THE FUTURE IS HERE. India has just sent its first spacecraft to the moon, and the placid city of Mysore is gearing up for its own global recognition with the construction of HeritageLand—Asia’s largest theme park. From behind the formidable gates of Mahalakshmi Gardens to the shanty houses on the edge of town, the people of Mysore are abuzz as they watch their city prepare for a complete transformation. As government officials make plans for the expected tourism extravaganza, Mysore’s residents find themselves swept up in the ferment. Susheela, an elderly widow, is forced into a secretive new life. Uma, trying to escape her painful past, learns the lasting power of local gossip. And Mala must finally confront the reality of her husband’s troubling behaviour. Savagely funny and deeply poignant, The Smoke Is Rising is a riveting portrait of a city hurtling towards an epic clash of modernity and tradition, and all the wandering souls—some hopeful, some broken, and a few somewhere in between—who find themselves caught in the middle.

A cross-cultural romance between an American Indian and a white woman. The heroine is Dr. Meggie O'Connor, a psychologist who studied under an Indian medicine woman who brought them together, even though the Indian is married. By the author of Winona's Web.

THE STORY: Out with the old and in with the new. Across college campuses in the '70s, teachers and students engaged in a battle of their own--making education relevant. OFFICE HOURS tackles the Great Books curriculum and puts dead white men to the t

A sensational new series from the bestselling creator of The Darkslayer and The Chronicles of Dragon.The unexpected begins ...Agent Sidney Shaw is one of the FBI's finest. Tough as nails with a calculating mind, she thought she was ready for anything.Enter John Smoke. His spirited arrest methods landed him hard time in prison. The decorated veteran, now branded an ex-con, just wants to serve his time in peace. The powers that be have other plans.When Sidney is assigned to be Smoke's handler, both of their lives are turned upside down. She plays by the rules. He trusts his instincts. Fighting to control him, she finds herself chasing him down a secret, dark, supernatural path where a vast criminal network rears its head in the heart of Washington, D.C.

Humans have an extraordinary capability to combine different types of information in a single meaningful interpretation. The quickness with which interpretation processes evolve suggests the existence of a uniform procedure for all domains. In this book the authors suggest that such a procedure can be found. They concentrate on the introduction of a theory of interpretation, and they define a model that enables a meaningful representation of knowledge, based on a dynamic view of information and a cognitive model of human information processing. The book consists of three parts. The first part focuses on the properties of signs and sign interpretation; in the second part the authors introduce a model that complies with the conditions for sign processing set by the first part; and in the third part they examine applications of their model in the domain of logic, natural language, reasoning and mathematics. Finally they show how these domains pop up as perspectives in an overall model of knowledge representation. The reader is assumed to have some interest in human information processing and knowledge modeling. Natural language is considered in the obvious sense, familiarity with linguistic theories is not required. Sign theoretical concepts are restricted to a manageable subset, which is introduced gently. Finally, some familiarity with basic concepts of propositional and syllogistic logic may be useful.

Many Christians believe that people who are not saved before they die will be punished in hell forever. But is this what the Bible truly teaches? Do Christians need to rethink their understanding of hell? In the late twentieth century, a growing number of theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers began to reject the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell in favour of a minority theological perspective called conditional immortality. This view contends that the unsaved are resurrected to face divine judgment, just as Christians have always believed. However, due to the fact that immortality is only given to those who are in Christ, the unsaved do not exist forever in hell. Instead, they face the punishment of the 'second death' -an end to their conscious existence. This volume brings together excerpts from a variety of well-respected evangelical thinkers, including John Stott, John Wenham, and E. Earle Ellis, as they articulate the biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments for conditionalism. These readings will give thoughtful Christians strong evidence that there are indeed compelling reasons for rethinking hell.