Innovation-making is a classic theme in anthropology that reveals how people fine-tune their ontologies, live in the world and conceive of it as they do. This ethnographic study is an entrance into the world of Buryat Mongol divination, where a group of cursed shamans undertake the 'race against time' to produce innovative remedies that will improve their fallen fortunes at an unconventional pace. Drawing on parallels between social anthropology and chaos theory, the author gives an in-depth account of how Buryat shamans and their notion of fortune operate as 'strange attractors' who propagate the ongoing process of innovation-making. With its view into this long-term 'cursing war' between two shamanic factions in a rural Mongolian district, and the comparative findings on cursing in rural China, this book is a needed resource for anyone with an interest in the anthropology of religion, shamanism, witchcraft and genealogical change. Katherine Swancutt is a Research Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. She has carried out fieldwork on shamanic religion across Inner Asia, working among Buryats in northeast Mongolia and China since 1999, and among the Nuosu of Southwest China since 2007.

Pricilla Cowardly had BIG dreams. She wanted to be a top fashion designer for the Forgotten Worlds. A rival from her childhood changed everything. When Pricilla woke she was up in the clouds and a full blown lioness. Life was now an adventure she never asked for, and she's about to learn what you want and what you need are often two completely different animals. Maybe this curse wasn't so bad after all?

"LOOT hits the jackpot." -- Rick Riordan, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author On a foggy night in Amsterdam, a man falls from a rooftop to the wet pavement below. It's Archibald McQuinn, the notorious cat burglar, and he's dying. As sirens wail in the distance, Archie manages to get out two last words to his young son, March: "Find jewels."But March learns that his father is not talking about hidden loot. He's talking about Jules, the twin sister March never knew he had. No sooner than the two find each other, they're picked up by the police and sent to the world's worst orphanage. It's not hard time, but it feels like it.March and Jules have no intention of staying put. They know their father's business inside and out, and they're tired of being pushed around. Just one good heist, and they'll live the life of riches and freedom that most kids only dream about. . . . .Hold on to your pearls, because this summer, the world's youngest criminal masterminds are coming for you.

Chronicles the case of the brutal murders of two brothers--Robert Kissel, drugged and beaten to death, a crime for which his wife was convicted, and Andrew Kissel, found stabbed to death in his mansion more than two years later.

When Jack Edmunds, a reporter for the Daily Tribune visits the quiet backwater village of Ellsworth, North Yorkshire he gets a little more than he bargained for. Witness to the casting of an ancient gypsy curse following allegations of corruption by the authorities- Jack along with Suzie Brown, his accomplice, are drawn into an ever increasing maelstrom of events and strange happenings beyond belief. Cut off from the outside world the village of Ellsworth rapidly descends into a bizarre blood-bath of demonic possession as friend turns against friend in a frenzie of unstoppable carnage. Can the realms of superstition be as tangible as they seem or are they merely a form of self-imposed psycho-babble that preys upon the mind? Either way their journey won't be easy as they confront an ever increasing maelstrom of sinister events, exposing them to the darker side of human nature at its worst.