Sephardic Jews who voluntarily or forcibly converted to Catholicism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to avoid persecution or expulsion were known as conversos or New Christians. Some tried to live the double life of a Crypto-Jew, outwardly embracing Christianity while secretly maintaining Jewish practices. Others were in a state that was neither Jewish nor Christian, and, as painful and humiliating as it was, these Marranos (a term for conversos that became abusive), actually created a new kind of modern personality. By tracing the usage of this disparaging term, Masks in the Mirror also explores the nature of the historical circumstances as it becomes evident that anyone living under these circumstances - constantly threatened and persecuted by the Inquisition and suspected of being heretics and untrustworthy by their Christian colleagues and neighbors - could be driven to a state of madness. Focusing on families and childrearing, this book attempts to grasp the structures of feeling that created such madness, which while debilitating could often be creative and exciting, especially among poets, playwrights, and novelists. It looks at the play of masks, the secrecy and the illusion, that Marranos experienced daily, which some attempted to exorcise in their writings, and it explores the possibility of applying the concept of Marranism generically.

Ellen Hart was named the 2017 MWA Grand Master, the most distinguished lifetime achievement award offered in the mystery community. Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless is at crossroads. The rough economy has put her plans for a third restaurant on hold, and her long distance romance is on the rocks and quite possibly unsalvageable. Unsure of what to do next, she takes her good friend A. J. Nolan up on his standing offer to take her on as a private investigator. While still in training, her first job seems simple enough. All she had to do is find Annie Archer's stepfather. Jane tracks down a likely match—a man who has made a small fortune in real estate. While she's happy to close her first case, she finds it hard to reconcile the difference between PI work—finding what people pay you to find—and uncovering the truth, the whole truth, especially when clues in this seemingly simple case point to more threatening family secrets than where Annie's father has been hiding out. Ellen Hart's The Mirror and the Mask is another engrossing mystery filled with the deceit and psychological intrigue that fans have come to expect from this Lambda and Minnesota Book Award--winning author and MWA Grand Master.

This is "a manual for students along a spiritual journey. It is not a workbook, but does contain practical suggestions for change if that is what you need. It also contains philosophies or understandings that may stretch the mind to be able to perceive your own illusions."--Author's website.

Svetlana Boym was a prolific writer, a charismatic professor, a novelist, and a public intellectual. She was also a fiercely resourceful and reflective immigrant; her most resonant book, The Future of Nostalgia, was deeply rooted in that experience. Even after The Future of Nostalgia carried her fame beyond academic circles, few readers were aware of all of her creative personas. She was simply too prolific, and her work migrated across most people's disciplinary boundaries-from literary and cultural studies through film, visual, and material culture studies, performance, intermedia, and new media. The Svetlana Boym Reader presents a comprehensive view of Boym's singularly creative work in all its aspects. It includes Boym's classic essays, carefully chosen excerpts from her five books, and journalistic gems. Showcasing her roles both as curator and curated, the reader includes interviews and excerpts from exhibition catalogues as well as samples of intermedial works like Hydrant Immigrants. It also features autobiographical pieces that shed light on the genealogy of her scholarly work and rarities like an excerpt from Boym's first graduate school essay on Russian literature, complete with marginalia by her mentor Donald Fanger. Last but not least, the reader includes late pieces that Boym did not live to see through publication, as well as transcripts of her memorable last lectures and performances.

Traces the development of German writer Rilke (1875-1926), emphasizing psychoanalytic themes such as his relationships with his parents and surrogate parents; and how he blamed his illness on his childhood, but turned it to a resource for his art. Draws on his published poetry and novels, and on letters. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Jack's mother is a storyteller, a game-player. On an impulsive trip out to the family lake house, she spins a macabre tale for Jack and his father - a tale that, as the weekend progresses, Jack finds more and more difficult to untangle from his family's real life. Joe Hill is the New York Times bestselling author of NOS4R2, Horns, and Heart-Shaped Box, and the prize-winning story collection 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the co-author, with Stephen King, of In the Tall Grass.

When her hometown is overtaken by a crime syndicate, the daughter of a disgraced Harper agent fights to free the local merchants from their underground overlords When Alias crosses swords with the underlings of the cunning, heartless lord of Westgate’s criminal guild—known only as the Faceless—he vows to destroy her. Accepting the challenge to rid Westgate of the maleficent Night Masks, Alias gathers old allies and new: the saurial paladin Dragonbait, the halfling Olive Ruskettle, the street performer Jamal, the sage Mintassan, and the charismatic Victor Dhostar, son of Westgate’s governing official. Yet even as Alias thwarts the nefarious efforts of the Night Masks, she becomes ever more entangled in the web woven by The Faceless—a web whose silken threads are spun from intrigue, political machinations, and murder. Masquerades is the tenth book in a series of loosely-connected novels about the Harpers.

Recent improvements in the performance of light sources, i.e. reduction in pulse length and increases in wavelength range and power levels, have led to ultrafast technology becoming a basic tool in a wide variety of scientific fields. This book describes the remarkable technological improvements and results of new applications in the natural sciences and various engineering fields.

'Lighting Engineering: Applied Calculations' describes the mathematical background to the calculation techniques used in lighting engineering and links them to the applications with which they are used. The fundamentals of flux and illuminance, colour, measurement and optical design are covered in detail. There are detailed discussions of specific applications, including interior lighting, road lighting, tunnel lighting, floodlighting and emergency lighting. The authors have used their years of experience to provide guidance for common mistakes and useful techniques including worked examples and case studies. The last decade has seen the universal application of personal computers to lighting engineering on a day-to-day basis. Many calculations that were previously impracticable are therefore now easily accessible to any engineer or designer who has access to an appropriate computer program. However, a grasp of the underlying calculation principles is still necessary in order to utilise these technologies to the full. Written by two of the leading authorities on this subject, 'Lighting Engineering' is essential reading for practising lighting engineers, designers and architects, and students in the field of lighting.