In the wrong hands, some books can be dangerous-and some libraries can be positively deadly. Marco, a young tabby, has been perfectly happy as a small town library cat and newly appointed Guardian of an ancient mystical book. However, when otherworldly creatures begin roaming the stacks after hours, and his mentor, the elder Guardian, is killed, Marco's innocent world is shattered. The young tabby cat is on his own, ill-prepared for the daunting task of safekeeping the magical book of power-and the very heart and soul of the library. Time and space are no barriers for Marco's shape shifting friends and enemies as he learns that the library is the most dangerous place worth saving. Guardian Cats is the classic hero's journey with cats as the guardians of an ancient mystical book of power.

Don Robeson is an ex-Navy Seal and archaeologist with the Egyptian Antiquities Council searching for the Lost City of Alexandria. He hits pay dirt when they discover an ancient diadem that may lead to the tomb of Cleopatra. That's when his troubles begin. Don and his crew become targets of antiquity pirates, the secret police, and even corrupt officials, and these people will stop at nothing to claim the discovery of one of Egypt's greatest treasures. When Don's friend Professor Abdul-Clatta is kidnapped along with the diadem, Don knows he must do whatever it takes to get them both back. His dangerous quest leads him from the depths of the Mediterranean to the Catacombs of Alexandria to the great Western Desert. The locals aren't any help, and Don realizes he can trust no one in this foreign land. Accompanied by his beautiful companion Kathleen Caulder, Don vows to regain the diadem for the Egyptian people--the only ones who deserve ownership of Cleopatra's tomb. But time is running out. In order to save the life of his friend, Don uses his Navy Seal training to outsmart and out muscle his greedy enemies. Now, only he can rescue the professor and a priceless ancient relic.

When the trail of clues summons the IAF to the Middle East, Martin Culver faces his most crucial challenge: To stand down as his colleagues are picked off one by one, or to fan the flames of world tensions.While the secrets of the Library of Alexandria threaten to revive Ancient Babylon, a vengeful tyrant has built a sinister army, seeking retribution on all who oppose him. Will the evil conjured by the wisdom of the remote past bring about a hellish vision for the future? Or will Culver rally the remnants of his team to end this nightmare before it's too late?

Perfect for fans of The School for Good and Evil and A Tale of Magic…, this Barnes & Noble Children’s Book Award finalist and Amazon Best Book of the Month is a charming fantasy debut that puts a new spin on the legend of Camelot Twelve-year-old Ellie can’t help that she’s a witch, the most hated member of society. Determined to prove her worth and eschew her heritage, Ellie applies to the Fairy Godmother Academy—her golden ticket to societal acceptance. But Ellie’s dreams are squashed when she receives the dreaded draft letter to serve as a knight of King Arthur’s legendary Round Table. She can get out of the draft—but only if she saves a lost cause. Enter Caedmon, a boy from Wisconsin struggling with the death of his best friend. He first dismisses the draft as ridiculous; magic can’t possibly exist. But when Merlin’s ancient magic foretells his family’s death if he doesn’t follow through, he travels to the knights’ castle, where he learns of a wicked curse leeching the knights of their power. To break the curse, Ellie and Caedmon must pass a series of deathly trials and reforge the lost, shattered sword of Excalibur. And unless Ellie accepts her witch magic and Caedmon rises to become the knight he’s meant to be, they will both fail—and the world will fall to the same darkness that brought King Arthur and Camelot to ruin.

Physiognomy and ekphrasis are two of the most important modes of description in antiquity and represent the necessary precursors of scientific description. The primary way of divining the characteristics and fate of an individual, whether inborn or acquired, was to observe the patient’s external characteristics and behaviour. This volume focuses initially on two types of descriptive literature in Mesopotamia: physiognomic omens and what we might call ekphrastic description. These modalities are traced through ancient India, Ugaritic and the Hebrew Bible, before arriving at the physiognomic features of famous historical figures such as Themistocles, Socrates or Augustus in the Graeco-Roman world, where physiognomic discussions become intertwined with typological analyses of human characters. The Arabic compendial culture absorbed and remade these different physiognomic and ekphrastic traditions, incorporating both Mesopotamian links between physiognomy and medicine and the interest in characterological ‘types’ that had emerged in the Hellenistic period. This volume offer the first wide-ranging picture of these modalities of description in antiquity.

Almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to destroy it. Author Lucien X. Polastron traces the history of this destruction, examining the causes for these disasters, the treasures that have been lost, and where the surviving books, if any, have ended up. Books on Fire received the 2004 Societe des Gens de Lettres Prize for Nonfiction/History in Paris.