Realm of Unknowing


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Powerful meditations on the nature and limits of human understanding.




Realm


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A WOMAN UNLIKE ANY OTHER, SHE WILL CONQUER THE UNCONQUERABLE AND BE LOVED BY A MAN WHO IS WORSHIPPED AS A GOD. Based on a true story. When her homeland is conquered by the mighty Alexander the Great, Roxana--the daughter of a mere chieftain-is torn from her simple life and thrown into a world of war and intrigue. Terrified, the sixteen-year-old girl of renowned beauty is brought before the greatest ruler the world has ever known. Her life is in his hands; her future his to decide. Without formal education or noble blood, Roxana is chosen by the Greek conqueror to be his bride. Soon she comes to know profound happiness and unyielding desire in her warrior's arms. However, being the king's consort comes at a heavy price. To survive her husband's treacherous kingdom, she must endure continuous warfare, deadly plots, jealous rivals, victory-hungry generals, and the stigma of being a barbarian. Persian blood will keep her from claiming the grandest title of all--queen--but her reign will seal the fate of an empire. History tells his story. This is hers.




Defender of the Realm


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For hundreds of years the United Kingdom has been protected by a mysterious guardian known as the Defender. Part myth, part superhero, few truly believed the Defender existed... until now. Alfie thinks he knows his destiny. As Prince Alfred, heir to the throne of Great Britain, he's fated to become the most disappointing king in the nation's history. Alfie longs for a way to prove himself, but little does he realize that with the throne of England comes an ancient secret. He who wears the crown must protect the country as the legendary hero -- the Defender of the Realm.Hayley is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. She certainly never believed in the mysterious superhero, the Defender. Then, after witnessing a very public battle at the Tower of London, everything is different, and Hayley is left with no doubt. The Defender is real.Two kids with two very different lives are about to get caught up in a centuries-long battle for the fate of a nation. Monsters and criminals, villains and dragons, together Hayley and Alfie must protect their home at all costs.




The Cloud of Unknowing


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THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING and THE BOOK OF PRIVY COUNSELING are the first explorations in the English language of the soul’s quest for God. Written in Middle English by an unknown fourteenth-century mystic, THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING expresses with beauty a message that has inspired such great religious thinkers as St. John of the Cross and Teilhard de Chardin, as well as countless others in search of God. Offering a practical guide to the life of contemplation, the author explains that ordinary thoughts and earthly concepts must be buried beneath a “cloud of forgetting,” while our love must rise toward a God hidden in the “cloud of unknowing.” THE BOOK OF PRIVY COUNSELING, also included in this volume, is a short and moving text on the way to enlightenment through a total loss of self and a consciousness only of the divine. William Johnston, an authority on fourteenth-century mysticism and spirituality, provides an accessible discussion of the works, detailing what is known about the history of the texts and their author. In a new foreword, Huston Smith draws on his extensive knowledge of the varieties of religious experience to illuminate the relevance of these works for contemporary readers.




The Unknown Realm


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Young Sam led a busy and mundane life. Between managing a part-time job and school simultaneously, his passion for football was his only solace. He had only a couple of friends to call his own, unsure of where his family was. His life was torn asunder after he started hearing a mysterious voice and befriended a new girl at school, Elizabeth Swift. He learned the truth about the voice within him. It was his soul: Frazen, who was speaking to him. Now, he and his friends must make a perilous journey to the most desolate place in the world to release Frazen and others into another dimension: a magical world where they belonged, one where a war has been raging for a century, guided by an ancient prophecy. Driven suddenly into the heat of battle, fumbling between legends and myths from the past and unearthing deep secrets about himself and his family, can Frazen end the war? Can he restore order and find peace before a wicked veil covers Sam?s material world?




Riders of the Realm: Across the Dark Water


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The first book in an exciting, action-packed trilogy—from the imagination of Guardian Herd series author Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. Perfect for fans of Lisa McMann’s Going Wild, Brandon Mull’s Wild Born, or Erin Hunter’s Warriors series. Twelve-year-old Rahkki is a stable groom for the Riders in the Sandwen army, who must battle deadly spit dragons and hordes of warring giants. The Sandwens believe they have tamed all the wild pegasi in the lush jungles of the Realm and turned them into flying warhorses. But when a herd of wild steeds flies over their village, Rahkki and his clanmates are stunned. Meanwhile, a small herd of pegasi have journeyed across a treacherous ocean to settle in a new, and free, land. Led by Echofrost and Hazelwind, the Storm Herd steeds are unaware of the Sandwen clan. But when the unthinkable happens, Echofrost and the rest of Storm Herd will have to come to trust the Sandwens, or both may not survive.




Aru's Realm


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Deep in the woods, we meet Aru, a girl on the threshold of adulthood. Before her aged grandma leaves her alone in the world, she wants to see Aru secure in a place where her differences don't cause her so much grief. But unbeknownst to both, a sorcerer has other plans. Because Aru is not like the others, she is able to look beyond what is considered normal. But is it her unique traits that have attracted the attention of this unknown master of magic? Who is this person that is meddling in her life? Why single her out to torment?Aru's Realm is a story of power, compassion, and courage. Treading the fine line between imaginative thinking and madness, Aru must learn to handle her own abilities, live her own life, and at the same time work with her friends to save more than one world.




The Realm of the Impossible


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"...a landmark anthology, which establishes that the crafting of brilliant short impossible crime fiction is not an exclusively Anglo-American endeavor."Publishers Weekly (Starred review) Here is a groundbreaking collection of 26 impossible crime stories from over 20 countries, demonstrating the global reach of this most fiendishly ingenious tale. Several stories appear here for the first time, many have never been anthologized, and a few classics are included. Also included are 12 short anecdotes of real-life impossibilities: How can a man locked in his room without alcohol get drunk every night? How can heavy stone coffins in a sealed crypt be moved? How can hundreds of rare French books be stolen from an ancient library? These are just a few of the actual impossibilities that are explained in The Realm of the Impossible. In his Foreword, Otto Penzler writes: "The range of authors collected in this surprising and welcome volume, and the diversity of their backgrounds, is a tribute to the detective skills of the editors, who have somehow unearthed a cornucopia of virtually unknown stories that deserve the attention they will now receive. It is... well... impossible to applaud loudly enough..."John Pugmire is the publisher of Locked Room International, whose books have appeared in Washington Post and Publishers Weekly "Best of" lists for 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Brian Skupin is the co-publisher of Mystery Scene Magazine, for which he has won the Mystery Writers of America Ellery Queen Award, the Poirot Award from Malice Domestic, and the Anthony award from Bouchercon.




The Philokalia Vol 5


Book Description

The Philokalia is a foundational collection of texts written between the fourth and the fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition. First published in Greek in 1782, translated into Slavonic and later into Russian, The Philokalia has exercised an influence far greater than that of any book other than the Bible in the recent history of the Orthodox Church, and it continues to be read more and more widely. Only a selection of texts from The Philokalia has hitherto been available in English. This is the first complete translation into English from the original Greek in five volumes, the first of which was published by Faber in 1979. It is concerned with themes of universal importance: how we may develop our inner powers and awake from illusion; how we may overcome fragmentation and achieve spiritual wholeness; how we may attain the life of contemplative stillness and union with God. As in the first four volumes, the editors have provided introductory notes to each of the writers, a glossary of key terms and a detailed index.




Journey to the Imaginal Realm: A Reader's Guide to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings


Book Description

This reader's guide to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings offers a journey into the world of Middle-earth, exploring the grand themes and hidden nuances of Tolkien's epic story, connecting The Lord of the Rings to the larger mythology of Middle-earth, and situating Tolkien's process of writing within his own powerful experiences of the imaginal realm. The Lord of the Rings has been a beloved story to several generations since its publication in the mid-1950s. The story has a timeless quality to it, and engages with a complex struggle between good and evil, death and immortality, power and freedom. The Lord of the Rings is a book treated by many as a sacred text, one to be returned to year after year, or read aloud with loved ones. The Lord of the Rings has become a myth for our time. Journey to the Imaginal Realm guides the reader through each chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's magnum opus, drawing attention to the subtle details, recalling moments of foreshadowing, and illuminating underlying patterns and narrative threads throughout the story. The close reading of the text is paired with relevant biographical information from Tolkien's life, including the loss of both his parents at a young age, the central role of friendship in his life, his participation in the First World War, and his exquisite romance with his wife Edith. Tolkien was a lover of language and a philologist by profession, and his invented languages form the heart of his tales. In some of his letters, Tolkien described his process of writing as one of discovery, in which he waited to find out "what really happened," feeling as though he was "recording what was already 'there, ' somewhere." This reader's guide seeks to understand the imaginal experiences Tolkien may have encountered that led to the writing of his stories. The guide explores Tolkien's theory of sub-creation, the immersive experience of Faërian Dramas, and most importantly, his notion of the realm of Faërie. Journey to the Imaginal Realm is a celebration of Tolkien's work, and an inquiry into the profound nature of imagination, which is capable of bringing forth a world as vast as Middle-earth.