Books about Blossoming from Amazon.com

“I couldn’t help but question how I’d gotten to this strange spot in my life, so far from what I’d expected for myself. Yes, there had been a heady romance a few years back. Then a slew of subsequent decisions, fueled by love and yearnings I didn’t even know I had. But I never, ever would have suspected that this was where the sum total of them would bring me. That afternoon a new doubt dripped into my mind. When do you know, I wondered, whether the choices you’ve made were the right ones?”

In 1990, Jeannie Ralston was a successful magazine writer and bona fide city girl—the type of woman who couldn't imagine living on soil not shaded by skyscrapers. By 1994, she had called off an engagement, married Robb, a National Geographic photographer, and was living in Blanco Texas, population 1600.

The Unlikely Lavender Queen is the intimate story of a woman who gives up a lot for the man she loves – her beloved blue state, bagels and all-night bodegas—only to have to wonder: Was it too much? Ralston offers a lively chronicle of her life as a wife, new mother and an urban settler in rural Texas. As she labors to convert a dilapidated barn into a livable home, deal with scorpions and unbearably hot summers, raise two young children while Robb is frequently away on assignment, she realizes her ultimate struggle is to reconcile her life plans and goals with her husband’s without coming out the proverbial loser. And just when it seems like she might be losing that fight--and herself-- a little purple bloom changes her life.

For centuries lavender has been a mystical herb, so valuable to ancient Romans that a bushel would cost nearly a month’s wages. But when Robb returns from a trip to Provence with a plan for growing lavender on their land, Ralston is not convinced—in fact the last thing she needed or wanted was to take up farming on top of everything else. Then, much to her surprise, she slowly but surely falls in love with lavender, and in the course of growing and selling blooms, hosting the public at the farm, and creating lavender products, she discovers a new side of herself. A few short years later, Ralston had built Hill Country Lavender, a thriving commercial enterprise that transforms both her little corner of Texas and her life.

The Unlikely Lavender Queen will resonate with all women who have faced the tough choices that come with “having it all” and secretly (or not so secretly) hoped for great adventure to come along and surprise them. Ralston’s honest, funny, and poignant memoir is a testament to the fact that such adventures await us around every bend in life..
Price: $13.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Vegan Fusion World Cuisine, a groundbreaking work that has won nine international awards, is a celebration of international gourmet vegan cuisine that introduces us to the simplicity of a vibrant, healthy lifestyle.

Much more than a cookbook, this artistic treasure contains stunning food photography, inspiring graphics, natural-food cooking charts and kitchen wisdom for all. A foreword by Dr. Jane Goodall highlights its aim to inspire peace and understanding amongst individuals, cultures and all who care about our planet.

Vegan Fusion World Cuisine contains 200+ sumptuous recipes from the award-winning Blossoming Lotus Restaurants, uniting cooking traditions from around the world. It's an all-encompassing guide to health, beauty and an inspired lifestyle. Mark and Bo hope to awaken people to the healing potential within themselves.

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Price: $12.58 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Mona Lisa has finally accepted what she really is-a Mixed-Blood of the Monre, the children of the moon. Stronger, faster, and more beautiful than any human, they are the origins of Earth's darkest legends-and Mona Lisa is their newest Queen.

Accompanied by her loyal cadre of warriors and kin, Mona Lisa is entering her territory of Louisiana for the first time. She slowly learns the erotic and savage customs of the Monre elite-though some of her new subjects are uneasy at being ruled by a half-human. Her reign is threatened by enemies old and new, and she is ensnared in the thrall of dark forces she cannot deny. In a hidden world of animal passions and unrelenting lust, Mona Lisa soon grasps the tremendous power she must command if she is to hold her realm together-and if she is ever to come into her own..
Price: $4.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Vegan Fusion World Cuisine is a compilation of the best vegetarian and vegan recipes, secrets and wisdom that is designed to delight anyone. Over twenty-five people were involved in creating our work which many call stunning. We have won nine international awards, including a Gourmand Award for “Best Vegetarian Cookbook in the USA.” The book is a comprehensive manual that provides everything you need to know to live the healthiest life possible..
Price: $0.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

What if our entire experience of reality were based on an assumption that could be proven false? In Roadmap to Reality, Thomas J. Elpel tests the assumption that we are a sentient (self-aware) species, and finds evidence suggesting otherwise. Like automatons, we copy beliefs and behaviors from generation to generation without consciously evaluating why we do what we do. We absorb a definition of reality and act on it, without ever questioning the source of that definition. In short, we don't act; we react.

Roadmap to Reality is the quest to unravel the illusions to discover what reality really is. The journey follows the link between technology and thought, showing how hunter-gatherer, agricultural, industrial, and informational societies define reality in predictable ways. In essence, production technology dictates how we perceive cause and effect, how we solve problems, and how we approach parenting and governing. Roadmap to Reality sequentially follows simple ideas and commonsense logic to reveal how consciousness and worldviews evolve in layers over time. Roadmap to Reality enables the reader to step outside of ordinary reality to obtain a fresh perspective on culture, government, prosperity, sustainability, and meaning. The quest takes the reader to the ends of the universe with a casual writing style, peeling back the layers of consciousness to discover the reality beyond. Roadmap to Reality will change your perspective of history and world events, and it will change you, enabling you to let go of preconceived notions about the nature of reality to discover a more holistic, more satisfying life experience. Printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper..
Price: $19.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming collects issues 7-12 of Rachel Hartman's award-winning comic book, and includes an introduction by Linda Medley, a dramatis personae for new readers, and a few extra pages of silliness at the back.

Belondweg Blossoming follows the lives of Amy and her neighbor Bran Ducanahan the summer they turn ten. Amy has begun reading the national epic, Belondweg, about a semi-mythical queen of the same name who united Goredd and saved her people from invaders. Amy only wishes her own life were half as exciting. But how is life supposed to live up to literature when your mother is a semi-domesticated barbarian, all the knights you know are banished, and the only dragon you have ever met is a geeky grad student?

Join Amy as she dances the Two-foot, wears a really ugly bridesmaid's dress, becomes friends (in spite of everything!) with Bran, imitates the patron saint of ducks, flees from rampaging sheep, learns that love doesn't always conquer all, chugs buttermilk, and begins to understand that even Belondweg didn't have to save the world all by herself.

Winner of the 2001 Xeric Grant..
Price: $59.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the early Middle Ages, when European scholarship was buried beneath centuries of barbarism, Ireland became the seat of an extraordinary literary, artistic, and cultural blossoming. This book traces the era between the 5th and 12th centuries, when Ireland became the repository of classical Western civilization. Examining the meeting of two disparate culturesthe pagan Celts and the Christian saints and scholarsthe author discusses how illuminated manuscripts, monastic libraries, and Romanesque churches preserved culture until the rest of Europe awakened from the Dark Ages..
Price: $25.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]