An accessible, concise reference source on Polynesia's complex mythology, product of a culture little known outside its home. Encounters with the West introduced Polynesian mythology to the world—and sealed its fate as a casualty of colonialism. But for centuries before the Europeans came, that mythology was as vast as the triangle of ocean in which it flourished, as diverse as the people it served, and as complex as the mythologies of Greece and Rome. Students, researchers, and enthusiasts can follow vivid retellings of stories of creation, death, and great voyages, tracking variations from island to island. They can use the book's reference section for information on major deities, heroes, elves, fairies, and recurring themes, as well as the mythic implications of everything from dogs and volcanoes to the hula, Easter Island, and tattooing (invented in the South Pacific and popularized by returning sailors).

After fulfilling a confidential mission for President Harry Truman in 1948, Rob Royal accepts an invitation to join a covert group of private citizens advocating patriotism and other beliefs upon which America was founded. The group successfully operates outside of the government and military intelligence community. He enjoys his work, and now, as a devoted undercover agent, Royal works steadfastly to provide confidential information to top government officials, including the president of the United States.

After being subpoenaed to testify at a trial concerning one project, despite high security, United States marshals escort him up the steps of the federal building in Newark, New Jersey, where someone tries to kill him. Surviving, Royal continues to live a double life, keeping his work a secret while living what appears to be an ordinary life.

When Royal anonymously receives a newspaper article announcing an arrest concerning one of his projects, members of the covert group suspect that Royal's cover has been blown. As his enemies begin to close in on him, Royal knows that his greatest challenges lie before him. How will he be able to survive the life-threatening scenarios that greet him?

"A comprehensive and authoritative reference work on an area that ususally receives scant attention in more general reference works. . . . This vast compendium is not likely to be superseded for many years, and it is recommended for most libraries." Library Journal

At the Rainbow's End is about the lives of Jefferson and Mary Bright, plantation owners, about their struggles and the struggles of recently freed slaves to survive in a newly ordered society. Lurking in the background is the Ku Klux Klan, who kill and threaten all who would oppose them in a desperate effort to restore the old order, an insurgency that fosters, among other things, jealousy and murder, and events that threaten Jefferson and Mary with more than the loss of a way of life.

This full-color field guide is an indispensable companion to the most popular neotropical ecotourism destination: Costa Rica. Featuring all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods that one is likely to see on a trip to the rainforest (as well as those secretive creatures such as the jaguar that are difficult to glimpse), The Wildlife of Costa Rica is the guide to have when encountering trogons, tapirs, and tarantulas.

In addition to providing details for identifying animals along with interesting facts about their natural history, this guide offers tips for seeing them in the wild. Costa Rica, a peaceful nation with many and diverse animal species, is one of the best places in the world for wildlife watching and nature study. It has an excellent system of national parks and reserves, a wide choice of ecolodges, and many professionally trained tourist guides. It is possible to leave the capital city of San Jose and, just a few hours later, visit a high-elevation cloud forest, dense rainforest, savanna-like plain, or coastal habitat, each with a unique collection of animal species.

This new lightweight field guide provides nature enthusiasts visiting Costa Rica with the best introduction to the country's amazing diversity of wildlife. It is the first general field guide to Costa Rica to combine the most sought-after features:

treatment of all major phyla in the country;

coverage of the animals most likely and most desirable to be seen;

more than 600 detailed illustrations integrated with the text (the preferred method of animal identification in the wild);

full species accounts including ID points, range and habitat, size, and behaviors;

a wealth of natural history information, including more than 20 photographic natural history features; and

tips for seeing animals."

Teagan is the seed of the Tyrant Emperor Bohannon. She lives on the planet Beasly. Teagan is a servant, slave, and a dangerous secret. She is eighteen and it's time for her to take the throne from her father. Haven has been purged of all life because she might exist and because the emperor had a dream. He dreamed of the two moons of Haven over the shoulder of a woman he does not know. In the dream the woman takes his throne and his life. Teagan has the black rose of Bohannon tattooed on her shoulder blade and the population of Beasly knows exactly what they have in their midst. It's for her to find support and win the throne. Teagan looks to the crowd. "The emperor rules the land but I rule your heart. Which is stronger, the soil or the plow? I say to you the plow turns the soil and the heart rules the plow. Be patient my love, the Queen of Light will rule.

This ground-breaking volume is the first of its kind to examine the extraordinary prevalence and appeal of the Gothic in contemporary British theatre and performance. Chapters range from considerations of the Gothic in musical theatre and literary adaptation, to explorations of the Gothic's power to haunt contemporary playwriting, macabre tourism and site-specific performance. By taking familiar Gothic motifs, such as the Gothic body, the monster and Gothic theatricality, and bringing them to a new contemporary stage, this collection provides a fresh and comprehensive take on a popular genre. Whilst the focus of the collection falls upon Gothic drama, the contents of the book will embrace an interdisciplinary appeal to scholars and students in the fields of theatre studies, literature studies, tourism studies, adaptation studies, cultural studies, and history.

Prior to 1500 A.D. the Polynesians were the most widely spread people on earth, having settled an area of the Pacific, the Polynesian Triangle, twice the size of the United States. In this first reference guide to the mythology of these Vikings of the Pacific, Craig reviews Polynesian legends, stories, gods, goddesses, and heroes in hundreds of alphabetical entries that succinctly describe both characters and events. His wide-ranging and thorough introduction sets the subject in its geographic, historical, anthropological, and linguistic contexts, offering an illuminating overview of the origin of the Polynesians as a distinct people and tracing their voyages and settlements from Indonesia to Malaysia, Tonga, Samoa, the Marquesas, the various islands of eastern Polynesia, including Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. The introduction presents fascinating information on Polynesian navigational skills and the voyages themselves, as well as a chart that details the evolution of the thirty Polynesian languages and compares cognates from several of these languages. A simplified pronunciation guide and a selected list of Polynesian dictionaries and/or grammars are provided for those interested in pursuing the richness of the Polynesian languages. This introductory survey gives readers the necessary background to understand the origin, development, and dispersion of the myths throughout the Pacific basin.

"The Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology" is the result of many years of research. The individual entries were gleaned from nearly 300 sources in English, German, French, and Polynesian languages with the majority extracted from a number of primary sources that date generally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The printed source materials for this volume are fully described and listed by geographical group, including Maori, Cook Islands, Tahitian, Marquesan, Hawaiian, Samoan, and Tongan. General collections that retell the Polynesian stories are also surveyed. The entries are alphabetically arranged by major mythological figure; lesser characters can be located in the index. Short bibliographical citations--author, date, and page number--are included at the end of each main entry to direct readers to fuller information contained in the printed sources. An appendix provides valuable supplemental information on Polynesian gods and goddesses. This dictionary is sure to become a basic reference tool for libraries, students, and scholars of Pacific history and culture, as well as for courses in mythology, religion, and philosophy.

The Book of Puka-Puka is not about travel, it is about staying still. It is about living as a conspicuous stranger and slowly allowing yourself to become absorbed into the ways of an ancient, indigenous community. This book was not composed by a colonial administrator, a missionary or an anthropologist, but by a hedonistic South Sea trader. This young American fishes, picnics, swims, sleeps and falls in love but fortunately he also listens out for good stories.

This is the one compact, portable, and user-friendly field guide the novice or experienced birder needs to identify birds in the field in the diverse habitats found in Costa Rica. It features descriptions and illustrations of all 903 species definitely known from Costa Rica, including pelagics and species regular to Cocos Island. Fifty-six of these species are placed in a "Rarities" section that includes accidentals, rarer pelagics, and species that have not been reported in more than twenty years.

The detailed full-color illustrations show identifying features including plumage differences among males, females, and juveniles and views of birds in flight wherever pertinent.Robert Dean has supplied more than 360 new illustrations, including sixty-four species that are illustrated for the first time in this edition. These include recent additions to the country list, pelagic species, Cocos Island species, and all accidentals recorded from the Costa Rican mainland. Range maps and nomenclature have been updated for this edition, which also has a new user-friendly organizational scheme and alphabetical quick-find indexes of groups and families on the inside back cover."

With cover artwork specially created by Ruscha, this book documents hundreds of projects and miscellaneous ephemera produced by the artist alongside his main oeuvre-including installations, films, painted book covers, contour gauge profiles, and more Introducing readers to the stunning breadth of Edward Ruscha's (b. 1937) creative output over the course of his entire life, this book includes materials dating back to his childhood and extending to his present-day output. The projects featured here fall outside Ruscha's production of paintings, drawings, prints, and artists' books. Many of these are unknown and most are reproduced here for the first time. Composed of three sections-Projects and Ephemera; Contour Gauge Profiles; and Painted Book Covers-the book offers Ruscha enthusiasts and scholars a hitherto unknown aspect of Ruscha's practice, while also showing how these projects coincide with, and sometimes even prefigure, the artistic work for which he is best known. The approximately 270 painted book covers, begun in 1990, utilize found books as support for small paintings and drawings. The 57 contour gauge profiles are silhouette-like profiles made using a mechanical device for reproducing contours. The largest section, Projects and Ephemera, consists of installations, sculpture and objects, films, book and poster design, utilitarian works, and more. Distributed for Gagosian

A comprehensive look at works made by Baldessari between the years 1987 and 1993 This handsome volume, the third of the John Baldessari (b. 1931) catalogue raisonne project, compiles 400-plus unique works of art made by the influential conceptual artist from 1987 through 1993. Here we see the artist's large-scale photo-based works, many of which employed his signature colored discs painted over the faces of people in the photos, accompanied by entries that trace the shifts and developments in Baldessari's work as his collaged photo narratives achieved maturity and mastery. A critical essay by Briony Fer provides a close reading of selected works, giving historical context for Baldessari's art from this period. In addition to a detailed chronology, complete exhibition history, and bibliography, this volume notably features a previously unpublished conversation between Baldessari and the artist Ed Ruscha, which was undertaken specifically for this publication. In the conversation, the artists discuss their early careers in Southern California and the shared thematic concerns in their work. The artworks in this volume demonstrate Baldessari's ability to express-and, in many cases, combine-the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of a single piece. Published in association with Marian Goodman Gallery

This ground-breaking volume is the first of its kind to examine the extraordinary prevalence and appeal of the Gothic in contemporary British theatre and performance. Chapters range from considerations of the Gothic in musical theatre and literary adaptation, to explorations of the Gothic's power to haunt contemporary playwriting, macabre tourism and site-specific performance. By taking familiar Gothic motifs, such as the Gothic body, the monster and Gothic theatricality, and bringing them to a new contemporary stage, this collection provides a fresh and comprehensive take on a popular genre. Whilst the focus of the collection falls upon Gothic drama, the contents of the book will embrace an interdisciplinary appeal to scholars and students in the fields of theatre studies, literature studies, tourism studies, adaptation studies, cultural studies, and history.