Tourmaline group minerals have graced the cabinets of mineral collectors and museums for untold generations. Their colors and color patterns, along with their diverse shapes and associations, have assured their role as exqui site showpieces. Their workability and durability have, in addition, made them favorites among connoisseurs of colored gemstones. Tourmalines, however, are much more than exquisite showpieces and beautiful gemstones. Their diverse crystal forms and unique structure, their variable chemical compositions, their intriguing physical properties, and their widespread occurrence in nearly all kinds of rocks have long attracted the attention of scientists from several disciplines. Furthermore, they have several potential uses in science and industry. From an historical standpoint: Tourmaline is possibly the "Lyngurium" -green at one end, light colored at the other-that Theophrastus (ca.315 B.C.) described in On Stones, the first known book about minerals. Tourma line is one of the minerals thought to have been used as a "sunstone" navigation compass by Vikings during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries.

The sequel to Park's stunning fantasy debut, A Princess of Roumania. Teenager Miranda Popescu is at the fulcrum of a deadly political and diplomatic battle between conjurers in an alternate fantasy world where "Roumania" is a leading European power. Miranda was hidden by her aunt in our world. An American couple adopted and raised her in their quiet Massachusetts college town, but she had been translated by magic back to her own world, and is at large, five years in the future. The mad Baroness Ceaucescu in Bucharest, and the sinister alchemist, the Elector of Ratisbon, who holds her true mother prisoner in Germany are her enemies. This is the story of how Miranda -- separated from her two best friends, Peter and Andromeda who have been left behind in the forests of an alternate America -- begins to grow into her own personality. And how Peter and Andromeda are shockingly changed in the process of making their way to Roumania to find Miranda again at the end of this book. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The qualities of the mysterious tourmaline are unique in the mineral realm. Fourteen years went into creating this volume, including visits to scientific collections all over Europe. Phenomena gave way to outer experience, which led to inner experience and insight; the natural object gave way to natural being. A miracle of nature, the tourmaline is a precious stone, having perhaps the greatest range of figuration and coloring of any gem. The importance of this book is in its lavish illustrations and far-reaching cognitive treatment of the tourmaline. At its heart are approximately 400 color photographs by some of the best photographers. The concluding text takes a Goethean view, explaining how tourmalines came to be invested with such a panoply of meanings, which remained unacknowledged for centuries. This is a book your family will treasure for many generations.