Thom Wheeler is not a man to be put off by the prospect of an uncharted, impractical or downright dangerous journey. Having accidentally introduced his old school friend Vicky to Dmitry, the Russian love of her life, at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Thom decides to travel to their wedding in Astrakhan in the most obvious and straightforward way: by following the Volga river, from its source over 1,000 miles inland, all the way to the Caspian Sea and a party to remember..

A rich and fascinating exploration of the Volga--the first to fully reveal its vital place in Russian history The longest river in Europe, the Volga stretches over three and a half thousand km from the heart of Russia to the Caspian Sea, separating west from east. The river has played a crucial role in the history of the peoples who are now a part of the Russian Federation--and has united and divided the land through which it flows. Janet Hartley explores the history of Russia through the Volga from the seventh century to the present day. She looks at it as an artery for trade and as a testing ground for the Russian Empire's control of the borderlands, at how it featured in Russian literature and art, and how it was crucial for the outcome of the Second World War at Stalingrad. This vibrant account unearths what life on the river was really like, telling the story of its diverse people and its vital place in Russian history.

The New York Times–bestselling classic set amid the mountains and streams of early twentieth-century Montana, “as beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway” (Chicago Tribune). When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs Through It and Other Stories to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. One editor, so the story goes, replied, “it has trees in it.” Today, the title novella is recognized as one of the great American tales of the twentieth century, and Maclean as one of the most beloved writers of our time. The finely distilled product of a long life of often surprising rapture—for fly-fishing, for the woods, for the interlocked beauty of life and art—A River Runs Through It has established itself as a classic of the American West filled with beautiful prose and understated emotional insights. Based on Maclean’s own experiences as a young man, the book’s two novellas and short story are set in the small towns and mountains of western Montana. It is a world populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks, and whores, but also one rich in the pleasures of fly-fishing, logging, cribbage, and family. By turns raunchy and elegiac, these superb tales express, in Maclean’s own words, “a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by.” “Maclean’s book—acerbic, laconic, deadpan—rings out of a rich American tradition that includes Mark Twain, Kin Hubbard, Richard Bissell, Jean Shepherd, and Nelson Algren.” —New York Times Book Review Includes a new foreword by Robert Redford, director of the Academy Award–winning film adaptation

Nira Stone (1938-2013) was a scholar of Armenian and Byzantine Art. Her broad and close acquaintance with the field of Armenian art history covered many fields of Armenian artistic creativity. Nira Stone made notable contributions to the study of Armenian manuscript painting, mosaics, and other forms of artistic expression. Of particular interests are her researches on this art in its historical and religious contexts, such as the study of apocryphal elements in Armenian Gospel iconography, the place of the mosaics of Jerusalem in the context of mosaics in Byzantine Palestine, and of the interplay between religious movements, such as hesychasm, and Armenian manuscript painting.

Super fans. Groupies. Stalkers.These people will give anything for the idols they worship, be they rock stars, actor, or authors. Or even serial killers.Lori's obsession is with Edmund Cox, who was convicted of butchering more than twenty women. She will do anything to get close to him, so when he gives her a task, she accepts.She has no idea of the horror that awaits her.Edmund says she must go to his cabin in the woods and retrieve a key to deliver to a mysterious figure known only as The River Man.She brings along her sister, and the trip becomes a surreal nightmare, one that digs up Lori's personal demons, the ones she feels bonds her to Edmund. Soon she will learn The River Man is not quite fact or folklore, and definitely not human . . . at least not anymore.

The Udege, a small Indigenous group in the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai regions of Russia, have a rich oral storytelling tradition. They speak the Udege language, and their religious beliefs include animism and shamanism. Over two decades, Kira Van Deusen travelled across Russia interviewing Udege storytellers in order to record their folktales. Tigers and the Internet recounts individual storytellers’ lives and the stories that they related to Van Deusen. Combining the translated stories with detailed commentary, background information on the storytellers, and historical context to the themes they explore, Van Deusen provides a rich and moving text that allows the reader to travel with her through time and space. She respectfully shares the stories with a wider audience and preserves them in English for future generations. Readers will learn about the folktales of the Udege, but also about their contemporary lives and connections with other Indigenous groups. The Udege are not widely known outside of Russia. Tigers and the Internet provides a valuable collection of first-hand stories that shows this fascinating culture to those interested in folklore, Indigenous histories, and cultural studies.