By candidly sharing her own joys, heartaches, triumphs, and failures, Mandisa shows women that they can be beautiful at any size and that healthy self-esteem and personal beauty come only when they accept themselves as a unique and much-loved woman of God's creation. Mandisa also gives readers a very candid, behind-the-scenes look at life as an American Idol contestant.

Idol is about a brilliant schizophrenic serial killer, Steven Wently, whose sensational murders of famous false idols receive universal publicity and public support. Wently imagines that the cumulative weight of revelations of crimes committed by false idols after their deaths will destroy humankinds faith in its heroes. He further reasons that such exposures will cast shadows over legitimacy of promises of mans immortality made by religious heroes like Christ, Hindu deities, and Muhammad. The result of civilizations loss of faith in its heroes and immortality will cause the collapse of civilization, Wently believes. He uses his wifes enormous wealth and her familys vast network of contacts to identify famous false heroes and create extensive dossiers of their crimes. As his alter ego, Idol, Wently tries, and executes these Pretenders, thereby destroying their mythical reputations before they die. His victims are varied a prime candidate to replace the Pope, a U.S. Senator, a famous composer, a highly successful investment banker, a Supreme Court Justice, a former U.S. president, a United Nations Secretary General, etc. Over time, Wently builds an extensive organization to carry out his exterminations, a movement that becomes known as Idolism. Idolism attracts worldwide acclaim of millions, confounding government. Government, fearing that Idolism is unstoppable, takes steps to eliminate it, led by an utterly evil, maniacal assassin. Idol, like Budds most recent thriller, Life Support, is an exciting amalgam of inventive plotting, extraordinary characters, spellbinding terror and edgy wit, and blurs lines between good and evil.

Based on first-hand materials gathered through decades of field research and fleshed out with the author's insightful religious, cultural, and historical observations extending back to Qing Dynasty times, ancient archaeological discoveries and the legacy of Siberian peoples, this two-volume ethnological study investigates shamanic rituals, myths and lore in northern China and explores the common ideology underlying the origins of the region's cultures. The two volumes discuss the spiritual world of northern Shamanism and investigates the various shamanic rituals, divination, spirit idols and myths, illuminating how worship and ideas are imbedded in and interweave with the indigenous environment, culture and history of people in northern China. This mythic heritage embodies the peoples' understanding of the natural world, the creation of humankind, social life and history as well as their interaction with their surroundings. It is shown that shamanic spirituality in northern China is characterised by functionality and practicality in daily-life situations, in contrast to the received wisdom that defines shamanic praxis as a pure supernatural spirit journey. The set will be of great value for scholars of religion and anthropologists as well as ethnologists in the fields of Shamanism studies, Northeast Asian folklore and Manchu studies.

On the basis of first-hand materials gathered through decades of field research and fleshed out with the author’s insightful religious, cultural, and historical observations extending back to the Qing dynasty, ancient archaeological discoveries, and the legacy of Siberian peoples, this two-volume ethnological study investigates shamanic rituals, myths, and lore in northern China and explores the common ideology underlying the origins of the region’s cultures. This second volume focuses on northern shamanic divination, spirit idols, and folklore covering the myths of the Manchu-Tungus, Manchu creation shrine tales, and individual tribal myths. This mythic heritage helps identify shared patterns of thought among the ethnic peoples of northern China; points to cultural integration with Buddhist, Daoist, and Han Chinese cultures; and shows their understand of the natural world, the creation of humankind, social life, and history and their interactions with their surroundings. In this regard, shamanic spirituality in northern China is characterized by functionality and practicality in daily life situations, in contrast to the received wisdom that defines shamanic praxis as a pure supernatural spirit journey. The book will be of great value to scholars of religion and to both anthropologists and ethnologists in the fields of shamanism studies, Northeast Asian folklore, and Manchu studies.

First Love Devotions is written from the authors rich experience of over fifty years as a pastor and teacher. One of the dangers a pastor faces is becoming mechanical and professional and losing the first love that motivated him to devote his life as a servant of God. The best safeguard against that is maintaining a loving, intimate daily fellowship with Jesus as you seek his guidance in understanding the scripture. If you find your love for Jesus waning, do a thorough job of repentance as you renew and cultivate this relationship. Each first-love devotion treats a passage of scripture and gives insight based on prayerful reflection as it relates to personal experience. In addition to personal spiritual benefits, the Christian worker will find a wealth of topics, sermon prompts, and illustrative materials that may be shared with others.

Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in the medieval Middle East The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt. The author, al-Jawbarī, was well versed in the practices he describes and may well have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty chapters, his book reveals the secrets of everyone from “Those Who Claim to be Prophets” to “Those Who Claim to Have Leprosy” and “Those Who Dye Horses.” The material is informed in part by the author’s own experience with alchemy, astrology, and geomancy, and in part by his extensive research. The work is unique in its systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a subject that is by nature arcane and that has relevance not only for social history but also for the history of science. Covering everything from invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack medicine, The Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a subculture of beggars’ guilds and professional con artists in the medieval Arab world. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Includes section "Numismatic supplement," no. 5-45 (previously issued in the society's Journal, later in its Journal, 3rd ser.).