During the month before they will turn sixteen at Halloween, Cam and Alex know their every move will be watched to see if they have the skill, and the character, to be initiated as witches, while coping with daily life and their enemies.

From the ancient days of the King Solomon to the modern times of Mark Twain’s romance The Prince and the Pauper, there were numerous legends and folk stories about entwined destinies of the people who shared the same date of birth. Many thinkers and astrologers have tried to explore this phenomenon, but there were no solid facts confirming these legends. Celestial Twins is the first evidence-based work that establishes the historical truth behind such myths, exploring 17 representative life stories. It begins as a tale of one curious observation of meaningful interconnectedness between life-paths of two historical personalities born on the same day of the same year. This accidental observation led to a systematic 15-year study of well-known celestial twins in which cases of such entwined life stories were detected and studied. This research led to the discovery of a new phenomenon—the Effect of Celestial Twins (ECT)—which demonstrates that though each human being is unique, there is fairly exact matching between the biographical data of celestial twins. All personages in these stories are well-known historical characters, such as Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Nancy Astor, King George VI, Carl Gustav Jung, and Pablo Casals. Each of them was believed to have an unprecedented life path; and yet each person in these stories had a “twin” who had the same unique life task, used the same methods to complete it, and gained the same results.

This book shows that, to understand the human condition better, we must develop a keener appreciation for the subtle interactions between nature and nurture. First, Dr. Steen confronts the dark history of eugenics, and the horrifying legacy of the Nazis. He then proceeds to illuminate the latest advances in molecular biology and behavioral genetics. He explains fascinating results that have emerged from "split-twin" experiments, in which eerie parallels were found between twins separated at birth. He clarifies how the Human Genome Project might help create a new understanding of the human condition and how it may ultimately help alleviate some of the major health and even behavioral problems facing society today

Julie Smith and Graeme McKenzie grew up together but their budding teenage romance dramatically stalls. Julie becomes a leading fashion designer in New Zealand while Graeme follows an exciting career in the R.A.F. Both separately marry, but they secretly hold deeply hidden feelings for each other. Thrown together by a chance encounter in Sydney, Australia their mutual secret surfaces and a sensuous weekend follows. Yet professional and domestic commitments means they must part once more. Can their normal lives ever resume? Can they live a doublelife? Follow them through four stages of their diverse worlds of high fashion and of a high ranking and heroic air force officer.

Bittersweet Destiny combines discourse on the evolution of human behavior with a philosophical perspective. It explores evolutionary theory aimed at determining human behavior. Del Thiessen presents this material against the broad background of everyday life, allowing the reader to see the theory of evolution as it has shaped his or her own behavior. However, he points out that when evolutionary theory is aimed at human behavior, the critics object, and controversy results. Thiessen argues that nothing in our lives makes sense unless we look at it through a biological lens. We can thereby understand our origin, our affiliation with all animals and plants, and our cultural destination. However, we can also discover a dark side to our destiny—our favoritism to those who share our own genes, our ability to deceive, and our capacity for abuse, rape, and murder. Good, bad, and indifferent, we serve the replication of our DNA. Critics extrapolate evolutionary theory to a wide range of animal species, and even human morphology and physiology, but when the same perspective is applied to human behavior there is strong dissent. What these critics fear, according to Thiessen, is that accepting evolutionary notions about human behavior strikes at the heart of free will, self-determination, and social equality. Bittersweet Destiny describes the heroic efforts of naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace to unlock the secrets of evolution. It continues with a vivid description of our fossil history and our chance beginnings. From there the story implicates disease processes in evolution, highlights our rational and irrational nature, focuses on those characteristics of brain evolution and language that make us distinctive, and illustrates our most basic survival and reproductive mechanisms. Thiessen warns the reader that things are as they are no matter what we might wish; we ignore facts and controversy at our own risk. This book will be significant to anthropologists, psychologists, biologists, and sociologists.

In this novel, genes will out. The seminal event is passionate lovemaking after a heated argument. Destiny steps in, and a chain of circumstances begins with a beloved wife's death in giving birth to twins. One twin, stolen and left as a foundling, is picked up by a young Italian matron in a church. Illegally adopted, he grows up among sisters, the adored son of an extended family headed by a war hero with mob connections. The other twin lives with his bereft father, who blames himself and the twins for the death of his wife. Expelled from school, and a runaway, he is taken in by his uncle and grows up on a working ranch in Wyoming with his two cousins, his fiercely loving aunt, and an old man who once saved the life of Gov. Franklin Roosevelt. This heartwarming story of family and friendship, courage and tenderness, and the hard and sometimes bitter struggle for truth, twists in intricate paths toward a resolution that gives new meaning to the phrase separated at birth, and puts a smile on Destiny's face.