A humble artist agrees to confront the terrifying dragon that threatens to destroy his village.

In New York during the frenetic week before Christmas, a plagiarism trial has profound effects on a playwright, the plaintiff, and a best-selling novelist, the defendant.

Make Your Own Paper Dragons helps you to capture the spirit and energy ofragon mythology through a beautiful book, The Story of Dragons, thatollects the tales of legendary dragons from East and West and examines theirmpact on our cultures. A kit of sketching paper, watercolour paper, origamiaper, 5 watercolour paints, 1 brush, and 2 pencils is accompanied by aecond book, in which an expert dragon artist leads your quest to discoverhe lore and skills that will enable you to capture the perfect image of aaper dragon - via drawing, painting and origami.

A dark power that attacks Yoran leads Gavin on a dangerous journey. Gavin remains in Yoran while struggling to master his El'aras abilities. With the power of the strange ring that grants him even more power, he knows he has to learn control, otherwise he'll destroy the city while trying to protect it. When the hyadan, creatures of dark sorcery, come to the city, Gavin has to make a choice between staying to learn control over his power or helping Imogen. For him, that's no choice at all. Chasing the hyadan leads them deeper into Imogen's past, and challenges Gavin more than he thought possible. The price of failure is greater than only one city. If he can't learn to control his El'aras magic--and the power of the ring--the dark power will spread and destroy all magic in the world.

This is the story of a power-hungry woman who almost brought down a country destined to become a superpower. Tzu-hsithe empress dowager of the Manchu dynastymanipulated her way into the heart of the palace almost a century and a half ago, using her charm, looks, and intellect to get what she wanted. It wasnt long before she was hiding in the Summer Palace in Peking, running the government behind the curtain and scheming to grow her power at the emperors expense. But when foreign intervention and internal strife combined to threaten her empire, she enlisted the help of a devious eunuch and resorted to extreme tactics to deal with the crisis. The emperor sought help from the intelligentsia in a bid to stay in charge and reform the government, but he made a critical mistake by placing his trust in an ambitious general who had the power to ruin everything. Filled with colorful imagery, forbidden liaisons, sneaky maneuverings, heroes, and villains, this novel tells how one woman sought to rise to the pinnacle of power in a male-dominated societyand how a dedicated emperor tried to stop her.

Emerging relatively unscathed from the banking crisis of 2008, China has been viewed as a model of both rampant success and fiscal stability. But beneath the surface lies a network of fissures that look likely to erupt into the next big financial crash. A bloated real-estate sector, roller-coaster stock market, and rapidly growing shadow-banking sector have all coalesced to create a perfect storm: one that is in danger of taking the rest of the world’s economy with it. Walden Bello traces our recent history of financial crises – from the bursting of Japan’s ‘bubble economy’ in 1990 to Wall Street in 2008 – taking in their political and human ramifications such as rising inequality and environmental degradation. He not only predicts that China might be the site of the next crash, but that under neoliberalism this will simply keep happening. The only way that we can stop this cycle, Bello argues, is through a fundamental change in the ways that we organise: a shift to cooperative enterprise, respectful of the environment, and which fractures the twin legacies of imperialism and capitalism. Insightful, erudite and passionate, Paper Dragons is a must-read for anyone wishing to prevent the next financial meltdown.

People will tell you that dragons are imaginary, that they don't exist. Yet it seems that dragon lore appears in every culture in every part of the world. There's just something about these flying, flame throwing, fantastical animals that runs deep in the human psyche. We love them. We want them. And we shall have them?