In Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland completes his twenty-year quest to understand an unlettered man who was a painter, architect, engineer, philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. What was it that propelled Leonardo's insatiable curiosity? Nuland finds clues in his subject's art, relationships, and scientific studies--as well as in a vast quantity of notes that became widely known in the twentieth century. Scholarly and passionate, Nuland's Leonardo da Vinci takes us deep into the first truly modern, empirical mind, one that was centuries ahead of its time.

    To understand the universe in the far future, we must first describe its present state and structure on the grand scale, and how its present properties arose. Dr Islam explains these topics in an accessible way in the first part of the book. From this background he speculates about the future evolution of the universe and predicts the major changes that will occur. The author has largely avoided mathematical formalism and therefore the book is well suited to general readers with a modest background knowledge of physics and astronomy.

    Music, film, literature and the visual arts enjoy high prestige and are viewed by many as getting close to the meaning of life. But what is culture really for? This book proposes that works of culture were all made, in one way or another, with the idea of improving the way we live. The book connects a range of cultural masterpieces with our own dilemmas and pains around love, work and society, and invites us to see culture as a resource with which to address the complex agonies of being human. It provides us with enduring keys to unlocking culture as a way of transforming our lives.

    Michael Beckwith, Barbara De Angelis, and Marianne Williamson, celebrate their personal experiences of the divine. Previously published as For the Love of God, the book features the Dalai Lama on the central importance of kindness; Sue Bender on the small miracles of everyday life; Brooke Medicine Eagle on the Great Spirit; and Joseph Goldstein on the Dharma. Included are Rabbi Harold Kushner on how God appears in relationships, Brother David Steindl-Rast on perceiving the divine through the senses, and 19 other contributors. Each author shares what it is like to have a personal relationship with a higher spirit, how this relationship developed, and how it manifests in his or her life, relationships, and career. Most significantly, the authors offer insight into how readers can enhance their connections with a higher source. Handbook for the Spirit offers both hope and purpose in a world deeply in need of both.