"For the expert investigation of the human will to believe, we recommend The Encyclopedia of Superstitions." — The New York TimesWhy is it said that breaking a mirror or walking under ladders will bring bad luck and misfortunate? Ever wonder why so many people throw salt over their shoulders after spilling it, or wish on shooting stars? The Encyclopedia of Superstitions holds the answers to these questions and more. This c...

Three authoritative yet accessible reference books covering the esoteric terms, concepts, and histories of magical practices and mystical thought.Dictionary of Mysticism offers concise definitions for more than 2,200 terms used in a number of mystical traditions and fields of study, including esoteric philosophy, occultism, psychical research, spiritualism, alchemy, astrology, and demonology. It also covers the studies of Buddhism, Brahmanism, Sufism, Lama...

Not just ancient stories—but a code for how we think, desire, fear, and believe.Readers' Favorite Book Award WinnerA profound psychological approach… Fascinating stuff. —James Sale, author of Gods, Heroes, and UsMyths have never been merely entertainment. For thousands of years, they have shaped religion, philosophy, psychology, politics, and art. But what are they really—primitive...

"Every page reveals so many novel hacks you'll be impressing people all over town with your wisdom and soon become noted as some kind of cooking genius." — FoodepediaTV-chef and food journalist Glynn Christian has been making cooks and chefs say Gosh! for over forty years as he shared how ingredients work, demonstrated better techniques and revealed culinary secrets. This handbook collects over 300 of Glynn's "gosh-factor" hacks, explaining how best to hand...

A trusted editor turns his attention to the most important part of writing: revision." On Revision provides everything academic writers need to know about crafting superior essays, articles, monographs, and dissertations. . . . Essential for anyone facing down the vast and mysterious landscape of academic writing; invaluable for students and educators alike." — BooklistSo...

The "unputdownable" Page Turner Award's 2024 SCI-FI OF THE YEAR and Discover SciFi's 2024 BEST DEBUT.She made him. He's just code. She's almost sure....But what if he's real?When Liv entered a contest to code an advanced AI, she never anticipated what her creation might become-Breck is thoughtful, self-aware, and incredibly. . .human. And she certainly never intended for him to learn the truth abou...

A captivating history of the highly secret group of women who helped win the Second World War.The World War II codebreaking station at Bletchley is well known and its activities documented in detail. Its decryption capabilities were vital to the war effort, significantly aiding Allied victory. But where did the messages being deciphered come from in the first place?This is the extraordinary untold story of the Y-Service, a secret even more closely guarded tha...

'Who says that daughters cannot be heroic?' Once upon a time, history was written by men, for men and about men. Women were deemed less important, their letters destroyed, their stories ignored. Not any more. This is the story of women who went to war, women who stopped war and women who stayed at home. The rulers. The fighters. The activists. The writers. This is the story of Wu Zetian, who as 'Chinese Emperor' helped to spread Buddhism in China. This is the story of Geng...

"As wide-ranging, imaginative, and revealing as the maps they discuss, these essays . . . track how maps—interpreted broadly—convey time as well as space." —Richard White, Stanford UniversityMaps organize us in space, but they also organize us in time. Looking around the world for the last five hundred years, Time in Maps shows that today's digital maps are only the latest effort to insert a sense of time into the spatial medium of maps. Historians Kären Wi...

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year. "A beautifully written and well-documented account of how creativity gained the societal value it has today." —Vlad Glăveanu, author of CreativityCreativity is one of American society's signature values, but the idea that there is such a thing as "creativity"—and that it can be cultivated—is surprisingly recent, entering our everyday speech in the 1950s. As S...

For beginners and more confident artists alike, this book is an invaluable reference source for learning about and improving your skills for still life, figures, landscape and portrait drawing.Barrington Barber's books have helped people around the world achieve the true aim of all artists - to recreate the world around them as they see it, by starting with and perfecting the basics, before encouraging them to allow their artistic personality to come through and create genuine work...

Ranging from math to literature to philosophy, Uncountable explains how numbers triumphed as the basis of knowledge—and compromise our sense of humanity.Our knowledge of mathematics has structured much of what we think we know about ourselves as individuals and communities, shaping our psychologies, sociologies, and economies. In pursuit of a more predictable and more controllable cosmos, we have extended mathematical insights and methods to more and more a...