Renunciation is a core value in the Buddhist tradition, but Buddhism is not necessarily austere. Jewels—along with heavenly flowers, rays of rainbow light, and dazzling deities—shape the literature and the material reality of the tradition. They decorate temples, fill reliquaries, are used as metaphors, and sprout out of imagined Buddha fields. Moreover, jewels reflect a particular type of currency often used to make the Buddhist world go round: merit in exchange for wealth. Regardless of ...

Heico is an ornithologist fighting a losing battle to protect the birds in his beachside suburb. When a journalist asks for comment on a planned development, Heico exaggerates his reports on how many migratory birds use the site. Soon it is revealed that the proposed building is a mosque, and he finds himself embroiled in community resistance to the project. Still, he refuses to back down.Nahla, Heico’s house cleaner, is trying to find her place in a new country and a new marriage....

Neala and Darcy have loved to hate each other since they were kids. Forced together, will they be naughty—or can they play nice?There’s one must-have toy this Christmas, and Neala Clarke has told her niece Charli she’ll get it for her. Never mind that she’s got less than a week and it looks like everywhere is sold out. She’s promised Charli a Fire Princess doll—and Neala is a woman of her word.Darcy Hart is a people-pleaser. So when his adorable six-year-ol...

Julianna Baggott presents her beautifully written, riveting, breakout novel, PURE, the first volume in her new post-apocalypse thriller trilogy.We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters,...

Bestselling author Julianna Baggott presents the second volume in her new post-apocalyptic, dystopian thriller trilogy.We want our son returned.This girl is proof that we can save you all. If you ignore our plea, we will kill our hostages one at a time.To be a Pure is to be perfect, untouched by Detonations that scarred the earth, and sheltered inside the paradise that is the Dome. But Partridge escaped to the outside world, where Wretches struggle ...

The stunning conclusion to the trilogy that began with Pure, recommended by People for those who loved The Hunger Games.With his father now dead, Partridge has assumed leadership of the Dome, one of the last few refuges from the ravaged wastelands of the outside world. At first, Partridge is intent on exposing his father's lies, taking down the rigid order of the Dome, and uniting its citizens with the disfigured Wretches on the outside. ...

In The Art of Touch: Prose and Poetry from the Pandemic and Beyond, the unique voices of thirty-nine of some of the most creative thinkers of our times have been brought together to consider the profound impact of one of our five main senses: touch.Psychologists, healers, massage therapists, academics, creative writers, and others reflect on or tell personal stories about what it means to be able to touch or experience touch, or to have to go without it—as so many did and ...

Kristen Simmons captivated audiences with Article 5, the first of her dystopian series featuring two teens living in a world ruled by the Federal Bureau of Reformation. In Breaking Point, Ember Miller and Chase Jennings are taken in by the Resistance after escaping from prison. But their plans to lie low are foiled when a sniper starts taking down FBR agents- and Ember is announced as the top suspect.

A world-defying love is put to the ultimate test in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling sequel to Veronica Rossi's ""masterpiece,"" Under the Never Sky (Examiner.com ). In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, bestselling author Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and dystopian elements to create a love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.It's been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood L...

In Ann Aguirre's Outpost, the Freaks from Enclave are back, and this time they're much smarter.Deuce's whole world has changed. Down below, she was considered an adult. Now, topside in a town called Salvation, she's a brat in need of training in the eyes of the townsfolk. She doesn't fit in with the other girls: Deuce only knows how to fight.To make matters worse, her Hunter partner, Fade, keeps Deuce at a distance. Her feelings for Fade haven't changed, b...

The final book in the trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis!Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience. But this new Earth isn't the paradise that Amy had been hoping for. Amy and Elder must race to uncover who--or what--else is out there if they ar...

Your heart beats only with their permission.Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.She's different. She survived. Why?When Dol and her best ...