Best Selling Books by Michael

With your hands you have potential to relieve everyday aches, pains and ailments without taking drugs, to improve your health, and to increase your vitality. Acupressure is an ancient healing art that uses the fingers to stimulate key points on the skin that, in turn, activate the body''s natural self-healing processes. With this book, it is a skill you can learn now--and use in your own home. In Acupressure''s Potent Points, Michael Reed Gach, founder and director of the Acupressure Institute of America, reveals simple techniques that enable you to relieve headaches, arthritis, colds and flu, insomnia, backaches, hiccups, leg pain, hot flashes, depression, and more--using the power and sensitivity of your own hands. This practical guide covers more than forty ailments and symptoms, from allergies to wrist pain, providing pressure-point maps and exercises to relieve pain and restore function. Acupressure complements conventional medical care, and enables you to take a vital role in becoming well and staying well. With this book you can turn your hands into healing tools--and start feeling good now.

The transatlantic slave trade brought individuals from diverse African regions and cultures to a common destiny in the American South. In this comprehensive study, Michael Gomez establishes tangible links between the African American community and its Afr

The leaders of the American Revolution, unlike the leaders of the French revolution, did not set out to erase religion. Indeed, the very first act of the Continental Congress was to pray to Divine Providence in the face of the British bombardment of Boston. In establishing a new model of self-government, the Founders believed that they were not only acting according to reason and common sense, but also obeying a religious duty. Benjamin Franklin proposed as their motto: “Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.” In telling the story of the forgotten—if not deliberately ignored—role of faith in America’s beginnings, Michael Novak probes the innermost religious conviction of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and other of our Founders. He shows that while the American eagle could not have taken flight without the empirical turn of mind embodied in John Locke’s teaching on the ends of government and the consent of the governed, the men who made America also believed that liberty depends as much on faith as on reason. In the course of his illustrious career, Michael Novak has written several prize-winning books on theology and philosophy. In On Two Wings he has created a profound mediation on American history, and on human nature and destiny as well.

As the former chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, author Michael Hyatt gained insight on the importance of combining compelling products with a meaningful platform. Now, with nearly three hundred thousand followers on Twitter, his large and growing platform serves as the foundation for his own successful writing, speaking, and business coaching practice. In this straightforward how-to, he offers down-to-earth guidance on crafting an effective and meaningful online platform to help readers extend their influence, monetize it, and build a sustainable career.Social media technologies have provided unprecedented opportunities for getting noticed and earning money in an increasingly noisy world. Platform goes behind the scenes into the world of social media success. You''ll discover what bestselling authors, public speakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and other creatives are doing differently to gain contacts, connections, and followers and win customers in today''s crowded marketplace. With proven strategies, easy-to-replicate formulas, and practical tips, this book makes it easier, less expensive, and more possible than ever to stand out from the crowd and launch a business.

The ninth edition of this successful textbook describes the full range of the astronomical universe and how astronomers think about the cosmos.

In this Very Short Introduction, Michael Freeden explores the concept of liberalism, one of the longest-standing and central political theories and ideologies. Combining a variety of approaches, he distinguishes between liberalism as a political movement, as a system of ideas, and as a series of ethical and philosophical principles.

“A wonderfully lucid, accessible, and wide-ranging account of the boundary between justified and unjustified belief.” —Sam Harris, New York Times–bestselling author of The Moral Landscape and The End of Faith In this work synthesizing thirty years of research, psychologist, historian of science, and the world’s best-known skeptic Michael Shermer upends the traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world. Simply put, beliefs come first and explanations for beliefs follow. The brain, Shermer argues, is a belief engine. From sensory data flowing in through the senses, the brain naturally begins to look for and find patterns, and then infuses those patterns with meaning. Our brains connect the dots of our world into meaningful patterns that explain why things happen, and these patterns become beliefs. Once beliefs are formed the brain begins to look for and find confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, which accelerates the process of reinforcing them, and round and round the process goes in a positive-feedback loop of belief confirmation. Shermer outlines the numerous cognitive tools our brains engage to reinforce our beliefs as truths. Interlaced with his theory of belief, Shermer provides countless real-world examples of how this process operates, from politics, economics, and religion to conspiracy theories, the supernatural, and the paranormal. Ultimately, he demonstrates why science is the best tool ever devised to determine whether or not a belief matches reality. “A must read for everyone who wonders why religious and political beliefs are so rigid and polarized—or why the other side is always wrong, but somehow doesn’t see it.” —Dr. Leonard Mlodinow, physicist and author of The Drunkard’s Walk and The Grand Design (with Stephen Hawking)

First Published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A complete and easy-to-follow resource covering every critical step of the accounting process Learning to love the language of business is easier than you think! In the newly revised Third Edition of Accounting All-In-One For Dummies with Online Practice, finance expert Michael Taillard walks you through every step of the accounting process, from setting up your accounting system to auditing and detecting financial irregularities. You’ll enjoy a unified compilation of mini-books and online practice and video resources that bring together everything you need to know about accounting into one convenient book and web portal. You’ll learn to record accounting transactions, adjust and close entries, prepare income statements and balance sheets, and more. You’ll also get: Online instructional videos that describe the modern reality of accounting in the digital age Guidance and instruction on how to make savvy financial decisions to help guide your business in the right direction Advice on how to handle case and make intelligent purchasing decisions Helpful practice quizzes for each topic to help you crunch the numbers Perfect for anyone who’s just beginning their career or education in accounting—as well as those who just love numbers—Accounting All-in-One For Dummies is also a must-read for business owners, founders, and managers who want to get a better understanding of the financial side of commerce.

A monumental investigation of the Supreme Court''s rulings on race, From Jim Crow To Civil Rights spells out in compelling detail the political and social context within which the Supreme Court Justices operate and the consequences of their decisions for American race relations. In a highly provocative interpretation of the decision''s connection to the civil rights movement, Klarman argues that Brown was more important for mobilizing southern white opposition to racial change than for encouraging direct-action protest. Brown unquestioningly had a significant impact--it brought race issues to public attention and it mobilized supporters of the ruling. It also, however, energized the opposition. In this authoritative account of constitutional law concerning race, Michael Klarman details, in the richest and most thorough discussion to date, how and whether Supreme Court decisions do, in fact, matter.

Explains the characteristics of phosphorus, where it is found, how it is used by humans, and its relationship to other elements found in the periodic table.

This workbook accompanies The New Testament in Its World by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird. Following the textbook''s structure, it offers assessment questions, exercises, and activities designed to support the students'' learning experience. Reinforcing the teaching in the textbook, this workbook will not only help to enhance their understanding of the New Testament books as historical, literary, and social phenomena located in the world of early Christianity, but also guide them to think like a first-century believer while reading the text responsibly for today.

How does an actor learn to: * Call up emotion? * Develop a character? * Strengthen awareness? These are essential techniques for every actor, and Michael Chekhov''s classic work To the Actor explains, clearly and concisely, how to develop them. Chekhov''s simple and practical method - successfully used by professional actors all over the world - trains the actor''s imagination and body to fulfil its potential. This handbook for actors (and directors) has been revised and expanded by Mala Powers. It includes: a previously unpublished chapter on ''Psychological Gesture'', translated into English by the celebrated director Andrei Malaev - Babel; a new biographical overview by Mala Powers; and a foreword by Simon Callow.

As communities continue to undergo rapid demographic shifts that modify their composition, culture, and collective values, police departments serving those communities must evolve accordingly in order to remain effective. The Future of Policing: A Practical Guide for Police Managers and Leaders provides concrete instruction to agencies on how to promote successful policing by proceeding on a course informed by future trends and emerging community forces. Explores critical variables necessary for decision-making Designed for typical police departments with common structures, problems, and opportunities, this book offers a unique juxtaposition of real-life examples, futures research, emergent trends, and management implications. Each chapter provides a discussion of the professional literature, current and projected trends, and situations faced by agency executives and leaders. Through this multidimensional and contemporaneous approach, the book explores community and political variables crucial to the decision-making process. It describes methods that managers can employ to explore the future and prepare their agencies for possible, probable, and preferable trends and opportunities. Provides specific, concrete examples Drawn from the authors’ research, as well as their own instructional and practical experience in the policing profession, this volume goes beyond esoteric, theoretical analysis and instead provides practical and well-grounded strategies for those who aspire to become police managers or current managers wishing to improve their proficiency. Using futures research and methodologies as the foundation for the text, this volume prepares practitioners to meet the challenges of policing and police management in the 21st century.

The first edition of Geographic Information Systems and Science has taken the GIS textbook market by storm, selling over 22,000 copies since publication. It is the most current, authoritative and comprehensive treatment of the field, that goes from fundamental principles to the big picture. GISS 2e builds on the success of the first edition: Completely revised with a new five part structure: Foundations; Principles; Techniques; Analysis; Management and Policy All new personality boxes of current GIS practitioners New chapters on Distributed GIS, Map Production, Geovisualization, Modeling, and Managing GIS Specific coverage of current hot topics: GIS and the New World Order Security, health and well-Being Digital differentiation in GIS consumption The core organizing role of GIS in geography The greening of GIS Grand challenges of GIS science Science and explanation A new suite of instructor resources including a companion website with an on-line lab resource and personal student sullabus and a cehensive Instructor’s Manual that maps the textbook to various disciplines and levels of courses.

Ethiopian Jews have been immigrating to Israel in ever increasing numbers since 1979. This volume describes the phenomenon and explains the issues related to the Ethiopians'' absorption by Israeli society. The authors explore the immigrant''s lives as Ethiopians, the experience of other waves of immigrants to Israel, and applicability of theoretical issues deriving mass immigration in the experience of other societies. They examine the effects of immigration on the immigrants as well as on the host itself. The volume addresses a broad range of themes deriving from the very real problems inherent in this immigration. It will be of value to all those interested in Middle Eastern and immigration studies. Michael Ashkenazi is the senior instructor of anthropology at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author, with Alex Weingrod, of Ethiopian Immigrants in Beersheva: An Anthropological Study. Alex Weingrod is the Chilewich Professor of Anthropology at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author of After the Ingathering: Studies in Israeli Ethnicity; Israel: A Study in Group Relations; and Reluctant Pioneers.

Annotation Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman''s decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II. Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan''s surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.

The football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. Michael Oher shares his personal account of his story, in this inspirational New York Times bestseller. Looking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out and worked hard to make his dream into a reality. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one''s dreams. Sharing untold stories of heartache, determination, courage, and love, I Beat the Odds is an incredibly rousing tale of one young man''s quest to achieve the American dream.

3500 photographs. Over 380 genera. More than 3700 species and cultivars. Dirr''s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs is the most comprehensive visual reference to more than 3700 species and cultivars. From majestic evergreens to delicate vines and flowering shrubs, Dirr features thousands of plants and all the essential details for identification, planting, and care. Color photographs show each tree''s habit in winter, distinctive bark patterns, fall color, and more. Dirr''s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs is a critical addition to any garden library.

The Third Edition (formerly titled International Public Health) brings together contributions from the world''s leading authorities into a single comprehensive text. It thoroughly examines the wide range of global health challenges facing low and middle income countries today and the various approaches nations adopt to deal with them. These challenges include measurement of health status, infectious and chronic diseases, injuries, nutrition, reproductive health, global environmental health and complex emergencies. This thorough revision also explores emerging health systems, their financing, and management, and the roles of nation states, international agencies, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations in promoting health. Your students will come away with a clear understanding of how globalization is impacting on global health, and of the relationship between health and economic development.

Here''s a source of guidance on the analysis of the hemodynamic waveforms generated in the cardiac catheterization lab. It progresses from a review of basic monitoring principles and normal waveforms through an assessment of the waveform data associated with the full range of individual coronary diseases, providing the assistance needed to accurately interpret any findings encountered in practice. Its extremely clinically oriented approach makes it an ideal hands-on tool for any clinician involved in diagnosing cardiac problems using interventional cardiology.

Although the theme of bloodied nuptial sheets seems pervasive in western culture, its association with female virginity is uniquely tied to a brief passage in the book of Deuteronomy detailing the procedure for verifying a young woman''s purity; it seldom, if ever, appears outside of Abrahamic traditions. In Signs of Virginity, Michael Rosenberg examines the history of virginity testing in Judaism and early Christianity, and the relationship of these tests to a culture that encourages male sexual violence. Deuteronomy''s violent vision of virginity has held sway in Jewish and Christian circles more or less ever since. However, Rosenberg points to two authors-the rabbinic collective that produced the Babylonian Talmud and the early Christian thinker Augustine of Hippo-who, even as they perpetuate patriarchal assumptions about female virginity, nonetheless attempt to subvert the emphasis on sexual dominance bequeathed to them by Deuteronomy. Unlike the authors of earlier Rabbinic and Christian texts, who modified but fundamentally maintained and even extended the Deuteronomic ideal, the Babylonian Talmud and Augustine both construct alternative models of female virginity that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity. Indeed this vision of masculinity as fundamentally gentle, rather than characterized by brutal and violent sexual behavior, fits into a broader idealization of masculinity propagated by both authors, who reject what Augustine called a "lust for dominance" as a masculine ideal.

In this unprecedented collaboration, twenty-three of the world''s favourite crime writers bring you original, co-written short stories featuring teir much loved series characters.

“How can I create an innovation engine that will consistently deliver substantial organic growth?” This question is the number-one issue for most CEOs and senior executives today. Innovation is a critical driver of organic growth, yet based on the authors'' research, only a small percent of companies effectively use innovation to sustain long-term, profitable growth. And the stakes couldn''t be higher-failure to create successful new products, services, and business models causes stagnating or declining profits. Now, for the first time, experts Michael George, James Works and Kimberly Watson-Hemphill explain the surprising and significant gap between the CEO''s growth goals and actual performance. The authors, who are experts at connecting strategy to execution, give you a complete blueprint for exploiting the strategic and operational dimensions of innovation. Using fresh insights about the true drivers of fast time-to-market and the inadequate success rate of innovation, Fast Innovation reveals: Why current approaches to innovation fail A new strategic and tactical plan that will help your company dramatically reduce time-to-market by 50 to 80 percent The secret for finding out what your customers really want (not just what they say they want) Tools and methods for turning customer insights into ideas that will generate significant ROI The key levers that senior leadership must engage to create innovation capability across the business You''ll receive specific actionable solutions for driving disruptive and sustaining innovation at the strategic, portfolio and project level. You''ll also learn how to improve how much time your innovation teams actually spend innovating, and discover the changes that must be launched at the corporate level in order to enable the whole business to embrace and get results from this approach.

Break the cycle of surface-level change and failure How do leaders become clearer as complexity increases? We live in a world where decisions require judgment, getting people on board, drawing on local knowledge, ingenuity, and commitment. As leaders, how do you get beneath surface-level change to tackle complex challenges with depth and clarity. Nuance is the answer. Michael Fullan returns with an eminently readable, compelling and practical guide on the three habits of nuance: joint determination, adaptability, and culture-based accountability. Learn how you can: Combine the power of networks and humanity to get to desired destinations Embrace complexity and understand context to develop better judgmenChange the culture of your organization to harness the forces of nuance Develop quality change that sticks

The path from Jesus to Christianity is not as straight as we might think -- as Dan Brown''s sensational The Da Vinci Code hinted at. In herbest-selling books, scholar Elaine Pagels has explored some of the ancient Christian writings that were excluded from the New Testament. Now, for the first time, L. Michael White, one of the world''s foremost scholars on the origins of Christianity, provides the complete, astonishing story of how Christianity grew from the personal vision of a humble Jewish peasant living in a remote province of the Roman Empire into the largest organized religion in the world. Many take for granted that the New Testament is a single book representing God''s coherent, unwavering word on Jesus and his church. A closer reading reveals not one story, but many. The New Testament is a collection of books -- the result of a variety of influences on a number of faithful but very human visionaries, preachers, and storytellers. The texts contain a wealth of biographies, histories, novels, letters, sermons, hymns, church manuals, and apocalypses, providing a spectrum of views of Jesus, his message, and his movement. Given this diversity of people, stories, and drastically different points of view, how did Christianity ever become what we know it as today? White draws on the most current scholarship to bring alive these ancient people and their debates, showing in depth how their stories were formed into what the world has come to know as the New Testament. Rather than reading the New Testament straight through in its traditional order -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and so on -- White takes a historical approach, looking at the individual books in the sequence in which they were actually written. He explores what these books divulge about the disagreements, shared values, and unifying mission of the earliest Christian communities. White digs through layers of archaeological excavations, sifts through buried fragments of largely unknown texts, and examines historical sources to discover what we can know of Jesus and his early followers. It is this early, hidden history that shaped Christianity as it grew from an errant, messianic movement to a state religion and then into a world religion that has lasted for over two thousand years. White shows how the early debates spurred the evolution of Christianity as we know it. He delves into the arguments over how to understand Jesus as both human and divine, the role of women in the church, the diversity of beliefs among Christian communities, the Gnostic influences, and the political disputes that raged over which books would ultimately be included in the New Testament. Complete with illustrations, photos, charts, and maps, From Jesus to Christianity presents the fullest picture yet of the beginnings of what became the most popular religion on earth.

#1 SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE “A picaresque, swashbuckling adventure.”—The Washington Post Book World They’re an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa a.d. 950, living as they please and surviving however they can—as blades and thieves for hire and as practiced bamboozlers, cheerfully separating the gullible from their money. But when they are dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire, they soon find themselves the half-willing generals in a full-scale revolution—on a road paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of. Praise for Gentlemen of the Road “Within a few pages I was happily tangled in [Chabon’s] net of finely filigreed language, seduced by an old-school-style swashbuckling quest . . . laced with surprises and humor.”—San Francisco Chronicle “[Chabon] is probably the premiere prose stylist—the Updike—of his generation.”—Time “The action is intricate and exuberant. . . . It’s hard to resist its gathering momentum, not to mention the sheer headlong pleasure of Chabon’s language.”—The New York Times Book Review “[A] wild, wild adventure . . . abounds with lush language . . . This book roars to be read aloud.”—Chicago Sun-Times

Beautiful Monsters explores the ways in which "classical" music made its way into late twentieth-century American mainstream culture—in pop songs, movie scores, and print media. Beginning in the 1960s, Michael Long''s entertaining and illuminating book surveys a complex cultural field and draws connections between "classical music" (as the phrase is understood in the United States) and selected "monster hits" of popular music. Addressing such wide-ranging subjects as surf music, Yiddish theater, Hollywood film scores, Freddie Mercury, Alfred Hitchcock, psychedelia, rap, disco, and video games, Long proposes a holistic musicology in which disparate musical elements might be brought together in dynamic and humane conversation. Beautiful Monsters brilliantly considers the ways in which critical commonplaces like nostalgia, sentiment, triviality, and excess might be applied with greater nuance to musical media and media reception. It takes into account twentieth-century media''s capacity to suggest visual and acoustical depth and the redemptive possibilities that lie beyond the surface elements of filmic narrative or musical style, showing us what a truly global view of late twentieth-century music in its manifold cultural and social contexts might be like. Beautiful Monsters explores the ways in which "classical" music made its way into late twentieth-century American mainstream culture—in pop songs, movie scores, and print media. Beginning in the 1960s, Michael Long''s entertaining and illuminating book sur

Contains an exclusive preview of Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston. Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There''s a new genetic cure for drug addiction—is it worse than the disease? We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it''s possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and to test our spouses for genetic maladies. We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes . . . Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn. Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and the bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect. The future is closer than you think.

Harry Bosch teams up with LAPD Detective Renée Ballard to face the unsolved murder of a runaway, and the fight to bring a killer to justice. Detective Renée Ballard is working the night beat -- known in LAPD slang as "the late show" -- and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours to find a stranger rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin. Ballard can''t let him go through department records, but when he leaves, she looks into the case herself and feels a deep tug of empathy and anger. She has never been the kind of cop who leaves the job behind at the end of her shift -- and she wants in. The murder, unsolved, was of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway on the streets of Hollywood who was brutally killed, her body left in a dumpster like so much trash. Now Ballard joins forces with Bosch to find out what happened to Daisy, and to finally bring her killer to justice. Along the way, the two detectives forge a fragile trust, but this new partnership is put to the test when the case takes an unexpected and dangerous turn. Dark Sacred Night for the first time brings together these two powerhouse detectives in a riveting story that unfolds with furious momentum. And it shows once more why "there''s no doubt Connelly is a master of crime fiction" (Associated Press).

A state-of-the-art guide to the new field of complexity-the tool leaders use to understand how people and organizations adapt in a world of rapid change.

Now faced with the "zero hour" created by a new freedom of expression and the dramatic breakup of the Soviet Union, Soviet cinema has recently become one of the most interesting in the world, aesthetically as well as politically. How have Soviet filmmakers responded to the challenges of glasnost? To answer this question, the American film scholar Andrew Horton and the Soviet critic Michael Brashinsky offer the first book-length study of the rapid changes in Soviet cinema that have been taking place since 1985. What emerges from their collaborative dialogue is not only a valuable work of film criticism but also a fascinating study of contemporary Soviet culture in general. Horton and Brashinsky examine a wide variety of films from BOMZH (initials standing for homeless drifter) through Taxi Blues and the glasnost blockbuster Little Vera to the Latvian documentary Is It Easy to Be Young? and the "new wave" productions of the "Wild Kazakh boys." The authors argue that the medium that once served the Party became a major catalyst for the deconstruction of socialism, especially through documentary filmmaking. Special attention is paid to how filmmakers from 1985 through 1990 represent the newly "discovered" past of the pre-glasnost era and how they depict troubled youth and conflicts over the role of women in society. The book also emphasizes the evolving uses of comedy and satire and the incorporation of "genre film" techniques into a new popular cinema. An intriguing discussion of films of Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Kazakhstan ends the work.

It was during the late Middle Ages that the full stereotype of demonic witchcraft developed in Europe, and this is the subject of this volume which places the Dominican theologian Johannes Nider at the centre of an emerging set of beliefs about diabolical sorcery and witchcraft in the 15th century.

In the depths of the Nevada desert, FBI agent Rachel Walling and former LAPD Detective Harry Bosch must confront The Poet, a terrifying serial killer who leads them down a dark and twisted path. FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she''s dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes -- and apparently he has not forgotten her. Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too -- from the widow of an old friend. Her husband''s death seems natural, but his ties to the hunt for the Poet make Bosch dig deep. Arriving at a derelict spot in the California desert where the feds are unearthing bodies, Bosch joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI . . . and squarely in the path of the Poet, who will lead them on a wicked ride out of the heat, through the narrows of evil, and into a darkness all his own . . .

John F. Kennedy creates an absorbing, insightful and distinguished biography of one of America''s most legendary Presidents. While current fashion in Kennedy scholarship is to deride the man''s achievements, this book describes Kennedy''s strengths, explains his shortcomings, and offers many new revelations. There are many specialized books on Kennedy''s career, but no first-class modern biography--one that takes advantage of the huge volume of recent books and articles and new material released by the JFK library. Ten years in the making, this is a balanced and judicious profile that goes beyond the clash of interpretations and offers a fresh, nuanced perspective.