They call him the Dollmaker, a serial killer who stalks Los Angeles and leaves a grisly calling card on the faces of his female victims. When a suspect is shot by Detective Harry Bosch, everyone believes the city's nightmare is over. But then the dead man's widow sues Harry and the LAPD for killing the wrong man--an accusation that rings terrifyingly true when a new corpse is found with the Dollmaker's macabre signature. Now, for the second time, Harry must hunt down a ruthless death-dealer before he strikes again. Careening through a blood-tracked quest, Harry will go from the hard edges of the L.A. night to the last place he ever wanted to go--the darkness of his own heart...

These whimsical, timeless tales, by one of our most treasured poets, will appeal to any generation.

The four tales in this enchanting, newly illustrated volume, tell of lonely and extraordinary characters finding friendship in unlikely companions. In "The Old Man Who Said Why" a wise fairy's kind nature is taxed when one old man's questions throw the entire heavens into madness. In "The Elephant and the Butterfly" and "The House That Ate Mosquito Pie" shyness is overcome by the compelling love of new friends. "The Little Girl Named I" is a conversation between the author and a small girl, in the manner of A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh.

Clever, insightful, and magical, peopled with vivid characters―a house that prefers one bird to any human inhabitants, an elephant paralyzed with delight, a fairy who "always breakfasted on light and silence"here are tales as only Cummings could write them. A delightful and surprising gift for anyone, young or old. 21 color watercolors

Six months ago, a case nearly cost Sophie her life. So when a detective friend asks her to visit Arizona, she welcomes the break. But her vacation ends abruptly when bodies are found at a university and she gets pulled into the case. The horrifying methodology—deliberate body positioning, a distinctive red heart scrawled on each victim—indicates to Sophie that a new serial killer has claimed the area. Oddly, though, certain signature elements differ between killings. Fortunately, the FBI database has a record of many of the signatures—but each belongs to a different serial killer.

As the bodies continue to appear, Sophie must hone her terrifying skills and suffer the horrors in her head in order to stop this killer.

The seventh novel in James S. A. Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series--now a major television series.

AN OLD ENEMY RETURNS

In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace.

In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity and the power to enforce it.

New technologies clash with old as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient patterns of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity -- and of the Rocinante -- unexpectedly and forever...

In 1980, Michael Harner blazed the trail for the worldwide revival of shamanism with his seminal classic The Way of the Shaman. In this long-awaited sequel, he provides new evidence of the reality of heavens.

“Harner has impeccable credentials, both as an academic and as a practicing shaman. Without doubt (since the recent death of Mircea Eliade) the world’s leading authority on shamanism.”
—Nevill Drury, author of The Elements of Shamanism

Drawing from a lifetime of personal shamanic experiences and more than 2,500 reports of Westerners’ experiences during shamanic ascension, Harner highlights the striking similarities between their discoveries, indicating that the heavens and spirits they’ve encountered do indeed exist. He also provides instructions on his innovative core-shamanism techniques, so that readers too can ascend to heavenly realms, seek spirit teachers, and return later at will for additional healing and advice.

Written by the leading authority on shamanism, Cave and Cosmos is a must-read not only for those interested in shamanism, but also for those interested in spirituality, comparative religion, near-death experiences, healing, consciousness, anthropology, and the nature of reality.

“What Yogananda did for Hinduism and D. T. Suzuki did for Zen, Michael Harner has done for shamanism—namely, bring the tradition and its richness to Western awareness.”
—from Higher Wisdom, by Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob

Today, practicing shamanism doesn't mean you have to live in a rain forest or a desert. Thanks to a modern renaissance of shamanic spirituality, practitioners from all walks of life now use powerful indigenous techniques for healing, insight, and spiritual growth. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman bring together a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual for making these practices accessible and available in our daily lives, including:

• How the original practice of shamanism shaped the world's spiritual traditions and why it is still relevant today
• The art of the shamanic journey--a time-tested meditative method for experiencing important spiritual lessons and truths
• Guidance for avoiding common pitfalls of shamanic practice
• Instruction for working with your dreams, connecting to your spirit guides, healing yourself and your environment

The core of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation-- to communicate firsthand with your spiritual allies and discover your own power. Awakening to the Spirit World takes you through each step of developing a personal connection with your helping spirits to receive wisdom, insight, and healing energy. From an overview of shamanism, to your first journeys and encounters with your power animals, to expanding your skills and insight through long-term practice, here is an in-depth resource for the shamanic arts that includes:

• Creating rituals and ceremonies for healing and transformation
• Reconnecting with nature to heal ourselves and the planet
• Working with your dreams, songs, and artistic vision to strengthen your practice
• Traditional wisdom for children-- healthy rites of passage for each phase of a child's journey to adulthood
• Honoring the cycle of life and death-- shamanic practices to prepare for and celebrate our final transition in this life

Table of Contents

1 What is Shamanism?
2 The Shamanic Journey
3 Reconnecting with Nature
4 Visionary Work with Weather and Environmental Changes
5 The Power of Ceremony and Ritual
6 Dreams
7 Creative Art as a Bridge
8 Working with Sound and Light
9 Death As a Rite of Passage
10 Experiential Work with Death and Dying
11 All Changes Involve Death
12 Our Children Are Our Future
13 Working in Community
14 The Transformational Community
15 The Return of the Shaman

An adventurous ride through the most blisteringly hot regions of science, history, and culture. 

Melting glaciers, warming oceans, droughts-it's clear that today's world is getting hotter. But while we know the agony of a sunburn or the comfort of our winter heaters, do we really understand heat?

A bestselling scientist and nature writer who goes to any extreme to uncover the answers, Bill Streever sets off to find out what heat really means. Let him be your guide and you'll firewalk across hot coals and sweat it out in Death Valley, experience intense fever and fire, learn about the invention of matches and the chemistry of cooking, drink crude oil, and explore thermonuclear weapons and the hottest moment of all time-the big bang.

Written in Streever's signature spare and refreshing prose, HEAT is an adventurous personal narrative that leaves readers with a new vision of an everyday experience-how heat works, its history, and its relationship to daily life.

Bill Streever, a biologist and affiliate faculty member with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, likes to say that he sees the world through the twin lenses of science and history. He is the bestselling nature writer behind Cold, Heat, and And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind. As a scientist, he has worked on issues ranging from the environmental effects of underwater sound to the evolution of cave crayfish to the restoration of tundra wetlands to climate change. With his wife, marine biologist Lisanne Aerts, he lives aboard the 51-year-old cruising sailboat Rocinante, currently in Central America. When he is not busy fixing the boat, he spends his time sailing, reading, diving, hiking, rowing his dinghy, paddling his kayak, and, of course, writing.

What is the unique and most important feature that distinguishes man from all other living beings?

Why is it that, contrary to the instinct of self-preservation, a parent will throw themselves headlong into fire or water to save their child?

Why do people get married and why do they get divorced? Why do people have extra-marital affairs and why do two people in a couple become jealous of one another? What is Love?

When and why did the type of sex emerge among human beings that is free of any reproductive function?

Why are the social and behavioural distinctions between men and women being rapidly erased?

Why, despite everything, is the world becoming more tolerant than it was in previous centuries?

People are born with different intellectual, spiritual and physical capabilities. So why do we assert that all people are equal?

Can the world without violence exist? If not, under what circumstances and to what kind of violence does man have a right? Wherein lies the origin of this right?

Where is the root of our morality? Why do our moral values change over time? Do absolute moral values exist?

Why has Man, on the whole, never observed (or perhaps is incapable of observing) a set of various religious commandments? Should we observe them? Are they the decree of God?

By which “commandments” do we really live our lives and is it possible to formulate them in such a way that we could realistically observe them?

What is Good? And what is Evil? Is there a simple criterion by which one may distinguish Good from Evil?

In which direction is humanity evolving and is it governed by some universal law?

Is there any meaning to life?

Is it possible to give a clear and straightforward answer to all these questions?

It is, in fact, possible!

“The Last Faith: a book by an atheist believer” provides a clear and scientifically elegant answer to all the questions listed above. The answer which will cause the reader to reconsider many established moral principles and notions about the world around us. The answer which will help the reader to understand the nature of human actions, dilemmas, dramas and passions, in their true light. The answer which will elucidate the current stage in the development of human civilisation and offer unexpected predictions for its future.

“The Last Faith: a book by an atheist believer” is aimed at a wide audience and does not require any specialised knowledge. The author’s thoughts and reflections are presented here in the form of a fictional conversation with God which unfolds over the course of just two hundred pages. The author (PhD in Physics and Mathematics) gives concise and clearly expressed explanations and evidence for his ideas. He cites abundant examples from the world around us which are drawn from his extensive travels through Russia, America, Europe, Africa and Central Asia.

All this makes for an accessible and enjoyable read.

Vaudeville: mad, mercenary, dreamy, and absurd, a world of clashing cultures and ferocious showmanship and wickedly delightful deceptions. 

But sixteen-year-old pianist George Carole has joined vaudeville for one reason only: to find the man he suspects to be his father, the great Heironomo Silenus. Yet as he chases down his father's troupe, he begins to understand that their performances are strange even for vaudeville: for wherever they happen to tour, the very nature of the world seems to change. 

Because there is a secret within Silenus's show so ancient and dangerous that it has won him many powerful enemies. And it's not until after he joins them that George realizes the troupe is not simply touring: they are running for their lives.

And soon...he is as well. 

Robert Jackson Bennett was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the Sydney J. Bounds Award, and an Edgar Award, he is the author of the novels Mr. Shivers, The Company Man, The Troupe, and American Elsewhere. Find out more about the author at www.robertjacksonbennett.com.

One Degree Beyond : A Reiki Journey into Energy Medicine: Your 21-Day Step-by-Step Guide to Relax, Open and Celebrate by JaneAnne Narrin 

There is a an unfolding dynamic cosmology developing around the world. This emerging worldview blends some of the knowledge and discipline of modern science with ancient and time honored spiritual beliefs and practices. One Degree Beyond is an excellent example of how these two complementary areas of inquiry can bring humankind to a new and much needed understanding.

Make no mistake. Although it does put some of the more recent trends in scientific inquiry and research in perspective and does establish that the traditional view, which had science and religion at odds, is outmoded and unnecessary, this is not a book about new science. Rather it is an invitation to a personal exploration with global implications. One key to the development of a new consciousness is Reiki, an ancient approach to healing rediscovered and formalized by a Japanese doctor, Dr. Mikao Usui, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The tradition established by Dr. Usui continues to this day and Reiki has grown in popularity.

The author of One Degree Beyond, Janeanne Narrin, is a trained Reiki Master of the Usui tradition with over ten years experience as a teacher and practitioner of this simple approach to the relief of pain and suffering. Narrin also has an extensive background in management consulting for large corporations and consequently has wide experience dealing with stress and anxiety in the corporate workplace. She is a an experienced and whole systems-inspired practitioner who presents Reiki, the ancient art of "hands-on" healing, in the wider framework of energy medicine, and proposes not only do we have bodies and minds, but we also partake in and embody the very energies that create the universe, moment by moment a new. One Degree Beyond elucidates the very practical relationship between Reiki and modern scientific thinking, and uses the tools of self inquiry to open new doors of perception.

In inviting readers to explore possibilities, or move beyond what is apparent, Narrin is encouraging us to attempt to focus our thoughts and actions in ways which honor both our personal potentials and our connection to all of the other elements and forces of Nature. Thus, One Degree Beyond is a primer for action. It is gentle and wise, does not proselytize, and one needn't be a Reiki practitioner to derive its benefits. It is full of helpful hints, upbeat suggestions, and engaging exercises to expedite a personal journey into health consciousness and heightened spiritual awareness.

toponymity , n. The condition of being named after a geographic location.

It's no secret that America's cookouts owe a lot to the German towns
of Frankfurt and Hamburg. Likewise, we know when we put on the wool of a
goat from India's Kashmir valley. But did you know that the town of
Spa, Belgium, bequeathed to us a new form of healthy relaxation? Or that
Tuxedo Park, New York, brought Americans a staple of formal wear? These
towns, it turns out, are just the tip of the iceberg.

In this ingenious follow-up to Anonyponymous, John Bemelmans
Marciano takes us on a lively tour of American, European, and world
history, showing us our linguistic heritage in all its richness and, to
use another toponym, serendipity. Dotted with Marciano's signature witty
drawings and topical essays, this book is a joy to browse and sure to
impress your friends. It makes a perfect book for language lovers,
whether they come from Cologne, Germany, or Bikini Island.

John Bemelmans Marciano is the grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans, author of the original Madeline books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Two bestselling authors first met in a televised Caltech debate on “the future of God,” one an articulate advocate for spirituality, the other a prominent physicist.  This remarkable book is the product of that serendipitous encounter and the contentious—but respectful—clash of worldviews that grew along with their friendship.  

In War of the Worldviews these two great thinkers battle over the cosmos, evolution and life, the human brain, and God, probing the fundamental questions that define the human experience.

• How did the universe emerge?  
• What is the nature of time?  
• What is life?
• Did Darwin go wrong?  
• What makes us human? 
• What is the connection between mind and brain?  
• Is God an illusion?

This extraordinary book will fascinate millions of readers of science and spirituality alike, as well as anyone who has ever asked themselves, What does it mean that I am alive?

A Vindication of Love by Cristina Nehring
Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century

"A fierce and lively book. . . .This is one of those rare books that could make people think about their intimate lives in a new way." — New York Times Book Review

“A rousing defense of imprudent ardor and romantic excess. . . . It’s difficult to deny that [Nehring] is on to something.” — Wall Street Journal

A thinking person’s “guide” that makes the case for love in an age both cynical about and fearful of strong passion. Bold and challenging, A Vindication of Love has inspired praise and controversy, and brilliantly reinvigorated the romance debate. A perfect choice for readers of Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life and Pierre Bayard’s How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.

From Publishers Weekly

Nehring's opening assertion that she argues by provocation and aims to anger reveals the rhetorical nature of her argument that our tepid age needs a return to true Eros. Just what she advocates is unclear, since her examples range from the chaste passion of Emily Dickinson through the frenzied sexuality of Edna St. Vincent Millay to the open relationship of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Nehring does regret the collateral damage of this last pairing (a couple of cases of insanity and one suicide among their other lovers) and acknowledges that most of her case studies demonstrate excesses not to be emulated. That reduces her call for boldness in love to familiar clichés: absence makes the heart grow fonder; play hard to get; and defy social conventions in love (what is more of a postmodern cliché than advocating transgression?). Nehring, who has written for Harper's and the Atlantic among others, is a keen, empathic reader of literary texts, drawing attention to undervalued love writings like the letters of Horace Walpole and Madame du Deffand, and offering an astute reading of Dickinson's much-debated Master letters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

New York City cab driver Yuri Davydov is a disgruntled Russian emigre poised to lash out at the adoptive nation he believes has denied him the American Dream. A former technician in the Soviet biological weapons system, Biopreparat, Yuri possesses the knowledge to wreak havoc in his new home. But before he executes his planned piece de resistance of vengeance, he experiments first on his suspicious live-in girlfriend, then on a few poor-tipping fares.... 

Dr. Jack Stapleton and Dr. Laurie Montgomery (both last seen in Chromosome 6) begin to witness some unusual cases in their capacity as forensic pathologists in the city's medical examiner's office: a young, healthy black woman dies of respiratory failure, a Greek immigrant succumbs to a sudden, overwhelming pneumonia. At the same time, the pair are pressured from above to focus on a high-profile string of suspicious deaths of prisoners in police custody. When an unexpected breakthrough persuades Jack that these seemingly unrelated deaths are really connected murders, his colleagues and superiors are skeptical. Only Laurie is somewhat convinced. But the question soon becomes whether the pair will solve the puzzle before Yuri unleashes into the streets of New York the ultimate terror: a modern bioweapon.

With signature skill, Robin Cook has crafted a page-turning thriller rooted in up-to-the-minute biotechnology. Vector is all-too-plausible fiction at its terrifying best.

An award-winning literary author enters the world of magical realism with her World Fantasy Award-winning novel of a remarkable woman in post-apocalyptic Africa.

In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different—special—she names her Onyesonwu, which means "Who fears death?" in an ancient language.

It doesn't take long for Onye to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her conception. She is Ewu—a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by her community. But Onye is not the average Ewu. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. As she grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm, she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her.

Desperate to elude her would-be murderer and to understand her own nature, she embarks on a journey in which she grapples with nature, tradition, history, true love, and the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and ultimately learns why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death.

The ultimate manual for wilderness travelers and campers, Walking Softly in the Wilderness is the groundbreaking guide that first taught backpackers how to enjoy a genuine wilderness experience that leaves nature undisturbed. 

In recent years backpacking gear and practices have undergone many changes, and all are noted and expertly evaluated by author John Hart in this new edition. Covering the latest in "ultralight" gear choices, as well as downloadable maps, portable GPS devices, and the world of online information, Hart is a sure-footed guide to this changing scene.

The qualities that established this guide as the bible of camp and trail have also been polished and honed: its level-headed advice on trip planning and packing; insights for getting the most from a wilderness trip, whether a challenging mountain scramble or a leisurely family outing; and wisdom about dealing with the unexpected, from bears to flash floods to injuries. Seventy line drawings illustrate topics ranging from bear-bagging to rigging a tarp shelter. Extensive resource listings include wilderness agencies, gear suppliers, and online information sources.

Novel by Oliver Goldsmith, published in two volumes in 1766. The story, a portrait of village life, is narrated by Dr. Primrose, the title character, whose family endures many trials--including the loss of most of their money, the seduction of one daughter, the destruction of their home by fire, and the vicar's incarceration--before all is put right in the end. The novel's idealization of rural life, sentimental moralizing, and melodramatic incidents are countered by a sharp but good-natured irony.

History is to society what memory is to the individual. Without it, we don't know who we are and we can't make wise decisions about our future. But while the nature of memory is constant, the nature of history has changed radically over the past forty years.

In The Purpose of the Past, historian Gordon S. Wood examines this sea change in his field through consideration of some of its most important historians and their works. Along the way, he offers wonderful insight into what great historians do, how they can stumble, and what strains of thought have dominated the marketplace of ideas in historical scholarship. The result is a history of American history--and an argument for its ongoing necessity.

A commanding assessment of the field by one of its masters, The Purpose of the Past will enlarge every reader's capacity to appreciate history.

A wild and bittersweet memoir of a classic '70s childhood

It's a story of the 1970s. Of a road trip in a wood-paneled station wagon, with the kids in the way-back, singing along to the Steve Miller Band. Brothers waking up early on Saturday mornings for five consecutive hours of cartoons and advertising jingles that they'll be humming all day. A father-one of 3M's greatest and last eight-track-salesman fathers-traveling across the country on the brand-new Boeing 747, providing for his family but wanting nothing more than to get home.

It's Steve Rushin's story: of growing up within a '70s landscape populated with Bic pens, Mr. Clean and Scrubbing Bubbles, lightsabers and those oh-so-coveted Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes. Sting-Ray Afternoons paints an utterly fond, psychedelically vibrant, laugh-out-loud-funny portrait of an exuberant decade. With sidesplitting commentary, Rushin creates a vivid picture of a decade of wild youth, cultural rebirth, and the meaning of parental, brotherly, sisterly, whole lotta love.

Praise for Sting-Ray Afternoons

"If you existed in the 1970s and had any awareness of the world around you, Steve Rushin's Sting-Ray Afternoons is going to hit you like the smell of Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo. Smart as heck, laugh out loud funny and warm, Steve Rushin does for 1970s childhoods what Jean Shepherd did for 1940s Christmas. This book is nothing short of a Nadia Comenici Perfect 10."―Julie Klam, author of The Stars in Our Eyes and the New York Times bestseller You Had Me at Woof

"Steve Rushin's Sting Ray Afternoons is a fun and often hilarious account of growing up in the midwest in the 1970s. Throughout the book I was pleasantly reminded of things from my own past-Rushin revisits the TV shows, the toys, the games of the era while telling his family's own story. Sting Ray Afternoon captures both the freedom of youth and the universal longing for experience in a bigger, more adult world. If you grew up in the 1970s, prepare to have your memory triggered."―Craig Finn, songwriter and guitarist, The Hold Steady

"Charming and heartfelt, hilarious and touching, Rushin's Sting-Ray Afternoons is a pitch-perfect portrait of growing up in middle America during the Brady Bunch era. A gem of a memoir, a tribute to family, and a delectable slice of American history."―Nina Sankovitch, author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair and The Lowells of Massachusetts 

"[Rushin's] childhood, from the ages of 3 to 13, was perfectly encapsulated in the 1970s, and he celebrates the excesses and excitement of the decade with ardor.... Rushin's everykid upbringing and the touchstones of childhood he recounts make Sting-Ray Afternoon a fun-filled and charming trip."―Booklist

"Rushin may not have been able to compete with his athletic older brothers for glory on the playing field, but he pleased his parents with a talent for puns and other wordplay... The nostalgic sweetness of his memories...provides convincing evidence that life in the '70s wasn't as chaotic as it's often made out to be."―Kirkus

"Rushin uses his family as the book's focal point, capturing the nonstop zaniness of growing up with four siblings.... But it's Rushin's dad, a child of the Depression, who steals the show. Whether quoting his father as he describes his five kids...or retelling stories about him being drunk on what was the then new Boeing 747, it's through his father that Rushin captures the mystery and magic of childhood."―Publishers Weekly

"A wild ride through [Rushin's] '70s boyhood in fast-growing Bloomington, Minnesota.... Fiercely funny memoir about family, sports, music, food and fads."―Priscilla Kipp, BookPage

"In his funny, elegiac memoir Sting-Ray Afternoons, Rushin mines...ineffably familiar terrain with a sense of irony and deep affection, working hard to capture the look and feel of the 1970s...Much of what Rushin writes about - the Sears Christmas Wish Book, leaded gasoline, Johnny Carson's many vacations - will strike a chord with anyone who, like me, grew up in that era. What makes the book more than just late-baby-boomer nostalgia is the writing, which is knowing and funny."―Jim Zarroli, NPR

A "touching nostalgic memoir.... A vivid and comedic approach to [Rushin's] personal touchstones for the era."―CBC Radio's "Day Six"

"Magnificent... You will not read a better book this summer - and maybe well into the fall and winter, too."― New York Post

"Sting-Ray Afternoons is [Rushin's] story of growing up in Bloomington in the 1970s. It's a lighthearted, sentimental look back at a Minnesota childhood with a twist of wryness... Rushin's told-with-a-smile stories of childhood are worth the trip: bundling into a snowmobile suit in winter, piling into the Ford LTD Country Squire for a cross-country summer vacation, making mild mischief with neighborhood friends, and one memorable disaster when nature called and wouldn't be kept waiting. All seen through that gauzy, yellowish filter that blurs memory with Dad's Super 8 movies."―Casey Common, Star Tribune

Steve Rushin has been called “the ultimate tinkerer with language” by the New York Times. As a writer for Sports Illustrated, he has filed stories for the magazine from all seven continents, including Antarctica. He is a four-time finalist for the National Magazine Award and his work has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Magazine Writing collections. In 2006 he was named the National Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

Rushin’s first book, Road Swing, was named one of the “Best Books of the Year” by Publishers Weekly and one of the “Top 100 Sports Books of All Time” by Sports Illustrated. A collection of his sports and travel writing, The Caddie Was a Reindeer, was a semifinalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. His first novel, The Pint Man, was published in 2010 and was called “wipe-your-eyes funny” by the Los Angeles Times. His 2013 baseball book, The 34-Ton Bat, “will give even the most knowledgeable fan a new understanding of the game,” said the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, Sting-Ray Afternoons, is a memoir of his 1970s childhood.

A native of Bloomington, Minnesota, Rushin lives with his family in Connecticut.

The sequel to Ancillary Justice, the only novel to ever win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards and the second book in Ann Leckie's New York Times bestselling series.

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor.

With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew - a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

"If you don't know the Ancillary series by now, you probably should. Ann Leckie's sociopolitical space opera almost singlehandedly breathed new cool into the stereotype of spaceships trundling through far-off systems amid laser battles. ... [Ancillary Mercy] earns the credit it's received: As a capstone to a series that shook genre expectations, as our closing installment of an immersively realized world, and as the poignant story of a ship that learned to sing."―NPR Books on Ancillary Mercy

"Powerful."―The New York Times on Ancillary Sword

"The sort of space opera audiences have been waiting for."―NPR Books on Ancillary Sword

"Fans of space operas will feast on its richly textured, gorgeously rendered world-building."―Entertainment Weekly on Ancillary Sword

"Breq's struggle for meaningful justice in a society designed to favor the strong is as engaging as ever. Readers new to the author will be enthralled, and those familiar with the first book will find that the faith it inspired has not been misplaced."―Publishers Weekly on Ancillary Sword

"Leckie proves she's no mere flash in the pan with this follow-up to her multiple-award-winning debut space opera, Ancillary Justice."―Kirkus on Ancillary Sword

"This follow-up builds on the world and characters that the author introduced in the first book and takes the story in new directions. There is much more to explore in Leckie's universe, one of the most original in SF today."―Library Journal (starred review) on Ancillary Sword

"An ambitious space opera that proves that Justice was no fluke.... a book every serious reader of science fiction should pick up."―RT Book Reviews on Ancillary Sword

"Superb... Sword proves that [Leckie]'s not a one-hit wonder. I look forward to the rest of Breg's tale."―St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Ancillary Sword

"A gripping read, with top-notch world building and a set of rich subtexts about human rights, colonialism -- and (yes) hive mind sex."―io9 on Ancillary Sword

"Leckie investigates what it means to be human, to be an individual and to live in a civilized society."―Scientific American on Ancillary Sword

"Unexpected, compelling and very cool. Ann Leckie nails it...I've never met a heroine like Breq before. I consider this a very good thing indeed."―John Scalzi on Ancillary Justice 

"Ancillary Justice is the mind-blowing space opera you've been needing...This is a novel that will thrill you like the page-turner it is, but stick with you for a long time afterward."―io9 (included in 'This Fall's Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books')

"It's not every day a debut novel by an author you'd never heard of before derails your entire afternoon with its brilliance. But when my review copy of Ancillary Justicearrived, that's exactly what it did. In fact, it arrowed upward to reach a pretty high position on my list of best space opera novels ever."―Liz Bourke, Tor.com

"Establishes Leckie as an heir to Banks and Cherryh."―Elizabeth Bear on Ancillary Justice 

"A double-threaded narrative proves seductive, drawing the reader into the naive but determined protagonist's efforts to transform an unjust universe. Leckie uses...an expansionist galaxy-spinning empire [and] a protagonist on a single-minded quest for justice to transcend space-opera conventions in innovative ways. This impressive debut succeeds in making Breq a protagonist readers will invest in, and establishes Leckie as a talent to watch."―Publishers Weekly on Ancillary Justice

"Using the format of SF military adventure blended with hints of space opera, Leckie explores the expanded meaning of human nature and the uneasy balance between individuality and membership in a group identity. Leckie is a newcomer to watch as she expands on the history and future of her new and exciting universe."―Library Journal on Ancillary Justice 

"A sharply written space opera with a richly imagined sense of detail and place, this debut novel from Ann Leckie works as both an evocative science fiction tale and an involving character study...it's also a strongly female-driven piece, tackling ideas about politics and gender in a way that's both engaging and provocative...Ancillary Justice is a gripping read that's well worth a look."―SFX (UK) on Ancillary Justice

"It engages, it excites, and it challenges the way the reader views our world. Leckie may be a former Secretary of the Science Fiction Writers of America, but she's the President of this year's crop of debut novelists. Ancillary Justice might be the best science fiction novel of this very young decade."―Justin Landon, Staffer's Book Review on Ancillary Justice

"Total gamechanger. Get it, read it, wish to hell you'd written it. Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice may well be the most important book Orbit has published in ages."―Paul Graham Raven on Ancillary Justice

"The sort of book that the Clarke Award wishes it had last year ... be prepared to see Ancillary Justice bandied around a lot come awards season. (As it should be)."―Jared Shurin, Pornokitsch

This title helps you discover the history and origins of the universe and teaches how to observe the stars and galaxies. It has star charts and profiles of constellations and includes a month-by-month guide to highlights of the night sky.

Ever since early man first gazed up in wonder at the night sky, marveling at the stars and planets, humans have been fascinated by what lies in the infinite darkness outside the confines of earth. Today the technology of telescopes, satellites, and space stations has enhanced our knowledge far beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors.

Some of the points covered that will enhance the reader's knowledge of this fascinating but difficult subject are:
-- The universe and the big bang
-- The solar system
-- The earth and the moon
-- Supernovae
-- Black holes
-- Exploring space

Here is everything the beginner needs to know about the science of astronomy. From the early seventeenth-century observations of Galileo to space ships being sent across unimaginable distances; from the birth of our universe to the discovery of new stars, planets, and galaxies. Learn how to recognize the features of the night sky, and to look backward and forward in time of space

Ian Ridpath has been a full time writer, broadcaster, and lecturer on astronomy since 1972, having previously worked at the university of London Observatory. A fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, he is the editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy and Norton's Star Atlas. Ian has written or edited over 40 books, including several guides to the night sky. His writing has also appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout the world.

"A stunning follow-up to the best-seller Angelology. . . Part historical novel, fantasy, love story, thriller, and mystery. . . It's a must-read."—Booklist (starred review)

A New York Times bestseller and global sensation, Angelology unfurled a brilliant tapestry of myth and biblical lore on our present-day world and plunged two star-crossed heroes into an ancient battle against mankind’s greatest enemy: the fatally attractive angel-human hybrids known as the Nephilim. With Angelopolis, the conflict deepens into an inferno of danger and passion unbound.

A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her new wings a betrayal that haunts him still. Now an elite angel hunter for the Society of Angelology, he pursues his mission with single-minded devotion: to capture, imprison, and eliminate her kind.

But when Evangeline suddenly appears on a twilit Paris street, Verlaine finds her nature to be unlike any of the other creatures he so mercilessly pursues, casting him into a spiral of doubt and confusion that only grows when she is abducted before his eyes by a creature who has topped the society’s most-wanted list for more than a century. The ensuing chase drives Verlaine and his fellow angelologists from the shadows of the Eiffel Tower to the palaces of St. Petersburg and deep into the provinces of Siberia and the Black Sea coast, where the truth of Evangeline’s origins—as well as forces that could restore or annihilate them all—lie in wait.

Conceived against an astonishing fresh tableau of history and science, Angelopolis plumbs Russia’s imperial past, modern genetics, and ancient depictions of that most potent angelic appearance—the Annunciation of Gabriel—in a high-octane tale of abduction, treasure seeking, and divine warfare as the fate of humanity once again hangs in the balance.

A useful scientific theory, claimed Einstein, must be explicable to any intelligent person. In Deep Down Things, experimental particle physicist Bruce Schumm has taken this dictum to heart, providing in clear, straightforward prose an elucidation of the Standard Model of particle physics―a theory that stands as one of the crowning achievements of twentieth-century science. In this one-of-a-kind book, the work of many of the past century's most notable physicists, including Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, Feynman, Gell-Mann, and Weinberg, is knit together in a thorough and accessible exposition of the revolutionary notions that underlie our current view of the fundamental nature of the physical world. Schumm, who has spent much of his life immersed in the subatomic world, goes far beyond a mere presentation of the "building blocks" of matter, bringing to life the remarkable connection between the ivory tower world of the abstract mathematician and the day-to-day, life-enabling properties of the natural world. Schumm leaves us with an insight into the profound open questions of particle physics, setting the stage for understanding the progress the field is poised to make over the next decade or two.

Introducing readers to the world of particle physics, Deep Down Things opens new realms within which are many clues to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

      Join Gary Renard, the best-selling author of The Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality, for the final installment of his trilogy: a fascinating roller-coaster ride to the mysterious truth behind the modern spiritual masterpiece A Course in Miracles. His teachers, Ascended Masters Arten and Pursah, will take you on a whirlwind tour of the afterlife; teach you a method that will, with practice, melt away all of your past bad karma; and reveal the “missing ingredient” to the popular self-help techniques of today.

      This book will blow your mind and hand you the key to enlightenment . . . at the same time! In the end, you will discover that, indeed, Love has forgotten no one.

 “No, I won’t give away any details here and spoil your reading fun. As with the earlier books, it’s not even those little personal details that make it an exciting read. They are just glitter. So, if not for the news items, why are we eager for more? The truth, for his growing body of steady readers, is that Gary has agreed to share his life with us, warts and all, and enables us to learn A Course in Miracles with him, in a fun and intense way, always going deeper and deeper into its experiential implications. The comedy of his life invites us to increasingly realize what the Course is actually saying.”

— Rogier Fentener van Vlissingen, author of Closing the Circle: Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas and A Course in Miracles

“Love Has Forgotten No One is not really a book—rather, it’s a portal, a transport system, a rearranging of the mind. When you’ve finished reading it, I believe you’ll be closer to knowing your True Nature. All that, and Gary’s funny, too!”

— H. Ronald Hulnick, Ph.D., President, University of Santa Monica; co-author with Mary R. Hulnick, Ph.D., of Loyalty to Your Soul: The Heart of Spiritual Psychology

Gary R. Renard is the best-selling author of The Disappearance of the Universe, Your Immortal Reality, and now the conclusion of his trilogy, Love Has Forgotten No One. Students of A Course in Miracles from all over the world consider his books to be the “CliffsNotes” for the Course, empowering them to read, understand, and apply its deep teachings to their everyday lives in a practical way. A winner of the Infinity FoundationSpirit Award, Gary has spoken in 43 states and 24 countries, and has been described as one of the most interesting and courageous spiritual speakers in the world.

What is a soul? Are miracles real? When the soul is healed, how does the body respond? 

Throughout history, there have been countless cases of “miracle” healings, unexplainable by modern science. Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha has personally healed thousands of patients, usually in front of dozens of witnesses. Hundreds of videos of these healings can be seen on YouTube. But how can these healings be explained?

Soul Mind Body Science System is the first book to explore the scientific explanations for why soul healing miracles are genuine. Written with Dr. Rulin Xiu, an expert on string theory and quantum physics who trained at The University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Sha shares, for the first time, the scientific theories that explain why all actions on Earth are guided by the reality of the soul.

In Soul Mind Body Science System, the complex and fascinating relationships present between matter, density, information, soul, and consciousness are thoroughly examined. Written for armchair and professional scientists alike, this book makes a significant contribution to the ongoing debate about the true nature of reality.

As the lines between “science” and “spirit” blur, this investigation becomes ever more important. The groundbreaking Soul Mind Body Science System is for all readers who have contemplated the fundamental scientific laws of the universe and sought answers beyond those offered by popular science and mainstream faith.

EXPLORE THE "OTHER SIDE" OF REALITY... 

Do You Want a DIRECT EXPERIENCE of Reality Beyond the Physical? 

Many call out-of-body (OBE) experiences "astral projections" because of the unusual perceptive nature of these experiences. But there's more than metaphysics involved in OBE. Serious scientists are interested in this phenomena, and it has been studied by both the USA and Russia. The book provides proven step-by-step methods to help you safely expand YOUR conscious awareness beyond the limits of your physical self. One thing is certain -- exploring out-of-body reality opens you to an exciting new way tap into your higher levels of consciousness and true inner potential. 

*****WHAT READERS ARE SAYING...

"A great guide to direct experience of higher levels of consciousness."

"Best book I've read on OBE's. Has exercises that read like a pilot's instruction manual."

I am not a casual book reviewer. Actually, I am often VERY critical. So when I tell you this book is exceptional, you can understand this is an independent analysis by a professional reviewer (I post exactly the truth about each book I review)."

"I admit I was skeptical. I tried the authors 'familiar location' method and to my total shock had two OBEs on the first night. My conclusion: this book is the best ever way to start on this adventure!"

In Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu gives instructions for developing clarity within the sleep and dream states. He goes beyond the practices of lucid dreaming that have been popularized in the West by presenting methods for guiding dream states that are part of a broader system for enhancing self-awareness called Dzogchen. In this tradition, the development of lucidity in the dream state is understood in the context of generating greater awareness for the ultimate purpose of attaining liberation. 

This revised and expanded edition includes additional material from a profound and personal Dzogchen book, which Chögyal Namkhai Norbu wrote over many years. This material deepens the first edition's emphasis on specific exercises to develop awareness within the dream and sleep states. Also included in this book is a text written by Mipham, the nineteenth-century master of Dzogchen, which offers additional insights into this extraordinary form of meditation and awareness.

Review

"A personal and inspiring account of the higher possibilities of sleep and dreams by an acknowledged master. Must reading for dreamers in search of awakening."—Stephen LaBerge, PhD, director of the Lucidity Institute and author of Lucid Dreaming 

"Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is one of the greatest Tibetan meditation masters and scholars teaching in the West today. His luminous Dream Yoga teachings are invaluable for anyone interested in Buddhist practices and views on dreaming and the afterlife. These profound and liberating wisdom teachings from the ancient Dzogchen tradition of Tibet provide new perspectives on this life, on the nature of reality, and on the nature of consciousness and mind. I myself read this book with great interest and recommend it to my own students."—Lama Surya Das, founder of the Dzogchen Foundation and author of Awakening the Buddha 

"The new edition is sufficiently different from the already pivotal previous version to warrant purchasing it and working seriously with its contents. In the current edition, Rinpoche, who has had clear abilities in dream practices since his youth, expands his initial commentary on the 'practice of the night' with more specific explanations drawn from an intimate and detailed Dzogchen manuscript he has been writing for many years."—The Mirror 

"Provides a valuable practice to help calm the mind in lucid dreaming states so that we can truly deepen our awareness. Dream Yoga is not just about awakening in the dream state, but also bringing it together with our non-dream awareness as well."—Nate DeMontigny, Precious Metal

About the Author

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is a Tibetan master of the Dzogchen tradition. He has been a professor at the Oriental Institute of the University of Naples, Italy, and is the author of many books, including The Crystal and the Way of Light, The Supreme Source, and Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State.

From New York Times bestselling author Sandra Lee comes her debut novel, a heartwarming story about food, family, and forgiveness.

Grace Holm-D'Angelo is at her wit's end, trying to create a new life from broken pieces. Newly divorced, she is navigating suddenly becoming a single mother to her fourteen-year-old daughter. Emma, resentful about being uprooted from Chicago to LA and still reeling from the divorce, is generally giving her mother a hard time.

Then Grace's best friend, Leeza, succumbs to breast cancer after a long battle, and Grace realizes that you don't get a second chance at life. She returns to her hometown of New London, Wisconsin, to try to reconcile with her own mother, Lorraine, with whom she's been estranged for longer than she cares to remember.

Over the course of the summer, Grace rediscovers the healing powers of cooking, coming to terms with your past, and friendship, and learns you can go home again, and sometimes that's exactly where you belong.

The Recipe Box celebrates mothers, daughters, and friendships, and also features Sandra's delicious original recipes.

Based on an 1839 boat trip Thoreau took with his brother from Concord, Massachusetts, to Concord, New Hampshire, and back, this classic of American literature is not only a vivid narrative of that journey, it is also a collection of thought-provoking observations on such diverse topics as poetry, literature, and philosophy, Native American and Puritan histories of New England, friendship, sacred Eastern writings, traditional Christianity, and much more.

Written, like Walden, while Thoreau lived at Walden Pond, and published in 1849, A Week (his first book) shares many themes with Walden, published in 1854. Both dramatize the process of self-renewal in nature and resolutely rail against the official culture and politics of the "trivial Nineteenth Century." Blending keen observation with a wealth of perceptive and informed reflections, Thoreau develops a continuous and lyrical dialogue between the past and present, as particular scenes on shore trigger reflections on the region's history and legends.　

Originally conceived as a travel book, A Week eventually became much more — one of the most intellectually ambitious works of 19th-century America, and a requiem for Thoreau's brother John, who died from a sudden illness in 1842.

Of Thoreau and this work, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "H. D. Thoreau is a great man in Concord, a man of original genius and character. I think it is a book of wonderful merit, which is to go far and last long."

Selected Poems charts Mark Ford's growing complexity as a writer and his mastery and use of form. John Ashbery calls Ford's work "refreshing" and it's that exuberance and goodwill that animates the poems, giving them their spontaneity and leavening the grim with comic élan and joy. Myth, history, and the everyday are all at play in this wonderfully diverse collection.

Invisible Assets:

After he threw he through a
plate glass window, nature seemed that much closer.

Even the dastardly division in society
might be healed by a first-rate glazier.

Of course, on Sundays families still picnicked
boldly on the village green, and afterwards

marveled at the blacksmith's glowing forge—
how strong they all were in those days!

And yet how small! Even a man only six foot tall
was then esteemed a veritable giant.

Surely the current furor over architecture
would have evoked from them only pitying smiles.

Meanwhile the market for landscapes has never
been firmer. This view, for instance, includes

seven counties, and a bull charging around in its paddock.

Mark Ford was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1962. He has published three collections of poetry and a biography of the French writer Raymond Roussel and is the editor of Frank O'Hara's Selected Poems. He has also translated Roussel's New Impressions of Africa and is the editor of London: A History in Verse. He lives in London, England.

Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers “yes!” Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original

arguments—drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive  neuroscience, economics, and philosophy—that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally. In Freedom Evolves, Dennett seeks to place ethics on the foundation it deserves: a realistic, naturalistic, potentially unified vision of our place in nature.

From Publishers Weekly

"Trading in a supernatural soul for a natural soul-is this a fair bargain?" Dennett, seeking to fend off "caricatures of Darwinian thinking" that plague his philosophical camp, argues in this incendiary, brilliant, even dangerous book that it is. Picking up where he left off in Darwin's Dangerous Idea (a Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist), he zeroes in on free will, a sticking point to the opposing camp. Dennett calls his perspective "naturalism," a synthesis of philosophy and the natural sciences; his critics have called it determinism, reductionism, bioprophecy, Lamarckianism. Drawing on evolutionary biology, neuroscience, economic game theory, philosophy and Richard Dawkins's meme, the author argues that there is indeed such a thing as free will, but it "is not a preexisting feature of our existence, like the law of gravity." Dennett seeks to counter scientific caricature with precision, empiricism and philosophical outcomes derived from rigorous logic. This book comprises a kind of toolbox of intellectual exercises favoring cultural evolution, the idea that culture, morality and freedom are as much a result of evolution by natural selection as our physical and genetic attributes. Yet genetic determinism, he argues, does not imply inevitability, as his critics may claim, nor does it cancel out the soul. Rather, he says, it bolsters the ideals of morality and choice, and illustrates why those ideals must be nurtured and guarded. Dennett clearly relishes pushing other scientists' buttons. Though natural selection itself is still a subject of controversy, the author, director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts, most certainly is in the vanguard of the philosophy of science.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Joseph McMoneagle is an extraordinary remote viewer, a "psychic spy," whose experiences have given him a special insight into the nature of time and human perception. For more than seventeen years, he was a researcher and remote viewer for the top-secret Army project STARGATE. For years after that, he journeyed through time while working in a consciousness-development lab with out-of-body experience pioneer Robert A. Monroe.

McMoneagle explores the questions that philosophers have for centuries debated: Does time really exist? Do our actions today really affect our future? Can we change the past? Do we slip between alternate realities? In The Ultimate Time Machine, McMoneagle delivers new insights into these mysteries, including:

• First-hand information--including transcripts from lab sessions--on the origins of humanity, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and the building of the Egyptian pyramids.
• Provocative suggestions about the nature of time, creation, and a constantly changing past.
• A detailed picture of our immediate future through the year 2075.
• More than 150 very explicit predictions on world population, aging, religious fragmentation, lifestyle changes, technological developments, and dozens of major changes to laws, customs and practices--all within a positive and constructive framework.
• A vision of the year 3000, comprising a test of what the author calls the "Verne Effect"--our ability to create and manipulate our future.