A trenchant analysis of sacrifice as the foundation of the modern, as well as the ancient, social order The modern conception of sacrifice is at once cast as a victory of self-discipline over desire and condescended to as destructive and archaic abnegation. But even in the Old Testament, the dual natures of sacrifice, embodying both ritual slaughter and moral rectitude, were at odds. In this analysis, Terry Eagleton makes a compelling argument that...

Presents George Eliot's 1862 novel about Romola, a woman who, having grown up subservient to her scholar-father, and endured an unhappy marriage, has a passionate intellectual and spiritual awakening in Renaissance Florence.

"One boy's parents travel from far-off lands to improve their son's life. But what happens next is unexpected. What does it mean when your parents are different? With humor and pathos, Sworder reflects on the strange nature of giving and receiving love and celebrates those parents who embrace a hard life for themselves in the hope of a better life for their children"--

It is a time of trouble in the Northern Kingdoms because a group of power-hungry polar bears called Roguers has been snatching cubs from their mothers and killing those who resist; but Svenna is not about to relinquish her two cubs to that fate, so she agrees to go with the Roguers and serve Mystress of the Hands if her cubs, who have special powers, are allowed to stay with her cousin--but nobody is truly safe when a way of life is collapsing around...

A long, long time ago, a baby Spinosaurus was looking for red berries near the ocean. Just when a hungry Tyrannosaurus spots him and decides to pounce, an earthquake hits and the land where they stand cracks and washes away to the middle of the ocean. While they are living together on the tiny island, the Tyrannosaurus learns that the baby Spinosaurus needs the red berries for his sick mother, and it touches his heart. One day another big earthquake...