Lionel Essrog has always respected Frank Minna, who helped him out when he was young, and when Frank is found dead, Lionel and his friends, the Minna Men, scour the streets of Brooklyn in search of the killer.

"It's 1970's Chicago. Eleven-year-old Matasha Wax is in the sixth grade and just starting to feel the pressures of growing up. Her best friend Jean has been blowing her off, while her parents are in a standoff over her mother's desire to adopt a refugee from Vietnam. And while the bullies in school have started to grow breasts and inches, Matasha remains a puny four-foot-four--which means she will need growth hormone shots, and she is terrified of needles. Apart from her daily reading of the advice columns in the newspaper, keeping up with the Patty Hearst and Watergate scandals, and tracking her parents' deteriorating marriage, Matasha is fixated by the story of Martin Kimmel, a nine-year-old boy who disappeared a few months ago, and whose body has yet to be found. But none of these ongoing problems could have prepared Matasha for her mother's sudden disappearance. When the letters start coming from Switzerland, she knows something is very, very wrong--but no one will tell her what's going on, so Matasha has to figure it all out for herself."--Page 4 of cover

The Mystery of Being contains the most systematic exposition of the philosophical thought of Gabriel Marcel, a convert to Catholicism and the most distinguished twentieth-century exponent of Christian existentialism. Its two volumes are the Gifford lectures which Marcel delivered in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1949 and 1950. Marcel's work fundamentally challenges most of the major positions of the atheistic existentialists (Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus), especially their belief in an absurd, meaningless, godless universe. These volumes deal with almost all of the major themes of Marcel's thought: the nature of philosophy, our broken world, man's deep ontological need for being, i.e., for permanent eternal values, our incarnate bodily existence, primary and secondary reflection, participation, being in situation, the identity of the human self, intersubjectivity, mystery and problem, faith, hope, and the reality of God, and immortality.

"There is a huge amount of academic 19th century literature relating to sacred sexuality. However, there are not many books which cover this subject matter for the general reader: this book is one of the few. Goldberg approaches the culturally sensitive issue of the intersection of religion and sex frankly and in some depth. That said, this work has a few problems which need to be kept in mind while reading it. There is not much in the way of apparatus aside from a bibliography: not even the Bible quotes are attributed. Goldberg also invents a number of descriptive passages, particularly in the second section. While these go a long way towards dimensionalizing this material, they include a number of purely speculative details which are not identified as such. Perhaps the best part of this book is the discussion of the evolution of the attitude towards sexuality in Christianity. Goldberg also describes a number of little-known curious cults such as the Russian Skopzi, the mediaeval flagellants, and others. Long out of print, but available used, this book serves as a useful introduction to the subject and sheds light on some little known corners of the subject of sacred sexuality." (Quote from sacred-texts.com) Table of Contents Publisher's Preface; The Erotic Motive In Primitive Religion; Far Away And Long Ago; Primitive Man In Love And Faith; In The Foundry Of The Gods; The Spirit Of Love In God And Man; Love's Hidden Ways; In The Temple Of The Gods; A Day With Baal; A Night With Aphrodite; At A Dionysian Mystery; Twilight With Moloch; The Dance Of The Saktas; In The House Of The Lord; Prologue; Love In The Synagogue; Romance In The Church; Marriage In The Mosque; Longing In The Dark; The Spirit Of Revolt In Religion; Rebels In The Faith; Love The Force Of Rebellion; The Revolt Against Religion; The Revolt Against God; The Revolt A