Books like Alchemy by E. J. Holmyard

A collection of 20 short stories and poems of science fiction and fantasy by Anne McCaffrey, featuring works from authors such as Robert Silverberg, L. Sprague de Camp, Gene Wolfe and others.

After six centuries of living an endless life, an immortal woman haunted by the souls she has taken seeks redemption—and true love—when she swaps bodies with a teenage girl and falls for a boy next door.

A concise, practical guide blending modern chemistry with ancient alchemical techniques, Real Alchemy introduces beginners to plant and mineral work, the history and theories of alchemy, and realistic methods for pursuing the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.

Examines the principles and meaning of alchemy, discusses ancient and modern alchemists, and describes the practice of alchemy in the twentieth century.

The task Charles Simic undertakes in this diverse, essentially unclassifiable book is one of illumination and tribute. Rather than constrict his response to Joseph Cornell's surreal art to the objective terms of critical analysis, Simic sets out to recreate in a different medium - the written language of the poet - the experience of viewing Cornell's enigmatic constructions of boxes, collages, and film. Partly an appreciation of Cornell's work, partly an appropriation of his method, Dime-Store Alchemy interweaves elements of art history, poetry, and biography in a series of short texts that create a kind of poetic equivalent to Cornell's visual art. The artist's premise that the world is beautiful, but not sayable becomes Simic's as well. From incisive meditations on Cornell's methods and aims, Simic moves to create his own assemblages in the spirit of Cornell and the poets he admired - Dickinson, Whitman, and Poe. The resulting prose poems are studded with the same unlikely combinations of found objects and dime-store jewels that inhabit Cornell's boxes. Simic's evocative images, like Cornell's, defy rational explanation but instead invite the viewer to participate in the imaginative life of the art, "to make up stories about what one sees." This highly personal consideration of one of the most important visual artists of the twentieth century conveys the same spirit of chance, the same playful celebration of the miraculous properties of the commonplace, that distinguishes the work of an artist who is, as Simic writes, "in the end unknowable."