On their first journey away from the safety of their island home, two novice Singers learn important lessons when they must confront an evil Khizpriest and stop him from stealing the power of their life-controlling Songs.

The year is 1072. The Normans have captured England. The Turks have captured a Norman knight. And in order to free him, a soldier named Vallon must capture four rare hawks. On a heart-stopping journey to the far ends of the earth, braving Arctic seas, Viking warlords, and the blood-drenched battlefields, Vallon and his comrades must track down their quarry one by one in a relentless race against time. The scale is huge. The journey is incredible. The history is real. This is Hawk Quest.

The Egyptologist acclaimed for re-dating the Great Sphinx at Giza sets his sights on one of the true mysteries of antiquity: the Great Pyramid of Giza. What is the Great Pyramid of Giza? Ask that basic question of a traditional Egyptologist, and you get the basic, traditional answer: a fancy tombstone for a self-important pharaoh of the Old Kingdom. This, Egyptologists argue, is the sole finding based on the data, and the only deduction supported by science. By implication, anyone who dissents from this point of view is unscientific and woolly-minded-a believer in magic and ghosts. Indeed, some of the unconventional ideas about the Great Pyramid do have a spectacularly fabulous ring to them. Yet from beneath the obvious terms of this controversy, a deeper, more significant question arises: how is it that the Great Pyramid exercises such a gripping hold on the human psyche- adding cryptic grace to the back of the one-dollar bill and framing myriad claims of New Age "pyramid power"? In Pyramid Quest, Robert M. Schoch and Robert Aquinas McNally use the rigorous intellectual analysis of scientific inquiry to investigate what we know about the Great Pyramid, and develop a stunning hypothesis: This ancient monument is the strongest proof yet that civilization began thousands of years earlier than is generally thought, extending far back into a little-known time. In tracing that story, we come to understand not only the Great Pyramid but also our own origins as civilized beings.

The Quest For Gnosis is a primer for the conscientious mystic, a new Gnostic tome that honors the old gods, but makes way for a new balance of techno-mystic reason. This is for the practical magician in the making, the pioneer of the golden age that we can still bring to fruition. We are the Shamans of the wasteland, the war zone, the ghetto; wherever our tribe has us, we are the focal points that heal the minds and hearts of the wounded all around us. Every single person who I've spoken with for this book is good people. We may not agree with each other on everything, but in each of them I see a thread of color found nowhere else. Theirs is the thread that must be intertwined into the tapestry of our newfound Gnosis; they are the fibers of our unbreakable chord. And in this work, we can find a common ground, a fragile yet beautiful unity, a powerful psychonautical compound created to confound and shock the hellish system we find ourselves a part of. The illumination we carry together has the potential to keep the flickering hope of a golden age alive. Love and Peace, Gabriel D. Roberts

Robert Torrance's wide-ranging, innovative study argues that the spiritual quest is rooted in our biological, psychological, linguistic, and social nature. The quest is not, as most have believed, a rare mystical experience, but a frequent expression of our most basic human impulses. Shaman and scientist, medium and poet, prophet and philosopher, all venture forth in quest of visionary truths to transform and renew the world. Yet Torrance is not trying to reduce the quest to an "archetype" or "monomyth." Instead, he presents the full diversity of the quest in the myths and religious practices of tribal peoples throughout the world, from Oceania to India, Africa, Siberia, and especially the Americas. In theorizing about the quest, Torrance draws on thinkers as diverse as Bergson and Piaget, van Gennep and Turner, Pierce and Popper, Freud, Darwin, and Chomsky. This is a book that will expand our knowledge—and awareness—of a fundamental human activity in all its fascinating complexity.

For most anglers, catching a world-record fish is something they can only fantasize about. "Maybe," the angler thinks, "I'll get lucky." But if the reason you fish is to catch world-record fish, then luck is only a very small part of it, as Robert Cunningham has learned in the course of a long quest during which he has caught fifty-seven world-record fish, as certified by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA). Cunningham's pursuit of record fish began on the remote and austere Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast, which he reached flying his own seaplane, and where he chased and landed several world-record redfish. Cunningham then moved offshore, where he took record cobia and dolphin on both conventional tackle with a fly rod, and set an astonishing eleven world records in one year. Cunningham has caught record fish in the sloughs of the Mobile River Delta, the interior lakes of the Bahamas, and along tide rips more than one hundred miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. He has fought potential world-record fish for eight hours, only to lose them at boatside, and then gone back for more, and along the way, learned all manner of angling skills as well as the ability to shake off the (literal) bad breaks. His account of one angler's obsession is full of humor, disappointment, and triumph.

Explores the spiritual meaning of Tolkien's epic fantasy and examines the characters as archetypes in the journey of life.

One of the leading thinkers to emerge in the postwar conservative intellectual revival was the sociologist Robert Nisbet. His book The Quest for Community, published in 1953, stands as one of the most persuasive accounts of the dilemmas confronting modern society. Nearly a half century before Robert Putnam documented the atomization of society in Bowling Alone, Nisbet argued that the rise of the powerful modern state had eroded the sources of community—the family, the neighborhood, the church, the guild. Alienation and loneliness inevitably resulted. But as the traditional ties that bind fell away, the human impulse toward community led people to turn even more to the government itself, allowing statism—even totalitarianism—to flourish. This edition of Nisbet’s magnum opus features a brilliant introduction by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and three critical essays. Published at a time when our communal life has only grown weaker and when many Americans display cultish enthusiasm for a charismatic president, this new edition of The Quest for Community shows that Nisbet’s insights are as relevant today as ever.

Medieval people were fascinated by the Arthurian stories. They searched for relics of Britain's Arthurian past. Winchester was seen as the site of Camelot and the crown of Arthur was presented by Edward I; items associated with Dover, Glastonbury and other sites are also explored, as is the part played by John Leland in the 16th century.

Are you bringing your best self to your work? Are you actively developing your strengths, weaknesses and principles so that your best self will become even better? Do you deliberately and consistently bring out the best in others? Sadly, the vast majority of workers across the world will respond to these questions with a resounding "no." Instead of activating their best selves, most people bring their average, mediocre, or even worst selves to work. The Alignment Quest(TM) is a process of bringing coherence, purpose and joy to your life by learning how to create the most value in your daily living and working. The Alignment Quest(TM) Toolkit will help you to understand why it is critically important to bring your best self to life and how to do so in a more compelling way. This Toolkit contains the most impactful organizational psychology frameworks and practices that Dr. Roberts has developed from her research, teaching and consulting with thousands of global executives and emerging leaders. This Alignment Quest Toolkit will help you: Harness the power of your strengths and expand your impact. Learn how to understand and embrace your strengths so you can better focus your energy. Increase your capacity to accept your limitations so your attempts to be superhuman (or, all things to all people) don't lead you to make choices that are out of alignment with your best self. Optimize your engagement and deepen your fulfillment at work. Begin to craft a life that is filled with extraordinary growth, vitality and value creation.