Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius


Jorge Luis Borges - 1940
    It's an important story in the Borges' canon, incorporating most of the author's philosophical and esthetic preoccupations in a typically brief compass. With great solemnity and a convincing array of scholarly detail (including annotated references to imaginary books and articles), Borges contocts a fable of an alternate world and its infiltration of our own. The reality of Tlon is idealist: material objects have no existence; language has no nouns; its principal discipline is psychology, since its inhabitants see the universe as nothing but a series of mental processes. A series of 24 illustrations accompanies the text. Their disturbing resemblances to our reality make them appropriate reflections of Borges's imaginative constructs.' -- The Kingston "Whig-Standard"

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.

Log Horizon, Vol. 1


Mamare Touno - 2013
    Since the change, the world has fallen into lawlessness, and a strong guild is a player's only hope for survival. It's amid these dire circumstances that Shiroe sets off across the virtual landscape with his friends Naotsugu and Akatsuki on an adventure of discovery as they try to understand the nature of their new reality. Illustrator Kazuhiro Hara has adapted Mamare Touno's light novel series into a comic that gamers and manga fans alike won't want to miss!

Heaven and Hell


Emanuel Swedenborg - 1758
    A Swedish Enlightenment scientist of extraordinary accomplishment, Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis that led to an unparalleled series of paranormal experiences. He spent his last twenty-seven years in almost daily experience of heaven and hell, recording his observations and conversations, many of which are reported in Heaven and Hell. This sustained and detailed description of the nonphysical realms has left its impression on the minds of many great thinkers, including Goethe, Blake, Coleridge, Emerson, Borges, and Milosz.This deluxe edition contains an introduction by religious historian Bernhard Lang setting the volume in the context of its time.The New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg is a modern-language, scholarly translation of Swedenborg’s theological works. The series’ easy-to-read style retains the dignity, variety, clarity, and gender-inclusive language of Swedenborg’s original Latin, bringing his thought to life. Introductions and annotations by eminent, international scholars place Swedenborg’s writings in their historical context and illuminate obscure references within the text, enabling readers to understand and trace Swedenborg’s influence as never before.

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.

Integral Christianity: The Spirit's Call to Evolve


Paul R. Smith - 2011
    The perspectives of integral theory and practice, articulated by Ken Wilber, help uncover the integral approach that Jesus advocated and demonstrated in the metaphors of his time and that traditional Christianity has largely been unable to see. Smith incorporates elements of traditional, modern, and postmodern theological viewpoints, including progressive, New Thought, and emerging/emergent ones. However, he goes beyond all of them and moves to a Christianity that is devoted to following both the historical Jesus and the Risen Christ whose Spirit beckons to us from the future. Smith says, "The oldest thing you can say about God is that God is always doing something new. Jesus pushed his own religion to newness by including the best of its past, and transcending the worst of its present. He calls us to do the same, whatever our religion is today."

Inception: The Cobol Job


Jordan Goldberg - 2010
    It accounts the job that led to the first scenes of the movie where Cobb and his team are infiltrating the mind of Saito.

Christmas in Peony Harbor (An Aster Island Novel)


Rosie Summers - 2020
    Grab a cup of hot cocoa, curl up with a blanket, and relax by the fire as the snow falls quietly on Peony Harbor...Anna Harper hasn’t been home for Christmas in over three years—ever since she got promoted to editor in chief of the popular Stylish magazine in New York City. But this year is different. When a slew of layoffs hit the glam company a week before the holidays, Anna is both out of a job and in need of a change of scenery.When Anna returns home to the cozy little island off the coast of New England, she’s only expecting to stay a few days at her sister’s beachfront inn. But when she steps foot on Aster Island, she’s in for one festive surprise. On her first day there, Anna runs into a mysterious guest at the inn—while wearing elf pajamas no less—and although she hates to admit it, Ryan Jackson is bringing up feelings in Anna she's not sure she’s ready to explore.Anna’s dreams of settling down and having a family were pushed aside as her career skyrocketed, but maybe it’s time for a change. This year, something’s in the air, and a little pinch of Christmas magic is trying to prove her wrong. As the holidays swing into full gear, Anna must make a decision. Will she give herself over to a Christmas miracle, or when New Year’s Eve rolls around, will she be back in New York City… alone?

Meaning in Life and Why It Matters


Susan R. Wolf - 2010
    According to Susan Wolf, however, much of what motivates us does not comfortably fit into this scheme. Often we act neither for our own sake nor out of duty or an impersonal concern for the world. Rather, we act out of love for objects that we rightly perceive as worthy of love--and it is these actions that give meaning to our lives. Wolf makes a compelling case that, along with happiness and morality, this kind of meaningfulness constitutes a distinctive dimension of a good life. Written in a lively and engaging style, and full of provocative examples, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters is a profound and original reflection on a subject of permanent human concern.

The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene, the Companion of Jesus


Marvin W. Meyer - 2006
    De Boer, the long-suppressed story of Mary's vital role in the life of Jesus and in the formative period after his crucifixionpresents as authentically as possible the real Mary Magdalene

Heart Full of Love


Colleen Coble - 2012
    She has plenty of room in the big old Victorian house she owns, so she decides to become a foster mom. One little girl tugs at her heart, so she adopts Katie. The adoption is final when Katie’s uncle, Josh Leland, shows up and demands her back. He was working overseas and didn’t receive word of his sister’s death. Eden is determined not to give up the child she loves so much, but something about Josh tugs at her heart too. Will the two find the safe harbor their hearts have been searching for?Be sure to read Colleen Coble's new book, ROSEMARY COTTAGE, on sale July 9th

Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth


John G. Jackson - 1989
    The Jesus Puzzle

Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans


Malachi Martin - 1976
    One On One With SatanA chilling and highly convincing account of possession and exorcism in modern America, hailed by NBC Radio as "one of the most stirring books on the contemporary scene."

Novels 1955–1962: Lolita / Pnin / Pale Fire / Lolita: A Screenplay


Vladimir Nabokov - 1996
    Funny, satiric, poignant, filled with allusions to earlier American writers, it is the “confession” of a middle-aged, sophisticated European émigré’s passionate obsession with a 12-year-old American “nymphet,” and the story of their wanderings across a late 1940s America of highways and motels. Of its deeper meanings, Nabokov characteristically wrote: “I am neither a reader nor a writer of didactic fiction, and… Lolita has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.” (Nabokov’s film adaptation of Lolita, as originally written for director Stanley Kubrick, is also included.)Pnin (1957) is a comic masterpiece about a gentle, bald Russian émigré professor in an American college town who is never quite able to master its language, its politics, or its train schedule. Nabokov’s years as a teacher provided rich background for this satirical picture of academic life, with an unforgettable figure at its center: “It was the world that was absent-minded and it was Pnin whose business it was to set it straight. His life was a constant war with insensate objects that fell apart, or attacked him, or refused to function, or viciously got themselves lost as soon as they entered the sphere of his existence.”Pale Fire (1962) is a tour de force in the form of an ostensibly autobiographical poem by a recently deceased American poet and a critical commentary by an academic who is something other than what he seems. Its unique structure, pitting artist against seemingly worshipful critic, sets the stage for some of Nabokov’s most intricate games of deception and concealment. “Pretending to be a curio,” wrote Mary McCarthy, “it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century.”The texts of this volume incorporate Nabokov’s penciled corrections in his own copies of his works which correct long-standing errors, and have been prepared with the assistance of Dmitri Nabokov, the novelist’s son.

Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture


Carol Queen - 1997
    Carol Queen. Whether writing about the joys of being spanked into erotic bliss, performing in a red-light district peep show, partaking of the pleasures of the new safe sex clubs, or lobbying for the pro-pornography platform, Queen is an enthusiastic advocate for sexual pleasure.