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Sustainability in Creative Industries: Innovations in Fashion and Visual Media—Volume 3 (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)
by Muhammad Nawaz Tunio Jorge Miguel Chica Garcia Ayman M. Zakaria Yasmin Moanis Latif HatemIn this volume, sustainable creative industries become a beacon for innovative change, forging a path towards a conscious, harmonious world. This volume offers a panoramic view of the future, where innovations in fashion and visual media blend seamlessly with a commitment to a more sustainable and impactful world. More specifically, this volume explores the compelling interplay of sustainability, creativity, and advocacy, casting a spotlight on the transformative potential within fashion and visual media. It embarks on a journey through the innovative landscapes of fashion, where sustainability takes center stage, through an exploration of genderless mode development, contemporary patterns, and reimagined design strategies that breathe new life into tradition. As readers explore the chapters within, the symbiotic relationship between visual media and sustainability emerges, further delve into the evolution of visual communication design and the potency of Instagram microblogs in shaping perceptions and awareness. Furthermore, the role of design in disseminating critical information during disasters is unveiled and the ways in which narrative methods can ignite meaningful change explored.
Sustainable Tourism, Culture and Heritage Promotion: Development, Management and Connectivity (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)
by Uglješa Stankov Rui Alexandre Castanho Jorge Chica-Olmo Miroslav Vujičić Eliana MartinelliThis proceedings book explores future prospects of cultural, heritage, and religious tourism and how it can impact the socioeconomic complexity of a community and future developments. It includes chapters on contemporary digital age pilgrimage, digital interpretation as a management strategy, tourism in the era of digital communication, and the role of social media in conserving intangible cultural heritage. This book focuses on policies and mechanisms for heritage preservation. It includes cultural heritage tourism management, how the digitalization of data has impacted and further developed tourism, World Heritage classification in urban tourism destinations, cultural tourism products, and experiences. Moreover, it discusses the sustainable environment and geography in tourism. It covers topics such as ecotourism and rural sustainable development, heritage in socioeconomic sustainable development, and tourists' perceptions of tourism. Anotherpart of the book explores the social and economic impacts of tourism. It includes chapters on cycling tourism along the Elbe, residents' perceptions of the socioeconomic benefits of restaurants, architecture of historical mosques, tourism as a driver of soft power, tourists' perceptions of service quality, tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, gastronomic narratives in tourism, and residents' perceptions of festivals. Also, it pinpoints the focus on user interaction-based development. It includes chapters on the role of community-led initiatives in heritage revitalization and addressing connectivity issues between historical and natural touristic heritage sites. These research papers provide valuable insights into the multidimensional nature of cultural sustainable tourism, covering a wide range of topics and offering diverse perspectives on its development, management, and impact.
Suture: Trauma and Trans Becoming
by KJ CerankowskiThe landscape of trauma is scattered with ghosts. Wolves hunkering in the shadows. Memory’s spectral persistence and evasion. Leaky bodies and selves gathered up in the storm of pain. Genders imposed and genders made. History’s cruel excisions, scars, the spillage of wounds. A landscape in which we are nevertheless called to build home. Here, “storytelling is a kind of suturing.” Combining memoir, lyrical essay, and cultural criticism, KJ Cerankowski's Suture: Trauma and Trans Becoming stitches together an embodied history of trauma and its ongoing impacts on the lived realities of trans, queer, and other marginalized subjects. Suture is a conjuration, a patchwork knitting of ghost stories attending to the wound as its own archive. It is a journey through many “transitions”: of gender; through illness and chronic pain; from childhood to adulthood and back again; of psyche and form in the wake of abuse and through the work of healing; and of the self, becoming in and through the ongoingness of settler colonial violence and its attendant subjugations of diverse forms of life. Refusing a traditional binary-based gender transition narrative, as well as dominant psychoanalytic narratives of trauma that center an individual process of symptom, diagnosis, and cure, Suture explores the refractive nature of trauma’s dispersed roots and lingering effects. If the wounds of trauma are disquiet apparitions—repetitions within the cut—these stories tend the seams through which the simultaneous loneliness of mourning and togetherness of queer intersubjective relations converge. Across these essays, healing, and indeed living, is a state of perpetual becoming, surviving, and loving, in the nonlinearities of trauma time, body-time, and queer time.
Sven: My Story
by Sven-Göran ErikssonPerhaps no football manager has ever had his personal life dissected as thoroughly as Sven-Goran Eriksson. Yet the man that monopolized the British press during five tumultuous years as England manager remains an enigma. Who, precisely, is Sven?Here, in his no-holds-barred autobiography, the secretive Swede takes us on one of the wildest rides in world football. Populated by fake sheikhs, Italian lawyers, Nottingham outlaws and, of course, many of the biggest names in the game, his is a 40-year-long career that coincides with the evolution of football into a global multibillion-pound industry.Most of all, this is a surprisingly tender, sometimes heartbreaking, but never bitter account of a simple man with a most complicated story. A man who has reached a crossroads in his life, who until now has never stopped to ask himself the question: was it worth it?
Sven-Goran Eriksson: The Final Reckoning
by Joe LovejoyA major in-depth biography of Sven-Goran Eriksson – the first foreign manager of the England football team – which chronicles his time in the hot seat, from taking over from Kevin Keegan, the story of the 2002 World Cup Finals in Japan and South Korea, through to the 2004 European Championships.
A Swag of Memories: Australian bush stories
by Brian TaylorA quintessential Australian bushman, Brian Taylor has spent most of his life on the land. Working as a drover, a stockman, a fencer, a shearer and a saddler, he has gathered a swag of stories over the years as he travelled way out past the Barcoo, along the dusty plains and beside the dry creek beds under the endless southern sky. In A SWAG OF MEMORIES Brian Taylor shares with us these stories, of the people he has met, the places he has been and the moments, long-gone, that define the traditions of the Australian bush. Like those bush poets and storytellers of days past, Taylor brings to life the characters and the creatures of the bush: men like Dangerous Dan Smith, a hard, self-reliant man who had a gentler talent; Father Peter, a parish priest and occasional hero; Charlie Gibson, an Aboriginal stockman who knew the land better than anyone; and Banjo, the ever-alert dingo watchdog. These colourful and evocative bush tales delightfully capture a slight of Australian life that many of us will never get to see. Luckily, with this collection, you can sit back with a billy of tea and read all about it.
Swami Ramdev: Swami Ramdev ki Pehli aur Ekmatra Jeevani (Bloomsbury Revelations Ser.)
by Mr Sandeep DeoCan you imagine a man on excursion with the mission to inspire .2 million people through the medium of yoga everyday? If Swami Ramdev's movement would have happened in any other part of the world then a lot of universities would have done Ph. D on it! I asked him that we understand that you get energy, health and exaltation from Yoga but please tell us from where do you find the strength to face so many torments from all over.Baba Ramdev went for a mission to promote health of all citizens so that poor people can keep optimum health through yoga and overcome diseases that cannot be cured even through expensive medicines. But while on this mission, he found out that the bigger problem lies within the country than globally with regards to health. Then he started to raise his voice. He is man of determination and once he takes aim, he does not give up until it is accomplished.
Swami Vivekananda: A Contemporary Reader
by Makarand R. ParanjapeSwami Vivekananda (1863–1902) popularised Vedanta in the West and reformed Hinduism in India. He also inspired the mass movement that made India a modern nation. In showcasing his life and work, this Reader balances the two main aspects of his life: the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the practical, the devotional and the rational. Included here are the most significant and representative texts from every major genre and phase — selections from his speeches, essays, letters, poems, translations, conversations, and interviews — arranged for easy reading and reference. With a scholarly Introduction highlighting his contemporary relevance, separate section introductions and a detailed biographical Chronology, this volume provides a rare insight into one of India’s greatest minds. This volume will interest scholars and students of modern Indian history, religion, literature, and philosophy as well as general readers.
Swami Vivekananda: A Contemporary Reader
by Makarand R. ParanjapeSwami Vivekananda (1863–1902) popularised Vedanta in the West and reformed Hinduism in India. He also inspired the mass movement that made India a modern nation. In showcasing his life and work, this Reader balances the two main aspects of his life: the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the practical, the devotional and the rational. Included here are the most significant and representative texts from every major genre and phase — selections from his speeches, essays, letters, poems, translations, conversations, and interviews — arranged for easy reading and reference. With a scholarly Introduction highlighting his contemporary relevance, separate section introductions and a detailed biographical Chronology, this volume provides a rare insight into one of India’s greatest minds. This volume will interest scholars and students of modern Indian history, religion, literature, and philosophy as well as general readers.
Swami Vivekananda: The Journey of a Spiritual Entrepreneur
by Rakesh TripathiSwami Vivekananda: The Journey of a Spiritual Entrepreneur details the events of Vivekananda's life, encompassing his transformation from a nameless wanderer to the most renowned representative of Hinduism of all times. In this book, we come across the Vivekananda who not only created history by delivering the Chicago Lecture in 1893 but also established the Ramakrishna Order through an unparalleled entrepreneurial spirit which brought to the fore his qualities as a decisive leader and an excellent communicator who reached out globally to convey the message of the Vedanta. These attributes of Vivekananda's personality have remained largely unexplored in most of the books written on him. This book also maps Hinduism and its present-day challenges vis-à-vis its attributes in light of Swami Vivekananda's philosophy and brings forth its contemporary relevance in a practical manner for the reader at a time when the fire of fundamentalism among different faiths has turned religions of the world essentially into separating factors within humanity. Further, it also contains detailed descriptions of practical approaches to translation that will help scholars build a comprehensive framework for translation of complex texts such as the Vedas and Upanishads. It finally concludes with the Indian media's articulate advocacy of Vivekananda's approach on a number of platforms in recent times, to unite humanity despite all its diversity as it is ever more relevant today.
Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day
by Dan KeelBook of the Month, Countryside magazine‘[this] fascinating new book… provides a detailed insight into the snow-white species’ Waterways WorldA wildlife writer and photographer’s celebration of the mute swan, Britain’s most iconic breed, exploring the bird’s significance across myth and history alongside vivid observations on its habits and habitats.The swan is both a lover and a fighter. A graceful angel and a clumsy oaf. Immortalized by artists over the ages yet misunderstood and threatened in the present day. The mute swan – with its orange beak and aura of stately silence – is the breed we know best in Britain.Dan Keel has been captivated by these birds since boyhood, studying their contrasting qualities over more than three decades. He’s spent countless hours documenting their power, beauty and vulnerability as a writer of nature journalism, as a wildlife photographer looking for the perfect shot, and as a pilot sharing the skies.In this labour of love, Dan speaks up for the mute, answering the essential questions about its nature and its future. Along the way, weaving his first-hand observations into the narrative, he shows us how swans have been portrayed in myth, art and culture for millennia, and how they have been venerated and imitated as well as harmed by humans.Does anybody still eat swan? Can a swan really break your arm? Does the Queen own them all? With an eye for the humour as well as the tragedy of the swan’s story, Dan lays out the facts, guides us to our lakes and riverbanks, and urges us to see these familiar creatures in a fresh light.
Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina
by Georgina PazcoguinAward-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet – the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don’t see from the orchestra circle.In this love letter to the art of dance and the sport that has been her livelihood, NYCB’s first Asian American female soloist Georgina Pazcoguin lays bare her unfiltered story of leaving small-town Pennsylvania for New York City and training amid the unique demands of being a hybrid professional athlete/artist, all before finishing high school. She pitches us into the fascinating, whirling shoes of dancers in one of the most revered ballet companies in the world with an unapologetic sense of humour about the cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality at NYCB. Some swan dives are literal: even in the ballet, there are plenty of face-plants, backstage fights, late-night parties, and raucous company bonding sessions.Rocked by scandal in the wake of the #MeToo movement, NYCB sits at an inflection point, inching toward progress in a strictly traditional culture, and Pazcoguin doesn’t shy away from ballet’s dark side. She continues to be one of the few dancers openly speaking up against the sexual harassment, mental abuse, and racism that in the past went unrecognized or was tacitly accepted as par for the course – all of which she has painfully experienced firsthand.Tying together Pazcoguin’s fight for equality in the ballet with her infectious and deeply moving passion for her craft, Swan Dive is a page-turning, one-of-a-kind account that guarantees you'll never view a ballerina or a ballet the same way again.
The Swan King: Ludwig II of Bavaria
by Christopher McIntoshThe Swan King is the biography of one of the most enigmatic figures of the nineteenthcentury, described by Verlaine as 'the only true king of his century'. A man of wildly eccentric temperament and touched by a rare, imaginative genius, Ludwig II of Bavaria is remembered both for his patronage of Richard Wagner and for the fabulous palaces that he created as part of a dream-world to escape the responsibilities of state. In the realization of his fantasies, he created a ferment of creativity among artists and craftsmen, while his neglect of Bavaria's political interests made powerful enemies among those critical of his self-indulgenceand excesses. At the age of 40, declared insane in a plot to depose him, Ludwig died in mysterious circumstances. What truly happened on that fateful night has never been discovered.
Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 1
by Marcel ProustOne hundred years have passed since Marcel Proust published the first volume of what was to become a seven-volume masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. In the intervening century his famously compelling novel has never been out of print and has been translated into dozens of languages. English-language readers were fortunate to have an early and extraordinarily fine translation of the novel from Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff. With the passage of time, however, the need for corrections, revisions, and annotations to the Scott Montcrieff translation has become apparent. Esteemed Proust scholar William C. Carter celebrates the publication centennial of Swann’s Way with a new, more accurate and illuminating edition of the first volume of In Search of Lost Time. Carter corrects previous translating missteps to bring readers closer to Proust’s intentions while also providing enlightening notes to clarify biographical, historical, and social contexts. Presented in a reader-friendly format alongside the text, these annotations will enrich and deepen the experience of Proust’s novel, immersing readers in the world of an unsurpassed literary genius.
Swans and Pistols: Modeling, Motherhood, and Making It in the Me Generation
by Leon BingFashion icon, Broadway and Hollywood insider, mob mistress, confidante to notorious gang members of both Crips and Bloods, wife, mother, award-winning journalist, Léon Bing has not followed the typical path through life. From her formative relationship with her mother to her days as a star model to her sisterly relationship with Mama Cass Elliot and ultimate reinvention as the author of the bestselling gang exposé, Do or Die, Swans and Pistols details Bing's always exciting and sometimes dangerous life. In a series of riveting stories of unconventionality, Bing wrestles with the themes of mothers, daughters, and reinvention-a concept inseparable from the experience of her early adult life in the 1960s and the city she called home.
Sweat: A History of Exercise
by Bill HayesFrom Insomniac City author Bill Hayes, "who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did" (SF Chronicle)-a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exercise.Exercise is our modern obsession, and we have the fancy workout gear and fads from HIIT to spin classes to hot yoga to prove it. Exercise-a form of physical activity distinct from sports, play, or athletics-was an ancient obsession, too, but as a chapter in human history, it's been largely overlooked. In Sweat, Bill Hayes runs, jogs, swims, spins, walks, bikes, boxes, lifts, sweats, and downward-dogs his way through the origins of different forms of exercise, chronicling how they have evolved over time, dissecting the dynamics of human movement. Hippocrates, Plato, Galen, Susan B. Anthony, Jack LaLanne, and Jane Fonda, among many others, make appearances in Sweat, but chief among the historical figures is Girolamo Mercuriale, a Renaissance-era Italian physician who aimed singlehandedly to revive the ancient Greek “art of exercising” through his 1569 book De arte gymnastica. Though largely forgotten over the past five centuries, Mercuriale and his illustrated treatise were pioneering, and are brought back to life in the pages of Sweat. Hayes ties his own personal experience-and ours-to the cultural and scientific history of exercise, from ancient times to the present day, giving us a new way to understand its place in our lives in the 21st century.
Sweat: A History of Exercise
by Bill Hayes'I was riveted by Sweat and its extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of exercise over millennia' Jane Fonda'A delight ... You're in for a treat' Alison Bechdel, author of The Secret to Superhuman Strength_________________________From the author of Insomniac City 'who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did' (San Francisco Chronicle): a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exerciseExercise is our modern obsession, and we have the fancy workout gear and fads to prove it. Exercise - a form of physical activity distinct from sports, play, or athletics - was an ancient obsession, too, but as a chapter in human history, it's been largely overlooked. In Sweat, Bill Hayes runs, jogs, swims, spins, walks, bikes, boxes, lifts, sweats, and downward-dogs his way through the origins of different forms of exercise, chronicling how they have evolved over time, and dissecting the dynamics of human movement. Hippocrates, Plato, Galen, Susan B. Anthony, Jack LaLanne, and Jane Fonda, among many others, make appearances in Sweat, but chief among the historical figures is Girolamo Mercuriale, a Renaissance-era Italian physician who aimed singlehandedly to revive the ancient Greek “art of exercising” through his 1569 book De arte gymnastica. In the pages of Sweat, Mercuriale and his illustrated treatise are vividly brought back to life. asHayes ties his own personal experience to the cultural and scientific history of exercise, from ancient times to the present day, he gives us a new way to understand its place in our lives in the 21st century.
Sweat: A History of Exercise
by Bill Hayes'I was riveted by Sweat and its extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of exercise over millennia' Jane Fonda'A delight ... You're in for a treat' Alison Bechdel, author of The Secret to Superhuman Strength_________________________From the author of Insomniac City 'who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did' (San Francisco Chronicle): a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exerciseExercise is our modern obsession, and we have the fancy workout gear and fads to prove it. Exercise - a form of physical activity distinct from sports, play, or athletics - was an ancient obsession, too, but as a chapter in human history, it's been largely overlooked. In Sweat, Bill Hayes runs, jogs, swims, spins, walks, bikes, boxes, lifts, sweats, and downward-dogs his way through the origins of different forms of exercise, chronicling how they have evolved over time, and dissecting the dynamics of human movement. Hippocrates, Plato, Galen, Susan B. Anthony, Jack LaLanne, and Jane Fonda, among many others, make appearances in Sweat, but chief among the historical figures is Girolamo Mercuriale, a Renaissance-era Italian physician who aimed singlehandedly to revive the ancient Greek “art of exercising” through his 1569 book De arte gymnastica. In the pages of Sweat, Mercuriale and his illustrated treatise are vividly brought back to life. asHayes ties his own personal experience to the cultural and scientific history of exercise, from ancient times to the present day, he gives us a new way to understand its place in our lives in the 21st century.
Sweating the Metal: Flying under Fire. A Chinook Pilot's Blistering Account of Life, Death and Dust in Afghanistan
by Alex DuncanWith bullets flying, wounded soldiers scream out in pain as the Chinook comes in to land in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan. At the machine's controls is one man and if he doesn't stay calm then everyone could die. That man is Flt Lt Alex 'Frenchie' Duncan DFC and he's been involved in some of the most daring and dangerous missions undertaken by the Chinook force in Afghanistan. In this book he recounts his experiences of life under fire in the dust, heat and bullets of an active war zone. At 99ft long, the Chinook is a big and valuable target to the Taliban, who will stop at nothing to bring one down. And yet Frenchie and his crew risk everything because they know that the troops on the front line are relying on them. Sweating the Metal is the true story of the raw determination and courage of men on the front line - and it's time for their story to be told.
Sweet and Low: A Family Story
by Rich CohenRich Cohen's maternal grandfather was called Ben Eisenstadt. Ben was one of those Jews that, with an anger bred of exclusion, went on to reshape the world. He did so by inventing Sweet 'n Low, a granulated sweetener which, in its tiny pink packet, is still found on every table in every diner in America. This simple invention spawned one of the great American fortunes. This is the story of that fortune, how it was made and how it remade and tore apart everyone who touched it.In Sweet and Low, Rich Cohen - the youngest son of Ben's favourite daughter - takes a journey into his own and his family's past. It is a story of family feuds (his mother was eventually disinherited by her mother), eccentricity verging on madness, gangsters, lawyers, corruption, accountants, ex-wives - a quest for a secret history, a black comedy of the American dream.
Sweet Feet: Samantha Gordon's Winning Season
by Samantha Gordon Ari BrueningTen-year-old Samantha "Sweet Feet" Gordon isn't just a girl who plays football. She's also the best player in a league full of boys and has become an online sensation. Known for flying past the defense to reach the end zone 35 times while racking up almost 2,000 yards in one season, Sam's YouTube highlight reel made her an overnight sensation. Appearing in her own Super Bowl commercial and on ESPN, Good Morning America, and Cartoon Network, Sam's attitude that girls can do anything, has inspired people across the world, from the U.S. women's soccer team to NFL greats to other kids just like her. She even got her own Wheaties box--the first one to ever feature a female football player. Sam's courage on and off the football field has lead her to greatness, but there were times when it wasn't easy. Readers will hear Sam Gordon's take on her love of football, her rise to fame, and her hopes for the future in this exciting autobiography full of stories and photos that will inspire all kids to go for their dreams.
Sweet Liberty: Travels in Irish America
by Joseph O'ConnorJoseph O'Connor's love affair with all things American led to an extraordinary tour of the United States to visit the nine different towns called Dublin, as well as some of the great cities and tiny hamlets in between. Along the way he wittily deconstructs the legends of a whole pantheon of Irish American heroes, from John F. Kennedy to Billy the Kid, and takes a quick detour to finally answer that most important question: was Elvis really Irish? The result is a hilarious, poignant and unforgettable book that celebrates the breathtaking diversity of the Irish influence on America and actually manages to find a town called Dublin, somewhere on the planet, that doesn't have one single pub within its limits...
Sweet Mandarin: The Courageous True Story of Three Generations of Chinese Women and their Journey from East to West
by Helen TseSpanning almost a hundred years, this rich and evocative true story recounts the lives of three generations of remarkable Chinese women. Their extraordinary journey takes us from the brutal poverty of village life in mainland China, to newly prosperous 1930s Hong Kong and finally to the UK. Their lives were as dramatic as the times they lived through.A love of food and a talent for cooking pulled each generation through the most devastating of upheavals. Helen Tse's grandmother, Lily Kwok, was forced to work as an amah after the violent murder of her father. Crossing the ocean from Hong Kong in the 1950s, Lily honed her famous chicken curry recipe. Eventually she opened one of Manchester's earliest Chinese restaurants where her daughter, Mabel, worked from the tender age of nine. But gambling and the Triads were pervasive in the Chinese immigrant community, and they tragically lost the restaurant. It was up to Helen and her sisters, the third generation of these exceptional women, to re-establish their grandmother's dream.Sweet Mandarin shows how the most important inheritance is wisdom, and how recipes - passed down the female line - can be the most valuable heirloom.
Sweet Revenge: Updated Edition
by Tom BowerIlluminating the life of Simon Cowell and delving into backstage scandal, tabloid rumour and the cut-throat worlds of music and television, Tom Bower leaves no stone unturned in this must-read biography. This is a detailed insider's account of entertainment mogul Simon Cowell's rise to meteoric fame and all of the controversial highs and lows along the way. Packed with juicy details, exclusive interviews and sensational revelations, Sweet Revenge is an incredible portrait of Simon Cowell which also uncovers the real stories behind The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol. Tom Bower is the author of nineteen books, including biographies of Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Fayed, Gordon Brown, Richard Branson, Conrad Black and, more recently, Bernie Ecclestone.
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm: The powerful, emotional novel about the temptations of dangerous love
by LAURA WARRELLFinalist of the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction'Told in a rich array of voices, this gorgeously written debut explores the myriad syncopations of love and desire' Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere'Beautifully and cleverly written...The novel's tender, sensual, enchanting prose entices you into a world of deep longing' Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church LadiesLove is messy. Love can make us feel alive. It can also bring us down. Sometimes we look for it in all the wrong places. This is a novel about longing, desire and dreams; about passion and risk and all the places in between.Maggie is pregnant with Circus Palmer's child. This may be her last chance, but she craves her freedom.Pia is Circus's ex-wife, still in love with the fantasy of the man who conjured jazz tunes for her into the night, but who left many years before.Koko, Circus's daughter, is lost in the maelstrom of teenage years, the confusion of awakening desire and yearning for the father she barely knows.Peach is a barmaid who just wants someone to see the person she is inside.Odessa is on the run from a mistake that can't be undone.And then there's Circus, Circus Palmer, a jazz trumpeter whose moment of glory is fading. Selfish, damaged, scared, perhaps the only person Circus is fooling is himself.Delivered in a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is a provocative and gripping novel about the desire to be loved, and the need to belong.*****'An exceptional debut...This story is an example of how love, in all of its polyrhythms, can sometimes sound like song, and other times like noise. And this book is an example of how a great story can become a bass drum, kicking and thumping in your belly far after it's over. A modern masterpiece.' Jason Reynolds, author of Look Both Ways'Soulful... Elegant, unexpected and wrenching as the "fierce" sounds that emerge from Circus's trumpet . . . Unforgettable' New York Times Book Review'[An] emerging literary superstar . . . This sensual and sensuous debut is a kaleidoscopic character study, a polyphonic riff on the modern-day Casanova from the perspectives of the myriad women in his wake' Oprah Daily'A sultry and subversive debut. Laura Warrell's prose sparkles, but it's what she's got to say about sex and love and being a woman that will take your breath away. This book is a love song, and Warrell knows how to hold all the right notes.' Rachel Beanland, author of Florence Adler Swims Forever'Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm,' proclaimed Jelly Roll Morton, and Warrell plays her exceptional first novel with plenty of rhythm and tenderness, delivered in brisk, mordantly gorgeous language' Library Journal'A book about desire and about love, about where these emotions meet and part and sometimes interlace in inescapable ways...a classic in the making.' Brian Castleberry, author of Nine Shiny Objects