Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.

Focusing on individual authors from Heinrich Boll to Gunther Grass, Hermann Lenz to Peter Schneider, The Language of Silence offers an analysis of West German literature as it tries to come to terms with the Holocaust and its impact on postwar West German society. Exploring postwar literature as the barometer of Germany's unconsciously held values as well as of its professed conscience, Ernestine Schlant demonstrates that the confrontation with the Holocaust has shifted over the decades from repression, circumvention, and omission to an open acknowledgement of the crimes. Yet even today a 'language of silence' remains since the victims and their suffering are still overlooked and ignored. Learned and exacting, Schlant's study makes an important contribution to our understanding of postwar German culture.

Academia has inexplicably ignored and omitted the presence of The Society of Freemasons in Ireland in most of the popular history books. This omission is confusing and somewhat illogical considering the overwhelming weight of evidence, not only of their existence but also their involvement in every facet of Irish affairs for more than 200 years. Their absence from the history books leaves a void which curtains the vital information needed to complete the sorry picture of 1798.

Too little money, a good-for-nothing ex-husband, a rebellious teenaged daughter and mother languishing in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.Clea already has a lot on her plate when a mystery drops in her lap. To satisfy her curiosity about an unexplained photograph, she enlists the aid of Ren, an out-of-favor FBI agent. With him comes a new complication--an on-again, off-again romance. Together, or in spite of each other, they enter an increasingly dangerous but revealing web of secrets and lies. The underlying trials associated with Alzheimer's convey a subtle message to readers of Secrets--that is, talk to elderly and not-so-elderly relatives, ask about their lives, and learn the family stories which can and should be passed to younger generations. Waiting too long risks losing forever the personal histories that enrich memories and relationships.