This fantastic follow-up to The Rossetti Letter finds Claire Donovan in London teaching history at Cambridge. Claire is thrilled to be in London and even more thrilled to be near fellow professor Andrew Kent. That is, until fellow professor Derek Goodman is murdered — a professor the entire college saw her argue with. Shortly before Derek's murder Claire had shared with him that she'd run across an amazing find in the Cambridge libraries, the diary of a female physician from the 1600's. Hannah Devlin had been physician to the king's mistress — an amazing feat considering that it was illegal for women to practice medicine in those days....more

Jeannette Walls is shaping up to be one of this decade's most fascinating storytellers. The adventures of her family in The Glass Castle were mesmerizing and truly an unforgettable read. With a pen that glows with brilliance, her writing in Half Broke Horses is bedazzling. In her words, this is the true life novel of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who died when the author was eight. Half Broke Horses portrays her grandmother’s life told through all of the many stories she heard as a child. ...more

In choosing to marry a man with children, Stepmonster author Wednesday Martin joined a grim statistic: over half of all adult women marry a man with children, and seven percent of those partnerships will fail. So, one in two women will do this, ignoring the warning signs, not fully sure where to fit in, and not wanting to ‘rock the boat’ early on. As Martin found firsthand, the longer a woman with stepchildren waits to find her way into the family, the harder it is for her to ever draw the line or be taken seriously as an adult with authority. There is a skill to learning when to take a stand and when to disengage. ...more

Kenneth Taylor – well known as the author of The Living Bible, and founder of Tyndale House publishers – was a man dedicated to conveying the Christian message to children (he had 10 himself) in simple, understandable truths. Big Thoughts for Little People, a much-loved, best-selling picture book has now received fresh new illustrations while maintaining Taylor’s text from the original edition. Many readers my age may be familiar with the original version of this classic title, which was wildly popular during the ‘80s, and be looking forward with nostalgic fondness to sharing this new release with their own children. I however, missed out on the first edition as a child, so it was with fresh eyes that my daughters and I dug into it together....more

There are the ladies on the right: Laura Ingraham, Anne Coulter. There are the ladies on the left: Rachel Maddow, Laura Flanders. Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica Network's Democracy Now!, is just about as left as they come; she's the kind of liberal Rush Limbaugh loves to hate; she could be the model for his portrait of the lunatic left. Moreover, she would probably welcome his bloviating attack. There could be no better sign of a person's righteousness and basic humanity than to be the object of the Limbaugh ire....more

Douglas Hofstadter is a larger-than-life academic researcher who manages to combine a thirst for beautiful forms with the most penetrating theoretical insights, whether it is in mathematics, music, linguistics, philosophy, or the visual arts. He is a Professor of Cognitive Sciences but also has an involvement in Philosophy, Comparative Literature, and Psychology. No surprise then that he gravitates to the most fundamental overlapping problems, the notion of the self, the I, the problems of volition, perception, mind, and consciousness. These problems are notoriously difficult to understand because we are the object of our own study....more

The theme of The Principle of the Path is “how to get from where you are to where you want to be.” Each one of us have dreams and wishes, but in the journey of life we have to compromise some of them. But in some corner of our heart, such a dream still persists and we move on thinking that it will remain unfulfilled. The dreams may be related to our personal lives, in the area of our jobs, relationships or marriage (or anything else of your choice). Andy Stanley wants us to reach our destination. He says that we are not able to reach our destination not because of lack of determination, but rather due to lack of direction....more

Tony Woolliscroft is a UK based photographer who, for the best part of last 20 years, has been following and documenting the Red Hot Chili Peppers' growth and development. From early gigs in small venues, to large stadiums, and even to the secret shows that the band has done. He has followed them all along documenting them in photos. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American alternative rock band the originally formed in Los Angeles in 1983. They combined alternative, punk, funk, rap, and psychedelic rock in to a unique and very recognizable style. While they recorded three albums with little success, it was 1989's Mother's Milk that propelled them to international fame. It was during their 1990 European tour that Tony Woolliscroft first met the band....more

Growing up during the heyday of the Space Race, my mind was constantly filled with stars and other solar systems. Back in the 1970s, we were told that we’d be working on Mars. We were supposed to put a man on the Red Planet by 1985. There were ship models and suits and geographical mockups of what we’d find there. It was so cool. Then somewhere in the 1990s, all of those plans and dreams seemed to fade away. Ben Bova still writes great science fiction, and I still enjoy his novels because they make me feel like I’m in space....more

Far too often adventure stories set in places like Africa or other exotic locales feature Western heroes who have to overcome various challenges in order to achieve their goal. If the people who live in the area play any role in the proceedings it's either in the guise of savage natives who mean them harm, or simpletons who have to be led by the hand in order to get anything accomplished. If anything is said about their belief systems it is either represented as superstitious nonsense or some sort of black magic....more