If somebody had told me, I would not have believed it. If somebody had told me, I would not have believed it. Who could have told me that a last-minute trip could end up becoming my greatest adventure, and that thanks to that trip I would be able to save the life of the person who would later be my wife for thirty happy years? My memory sometimes plays tricks on me and I find it difficult to remember places or dates. That is why I am going to tell the facts as accurately as possible, so that this text serves me as a diary. In my life, as I suppose in everybody’s, I have had many good and happy moments and also difficult and sad ones, but none as prominent as what happened to me that week, that shaped so much my way of thinking, and my future. Translator: Eduardo Jiménez López PUBLISHER: TEKTIME

Most writing is done under pressure. An executive has to produce a three-page position paper by tomorrow at nine. A department head suddenly has to write a one-page action memo by noon. A graduate student has a twenty-page research paper due in a week. Yet, while most students and professionals write under pressure--with limited time, limited space, and a supervisor or instructor to please--few approach the task systematically. In Writing Under Pressure, Sanford Kaye, a renowned expert on the subject, presents a system he calls the Quick Writing Process (QWP) that focuses on real-world writing tasks and demonstrates how to produce the clearest, most honest, most powerful work possible under the constraints of time and space. A writing instructor with twenty-five years' experience teaching students and professionals in business and government, Kaye tells writers how to budget their time and how to use this time efficiently. Exploring particular writing situations in which QWP can be applied to make the most of what the writer knows, Kaye discusses the process of taking exams, focusing on how instructors select questions and evaluate essays. He also considers writing in business and government, featuring an insightful analysis of a memo written by Colonel Oliver North. This memo highlights one of the most important issues writers in business and government face: whether to write the truth as they see it or simply what their bosses want to hear. Presenting a wealth of such examples, Kaye reveals how to break through stifling organizational codes in order to write memos and position papers that count. While most guides to writing ignore the constraints of time and space, Writing Under Pressure tackles these problems head on, making it an essential reference for students, business professionals, government officials, or anyone else faced with a difficult writing assignment that has to be done now.

The author of Hidden History offers a fascinating tour through centuries of buried riches, stolen artifacts, and other true tales of treasure. The allure of treasure has captivated people for centuries. But is it purely a desire for wealth that draws us to tales of hidden riches, or is it also the romantic appeal of uncovering lost ancient artifacts? The stories behind the loss and recovery of ancient treasures often read like historical suspense fiction. In Ancient Treasures, readers discover the true histories of lost hoards, looted archaeological artifacts, and sunken treasures, including: The Sevso Treasure, a hoard of large silver vessels from the late Roman Empire—estimated to be worth $200 million—looted in the 1970s and sold on the black market. The Amber Room, a chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and brought to the castle at Königsberg in Russia, from which it disappeared. The fabulous wealth of Roman and Viking hoards buried in the ground for safekeeping, only to be unearthed centuries later by humble metal detectorists. The wrecks of the Spanish treasure fleets, whose New World plunder has been the target of elaborate salvage attempts by modern treasure hunters

The Manichaeans of the Roman East is the first monograph that synthesizes an enormous body of primary material to reconstruct the history of East-Roman Manichaeans, from the time their first missionaries arrived in the territory of the Roman East until the disappearance of Manichaeism from the Eastern Roman Empire. Through her systematically comparative and intertextual investigation of the sources, Matsangou provides a number of original approaches to issues such as the classification of Manichaeism, the socio-religious profile and lifestyle of East Roman Manichaeans, the triggers of the severe anti-Manichaean persecutions. She thoroughly analyses the relationship between Manichaean and Christian ascetics for the first time, suggesting a possible Manichaean impact on the rise of ascetic manifestations among Christian ascetics, monks, and individuals in society. By considering the dimensions of the phenomenon of crypto-Manichaeism and using the concept of “entryism”—borrowed from politics—as a theoretical model, Matsangou makes intriguing hypotheses suggesting an alternative explanation for the disappearance of Manichaeism from the Roman East.

This book breaks new ground by suggesting that liturgy is the means par excellence by which an experience of beauty is communicated. Drawing from both secular and religious understandings, in particular the mystical and apophatic tradition, the book demonstrates how liturgy has the potential to achieve the one ultimately reliable form of beauty because its embodied components are able to reflect the disturbing beauty of the One to whom worship is always offered. Such components rely on understanding the aesthetic dynamics upon which liturgy relies.

This special 16-book bundle collects fearless investigations into the paranormal from the pens of Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, who for several decades been researching and writing about ancient and eternal mysteries. Their entertaining and thought-provoking works span numerous topics, from numerology, freemasonry, voodoo, satanism and witchcraft to the very nature of death and time. Additionally, they have produced numerous volumes examining the great unexplained mysteries and places of history, including The Bible, European castles, strange murders, arcane objects of power, the mysterious depths of the sea and remarkable people. Take a strange and beautiful trip to the mystical side of life in this special set! Includes Death Mysteries and Secrets of Numerology Mysteries and Secrets of the Masons Mysteries and Secrets of the Templars Mysteries and Secrets of Time Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah Satanism and Demonology Secrets of the World’s Undiscovered Treasures The Big Book of Mysteries The Oak Island Mystery The World’s Greatest Unsolved Mysteries The World’s Most Mysterious Castles The World’s Most Mysterious Murders The World’s Most Mysterious Objects The World’s Most Mysterious People Unsolved Mysteries of the Sea