The strongest voices in Christian history regarding the place of women in religious and secular society gave them only a very limited role, but there have always been those who disagreed with that view and with much other church orthodoxy. Often reviled by the Church, many of these women nevertheless had significant influence in their times. Some of them were considered to be heretics - unsurprisingly since they made great claims for themselves and their written and spoken words: Maximilla, a Montanist, announced that 'After me there will be no further prophets', while Joanna Southcott later claimed to be 'The Greatest Prophet that ever came into the world'. As this demonstrates, they did not speak with a single voice, but included Montanists, Jansenists, Pelagians, Antinomians, Spiritualists and Theosophists as well as Saints. This book describes the lives of twelve such women, outlining their beliefs, their attempts to make themselves heard, their clashes with the spiritual authorities, the influence they achieved and the legacies they left behind: Elizabeth Barton, Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumad, Jeanne Marie Guyon, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, Ann Lee, Joanna Southcott, Barbara Juliana, Baroness De Krudener, Lydia Sellon, Mary Baker Eddy, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Ethel Cecilia Dodd, Aimee Semple Macpherson. Some of these women saw themselves as reformers, others as revolutionaries; some saw their mission as lying within the Church, others broke with established religion completely. What they had in common was that each of them had a vision, some literally, others in a more figurative sense. None of them had any doubts as to the rightness of the mission to which they were called. While some of the opprobrium that they attracted from the ecclesiastical authorities related to their heterodox opinions, it is clear that had they been men their ideas might well have found more support and their activities greater approbation. Everyone who has an interest in Christian history and in women in the church - as well as in menis reaction to them - will want to read this book.

A devoted fascist changes her mind and her life after witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust First published in Italy in 1979, Luce D’Eramo’s Deviation is a seminal work in Holocaust literature. It is a book that not only confronts evil head-on but expands that confrontation into a complex and intricately structured work of fiction, which has claims to standing among the greatest Italian novels of the twentieth century. Lucia is a young Italian girl from a bourgeois fascist family. In the early 1940s, when she first hears about the atrocities being perpetrated in the Nazi concentration camps, she is doubtful and confused, unable to reconcile such stories with the ideology in which she’s been raised. Wanting to disprove these “slanders” on Hitler’s Reich, she decides to see for herself, running away from home and heading for Germany, where she intends to volunteer as camp labor. The journey is a harrowing, surreal descent into hell, which finds Lucia confronting the stark and brutal realities of life under Nazi rule, a life in which continual violence and fear are simply the norm. Soon it becomes clear that she must get away, but how can she possibly go back to her old life knowing what she now knows? Besides, getting out may not be as simple as getting in. Finally available in English translation, Deviation is at once a personal testament, a work of the imagination, an investigation into the limits of memory, a warning to future generations, and a visceral scream at the horrors of the world.

Keeva lives her life on the run, changing identities and personas. She is running from monsters she has never seen - vrykolakes, vampire creatures her father, Sandor, has told her stories about all her life. She had almost convinced herself that these monsters had all died in a volcano eruption on the island of Strongili long ago. But when a vrykolakas named Severin kills Mandy, her best friend, she discovers the vrykolakes are alive and well. Keeva knows about Severin from her father's stories, and her first impulse is to kill him and rid the world of the evil vrykolakas. She feels drawn to him however, and takes him prisoner. She hopes to better understand the vrykolakes and perhaps better understand herself. She is over two thousand years old. She doesn't know who or what she is, but she wants to find out. In order to do that, she has to discover her past. Severin might be the place to start looking for a connection to the past. Or, he could be the worst mistake Keeva has ever made.

New to the series? Start with Episode One, Activate. [Book 3 of 4] Five characters seek survival and understanding as the world around them crumbles, dissolved to dust by The Ravagers, microscopic machines with only one goal. Total destruction. They'll need their wits, courage, and strength to survive, for the Ravagers aren't the most destructive force they'll face. Sometimes, greater destruction comes from within, from learning more about yourself than you ever feared, getting answers to questions best not answered. Sometimes, answers don't bring enlightenment. They bring death.

Revered former Metal Maniacs editor Jeff Wagner analyses the heady side of metal in this exhaustive narrative history of a relentlessly ambitious musical subculture. Beginning with the hugely influential mid-1970s efforts of progressive rock acts Rush and King Crimson, Wagner unfurls a vast colourful tapestry of sounds and styles, from the 'Big 3' of Queensryche, Fates Warning and Dream Theater to the extreme prog pioneers Voivod, Watchtower, Celtic Frost and others.

Tormented after a daring escape, Cora Sandoval must find a way to stop the Arrazi from murdering innocent people and from violating, using, and killing the Scintilla for their powers. She must also accept one bitter betrayal: Finn Doyle—the Irish boy who has both a piece of Cora's heart and soul—is Arrazi... On the verge of extinction and sought by those who would either consume or destroy them, Cora and the remaining Scintilla survivors must solve the mystery of The Light Key. If they fail, the truth will stay buried forever and mankind will pay the ultimate price. No longer will she hide. No longer will her loved ones be hunted. And she will have her vengeance...even if she shatters her heart in the process.