Accompanied by photographs and illustrations, an informative and in-depth guide answers a vast array of sex-related questions, from enhancing your sex life to sexual health, and features practical advice for improving your sex life and relationships. Original.

After the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity in the early fourth century, his mother the Empress Helena ordered the excavation of the Holy Sepulchre, the purported site of Christ's tomb in Jerusalem. During the excavation a cup was found, which many believed to be the vessel used by Jesus himself at the Last Supper. According to the fifth-century historian Olympiodorus, it was smuggled out of Rome when the city was sacked by the barbarian Visigoths in 410 AD. What became of the sacred relic is unknown, but well into the Middle Ages the legend survived that it was safely taken to the last outpost of Roman civilisation in western Europe - the isle of Britain. In legend, the cup became the most sacred relic of all - the Holy Grail. It was believed to hold miraculous healing powers, and in medieval literature the search for the Grail became an eternal quest for King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Then, in the early 1600s, the Shropshire landowner Robert Vernon claimed to have discovered the true hiding place of the Grail. On his deathbed Vernon said that he had learned of its whereabouts from a medieval ecclesiastical narrative called the Peverel. He died without revealing his secret, or producing the document as proof. In 1994, historical detective Graham Phillips discovered an astonishing confirmation of Vernon's claim. The Peverel did exist, surviving in a fourteenth-century manuscript in the vaults of the British Library. Listed as the Historia Anglicarum: Regem XII the manuscript tells how the Grail was kept by an order of monks at an abbey in Shropshire just a few miles from Vernon's home at Hodnet. Remarkably, the work did not refer to the Grail as a mythical relic, but as the historical artefact discovered by the Empress Helena in Jerusalem in the year 327. This new evidence for the existence of the sacred cup initiated a twentieth-century search for the Holy Grail, an incredible adventure following a trail of mysterious clues left years ago in the English countryside. The Search for the Grail is the remarkable true story of a modern-day quest.

Only in Minnesota can you snap a Polaroid of a fifty-five-foot-tall grinning green man with a size seventy-eight shoe or marvel at the spunk of a Swede who dedicated his life to spinning a gigantic ball of twine. The world’s largest hockey stick, as well as the biggest pelican, prairie chicken, turkey, fish, otter, fox, and loon also make Minnesota their home. Where else can you ponder the mysterious "miracle meat" of Spam in a museum dedicated to pork products or have your head examined by the phrenology machines at the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices? Minnesota Marvels is a tour of the inspired, bizarre, brilliant, scandalous, and funny sites around the state. Look up in wonder at the several Paul Bunyan statues, including the original (Bemidji), the tallest (Akeley), and the largest talking version (Brainerd). Ease on down the road to visit the first home of the heel-tapping native of Grand Rapids, Judy Garland, or walk the "main street" of Sauk Centre immortalized by native son Sinclair Lewis. See the birthplaces of Charles Lindbergh, the Mayo brothers, the Greyhound bus, the snowmobile, and the ice-cream sandwich. Minnesota is also the home of such attractions as the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and the world’s largest aerial lift bridge in Duluth, and architectural wonders such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s modernist gas station in Cloquet and Frank Gehry’s arresting Weisman Art Museum. Stunning mansions with histories of ghost sightings, the hangouts and lairs of infamous gangsters, and old-fashioned breweries dot the state. Conveniently organized by town name and illustrated throughout, Minnesota Marvels is the perfect light-hearted guide for entertaining road trips all over the state.

Chronicles the founding father's life and his multiple careers as a shopkeeper, writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, business strategist, and political leader, while showing how his faith in the wisdom of the common citizen helped forge an American national identity based on the virtues of its middle class. Reprint. 150,000 first printing.

She was both guardian of the hearth and, on occasion, ruler and warrior, leading men into battle, managing the affairs of her people, sporting war paint as well as necklaces and earrings. She built houses and ground corn, wove blankets and painted pottery, played field hockey and rode racehorses. Frequently she enjoyed an open and joyous sexuality before marriage; if her marriage didn't work out she could divorce her husband by the mere act of returning to her parents. She mourned her dead by tearing her clothes and covering herself with ashes, and when she herself died was often shrouded in her wedding dress. She was our native sister, the American Indian woman, and it is of her life and lore that Carolyn Niethammer writes in this rich tapestry of America's past and present. Here, as it unfolded, is the chronology of the native American woman's life. Here are the birth rites of Caddo women from the Mississippi-Arkansas border, who bore their children alone by the banks of rivers and then immersed themselves and their babies in river water; here are Apache puberty ceremonies that are still carried on today, when the cost for the celebrations can run anywhere from one to six thousand dollars. Here are songs from the Night Dances of the Sioux, where girls clustered on one side of the lodge and boys congregated on the other; here is the Shawnee legend of the Corn Person and of Our Grandmother, the two female deities who ruled the earth. Far from the submissive, downtrodden "squaw" of popular myth, the native American woman emerges as a proud, sometimes stoic, always human individual from whom those who came after can learn much. At a time when many contemporary American women are seeking alternatives to a life-style and role they have outgrown, Daughters of the Earth offers us an absorbing -- and illuminating -- legacy of dignity and purpose.

The HarperCollins Beginner's French Dictionary is an innovative dictionary designed specifically for anyone starting to learn French. The dictionary is designed to be easy to read, easy to use, and easy to understand. The comprehensive entries highlight key translations, all essential set expressions and have clear, helpful examples to show how to best use the translation.

Allen (maritime law, U. of Washington School of Law) revises the 1994 edition of this classic text, reorganizing chapters and updating information to reflect both modern risk assessment and management principles and changes or additions to codes and standards. The 17 chapter topics include a history of the nautical rules of the road; collision law in the US; rule applicability, definitions, structure, and construction; lookout, radar systems and watchstanding; risk of collision and action to avoid it; responsibilities for narrow channels and fairways, managed waterways (TSS and VTS); assessing vessel type, status, and employment; head-on, overtaking, and crossing situations; responsibilities in restricted visibility, lights and shapes; and sound and light signals. Appendices include maritime rules, regulations, and resolutions and an index of case. Originally published as The Rules of the Nautical Road in 1941. This edition includes the charming preface for the first edition. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Identifies authors and works of world literature, defines literary terms, and offers brief discussusions of topics in literature

An astrologer offers readers sound advice on how to learn all they can about the influence of birthdays on human events, explaining how both one's sun sign and the natural rhythms at work on one's birthday can affect one's life. Original.