hates most in the world. Valya believes that all is fair in war, but in love she’s not so sure. With the fate of her family and her country riding on her shoulders, though, there may not be time for scruples. A continuation of the story begun in the award-winning novels The Midnight Land and The Breathing Sea, The Dreaming Land I: The Challenge is the first installment of the concluding trilogy of this epic saga about the matrilineal world of Zem’, where trees walk, animals talk, and women rule. This subversive blend of high fantasy and literary fiction will appeal to fans of classical Russian literature and contemporary fantasy alike. With discussion questions at end. Reading order of the Zemnian Series: The Zemnian Series: Slava’s Story The Midnight Land I: The Flight The Midnight Land II: The Gift The Zemnian Series: Dasha’s Story The Breathing Sea I: Burning The Breathing Sea II: Drowning The Zemnian Series: Valya’s Story The Dreaming Land I: The Challenge The Dreaming Land II: The Journey The Dreaming Land III: The Sacrifice

A serial killer is loose on the streets of New York,chased by a detective whose mutated eyessee things only she can ... Shutter Island meets Jacob’s Ladder in the new near-future crime thriller from million-copy bestseller Matthew Mather, with books translated in over twenty languages worldwide. “Relentless pacing, well-developed main characters, and plethora of bombshell plot twists.”—Publishers Weekly After a near-fatal car crash, Royce wakes up to find he’s one of the first patients to undergo a radical new procedure: a full-body transplant. Convalescing and suffering from waking nightmares, he answers the door at his Long Island home and meets Delta Devlin, a New York detective. She sees things nobody else can, visions created by a mutation to her eyes. Royce becomes Devlin’s prime suspect in a string of grisly murders. Desperate for answers, he tracks down the grieving widow of the man whose body he now inhabits. Out of time, and perhaps his mind, he tumbles through a hallucinogenic underworld of black-market body parts and billionaires where nothing can stand in the way of living forever—not even death itself.

A young couple travels by car around a lake in Marshland, within the Portobello coast. The tour they perform brings them several memoirs about an ancient treasure, supposedly brought there by the Normans when founding a colony in Murtoyland, a small town on the edge of lake Avia. The treasure hunt begins guided by some old maps the protagonists carry with them. Although, will they ever reach such a treasure? During my life as a student, I lived in a shared house – a cottage with doors and windows all the time very well maintained and painted, in a street by the High School. The Landlady outstanding for her waxed floor, and, alas!, if her guests or even her children, put at shoe or a toe, out of carpets inside ways! To reach our rooms, we had to endeavour through a narrow corridor with access to a staircase, covered by a red plastic carpet. Our rooms were a sort of tiny little closets which walls leaned to some divans, tables and chairs. At the top of the stairs, in between rooms, the common wardrobe. By noon, we stood at the school's gate, shaking our heads, nodding, looking at the sad marks obtained in the tests assessed and delivered by our teachers – or cogitating about having been invited during lesson to approach the blackboard. Beautiful object was, no doubt, that black-heavy-slate attached to the wall, looking moreover like a sad night rather than an object made of stone. It was a sort of consolation prize after the small framed slate that we carried along with manuals in Primary School: instead of transporting it, we were, thereby it, carried on during lessons. After school, by noon, I went home for lunch where I could immediately feel the habitual chickpea-soup-ill-fated smell. Sitting at the table, eating the bloody chickpea-soup and listening to the news, as Radio Renaissance was all the time tuned up throughout the building. Portobello's news service was usually concerned, about events that just happened to occur abroad. This was followed by a comedy of the preference of our hostess, a woman of dried breasts and feelings who boasted her guests to be anaphylaxis, well treated, very clean and tidy. We were a sort of pets, entrusted by our stupid mums to others of the same resemblance, who, in turn, entrusted us to our teachers. Our readings and hobbies contained affinities to some techniques used in treasure discovery and excavations, so, as to operate on firm land and underwater, such as the use of diving technique using bottled oxygen and mask. In my Grammar School year 8, by remarkable coincidence, the nine subjects that comprised the curriculum for that year, were ministered by nine different young female teachers. In the awakening of sexuality, spending the whole day listening to beautiful, well dressed masters, chattering about numeracy and literacy was, indeed, very exciting. Staring all day turning our eyes to the knees of some less prudish young governesses, or to be lucky enough to glimpse

What if death is only an urban legend? On a spring morning in early May, Diane wakes up to find her beautiful 16-year old daughter, Callie, lying dead on the floor of her bedroom. The police find a suicide note in Callie’s jewelry chest and Diane’s whole world, as she had previously known it, falls apart. In the afterlife, Callie meets her great grandma, Ellie, who tells her that she’s in a part of heaven called Summer Wind and can never return home again. She wrestles with her abrupt and impulsive decision to take her own life and witnesses the impact that this event has on all who love her. Diane begins a desperate search for answers by tearing apart Callie’s bedroom looking for anything that might tell her what drove her daughter to suicide. She visits Joy, a spiritual healer, who tells her that she must learn to seek the gift in her experiences rather than remaining addicted to her guilt and pain. Diane struggles with letting go of the daughter she once knew and all her hopes and dreams for the future. Desperate to reassure her mother that she’s okay, Callie attempts to communicate with her from beyond the veil. They both begin a heart-wrenching journey to find one another once again.

Some change the world. Some break it. If you loved the Kushiel series or The Priory of the Orange Tree, try this sweeping epic starring a bisexual warrior princess with a taste for dominance! Valya has won permission to hunt down the slave traders defiling her land and stealing its children. Now begins the most difficult part of her mission: she and her companions must find the perpetrators of this crime, and rescue their victims. But as Valya will discover, the roots of the evil go deep. And saving Zemnian children from death or a life of degrading servitude is not Valya’s only concern. She still must win the heart and hand of the son of her worst enemy, and unite the steppe with the rest of the country at a time when the succession and the very life of the Tsarina hangs in the balance. And then there is the question of her daughter’s magical gifts—and, it may be, her own. Like her foremothers, Valya is about to discover that gifts of power are as much a curse as a blessing, and can be a danger not just to the wielder, but to everyone around her. Valya wants to save her homeland, but if she’s not careful, she might end up tearing it apart. With discussion questions at the end. Reading order of the Zemnian Series: The Zemnian Series: Slava’s Story The Midnight Land I: The Flight The Midnight Land II: The Gift The Zemnian Series: Dasha’s Story The Breathing Sea I: Burning The Breathing Sea II: Drowning The Zemnian Series: Valya’s Story The Dreaming Land I: The Challenge The Dreaming Land II: The Journey The Dreaming Land III: The Sacrifice

Jim Carver: a tough, resolute war veteran, he returns from the trenches to build a better life for his family to find his wife dead. Archie Carver: Jim's eldest son, smart, ruthless, he has a quick eye for financial profits and beautiful women. Elaine Frith: beautiful and ambitious, she uses her charms to snare any man she thinks will bring her wealth. The First World War ends and the soldiers return to the peaceful Avenue. On the surface their homes look just the same, but behind the carefully tended front gardens everything has changed, and their families' lives in the next twenty years will be as turbulent as any they have known.