Immortal Beloved meets Fifty Shades of Grey, Sophie's Choice, The Godfather, and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud in this spell-binding love story that involves classical music, kinky sex, the Holocaust, the Mafia, the psychic/occult, "soul fractions," and a 2,000-year-old curse. For twenty-eight years the Curse has lain dormant, waiting and gathering strength. Soon it will strike one last time, a lethal blow designed to destroy them. Twenty-eight years earlier, the Curse relied upon a viper to deliver a fatal dosage of poison, but somehow Elena Bianchi survived. Next time the Curse will have far more dangerous weapons at its disposal. Elena is more astute than the others. The Curse realizes that unlike her predecessors, she can somehow sense its presence and anticipate its movements. Her skills are great, but the Curse now knows where she is most vulnerable. As the saga begins, Elena and Giovanni move freely between the worlds of classical music and extremely kinky sex. However, only Elena will develop a spiritual awareness of the true history they share. In this four-part series, the battle lines are drawn. Either Elena will die, or she will put an end to the Curse, once and for all.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Of Love and Papers explores how immigration policies are fundamentally reshaping Latino families. Drawing on two waves of interviews with undocumented young adults, Enriquez investigates how immigration status creeps into the most personal aspects of everyday life, intersecting with gender to constrain family formation. The imprint of illegality remains, even upon obtaining DACA or permanent residency. Interweaving the perspectives of US citizen romantic partners and children, Enriquez illustrates the multigenerational punishment that limits the upward mobility of Latino families. Of Love and Papers sparks an intimate understanding of contemporary US immigration policies and their enduring consequences for immigrant families.

With nearly 400 scores to his credit, Ennio Morricone is one of the most prolific and influential film composers working today. He has collaborated with many significant directors, and his scores for such films as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Once Upon a Time in America; Days of Heaven; The Mission; The Untouchables; Malèna; and Cinema Paradiso leave moviegoers with the conviction that something special was achieved—a conviction shared by composers, scholars, and fans alike. In Composing for the Cinema: The Theory and Praxis of Music in Film, Morricone and musicologist Sergio Miceli present a series of lectures on the composition and analysis of film music. Adapted from several lectures and seminars, these lessons show how sound design can be analyzed and offer a variety of musical solutions to many different kinds of film. Though aimed at composers, Morricone’s expositions are easy to understand and fascinating even to those without any musical training. Drawing upon scores by himself and others, the composer also provides insight into his relationships with many of the directors with whom he has collaborated, including Sergio Leone, Giuseppe Tornatore, Franco Zeffirelli, Warren Beatty, Ridley Scott, Roland Joffé, the Taviani Brothers, and others. Translated and edited by Gillian B. Anderson, an orchestral conductor and musicologist, these lessons reveal Morricone’s passion about musical expression. Delivered in a conversational mode that is both comprehensible and interesting, this groundbreaking work intertwines analysis with practical details of film music composition. Aimed at a wide audience of composers, musicians, film historians, and fans, Composing for the Cinema contains a treasure trove of practical information and observations from a distinguished musicologist and one of the most accomplished composers on the international film scene.

W HAT I H A V E attempted in this book is a survey of song; the kind of song which one finds variously described as 'concert', 'art', or sometimes even 'classical song'. 'Concert song' seems the most useful, certainly the least inexact or misleading, of some descriptions, especially since 'art song' sounds primly off putting, and 'classical song' really ought to be used only to refer to songs written during the classical period, i. e. the 18th century. Concert song clearly means the kind of songs one hears sung at concerts or recitals. Addressing myself to the general music-lover who, though he possesses no special knowledge of the song literature, is never theless interested enough in songs and their singers to attend recitals of Lieder or of songs in various languages, I have naturally confined myself to that period of time in which the vast majority of these songs was composed, though not necessarily only to those composers whose songs have survived to be remembered in recital programmes today. I suppose this to be roughly the three centuries covered by the years 1650-1950, though most of the songs we, as audiences, know and love were composed in the middle of this period, in other words in the 19th century.

“This little book does a beautiful job of inspiring awe for the capacities of birds and applying lessons from their lives to the struggles of humanity” — Wall Street Journal “Brilliant, magical and engrossing–I will never see birds the same way again.” — Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees THE INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON Twenty-two short lessons from the secret lives of birds on living harmoniously and reconnecting with nature. This charming volume on bird behavior invites us to take a step back from our busy lives and to listen to the tiny philosophers of the sky. From the delicate sparrow to the majestic eagle, birds are among the most fascinating species on earth, and there is much to be learned from these paragons of beauty and grace that can be applied to our lives, including: Independence: what it means to be “pushed out of the nest.” Vulnerability: what the mallard teaches us about giving up our old feathers for new ones in order to fly. Gender equality: what happens when a papa Turtledove sits on the nest. Hierarchy and power: what the raven and the vulture know about the pecking order. Filled with elegant illustrations of bird species, this gem of a book celebrates of our friends in the sky, and what they can teach us about the rhythms of life.

The first comprehensive guide to women's promotion and use of textual culture, in manuscript and print, in Renaissance Italy.