This novel will keep you glued to the pages from start to finish as it takes many unexpected turns. Dawie van der Heifer was born into an extremely poor family, the third eldest of twelve living children. His father was an alcoholic, and his mother died giving birth to her umpteenth stillborn child. After running away from home he found work on a rich man’s farm and soon became the nymphomaniac wife’s lover and student, learning the ways of the world, following her around the European houses of ill repute, as well a the casinos where he made enormous amounts of money. Seeking a life of his own he returns home with a great deal of money and teaches his siblings what he has learnt from the French brothels. Together they turn their derelict farm house into a magnificent spa, attracting the rich from across the world. During this time Amanda Jooste and Andries van Aswegen, both rich and powerful people, have an affair and produce a child, Elizabeth. This causes their relationship to sour. Elizabeth, a naive clean-living farm girl, never knows her true identity and when she dies in a motor accident her astral being drifts around the universe for ten years looking for a cadaver into which she can be reincarnated. Amanda, Elizabeth’s mother, worked hard for the community but like the rest of them looked down on the Van der Heifer’s. This perception she passed onto Elizabeth. The mortal remains that Elizabeth’s astral soul chose to inhabit is, unbeknown to her, none other than that of Magriet, the eldest of Dawie’s sisters. When she discovers this, and also who some of the clients are whom she is expected to service, things become a dilemma for the virgin Elizabeth.

What is a religious or spiritual delusion? What does religious delusion reveal about the difference between good and bad spirituality? What is the connection between religious delusion and moral failure? Or between religious delusion and religious terrorism? Or religious delusion and despair? The Abraham Dilemma: A Divine Delusion is the first book written by a philosopher on the topic of religious delusion - on the disorder's causes, contents, consequences, diagnosis and treatment. The book argues that we cannot understand a religious delusion without appreciating three facts. One is that religiosity or spirituality is a part of human nature, whether it takes theistic or non-theistic forms. Another is that religious delusion is something to which we are all vulnerable. The third is that the delusion is not best understood by reducing it to brain chemistry, or by insisting that it is empirically false. It is best understood by examining its harmful personal and moral consequences - consequences that nearly unfolded when the biblical patriarch Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac in response to a command, he thought, from God. The book presents a fascinating and profound exploration of a phenomenon as old as mankind itself.

Life at the Ranoa University of Magic suddenly gets more interesting when Rudeus discovers the mysterious Fitz's true identity. What will this unforeseen reunion bring? And what if it is too late for him and his long-lost friend to repair the bond they once had?

With Karma and Rebirth: A Cross Cultural Study on the very first comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. Exploring in rich detail the beliefs of small scale indigenous societies of West Africa, Melanesia, and North America, Obeyesekere compares their ideas with those of the ancient and modern Indic civilizations and with the Greek rebirth theories of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Pindar and Plato. His groundbreaking and authoritiative discussion decenters the popular notion that India was the origin and locus of ideas of rebirth.

With Imagining Karma, Gananath Obeyesekere embarks on the very first comparison of rebirth concepts across a wide range of cultures. Exploring in rich detail the beliefs of small-scale societies of West Africa, Melanesia, traditional Siberia, Canada, and the northwest coast of North America, Obeyesekere compares their ideas with those of the ancient and modern Indic civilizations and with the Greek rebirth theories of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Pindar, and Plato. His groundbreaking and authoritative discussion decenters the popular notion that India was the origin and locus of ideas of rebirth. As Obeyesekere compares responses to the most fundamental questions of human existence, he challenges readers to reexamine accepted ideas about death, cosmology, morality, and eschatology. Obeyesekere's comprehensive inquiry shows that diverse societies have come through independent invention or borrowing to believe in reincarnation as an integral part of their larger cosmological systems. The author brings together into a coherent methodological framework the thought of such diverse thinkers as Weber, Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche. In a contemporary intellectual context that celebrates difference and cultural relativism, this book makes a case for disciplined comparison, a humane view of human nature, and a theoretical understanding of "family resemblances" and differences across great cultural divides.

My Journey down the Reincarnation Highway is the first book of the author’s four book spiritual memoir series. In this personal account, Frank Mares details how he discovered the fact of reincarnation and explores what he did in some of his prior lives. More people than you would believe have prior life memories. This book tells how the author acquired psychic ability in his middle age. With this new gift, he recovered facts about nine of his prior lives, most of which involved violent, bloody deaths. The most recent life was that of a young German Wehrmacht sergeant who was ambushed and killed by Russians during the night of May 1, 1944, in a dark Estonian farmhouse. Not being satisfied with just discovering his past lives, Mares goes on a spiritual mission to find out why he kept dying violently. The answers do not come easily, but by using a team of three world class psychics he eventually tracks down the shocking reason for all his brutal deaths. The psychic team finds that within the soul of this normal small businessman resides a brutal, stone-cold killer from the 1600s who surprisingly was the revered founder of a gentile noble family. As part of his souls continuing quest for redemption, Mares hopes to salvage the dark time in his soul’s past into something that could help others today. His experiences show that death is only a transition phase, and that it should not be feared. His book also reveals that reincarnation is actually a well-designed, organized system that allows souls to learn personalized life lessons over a surprising number of lives. If you read this book, you will never look at life (and death) in the same way again.

Book one of The Reincarnationist series. A bomb in Rome, a flash of bluish-white, and photojournalist Josh Ryder's world explodes. As Josh recovers, thoughts that have the emotion, the intensity, the intimacy of memories invade him. But they are not his. They are ancient…and violent with an urgency he cannot ignore—pulling him to save Sabina…and the treasures she protects. But who is Sabina? Desperate for answers, Josh turns to the Phoenix Foundation—a research facility that scientifically documents past-life experiences. He is led to an archaeological dig and to Professor Gabriella Chase, who has discovered an ancient, powerful secret that threatens to merge the past with the present. Here, the dead call out to the living, and murders of the past become murders of the present. Previously published.

The United States is obsessed with virginity - from the media to schools to government agencies. This panic is ensuring that young women's ability to be moral agents is absolutely dependent on their sexuality. Jessica Valenti, executive editor of Feministing.com and author of Full Frontal Feminism and Yes Means Yes, addresses this poignant issue in her latest book, The Purity Myth. Valenti argues that the country's intense focus on chastity is extremely damaging to young women. Through in depth analysis of cultural stereotypes and media messages, Valenti reveals that powerful messages - ranging from abstinence curriculum to ''Girls Gone Wild'' commercials - place a young woman's worth entirely on her sexuality. Morals are therefore linked purely to sexual behavior, as opposed to values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti approaches the topic head-on, shedding light on chastity in a historical context, abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex, among other critical issues. She also offers solutions that pave the way for a future without a damaging emphasis on virginity, including a call to rethink male sexuality and reframing the idea of ''losing it.'' With Valenti's usual balance of intelligence and wit, The Purity Myth presents a powerful and revolutionary argument that girls and women, even in this day and age, are overly valued for their sexuality, and that this needs to stop.

Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author Matt Royal meets the meanest man he has ever faced Jock Algren arrives on Longboat Key in a state of depression and hopelessness. His most recent mission for his secretive U.S. government intelligence agency has been disastrous, and his friends Matt Royal and J.D. Duncan aren't sure they'll be able to pull him out of his despair—then the bad guys show up and danger erupts on all fronts. J.D., a Longboat Key detective, is investigating a cold case when the brother of the victim shows up on the island and complicates the investigation. A grizzled sailor—described by Matt as "the meanest man I'd ever known"—brings his boat into a local marina and bodies begin to accumulate. A Middle East jihadist intent on revenge locks on to Jock's clandestine past, bringing a deadly chase to the last outpost in the continental U.S.—Key West. Three prongs of evil descend, clashing violently. How could all this malice be interconnected? For fans of David Baldacci and John Grisham While all of the novels in the Matt Royal Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is: Blood Island Wyatt's Revenge Bitter Legacy Collateral Damage Fatal Decree Found Chasing Justice Mortal Dilemma Vindication