Wing Dancer

I say my Crossroads Hotel gives the magical a refuge from the world, but things are going too far, too fast. First, Drake, one of the dragons I’ve tangled with in the past, shows up with a dragon egg, of all things, asking me to guard it from all comers. This is after the sheriff’s grandfather nearly wrecks on my front door and begs me for a place to hole up. Not only that, but my grandmother has a new ally, a mysterious crow Changer who might be more dangerously powerful than we know. When the dragon egg proves to be more important that Drake is letting on, Mick and I embark on a quest to discover who murdered the kid’s mother, and what new and dangerous foe will stop at nothing to eliminate me, Mick, and my friends and family to obtain the egg and begin the destruction of all dragon-kind.

Wake of the Wind Dancer was written from a daily accounting of the journey that Karl Adams took across America in his kayak, the Wind Dancer, and on foot. He followed or closely paralleled the path of seven of Americas early explorers; Lewis and Clark among them. He is the only person known to have covered this entire route by boat and on foot, with no support team or power other than the energy supplied by his own body. Each stroke of his paddles brought an ever changing, panoramic view and a different and challenging adventure; at times humorous and at other times perilous, sometimes even life threatening. When he ran out of waterways he walked, pulling the kayak behind him for three hundred and fifty miles. He took pictures of the interesting and beautiful sights along the way which he used to create a travelogue of his journey to show to his family and friends at the end of his year of travels. Wake of the Wind Dancer is a stimulating, photographic narrative that provides a valuable historical record of his exciting and sometimes harrowing year-long adventure from Oregon to Florida on foot and by kayak!

Free spirited Isabelle Renoir, captured by Indians during the American Revolution, falls in love with a fellow prisoner, the spy Samuel Holt. Only faith can set them free.

Twice the thrills—in one captivating volume Published together for the first time, from #1 New York Times best-selling author Iris Johansen comes a gripping pair of historical thrillers that push the boundaries of intrigue, suspense, and danger. The Wind Dancer In Renaissance Italy, intrigue is as intricate as carved cathedral doors, but none is so captivating as that surrounding the prized Wind Dancer, the lost treasure of a family—and of the man who will stop at nothing to reclaim it. Lionello Andreas is bound by his vow to guard the exquisite statue. But to recover what is rightfully his, he will need the help of a thief—one he can control body and soul. He finds his answer on the treacherous backstreets of Florence, in a sharp-witted young woman whose poverty leaves her no choice. But in the end, the allure of the Wind Dancer, and the ruthlessness of those who would possess her, will catapult them both into a terrifying realm where death may be the most merciful escape. Storm Winds Jean Marc Andreas wanted what was rightfully his—and would use any means to get it. Juliette de Clement, a confidante of the royal family, could aid his search for the treasure so many had killed to possess…and died to protect. But in the treacherous world of eighteenth-century revolutionary France, death could come from any direction—none more likely than from the person you trusted most. Still, Jean and Juliette had no choice but to trust each other. Their lives depended on it. Someone else was determined to have the Wind Dancer statue, and the legacy it bestowed. Someone whose twisted genius was already wrecking a path of unspeakable violence.

A hidden killer . . . A conspiracy of treachery. . . And two people caught in the most desperate game of all . . . In Renaissance Italy, intrigue is as intricate as carved cathedral doors, but none is so captivating as that surrounding the prized Wind Dancer, the lost treasure of a family—and of the man who will stop at nothing to reclaim it. Lionello Andreas is bound by his vow to guard the exquisite statue. But to recover what is rightfully his, he will need the help of a thief—one he can control body and soul. He finds his answer on the treacherous backstreets of Florence, in a sharp-witted young woman whose poverty leaves her no choice. But in the end, the allure of the Wind Dancer, and the ruthlessness of those who would possess her, will catapult them both into a terrifying realm where death may be the most merciful escape.

The first comprehensive, fully documented history of a uniquely American art form, exploring all aspects of the intricate musical and social exchange that evolved from Afro-Irish percussive step dances like the jig, gioube, buck-and-wing, and juba to the work of such contemporary tap luminaries as Gregory Hines, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne Walker, and Savion Glover.

The Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English is a revised and expanded edition of the Weatherford Award–winning Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English, published in 2005 and known in Appalachian studies circles as the most comprehensive reference work dedicated to Appalachian vernacular and linguistic practice. Editors Michael B. Montgomery and Jennifer K. N. Heinmiller document the variety of English used in parts of eight states, ranging from West Virginia to Georgia—an expansion of the first edition's geography, which was limited primarily to North Carolina and Tennessee—and include over 10,000 entries drawn from over 2,200 sources. The entries include approximately 35,000 citations to provide the reader with historical context, meaning, and usage. Around 1,600 of those examples are from letters written by Civil War soldiers and their family members, and another 4,000 are taken from regional oral history recordings. Decades in the making, the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English surpasses the original by thousands of entries. There is no work of this magnitude available that so completely illustrates the rich language of the Smoky Mountains and Southern Appalachia.

Magisterial, revelatory, and-most suitably-entertaining, What the Eye Hears offers an authoritative account of the great American art of tap dancing. Brian Seibert, a dance critic for The New York Times, begins by exploring tap's origins as a hybrid of the jig and clog dancing from the British Isles and dances brought from Africa by slaves. He tracks tap's transfer to the stage through blackface minstrelsy and charts its growth as a cousin to jazz in the vaudeville circuits and nightclubs of the early twentieth century. Seibert chronicles tap's spread to ubiquity on Broadway and in Hollywood, analyzes its decline after World War II, and celebrates its rediscovery and reinvention by new generations of American and international performers. In the process, we discover how the history of tap dancing is central to any meaningful account of American popular culture. This is a story with a huge cast of characters, from Master Juba (it was probably a performance of his in a Five Points cellar that Charles Dickens described in American Notes for General Circulation) through Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Gene Kelly and Paul Draper to Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. Seibert traces the stylistic development of tap through individual practitioners, vividly depicting dancers both well remembered and now obscure. And he illuminates the cultural exchange between blacks and whites over centuries, the interplay of imitation and theft, as well as the moving story of African-Americans in show business, wielding enormous influence as they grapple with the pain and pride of a complicated legacy.What the Eye Hears teaches us to see and hear the entire history of tap in its every step.