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  Plantagenet Princesses - The...

  Douglas Boyd

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  A unique look at the lives of two daughters that highlights the dichotomy of lives of royal women, as both daughters and mothers of kings, who also knew both prison and power. 
   
   
   
  The names of few medieval monarchs and their queens are better known than Eleanor of Aquitaine, uniquely queen of France and queen of England, and her second husband Henry II. Although academically labeled "medieval," their era was the violent transition from the Dark Ages, when countries' borders were defined with fire and sword. If princes fought for their succession to crowns, the princesses were traded—usually by their mothers—to strangers for political power without the bloodshed. Years before what would today be marriageable age, royal girls were dispatched to countries whose speech was unknown to them and there became the property of unknown men. Eleanor's daughters Marie and Alix were abandoned in Paris when she divorced Louis VII of France. By Henry II, she bore Matilda, Aliénor, and Joanna. Joanna was imprisoned by William II of Sicily and worse treated by her brutal second husband in Toulouse. If Eleanor was libeled as a whore, Aliénor's descendants include two saints, Louis of France and Fernando of Spain. And then there were the illegitimate daughters, whose lives read like novels . . .

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  The Curse of Demagogues -...

  Eli Merritt

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  The Curse of Demagogues: Lessons Learned from the Presidency of Donald J. Trump is a collection of 32 essays by 22 writers that make the case that the pathway back to a healthy American democracy is for citizens to understand demagogues and defend against them. 
  More than any other book in print, The Curse of Demagogues makes the story of Donald Trump's rise to the White House coherent and understandable. Trump, a demagogue, gained ascendancy in a laissez-faire political culture wherein neither the Republican Party nor the other gatekeepers of democracy, including the news media, effectively counteracted him. Once in the highest office in the land, Trump devolved into authoritarianism in order to retain power, as demagogues are well-known to do. 
  The book has three overarching aims. First, it constitutes a short history of Trump's years in the White House (and his first two campaigns for president) as told from the perspective of scholars, journalists, and legal experts who specifically warned the public about his dangers as a demagogue in real time. Second, the collection is a detailed primer on demagogues and the multifarious ways they poison the vital organs of constitutional democracy. Third, the book is an urgent call to restore gatekeepers to their essential role as defenders of democracy against demagogues. 
  To revivify our once great democracy, we must defend it against demagogues by strengthening gatekeeping systems within political parties, the media, and the US Congress (powers of impeachment, conviction, and disqualification from future office), and through vigorous civics, ethics, and media literacy education for grades K-12.  
  As Eli Merritt, editor and contributor, writes in the book's introduction: 
  "The enemy of democracy is not a Democrat or Republican. It is a demagogue." 
  ©2022 Eli Merritt (P)2023 Peter Lerman

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  WINGS OF VALOUR - True Stories...

  Swapnil Pandey

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  After travelling across various airbases in India and engaging with Air Force personnel-including the first generation of Chinook or Prachand helicopter pilots, Garud Commandos, surface-to-air missile operatives and Kargil heroes-Swapnil Pandey presents a collection of true stories that are more awe-inspiring than fiction.  
  What does it take for an ordinary man to withstand torture for the sake of his nation-and live to tell the tale? What occurred in the last moments of the daring fighter pilots who attained martyrdom even as they paved the way to victory? What goes into the workings of India's finest fighter jets? In these pages, you will find the answers to these questions and more.  
  From the story of the first airman to receive the nation's highest peacetime gallantry award for ground combat to heroic rescue operations and death-defying wartime feats, Wings of Valour brings you exclusive insights and thrilling accounts of bravery from the Indian Air Force.

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  Futureproof - How to Live for...

  Stephen McAlpine

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  How the gospel equips Christians to live confidently for Christ in an increasingly secular society, facing the challenges of the future with confidence.  We are living in a time of rapid cultural change, when Christian views are often seen as outdated and even dangerous. This can leave us feeling anxious about how to live out what we believe and uncertain about the future of the church.  Steve McAlpine’s first book, Being the Bad Guys, sought to explain how our culture ended up so far away from biblical Christianity and how to reach out with the gospel wisely. In this book, he explores where things are heading and what we can do about that now, both as individuals and as a church.  Steve examines secular narratives about purpose and authenticity, connectedness and progress, and compares them to the promises made by the Bible. He shows that the Bible offers a more satisfying, more realistic, and more hopeful vision of the future.  He also examines the things that cause many Christians and non-Christians to be anxious about the future: technological change, political polarization, clashes over climate, and culture wars around gender and identity. He reminds readers that God is in control and helps them to think through how they can live wholeheartedly for Christ, facing the challenges of the future with confidence and leading the way in terms of citizenship, stewardship, and community.  Stephen McAlpine is the Director for Cultural Engagement at City to City Australia. A former pastor, he now writes and speaks on theology, church, and culture.

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  Human Being

  Ashkan Tashvir

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  What if you could dive deeply within and understand why you interpret the world the way you do and behave a certain way in different situations? What if you could see, with vivid clarity, the unpolished aspects of someone’s character when making critical decisions involving them? Imagine the difference this would make when choosing your life partner, business partner, next employee, future employer or governing leaders. 
  In HUMAN BEING – illuminating the reality beneath the facade, Ashkan Tashvir supports you to adopt an ontological (‘let’s get real’) approach to understanding human beings – yourself and others. It follows his best-selling book, BEING, in which he deeply examines a radical paradigm he engineered after a decade of intensive studies called the Being Framework™ and the philosophy behind it. Explored in this book in a clear, tangible way, the Being Framework zooms in on, breaks down and articulates the qualities behind and drivers of our decisions, behaviours and actions. 
  Whether you are building a career, a startup, a family, a relationship or an organisation, this book provides you with the tools to identify and transform the elusive root causes behind the blockages holding you back and gives you a lens to observe the same in others. Ultimately, it supports you to prioritise your intentions, express your authentic self, enjoy successful relationships and lead a life of influence, well-being and fulfilment. Discover how to see through your and others’ Being by decoding the fundamental qualities that influence our behaviours and decisions and drive our results.

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  Simplicity Comes Into Being When...

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

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  Simplicity comes into being when there is freedom from the desire to achieve 
  • One who is sincere can never be simple because he who is trying to be sincere always has the desire to pattern or approximate himself to an idea. 
  • Self-knowledge can be discovered more fully, deeply, widely, only when there is passive awareness, which is not the exertion of will. 
  • In the search for self-knowledge we get caught in self-consciousness. Being caught we make the thing in which one is caught the most important thing. 
  • To go beyond self-consciousness there must be freedom from the desire to achieve a result, because the achievement of a result is what the mind wants. 
  • Q: Would you please explain what you mean by dying daily? 
  • Q: How does a truth when repeated become a lie? What really is a lie? 
  • Q: I think I can help, but whatever I say or do to another is interpreted as interference and as domineering. Why does this happen to me? 
  • Q: What is aloneness? Is it a mystical state?

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