Blue Pearl

When Mike McCleary is shot one morning while jogging, Quin's investigation into the shooting thrusts her into the upper echelons of Palm Beach society. She encounters a Chilean fisherman, Alejandro Domingo, whose healing abilities have attracted numerous wealthy clients in Palm Beach, including the wife of a man running for the U.S. Senate. Videos, photos, and printed material all lead to the haunted Chilean, whose sister and daughter have disappeared en route to South America. Quin's investigation, with the help of fellow operative John Tark, himself a man with a dark past in South America, leads to the place where Alejandro plies his powers.

It is no secret that men are in trouble today. From war to ecological collapse, most of the world’s critical problems stem from a distorted masculinity out of control. Yet our culture rewards the very dysfunctions responsible for those problems. To Matthew Fox, our crucial task is to open our minds to a deeper understanding of the healthy masculine than we receive from our media, culture, and religions. Popular religion forces the punitive imagery of fundamentalism on us, pushing most men away from their natural yearning for spirituality and toward intolerance and domination. Meanwhile, many men, particularly young men, are looking for images of healthy masculinity to emulate and finding nothing. To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Grandfatherly Heart to the Spiritual Warrior. He explores archetypes of sacred marriage, showing how partnership becomes the ultimate expression of healthy masculinity. By stirring our natural yearning for healthy spirituality, Fox argues, these timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to reinvent the world.

Now holding the White, Black, and Purple pearls, mermaid Princess Mira continues her quest to break the curse that lies across her kingdom. The journey takes her, Clyde the merman, and Olena the octopus, through dark waters far from their home. Now sea creatures have begun to seek Princess Mira’s pearls in earnest. An encounter with an unfriendly orca pod endangers their mission, and Mira must trust her friends to help her. Encounters with even more terrible beasts send them fleeing from the many who want her necklace at all costs. Only Princess Mira’s determination to save her friends and her people keep her going through a journey that is growing harder. But the guardian of the Blue Pearl is the most terrible beast of all, and Princess Mira must come to terms with her fears if she is to get the fourth pearl. Friendship and seeing past appearances make this tale one young readers will return to again and again.

Enlightenment is not what many think it is, nor is the path to attain it. A. H. Almaas presents myth-shattering aspects of reality that allow true seekers to pass through to a "spiritual reality".

Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply. More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.

In Hawaii in 1941, sixth grader Janey G. Blue experiences the terror of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

One of the most iconic, beloved, and bestselling books of our time. This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

Blue Hamilton, "godfather" of his Atlanta neighborhood where crime is unknown, becomes pitted against the "Too Fine Five," Amazonian African-American supermodels whose arrival in town spells trouble. Seems that when the vamps are done with their men, themen will be done ... for good.

Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley are the best of friends. But they are different in almost every way . . . Pearl likes solving mysteries and moves rather fast in the world. Charlie likes taking baths and watching his garden grow. So how can Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsely be such goods friends? A delightfully uplifting tale about self-belief, courage - and above all - the power of friendship.