Best Selling Books by Paul Collins

A view into the tumultuous and creative life of Edgar Allan Poe.

“Hearteningly strange . . . Collins exhumes little-known figures [and] recounts their perversely inspiring battles against the more logical ways of the world.” —The Onion Here are thirteen unforgettable portraits of forgotten people: men and women who might have claimed their share of renown but who, whether from ill timing, skullduggery, monomania, the tinge of madness, or plain bad luck—or perhaps some combination of them all—leapt straight from life into thankless obscurity. Collins brings them back to glorious life. John Banvard was an artist whose colossal panoramic canvasses (one behemoth depiction of the entire eastern shore of the Mississippi River was simply known as “The Three Mile Painting”) made him the richest and most famous artist of his day . . . before he decided to go head to head with P. T. Barnum. René Blondot was a distinguished French physicist whose celebrated discovery of a new form of radiation, called the N-Ray, went terribly awry. At the tender age of seventeen, William Henry Ireland signed “William Shakespeare” to a book and launched a short but meteoric career as a forger of undiscovered works by the Bard—until he pushed his luck too far. Collins’ love for what he calls the “forgotten ephemera of genius” give his portraits of these figures and the other ten men and women in Banvard’s Folly sympathetic depth and poignant relevance. Their effect is not to make us sneer or revel in schadenfreude; here are no cautionary tales. Rather, here are brief introductions—acts of excavation and reclamation—to people whom history may have forgotten, but whom now we cannot.

Intended for men and women, this volume presents readers with practical exercises to strengthen and tone your tummy, improve your posture, and increase vitality as well. It provides more than 100 exercises using the body''s own weight for strengthening, toning and reshaping various major muscles group.

Annotation Strength Training for Women has been developed as a training guide as more women begin to understand the health benefits of this activity.

The remarkable true story of a turn-of-the-19th century murder and the trial that ensued—a showdown in which iconic political rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr joined forces to make sure justice was served—from bestselling author of the Edgar finalist, Murder of the Century. In the closing days of 1799, the United States was still a young republic. Waging a fierce battle for its uncertain future were two political parties: the well-moneyed Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the populist Republicans, led by Aaron Burr. The two finest lawyers in New York, Burr and Hamilton were bitter rivals both in and out of the courtroom, and as the next election approached, their animosity reached a crescendo. But everything changed when a young Quaker woman, Elma Sands, was found dead in Burr''s newly constructed Manhattan Well. The horrific crime quickly gripped the nation, and before long accusations settled on one of Elma’s suitors: a handsome young carpenter named Levi Weeks. As the enraged city demanded a noose be draped around his neck, Week''s only hope was to hire a legal dream team. And thus it was that New York’s most bitter political rivals and greatest attorneys did the unthinkable—they teamed up. Our nation’s longest running cold case, Duel with the Devil delivers the first substantial break in the case in over 200 years. At once an absorbing legal thriller and an expertly crafted portrait of the United States in the time of the Founding Fathers, Duel with the Devil is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.

The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne''s empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. To many historians, it was a prime example of the ignorance and uncertainty of the Dark Ages. Yet according to historian Paul Collins, the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture''s birth, of the emergence of our civilization into the light of day. The Birth of the West tells the story of a transformation from chaos to order, exploring the alien landscape of Europe in transition. It is a fascinating narrative that thoroughly renovates older conceptions of feudalism and what medieval life was actually like. The result is a wholly new vision of how civilization sprang from the unlikeliest of origins, and proof that our tenth-century ancestors are not as remote as we might think.

When Paul Collins''s son Morgan was two years old, he could read, spell, and perform multiplication tables in his head...but not answer to his own name. A casual conversation-or any social interaction that the rest of us take for granted-will, for Morgan, always be a cryptogram that must be painstakingly decoded. He lives in a world of his own: an autistic world. In Not Even Wrong, Paul Collins melds a memoir of his son''s autism with a journey into this realm of permanent outsiders. Examining forgotten geniuses and obscure medical archives, Collins''s travels take him from an English churchyard to the Seattle labs of Microsoft, and from a Wisconsin prison cell block to the streets of Vienna. It is a story that reaches from a lonely clearing in the Black Forest into the London palace of King George I, from Defoe and Swift to the discovery of evolution; from the modern dawn of the computer revolution to, in the end, the author''s own household. Not Even Wrong is a haunting journey into the borderlands of neurology - a meditation on what "normal" is, and how human genius comes to us in strange and wondrous forms.

The “enormously entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) account of a shocking 1897 murder mystery that “artfully re-create[s] the era, the crime, and the newspaper wars it touched off” (The New York Times) AN EDGAR NOMINEE FOR BEST FACT CRIME • “Fascinating . . . won’t disappoint readers in search of a book like Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City.”—The Washington Post On Long Island, a farmer finds a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys discover a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumble upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. The police are baffled: There are no witnesses, no motives, no suspects. The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897, plunged detectives headlong into the era’s most perplexing murder mystery. Seized upon by battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the case became a publicity circus, as their rival newspapers the World and the Journal raced to solve the crime. What emerged was a sensational love triangle and an even more sensational trial. The Murder of the Century is a rollicking tale—a rich evocation of America during the Gilded Age and a colorful re-creation of the tabloid wars that forever changed newspaper journalism.

Every piece of exercise equipment serves a purpose, but none more so than the dumbbell, commonly referred to as ''free weights'' or ''hand weights. Held in either one hand or as a pair in both hands whilst performing exercises, dumbbells can be used to create a highly effective and successful exercise program. Now, Dumbbell Training offers readers a revolutionary new way to get the most out of any exercise plan using the tried-and-tested 3-Stage Dumbbell Training System.

"Sixpence House is the bookworm''s answer to A Year in Provence." -Boston Globe Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books" that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants-and forty bookstores. Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of the author''s own first book, Sixpence House becomes a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us. A #1 BookSense Pick "A delightful book."-Los Angeles Times "Collins'' gift is that you don''t care where you end up. The journey is enough."-Readerville "The real, engaging heart of the tale is Collins'' love of books and other people who love them...Collins muses on antiquarian books the way the rest of us remember lost loves."-San Francisco Chronicle "Funny, informative, somewhat chaotic and full of interesting references...there are numerous meanders into peripheral subjects, seen through the astute eyes of an Anglophile American."-Washington Post

Contains over 70 easy-to-follow exercises using your own body weight as well as fitness balls, medicine balls and abdominal machines that gives you leaner abs, a stronger lower-back, better posture and a trimmer waistline.

When the spaceship Colony crash lands on Earth, the Skyborn elders aboard decide to exterminate the Earthborn, whom they believe to be no better than animals, before recolonizing the planet. On a reconnaisance mission, however, fourteen-year-old Welkin Quinn discovers that the "barbarians" possess skills essential to the space travelers'' survival. Includes Reader''s guide.

The Inquisition ceased burning and torturing heretics in the 18th century; A milder punishment awaits the dissidents today, principally excommunication or banishment from official teaching positions. Paul Collins has discovered- through his own experience and extensive research that the impact of the Vatican''s investigations, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, can be quite profound. Collins is the controversial Australian Catholic priest recently investigated by the Vatican for alleged heresy. He served the Church for 33 years and is generally esteemed for his dry wit and his ability to make his vocation accessible a trait many appreciated in an increasingly secular world. The Vatican, however, views Collins''s less than reverential views as heretical and has been investigating him since 1997, when Collins'' book Papal Power was singled out for supposed "doctrinal problems."The Modern Inquisition, compiled over the four years that the mysterious and secretive CDF deliberated on Collins'' work, brings together the stories of others who have also been pursued, condemned, or vilified by the CDF. Here are seven fascinating accounts of how the modern Inquisition operates what it is like to be accused by anonymous informers, investigated in secret, and tried at arms length with no recourse to appeal.

Approx.312 pagesApprox.312 pages - Fully updated self-assessment section – ideal for current examination practice! - Includes useful ''Learning Objectives'' at the start of each chapter. - Pharmacological and disease management information updated in line with current best practice guidelines. - Includes recent research findings. - Discusses key aspects of patient communication – presented in easy ''Communication'' boxes. - Fully updated to include feedback from hundreds of students!

Tehran was well known to American businessman Jack Devlin until the day everything changed. When radical Islamic students stormed the US embassy on November 4, 1979, Jack narrowly escaped the revolutionary chaos, leaving behind 80 percent of his business and 100 percent of his heart. To get his beautiful girlfriend, Farideh, out of Iran, Jack accepts a devil’s bargain with the CIA and MI6. He must slip back into Tehran, where the militant students are holding dozens of Americans hostage in their own embassy. His part of the bargain is to steal the coveted client ledger of the world’s most powerful arms dealer, Mustafa Khaki, Farideh’s father. Surprised by an additional assignment, Jack is also ordered to strip a KGB defector of details on Russian collusion with Iran and their plan to eliminate the American hostages while infiltrating the highest levels of Ayatollah Khomeini’s government. From the damp cellars of KGB headquarters to the cold chill of British espionage to the blistering heat of the Kuwaiti desert, readers will learn, in an erroneous twist, that not all the turncoats are Russians.

Mack Dunstan''s Inferno was inspired by Bowling for Columbine, where Michael Moore challenged actor Charlton Heston on his role in gun rallies on the week of a massacre at Columbine High School. Well, the Heston Estate forbid the use of Charlton Heston in the work, but Iuniverse has published it because I changed Charlton Heston into Mack Dunstan and the paperback is called Mack Dunstan''s Inferno. It is about a Charlton Heston type character who succumbed to Alzheimer''s, descended into hell and met victims of his pro-gun policy. Yes, as he descended into Hades, he met oodles of Hollywood celebrities, including Kelsey Grammar, Barbra Streisand, JK Rowlings, Hugh Hefner, Larry Flynt, Joan Rivers, and her daughter, and even a comical scene with Woody Allen too. In such a circumstance, look out for all the American televangelists, including Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, and Jimmy Swaggart. It is a modern day Divine Comedy!

Although Dantar is able to shapeshift into dragon form, he still thinks like a rebellious teenager. His sister Velza has been given the ultimate gift by the dragons of Dracondas - the mind of a dragon. Now they must combine their gifts to stop the most powerful warlock of all time from casting his doomsday spell.

The Roman Catholic Church has always been concerned with the quality of the music used in the liturgy, and the essays in this volume trace the church''s efforts, during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, to cultivate a more appropriate liturgical music for its Latin Rite. The task of restoration - expressed, for example, in the chant revival associated with the monks of Solesmes, the efforts of the Cecilian movement, and Pius X''s determination to reform sacred music in the universal church - is a recurring theme in the book. Meanwhile resistance, particularly to the reforms decreed by the pope''s 1903 motu proprio, also finds a voice in the volume. The essays collected here describe selected scenes and episodes from the unending story of imperfect human beings trying to express in their music the perfection of God.

The youth of our nation are struggling. They are disconnected and adrift. Jesus has called us to reach them and those who feel the call often feel overwhelmed and unprepared as they face this seemingly insurmountable task. This book is written to give not only hope and encouragement, but tools that work. Even starting with nothing in a small church with a tiny budget you can be effective in reaching the youth of this generation, even if you don''t have a bible college degree. Hang on, this could be the greatest job you will ever love! Paul Collins is Pastor of Underground Fellowship in Green Bay WI and the founder of Oben Youth Ministries. He has worked with teens for 27 years in various capacities including adult sponsor, church scout group leader, bus driver, retreat cook, camp counselor, Sunday school teacher and Youth Pastor. He has a passion for reaching the teens of this generation and for helping small churches find the keys to building successful youth ministries with limited budget and resources. Paul and his wife Lisa have worked side-by-side starting with 6 kids in their basement to a multi-faceted youth program reaching out to teens who attend the local church and those with no church background alike.

“Well-researched and beautifully written.…Collins knows how to build suspense.” —San Francisco Chronicle On November 23rd of 1849, in the heart of Boston, one of the city’s richest men simply vanished. Dr. George Parkman, a Brahmin who owned much of Boston’s West End, was last seen that afternoon visiting his alma mater, Harvard Medical School. Police scoured city tenements and the harbor, and leads put the elusive Dr. Parkman at sea or hiding in Manhattan. But one Harvard janitor held a much darker suspicion: that their ruthless benefactor had never left the Medical School building alive. His shocking discoveries in a chemistry professor’s laboratory engulfed America in one of its most infamous trials: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. John White Webster. A baffling case of red herrings, grave robbery, and dismemberment, it became a landmark case in the use of medical forensics and the meaning of reasonable doubt. Paul Collins brings nineteenth-century Boston back to life in vivid detail, weaving together newspaper accounts, letters, journals, court transcripts, and memoirs from this groundbreaking case. Rich in characters and evocative in atmosphere, Blood & Ivy explores the fatal entanglement of new science and old money in one of America’s greatest murder mysteries.

A Book Sense Fall 2005 History Channel Top Ten Pick Paul Collins combines present-day travelogue with an odyssey down the forgotten paths of history as he searches for the physical remains of founding father Thomas Paine. Paine''s missing body, like a saint''s relics, has been scattered in pieces around the world over the last two centuries-a brainstem in New York, a box of bones in London, a lock of hair in Edinburgh, a skull in Sydney. As Paul tracks down these remnants, he revisits the unusual life of Tom Paine-and in his search for Paine''s body, Collins uncovers that body''s soul.

Most in our world are perplexed by, and weary of, the seemingly endless number of hardships that are currently plaguing mankind, from ineffective and deceptive world leaders, to brutal wars, widespread racial unrest, widespread civil unrest, global food price increases and food shortages, deadly pandemics, and devastating earthquakes. The collective occurrences of all these hardships are biblical warning signs which serve to confirm that in 2020 mankind entered into a prophetic season that was described by Jesus Christ as the Beginning of Sorrows. Since we have surely stepped into this prophetic end-times season, it is equally true that the human vessel who will become the Antichrist is alive on the earth and now rising to political power. In this book, Minister Collins leads the reader through a comprehensive, step-by-step investigation that he asserts now reveals the modern-day identity of the person who will become the Antichrist.

Ted moves to a new town and tries to be friendly with the bully next door, but mean Jim Green has a big surprise coming his way.

Beyond Priests contends that the requirements of the clerical priesthood of the Catholic Church—that all priests must be male, and that all priests must be celibate—is a gross distortion of scripture and the church’s early history that must be changed. While the roots of the modern priesthood go back to the fourth century and even more remotely to the presbyters or elders who advised local bishops in the early church, the contemporary priestly model is very much the product of seventeenth-century French reformers acting to apply a 1563 decree on the priesthood of the Council of Trent. The present-day priestly model has increasingly become harmful, even toxic, not only to priests themselves, but to the ministry and the Catholic community. Based on the historical analysis, Beyond Priests outlines a whole new way of approaching ministry and leadership that is in tune with contemporary needs, is inclusive of women and men, and is more authentically derived from the New Testament and the early church.

Are You Interested in trimming your waist and firming and toning the muscles of the hips, buttocks and thighs? Do you want to develop your best body shape ever? Paul Collins, The Body Coach, is a world-renowned Personal Trainer dedicated to helping you get fit, lose weight, look good and feel great! The Body Coach''s revolutionary firmer thighs and trimmer waistline workout will teach you how to target muscles more effectively in order to maximize your personal results. More importantly, The Body Coach is there with you, guiding and motivating you all the way as your very own Personal Trainer. The introduction of The Body Coach 20-30-40 Exercise Principle sets a new standard in exercise, with an exercise timing clock that accommodates the beginner right through to the advanced level exerciser with each workout, enabling you to safely and progressively achieve your goals. Paul Collins, The Body Coach, is an award-winning Personal Trainer who has helped thousands of men, women and children achieve better health and a better body. A vocal advocate of the importance of personal health and physical conditioning, Paul has trained television stars, executives and sporting champions including members of the world-class Australian Olympic Swimming Team. Six major benefits you can expect from The Body Coach - Firmer Thighs & Trimmer Waist workout are: 1. A slim and fit body, 2. A trim and toned waistline 3. Slender and shapely legs 4. Firmer buttock region 5. Improved bone density; and 6. Increased energy levels Let The Body Coach - Firmer Thighs & Trimmer Waist take you to fitness and well being! Book jacket.

5 Stars * * * * * "...characters leap off the pages. I cared about them...their triumphs and sorrows."—Lucinda E. Clarke, award winning, best-selling author 5 Stars * * * * * "Collins demonstrates remarkable skill in bringing historical America to vivid life through meticulous attention to detail and rich, evocative prose." —K.C. Finn, Amazon and USA Today best-selling author 4 Stars * * * * "If we only knew how much our grandchildren would treasure such a thing, we would all do this." —Susie Helme, The Genizah Codex This gripping fact-based fictional account, composed of three personal journals written as if by Collins'' ancestors nearly two hundred years ago, contains their intimate, emotional stories, firsthand experiences, and traditions of old-world craftsmanship in a world being overtaken by technology. Based on the legacies of two Boston Irish and Italian families, it is a perfect story for fans of historical Irish fiction by authors like Jean Grainger, Andrew Wareham, and Daisy O''Shea, fans of historical Italian fiction by Daniela Sacerdoti and Kate Quinn, and fans of historical biographical fiction and family sagas by writers like Mark Sullivan and Marie Benedict. Forgotten by Time, Rediscovered by Fate "A century after her birth, Jessie (Ambrosini) Collins is laid to rest beside her husband, Joseph Cornelius Collins, in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Milford, Massachusetts. Weeks later, while settling her estate, her children and grandchildren discover an old hope chest filled with the artifacts and memories of her life. Among the curiosities and treasures is a tied bundle containing three handwritten journals, previously unknown to the family. In time, they would come to realize that what they held in their hands was the family legacy—pictures of life passed down by those who lived before—of how it was with them in their time." The Odyssey of Cornelius Collins It is 1845 the first year of the Great Famine in Ireland when fourteen-year-old Cornelius Collins begins a harrowing seven-year struggle for survival. At twenty, he escapes to Liverpool, England, securing a one-way third-class passage aboard a "coffin ship" bound for America. Against all odds, he survives the forty-one-day Atlantic crossing on the packet ship Clara Wheeler, landing in Boston, Massachusetts. There, he is processed and released into the streets alone to face the "land sharks" eager to take what little he possesses, including his life. Fate intervenes, and an Irish American welfare society helps him find work as a bootmaker in the town of Milford. Determined, Cornelius vows to save every penny and send it back to Ireland to support his family. Of Leather & Stone As the decades pass, a highly prized pink granite is discovered in Milford triggering a "granite rush" attracting skilled stonecutters from around the world, including Giuseppe Ambrosini, a master stonecutter from Lombardy, Italy, a region renowned for its stone craftsmen. He comes to America seeking his fortune in the pink granite quarries of Milford. Generations of their two families live through the most radical shift in industrial technology in the history of civilization, the disastrous effects of the American Civil War, widespread labor upheavals, the total collapse of the American economy, and the Irish Rebellion. These events profoundly affect them and their American-born children, who unite their two families in marriage at the height of the Roaring Twenties and in the aftermath of ‘the war to end all wars.’ The Remembering There will be no great fortunes or inheritance, no monumental works of art or science left for future generations. Instead, there will be profound life lessons learned from a lifetime of cutting and shaping leather and stone in Milford’s workshops and quarries. "Theirs is the common fate of common people: living their lives without fanfare, known only to those who worked with them and those who loved them, then forgotten by time—until one day, when they are remembered, and their names are spoken again by the living in THE REMEMBERING."

Presents practical, easy-to-follow exercises to condition your body for athletic and sports performance. This title - for men and women - provides step-by-step coaching advice and workouts utilizing body weight, fitness balls, medicine balls, plyometrics, resistance bands, stability and speed training equipment.

The Sumerians are widely believed to have created the world’s earliest civilization on the fertile floodplains of southern Iraq from about 3500 to 2000 BCE. They have been credited with the invention of nothing less than cities, writing, and the wheel, and therefore hold an ancient mirror to our own urban, literate world. But is this picture correct? Paul Collins reveals how the idea of a Sumerian people was assembled from the archaeological and textual evidence uncovered in Iraq and Syria over the last one hundred fifty years. Reconstructed through the biases of those who unearthed them, the Sumerians were never simply lost and found, but reinvented a number of times, both in antiquity and in the more recent past.