There were no surprises in Gatlin County. We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong. There was a curse. There was a girl. And in the end, there was a grave. Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Have we become beauty-blind? For two decades or more in the humanities, various political arguments have been put forward against beauty: that it distracts us from more important issues; that it is the handmaiden of privilege; and that it masks political interests. In On Beauty and Being Just Elaine Scarry not only defends beauty from the political arguments against it but also argues that beauty does indeed press us toward a greater concern for justice. Taking inspiration from writers and thinkers as diverse as Homer, Plato, Marcel Proust, Simone Weil, and Iris Murdoch as well as her own experiences, Scarry offers up an elegant, passionate manifesto for the revival of beauty in our intellectual work as well as our homes, museums, and classrooms. Scarry argues that our responses to beauty are perceptual events of profound significance for the individual and for society. Presenting us with a rare and exceptional opportunity to witness fairness, beauty assists us in our attention to justice. The beautiful object renders fairness, an abstract concept, concrete by making it directly available to our sensory perceptions. With its direct appeal to the senses, beauty stops us, transfixes us, fills us with a "surfeit of aliveness." In so doing, it takes the individual away from the center of his or her self-preoccupation and thus prompts a distribution of attention outward toward others and, ultimately, she contends, toward ethical fairness. Scarry, author of the landmark The Body in Pain and one of our bravest and most creative thinkers, offers us here philosophical critique written with clarity and conviction as well as a passionate plea that we change the way we think about beauty.

Fall under the spell of the Beautiful Darkness, the sequel to the instant New York Times bestselling gothic fantasy, Beautiful Creatures! There were no surprises in Gatlin County. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong. Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin as a place where nothing ever changed. Then mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes revealed a secret world of curses and Supernaturals with terrifying abilities. Lena showed him a Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen. Sometimes life-ending. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Color over the gray to bring your images to life in this unique and elegantly simple adult coloring book.Immerse yourself in the space between black and white and explore the many shades of your imagination. Unique in its sophisticated grayscale format, Beautiful Creatures is deceivingly simple. Using the gray as your guide, you will feel like a professional artist, bringing depth to each image and creating lifelike artwork that is uniquely yours. Take a moment of solitude to rediscover your creativity, and replenish your calm.Optimized for coloring, each image is printed on acid-free, archival quality paper, perforated and watermarked for framing. Simply select your palette and color over the gray, letting the depth of shading guide your choices as you bring this thoughtfully curated collection of 48 striking images to life. Feel the thrill of artistic accomplishment that comes from creation, and the pride of seeing your work framed and displayed. Where the simplicity of coloring meets a refined aesthetic, Beautiful Creatures opens the door to artistic expression and all the joys that come with it.

Explore the making of the film Beautiful Creatures in this ultimate visual companion, lavishly illustrated with full-color photos of the cast, locations, and sets. This beautiful paperback edition celebrates the on-screen creation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's fascinating world, brought to life by screenwriter and director Richard LaGravenese. With never-before-seen images, exclusive interviews and personal stories, Mark Cotta Vaz takes you behind the scenes with cast and crew, uncovering intimate details of the filmmaking process.

Beauty. How do we achieve it? Who gets to define it? How do you live a beautiful life? Beauty standards of today are exacting, ever-evolving and often overwhelming. Being Beautiful is your timely, illustrated guide and companion to navigating the relentless pursuit of beauty, both inside and out. A captivating collection of writings, quotes, poems and musings from some of the world's greatest thinkers – philosophers, celebrities, writers, cultural commentators and more – on what it means to be beautiful, it is an inspiring anthology for anyone interested in the concept of personal beauty, from the clothes we wear and the make-up we use, to the lives we lead and the relationships we nurture. Through contemplative, humorous, uplifting and humbling passages interspersed with specially commissioned illustrations, the book attempts to explore and illuminate what beauty means to us in the twenty-first century. And most of all, to inspire, provoke and delight. Broken down into five chapters – Defining Beauty, Finding Beauty, Living Beautifully, Inner Beauty and Outer Beauty – discussions range from how we might define a beautiful face (Edmund Burke), how one can live a 'beautiful' life (Buddha), and the beauty that can be found in ageing (Naomi Wolf). Contributors include such varied voices as Sali Hughes, Emily Dickinson, John Cage, Francis Bacon, Charlotte Brontë, Immanuel Kant, Joan Collins and Kate Moss.

Do you remember your first kiss? Your first heartbreak? Your first bra? The first time your best friend betrayed you? Beautiful: Being an Empowered Young Woman peels back the truth behind becoming a woman in a chaotic world where airbrushed perfection is beauty - when in reality, beauty is who you are. Beautiful offers strategies to help young women cope with contemporary issues, like body image, the media, relationships, competition, sex and peer pressure. It explores the way adolescents see and talk about themselves, and answers the big questions young women are afraid to ask. Naomi Katz offers truths about conquering adolescence and cultivating a unique sense of self. Weaving together narratives of real teens, Katz, a teacher who has worked with young women all over the globe, provides inspiration for growing girls looking for guidance in an increasingly complicated world. I am a girlA femaleA womanA teenagerA daughterAnd a human being --Medina, 13