Starlight

Martha Beck’s remarkable success in helping people to change their lives has won her accolades everywhere from National Public Radio to USA TODAY. She made multiple appearances on Oprah and Good Morning America for the hardcover edition of Steering by Starlight, which now offers readers a powerful set of new tools—fresh coping strategies based on cutting-edge research in psychiatry and neurology—that will help them overcome obstacles and set their lives on course. Dr. Beck’s trademark humor and empathy are at the heart of her gift for helping people who feel disconnected from their true sense of purpose: to locate meaning in their lives.

Aboard the eighteenth-century pirate sloop William, officers routinely berated underlings as "sea-bitches" instead of "sea-dogs." For crew members Bonny and Read, the insult was technically more accurate. History knows them as Ann Bonny and Mary Read, both of whom served in disguise under an iconic pirate of the Caribbean, Calico Jack Rackham. Guided as much by his imagination as by historical fact, Farley adopts the perspective of Bonny in her dotage, recounting her peculiar path from Ireland to the Bahamas, where she boldly opts to plunge into the "churning cauldron of manhood stirred by Poseidon's staff." There are stretches of surprisingly dead water despite the swashbuckling subject; Farley's portrayal of the tedium of the seafaring life is realistic but not particularly exciting, and he overindulges his interest in the social history of outsiders, dwelling particularly on how Bonny's extra-dark skin (an invented detail?) intensified her alienation from mainstream society. Seaworthy, if not particularly fleet, this will gratify fans of maritime yarns, while the subversive protagonist and homoerotic themes–they are, after all, sailors–should attract an even broader readership. Jennifer Mattson

Min Hui Fen - Er-Hu Classic
Min Hui Fen / China Central Orchestra
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 274 MB | Full Artwork: 243 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Starlight Music International # DDD-31134 | Country/Year: Europe 2002
Genre: Classical, world | Style: Chinese Classical, Er-Hu

"The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a "southern fiddle", and sometimes known in the Western world as the "Chinese violin" or a "Chinese two-stringed fiddle". It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles and large orchestras. It is the most popular of the huqin family of traditional bowed string instruments used by various ethnic groups of China. A very versatile instrument, the erhu is used in both traditional and contemporary music arrangements, such as in pop, rock, jazz, etc."