Although unable to speak or hear, lovely Lotus learns to perform the intricate story dances of the Cambodian court ballet.

Although she cannot speak or hear, Lotus trains as a Khmer court dancer and becomes eloquent in dancing out the legends of the gods.

Not too far from now, in a world very like our own, the oppressors have changed places with the oppressed. After their defeat in the Yellow War, the white people of America are thrust into a brutally altered reality. They are hunted like wild beasts and drive like cattle, transported in reeking ships and sold to their conquerors as field hands and house slaves. Robbed of their old names and their old language, treated with a mixture of cruelty and condescension by their Chinese masters, whites take on new identities and new strategies of survival. Some, like Nose, plunge into dissipation. Others, like Top Man, become imitation Yellows. And some, like White Lotus, rebel. In this mesmerizing book John Hersey creates an alternate history that casts a harsh radiance on our own. It has some of the stateliness of Exodus, along with the power of oral narratives of slavery. It has heroes and victims—and villains who turn out to be victims of another color. At once a masterpiece of storytelling and a complex novel of ideas, White Lotuscompels us to reexamine our notions of race and racism, freedom and oppression.

A winter illness left Lotus, a little girl, without a voice and without friends. A hunter's bullet left Feather, a crane, injured and unable to fly. As Lotus nurses Feather back to health, their bond grows. Soon Feather is following Lotus everywhere, even to school! The bird dances to the girl's reed whistle, much to the delight of the other children. One day, when the village floods, Feather helps raise the alarm as Lotus and her grandfather urge their neighbors to get to high ground. Feather is a true friend to Lotus, but the time comes when Lotus must be a true friend to him--by encouraging him to migrate with the rest of the cranes. The next spring, Feather miraculously returns, and that's not all . . . he has brought new life to the nearby lake. Inspired by the true story of a crane that rescued a Chinese village, and graced with sensitive watercolor illustrations, this lovely book about respecting nature offers deep emotion and delightful surprises.

The secrets aren't at the door. They're already in the house. Betsy’s reluctance to lead the Merryweather coven puts her entire family in danger, and with an injured vampire showing up on their doorstep and a bloodborn harvest to resurrect, they can’t afford mistakes. When the coven is targeted on neighbouring Castle land, the only reliable witness is a young girl found hiding in the family mausoleum. But the girl is not what she seems. Lotus is a secret keeper with a bind on her tongue. When one of the Merryweathers finds her unconscious in the woods, Betsy helps Lotus unravel her tongue, slowly learning the terrible truth about what her coven has been harbouring for years. This book features a fat, bee-keeping lesbian vampire, a pansexual well-demon in need of a haircut, and romantic elements (f/f & m/nonbinary). Although this book is a standalone, it features characters from the Not the Same River series, so reading both will provide a richer experience.

Beloved actress and bestselling author Shirley MacLaine contemplates a wealth of subjects from the mundane to the esoteric in this all-new collection of musings that begin with two simple words: What if--What if hope is the most dangerous emotion? What if a frog had wings? (Answer: He wouldnt bump his ass so much.) What if our political leaders actually led? What if Downton Abbey was full of Americans? What if, for some reason, I couldn't be creative and work? These are just a few of the what ifs that Shirley Maclaine considers in her new book written in the style of her beloved and laugh-out-loud memoir I'm Over All That. In What If, she speculates on a wide range of matters both spiritual and secular, humorous and profound, earth-bound and high-flying, personal and universal. This is Shirley MacLaine at her most funny, acerbic, imaginative, and irresistible.

The development of the piano, together with changes in culture and society, led to the transformation of song into a major musical genre. This study of the great lieder of 19th-century composers Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Hugo Wolf also includes lesser-known composers, such as Louis Spohr and Robert Franz, plus significant contributions from women composers and performers.