Halls of the Damned is a gripping tale of horror and suspense that transports readers to the eerie, forsaken grounds of Blackwood Asylum. Once a sprawling institution for the mentally ill, the asylum now stands abandoned, its legacy marred by tales of unspeakable horrors, supernatural occurrences, and the dark history etched into its decaying walls. This novel weaves together the narratives of a diverse group of individuals--each drawn to the asylum for their own personal reasons--who unite to explore its haunted corridors and uncover its deepest secrets. As they venture deeper into the asylum's heart, the group encounters more than just the echoes of its tragic past. They come face to face with a malevolent force that has been lurking in the shadows, a presence that feeds on madness and despair. The explorers find themselves in a fight for their lives, challenging their beliefs, fears, and the very fabric of reality. What starts as a quest for answers quickly spirals into a desperate struggle to escape the malevolent grip of the asylum's true occupants. Halls of the Damned masterfully blends elements of psychological horror, paranormal investigation, and historical mystery, creating an atmospheric and tension-filled narrative. The characters' journey through Blackwood Asylum is as much an internal voyage as it is an external one, confronting their own demons as they battle the darkness within the asylum. Their experiences illuminate the thin line between the supernatural and the psychological, revealing the power of human resilience in the face of unimaginable fear. This novel is a compelling exploration of the darkness that lies at the intersection of history, humanity, and the supernatural. It is a story of courage, unity, and the indomitable human spirit's ability to shine a light in the darkest of places. Halls of the Damned invites readers to step into the shadows of Blackwood Asylum, to face the unknown, and to discover the legacy of the damned that becomes a beacon of hope for the future.

First published in the year 1893, famous American writer, journalist Ambrose Bierce's 'The Damned Thing' is a horror short story. This story is written in four parts with separate subtitles (that are comical) to each. These subtitles adds a synical impact to the gothic imagery created inside the story.

Deportation is Freedom! is a searing critique of today's immigration systems, a lively yet thought-provoking read that will captivate anyone who cares about the immigration systems that are shaping our world today. It will be of particular interest to social workers and all people politically engaged in immigration campaigning.

The “extraordinary” true story of the St. Louis, a German ship that, in 1939, carried Jews away from Hamburg—and into an unimaginable ordeal (The New York Times). On May 13, 1939, the luxury liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, one of the last ships to leave Nazi Germany before World War II erupted. Aboard were 937 Jews—some had already been in concentration camps—who believed they had bought visas to enter Cuba. The voyage of the damned had begun. Before the St. Louis was halfway across the Atlantic, a power struggle ensued between the corrupt Cuban immigration minister who issued the visas and his superior, President Bru. The outcome: The refugees would not be allowed to land in Cuba. In America, the Brown Shirts were holding Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden; anti-Semitic Father Coughlin had an audience of fifteen million. Back in Germany, plans were being laid to implement the final solution. And aboard the St. Louis, 937 refugees awaited the decision that would determine their fate. Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts have re-created history in this meticulous reconstruction of the voyage of the St. Louis. Every word of their account is true: the German High Command’s ulterior motive in granting permission for the “mission of mercy;” the confrontations between the refugees and the German crewmen; the suicide attempts among the passengers; and the attitudes of those who might have averted the catastrophe, but didn’t. In reviewing the work, the New York Times was unequivocal: “An extraordinary human document and a suspense story that is hard to put down. But it is more than that. It is a modern allegory, in which the SS St. Louis becomes a symbol of the SS Planet Earth. In this larger sense the book serves a greater purpose than mere drama.”

Powerful, affecting essays on mental illness, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and a Whiting Award An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalization to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang’s analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative. An essay collection of undeniable power, The Collected Schizophrenias dispels misconceptions and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood.

»The Damned Thing« is a short story by Ambrose Bierce, originally published in 1893. AMBROSE BIERCE [1842-1914] was an American author, journalist, and war veteran. He was one of the most influential journalists in the United States in the late 19th century and alongside his success as a horror writer he was hailed as a pioneer of realism. Among his most famous works are The Devil's Dictionary and the short story »An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.«

“Part lively social history, part architectural survey, here is the story of Broadway—from 17th-century cow path to Great White Way.”—Geoff Wisner, Wall Street Journal From Bowling Green all the way to Marble Hill, Fran Leadon takes us on a mile-by-mile journey up America’s most vibrant and complex thoroughfare, through the history at the heart of Manhattan. Broadway traces the physical and social transformation of an avenue that has been both the “Path of Progress” and a “street of broken dreams,” home to both parades and riots, startling wealth and appalling destitution. Glamorous, complex, and sometimes troubling, the evolution of an oft-flooded dead end to a canyon of steel and glass is the story of American progress.

In the late 1970s, Barbara Taylor, then an acclaimed young historian, began to suffer from severe anxiety. In the years that followed, Taylor's world contracted around her illness. Eventually, she was admitted to what had once been England's largest psychiatric institutions, the infamous Friern Mental Hospital in London