A young Brahmin named Siddhartha searches for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha. His quest takes him from a life of decadence to asceticism, from the illusory joys of sensual love with a beautiful courtesan, and of wealth and fame, to the painful struggles with his son and the ultimate wisdom of renunciation. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, written with a deep and moving empathy...

A young bride joins her new husband's rich, eccentric family in a time-honored tradition that turns into a lethal game with everyone fighting for their survival

Teeming with life and crackling with energy - a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic...

People who are anonymous and whose lives are usually ignored in traditional historical accounts are no less important than more prominent individuals in influencing the flow of events. These ordinary, but often heroic, people are the focus of this course. Each of the 48 lectures looks at history from a nontraditional perspective, that of the weak and marginalized-- the poor, sick, disabled, and elderly, as well as the refugees, slaves, women, children,...

Winner of the Children's Africana Best Book Award 2016, this fascinating glimpse into the masquerade culture of West Africa is told from the perspective of a young Nigerian girl who finds the courage to protect the traditions she loves. Full color.

Papa Bear takes Brother and Sister Bear out to find the perfect Christmas tree, and along the way they discover the true meaning of the holiday season. The Bears experience a series of seasonal lessons that help them stay safe and happy while steering them through the many adventures that life can hold. Learn how rewarding good manners can be; how to shine instead of worry; and why strangers can be a good or a bad thing.

"It is 1880 and Gracy Brookens is the only midwife in a small Colorado mining town where she has delivered hundreds, maybe thousands, of babies in her lifetime. She is a gifted and important resource for the women of her hardscrabble community, a position earned through wisdom and trust. Most women in Swandyke couldn't even imagine getting through their pregnancy and labor without Gracy by their sides. But everything changes when a baby is found dead...and...

Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Vogel takes a job as an "auxiliary nurse" at Paradise Lodge, a home for the elderly, and learns that her job entails helping the patients (frequently) to the bathroom. What begins as a way to avoid school and earn some spending money (for the finer things in life, like real coffee and beer shampoo) quickly becomes the education of a lifetime as Lizzy wades through the day-to-day humdrum and drama of this ramshackle refuge for...

Seemingly happy in his comfortable, if repressive, world of upper class New York, Newland Archer finds himself questioning all his carefully cherished assumptions about life when he meets his fiancee's cousin, the mysterious, non-conformist Countess Olenska.