A Jehovah's Witness is stabbed in her home by a stranger she once allowed in. A homeless woman masturbates on a park bench. A statue of the Virgin Mary, "plaster receptacle of petitions and foolish pleas," is found in a dump, a missing hand suggesting the sound of a one-handed rosary. Through images brutally honest and disarmingly off-center, Dixie Salazar explores the hidden lives of everyday people, objects, and experiencesÑand their transformation in the hidden realms of the heart. Charting furious descents into the darkest crevices of our souls, Salazar paints for us a lost city that exists below our mundane consciousness. Blood Mysteries is a tribute to lost souls, from a suicidal mental patient who doesn't believe she existsÑ"melting out of a landscape spotted with shadows, washing her hands in an empty basin of light"Ñto Marilyn Monroe, victim even in the morgue. In finely tuned lyricism showing an uncanny grasp of frayed lives, she gives flesh and vitality to women normally encountered only as statistics. The incarcerated, the homeless, the hopeless. Missing young girls who turn up violated and murdered. Salazar presents us with blood mysteries not only of women, but of family as well. In poems invoking her dual heritage, she explores the identity crises brought on by having a Spanish father and a mother from the deep South, leaving her a product of American meltdown with a predisposition to check "other" for race on applications. "Other can be a place," she reminds us, "a residence for those of us without / papers, where halos of lightning bugs / swarm the rickety family tree." Salazar writes with toughness and grit "for all the shipwrecked saints / and wretches among us." But beneath the surface of words sometimes gritty, sometimes playful, lies a testament to the power of empathy, giving voice to those whose voices have been stifled and offering hope for those who have found none. Blood Mysteries is a forceful prayer for the disenfranchised that offers not merely hope, but transcendence.

Mention blood and many people squirm with discomfort and yet we all have around 8 pints of it fuelling our systems. It is our literal essence and the blueprint for our ancestry. Blood mysteries open the door to taboos of all sorts and some might be disturbing. We will travel from lunar links with women's mysteries to tribal tattooing and hunting rituals to the practices of live sacrifices. The nocturnal world of vampires and true origins of this legend will be explored as will the less supernatural medical blood rites. We will also look into esoteric and sexual blood rites and rituals.

Leonidas, champion gladiator of Rome, is set free from the games by a mysterious benefactor who grants him freedom, a place to live, and a servant—Cassia, a scribe—to look after him. But the benefactor is only so generous—Leonidas must pay his own way and Cassia’s, which means hiring himself out. The sharp-witted Cassia quickly lands him a post as a bodyguard, escorting a retired senator to Ostia. The journey soon turns deadly, as Leonidas and Cassia find themselves squarely in the middle of intrigue that reaches from the slums of the Subura to the Palatine Hill and the emperor Nero himself.

Reveals how our blood acts as the bridge between body and spirit • Explains how our blood’s natural radiation connects our bodies to our spirits and serves as a means of communication between the two • Reveals how highly processed diets, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, heavy metal poisoning, medications, drugs, and alcohol negatively affect blood radiation and lead to physical, emotional, and spiritual imbalances • Provides advice on the ideal diet for each individual, whether omnivore, vegetarian, or allergy-prone, to optimize blood radiation Blood does far more than transport oxygen and nutrients, remove metabolic wastes, and convey hormonal messages from one cell to another. Providing medical examples to show how the body actively works to maintain our blood, even becoming seriously ill to save it, Christopher Vasey, N.D., explains how blood’s primary function is to form the bridge between the body and the human spirit. Vasey reveals how the blood, like everything in our world, radiates. The blood’s radiation is what connects body to spirit and serves as a means of communication between the two. Any deficiencies in the blood’s composition directly affect our spirit’s ability to stay connected to our physical body. Every change in the blood induces changes in our state of being and influences our psychic state. Many mental conditions such as loss of drive, unexplained sadness and irritability can be treated by restoring balance to the blood. In fact, the four basic temperaments--sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic--are intimately connected with our blood composition, hence the truth behind describing someone as “hot-blooded” or “cold-blooded.” The author explains how highly processed foods, vitamin deficiencies, heavy metal poisoning, and medications can negatively affect blood radiation and lead to physical, emotional, and spiritual imbalances. Revealing the spiritual purpose of eating, he explores how to improve blood radiation and composition with dietary changes, focusing on food that is organically produced and additive-free to avoid introducing any toxins or artificial ingredients into the bloodstream. Vasey offers advice to find the ideal diet for each individual, whether omnivore, vegetarian, or allergy-prone. He shows that by optimizing our blood composition, we improve our connection to spirit and provide a sound base for our soul to further its development.

New York Times Best Seller! 1500 5-Star Reviews! From the author that brought you NEW YORK TIMES best selling books The Harbinger, The Mystery of the Shemitah, and The Paradigm selling over 3 MILLION copies Imagine if you discovered a treasure chest in which were hidden ancient mysteries, revelations from heaven, secrets of the ages, the answers to man’s most enduring, age-old questions, and the hidden keys that can transform your life to joy, success, and blessing…This is The Book of Mysteries.

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: A “compelling chronicle” of the science, politics, and business of blood (The Wall Street Journal). Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don’t even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event. Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthrough of the “liquid biopsy,” which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as “Menstrual Man” for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the “OPEC of plasma.” And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you. Spanning science and politics, individual’s stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life’s blood in an entirely new light. One of Bill Gates’ Recommended Summer Reading Titles “Stellar . . . An informative, elegant, and provocative exploration of the life-giving substance . . . A wondrously well-written work.” —Booklist (starred review) Both fascinating and informative . . . George packs her book with the kinds of provocative, witty, and rigorously reported facts and stories sure to make readers view the integral fluid coursing through our veins in a whole new way.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “George charges down wholly unexpected avenues of medical history and global injustice, leaving the reader by turns giddy and appalled. And always, always in awe of the writing.” —Mary Roach, author of Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War “A very good book.” —The New York Times