Showing results by narrator "Mary Helen Gallucci" in All Categories

When biologist Hanna Bjørgaas spots a fairy cup lichen in Antarctica, she is surprised to recognize it from her own backyard in Oslo. When she returns home, she embarks on a journey into urban nature, visiting city parks, cemeteries, and concrete rooftops to investigate the species that live in urban spaces. Along the way, she meets corvids, songbirds, ants, pigeons, bats, sparrows, fungi, and linden trees—and the experts who study their surprising abilities to survive, and thrive, in the city.

Taylor Herron's mom is missing, and her life is unraveling at the seams. Deciding which way to turn and who to trust has proven to be a monumental task. Detective Aleena Shaw has been assigned the case of finding Gwen Herron. Both a stunning and complicated woman, she soon becomes Taylor's only hope. The path to finding her mom soon uncovers more questions than answers, and leaves doubt in place of hope. Love and lies are an outcome Taylor didn't expect—but the truth will always be revealed no matter the cost.

In Blood and Ashes provides the first historical study of the development and dissemination of ritualized curse practice from 750-250 BCE, documenting the cultural pressures that drove the use of curse tablets, charms, spells, and other private rites. This book expands our understanding of daily life in ancient communities, showing how individuals were making sense of the world and coping with conflict, vulnerability, competition, anxiety, desire, and loss, all while conjuring the gods and powers of the Underworld.

It starts innocently enough. Four kids—three girls, one boy—are at one of their houses, playing games. One of them has read about "Bloody Mary" and the idea that if you look into a mirror and say her name thirteen times, she will show you the future. Some legends say she'll show you your one true love or a skull to mark your death within five years. Others say that conjuring Bloody Mary will bring her into your world.

This quietly powerful memoir of longing and acceptance casts a humanizing eye on a little-understood American religious tradition and a woman's striving to grow within and beyond it.