An always insightful, often sarcastic, often hilarious, guide into the often enjoyable, often challenging, often rewarding trials and tribulations of innkeeping. If you’re an innkeeper, if you’ve ever thought about becoming an innkeeper, if you’ve ever stayed at a bed and breakfast, or if you’ve ever thought about staying at a bed and breakfast you must read this book.

From the New York Times #1 bestselling author, Ilona Andrews, comes a new tale from the Innkeeper Chronicles “Ilona Andrews’s books are guaranteed good reads.”—Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fire Touched Dina Demille may run the nicest Bed and Breakfast in Red Deer, Texas, but she caters to a very particular kind of guest... the kind that no one on Earth is supposed to know about. Guests like a former intergalactic tyrant with an impressive bounty on her head, the Lord Marshal of a powerful vampire clan, and a displaced-and-superhot werewolf; so don’t stand too close, or you may be collateral damage. But what passes for Dina’s normal life is about to be thrown into chaos. First, she must rescue her long-distant older sister, Maud, who’s been exiled with her family to a planet that functions as the most lawless penal colony since Botany Bay. Then she agrees to help a guest whose last chance at saving his civilization could bring death and disaster to all Dina holds dear. Now Gertrude Hunt is under siege by a clan of assassins. To keep her guests safe and to find her missing parents, Dina will risk everything, even if she has to pay the ultimate price. Though Sean may have something to say about that!

The young son of the head of the Chinese traders' association, the men licensed to deal with foreign merchants in the port of Guangzhou, is suddenly burdened with responsibility for his powerful family upon his father's sudden death. A latterday Baoyu, but with far stronger sexual impulses, the son learns both to tame his own libido to some degree and to conduct himself prudently in the Guangzhou society of his time. All of this appears in a comparatively littleknown and littlestudied novel called Shenlou zhi 蜃樓志, which is here translated for the first time. The novel was actually first published in 1804, several decades before opium became a factor in the China trade. It is not only by far the earliest novel to deal with that trade, but also one of the earliest accounts of it. Furthermore, it has been found to be closely connected to events that occurred in Guangzhou and Huizhou in the years just before the time of its publication—the arrival of a new Superintendent of Customs in Guangzhou and the outbreak of rebellion in Huizhou. This strikingly original work develops the culture of adolescence that was first described in Honglou meng 紅樓夢 and also relishes, in its account of the rebellion, the romantic conventions of Shuihu zhuan 水滸傳.

This dictionary contains about 170 entries and presents an overview of the different issues related to worldwide food insecurity, with a particular yet not exclusive focus on the existing rules and regulations. The objective of food security is considered from a quantitative angle (security of supplies, access to food) and a qualitative angle (sanitary quality of food, commercial quality). Therefore, this dictionary analyzes the concept of food security “from farm to fork”. These entries were selected because they bring to light the international legal frame of food security and because they point out the current issues linked to the production of food, the local, regional or international trade of food, the food and health crises, the current situation in developing countries, etc. Consequently, among the issues that will be addressed inside this book, there will be some definitions of “land grabbing”, “bio-fuels”, “food allergies”, “fundamental needs”, “fair trade”, “the Doha Round”, “the right to food”, “women”, “international investments”, “the World Trade Organization”, “genetically modified organisms”, “the precautionary principle”, “protectionism”, “land reforms”, “corporate social responsibility”, “speculation”, food sovereignty”… With a wide variety of entries, approached through different perspectives, this dictionary is intended for all audiences.

Fundamentally, all of spiritual science ultimately aims to understand human beings in their essence, in their tasks and endeavours – in their necessary endeavours in the course of development.' – Rudolf Steiner. In the midst of the division and destruction of the Great War, Rudolf Steiner speaks of the spiritual unification of all human beings. Rather than preaching a traditional morality, however, he states esoteric facts as he perceives them, based on spiritual-scientific research. These observations relate to the powerful universal impulse of Christ – a healing spiritual force that works through the various nations and races, irrespective of creed or colour – as a source of potential unity. Rudolf Steiner describes this impulse as the central core of human evolution. It allows for a conscious and newly-acquired connection between all human beings, in the context of the continuing diversification and fragmentation of the human race. The central motif in these lectures relates to the appearance of Christ on earth – knowledge of his historical incarnation, as well as Christ's manifestation in the present and future periods of human development. Rudolf Steiner creates an arc from the pre-Christian mysteries through Gnosticism and the older studies of the early Church Fathers, to Scholasticism and neo-Scholasticism. After ancient faculties of clairvoyance had began to fade, he explains, human beings could no longer see beyond the world of outer appearances, and direct perceptions of Christ were therefore no longer possible. And so the question arose as to how limitations on human knowledge could be overcome – a question which remains pertinent in our time. Steiner asserts that only a transformation of thinking, enabling a living and conscious inner conceptual life, can allow for a true understanding of the relationship between the earthly Jesus and the cosmic Christ. Such living thinking leads in turn to direct experience. Other topics in this volume include the birth date of the 'two Jesus children'; the wisdom of Gnostic teachings; the provenance of the Cross; the mysteries of the Christmas festival; insights into ancient Christmas plays, and reflections on individual consciousness of karma in the future.

This book has been written in two parts. Part 1 looks at the life and times of a Dutch pirate named Pim de Zwolle, the scourge of the Caribbean and East Indies. It covers the period from 1593 to 1653 and looks into Pim's family background, his birth, upbringing, and the circumstances that turned him into a pirate. Part 2 skips to 1951 and picks up the story of Bertie Bannister, a retired sea captain, who goes in search of Pim's lost treasure when an old map happens to come his way.

Freya has been alone as long as she can remember. 15 books. Thousands of pages of magical adventures, kick-ass heroines, and forbidden romance. She was always moving from foster home to foster home, never finding a permanent family. With her mother dead and no leads on her father, the first clue to her heritage comes in the most unlikely form. An outburst of impossible magic, and the appearance of a ghostly guardian Freya's mother tasked with watching over her. With her newfound abilities, finding her father should finally be within Freya's reach, but her new guardian cautions restraint. Freya still doesn't understand the magical world, she claims, or its dangers. If Freya wants the truth, it may mean going it alone once more. And putting her guardian's warnings to the test. The Complete Collection collects together all fifteen books in the Freya Snow urban fantasy series, which starts out as YA and follows Freya's magical adventures into adulthood. If you like kick-ass, sarcastic heroines, immersive magical worlds beneath our own, and love that crosses the lines of magical feuds, then you'll be instantly hooked on L.C. Mawson's fast-paced urban fantasy series. Buy the boxset to get your exciting urban fantasy fix today!