A 17-year-old girl from Jordan beats the odds and lives to tell the tale of her family's attempt to kill her after she shames them by becoming pregnant.

Ash Wednesday Beautiful, bubbly, 20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her New York City apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted-and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last people to see her alive. Scorching Betrayal As Kim's father, wealthy computer executive Tommy Antonakos, launched a widespread, feverish search for his daughter, he had no idea that her abductors were right under his nose. A cold mastermind had ordered had ordered Kim to be bound, gagged and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house, hoping to extract ransom from her father. When the plans fell through, he and his henchman panicked, returned to the basement and doused a near-frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire. Burned Alive When the fire was extinguished, all that was left of the lovely coed were her charred, lifeless remains. What would drive the kidnappers to commit such a cruel and senseless murder? How did their plans to cover their tracks result in another killing? And how were the murderers finally snared? Read all of the fascinating facts in a startling expose of extortion, murder, and ultimate justice.

In 1600, the Catholic Inquisition condemned the philosopher and cosmologist Giordano Bruno for heresy, and he was then burned alive in the Campo de’ Fiori in Rome. Historians, scientists, and philosophical scholars have traditionally held that Bruno’s theological beliefs led to his execution, denying any link between his study of the nature of the universe and his trial. But in Burned Alive, Alberto A. Martínez draws on new evidence to claim that Bruno’s cosmological beliefs—that the stars are suns surrounded by planetary worlds like our own, and that the Earth moves because it has a soul—were indeed the primary factor in his condemnation. Linking Bruno’s trial to later confrontations between the Inquisition and Galileo in 1616 and 1633, Martínez shows how some of the same Inquisitors who judged Bruno challenged Galileo. In particular, one clergyman who authored the most critical reports used by the Inquisition to condemn Galileo in 1633 immediately thereafter wrote an unpublished manuscript in which he denounced Galileo and other followers of Copernicus for their beliefs about the universe: that many worlds exist and that the Earth moves because it has a soul. Challenging the accepted history of astronomy to reveal Bruno as a true innovator whose contributions to the science predate those of Galileo, this book shows that is was cosmology, not theology, that led Bruno to his death.

“I was told to come alone. I was not to carry any identification, and would have to leave my cell phone, audio recorder, watch, and purse at my hotel. . . .” For her whole life, Souad Mekhennet, a reporter for The Washington Post who was born and educated in Germany, has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing – Muslim and Western. She has also sought to provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In this compelling and evocative memoir, we accompany Mekhennet as she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and the Iraqi neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shia turned against one another, and culminating on the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. In her travels across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents her chilling run-ins with various intelligence services and shows why the Arab Spring never lived up to its promise. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner “Jihadi John,” and then in France, Belgium, and her native Germany, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilization. Mekhennet’s background has given her unique access to some of the world’s most wanted men, who generally refuse to speak to Western journalists. She is not afraid to face personal danger to reach out to individuals in the inner circles of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and their affiliates; when she is told to come alone to an interview, she never knows what awaits at her destination. Souad Mekhennet is an ideal guide to introduce us to the human beings behind the ominous headlines, as she shares her transformative journey with us. Hers is a story you will not soon forget.

Before a crowd of several thousand people, mostly men, a young woman dressed in her bridal finery was burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre. The apparent revival of an ancient tradition opened old wounds in Indian society and focused world attention on the status and treatment of women in modern India.".

Gumption Junction is a place where hope meets up with reality, confidence crosses paths with faith, and happiness turns into joy. If German Jack Fordern were known for any particular spiritual gift, twas not patience. Throughout nigh on 25 years of dealing with him, twas something Bessie would gently bring to Jack's attention from time to time. She knew that Jack always meant to figure out how to do better with dealing with them that were less confident and competent than hisself in his areas of expertise. Till the end of the dadburn War of Northern Aggression in the spring of 1865, German Jack Fordern wore the Cinco Peso all his adult life. Joining up at barely 16 years of age, he was a Captain and company commander at 18. He was commander of all them Texas Rangers by the age of 20. By 1867, the dadburn policy of Reconstruction proclaimed by the government of these United States had been taken over by Radical Republicans. The conditions of allowing the states of the defeated Confederacy once again to participate in the bureaucracy of the new government of these United States following the dadburn War of Northern Aggression come with many disagreeable terms. Strict demands were placed on former Confederate states in order for them to regain U.S. statehood. For Texas, this meant that the honorable line of work twas the duty and way of life all them years for Cap'm German Jack Fordern, Lt. Sage Jackson, Gunny Crick Youngblood, Corporal Bear Boudreaux and the rest of their men was no longer possible for the former Ranger captain known variously throughout Texas as The Big German or El Diablo Rubio. According to the dadburn Military Reconstruction Act issued by the dadburn Radical Reconstruction government of them United States in March 1867, German Jack Fordern and them that rode with him were outlaws now. Now Jack and his most trusted men had to consider other possibilities as opportunities. Jack was first amongst his team to journey to Gumption JunctionNot long after, his trusted lieutenant Sage Jackson got there. The both of them was soon followed out to Gumption Junction by the likes of Lance Corporal Bear Boudreaux and Gunny Crick Youngblood. All of them shared bonds that no other men could understand. They all had personalities no others could tolerate neither. The Walker Colts had been presented to Jack by their innovator not too long after Jack joint the Texas Rangers on 2 January 1846. He had won the Bowie Knife in a shooting match with Sage on the last day of 1845. The experiences Jack accumulated during the period of time through the years 1845 and 1846 had done more to shape young Fordern than just any two other years could have ever made their mark on the life of any young man. Twas Fordern sure. Jack's long blond hair covered the knot of his bandana and the collar of his shirt. Jack's trousers and shirt had been the clothes his oldest brother Hank wore when he was massacred with the rest of Fannin's surrendered and disarmed men at Goliad in 1836. Of course, Heather did not know the origin of Jack's clothing. She may have found this to be a might too macabre-even for Cap'm Jack Fordern. Jack had Fordern sure learnt to keep a cool head in the midst of even the worst situation. When he seen smoke and fire amongst the brush arbor where his house ought to be, Jack spurred Raven towards his house as though he was again after Santa Anna hisself. Twas a singed and tattered remnant of Bessie's clothing, bits of some smoldering flesh, and even a few handfuls of long dark Mexican hair. Jack did find evidence that Bessie had been with child. But there were Fordern sure no adult remains. To his traint eyes, Jack's family was no more. The joy he was trying to rekindle with Bessie appeared to have been burnt alive in Gumption Junction.

A lively and accessible guide to the rich literary, philosophical and artistic achievements of the notorious age of Nero.