New Book Release: Humanism

Humanism: In Command or in Crisis? by Michael A. Schuler

According to bestselling historian Yuval Noah Harari, today's average American has their foot in three ideological camps: nationalism, free market capitalism, and humanism. The first two might seem obvious, but the third? It's entirely possible that most who qualify for that label would be hard pressed to explain its meaning, much less use it self-descriptively. This book is designed to serve two important purposes: First, to provide an accessible resource for anyone curious about the humanist tradition and the arguments advanced by leading contemporary proponents. Second, to address what the author believes is a critical question for our time, the era of the Anthropocene: Is humanism's seemingly benign package of values at least partially responsible for some of the world's most pressing problems? To answer the last question, Schuler draws from an eclectic collection of commentators, including life scientists, spiritual writers, public intellectuals, technologists, novelists, and even poets. In the end, this wide-ranging survey will help the reader determine whether humanism makes sense for them.

New Book Release: Werewolf Stories

Werewolf Stories: Shape-Shifters, Lycanthropes, and Man-Beasts by Nick Redfern and Brad Steiger

Beware the Full Moon! Take a hair-raising tour of werewolf legends. Meet shape-shifters, dogmen, and all variety of human and lupine mixes in this blood curling story collection from two distinguished paranormal researchers!

From today's lycanthropic creatures found in pop culture such as Dracula, Twilight and An American Werewolf in London to the earliest mentions in folklore of the shape-shifting legend, Werewolf Stories: Shape-Shifters, Lycanthropes, and Man-Beasts is an eye-opening tour through the ages of all things werewolf. Along the way, readers land at the doorstep of creatures like serial killer Fritz Haarmann, tiger people and their thirst for human blood, Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, shapeshifters of all kinds and sizes, and even a spell to repel werewolves. This fascinating tome provides 140,000 years of blood-pounding evidence of strange and obsessional behavior. It tells of stories of becoming a werewolf and the intricacies of slaying the beast. A true homage to the creature, it includes full moon of topics such as …

• Fenrir, the wolf child of the giantess Angrboda and the god Loki, from the Old Norse myth of Ragnarok
• Notorious serial killers, including Peter Stumpp and Michael Lupo, who thought themselves to be—and modeled their crimes on—werewolves
• Coyote people, tricksters, and were-animals of Navajo legend
• The Basque butchers of Louisiana and the loup-garou
• Diana, the goddess of the wilderness and the hunt, and her pack of hunting dogs, who once ruled all the dark forests of Europe
• Leopard creature-men and the deadly cult whose members expressed their were-leopard lust for human blood and flesh that has been in existence in West Africa for several hundred years
• The “werewolf of the Dordogne,” Francis Leroy, and his uncontrollable bloodlust during the full moon
• The secret terrorist group Organization Werewolf, established in 1923, and its possible allegiance to Adolf Hitler
• Ghouls from Arabic folklore, the demonic Djinns that hover near burial grounds and sustain themselves on human flesh stolen from graves
• Tasmania’s thylacine and sightings of the “probably extinct” creature and its remarkable—and frightening—jaw capacity
• Alaska’s Kushtaka and other stories of the Bigfoot man-beast
• Puerto Rico’s chupacabra and its powerful goat-like legs, three-clawed feet, and penchant for sucking blood
• The Doñas de Fuera of Sicily, small fairies who looked human, aside from their paw-like feet, and were cruel and dangerous when crossed
• Enkidu, perhaps our earliest written record of a man-beast that appears on a Babylonian fragment circa 2000 BCE and tells the story of King Gilgamesh and his werewolf-like friend in The Epic of Gilgamesh
• And many more stories and histories of werewolves, night-stalkers, lycanthropes, and man-beasts

Noted cryptozoologists and paranormal researchers Nick Redfern and Brad Steiger share personal stories and encounters with werewolves in Werewolf Stories. They take a deep dive into the legends, the history, the pop-culture take on the man-beast. It's a wild and weird road-trip into the mystery-filled domain of the disturbingly real world of shape-shifters and werewolves!

New Book Release: American Ghost Stories

American Ghost Stories: True Tales from All 50 States by Michael A. Kozlowski and Richard Estep

Take an eerie road trip! A chilling collection of true ghost stories spanning every state in the United States with a full range of ghostly manifestations and haunted locations!

From séances to shiny graveyards, take a ghostly journey across the United States. Visit the highways and byways of the supernatural across the country and in each state in the union. American Ghost Stories: True Tales from All 50 States tours possessed houses, unearthly burial sites, forbidding farms, sinister forests, school bathrooms, and all manner of places haunted by spectral visitors, including …

• Sullivan, Maine, and Nelly Butler, America’s “first ghost.”
• Wilder, Kentucky, and Bobby Mackey’s Music World, which was originally built as a slaughterhouse and then served at various times as a honky-tonk, bingo hall, biker bar, and cocktail lounge before becoming a direct portal to Hell.
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and The Pfister Hotel, where every U.S. president since William McKinley stayed—as did Elvis Presley—and its weird noises, flickering lights, malfunctioning electronics, and moving objects.
• Exeter, Rhode Island, and Mercy Lena Brown, the vampire ghost that was caught on a YouTube video.
• San Jose, California, and the maze-like Winchester House, which was allegedly designed to confuse ghosts that haunted the original owner … and have continued to haunt people ever since.
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the Skirvin Hotel, the historic Art Deco hotel, former speakeasy, and location of several gunfights that is haunted full time by Effie, a Prohibition-era chambermaid.
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the numerous sightings at the Betsy Ross House. 
• Huntsville, Alabama, and the Maple Hill Cemetery, the internment site for governors, U.S. senators, representatives, and soldiers that is the site of … a playground!
• Tularosa Basin, New Mexico, and Pavla Blanca, the woman in white roaming the dunes of the White Sand National Monument.
• And many more paranormal experiences, poltergeists, residual hauntings, curses, witches, prisons, bridges, mental institutions of an America plagued with spirits, phantoms and ghosts!

More than merely a collection of 50 true ghost stories, American Ghost Stories puts you in the middle of the eerie action with captivating stories that would be at home at any midnight campfire. The only difference is that these stories aren't urban legends or fantasies meant to scare you. These stories live right next door to every one of us. We suggest you don’t read them when you are home alone and the lights begin to flicker!

New Book Release: Grace Upon Grace

Grace Upon Grace: Holy Innocents at 150

The birth of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church was, to say the least, difficult. Atlanta was trying to rebuild itself in the wake of the Civil War and the city was in ruins. From this dismal scene emerged Mary Ellen “Nellie” Peters, an Episcopalian seeking to do charity work for orphans and the poor, who were “utterly destitute,” as one document noted. By 1872, she had established a Sunday School mission named Chapel of the Holy Innocents.

Grace Upon Grace—Holy Innocents at 150 shows it was not always easy. But the growth of the church continued its march, buying land and erecting new buildings. And as those edifices aged and were outgrown, even more space was sought, which is how Holy Innocents ending up with land in Sandy Springs in 1955.

It’s difficult to reconcile the inspiring, soaring home of Holy Innocents today with its early beginnings. But the work of the church is as apparent as ever. Its efforts are alive in fields as diverse as Civil Rights, hospice support, homelessness, the city’s food bank, poverty, missions in other countries, and its well-tended Annual Giving Fund, not to mention the everyday—but impressive—daily ministry and operations.

Additionally, the church operates the highly acclaimed Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School, an institution that itself had a difficult birth and now ranks as one of the premier—and largest—Episcopal schools in America.

New Book Release: William Barnet & Son

William Barnet & Son: 125 Years of Solutions

The story told in William Barnet & Son – 125 Years of Solutions takes you on a geographical and solution-driven journey, the company oftentimes purchasing raw materials with no clear end product in mind, and then creating a product that brings value in a market. This commitment to provide solutions has led to relationships with some of America’s most well-known brands, relationships that still exist today. 

Ultimately, the Barnet story is one of relationships—with its customers and suppliers, with its longtime employees, many of whom have worked over 40+ years with the company, and with the three generations of Barnet family leadership that laid the foundation.  Today’s Barnet team, whose collective experience and longevity with the company is impossible to place a value upon, is poised to move the company forward into an even brighter future.