"Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her. Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips. His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society...

"Fifteen years have passed since Mother Sun last sent her children to walk the world. When the eclipse comes, the people retreat to the caverns beneath the Kaladim, passing the days in total darkness while the Fire Children explore their world. It's death to even look upon them, the stories say. Despite the warnings, Yulla gives in to her curiosity and ventures to the surface. There she witnesses the Witch Women--who rumors say worship dead Father...

Claude Debussy holds a place as a one of the most recognizable and influential composers in the classical music. Debussy forged a new and influential sound for the twentieth century with his remarkable harmonies, fluid rhythms, airy textures, and an instinct for mystery and beauty. In Experiencing Debussy: A Listener's Companion, Teresa Davidian welcomes readers into the infectious appeal of Debussy's major works to consider how they can still attract...

"You won't find Knicksport, Long Island by any map, GPS, or main road. To get there, you must lose your way along lonely, tree-shadowed back roads that wind through grooves of time and reality, byways that trace the glacial hills, marshlands, and wooded pockets tucked into the suburban landscape growing like verdigris clinging to rock. You must step out of the daylit world into a town haunted by the lost and the missing, the hidden and the hunted?because...

"The Infrastructure of Accountability brings together leading and emerging scholars who set forth an ambitious conceptual framework for understanding the full impact of large-scale, performance-based accountability systems on education. Over the past 20 years, schools and school systems have been utterly reshaped by the demands of test-based accountability. Interest in large-scale performance data has reached an unprecedented high point. Yet most...

A Virgin River Christmas: Last Christmas Marcie Sullivan said a final goodbye to her husband. This year she's come to Virgin River to find the man who saved his life and gave her three more years to love him. Marcie's letters to marine Ian Buchanan have gone unanswered, but she's tracked him to the tiny mountain town. As Marcie pushes her way into his reclusive life, she discovers a sweet but damaged soul beneath a rough exterior. It is, after all,...

"Inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed in Iceland: a young woman accused of murder in 1829. Charged with the brutal murder of two men, Agnes Magnúsdóttir, has been removed to her homeland's farthest reaches, to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family on the farm avoids Agnes. Her arrival threatens the peaceful rhythm of their way of life, while her stoic approach...

"Much has been written about the legendary flight of Apollo 11 and mankind's first tentative steps into deep space. It's often said that the world stopped, watching in awe as the crew of Apollo 11 completed their mission. It is true that in that moment, almost everyone had virtually gone to the moon as people around the world gazed in wonderment at the grainy black-and-white images of Neil Armstrong taking that first step onto the surface of another...

"Victorians and Their Animals: Beast on a Leash investigates the notion that British Victorians did see themselves as naturally dominant species over other humans and over animals. They conscientiously, hegemonically were determined to rule those beneath them and the animal within themselves albeit with varying degrees of success and failure. The articles in this collection apply posthuman and other theories, including queer, postcolonialism, deconstruction,...

Christmas Eve baby: It's a Christmas Eve to remember when a laboring mother-to-be shows up at the King sisters' Shadow Lake Inn amid a snowstorm. Midwife Sarah King and her three daughters go into action, while the men of the family search for the woman's husband. And with faithful hearts and helping hands, this magical night may unite a brand-new family just in time to share a Christmas blessing. Best Christmas Program Ever: On Emily Flaud's second...