In 1984 journalist Peregrine Hodson crossed the Pakistan border into Afghanistan with rebel mujahedin smuggling arms and ammunition, beginning a thousand-mile journey through the war-torn nation. Fluent in Farsi, he was able to observe the war with stunning intimacy and eloquently capture the essence of the Afghan people and their culture. As the travelers survived bombings by Soviet aircraft, an ambush by a rival faction, and becoming swept up in a major offensive, Hodson would come to gain a unique perspective on their hopes for peace and religious devotion. Bringing together travel writing, war reportage, and history, this is a richly rendered portrait of a complex people. "Gripping and moving ... [a] powerful account of a war that has often been described as 'forgotten.'" -- Gail Pool, The Christian Science Monitor "Will long remain the most vivid account of a strange and horrible wrong." -- Ahmed Rashid, The Independent (London) "Vivid and intriguing." -- Jonathan Kirsch, -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

Going beyond the stereotypes of Kalashnikov-wielding Afghan mujahideen and the black-turbaned fundamentalists, Larry Goodson combines Taliban interviews and fiedl research with concise analysis to explain what has been happening in Afghanistan in the last 20 years and why the future of Afghanistan matters.

When Paula returns from her quiet boarding school, she must learn anew to cope with a home that includes five rambunctious brothers, two eccentric aunts, bibliophile uncle, old Babbett, and energetic Mama. With Paula trying to adapt herself to new responsibilities and a new adult world, her brothers find plenty of fun and trouble-involving naval battles in flooded basements, gypsies and brushes with thin ice. Then everything is overshadowed by the Prussian takeover. Paula and her brothers must make firm choices about growing up in this story of an eventful year.

The book is devoted to the study of ornaments of one of the brightest cultures of the Eneolithic territories of Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. The study proposes the study of ornamentalistics in synchrony and diachrony in terms of semiotics, which in turn allowed to obtain new data on the functioning of ornamentation of hand-drawn dishes of Trypillia-Cucuteni. The book is aimed at specialists in the field of semiotics, cultural studies, history, and the general reading public.

Ming and Kristi investigate the story behind a strange tree that even bulldozers and fire have been unable to destroy.

Deriving its title from the black-covered notebooks which were used in its formative composition, this title brings John O'Loughlin's metaphysical philosophy to its logical conclusion, and is therefore probably the most logically comprehensive of all his works to-date, drawing the various strands of his Social Theocratic philosophy together and presenting it in the uniquely aphoristic style which allows for both formal sequences of related ideas (maxims) and for a more informal presentation of material (aphorisms) that is almost essay-like in its relatively discursive character. That said, the material overall is carefully interwoven and taken well beyond the notebook stage of its inception, so that one can feel confident this is no mere off-the-cuff project but the fruit of meticulous composition which should stand O'Loughlin's philosophy in good stead, as well as add a crucial dimension to it which would not have been possible in the past but which here comes to light in terms of how a basic antithesis, namely that between energy and gravity, plays-out in a number of different or seemingly unrelated contexts in relation to what the author holds to be its gender-conditioned genesis. Some of the material, one should add, has already been published in two previous titles, viz. Stations of the Supercross and Supercrossed, but much of it has been reworked and revised here with the incorporation of some previously omitted content, while much additional original material has also been included to give this project its unique character and justify its publication as, in overall terms, a less formal if not looser version of what might seem to some readers the too formal nature of, in particular, Supercrossed, with its plethora of hyphenated phrases. Therefore this should prove an easier though still far from uncomplicated book to read. - A Centretruths Editorial.

Those familiar with John O'Loughlin's work, particularly with his writings of the past few years, will know that he likes to combine philosophy, or a logically structured way of writing derived from years of abstract thought, with other approaches to text, including autobiographical, psychological, poetical (to a degree), historical, political, religious, and analytical, so that the results, sometimes confusing, are rarely predictable, but can take you by surprise, as when you pass from an autobiographical sketch or a political observation straight into an intensely analytical or philosophical section, though usually not without some forewarning or a lacuna of some sort in the layout of the text. So it is here, in this remarkable collection of structured aphorisms and maxims and what might appear to be essays but are, in fact, aphorisms of a more discursive nature within a title-shunning format that eschews paragraphs in keeping with its aphoristic bias – rather Nietzschean in a way – that he long ago identified with the concept of 'supernotes', or notes that have been copied from a notebook and reworked and refined and expanded upon until they resemble short essays, without, however, conceding much else to essayistic tradition. In such a mainly metaphysical fashion John O'Loughlin has consistently advanced the theoretical breadth and depth of his work, derived, naturally, from habitual thought processes, and the results should speak confidently and credibly enough for themselves without our having to say very much about them, other, of course, than that they continue in the vein to which we have become accustomed the struggle for truth, or philosophical credibility and metaphysical insight, and have continued the process to a new and hopefully final level or stage of completion which it would be difficult if not impossible for him or, for that matter, anyone else to reasonably surpass, bearing in mind the complexities that so exactingly comprehensive an approach to logic as he has fathered both here and in the past inevitably entail. So maybe the job, or task, which this author humbly and somewhat naively set himself over four decades ago, is now completed, and with such a degree of structural credibility that he has even been able to bend the rules and invent one or two new words and new ways of thinking about old words or subjects or categories that, frankly, should stand up to scrutiny and any amount of analytical attention. But, of course, a book of his is an adventure, never quite knowing where it is going or where, eventually, it will get to, and this one is no exception, since the sheer eclecticism of John O'Loughlin's writings makes it difficult to nail it down to a specific title, even if the subtitle he has chosen, viz. 'Attraction and Reaction in Gender Perspective', is certainly quite well-represented in the text, albeit by degrees and not at all at the beginning. Evidently a number of other specific titles came to mind, but none of them would have adequately represented anything but a fraction of the overall text, and so, in the end, he wisely and, we think, correctly opted for a title that would be both sufficiently abstract and sufficiently ambiguous (for it actually is, if you ponder it for a moment) as to do general justice to a style of writing that refuses to follow the usual linear patterns of composition of the 'straight press', including essayists, but gives you so many strands of thought to follow or think about that no single strand, be it philosophical or autobiographical or anything else, could possibly do justice to the entirety of the text, which, as intimated above, is of an intensely eclectic character. That is how he writes, how he prefers to write, and we make no apologies. You can take it or leave it. But those who persevere with his work – and not only here but in previous books – will, if they are sufficiently intelligent and of the right turn-of-mind, be rewarded to a degree that few other books, we venture to assert, would reward them, since few other authors could possibly claim to have achieved as much or to have brought their philosophy to such a conclusively logical pass, and you would have to be a fool or scoundrel not to see that or profit from it!

Every sense is tingling. Strange symbols loom out of the darkness, and incantations whisper through the air. It's cold and quiet, so why don't you feel completely alone? Welcome to The Museum of Witchcraft, a collection of 100 artefacts where a history of secret wisdom, female power and occult objects comes to life. Wander through its pages to discover why cooking is magic, which trees are most enchanted, how to create an amulet, where to find a witch mark and why bad weather could have you burned at the stake. With each page a beautiful display cabinet containing esoteric illustration and authoritative text, it's time to discover the shadowy world of witches.

The latest instalment of the Tom Swan adventures - the fast-paced serialised novel set in the turbulent Europe of the fifteenth century.

What if you were a kid that had a powerful enemy who never lets you alone? What if that enemy was your own big sister, and all you wanted was for her to be your friend? Shoshi OMalley is a kid just like this. Her life is hell. She feels totally alone. The family housekeeper, her beloved Signora Pagani, uses her powers (yes, she is a witch) to grow giant vegetables in her garden, but she is unable to protect her young charge, her little Principessa. That is until another supernatural being becomes involved. Everybody has had enough, it seems, of Kelly OMalleys awful behavior and of Shoshi OMalleys terrible, nerve-shredding scream. It is the day of her ninth birthday, and everything is about to change. Someone nearby is waiting for an invitation to help. Someone lying in a dusty heap in the back shed is woken by the local bush fairies, who are fed up with the noise and strife. It is the night of the full moon. It is a time when the magic in the land stirs and wakens. It is a time when Salladin Q. Sack, a magnificent flying carpet of Fabled Faroffistan, a magical carpet who has been turned into a jute burlap sack, rises from the dust and flies on missions to help anyone in distress. Shoshis magic sack is to become an indispensable ally in triumphing over her sisters malice. Incredible adventures with the creatures of the bush and the sea await Shoshi. Other supernatural beings, such as a mysterious python and a rat under an enchantment, will join her on her adventures. Magical powers are acquired, lessons are learned, and confidence is gained. After one last terrible, thrilling, and enlightening journey with the sack, Shoshi has at last come into her own, and everyone has been transformed.