Ali Dogan is an expatriate Turk who has been living and working in Canada for twenty years. Although he loves his children, Emre and Maria, he feels he must leave. His twelve-year marriage to Esther has soured, and his Sufi spiritual counselor has suggested that he seek the knowledge to understand what the heart will tell him. Ali is not sure he will return to Canada, Esther, and his children. He embarks on a journey to settle his mid-life crisis. Ali's first stop is his parents' village in Turkey, where he begins to confront a history of abuse. In Istanbul, he faces the brutality behind the facade of modern Turkey. In Greece, the Acropolis shows him an idealized world. In Africa, humanitarian work aims to change the future. And back in Canada, he finds new understanding of his childhood, as well as his future. Each of these events leads him to ever deeper inquiry, which is reflected in his journal entries. Throughout his physical journey, Ali also travels an inner path to a more profound understanding of the spiritual tradition of Sufism. There may be a richer and more meaningful philosophy shaping Ali's future.

A Magic Carpet Ride is more than just a travel memoir. It is a story within a story about personal journeys as well as travel journeys. Of the many themes, the strongest is the author's rediscovery of her mother's spirit while traveling "Mother Earth." A cosmic theme unfolds, as well as a theme of preparing for the empty nest. The first generation Greek American author describes what it is like to take her own children back to her ancestral homeland to discover the essence of their roots, much like the author did in her childhood trips to Greece. Over 20 countries are described in A Magic Carpet Ride, as well as an educational unit that the author and her three sons designed to build their own trip itineraries and research components. This book is about travel, history, love, pain, goals, fears, risk, adventure, humor, understanding, letting go and faith. Come take a magic carpet ride!

Kate Fordham, escaping terrible personal trauma, has fled to the beautiful sunlit city of Granada, the ancient capital of the Moors in Spain. There she is scraping by with an unfulfilling job in a busy bar. One day, in the glorious gardens of the Alhambra—once home to Sultan Abu Abdullah Mohammed—Kate finds a scrap of paper hidden in one of the ancient walls. Upon it, in strange symbols, has been inscribed a message from another era. The message has lain undiscovered since before the Fall of Granada in 1492, when the city was surrendered to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Born of love, in a time of danger and desperation, the fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life forever. An epic saga of romance and redemption, Court of Lions brings one of the great turning-points in human history to life, telling the dual stories of a modern woman and the last Moorish sultan of Granada, as they both move towards their cataclysmic destinies.

This volume of short stories and shorter works by Nathaniel Hawthorne was heralded upon its release and is still widely considered a classic.

Knights and ladies, giants and dragons, tournaments, battles, quests and crusades are commonplace in stories for children. This book examines how late Victorians and Edwardians retold medieval narratives of chivalry--epics, romances, sagas, legends and ballads. Stories of Beowulf, Arthur, Gawain, St. George, Roland, Robin Hood and many more thrilled and instructed children, and encouraged adult reading. Lavish volumes and schoolbooks of the era featured illustrated texts, many by major artists. Children's books, an essential part of Edwardian publishing, were disseminated throughout the English-speaking world. Many are being reprinted today. This book examines related contexts of Medievalism expressed in painting, architecture, music and public celebrations, and the works of major authors, including Sir Walter Scott, Tennyson, Longfellow and William Morris. The book explores national identity expressed through literature, ideals of honor and valor in the years before World War I, and how childhood reading influenced 20th-century writers as diverse as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Siegfried Sassoon, David Jones, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John Le Carre.

A liste of recommended readings for children, intended for home use and arranged by age, not school grade. Included in the list are fairy tales that are free from horrible happenings. Omitted are all writings which tolerate cruelty or unkindness to animals.