Have you ever asked yourself why we are so intent on causing misery to each other? Some questions are best left unanswered.Have you ever asked yourself why we are so intent on causing misery to each other? Some questions are best left unanswered for the sake of sleeping peacefully at night. Views: 379
Thomas Merton's sessions with the young monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani showcase Merton's brilliant ability to survey the key figures and synthesize their writings, inspiring his listeners and readers with what it means for the spiritual life. Like its companion volume, A Course in Christian Mysticism, this book is a collection of fifteen lectures that get to the heart of Merton's belief that monastic wisdom and spirituality are applicable for everyone. This compact volume allows anyone to learn from one of the twentieth century's greatest Catholic spiritual teachers. The study materials at the back of the book, including additional primary source readings and thoughtful questions for reflection and discussion, make this an essential text for any student of Christian desert spirituality. Views: 378
In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century? Here, too, is a rare, private glimpse of Sagan's thoughts about love, death, and God as he struggled with fatal disease. Ever forward-looking and vibrant with the sparkle of his unquenchable curiosity, Billions & Billions is a testament to one of the great scientific minds of our day.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 378
A young couple is forced to abandon their simple lives to uncover the true purpose behind the alien "Prohibitions" imposed upon the surviving human refugees after abandoning their doomed starship and accepting safe harbor in the vast gorge on Syton.If the atmosphere on Conboet’s inner moon hadn’t been poisonous, the human crew of the doomed generation ship, Tanis, might never have taken a second look at the frozen snowball that was Syton, might never have discovered that life could be sustained deep within its vast gorge, midway between the frigid surface, and the geothermal hell thirteen kilometers below. It was there, over thirty years ago, that Second Officer, Avram Elstrada struggled to break through the language barrier to negotiate a settlement agreement with the resident natives—safe harbor as long as humans agreed to follow certain Prohibitions. Foremost among them was the prohibition against the use of superior technology. They would have to give up thousands of years of science and engineering and live in the same agrarian manner as the natives, if they were to live in the Syton gorge. It was their last, best chance of surviving their dying, seven hundred year old starship. And they took it.The Second Moon, is a science fiction adventure that chronicles a young couple forced to abandon their simple lives and overcome treachery, kidnapping, and murder to save their fragile human colony. Struggling with their own fears and shortcomings, they not only discover the true mysterious purpose behind The Prohibitions, but that heroic and noble traits dwell within all races and possibly, even themselves. Views: 376
Dostoevsky's work turned into a three-part play by Camus. Nihilism & individualism brought to the foreground thru the eyes of Russian intellectualism. The Possessed is Albert Camus' last work. He died 1/4/1960. It's considered one of his finest achievements. Views: 376
This new edition combines Tolstoy’s most famous short tale, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, with a less well known but equally brilliant gem, Master and Man, both newly translated by Ann Pasternak Slater. Both stories confront death and the process of dying: In Ivan Ilyich, a bureaucrat looks back over his life, which suddenly seems meaningless and wasteful, while in Master and Man, a landowner and servant must each confront the value of the other as they brave a devastating snowstorm. The quintessential Tolstoyan themes of mortality, spiritual redemption, and life’s meaning are nowhere more movingly and deftly explored than in these two tales.
This unique edition also includes a critical Introduction and extensive notes by Ann Pasternak Slater, a Fellow at St. Anne’s College, Oxford.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 374
The first volume of Arendt’s celebrated three-part study of the philosophical origins of the totalitarian mind. This volume focuses on the rise of antisemitism in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Views: 374
Henry D. Thoreau traveled to the backwoods of Maine in 1846, 1853, and 1857. Originally published in 1864, and published now with a new introduction by Paul Theroux, this volume is a powerful telling of those journeys through a rugged and largely unspoiled land. It presents Thoreau's fullest account of the wilderness.
The Maine Woods is classic Thoreau: a personal story of exterior and interior discoveries in a natural setting--all conveyed in taut, masterly prose. Thoreau's evocative renderings of the life of the primitive forest--its mountains, waterways, fauna, flora, and inhabitants--are timeless and valuable on their own. But his impassioned protest against the despoilment of nature in the name of commerce and sport, which even by the 1850s threatened to deprive Americans of the "tonic of wildness," makes The Maine Woods an especially vital book for our own time. Views: 374
The Age of Napoleon surveys the amazing chain of events that wrenched Europe out of the Enlightenment and into the Age of Democracy:
The French Revolution---from the storming of the Bastille to the guillotining of the King
The revolution's leaders Danton, Desmoulins, Robespierre, Saint-Just---all cut down by the reign of terror they inaugurated.
Napoleon's meteoric rise---from the provincial Corsican military student to the Emperor commanding the largest army in history
Napoleon's fall---his army's destruction in the snows of Russia, his exile to Elba, escape and reconquest of the throne, and ultimate defeat at Waterloo by the combined forces of Europe.
* The birth of romanticism and the dawning of a new age of active democracy and a rising middle class, laying the foundation for our own era. Views: 371
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Franz Kafka’s imagination so far outstripped the forms and conventions of the literary tradition he inherited that he was forced to turn that tradition inside out in order to tell his splendid, mysterious tales. Scrupulously naturalistic on the surface, uncanny in their depths, these stories represent the achieved art of a modern master who had the gift of making our problematic spiritual life palpable and real.This edition of his stories includes all his available shorter fiction in a collection edited, arranged, and introduced by Gabriel Josipovici in ways that bring out the writer’s extraordinary range and intensity of vision.
--randomhouse.com
Children on a country road --
Unmasking a confidence trickster --
The sudden walk --
Resolutions --
Excursion into the mountains --
Bachelor's ill luck --
The tradesman --
Absent-minded window-gazing --
The way home --
Passers-by --
On the tram --
Clothes --
Rejection --
Reflections for gentlemen-jockeys --
The street window --
The wish to be a red Indian --
The trees --
Unhappiness --
The judgment --
The stoker --
The metamorphosis --
In the penal colony --
A country doctor: The new advocate --
A country doctor --
Up in the gallery --
An old manuscript --
Before the law --
Jackals and Arabs --
A visit to a mine --
The next village --
An imperial message --
The cares of a family man --
Eleven sons --
A fratricide --
A dream --
A report to an academy --
The bucket rider --
A hunger artist: First sorrow --
A little woman --
A hunger artist --
Josephine the singer, or the mouse folk --
Descriptions of a struggle --
Wedding preparations in the country --
The student --
The angel --
The village schoolmaster (The giant mole) --
Blumfeld, an elderly bachelor --
The hunter Gracchus --
The proclamation --
The bridge --
The Great Wall of China --
The knock at the manor gate --
An ancient sword --
New lamps --
My neighbor --
A crossbreed (A sport) --
A splendid beast --
The watchman --
A common confusion --
The truth about Sancho Panza --
The silence of the siren --
Prometheus --
The city coat of arms --
Poseidon --
Fellowship --
At night --
The problem of our laws --
The conscription of troops --
The test --
The vulture --
The helmsman --
The top --
Hands --
A little fable --
Isabella --
Home-coming --
A Chinese puzzle --
The departure --
Advocates --
Investigations of a dog --
The married couple --
Give it up! --
On parables --
The burrow. Views: 370
The god of light and the god of darkness strive to gain control over the land of Weldera. Caught in the midst of this struggle, young Daryas Galvahirne finds himself torn from his homeland by forces beyond his comprehension. Tortured by dreams, and terrified by the uncertainty of the future, he discovers, much to his horror, that a great deal of this future has come to rest upon his own shoulders.The Punishment of the Gods is an epic fantasy story spanning five books:The peace and safety of Weldera has long been bound to the fortress of Dadron, which stands impregnable in the center of Falsis. In the west, however, a dark spirit plots revenge against his ancient rival, who is worshipped as a god in Dadron. Good and evil prepare for the coming clash; but for those caught up in the midst of the struggle, the difference between the two seems to vanish away.In the midst of this conflict, Daryas Galvahirne finds himself torn from his homeland by forces beyond his understanding. Tortured by dreams and terrified by the uncertainty of the future, he discovers, to his horror, that much of this future has come to rest upon his own shoulders. Though he has a powerful prince for a rival and a terrifying monster as his enemy, his greatest anxiety is born from the demand of his beloved that he return to her without spot or blemish. But how can a soul, black throughout, be made white? Views: 369
Henrietta is painfully boring. She is uncoordinated, unsuccessful, and entirely unlucky in love. That all changes when a strange man walks into her life talking of witches, magic, and warriors. Soon she finds her life turned upside down, and any semblance of normality banished for good.Henrietta is painfully boring. She is uncoordinated, unsuccessful, and entirely unlucky in love. That all changes when a strange man walks into her life talking of witches, magic, and warriors. Soon she finds her life turned upside down, and any semblance of normality banished for good.Enchanted Writes is a light-hearted urban fantasy series, with plenty of humour, action, and romance. Views: 366
A jaded ruler and a mysterious virgin… destiny will bring them together… only to break them apart.As the great king of the golden kingdom that sits atop the highest mountain in Bal-Mont, Gadreel thought that he was invincible. Until an unexpected enemy sent his defenses crumbling down, and took over his kingdom. Now, he was stripped of his honor, kicked to the curb, and was banished to the Earth, never set to return until the passing of the fiftieth blood moon. For the last five decades, he spent his life planning the Herculean mission to reclaim the kingdom that was taken away from him. But in order for his plans to prosper, he has to take Laura with him to Bal-Mont, and use her against the powers that be. But she could only traverse to his world if he will take her innocence and ruin her. It seems easy to do, but a real daunting task, for he was a gigantic monster, and she was still a friggin' virgin. But he must do it, by hook or by crook, or he could bid goodbye to the grand scheme he has plotted for fifty years to avenge his great loss, and claim back what was rightfully his. Living in a world where she doesn't fit in, Laura struggled to live a normal life. Unwanted by her own mother and bullied by her peers, she longs for love and acceptance. Until one day, at twilight, she finds herself lost in the heart of the dark forest. There, she meets a mystical creature who takes her in for a rough ride. It's a big leap into the darkness, but something she will never regret. Or maybe she will. Views: 366
