Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this suspenseful thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology “This novel has it all and more. In the nimble, talented hands of Trussoni the pages fly.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, PopSugar, Bookreporter, CrimeReads All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people. Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She soon reveals that there is something more urgent, and more dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth. The quest takes Brink through a series of interlocking enigmas, but the heart of the mystery is the God Puzzle, a cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful forces at work that he cannot escape. Ranging from an upstate New York women’s prison to nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Puzzle Master is a tantalizing, addictive thriller in which humankind, technology, and the future of the universe itself are at stake.

This book contains the results of an experiment I have done on myself. I have Asperger’s syndrome. I also had a condition called Schizoid. During the Schizoid condition which lasted twenty-three years, I wrote an epic poem about my life story: Ember. After completing the poem, I experienced something that most people would find unbelievable, and I got out of the Schizoid condition. And then I remembered why I did this experiment. After establishing the connection between Schizoid and Asperger’s, the analysis I made allowed me to produce scientific theses on many issues. For instance, what dreams mean and the function of dreams in the evolutionary design. And I claim to have solved a mystery that has puzzled the human mind for thousands of years... Solution of this mystery also explains the working mechanism of evolution. To understand the content of this book better, I recommend you reading Ember first.

A shorter, simpler first draft of the Gospel of Mark has been theorized by New Testament scholars for almost two hundred years. Using literary tools, David Oliver Smith strips away interpolation and redaction from the canonical Gospel to reveal that long-sought first draft--the Original Gospel of Mark. Original Mark, shorter than the canonical version and with several large blocks of text replaced in their original locations, reveals a coherent structure and a different picture of who Jesus is. But it is anything other than simple. The Original Gospel also presents puzzles for the curious reader of Mark to solve, and Smith has found the keys to their solution. Analysis of the text that was interpolated into Mark reveals who that redactor might have been. Evidence is presented that it was the author of the Gospel of Luke who redacted the first-written Gospel, jumbled its structure, and changed its Christology. Follow the analysis of literary structures created by the genius who wrote Mark's Gospel and discover the astounding design of the Original Gospel of Mark.

While much has been written on Descartes' theory of mind and ideas, no systematic study of his theory of sensory representation and misrepresentation is currently available in the literature. Descartes and the Puzzle of Sensory Misrepresentation is an ambitious attempt to fill this gap. It argues against the established view that Cartesian sensations are mere qualia by defending the view that they are representational; it offers a descriptivist-causal account of their representationality that is critical of, and differs from, all other extant accounts (such as, for example, causal, teleofunctional and purely internalist accounts); and it has the advantage of providing an adequate solution to the problem of sensory misrepresentation within Descartes' internalist theory of ideas. In sum, the book offers a novel account of the representationality of Cartesian sensations; provides a panoramic overview, and critical assessment, of the scholarly literature on this issue; and places Descartes' theory of sensation in the central position it deserves among the philosophical and scientific investigations of the workings of the human mind.

The Code Busters are excited for their class field trip to Angel Island, known as the Ellis Island of the West. One of Mika's ancestors passed through the island's immigration station in the early twentieth century, and Mika thinks he may have left behind some secret messages . . . plus a very special box. But as the Code Busters search for hints from the past, they get caught up in an even bigger secret. Can you crack the code? Test your brain with the Code Busters to see if you have the right stuff to be an ace detective. Answers are in the back, in case you get stuck.

The Puzzle of Twenty-First-Century Globalization explores the opportunities and challenges of our international economic system. Patrice Franko and Stephen Stamos clearly trace how the ways we produce, finance, and trade goods and services are profoundly shaped by technologies of communication, transportation, and trade. Globalization encourages hyper-specialization—lavishly rewarding those with the skill sets to serve the global marketplace and punishing those poorly positioned to compete. Globalized systems have created great prosperity—along with instability, vulnerability, and backlash. Few genuinely understand the complex underpinnings of our international economic system—and these specialists tend to operate in isolated silos of finance, trade, and production. But without appreciating how systems come together, we cannot explain political reactions against the costs of globalization such as the Brexit vote or the rise of Donald Trump. We don’t value the changing geo-economic importance of the developing world nor the deep threat to ecosystems. This book is the first to emphasize the interrelated economic aspects of globalization from an interdisciplinary perspective. By placing an introduction to trade, finance, and multinational production in the same text that discusses the changing role of developing countries and the challenges to the environment, the authors provide the novice with the basics to understand the global economy while also challenging advanced students to appreciate global connectivity. Closing the knowledge gap in international economics, the authors present the historical context, interdisciplinary grounding, and competing political perspectivesneededto encourage sound critical thinking around contemporary globalization. They provide the essential global economic tools to equip all readers to make decisions that may foster a fairer, more sustainable global system.

Discover the educational power of puzzle-based learning. Understand the principles of effective game design, the power of well-crafted narratives and how different game mechanics can support varied learning objectives. Applying escape room concepts to the classroom, this book offers practical advice on how to create immersive, collaborative learning experiences for your students without the need for expensive resources and tools. Packed with examples, including a full sample puzzle game for you to use with your students, this book is a primer for classroom teachers on designing robust learning activities using problem-solving principles.