They may have separate missions, but Lord Werner--a Japanese office worker reincarnated into the world of a classic RPG--and his friend, the legendary hero Mazel, are both working to save the realm in their own ways. While Mazel walks the path of radiance, slaying the Demon Lord's minions one by one, Werner uses his real-world knowledge to help manage the kingdom's internal affairs. Managing refugees, fixing the water supply--it's a lot of work for a supposed background character!

An elephant's dancing skills and good manners surprise everyone at the royal ball, including the queen.

In Working Class Heroes, David Simonelli explores the influence of rock and roll on British society in the 1960s and '70s. At a time when social distinctions were becoming harder to measure, rock musicians appeared to embody the mythical qualities of the idealized working class by perpetuating the image of rebellious, irreverent, and authentic musicians.

Mari and Jose seemed to have it all: two beautiful sons, successful careers, and, above all, happiness and good health. On April 13, 2010, though, their world collapsed when Jose was diagnosed with stage 4 head and neck cancer. Cancer does not discriminate against any one creed, race, or ethnicity. The road to recovery is exhausting and can sometimes destroy a familyor bring them closer together. This is the story of how, instead of allowing this disease to destroy them, one family used it as a lesson in faith and a testament to the heroes that carried them through this life-changing challenge. The Heroes among Us is a true story that pays tribute to the heroes among us that are sometimes not acknowledged. As you read the book, you too will be moved by all that can be accomplished with faith, hope, and love! As you read this book, remember that although author Mari Sampedro-Iglesia takes you through her journey, it is not her journey or her ending that is important. What is important is getting through the journey, wherever its roads may lead, with faith, hope, and love. Although it is Maris hope that her husband lives to be 101, that is not what is important. What is important and tantamount to this story is that a terrible disease may be survived with the people that carry us through itour heroes.

When the medievals spoke of "last things" they were sometimes referring to events, such as the millennium or the appearance of the Antichrist, that would come to all of humanity or at the end of time. But they also meant the last things that would come to each individual separately—not just the place, Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory, to which their souls would go but also the accounting, the calling to reckoning, that would come at the end of life. At different periods in the Middle Ages one or the other of these sorts of "last things" tended to be dominant, but both coexisted throughout. In Last Things, Caroline Walker Bynum and Paul Freedman bring together eleven essays that focus on the competing eschatologies of the Middle Ages and on the ways in which they expose different sensibilities, different theories of the human person, and very different understandings of the body, of time, of the end. Exploring such themes as the significance of dying and the afterlife, apocalyptic time, and the eschatological imagination, each essay in the volume enriches our understanding of the eschatological awarenesses of the European Middle Ages.

This is a masterful survey of Austria's controversial place at the heart of European history. From the Reformation through the Napoleonic and Cold Wars to European Union, a superb history of Austria's central role in uniting Western civilization is covered. 24 pages of photographs and maps are included. "Connoisseurs of Austria and its delightful and infuriating inhabitants will agree that Mr. Brook-Shepherd has got it just about right.'—The Wall Street Journal "Engrossing, elegantly written history.'—Publishers Weekly