This is the story of Nazhuret, an outcast, the dwarfish offspring of unknown parents. Yet his story is a great one, filled with surprising rewards and amazing adventures. By the hands of Powl, mentor, madman, and lens grinder, Nazhuret is put to extreme mental and physical test and is blessed with knowledge. He embarks upon a journey to his destiny through war, darkness, and death. He is determined to emerge beyond the tiny status he was given at birth.

Mostly candid and spontaneous, documentary photography serves to preserve a moment in time. In Lens on Life, celebrated documentary photographer and author of the best-selling The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity, Stephanie Calabrese Roberts, inspires you to explore, shoot, and share documentary photographs, guiding you as you define your own style. Illustrated with the author's striking artwork and diverse insight and perspectives from seasoned photographers including Elliott Erwitt, Elizabeth Fleming, Sion Fullana, Ed Kashi, John Loengard, Beth Rooney, and Rick Smolan, this book will sharpen your artistic intuition and give you the confidence to take on personal or professional documentary assignments. Full of advice that will challenge you and strengthen your photography, Lens on Life shows you how to capture an authentic view of your world.

The optician Nazhuret saves his homeland from war in the award-winning Lens of the World series that “promises to become a landmark of the decade” (Kirkus Reviews). Book two of the award-winning Lens of the World trilogy, this volume finds the half-breed orphan Nazhuret as a modest and fastidious lens grinder. Although he could have chosen an exalted and wealthy life as a noble member of the court, he wishes to live in humble and undisturbed poverty with his lady Arlin. But the ordinary life that Nazhuret wants is abruptly shattered when a vicious attack by paid assassins forces him to run. With possible enemies on all sides, the only place to go is the neighboring kingdom of Rezhmia, where Nazhuret has an ancient blood-tie. However, he finds that Rezhmia is no safe haven, for dark clouds are gathering there, intent on destruction of the homeland of Nazhuret’s heart. Evil tidings, treacherous family members, and powerful sorcery threaten to overtake him, but Nazhuret must survive for the sake of those he loves. “The understated and unusual fantasy series begun in Lens of the World continues to delight in this second volume. . . . MacAvoy’s series has some of the flavor and subtlety of Gene Wolfe’s modern classic The Book of the New Sun, but her own unique elements—a fascination with shifting genders and the mysteries of death—make this series distinctive in the often monochromatic fantasy field.” —Kirkus Reviews “Nazhuret and his sword-wielding mistress Arlin are provocative, complex people—like the world in which they live.” —Library Journal “Remarkable.” —Publishers Weekly

Written over a period of time, in between her busy schedule as a senior Science teacher of a leading Educational Institute of central India, the title ‘World Through My Lens’, is a collection of short write-ups by Sandhya Deshpande who is an all-rounder with a unique observational skill and a lot of wits. Her creative impulses have tackled multifarious single-handed experiences from a vast career of twenty-five years in the field of education. This book will take readers down the memory lane of their school days, it will also help them cherish the best days of their life. The author’s observations are wide-ranging from nature to natural, manual to the digital, classrooms to the haunting backstage, from picnic to panic, from a need to greed, the imposition of unusual expectations to real-life conditions, from an under-confident student to a successful adult, etc. The write-ups can be a guide for parents and teachers to understand minute details and the hidden beauty of this profession. The written language is simple and will help readers relate easily. As said by Rabindranath Tagore Ji, ‘It’s simple to be happy, but difficult to be simple’.

The enchanting fantasy series by the John W. Campbell Award–winning author of Tea with the Black Dragon. Warrior, linguist, astronomer, philosopher, lens grinder, lord, dwarf—the name Nazhuret conjures many definitions. His story is not a simple one: The course of his history is a strange and winding tale filled with danger. All three novels in this epic saga about the outcast-turned-legend are collected in one incredible volume. Lens of the World: In this New York Times Notable Book, a tenacious orphan discovers his identity. Raised as both servant and student at the military Royal School of Sordaling, Nazhuret has been an outsider as long as he can recall. Yet, when he is taken in by a mysterious madman and educated in arts ranging from lens grinding to war, he sets on a path that will change the course of not only his own life, but the entire realm of Velonya. King of the Dead: Fate has offered Nazhuret the opportunity to rise above his status to a position of glory and wealth, but he would rather live quietly in obscurity with Arlin, the love of his life. Unfortunately, the secrets of his past cannot stay buried, and Nazhuret soon finds himself once again embroiled in the conflicts of the kingdom, fighting for his life and for the land he calls home. The Belly of the Wolf: In the twilight of his life, after a long respite from the tumultuous world of war and intrigue, Nazhuret embarks on one final adventure. Velonya is in chaos after the apparently unnatural death of Nazhuret’s old friend, the king. Together with his daughter, Nazhuret must use his wisdom, courage, and talent to keep civil war from destroying everything he loves.

In a lyrical memoir and meditation on the nature of time and place, Elizabeth Dodd explores a variety of landscapes, reading the records left by inhabitants and by time itself. In spring in the Yucatán peninsula, she marks the equinox among the ruins of the Maya. In summer in the Orkney Islands, she considers linguistic and historic connections with Icelandic sagas. In tallgrass country in the fall, she observes bison and black-footed ferrets returning to their ancestral landscape. In winter in the canyons of the Ancestral Puebloans, she notes the standstill positions of the sun and the moon. Ranging across continents and millennia, Dodd examines how people have inscribed the concept of time into their physical environments, through rock art, standing stones, and the alignment of buildings on the landscape. She follows the etymological trail of various languages, blending research with travel narrative and aesthetic meditation. From musings on the origin of the sandhill cranes’ transcontinental journey to reflections on the dimming light of shortening days as the winter solstice approaches, from depictions of exploding stars in ancient petroglyphs to meditations on the Great North Road, whose purpose scientists have yet to discover, Dodd captures the interstices of the natural world.

This book straddles the fertile middle ground between science and religion at a time when the conversation is dominated by extremists on both sides. Taking seriously the modern view of the universe, including the fossil record for the history of life across millions of years, the author considers our relationship to the rest of nature. In addition, the age-old questions concerning meaning, values, and our place within it all are perhaps more pressing than ever before. This work provides a broad engagement with major ideas, including evolution and earth stewardship, while drawing upon a rich heritage of philosophy and literature and doing so in a manner accessible to the general reader.