“Naomi loves you, Saul … She loves you in a way that neither you nor I can truly understand – in a way that only someone like her is capable of loving. But because of who she is, a world like ours can only destroy her. And because of what you are, her love will cause you pain unlike anything you have ever felt before..."The dystopian image of a world order built on perpetual war is Bo Jinn's backdrop to the story of Saul Vartanian; a veteran of the warzones, scarred both physically and emotionally by battles fought, and by the perverse order of the UMC to which his life and soul have been committed, and from which there is no escape. Saul’s struggle takes a dramatic turn, however, when he comes upon a figure of innocence and purity utterly alien to the world that bore him. Orphaned by the ever-growing blight of war and the spread of so-called “martial order”, little Naomi becomes Saul Vartanian’s last vestige of hope and his final redemption for a past long forgotten. . . Views: 691
Read the story of relations between the earthly girl and the celestial guest on the pages of this book.Have you heard about angels? And what if one of them will come to you in a dream, and then will appear in reality. And what this meeting prepares for you? Can angels love? And, if so, whether they can fall in love with a human? An unforgettable meeting opened for Nastya the way to heaven and brought her into the spiritual world of our planet. And who is the mysterious Teacher and his 13 friends?Read the story of relations between the earthly girl and the celestial guest on the pages of this book. Views: 690
The book opens in a café in Piraeus, just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning in the 1930s. The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few months after being stung by the parting words of a friend, Stavridakis, who has left for the Russian Caucasus in order to help some Pontic Greeks (in that region often referred to as Caucasus Greeks) who are being persecuted. He sets off for Crete in order to re-open a disused lignite mine and immerse himself in the world of peasants and working-class people.He is about to begin reading his copy of Dante's Divine Comedy when he feels he is being watched; he turns around and sees a man of around sixty peering at him through the glass door. The man enters and immediately approaches him to ask for work. He claims expertise as a chef, a miner, and player of the santuri, or cimbalom, and introduces himself as Alexis Zorba, a Greek born inRomania. The narrator is fascinated by Zorba's lascivious opinions and expressive manner and decides to employ him as a foreman. On their way to Crete, they talk on a great number of subjects, and Zorba's soliloquies set the tone for a large part of the book.On arrival, they reject the hospitality of Anagnostis and Kondomanolious the café-owner, and on Zorba's suggestion make their way to Madame Hortense's hotel, which is nothing more than a row of old bathing-huts. They are forced by circumstances to share a bathing-hut. The narrator spends Sunday roaming the island, the landscape of which reminds him of "good prose, carefully ordered, sober… powerful and restrained" and reads Dante. On returning to the hotel for dinner, the pair invite Madame Hortense to their table and get her to talk about her past as a courtesan. Zorba gives her the pet-name "Bouboulina" and, with the help of his cimbalom, seduces her. The protagonist seethes in his room while listening to the sounds of their impassioned lovemaking.The next day, the mine opens and work begins. The narrator, who has socialist ideals, attempts to get to know the workers, but Zorba warns him to keep his distance: "Man is a brute.... If you're cruel to him, he respects and fears you. If you're kind to him, he plucks your eyes out." Zorba himself plunges into the work, which is characteristic of his overall attitude, which is one of being absorbed in whatever one is doing or whomever one is with at that moment. Quite frequently Zorba works long hours and requests not to be interrupted while working. The narrator and Zorba have a great many lengthy conversations, about a variety of things, from life to religion, each other's past and how they came to be where they are now, and the narrator learns a great deal about humanity from Zorba that he otherwise had not gleaned from his life of books and paper.The narrator absorbs a new zest for life from his experiences with Zorba and the other people around him, but reversal and tragedy mark his stay on Crete, and, alienated by their harshness and amorality, he eventually returns to the mainland once his and Zorba's ventures are completely financially spent. Having overcome one of his own demons (such as his internal "no," which the narrator equates with the Buddha, whose teachings he has been studying and about whom he has been writing for much of the narrative, and who he also equates with "the void") and having a sense that he is needed elsewhere (near the end of the novel, the narrator has a premonition of the death of his old friend Stavridakis, which plays a role in the timing of his departure to the mainland), the narrator takes his leave of Zorba for the mainland, which, despite the lack of any major outward burst of emotionality, is significantly emotionally wrenching for both Zorba and the narrator. It almost goes without saying that the two (the narrator and Zorba) will remember each other for the duration of their natural lives. Views: 690
A sequel to the novel Kemamonit. Trapped in the past by an errant spell from her apprentice, Kemamonit battles the barbarian hoards seeking to conquer the Mediterranean.Differel Van Helsing is the 12-year old descendent of Abraham Van Helsing, the conqueror of Dracula and founder of the Caerleon Order, Britain's premier monster-hunting organization. She always knew that one day she would take over as Director from her father, but that wasn't suppose to happen for another nine years.Now her father is dead, and his murderer has made an attempt on her life. She must flee to stay alive, but that cuts her off from any help from her servants and the Order's agents and paramilitary troops. She is on her own; her only ally is a stable cat, while her only hope is her father's mysterious deathbed confession about a secret weapon hidden in the family crypt. She wants to believe him, but how can she be sure it wasn't a delusional dream?More importantly, will she survive long enough to find out? Views: 689
Eccentric Fran wants a second chance. Thanks to her intimacy with Jane Austen, and the poet Shelley, she finds one. Jane Austen is such a presence in Fran's life that she seems to share her cottage and garden, becoming an imaginary friend. Fran's conversations with Jane Austen guide and chide her – but Fran is ready for change after years of teaching, reading and gardening. An encounter with a long-standing English friend, and an American writer, leads to new possibilities. Adrift, the three women bond through a love of books and a quest for the idealist poet Shelley at two pivotal moments of his life: in Wales and Venice. His otherworldly longing and yearning for utopian communities lead the women to interrogate their own past as well as motherhood, feminism, the resurgence of childhood memory in old age, the tensions and attractions between generations. Despite the appeal of solitude, the women open themselves social to ways of living -... Views: 688
Album provides an unparalleled look into Roland Barthes's life of letters. It presents a selection of correspondence, from his adolescence in the 1930s through the height of his career and up to the last years of his life, covering such topics as friendships, intellectual adventures, politics, and aesthetics. It offers an intimate look at Barthes's thought processes and the everyday reflection behind the composition of his works, as well as a rich archive of epistolary friendships, spanning half a century, among the leading intellectuals of the day.
Barthes was one of the great observers of language and culture, and Album shows him in his element, immersed in heady French intellectual culture and the daily struggles to maintain a writing life. Barthes's correspondents include Maurice Blanchot, Michel Butor, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Claude L'vi-Strauss, Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marthe Robert, and Jean Starobinski, among others. The book also features documents, letters, and postcards reproduced in facsimile; unpublished material; and notes and transcripts from his seminars. The first English-language publication of Barthes's letters, Album is a comprehensive testimony to one of the most influential critics and philosophers of the twentieth century and the world of letters in which he lived and breathed. Views: 687
Gerhard Self, the seventy-something, sambuca-drinking, Sweet-Afton smoking sleuth returns in a riveting new mystery about money-laundering, murder, and mafiosi.
Despite his failing health and his girlfriend's pleading, Gerhard Self won't stop doing what he does best—investigating. And his most recent case is one of the most intriguing of his career. Herr Welker desperately wants to write a history of his bank, but to do so he needs Self to track down a mysterious silent partner. Self takes the job, but is soon accosted by a man who frantically hands him a suitcase full of cash and speeds off in a car, only to crash into a tree, dying instantly. Perplexed, and convinced there is more to the case than he is being told, Self follows the money. Soon he finds himself traveling to eastern Germany, where he encounters some of the most unsavory villains he has met yet.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 686
The complete Ouroboros series. Follow Nida and Carson on their saga through time in this four-book box set. ....
Not all of us are born equal. Some exceed every expectation and excel in every task. Some of us can't even get out of bed in the morning. Such is life for Cadet Nida Harper. She's universally known as the worst recruit in the Academy. It's not for want of trying; she's just cursed with universal bad luck. Every accident that could happen, does happen. So it's no surprise when she winds up unconscious on a field mission. It is a surprise when the dreams start. Visions of stars falling from the heavens and civilizations crumbling to dust.
The only silver lining comes in golden boy Lucas Stone. The hero of the Academy, he takes an interest in her. But he'll have to act fast to stop what will happen next.... Views: 684
By outward appearances the North Shore is the greatest place on Earth. Affluent families living on compounds driving the finest vehicles. Friends, families, and parties the way of life. Coffee shops. Yoga pants and Mexican groundskeepers. But just beneath the surface the North Shore is anything but idyllic as best friends Anne, Chaz, and Margot are about to find out on D-Day.Any occasion is cause for celebration on the North Shore. An announced engagement sets off a course of parties where each host attempts to outdo the previous. Election to the Board of Directors of a charity in the city requires the local newspaper to attend to photograph the event. Milestone birthdays keep the CEOs away from their palatial offices and in their corporate jets spiriting away to private clubs the world around.In River Grove there were few celebrations larger than the party commemorating one of its favorite citizen’s participation in the landings at Normandy.For Margot Wallace, June 6th will always mark the day her life irrevocably changed.For Chaz Perkins, June 6th is always a day to shine in the spot light.For Anne Glassmaker, June 6th is all too familiar to the day before and bodes poorly for the day to follow.Follow Margot, Chaz, and Anne and their searches for love and fulfillment in stories of “The North Shore” available monthly. Views: 683
The Gambler and Other Stories is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's collection of one novella and six short stories reflecting his own life - indeed, 'The Gambler', a story of a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian General, was written under a strict deadline so he could pay off his roulette debts. This volume includes 'Bobok', the tale of a frustrated writer visiting a cemetery and enjoying the gossip of the dead; 'The Dream of a Ridiculous Man', the story of one man's plan to commit suicide and the troubling dream that follows, as well as 'A Christmas Party and a Wedding', 'A Nasty Story' and 'The Meek One'.About the AuthorFyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881), one of nineteenth-century Russia’s greatest novelists, spent four years in a convict prison in Siberia, after which he was obliged to enlist in the army. In later years his penchant for gambling sent him deeply into debt. Most of his important works were written after 1864, including Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov, all available from Penguin Classics. Views: 683
I’m still on the run, and my life is getting harder by the day. There’s nothing John and Spencer won’t do to acquire me. But I have no intention of giving up.I will fight. And if that involves taking incalculable risks, so bet it.When a book of rules comes up, I gamble that it will be my salvation, and I risk everything to find it. My gamble doesn’t pay off, and I’m thrust back into a fight for my life and freedom. Win, and the fight will just continue. Lose? And I’ll be auctioned off to the highest bidder….The Last Queen Book Two is the second instalment in the new action-packed, fast-paced urban fantasy from Odette C. Bell. Views: 682
In each of his astounding #1 New York Times bestsellers, Mark R. Levin’s overlying patriotic mission has been to avert a devastating tragedy: The loss of the greatest republic known to mankind. But who stands to lose the most?
In modern America, the civil society is being steadily devoured by a ubiquitous federal government. But as the government grows into an increasingly authoritarian and centralized federal Leviathan, many parents continue to tolerate, if not enthusiastically champion, grievous public policies that threaten their children and successive generations with a grim future at the hands of a brazenly expanding and imploding entitlement state poised to burden them with massive debt, mediocre education, waves of immigration, and a deteriorating national defense.
Yet tyranny is not inevitable. In Federalist 51, James Madison explained with cautionary insight the essential balance between the civil society and governmental restraint: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
This essential new book is, against all odds, a likeminded appeal to reason and audacity—one intended for all Americans but particularly the rising generation. Younger people must find the personal strength and will to break through the cycle of statist manipulation, unrelenting emotional overtures, and the pressure of groupthink, which are humbling, dispiriting, and absorbing them; to stand up against the heavy hand of centralized government, which if left unabated will assuredly condemn them to economic and societal calamity.
Levin calls for a new civil rights movement, one that will foster liberty and prosperity and cease the exploitation of young people by statist masterminds. He challenges the rising generation of younger Americans to awaken to the cause of their own salvation, asking: will you acquiesce to a government that overwhelmingly acts without constitutional foundation—or will you stand in your own defense so that yours and future generations can live in freedom? Views: 679
In this new edition, two of Plato's most accessible dialogues explore the question of what exactly makes good people good.This lively and accessible new translation conveys the literary elegance and subtle humor of Plato's original dialoguesIncludes suggestions for further reading, a glossary, and explanatory notesAbout the AuthorPlato (c. 427–347 b.c.) founded the Academy in Athens, the prototype of all Western universities, and wrote more than twenty philosophical dialogues.Adam Beresford teaches philosophy and classics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.Lesley Brown is Centenary Fellow in Philosophy at Somerville College, Oxford. Views: 678
Sam Harris' first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people - from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists - agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the most common justification for religious faith. It is also the primary reason why so many secularists and religious moderates feel obligated to "respect" the hardened superstitions of their more devout neighbors.
In this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge. Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a time when science will no longer limit itself to merely describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible.
Bringing a fresh perspective to age-old questions of right and wrong and good and evil, Harris demonstrates that we already know enough about the human brain and its relationship to events in the world to say that there are right and wrong answers to the most pressing questions of human life. Because such answers exist, moral relativism is simply false - and comes at increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality.
Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our "culture wars," Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation. Views: 674
