Search results for ""spark""

She needed a getaway. What she found was a home.When Louise surprises her boyfriend by returning early from a work trip, safe to say she wasn’t expecting to see him in flagrante with another woman. Heart-torn and vowing to stay away from men, when Louise’s next project involves restoring an ageing hotel in Italy, she leaps at the chance to get away.Managed by a crew of sextagenarians, the Grand Hotel del Monferrato needs all the love and care Louise can give it. But it’s hard to stay focused on the job when her thoughts keep straying to Vito, the reclusive and mysterious neighbour.With his tragic past and her no-romance policy, Louise knows they can’t have a future. Yet something keeps pulling the two together…A beautiful romance set in the hills of Turin, perfect for readers of Lucy Coleman and Alex Brown.Praise for An Escape to Remember ‘The story was compelling and entertaining, I rooted for the characters and liked the storytelling. Highly recommended.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘Another superb read by the wonderfully talented T.A Williams. Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Italy, this story is rich in both landscape and romance. Louise is a wonderful leading lady who…was a pleasure to get to know during this story. ’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘These books always spark joy! It has been wonderful escaping to Italy this week. The descriptions are always mesmerising and so detailed...a really gorgeous read that I would highly recommend.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘T.A. Williams has done it again! What a talent for creating stories that are heart-warming and uplifting. I love these stories set in Italy, with believable characters and lush settings. Can't wait to read the next one!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘What a beautiful book. I'm a sucker for romance and this one pulls on the heart strings in every direction. I couldn't recommend this book more!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘A really lovely, safe and gentle read. If you're looking for an escapist, uplifting read, this one's for you. The writing is as beautiful as the Italian setting. I will be recommending it to friends. Five stars.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘T. A. Williams once again proves why he is the king of Italian set romance! Another simply triumphant story from one of my favourite authors to escape with.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘A beautiful easy read that would be good to take on holiday…I really enjoyed the story, the setting, and the descriptions of food.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘I simply love this author's books, and this one is no different. I am once again blown away by the ability of a book to draw me in so deep that I read it in one sitting.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘A brilliant story…the food descriptions were amazing. A jolly enjoyable read.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review‘What a great book! I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the wonderful characters along the way. Written really well and kept me up reading!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

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Whether you want to hike through the jaw-dropping scenery of Acadia, see rare wildlife and natural wonders in Yellowstone, or go river-rafting in the Grand Canyon, the local Fodor’s travel experts in all the National Parks are here to help! Fodor’s Complete Guide to the National Parks of the USA is packed with maps, carefully curated recommendations, and everything else you need to simplify your trip-planning process and make the most of your time. This brand new title has been designed with an easy-to-read layout, fresh information, and beautiful color photos.Fodor’s Complete Guide to the National Parks of the USA travel guide includes: AN ILLUSTRATED ULTIMATE EXPERIENCES GUIDE to the top things to see and do MULTIPLE ITINERARIES to effectively organize your days and maximize your time MORE THAN 70 DETAILED MAPS to help you navigate confidently COLOR PHOTOS throughout to spark your wanderlust! HONEST RECOMMENDATIONS FROM LOCALS on the best sights, restaurants, hotels, activities, and more PHOTO-FILLED “BEST OF” FEATURES on “Ultimate Experiences,” “Best Campgrounds,” “Best Lodges,” and more TRIP-PLANNING TOOLS AND PRACTICAL TIPS including when to go, getting around, beating the crowds, and saving time and money HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTS providing rich context on the local people, art, architecture, geography and more SPECIAL FEATURES on “Exploring the Colorado River,” “What to Watch and Read Before You Visit,” and “Yellowstone’s Geothermal Wonders” LOCAL WRITERS to help you find the under-the-radar gems UP-TO-DATE COVERAGE ON: Acadia National Park, Arches National Park, Badlands National Park, Big Bend National Park, Biscayne National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Channel Islands National Park, Congaree National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Death Valley National Park, Denali National Park, Dry Tortugas National Park, Everglades National Park, Gates of the Arctic & Kobuk Valley National Park, Gateway Arch National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Glacier & Waterton Lakes National Parks, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Great Basin National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Haleakala National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hot Springs National Park, Indiana Dunes National Park, Isle Royale National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Katmai National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Lake Clark National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mammoth Cave National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, National Park of American Samoa, New River Gorge Park and Preserve, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, Pinnacles National Park, Redwood National and State Parks, Rocky Mountain National Park, Saguaro National Park, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Shenandoah National Parks, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Virgin Islands National Parks, Voyageurs National Parks, White Sands National Park, Wind Cave National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Zion National Park Planning on spending more time in any of the states? Check out Fodor’s Arizona and the Grand Canyon, Fodor’s California, Fodor's Colorado, Fodor’s Florida, Fodor’s Essential Hawaii, Fodor’s Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, Fodor's U.S. & British Virgin Islands, Compass Yellowstone National Park, Compass Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks, and Fodor's InFocus Smoky Mountains.*Important note for digital editions: The digital edition of this guide does not contain all the images or text included in the physical edition.ABOUT FODOR'S AUTHORS: Each Fodor's Travel Guide is researched and written by local experts. Fodor’s has been offering expert advice for all tastes and budgets for over 80 years. For more travel inspiration, you can sign up for our travel newsletter at fodors.com/newsletter/signup, or follow us @FodorsTravel on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We invite you to join our friendly community of travel experts at fodors.com/community to ask any other questions and share your experience with us!

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Physical educators play a critical role in shaping the health and fitness of America’s youth—and Physical Best, Fourth Edition, is the resource that will help them achieve success in that role.Physical Best, developed by experts identified by SHAPE America, has long been the standard in the field for health-related fitness education, and this latest rendition is the best and most complete package yet: A comprehensive, three-in-one resource. The entire Physical Best program was previously spread over three books (Physical Education for Lifelong Fitness, Physical Best Activity Guide—Elementary Level, and Physical Best Activity Guide—Middle and High School Levels). It now is offered in one all-inclusive resource to reinforce the scope and sequence of the program so teachers can see what comes before and after the grade levels they teach. Updated material to address standards. All chapters and activities are updated to address SHAPE America’s National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical Education. Teachers can be confident they are measuring student progress effectively. New or revised chapters. Teachers will benefit from the new information on the latest research, technology, power training, professional development, best practices, and more. An attractive four-color layout. The text now features four-color illustrations. A web resource that includes K-12 activities. With previous editions, the activities were housed in two separate books, one for elementary teachers and one for middle and secondary teachers. Now, all activities are on the accompanying web resource, where teachers can sort the activities by standard, grade, outcome, and skill and then use them on a mobile device or download and print them. Most activities are supported by ready-to-use reproducible forms such as handouts, assessments, posters, and worksheets. Other useful web ancillaries include an instructor guide to help teachers deliver effective lessons, a test package that teachers can use to create various types of tests and quizzes, and a presentation package that offers slides with key points and graphics from the book. Physical Best meets needs on many levels. For veteran teachers, it outlines strategies for emphasizing health-related fitness in their existing programs. New teachers will benefit from the specific examples from master teachers and be able to use this guidance for creating an effective fitness education program. For teacher education programs, it provides an overview of current research, trends, and best practices in health-related fitness. And for district coordinators, it reinforces professional development training and continued education. This latest edition of the official SHAPE America resource is organized into four parts: Part I offers an in-depth look at physical activity behavior and motivation and explores basic training principles. An expanded chapter on nutrition covers the foundations of a healthy diet and reflects the most up-to-date USDA guidelines. Part II examines health-related fitness concepts: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, flexibility, and body composition. The text supplies tips for addressing each fitness component within a program. Part III presents strategies for integrating health-related fitness education throughout the curriculum, employing best teaching practices, and being inclusive in the gym, on the field, and in the classroom. In part IV, readers study assessment and learn assessment strategies for effective teaching and health-related programming. They discover how to collect and use assessment results and how to assess fitness concept knowledge. Physical Best helps teachers impart the skills and knowledge that students need to become physically literate—the first step to leading healthier, less stressful, and more productive lives. It details best practices, provides current content, and shows how to integrate health-related fitness education into an existing curriculum. It helps students meet standards and grade-level outcomes. It can help spark student interest in lifelong physical activity. And it will help teachers be the best physical educators they can be as they shape the future health of the nation.

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Jesus comes to life in this fascinating modern biography excerpted from The Urantia Book. Many of these historical stories are familiar to readers of the New Testament but dozens are new, including the missing years not found in the Bible. Here you discover Jesus presented as never before, both as divine Son and human hero whose matchless life inspires, comforts, and transforms you. It is beautifully written in modern, page-turning prose and complemented with 106 paintings from 35 renowned artists, including 42 originally commissioned works you will see for the first time. The paintings run the gamut of fine art celebrating the life of Christ, both classic and modern. These artists poured their souls into these portraits of higher spiritual reality. Our deep appreciation and humble gratitude go out to each one of them. These paintings illustrate Jesus’ life journey from his humble birth and childhood to adolescence and manhood; from private to public ministry and on to his death, resurrection, and ascension. The artwork celebrates his diverse life as son, father-brother, carpenter, boat designer and builder, tutor, translator, caravan conductor, teacher, healer, minister, and friend. No one knows what Jesus looked like, but these artists painted their soulful interpretations to spark our imagination of these scenes from the Master’s life. Our intent is to give you a visual communion with Jesus that complements the enthralling narrative. This impeccably designed book provides relevant and empowering spiritual insights, helping you navigate the challenging yet promising conditions of the 21st century. We live in an exciting era of unprecedented improvements in our material lives brought about by scientific, industrial, and social achievements. Yet despite all this progress, many souls feel lonely and displaced. We need God and have an innate thirst for spiritual answers because of that “still, small voice” that lives within us. Finding God by living the personal religion of Jesus satisfies that thirst. The search for the genuine Jesus continues to intrigue humanity. Since the Bible only records an estimated 50 days of his life, it follows that there is more to his story. You will find it here in this detailed history of the Master’s entire life, including the public ministry recorded in the Gospels. It provides a coherent and seamless biography of this magnificent personality who continues to shape spiritual progress in our world. The story of Jesus is one of the most enthralling chapters in human history. The closing passage of the Apostle John’s gospel speaks to a life larger than even the world itself. How fitting that the last words of his gospel should be the first words of this book: “But there are also many things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” In John’s day the Word was made flesh. In these days the Word is made book. The Untold Story of Jesus reveals the living Christ to members of the church that bears his name, as well as to worshipers of all world religions. It is sure to become a favorite volume for all who seek God. A Final Thought We pray that these stories, teachings, and paintings provide you with a new sense of faith, comfort, and purpose. And to you who may not believe in Jesus, we ask you to look again. Read the stories, enjoy the art, and get to know the man through new eyes. What the world needs now is unconditional love, unfailing compassion, and matchless goodwill. Even after two thousand years, Jesus’ teachings have not been practiced on a global scale. When that day comes, his inspired life will transform, transfigure, and rule this world. His message of personal faith in a loving heavenly Father coupled with unselfish service to one another is a clear and direct pathway to peace in this life and passage to the next. May you be blessed by the supreme adventure that follows! “Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.” About the Authors The book was produced by Mo Siegel and Jim English and edited by a team of Urantia Book scholars headed by MaryJo Garascia. The book was designed by Carol Norton with Barbara Brownell Grogan as contributing editor.

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Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871) was long considered one of the most typically French as well as one of the most successful of the opera composers of the 19th century. Although musically gifted, he initially chose commerce as a career, but soon realized that his future lay in music. He studied under Cherubini, and it was not long before his opéra-comique La Bergère Châteleine (1820), written at the age of 38, established him as an operatic composer. Perhaps the greatest turning point in Auber’s life was his meeting with the librettist Eugène Scribe (1791–1861), with whom he developed a long and illustrious working partnership that only ended with Scribe’s death. Success followed success; works such as Le Maçon (1825) and La Muette de Portici (1828) brought Auber public fame and official recognition. In 1829 he was appointed a member of the Institut, in 1839 Director of Concerts at Court, in 1842 Director of the Conservatoire, in 1852 Musical Director of the Imperial Chapel, and in 1861 Grand Officer of the Légion d’Honneur.Auber seems to have been fated to live in revolutionary times; during his long life no less than four revolutions took place in France (1789, 1830, 1848, 1870). Auber’s famous historical grand opera La Muette de Portici (also known by its hero’s name as Masaniello) is perhaps unsurprisingly based on revolution, depicting the 1647 Neapolitan uprising against Spanish rule. It is a key work in operatic history, and has a revolutionary history itself: it was a performance of this work in Brussels in 1830 that helped spark the revolution that led to the separation of Belgium from Holland. It was a revolution that hastened Auber’s death at the old age of 89. He died on 12 May 1871 as a result of a long illness aggravated by the privations and dangers of the Siege of Paris. He had refused to leave the city he had always loved, even after his house had been set on fire by the petroleurs et petroleuses. In a twist of fate, a mark had been placed on the house of the composer of Masaniello, the very voice of Romantic liberty!Auber’s overtures were once instantly recognizable, favourites of the light Classical repertoire. His gracious melodies and dance rhythms had a huge influence, both on piano and instrumental music, and on the genre of Romantic comic opera, especially in Germany. Musical tastes and fashions have changed, and contemporary audiences are more accustomed to the heavier fare of verismo, Wagnerian transcendentalism, and twentieth-century experimentalism. The operas themselves, apart from Fra Diavolo (1830), are seldom performed, yet Auber’s elegant, delicate and restrained art remains as appealing to the discerning listener as ever it was.Zerline, an opera in three acts with libretto by Eugène Scribe, was first performed at the Académie nationale de musique (Salle de la rue Le Peletier) on 16 May 1851. The scene is set in Palermo, during the Restoration. The Prince of Roccanera, married to the sister of the King, has a supposed niece, Gemma. She is really his daughter by Zerline, an orange-seller. The latter was abducted by pirates, and having returned to Palermo after many trials, now meets her daughter, assuming the role of her aunt. She learns that Gemma loves a young naval officer, Rodolphe, but that the Prince’s wife wishes Gemma to marry the King’s cousin, much against the girl’s wishes. In the third act, Zerline, already alerted to an intrigue compromising to the two young lovers, is able to safeguard their integrity and bring about their union.The action is better suited to a vaudeville than an opera, and the scenario has little innate interest. The role of Zerline was devised especially for the great contralto Marietta Alboni (1823–94), the first role she created. The B-flat major overture immediately establishes the family nature of the drama, with its parable of past sins, social disparity and all-conquering maternal love.There is allusion to the Sicilian setting in the two opening choruses of act 1 which are dominated by barcarolle rhythms in establishing the couleur locale. Alboni’s magnificent talent added great value to the light music written by Auber for this slight canvas. The work consequently contains many pieces of a purely virtuoso nature. Among them are the grand air d’entrée “Ô Palerme! ô Sicile!”, the thematically central canzonetta “Achetez mes belles oranges”, and the duet for soprano and contralto “Quel trouble en mon âme” in act 1. It is as though the Italian setting of the story and the Italian origins of the prima donna caused Auber to look to his early love for Rossini, and his enduring attachment to Italian musical forms and local colour (as in Fiorella, La Muette de Portici, Fra Diavolo, Actéon, La Sirène, Zanetta and Haydée).The vocal part of Zerline is a conscious re-creation of the old Rossini mode, and her various solos are written in the style of the virtuoso contralto of the opera seria, obviously with a contemporary Gallic fleetness all Auber’s own. The Grand Air demonstrates all the features.The original cast was: Merly (Roccanera); Mlle Marietta Alboni (Zerline); Mlle Maria-Dolorès-Bénédicta-Joséphine Nau (Gemma); Aimès (Rodolphe); Mlle Dameron (the Princess of Roccanera); and Lyons (the Marquis of Bettura). The work was only performed 14 times in Paris, with no reprise. It was translated into Italian, and produced in Brussels (in French) and London (in Italian).

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