The Book of Chuang Tzu draws together the stories, tales, jokes and anecdotes that have gathered around the figure of Chuang Tzu. One of the great founders of Taoism, Chaung Tzu lived in the fourth century BC and is among the most enjoyable and intriguing personalities in the whole of Chinese philosophy.

The stories and non-stories in Kristine Ong Muslim's Butterfly Dream avow mutilation as rebirth, ruin as indestructibility, and safety as an illusion. In "Artificial Life," a girl is persistent in her belief that her doll will soon come to life. "The Six Mutations of Jerome" documents the grotesque transformations of an everyman named Jerome, while "The Lonely People" follows a group of individuals fleeing from the accoutrements of the modern world as manifested by carnivorous floors and a marauding giant worm. Part travelogue on the vagaries of human consciousness, Butterfly Dream is a glimpse into a reality marred by causal logic and wakefulness.

“Once upon a time, I dreamed I was a butterfly...” This is how Chuang Tzu’s famous anecdote begins. It is a short parable about the relativity of perception, written more than two thousand years ago. Many of us have experienced similar situations and wondered at times if we could tell dreams from reality. “Butterfly’s Dream” expands Chuang Tzu’s story into a surreal quest of adventure, romance, and self-discovery at the end of the 18th century. Despite the fantasy-like atmosphere, the novel accurately follows the laws of physics and would best fit into the “hard sci-fi” category. Alberto is the second lieutenant on Excelsior, a military brig involved mostly on sea-patrolling missions. He has a keen interest in science and a mind inclined towards exploration and introspection. Most of his sailing trips are uneventful, with his ship transporting troops and ammunition to various locations managed by the navy. But things are about to change. When the ship encounters a magnetic storm, the crew members find themselves sailing in uncharted waters. The next day, Excelsior casts anchor at the pier of a mysterious city that doesn’t seem to be located on Earth. Soon, Alberto becomes involved in complex events that make him question the surrounding reality and even his sanity. The fabulous world he gets to explore looks nothing like the world from his space and time. And what are space and time, after all? In this place so different from Earth, Alberto meets Nivit, a beautiful and accomplished physician, and falls in love with her. Soon, they are swept into an unexpected journey of adventure and self-discovery that carries them through stranger and stranger realms and realities. Can the rational mind defy the irrational? Can love defend against extreme weather and death? Does time always flow in the same direction? What is real? What is a dream? A mirror reflecting itself. What would it show? A mirror reflecting another mirror. What would it see? Look inside the mirror, open the door, step onto the path stretching beyond its surface, and you might find out. Are you ready? If you enjoy reading this story, I have a favor to ask: Please write a review about it and recommend it to your friends! But only if you like it!

In ancient China, a man falls asleep beneath a willow tree and dreams he is a butterfly. Based on the stories of the Chou Dynasty Taoist philosopher, Zhuangzi.

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With The Night Is Still Young, Los Angeles-based, Japanese photographer Tomoaki Hata returns to his roots-the underground club scene of Osaka's gay, nightlife district. Filled with intimate images of the radically-creative drag queens who performed at various venues in the city from the late 1990s through the present, this book is a peek into the underbelly of modern Japan. Hata occupies a much-deserved place in the ranks of the great Japanese photographers-on par with the likes of Daido Moriyama and Nobuyoshi Araki-yet he achieved this rank not by following the example of these greats, but via the presentation of his own unique view of a slice of Japanese culture that otherwise remains largely undocumented. Gay life and culture in Japan remains mostly secretive, and tends to take place within the safe confines of gay bars and gay districts that are many times hidden in plain view within the entertainment districts of major urban centers. A passionate and intimate portrayal of the gender-bending performers as they cavort, both on and off the stage, Hata exposes this elusive subculture for the entire world to see. The results are campy and combustible images of drag performers going full tilt. Glitter, glamour, sequins, and seediness are all on display, up-close and unrestrained. Including an essay on Hata's photographs-and the world they examine-The Night Is Still Young captures and contextualizes drag culture in Japan at the turn of the century, and is the ultimate primary-source document of this otherwise obscure scene.

“What a wonderful idea for an adventure! Absolutely inspired, timely, and important.” —Alistair Humphreys, National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and author of The Doorstep Mile and Around the World by Bike Outdoor educator and field researcher Sara Dykman made history when she became the first person to bicycle along­side monarch butterflies on their storied annual migration—a round-trip adventure that included three countries and more than 10,000 miles. Equally remarkable, she did it solo, on a bike cobbled together from used parts. Her panniers were recycled buckets. In Bicycling with Butterflies, Dykman recounts her incredible journey and the dramatic ups and downs of the nearly nine-month odyssey. We’re beside her as she nav­igates unmapped roads in foreign countries, checks roadside milkweed for monarch eggs, and shares her passion with eager schoolchil­dren, skeptical bar patrons, and unimpressed border officials. We also meet some of the ardent monarch stewards who supported her efforts, from citizen scientists and research­ers to farmers and high-rise city dwellers. With both humor and humility, Dykman offers a compelling story, confirming the urgency of saving the threatened monarch migration—and the other threatened systems of nature that affect the survival of us all.