Ishtar is the first book dedicated to providing an accessible analysis of the mythology and image of this complex goddess. The polarity of her nature is reflected in her role as goddess of sexual love and war, and has made her difficult to characterise in modern scholarship. By exploring this complexity, Ishtar offers insight into Mesopotamian culture and thought, and elucidates a goddess who transcended the limits of gender, divinity and nature. It gives an accessible introduction to the Near Eastern pantheon, while also opening a pathway for comparison with the later Near Eastern and Mediterranean deities who followed her.

A new Advent family devotional from the author of Jotham's Journey! Fourth in a set of Advent adventure books for families, Ishtar's Odyssey follows the ten-year-old son of a Persian wise man as their caravan follows a star across the desert. Ishtar would just as soon stay in the comfort of the palace, but slowly he learns that there's much to see, do, and learn in this world that can't be experienced in school. He eventually meets Jotham, Bartholomew, and Tabitha as he follows his father and uncles in their search for a newborn king. Arnold Ytreeide's family advent devotionals have become a much-loved Christmas tradition, enjoyed by multiple generations. With over 100,000 in print they include Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, and Tabitha's Travels. - See more at: http://www.kregel.com/childrens-story-books/ishtars-odyssey/#sthash.UaTgkA6T.dpuf A new Advent family devotional from the author of Jotham's Journey! Fourth in a set of Advent adventure books for families, Ishtar's Odyssey follows the ten-year-old son of a Persian wise man as their caravan follows a star across the desert. Ishtar would just as soon stay in the comfort of the palace, but slowly he learns that there's much to see, do, and learn in this world that can't be experienced in school. He eventually meets Jotham, Bartholomew, and Tabitha as he follows his father and uncles in their search for a newborn king. Arnold Ytreeide's family advent devotionals have become a much-loved Christmas tradition, enjoyed by multiple generations. With over 100,000 in print they include Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, and Tabitha's Travels. A new Advent family devotional from the author of Jotham's Journey! Fourth in a set of Advent adventure books for families, Ishtar's Odyssey follows the ten-year-old son of a Persian wise man as their caravan follows a star across the desert. Ishtar would just as soon stay in the comfort of the palace, but slowly he learns that there's much to see, do, and learn in this world that can't be experienced in school. He eventually meets Jotham, Bartholomew, and Tabitha as he follows his father and uncles in their search for a newborn king. Arnold Ytreeide's family advent devotionals have become a much-loved Christmas tradition, enjoyed by multiple generations. With over 100,000 in print they include Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, and Tabitha's Travels. - See more at: http://www.kregel.com/childrens-story-books/ishtars-odyssey/#sthash.UaTgkA6T.dpufA new Advent family devotional from the author of Jotham's Journey! Fourth in a set of Advent adventure books for families, Ishtar's Odyssey follows the ten-year-old son of a Persian wise man as their caravan follows a star across the desert. Ishtar would just as soon stay in the comfort of the palace, but slowly he learns that there's much to see, do, and learn in this world that can't be experienced in school. He eventually meets Jotham, Bartholomew, and Tabitha as he follows his father and uncles in their search for a newborn king. Arnold Ytreeide's family advent devotionals have become a much-loved Christmas tradition, enjoyed by multiple generations. With over 100,000 in print they include Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, and Tabitha's Travels. - See more at: http://www.kregel.com/childrens-story-books/ishtars-odyssey/#sthash.UaTgkA6T.dpuf

A retelling of the Babylonian myth telling how the death of Ishtar's son Tammuz brings about the changing seasons on earth.

From the award-winning author of God’s Ear: A “wildly funny, achingly spiritual, profoundly Jewish and feminist” satire of religion and gender politics (The New York Times Book Review). Call Me Ishtar is the outrageous manifesto of a goddess determined to right the wrongs of the three-thousand-year-old patriarchy. She is Ishtar: Mother Goddess, Queen of Heaven, Angel of Death, and Whore of Babylon, and, returning to earth in this most recent incarnation, suburban housewife and sexual subversive. Gallivanting through upstate New York, Ishtar breaks into a Hostess factory to taint its products, catapults a rock band to stardom via satanic rituals, and rises from the coffin at her own funeral—all to overthrow the worship of phallic gods and resume her former glory in this “bouncy, tongue-in-cheek mythmash of The White Goddess and The Feminine Mystique” (Kirkus Reviews). “[Lerman’s] is a unique voice—wildly funny, achingly spiritual, profoundly Jewish and feminist at the same time.” —The New York Times Book Review

In this second volume in the Gilgamesh trilogy, Enkidu joins Gilgamesh in the quest to slay Humbaba, the monster who has attacked the city and caused great destruction, including the death of the beautiful singer, Shamat. Gilgamesh and Enkidu successfully slay the monster and in so doing, Gilgamesh attracts the attention of the goddess Ishtar. In rejecting her advances, he incurs her revenge and an attack by the Bull of Heaven. Enkidu manages to kill the bull, but is slain by Ishtar, striking at the bond between the two friends. Shattered, Gilgamesh vows he will destroy the last monster: death.

This novella collection is powerful, sexy and very, very deadly. 'The Five Loves of Ishtar': Kaaron Warren Follow the path that the goddess Ishtar takes through the eyes of her most devoted worshippers, her washerwomen. Sharokin, Atur, Ninlil, Shamiran, Ninevah and Ashurina share in their goddess' loves, losses and triumphs, as kingdoms rise and fall in the Land of Rivers. 'And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living': Deborah Biancotti In modern-day Sydney, male prostitutes are dying. Their bones have turned to paste and their bodies are jelly. As Detective Adrienne Garner investigates the deaths, she finds rumours of strange cults and old gods whose powers threaten her city and, ultimately, her world. 'The Sleeping and the Dead': Cat Sparks Dr. Anna remembers little of her life before the war, merely traces of the man she used to love. When three desperate travellers rekindle slumbering memories, she begins a search that takes her to Hell and beyond. A search for love and, ultimately, enlightenment.

A fresh retelling of the ancient texts about Ishtar, the world's first goddess. Illustrated with visual artifacts of the period. "A great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

A fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie's seventy-three private notebooks, including illustrations and two unpublished Poirot stories When Agatha Christie died in 1976, at age eighty-five, she had become the world's most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide, in more than one hundred countries, she had achieved the impossible—more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller. So prolific was Agatha Christie's output—sixty-six crime novels, twenty plays, six romance novels under a pseudonym and more than one hundred and fifty short stories—it was often claimed that she had a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those fifty-five years to more mundane methods of working out her ingenious crimes? Following the death of Agatha's daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable legacy was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie's private notebooks, seventy-three handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations about her famous books that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story. How did the infamous twist in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd really come about? Which very famous Poirot novel started life as an adventure for Miss Marple? Which books were designed to have completely differ-ent endings, and what were they? What were the plot ideas that she considered but rejected? Full of details she was too modest to reveal in her own autobiography, this remarkable new book includes a wealth of excerpts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks and her letters, plus, for the first time, two newly discovered complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published.

Six-thousand-year-old clay tablets left behind by the Sumerians tell us in cuneiform script that the planets Uranus and Neptune are "greenish-blue." How did they know? Our science could not confirm that until the Voyager II fly-by in the 1980s. The ignored question of the last century has to be: “Who told the Sumerians that Uranus and Neptune exist, and about their colors?” Again: “Who told them?” Take a breath to grasp the significance of that question? The same clay tablets also tell that Inanna, a fierce and beautiful goddess from antiquity, is not a fictional character. As Aphrodite to the Greeks, Venus to the Romans, through many adventures and love affairs erroneously categorized as myth, she gained for herself a place in the Nefilim Pantheon of Twelve. Inanna/Ishtar is a chronicle of fact-based incidents interspersed with highly probable fictional stepping stones. Acknowledged the “Goddess of Love and War,” her ferocity in battle and passion in bed are depicted in the detail anticipated of one bearing that epithet. For the deities of antiquity, the few prohibitions regarding sex were related to royal rights of succession allowing Inanna, a Divine Child, daughter of two of the ruling pantheon, a free romp among the gods and mortals of her time. This tale swims upstream against the flow of current teachings and knowledge. It contains theory and context some may find objectionable. Eventually, continually emerging discoveries will require a rewrite of the Bible (another one), giving our precursors the place in our ancient history they deserve. It is through our Creator, by way of the Nefilim and Anunnaki, that we exist in our present form, far ahead of our time. They provided the “missing link” that has baffled anthropologists for centuries. Nibiru, their home planet, ("Planet X" to current astronomers), orbits our sun from deep space. The Sumerians tell it is a monarchy ruled by a pantheon of twelve including a King, his two sons, a daughter, and eight others of royal blood. To accept their reality, consider how they came to be; a subject that is not being taught in our culture. I hope the following will help make it clear. The title, “Goddess of Love and War,” is bestowed on Inanna by history, not the author. It would not be fitting to write, "They kissed and went to bed to make love.” Therefore, the several descriptions of sexual activity herein are not gratuitous, but they are graphic.