In 1517, Martin Luther, the Germany theologian, tacked his ninety-five theses to the door of the Wittenberg church, thereby setting off the theological revolution that gave birth to the Reformation. Luther confronted a papal establishment headed by Leo X, the pleasure-loving son of Lorenzo de Medici who made the Vatican the glittering center of the Italian Renaissance and whose driving ambition was the completion of St. Peter's Cathedral. This book is, in part, a brilliant study of Luther and Pope Leo X, revealing two men of vastly different backgrounds, outlooks, and philosophies. The split in the Christian Church that was the inevitable result is dramatically portrayed. Written sure-handedly and in a lively fashion, the entire world of the Italian Renaissance comes alive. Charles L. Mee Jr., Harvard scholar and biographer, brings the Reformation into sharp new focus as he presents Luther as the typical revolutionary and Leo X as his establishment protagonist. He gives us an immensely illuminating, informed, lively, and gossipy account of history's pivotal figures and the turbulent times in which they lived. Altogether, this book offers an engrossing, biographical history.

A study of Martin Luther and Pope Leo X.

White Witch in a Black Robe is a memoir about how secret high-level mind control is performed throughout victims' lives and the ways heads of governments and religious organizations participate in this, as well as the healing process and how the mind becomes whole again.The memoir begins with the author's childhood in a multi-generational cult family, her ordinary life in the normal world and her simultaneous secret tortuous world. She describes her world travels as a satanic cult queen and prophet, encountering well-known and influential people. The final section portrays the process of weaving the pieces of her mind back together with the help of a therapist, and adjusting to life with a whole mind.This is an important book for survivors of mind control and ritual abuse, their therapists, and the general public, revealing one of the world's best-kept and grimmest secrets. As the author says in her introduction, 'This book is not for the delicate or for those who are convinced the world is fine just the way it is.'

Rengetsu (1791-1875), whose name translates as Lotus Moon, was a Japanese Buddhist nun whose tragic life inspired extraordinary creativity. One of a very few successful female artists in nineteenth-century Japan, Rengetsu was primarily a poet and calligrapher, but also excelled in pottery and scroll painting. Her idiosyncratic personal aesthetic attracted an enormous following in her own lifetime and was imitated by many of her admirers. Black Robe, White Mist presents contemplative works on paper and clay inscribed with Rengetsu's elegant poetry and understated calligraphy, reflecting the beauty of the imperfect and unconventional. A number of distinguished contributors share their knowledge of and enthusiasm for Rengetsu's poetry and art. Melanie Eastburn is assistant curator of Asian art at the National Gallery of Australia. Other contributors include Chiaki Ajioka, Lucie Folan, Patricia J. Graham, Robyn Maxwell, Meher McArthur, Sandra Sheckter, John Stevens, and Saymi Takahashi.

Black Robe, an account of the 17th-century encounter between the Huron and Iroquois the French called "Les Sauvages" and the French Jesuit missionaries the native people called "Blackrobes," is Brian Moore's most striking book. No other novel has so well captured both the intense--and disastrous--strangeness of each culture to one another, and their equal strangeness to our own much later understanding.

As a lawyer and criminal court judge, Bruce Wright has seen, first-hand, the disturbing truth about how fundamentally unfair our judicial system is toward African Americans. In this important book, he takes a hard look at these inequities, documenting them with numerous cases drawn from his years of experience in the courts. With unflinching honesty, he tackles such controversial subjects as the deep-seeded societal prejudices of white judges, the lack of black judges, the long history of excluding blacks from law schools and bar associations, the practice of setting higher bail for black defendants, the anti-black biases of white jurors, and the black defendant's limited access to quality legal representation. Judge Wright also addresses the abuse of police power against blacks, the dehumanizing conditions in jails populated primarily by blacks, and the way that death penalty convictions discriminate against blacks. Finally, he proposes remedies that must be taken if the courts are truly to become a place of justice for all. Timely and relevant, "Black Robes, White Justice" is a book that every American should read in order to understand one of the most important issues of our time.