A swirling wind, a wall of leaves, a blinding darkness... Abrielle finds herself in the middle of a realm no one believed existed. Except this version is run-down, void of color and hope. When she meets a boy named Levi, she discovers this kingdom is more perilous than the children's book ever told. There is nothing safe about Oz.

In Standards of Value, Michael Germana reveals how tectonic shifts in U.S. monetary policy—from the Coinage Act of 1834 to the abolition of the domestic gold standard in 1933–34—correspond to strategic changes by American writers who renegotiated the value of racial difference. Populating the pages of this bold and innovative study are authors as varied as Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Washington Cable, Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Ralph Ellison—all of whom drew analogies between the form Americans thought the nation's money should take and the form they thought race relations and the nation should take. A cultural history of race organized around and enmeshed within the theories of literary and monetary value, Standards of Value also recovers a rhetorical tradition in American culture whose echoes can be found in the visual and lyrical grammars of hip hop, the paintings of John W. Jones and Michael Ray Charles, the cinematography of Spike Lee, and many other contemporary forms and texts. This reconsideration of American literature and cultural history has implications for how we value literary texts and how we read shifting standards of value. In vivid prose, Germana explains why dollars and cents appear where black and white bodies meet in American novels, how U.S. monetary policy gave these symbols their cultural currency, and why it matters for scholars of literary and cultural studies.

This is a story about a Fairytale Medieval World of Love, Beauty & Magic. ... and the Orb Wizard Rez's journey, to meet the "Old One." This is a story about a Fairytale Medieval World of Love, Beauty & Magic. ... and the Orb Wizard Rez's journey, to meet the "Old One." After dreaming about the lovely Lady Illithia, an Arch Angel who has been sleeping soundly for thousands of years near the world of Illithia's Crystal Core, Rez has been invited to come & meet her, in the centre of "The Old Ripple." Home of the Praefortis. Legendary monsters nearly unrivalled in magical power. Except for a handful of Rose Quartz magic rank Wizards & Witches. One of them, living deep within their dangerous lands. In search, of the most valuable magical item in the world of Illithia - The Crystal Rose. "A Spiritual Exploration in Fantasy Book form." "This 2nd Edition has been completely re-written & improved for more comfortable reading, better story flow & story telling."

In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.

This book explores stage conjuring during its “golden age,” from about 1860 to 1910. This study provides close readings highlighting four paradigmatic illusions of the time that stand in for different kinds of illusions typical of stage magic in the “golden age” and analyses them within their cultural and media-historical context: “Pepper’s Ghost,” the archetypical mirror illusion; “The Vanishing Lady,” staging a teleportation in a time of a dizzying acceleration of transport; “the levitation,” simulating weightlessness with the help of an extended steel machinery; and “The Second Sight,” a mind-reading illusion using up-to-date communication technologies. These close readings are completed by writings focusing on visual media and expanding the scope backwards and forwards in time, roughly to 1800 and to 2000. This exploration will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and performance studies.