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The Gospel of Judas


Rodolphe Kasser - 2006
    When the bound papyrus pages of this lost gospel finally reached scholars who could unlock its meaning, they were astounded. Here was a gospel that had not been seen since the early days of Xianity, & which few experts had even thought existed–a gospel told from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, history’s ultimate traitor. Far from being a villain, the Judas that emerges in its pages is a hero. In this radical reinterpretation, Jesus asks Judas to betray him. In contrast to the New Testament Gospels, Judas is presented as a role model for all those who wish to be disciples of Jesus. He's the one apostle who truly understands Jesus. This volume is the 1st publication of the remarkable gospel since it was condemned as heresy by early Church leaders, most notably by Irenaeus, in 180. Hidden away in a cavern in Middle Egypt, the codex containing the gospel was discovered by farmers in the 1970s. In the intervening years the papyrus codex was bought & sold by antiquities traders, hidden away & carried across three continents, all the while suffering damage that reduced much of it to fragments. In 2001, it finally found its way into the hands of a team of experts who would painstakingly reassemble & restore it. The Gospel of Judas has been translated from its original Coptic into clear prose. It's accompanied by commentary that explains its history in the context of the early Church, offering a new way of understanding the message of Jesus.

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy


Jonathan A.C. Brown - 2014
    Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah law. Sometimes rumor, sometimes based in fact and often misunderstood, the tenets of Islamic law and dogma were not set in the religion’s founding moments. They were developed over centuries by the clerical class of Muslim scholars.Misquoting Muhammad takes the reader back in time through Islamic civilization and traces how and why such controversies developed, offering an inside view into how key and controversial aspects of Islam took shape. From the protests of the Arab Spring to Istanbul at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and from the ochre red walls of Delhi’s great mosques to the trade routes of Islam’s Indian Ocean world, Misquoting Muhammad lays out how Muslim intellectuals have sought to balance reason and revelation, weigh science and religion, and negotiate the eternal truths of scripture amid shifting values.

The Rape of Kuwait: The True Story of Iraqi Atrocities Against a Civilian Population


Jean Sasson - 1991
    The book consists of individual stories of what people experienced on the day of the invasion. There are stories about Kuwaitis, Palestinians, and other nationalities. Author Jean Sasson traveled to London, Cairo, and Saudi Arabia to interview those fleeing the violence. She was one of the few writers given an interview by Kuwait's Emir and Kuwait's Prime Minister. The book hit #2 on the New York Times Bestseller's list as it was the only book that told what was happening on the day of the invasion. Readers note that the war had not yet started, nor ended, so there is no resolution regarding the war in this book. It is strictly about human beings caught up in war.

The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej


Paul M. Handley - 2006
    The King Never Smiles, the first independent biography of Thailand's monarch, tells the unexpected story of Bhumibol's life and sixty-year rule—how a Western-raised boy came to be seen by his people as a living Buddha, and how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political and autocratic. Paul Handley provides an extensively researched, factual account of the king’s youth and personal development, ascent to the throne, skillful political maneuverings, and attempt to shape Thailand as a Buddhist kingdom. Handley takes full note of Bhumibol's achievements in art, in sports and jazz, and he credits the king's lifelong dedication to rural development and the livelihoods of his poorest subjects. But, looking beyond the widely accepted image of the king as egalitarian and virtuous, Handley portrays an anti-democratic monarch who, together with allies in big business and the corrupt Thai military, has protected a centuries-old, barely modified feudal dynasty. When at nineteen Bhumibol assumed the throne, the Thai monarchy had been stripped of power and prestige. Over the ensuing decades, Bhumibol became the paramount political actor in the kingdom, silencing critics while winning the hearts and minds of his people. The book details this process and depicts Thailand’s unique constitutional monarch—his life, his thinking, and his ruling philosophy.

The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes


H.G. Wells - 1895
    It sets one dreaming of the oddest possibilities of intercommunication in the future, of spending an intercalary five minutes on the other side of the world, or being watched in our most secret operations by unsuspected eyes. It happened that I was the immediate witness of Davidson's seizure, and so it falls naturally to me to put the story upon paper.

It Works: The Original Edition: The Famous Little Red Book That Makes Your Dreams Come True


R.H. Jarrett - 1926
    It shows you how to use the Mighty Power within that is anxious and willing to serve you if you know how to use it.IT WORKS shows you how. All scientific, psychological and theological explanations are eliminated. Three hundred pages are boiled down to ten minutes of interesting facts, a definite plan and three short rules of accomplishment. Don't let your worldly, objective mind keep you from more prosperity and happiness any longer.Test the power of this simple book that defies tradition and experience. Millions have tried the plan it presents and know in truth that IT "DOES" WORK.

The Torah Codes


Ezra Barany - 2011
    When an intercepted note connects the landlord to a secret society, and a detective ends up dead, Nathan must abandon his home and everything familiar to him, open his heart to a tarot reader he has never met, and trust her with his life--just as the ancient scriptures have foretold.

Spock vs. Q


Cecilia Fannon - 1999
    Q AN ALIEN VOICES® PRODUCTION STARRING LEONARD NIMOY AND JOHN de LANCIE Written by Cecelia Fannon As the end of the twentieth century nears, an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. When it hits, the impact will result in the end of all life on the planet.Ambassador Spock travels back in time to subtly warn Earth's inhabitants of impending doom while calling into question humanity's priorities. However, before the truth is told, the all powerful being Q appears and reminds Spock that he is prohibited from interfering in Earth's history. Besides, Q doesn't see mankind as something worth saving.This initial encounter between the two legendary characters explodes into a battle of wits as Spock cleverly befuddles Q with his own words. As barbs are exchanged, and humanity's flaws and wonders are laid bare, Spock's logic just may convince Q that Humans are indeed a species worthy of salvation, but will he be too late?In SPOCK VS. Q, Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie again bring their characters to glorious life in the most lively and entertaining debate since Nixon vs. Kennedy. Recorded in front of a live audience, SPOCK VS. Q is a stirring audio program that could only come from Alien Voices.

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?


Frederick Douglass - 1852
    Having escaped from slavery in the South at a young age, Frederick Douglass became a prominent orator and autobiographer who spearheaded the American abolitionist movement in the mid-nineteenth century. In this famous speech, published widely in pamphlet form after it was given to a meeting of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society on July 5th, 1852, Douglass exposes the hypocrisy of America's claim to Christian and democratic ideals in spite of its legacy of enslavement. Personal and political, Douglass' speech helped inspire the burgeoning abolitionist movement, which fought tirelessly for emancipation in the decades leading up to the American Civil War. "What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?...What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim." Drawing upon his own experiences as an escaped slave, Douglass offers a critique of American independence from the perspective of those who had never been free within its borders. Hopeful and courageous, Douglass' voice remains an essential part of our history, reminding us time and again who we are, who we have been, and what we can be as a nation. While much of his radical message has been smoothed over through the passage of time, its revolutionary truth continues to resonate today. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Frederick Douglass' What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Funeral Oration of Pericles


Thucydides
    

Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet


Jess Stearn - 1971
    The Edgar Cayce story is one of the most compelling in inspirational literature. For more than forty years, the Sleeping Prophet closed his eyes, entered into an altered state of consciousness, and spoke to the very heart and spirit of humankind on subjects such as health, healing, dreams, prophecy, meditation, and reincarnation. His more than 14,000 readings are preserved at the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc., in Virginia Beach, Virginia.A native of Kentucky with a ninth-grade education, Edgar Cayce accurately predicted two world wars, including the years they began and ended, racial strife in America, the death of John F. Kennedy, and hundreds of other recorded events. He could apparently travel in time and space to treat the ill, and dispensed information that led to innumerable cures where traditional medicine was helpless. The first to introduce many Americans to the concept of reincarnation, Cayce drew on a subconscious Universal Mind for startling information about past and future. In The Sleeping Prophet, Jess Stearn presents the extraordinary story of his life, his healing, his prophecies, and his powerful legacy.

The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War


Benjamin Carter Hett - 2020
    Adolf Hitler meets with his military commanders to impress upon them the urgent necessity for a war of aggression in eastern Europe. Some generals are unnerved by the Führer’s grandiose plan, but these dissenters are silenced one by one, setting in motion events that will culminate in the most calamitous war in history.Benjamin Carter Hett takes us behind the scenes in Berlin, London, Moscow, and Washington, revealing the unsettled politics within each country in the wake of the German dictator’s growing provocations. He reveals the fitful path by which anti-Nazi forces inside and outside Germany came to understand Hitler’s true menace to European civilization and learned to oppose him, painting a sweeping portrait of governments under siege, as larger-than-life figures struggled to turn events to their advantage. As in The Death of Democracy, his acclaimed history of the fall of the Weimar Republic, Hett draws on original sources and newly released documents to show how these long-ago conflicts have unexpected resonances in our own time. To read The Nazi Menace is to see past and present in a new and unnerving light.

Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee’s Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis


Eric Lichtblau - 2019
    Growing up in Germany, Freddy Mayer witnessed the Nazis' rise to power. When he was sixteen, his family made the decision to flee to the United States—they were among the last German Jews to escape, in 1938. In America, Freddy tried enlisting the day after Pearl Harbor, only to be rejected as an “enemy alien” because he was German. He was soon recruited to the OSS, the country’s first spy outfit before the CIA. Freddy, joined by Dutch Jewish refugee Hans Wynberg and Nazi defector Franz Weber, parachuted into Austria as the leader of Operation Greenup, meant to deter Hitler’s last stand. He posed as a Nazi officer and a French POW for months, dispatching reports to the OSS via Hans, holed up with a radio in a nearby attic. The reports contained a goldmine of information, provided key intelligence about the Battle of the Bulge, and allowed the Allies to bomb twenty Nazi trains. On the verge of the Allied victory, Freddy was captured by the Gestapo and tortured and waterboarded for days. Remarkably, he persuaded the Nazi commander for the region to surrender, completing one of the most successful OSS missions of the war.Based on years of research and interviews with Mayer himself, whom the author was able to meet only months before his death at the age of ninety-four, Return to the Reich is an eye-opening, unforgettable narrative of World War II heroism.

At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk's Life


Thich Nhat Hanh - 2016
    Collected here for the first time, these stories span the author’s life. There are stories from Thich Nhat Hanh’s childhood and the traditions of rural Vietnam. There are stories from his years as a teenaged novice, as a young teacher and writer in war torn Vietnam, and of his travels around the world to teach mindfulness, make pilgrimages to sacred sites, and influence world leaders. The tradition of Zen teaching stories goes back at least to the time of the Buddha. Like the Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh uses story–telling to engage people’s interest so he can share important teachings, insights, and life lessons.From the Hardcover edition.

Extracts from Adam's Diary, translated from the original ms.


Mark Twain - 1904
    I said I was innocent, then, for I had not eaten any chestnuts. She said the Serpent informed her that chestnut was a figurative term meaning an aged and mouldy joke. I turned pale at that, for I have made many jokes to pass the weary time, and some of them could have been of that sort, though I had honestly supposed that they were new when I made them. She asked me if I had made one just at the time of the catastrophe. I was obliged to admit that I had made one to my self, though not aloud. It was this.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.