In 2011, a wave of protests hit the Arab countries that had been silently living under dictatorships. Al-Buazizi ignited a spark of opposition that swept across the entire region to reach Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. The ruling regimes responded with more oppression and extreme violence, and the demands for overthrowing these regimes escalated. While reforms were introduced in some countries, other revolutions were hijacked by radical terrorist organizations, which turned the peaceful protests into horrifying conflicts, some of which are still ongoing, like in Syria. Today, despite war, conflict and displacement, people who initiated utterly overlooked revolutions in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Chile and others continue to create, love and dream of a better future. This is a story of how a Syrian civil society activist met an Iraqi contemporary dancer facing displacement, war, visa restrictions and global asylum restraints. Akiles and Sirine had to work very hard to maintain a relationship that was the only coping mechanism for two people who had lost their sense of security from being safe in their homelands. Their relationship sprung up in the midst of an armed conflict, and it was extremely challenging for them to stay together due to the ongoing chaos.

A young trader with the secret to Earth’s destruction gets drawn into a mystery surrounding telepathically trained soldiers in this classic techno-fantasy. Sparrow’s my name. Trader. Deal-maker. Hustler, some call me. I work the Night Fair circuit, buying and selling pre-nuke videos from the world before. I know how to get a high price, especially on Big Bang collectibles. But the hottest ticket of all is information on the Horsemen—the mind-control weapons that tilted the balance in the war between the Americas. That’s the prize I’m after. But it seems I’m having trouble controlling my own mind. The Horsemen are coming . . . A Finalist for the Hugo, Locus, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards Praise for Bone Dance “Style and gusto and fireworks. Great stuff.” —Neil Gaiman “Bull’s high-voltage prose propels this journey of self-discovery into a class by itself. Recommended where cyberpunk and/or new wave sf is popular.” —Library Journal “A winning book.” —Publishers Weekly “Mixing symbolism from the Tarot deck, voodoo mythology, and a finely detailed vision of life and technology after the nuclear war, Bull has come up with yet another winner.” —School Library Journal

While many studies of religion in the West have focused on the region's diversity, freedom, and individualism, Todd M. Kerstetter brings together the three most glaring exceptions to those rules to explore the boundaries of tolerance as enforced by society and the U.S. government.God's Country, Uncle Sam's Landanalyzes Mormon history from the Utah Expedition and Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 through subsequent decades of federal legislative and judicial actions aimed at ending polygamy and limiting church power. It also focuses on the Lakota Ghost Dancers and the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota (1890), and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas (1993). In sharp contrast to the mythic image of the West as the "Land of the Free," these three tragic episodes reveal the West as a cultural battleground--in the words of one reporter, "a collision of guns, God, and government." Kerstetter asks important questions about what happens when groups with a deep trust in their differing inner truths meet, and he exposes the religious motivations behind government policies that worked to alter Mormonism and extinguish Native American beliefs.

This book is a historical novel. It is inspired by the life of Isaiah Dorman. It has to be a historical novel because there is virtually no information about his early life as a slave on the Louisiana plantation where he was believed to have been born. Also, there is only sketchy information on his time spent with the Santee Sioux, and there is only basic information about his years working with the Army. However, all the information about the life of a slave on a cotton and rice plantation during his lifetime has been meticulously researched as has been the life of the Santee Sioux during that time period. The historical events are also factual and well researched. The book is written in three parts: The Slaves, The Sioux, and The Soldiers. The Slave portion deals with Isaiah’s life on the plantation until he ran away in his early twenties. This section explores his early years; his relationship with his parents, peers and his attitudes about being a slave. The period with the Santee Sioux explores his life with this tribe and his relationship with the warriors and other members of the tribe. It also tells how he met his wife and about their life together. His time with the Army is detailed up until the time he met his death on June 25, 1876 scouting for General Custer at the battle of the Little Bighorn. The Aftermath deals with what transpired after with the Sioux and African Americans in the years after the battle.

He was the son of Pawnee Killer, the last in a line of mystic warriors of the Great American Plains Indian tribes. When his father fled to Canada with Sitting Bull, after the battle of Little Big Horn, after the best and the strongest of the Sioux were gone, Running Elk stood unwittingly at the crossroads of history. Running Elk tried to run away from the reservation to find his father—but he didn’t get far. He’d hardly begun his journey when the Indian Police came for him to ship him off to school in the white man’s world with 33 other boys and girls. They were taken by wagon, then by riverboat, and finally by train, to the abandoned army barracks of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. On the train, many of the children thought they were being taken to the moon hanging over the tracks. They might as well have been. At the Indian school, they were disciplined, their hair was cut short, they were taken to church, and they were taught to live like the despised Wasicun. They would be taught to work leather and wood. Their names were changed…Running Elk became William. Billy gazed at the distant hills and the open stretches of prairie grass on every side. The land seemed much vaster and the sky bluer than he had remembered. He should never have elft this land. Once he belonged here, now he belonged nowhere. The whites hated him for being too Indian, the Indians hated him for being too much white. When Ghost Dances began and the tribes started to follow the new prophet, Wovoka, Billy wondered which way he would turn. Would he follow the road paved for him by his white education…or would he join his father and fight like the warrior he was mean to be.

It's the middle of the night in the Namibian desert when zoologist Tammie Matson wakes with a start to find two elephants standing beside her tiny tent. She makes a promise: "If you just let me survive tonight I will give up Africa. I'll give it all up. Just don't let them stand on me." It's not a promise she will easily keep. At 29, Tammie has spent nearly half her life in Africa, her first love, working as a conservationist. But as her 30s approach, Tammie is conscious of not having ticked those boxes: no house, no kids and no husband. Broke and with her visa running out, it seems like Africa may just force her to give it up after all. On returning to Australia, Tammie lands a job at the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Sydney. There she meets Andy, a charismatic Brit, and Africa suddenly has a rival. But she's not ready to give up on the elephants yet... From the magic of Bushmanland, to the banks of Chobe River in Botswana, to the civil strife of Assam, India, Elephant Dance takes us to the heart of a conservationist's fight to find a way for elephants to live peacefully in a world with too many people, too few resources and the increasing threat of climate change. Passionate, funny, and moving, Elephant Dance is also a classic story of self-discovery, love, and the courage it takes to follow your calling, especially when it takes you places you least expected.

The religion of the Goddess is emerging from the shadows of the past. This work explores the ancient world of the matriarchy and the re-emergence of Goddess worship in modern women's lives. Drawing on the works of many scholars, scientists and artists, it brings together history, archaeology, mythology and the author's own experiences, and relates how the Goddess was overwhelmed by the patriarchy of Christianity.