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Our selection of books and associated reviews. Each cover is an affiliate link to Amazon for purchase.
How To Raise Your Self-Esteem
Comforting and optimistic, this important self-help book is filled with step-by-step techniques for developing and strengthening feelings of self-worth. Shows readers how they can raise self-confidence, self-esteem, and commit themselves to happier, healthier lives.
I. Asimov : A Memoir (US 1995 Paperback)
Arguably the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived, Isaac Asimov also possessed one of the most brilliant and original minds of our time. His accessible style and far-reaching interests in subjects ranging from science to humor to history earned him the nickname “the Great Explainer.” I.Asimov is his personal story–vivid, open, and honest–as only […]
Introducing the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment of the 18th century was not only a crucial epoch, a sea-change in human history – it was also a vast moral, scientific and political movement. Intellectuals across Europe and the New World linked up in networks of friendship, projects and debates, and began to free themselves of the authority of the church […]
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millenium
Few biographical subjects spark passions as intensely as do interpretations of the life of Jesus. In this highly accessible book, Bart Ehrman reviews the latest textual and archaeological research into Jesus’s life and the history of first-century Palestine, and draws a fascinating, controversial portrait of the man and his teachings. Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet of the […]
Last Chance to See (US 1992 Paperback)
In “The Hitchhiker’s Trilogy” and the bestselling “Dirk Gently” novels, Douglas Adams has taken his millions of fans on wild excursions through time and space. Last Chance to See continues the trip–but this time the place is Earth, the date is today, and every word is true. By turns a poignant and hilarious look at […]
Lovecraft : A Study in the Fantastic
Levy’s book is filled with explorations of neat themes in Lovecraft such as attics (vs. cellars), dreamworlds, stairways dug from underground up… The book’s charm as well as weakness is that it points out Lovecraft’s relation to other thinkers (Poe, Hawthorne, Freud, Einstein, Le Fanu) but doesn’t get bogged down working those relations out.
Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics
Brink defends a distinctive brand of moral realism that embraces objectivism, naturalism, externalism, and consequentialism. According to Michael Martin, this book is the best defense of moral realism available.
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist
This is perhaps the most respected work on Nietzsche ever written. Thomas Mann called it “A work of great superiority over everything previous achieved in Nietzsche criticism and interpretation.”
One Nation Under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society
Based on the most extensive survey ever conducted of religion in America, this book delivers surprising revelations about the religious beliefs, practices, and affiliations of Americans and about the complex dynamics of a country that is paradoxically among the most religious and the most secular on Earth. Drawn from a random poll of a hundred […]
Phenomenology of Perception
In Phenomenology of Perception, Maurice Merleau-Ponty examines the different associationist and intellectualist conceptions of perception. He rejects both of them on the grounds that they establish an overly rigid relation between stimulus and impression, and secondly, because the world is not entirely the work of a constituting subject. The body is not one object among […]
Racing Demon
In conflict with government, torn with internal dissension on matters of doctrine and practice, the Church of England finds itself enjoying unwelcome publicity. David Hare’s play, which details the struggle of four clergymen to make sense of their mission in South London, opened to universal acclaim.
Religion Explained (Hardcover)
What’s it all about? Though we might never answer the really big questions–with good reason–maybe we can understand why we ask them. Cognitive anthropologist Pascal Boyer tackles this topic in the unapologetically titled Religion Explained, and it is sure to polarize his readers. Some will think it’s an impermissible invasion of mental territory beyond the […]
Robot Visions
From the author of The Bicentennial Man and Robot Dreams, a collection of thirty-six robot stories and essays. From Robbie, Asimov’s first robot story, to human and robot detectives Lije Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw.
Sci-Fi Private Eye (Audio Cassette)
Isaac Asimov, the modern master of science fiction and fact, and Martin H. Greenberg, a leading anthologist of our time, team together to produce an unprecedented collection of science fiction audio books. This landmark series presents their favorite private detective stories from Asimov’s private library, with a personal introduction read by the master himself. Among […]
Some Mistakes of Moses
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-99), the “Great Agnostic,” was the greatest freethought orator in the history of the United States. No public speaker before or since has enjoyed the reputation accorded him. After the Civil War, Ingersoll embarked upon a career as a lecturer, touring the United States to make his thoughts on religion, women’s rights, […]
The Age of Reason: Examination of the Prophecies
Until the publication of this annotated edition, Thomas Paine’s third part of “The Age Of Reason” was extremely rare and almost unknown. Titled “Examination of the Prophecies,” the book examines all the supposed prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament alleged by the evangelists of the New Testament. With great wit and penetrating logic, Paine […]
The Case Against School Vouchers
No one disputes the right of religious bodies to operate private schools or the right of parents to send their children to them. But should government use its taxing power to compel involuntary support for religious institutions? This book summarizes the case against school vouchers, providing evidence and documentation for each argument.
The Conquest of Happiness
Something so rarely written by 20th century philosophers: this is a book simply about how to be happy. Renowned atheist Bertrand Russell uses wit and genius, and a welcome sense of compassion and decency, to survey all the usual excuses people give for being angst-ridden or depressed or otherwise unsatisfied with life, including the sorts […]
The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave
Did Jesus rise from the dead? Although 19th and early 20th century Biblical scholarship dismissed the resurrection narratives as late, legendary accounts, Christian apologists in the late 20th century revived historical apologetics for the resurrection of Jesus with increasingly sophisticated arguments. A few critics have directly addressed some of the new arguments, but their response […]
The Fall
Elegantly styled, Camus’ profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer’s confessions is a searing study of modern amorality.
The God Debates: A 21st Century Guide for Atheists and Believers (and Everyone in Between)
Description The existence of God is a subject that has occupied individual thinkers and entire schools of philosophy for thousands of years, and it remains one of the greatest debates of our day. In The God Debates: A 21st Century Guide for Atheists and Believers, John Shook, Director of Education and Senior Research Fellow at […]
The House on Mango Street
Cisneros has established herself as a striking observer of human character in this work. Told from the eyes of the author as a young girl, Cisneros points out just how strong the social conditioning of our environment is upon the view we have of our own capabilities and potential. If others tell you that you […]
The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics
Written with uncommon clarity, engaging logic, and disarming candor, this book enables you to draw your own conclusions about the Jesus Seminar and the historical Jesus. The pioneering work of The Jesus Seminar has come in for high praise as well as searing denunciation from the press, the clergy, the scholars. Now, a veteran member […]
The Lurker at the Threshold
Ambrose Dewart returns to his ancestral estate and sets about restoring the mansion to his own tastes. In the process he comes across a document signed by his great grandfather invoking a sinister injunction to future generations: “Do not invite he who lurks at the threshold!”
The Morman Hierarchy: Origins of Power
A Mormon historian traces the evolution of the Latter-day Saints’ organizational structure from the original, egalitarian “priesthood of believers” to an elaborately hierarchical institution. Quinn also documents the alterations in the historical record which obscured these developments and analyzes the five presiding quorums of the LDS hierarchy.
The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader
The twenty-seven books of the New Testament were not the only writings produced by early Christians. Nor were they the only ones to be accepted, at one time or another, as sacred Scripture. Unfortunately, nearly all the other early Christian writings have been lost or destroyed. But approximately twenty-five books written at about the same […]
The Popes Against the Jews
Subtitled: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism The Vatican’s 1998 report “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah” purportedly exonerated the Church of complicity in the Holocaust. In The Popes Against the Jews, David I. Kertzer argues that the report is “not the product of a Church that wants to confront its […]
The Rebel
This is the third in Camus’s “trilogy” dealing with the theme of absurdity in the face of human existence. Following on the themes outlined in The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus now proceeds to engage in a literary exposition of metaphysical rebellion throughout history.
The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
Nearly twenty-five years ago Nathaniel Branden’s book: The Psychology of Self-Esteem introduced a new and revolutionary concept of self-esteem. Since then he has done more than any other theorist to demonstrate the supreme importance of self-esteem to human well-being. Now he presents the culminating achievement of a lifetime of clinical practice and study. Immense in […]
The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith
“I have to be honest with you. Islam is on very thin ice with me….Through our screaming self-pity and our conspicuous silences, we Muslims are conspiring against ourselves. We’re in crisis and we’re dragging the rest of the world with us. If ever there was a moment for an Islamic reformation, it’s now. For the […]
