A magical novel that unravels one of life’s greatest mysteries—how to go on after a devastating loss—through the power of words and their ability to heal, to transform, and to touch the heart. Luck: an event that could be for good or ill, depending on your interpretation. As a lexicographer, Abigail Harker has always taken refuge in the meaning of words. But when fate erases in one tragic moment what she loves the most, the very foundations of her life vanish. Abigail retreats to Chapel Isle, a secluded island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. As caretaker of a run-down lighthouse, she hopes to redefine herself. But as a resident soon remarks, “If you came to Chapel Isle for normal, you came to the wrong place.” For on Chapel Isle, no one can be neatly defined. From a scientific genius to the feuding fishermen’s wives, from a handsome hothead to the ghost said to be haunting the lighthouse, everyone is struggling to find meaning where meaning seems lost. And when a series of mysterious crimes strikes the island, Abigail finds that she must face down her deepest fears if she is to save herself, her neighbors, and the new life she’s unexpectedly come to cherish.

The Language of Sand: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Block, Ellen

Genre Fiction

Bantam]

Independence: the freedom to be yourself—or a day for fireworks, depending on your point of view Summer has come to Chapel Isle, the quaintly quirky island that Abigail Harker has called home since she moved into the caretaker’s cottage at the local lighthouse. The season ushers in sweltering temperatures, along with throngs of tourists who are turning the sleepy town into pandemonium. The world Abigail fled after tragedy struck is descending upon her doorstep, and she isn’t sure she can stand the heat. Tourists and natives alike are buzzing about a sunken treasure in the treacherous shoals off the coast, and clues to its location are supposedly hidden in the caretaker’s cottage. Soon Abigail is the focus of everybody’s attention, including that of a handsome, seductive bachelor. Amid the swarm of vacationers, it’s hard to tell harmless visitors from those harboring dark intentions. As Independence Day nears, Abigail must decide: Should she stay on Chapel Isle—risking another heartbreak and even her own safety—or allow the ghosts of her past and the dangers of the present to chase her away?

The Definition of Wind: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle)

United States

AIDS has devastated communities across southern Africa. In Lesotho, where a quarter of adults are infected, the wide-ranging implications of the disease have been felt in every family, disrupting key aspects of social life. In Infected Kin, Ellen Block and Will McGrath argue that AIDS is fundamentally a kinship disease, examining the ways it transcends infected individuals and seeps into kin relations and networks of care. While much AIDS scholarship has turned away from the difficult daily realities of those affected by the disease, Infected Kin uses both ethnographic scholarship and creative nonfiction to bring to life the joys and struggles of the Basotho people at the heart of the AIDS pandemic. The result is a book accessible to wide readership, yet built upon scholarship and theoretical contributions that ensure Infected Kin will remain relevant to anyone interested in anthropology, kinship, global health, and care. Supplementary teaching materials are available at: https://www.csbsju.edu/sociology/anthropology-teaching-resources/useful-resources/infected-kin-teaching-resources

Infected Kin: Orphan Care and AIDS in Lesotho (Medical Anthropology)

Politics & Social Sciences

McGrath, Will

Social Sciences

Rutgers University Press

<div> <div>AIDS has devastated communities across southern Africa. In Lesotho, where a quarter of adults are infected, the wide-ranging implications of the disease have been felt in every family, disrupting key aspects of social life. In Infected Kin, Ellen Block and Will McGrath argue that AIDS is fundamentally a kinship disease, examining the ways it transcends infected individuals and seeps into kin relations and networks of care. While much AIDS scholarship has turned away from the difficult daily realities of those affected by the disease, Infected Kin uses both ethnographic scholarship and creative nonfiction to bring to life the joys and struggles of the Basotho people at the heart of the AIDS pandemic. The result is a book accessible to wide readership, yet built upon scholarship and theoretical contributions that ensure Infected Kin will remain relevant to anyone interested in anthropology, kinship, global health, and care.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.csbsju.edu/sociology/faculty/anthropology-teaching-resources/infected-kin-teaching-resources">Supplementary instructor resources</a> (<a href="https://www.csbsju.edu/sociology/anthropology-teaching-resources/useful-resources/infected-kin-teaching-resources">https://www.csbsju.edu/sociology/faculty/anthropology-teaching-resources/infected-kin-teaching-resources</a>)</div> </div>

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Block, Ellen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Block, Ellen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Block, Ellen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Language of Sand: A Novel

The Definition of Wind: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle)

Infected Kin: Orphan Care and AIDS in Lesotho (Medical Anthropology)

Infected Kin: Orphan Care and AIDS in Lesotho (Medical Anthropology)