New Book Release: Jewish Law: New Perspectives

Jewish Law: New Perspectives by Suzanne Last Stone and Yonatan Y. Brafman, eds.

New Perspectives on Jewish Law combines the detailed work characteristic of scholarship on Jewish law with an orientation towards its broader academic and cultural significance. It shifts the study of Jewish law from its focus on legal doctrine and history to legal theory, achieving in the process a more sophisticated understanding of law that will benefit both the legal academy and Jewish studies. By employing the framework of legal theory, it similarly corrects an over-emphasis on the metaphysical presuppositions and philosophical implications of Jewish law, which has tended to cast it as exceptional relative to other legal systems. Moreover, it answers to old-new anxieties about law, often symbolized by Judaism, raised by contemporary feminists and by philosophers who are animated by recent interpretations of Paul through actual engagement with the Jewish legal tradition.

The volume consists of three parts. The first focuses on the critique of positivism, its implications, and the new directions that it opens up for the analysis of Jewish law. The second part takes stock of recent methodological developments in the study of Jewish legal texts and investigates the relation between Jewish law and the disciplines, including history, literary theory, ritual studies, the digital humanities, as well as traditional approaches to Jewish learning. It concludes with a reflection on these interdisciplinary contributions from the perspective of legal theory. The third part explores the connections among Jewish law, philosophy, and culture critique. It assesses the relation or lack thereof between Jewish law and modern Jewish thought, and examines specific issues of philosophical interest, including truth and normativity. It also investigates the image of Jewish law in the contemporary critique of law as well as how Jewish law could productively contribute to that debate. It concludes with a reflection on these studies from the perspective of philosophy of law.

New Book Release: Know Your Soul

Know Your Soul: Journeying with the Enneagram by Joseph Howell

Joseph Howell suffered from excruciating grief over his son's illness and death in 2008. A clinical psychologist and spiritual teacher, Howell's pain forced him to search his spirituality. An immersion into the ancient wisdom of the Enneagram revealed a pearl of vastly more profound knowledge than personality types. It was an Enneagram of nine soul types and their particular soul qualities. This discovery of the Enneagram of soul beautifully reconnected Howell to aspects of his soul that he was unaware existed. These soul qualities helped heal his overwhelming grief when little else could. This transformative experience led to this groundbreaking work. Years in preparation, this book is unique among those on spirituality and the Enneagram. Besides presenting Enneagram teachings, Howell tells intimate personal stories of how to recognize our soul type's unique qualities, and how the dominant ego becomes transforms into a servant of our soul. During the writing of this book, Howell and his wife, Lark, lost their only other child, Lauren. The Enneagram of soul is a map of truth that sustains their faith and their commitment to this work, even in this second great loss. People searching for deeper meaning and those who have experienced significant grief of any kind will want to read this book. Beginners and advanced students of the Enneagram will also benefit from it because it takes them from Enneagram basics to finer concepts of soul work.

New Book Release: From Scroll to Soul

From Scroll to Soul: Delving Into the Essence of the Week's Torah Portion for Actionable Insight by Steven Tzvi Gleiberman

Throughout history, only one text transends time and place, guiding us from the superficial to the depths of our existence: the Torah.

From Scroll to Soul is a two-year collection of writings that explore the spiritual essence of each week’s Torah portion, accompanying us on a mission of discovery to unearth the connections between the wisdom of the Torah and direction in our day-to-day lives.

As we turn its pages, we are invited to traverse the sacred messages of the Torah—those ancient scrolls that cradle the secrets of our existence. We unearth the insights that lie just beneath the surface and let us connect the ancient with the contemporary, drawing relevance from the timeless encounters within the Torah that actively speak to our lives today.

From Scroll to Soul is a personal invitation to unveil the layers that shroud the Torah's spiritual essence, reminding us that our own souls are connected and reflected within its holy pages.

New Book Release: Lost Loot

Lost Loot: Cursed Treasures and Blood Money by Jim Willis

Legendary treasures. Mythical robberies. Lost riches. Buried plunder and fabulous wealth. Hidden dangers. Ancient curses and deathbed jinxes. Captivating tales of lost fortunes, hidden caches, the eternal allure of wealth, and the heartbreak of mysterious curses!

Read about the pursuit of riches turning to grief in this mesmerizing story collection! A thrilling exploration of the world's most intriguing and dangerous treasure hunts, Lost Loot: Cursed Treasures and Blood Money collects dozens of fascinating stories of reward, riches, greed, and ruin, including …

• Curses, deaths, and centuries old treasure on Oak Island

• Searchers hunted down and killed before finding a gangster’s stolen riches

• The eternal quest for D. B. Cooper and his hijack ransom

• Elaborate booby traps protecting ill-gotten gains

• Cursed Aztec wealth lost as it journeyed to Spain

• Mysterious caves holding secrets in the Grand Canyon

• Montezuma’s revenge

• The train-robbing Robin Hood myth of the Sam Bass Gang

• Jean Lafitte and the Galveston Hoard

• The lost Dutchman mine

• Civil War coins hurriedly stashed after a brutal reign of terror

• The missing Fabergé eggs

• John Dillinger’s suitcase

• King Kamehameha’s burial chamber

• Captain Kidd's buried treasure

And more stories of doomed pursuits of plundered riches.

Tales of bewitching riches and hunts gone wrong, yet hope springs eternal. Lost Loot unfolds like a treasure map—but beware of the hidden, deadly obstacles!

New Book Release: The Book of Facts and Trivia: Science

The Book of Facts and Trivia: Science by Terri Schlichenmeyer

Entertaining, informative, and enlightening! Educational, eyebrow-raising, and profound. Science has never been this much fun! Take a weird and wonderful tour of the every branch of science with this treat of stories, trivia, and facts!

From Earth’s weight gain thanks to the many tons of cosmic dust that falls on the planet each year to William A. Mitchell, the inventor of Tang, Cool Whip, and Pop Rocks candy, The Book of Facts and Trivia: Science combines the educational, profound, and trivial into a fascinating collection of science facts! You’ll learn about yourself and the world through hundreds of absorbing stories and interesting tidbits such as …

• Kissing burns up to six calories per minute.

• One teaspoon of neuron star weighs about 10 million tons.

• There are more than 2 million ants for every single person on Earth. That’s approximately 20 quadrillion ants!

• Neanderthals and Homo sapiens first mated tens of thousands of years ago.

• Under the right conditions, some dogs – the super-scenters – can smell you some 12 miles away.

• Nine out of 10 mothers of newborns, after having spent as little as 10 minutes with their babies, can identify their infant by smell.

• The body of Marie Curie (1867-1934), the physicist who discovered radium, is still radioactive.

• The first multiplication tables were used around 2000 B.C.E. by the Babylonians.

• Star Trek characters used devices that looked and acted quite a bit like cell phones—well before the technology came to market. Touchscreen computers too.

• And many more science facts!

An absorbing guide to science answers, The Book of Facts and Trivia will treat you to a smorgasbord of stories, trivia, and facts!

New Book Release: Handy Quantum Physics

The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book by Charles Liu

Quantum physics helps explain many mysteries of the universe. It underpins everything, but it need not be quantum difficult with this informative, accessible, easy-to-follow guide to the fundamentals and concepts of quantum physics and our quantum universe!

Quantum physics is all around us. It’s in electrical lights, lasers, and the color of the sky. Without it, the sun wouldn’t shine. It even explains how human eyes work. With its role in photosynthesis, it literally supports life. Yet, it had Schrödinger wondering whether his cat was alive or dead. It tells us that something can be both a wave and a particle and that two linked particles can communicate across the universe instantaneously! And it might even explain how the multiverse is real. Quantum physics is the key to understanding our complex world, yet even our most brilliant minds haven’t figured it all out yet.

Engaging and approachable, The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book helps untangle this complex subject, making quantum physics and its impact on us, the world, and the universe entertaining and easy to grasp. From the basics to the theories and from the practical applications to the future, this illuminating book answers more than 800 fascinating questions so you can easily understand quantum physics, including ...

• Did the Big Bang arise from quantum foam?
• When did philosophers first consider the existence of atoms?
• What is the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated?
• What are quarks?
• What is quantum teleportation?
• What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle?
• What is the quantum principle used in MRI machines?
• Does entangled time mean the present can affect the past?
• Why did Albert Einstein say, “God does not play dice with the universe”?
• How is a black hole a quantum object?
• How does quantum physics appear in portrayals of space?
• Do we live in a multiverse?
• What is artificial intelligence?
• Are human brains actually quantum computers?
• How does quantum physics affect me?

The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book provides a bridge between scientific concepts and everyday understanding, allowing you to grasp the wonders and implications of quantum physics. This compelling resource is for the casually curious as well as those seeking a deeper understanding of one of the most captivating scientific fields of our time. With 135 photos and graphics, this tome is richly illustrated. Its glossary of commonly used terms cuts through the jargon, a helpful bibliography provides sources for further exploration, and an extensive index adds to its usefulness.

New Book Release: Handy Civics

The Handy Civics Answer Book: How to be a Good Citizen by David L. Hudson Jr.

Citizenship Unleashed: Nurturing Democracy and Strengthening America! Delve into the essence of citizenship and the part we play in the functioning of our government with this enlightening guide!

From rights and responsibilities to creating the Constitution and the shape of the government, citizens have a central role in the governance of the United States. A vital guide that explores the duties and responsibilities of an American citizen, The Handy Civics Answer Book: How to Be a Good Citizen also explains the three branches of government and the political processes that influence their functioning. From intriguing historical tidbits to the intricate inner workings of the law, this book is a treasure trove of civics knowledge. This illuminating book answers more than 600 of the most intriguing questions about civics, citizenship, and the government, including …

• What does the Declaration of Independence say?
• What were the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
• How did the Constitutional Convention delegates deal with the issue of slavery?
• Who actually wrote the U.S. Constitution?
• What were the Federalist Papers?
• What are the Powers of Congress?
• Why did the Framers want to limit the powers of Congress?
• What are the duties of the president of the United States?
• What is the presidential oath?
• How was the U.S. Supreme Court created?
• Can Supreme Court justices be impeached?
• What is the Bill of Rights?
• What rights do citizens possess?
• What are some leading civic responsibilities?
• What legal duties may only citizens perform?
• What does a citizen need to do to vote?
• How does one become a U.S. citizen?
• What is the Oath of Allegiance?
• What does the U.S. Constitution say about state government?
• Who funds public schooling in the United States?
• Do state governments have police powers?
  
  
  Whether through the vote, exercising our free speech rights, defending our country, serving on a jury, respecting laws, staying informed, or respecting the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others, The Handy Civics Answer Book will arm you with the knowledge you need to be an informed and active participant in the democratic process. This compelling resource to Washington, governance, and civic duties is ideal for anyone interested in American politics and government or who is simply seeking to become a more engaged citizen. With more than 120 photos, this tome is richly illustrated. It’s helpful bibliography provides sources for further exploration, and an extensive index adds to its usefulness.

New Book Release: Brasfield & Gorrie

Building Our Future: Brasfield & Gorrie at 60 by Betsy Shearron

Building Our Future—Brasfield & Gorrie at 60 tells the story of how this company successfully navigated those changes by remaining focused on its North Star—its people and its principles. It is what enabled the company to meet massive challenges that would have been calamitous crises to other companies. Thanks to decades of building a deep bench of talent, Brasfield & Gorrie steadfastly worked through huge challenges such as a contentious project with an ill-advised client that threatened to bankrupt the company, the near-tragic accident that left a Brasfield & Gorrie crane and the company’s reputation hanging in the balance, and also an unprecedented worldwide pandemic that shut down the entire world temporarily and hundreds of businesses permanently.

New Book Release: Let the Chips Fall

Let the Chips Fall by Alan Scott and Max Griffin

Frank Millwright is beginning his training as a psionic officer, just as he meets the girl of his dreams. When he returns to college in the fall, his girlfriend’s employer has disappeared. Frank tries to apply his budding powers to find the missing woman, despite resistance from local law enforcement. But when his girlfriend is accused of murdering her employer, Frank must use all his psionic powers to find the real killer.

New Book Release: Near-Death Experiences

Near-Death Experiences: Afterlife Journeys and Revelations by Jim Willis

Thousands, perhaps millions, of people have had near-death experiences (NDEs). Why do so many report uncannily similar experiences? What are they—a simple trick of the mind and body or something more? What are we to make of them, and do they tell us anything about the possibility of an afterlife?

An illuminating and thought-provoking journey into the enigmatic territory where science, spirituality, and human consciousness converge, Near Death Experiences: Afterlife Journeys and Revelations presents a comprehensive journey through different interpretations of NDEs:

• The Scientific. What neuroscience, medicine, and biology have to say about what happens at the brink of death.
• The Religious. What NDE-like experiences found in the Bible, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Talmud, the Quran, and other religious tracts tell us.
• Historic and Personal. What folklore and personal stories reveal about this alternate consciousness that occurs during a life-threatening situation.
• The Metaphysical. Possible answers involving quantum reality, parallel universes, and the subconscious.

Challenging you to explore all possibilities, Near Death Experiences will have you reconsidering your understanding of life, death, and consciousness!

New Book Release: The Innovative Leader

The Innovative Leader: Step-by-Step Lessons From Top Innovators for You and Your Organization by Stephen Wunker, Jennifer Luo Law, and Hari Nair

The Innovative Leader cracks the code to how industry leaders get ahead of the curve.

How do leaders such as Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Panera's Ron Shaich, and Levi's Chip Bergh make themselves and their organizations innovative, year after year? Authors Wunker, Law, and Nair, celebrated experts in innovation themselves, unveil the secrets that make these industry giants the world-class trailblazers that they are. 

The Innovative Leader offers anyone tasked with innovation – from budding entrepreneurs to high-level executives, in the business sector, government, or nonprofits – a unique blend of expert insights and concrete examples.

Grounded in interviews with 50 esteemed innovators and informed by the authors' own deep experiences, this book lays out detailed, actionable steps to make yourself and your organization into innovative powerhouses.

The unique blend of expert insights, real-world examples, and a step-by-step approach combine to make The Innovative Leader an indispensable guide for a wide audience. The Innovative Leader is an engaging treasure trove of practical wisdom and invaluable lessons. 

New Book Release: Defying Deception

Defying Deception: A Field Guide to Understanding and Countering Satan’s Strategy of Deception by Jonathan K. Corrado

Comprehensive training and well-established tactics are the trademark qualities of a solid and robust military training program designed to win wars. As a result, well-trained soldiers can think and act soundly while engaged in warfare. Like soldiers, Christians must similarly train to become prepared to make biblically-sound choices while engaged in spiritual warfare--specifically, deception. Deception, as clearly conveyed in the Bible, is Satan's weapon of choice, therefore, if understood properly, can be thwarted effectively. Defying Deception: A Field Guide to Understanding and Countering Satan's Strategy of Deception is a book for those who want to raise their awareness of the enemy's strategies and to mature their spiritual walk by offsetting the enemy's deceptive methods with practical means. That said, this field guide establishes a parallel between Satan's deceptive tactics and military Psychological Operations (PSYOP), operations to convey false information to influence emotions, motives, and reasoning because both seek to lead people into falsehood to influence decision-making in a destructive way. This field guide discusses Satan's deceptive strategy within the context of PSYOP. Armed with this information, practical defensive strategies are developed using well-established, effective military tactics to assist readers in overcoming spiritual deception.

New Book Release: Kingdom Journey

Kingdom Journey: A Call to Recover the Central Theme of Scripture by Sean P. Finnegan

News flash: "The Bible doesn't teach that people go to heaven or hell when they die." Rather, it teaches that God's kingdom will come to this earth in judgment and restoration, making everything wrong with the world right. The doorway into the age to come is not death but the return of Christ when his followers experience resurrection rather than disembodiment. This simple idea is not only the key to understanding the biblical vision of the future, but it also formed the core of Jesus's gospel message, and it provides the motivation to live out your faith today. The goal of this book is nothing short of igniting a revolution in the church's understanding of the kingdom of God. Kingdom Journey marries a biblical exploration to a historical investigation to explain not only what the kingdom of God is, but also how Christianity lost this precious pearl of great price. Thankfully, several movements over the past five centuries have initiated recoveries of the kingdom idea, but many Christians remain in the dark, beset with medieval folk theology. This book will open your eyes to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness with clarity and vigor.

New Book Release: Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology

Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology: Theological Engagements from the Underside of Methodism by Filipe Maia et al., eds.

What can movements for decolonization teach Wesleyan theology? This book faces this question to show that decolonial voices are reshaping the contours of Methodist and Wesleyan traditions. Contributors to this volume include theologians, pastors, and leaders in the Global South who are leading the people called Methodists to encounter the tradition anew in the radical spirit of decolonization.

New Book Release: Toward a Singular Goal

Toward a Singular Goal: 100 Years of the New York State Land Association

A century in existence is no small feat for this organization; it has been a journey of education, advocacy, and commitment to its goals. Researching this book has served as a reminder to us that the title insurance industry consists of many accomplished, committed, and proactive individuals working in unison to positively shape the work we all do.

The future of the New York State Land Title Association is informed by its history. Our leaders recognize that it took the concerted efforts of many devoted members to serve our industry in the past and they will continue to focus on supporting the success of all our members going forward. Together, our group of capable and skilled agents and underwriters have pursued a vision of achievement and executed a new, proactive approach that will help us face the inevitable trials and tribulations we’ll encounter as we embrace what is to come.

Just as the foundation of our work begins in the soil of the communities in which we reside, the foundation of the New York State Land Title Association is our people—those who will safeguard our industry and continue to educate, advocate, and support our best interests.

Cheers to another 100 years!

New Book Release: Before Maimonides

Before Maimonides: A New Philosophical Dialogue in Hebrew by Tzvi Langermann

All can agree that the achievement of Moses Maimonides (d. 1204) set the standard for subsequent works of “Jewish philosophy”. But just what were the contours of philosophical-scientific inquiry that Maimonides replaced? A fairly large array of diverse texts have been studied, but no comprehensive picture has yet emerged. The newly discovered Hebrew dialogue published here has points of contact of various depth with most of the major works of pre-Maimonidean thought. It shares as well influences from without, especially from the Islamic kalam. The dialogue thus presents, in an engaging literary form, a clear and detailed snapshot of pre-Maimonidean philosophy and science.

New Book Release: Family, Friends and Neighbors

Family, Friends, and Neighbors: Stories of Murder and Betrayal by Richard Estep

Delve into the chillingly true world of murder and deceit. Explore the twisted paths of those driven by dark motives of control, money, social status, and revenge, and the unsuspecting victims who placed their trust in them.

Discover the dark secrets that lurk behind closed doors in Family, Friends and Neighbors: Stories of Murder and Betrayal. You will be left questioning just how well you truly know those around you in this gripping true-crime collection. Dive into infamous cases such as Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, the Menendez Brothers, and Lizzie Borden, and also examine lesser-known crimes that will send shivers down your spine. You'll investigate thirty-four shocking tales of mind-boggling acts of violence, such as …

• The captivating downfall of prestigious attorney and community figure Alex Murdaugh, whose addiction spiraled into a web of deceit, fraud, and murder.
• The heartbreaking story of Michael and Robert Bever, brothers driven to commit unspeakable acts due to a lifetime of torment inflicted by their own parents.
• The macabre case of Heather Mack and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, who were entangled in a web of greed and trust funds leading to a gruesome discovery inside a suitcase.
• The shocking crimes committed by Lyle and Erik Menendez, whose privileged lives culminated in the massacre of their own parents, forever shocking the nation.
• The accused Victorian-era serial poisoner, Mary Ann Cotton, and the mysterious deaths of her husbands and children.
• The troubled Florida teen Tyler Hadley and his wild house party that went on while his parents' bodies bled in the master bedroom.
• The bank vice-president-turned-embezzler Steven Sueppel, whose mounting debts compelled him to commit a desperate act of murder.
• And dozens of other intimate murders and webs of deceit!
  
  
  Murders committed to escape a marriage, or out of dire desperation, or from an insane separation from reality, these and other less comprehensible motivations fill the pages of Family, Friends and Neighbors. It’s an unflinching look into humanity’s dark side! Read the stories, investigate the facts, and meet the vicious killers who murder the people who should have been nearest and dearest to them.