Ulf and Birgitta Ekman are no strangers to controversy. As a Lutheran priest at Uppsala University in the 1980s, Ulf was a leader of a student revival that resulted in his very public separation from the Church of Sweden. With his wife, Birgitta, he founded Word of Life, a large Pentecostal church that attracted thousands of members and planted churches and Bible schools around the world. Word of Life became the first "mega-church" in the country, and Ulf Ekman became Sweden's most prominent Christian leader. Being well-known Christian leaders in one of the world's most secular countries brings many challenges. The Ekmans were constantly in the crosshairs of the media, who were critical of what they dubbed a "prosperity gospel". But the biggest criticisms would come from within the Christian church when the Ekmans answered the persistent call to join the Catholic Church. The news of their leaving Word of Life Church to become Catholics was a bombshell in Sweden. In The Great Discovery the Ekmans tell the amazing, inspirational story of their road to Rome, from their own intense opposition to Catholicism to meeting with Pope Francis. The result is an instant classic of Christian autobiography.

When archaeologist Tim Saunders sits opposite a mysterious girl on a train in Egypt, he notices the bracelet she's wearing; he thinks it could be a treasure from the lost tomb of Queen Cleopatra. Tim thinks he could be about to make a great discovery, one that could make him famous throughout the world. An exciting dream turns into a nightmare...

For more than 600 years, Western civilization has relied on exploration to learn about a wider world and universe. The Great Ages of Discovery details the different eras of Western exploration in terms of its locations, its intellectual contexts, the characteristic moral conflicts that underwrote encounters, and the grand gestures that distill an age into its essence. Historian and MacArthur Fellow Stephen J. Pyne identifies three great ages of discovery in his fascinating new book. The first age of discovery ranged from the early 15th to the early 18th century, sketched out the contours of the globe, aligned with the Renaissance, and had for its grandest expression the circumnavigation of the world ocean. The second age launched in the latter half of the 18th century, spanning into the early 20th century, carrying the Enlightenment along with it, pairing especially with settler societies, and had as its prize achievement the crossing of a continent. The third age began after World War II, and, pivoting from Antarctica, pushed into the deep oceans and interplanetary space. Its grand gesture is Voyager’s passage across the solar system. Each age had in common a galvanic rivalry: Spain and Portugal in the first age, Britain and France—followed by others—in the second, and the USSR and USA in the third. With a deep and passionate knowledge of the history of Western exploration, Pyne takes us on a journey across hundreds of years of geographic trekking. The Great Ages of Discovery is an interpretive companion to what became Western civilization’s quest narrative, with the triumphs and tragedies that grand journey brought, the legacies of which are still very much with us.

The inside story, told by excavators of the extraordinary discovery of the world’s oldest papyri, revealing how Egyptian King Khufu’s men built the Great Pyramid at Giza. Pierre Tallet’s discovery of the Red Sea Scrolls—the world’s oldest surviving written documents—in 2013 was one of the most remarkable moments in the history of Egyptology. These papyri, written some 4,600 years ago, and combined with Mark Lehner’s research, changed what we thought we knew about the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Here, for the first time, the world-renowned Egyptologists Tallet and Lehner give us the definitive account of this astounding discovery. The story begins with Tallet’s hunt for hieroglyphic rock inscriptions in the Sinai Peninsula and leads up to the discovery of the papyri, the diary of Inspector Merer, who oversaw workers in the reign of Pharaoh Khufu in Wadi el-Jarf, the site of an ancient harbor on the Red Sea. The translation of the papyri reveals how the stones of the Great Pyramid ended up in Giza. Combined with Lehner’s excavations of the harbor at the pyramid construction site the Red Sea Papyri have greatly advanced our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians were able to build monuments that survive to this day. Tallet and Lehner narrate this thrilling discovery and explore how the building of the pyramids helped create a unified state, propelling Egyptian civilization forward. This lavishly illustrated book captures the excitement and significance of these seminal findings, conveying above all how astonishing it is to discover a contemporary eyewitness testimony to the creation of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World.

Catch up with the latest adventures in Toy Town with this enchanting story of Noddy and his new train set!

Join Mouse on his journey through the forest! Help him on his great discovery - of self-acceptance, and of friendship.