Olad was the first-born son of the second son in the line of Kane, a prestigious lineage. His life was simple while he was growing up, but as he grew into a man, he realized his future was fated. His cousin, Zhatma, the first-born of a first-born, should have inherited the leadership and responsibilities of the clan. But, his future was also fated. His life would not continue within the clan. That knowledge had been known since they were both toddlers. So, Olad would become the leader of the people, and the keeper of the way, the law. He would not decline the position as his uncle, and then his cousin had done. Olad had accepted the position. He followed his ancient great-grandfather as he guided Olad's life and molded him into the man he would become; the clan's leader, healer, and shaman. But, he would need help. His great-grandfather was too old to offer very much more than his sage advice. Olad needed someone to walk by his side, to help him, to give him strength. But, who?

In 2009, Raquel Cepeda embarked on an exploration of her genealogy using ancestral DNA testing to uncover the truth about her family and the tapestry of races and ethnicities that came together in an ambiguous mix in her features, resulting in “a beautiful story of reconciliation and redemption” (Huffington Post) with her identity and what it means to be Latina. Digging through memories long buried, Cepeda journeyed not only into her ancestry but also into her own history. Born in Harlem to Dominican parents, she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents in the Paraíso (Paradise) district in Santo Domingo while still a baby. It proved to be an idyllic reprieve in her otherwise fraught childhood. Paraíso came to mean family, home, belonging. When Cepeda returned to the US, she discovered her family constellation had changed. Her mother had a new, abusive boyfriend, who relocated the family to San Francisco. When that relationship fell apart, Cepeda found herself back in New York City with her father and European stepmother: attending tennis lessons and Catholic schools; fighting vicious battles with her father, who discouraged her from expressing the Dominican part of her hyphenated identity; and immersed in the ’80s hip-hop culture of uptown Manhattan. It was in these streets, through the prism of hip-hop and the sometimes loving embrace of her community, that Cepeda constructed her own identity. Years later, when Cepeda had become a successful journalist and documentary filmmaker, the strands of her DNA would take her further, across the globe and into history. Who were her ancestors? How did they—and she—become Latina? Her journey, as the most unforgettable ones often do, would lead her to places she hadn’t expected to go. With a vibrant lyrical prose and fierce honesty, Cepeda parses concepts of race, identity, and ancestral DNA among Latinos by using her own Dominican-American story as one example, and in the process arrives at some sort of peace with her father.

Reserved, inhibited Nicole Evans desperately wants to escape a past that took the life of her detective husband, left her guilt-ridden, and has caused her young son to become an emotionally scarred mute. She has accepted an uninspired life as a nurse in Miami, where she encounters famous Cuban musician Julian Marquez. Impressed by her quiet beauty and unassuming strength, Julian is drawn to Nicole, but his family stands in the way. Can the romance between the two opposites ignite and survive cultural differences and intolerant family members, or will Julian and Nicole be driven apart?

In this powerful debut novel by award-winning Nora Pierce, a young girl must discover the meaning of self and family as she struggles to find her place between two contrasting realities. On the reservation, Alice lives in a run-down trailer. Both her parents are alcoholics. She seldom has enough food and she rarely attends school, but she is free to follow her imagination. She is connected to the life and ancestry of her people and the deep love she receives from her family and community. When her mother succumbs to schizophrenia, Alice is removed from her home and placed with a white foster family in the suburbs. This new world is neat and tidy and wholesome, but it is also alien, and Alice is unmoored from everything she has ever known and everything that has defined her. As she traces Alice's journey between two cultures, Pierce asks probing questions about identity and difference, and she articulates vital truths about the contemporary Native American experience. Utterly authentic and lyrically compelling, this novel establishes Pierce as an important voice in American literature.

Romance, adventure, adversity and success - such is the panoramic sweep of this compelling story that starts and finishes in the little-known heart of the Amazon rain forest. A story that reaches out from the New World to the Old and back again to the jungle city of Iquitos and the headwaters of the mighty Amazon, king of rivers - this is a triumphal and joyous celebration of love and creation that sings in the heart like a great symphony.

This book covers advances made since the 2004 Springer volume “Polarized Light in Animal Vision” edited by Horvath and Varju, but also provides reviews and synopses of some areas. Part I examines polarization sensitivity across many animal taxa including vertebrates and invertebrates and details both terrestrial and aquatic life. Part II is devoted to the description of polarized light in nature and explores how the physics of light must be taken into account when understanding how polarized light is detected by the visual system. This includes underwater polarization due to scattering; polarization patterns reflected from freshwater bodies; polarization characteristics of forest canopies; normal and anomalous polarization patterns of the skies; skylight polarization transmitted through Snell’s window and both linearly and circularly polarized signals produced by terrestrial and aquatic animals. This Part also examines polarized “light pollution” induced by anthropogenic factors such as reflection off asphalt surfaces, glass panes, car bodies, and other man-made structures that are now known to form ecological traps for polarotactic insects. Part III surveys some of the practical applications of polarization vision including polarization-based traps for biting insects, ground-based polarimetric cloud detectors and an historical examination of the navigational abilities of Viking seafarers using the sky polarization compass. The deterrent qualities of ungulate pelage to polarization-sensitive biting insects is also examined in this section.