Author: Dan Jones
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143108964
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
An instant New York Times bestseller, from the author of Crusaders, that finally tells the real story of the Knights Templar—“Seldom does one find serious scholarship so easy to read.” (The Times, Book of the Year) A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity's holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies... In 1119, a small band of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade set up a new religious order in Jerusalem, which was now in Christian hands. These were the first Knights Templar, elite warriors who swore vows of poverty and chastity and promised to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next 200 years, the Templars would become the most powerful network of the medieval world, speerheading the crusades, pionerring new forms of finance and warfare and deciding the fate of kings. Then, on October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured and the order was disbanded among lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources to bring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, to life in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

Author: Dana Thomas
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101617950
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
More than two decades ago, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen arrived on the fashions scene when the business was in an artistic and economic rut. Both wanted to revolutionize fashion in a way no one had in decades. They shook the establishment out of its bourgeois, minimalist stupor with daring, sexy designs. They turned out landmark collections in mesmerizing, theatrical shows that retailers and critics still gush about and designers continue to reference. Their approach to fashion was wildly different—Galliano began as an illustrator, McQueen as a Savile Row tailor. Galliano led the way with his sensual bias-cut gowns and his voluptuous hourglass tailoring, which he presented in romantic storybook-like settings. McQueen, though nearly ten years younger than Galliano, was a brilliant technician and a visionary artist who brought a new reality to fashion, as well as an otherworldly beauty. For his first official collection at the tender age of twenty-three, McQueen did what few in fashion ever achieve: he invented a new silhouette, the Bumster. They had similar backgrounds: sensitive, shy gay men raised in tough London neighborhoods, their love of fashion nurtured by their doting mothers. Both struggled to get their businesses off the ground, despite early critical success. But by 1997, each had landed a job as creative director for couture houses owned by French tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH. Galliano’s and McQueen’s work for Dior and Givenchy and beyond not only influenced fashion; their distinct styles were also reflected across the media landscape. With their help, luxury fashion evolved from a clutch of small, family-owned businesses into a $280 billion-a-year global corporate industry. Executives pushed the designers to meet increasingly rapid deadlines. For both Galliano and McQueen, the pace was unsustainable. In 2010, McQueen took his own life three weeks before his womens' wear show. The same week that Galliano was fired, Forbes named Arnault the fourth richest man in the world. Two months later, Kate Middleton wore a McQueen wedding gown, instantly making the house the world’s most famous fashion brand, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a wildly successful McQueen retrospective, cosponsored by the corporate owners of the McQueen brand. The corporations had won and the artists had lost. In her groundbreaking work Gods and Kings, acclaimed journalist Dana Thomas tells the true story of McQueen and Galliano. In so doing, she reveals the revolution in high fashion in the last two decades—and the price it demanded of the very ones who saved it.

Author: Anton Gill
Publisher: Quercus Books
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
"Nebuchadnezzar: military genius, law-giver, architect of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and ruler of marvelous Babylon, city of 200,000 souls girded by 18 kilometres of walls so wide two four-horse chariots were said to be able to pass side-by-side; or 'destroyer of nations', the vilified despoiler of Judea ultimately driven mad by the Lord's vengeance? Two very different portraits exist for Babylon's greatest ruler. Wherein lies the truth? Nebuchadnezzar's reign (c630-562 BC) represents the last and perhaps greatest flowering of a culture that had endured for three millennia. His capital, Babylon, home of the famous Hanging Gardens, was a wonder of the ancient world in itself, but nothing remains today of the city except a scattering of dusty mounds, Nebuchadnezzar's deeds have been obscured by time, and popular history has failed to engage this most fascinating of rulers. Anton Gill's new book charts not only Nebuchadnezzar's rise to power, his hand in the downfall of the Assyrian Empire, his campaigns and his architectural transformation of Babylon, but also explores the deeper history of Fertile Crescent and explains why, for all its apparent majesty, Babylon was to fall to Cyrus the Persian only 13 years after Nebuchadnezzar's death."--Publisher description

Author: Rasmus Berggreen
Publisher: MOOD Aps
ISBN: 8799817624
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
A uniquely realised illustrated novel, Fall of Gods brings the legacy of the Norse mythology to life in a new and breathtaking way. The gods have long ago vanished. In their place, two rivaling races now inhabit Midgard; humans and jotnar. Fifteen years ago, a coalition of chieftains drove the jotnar race from Midgard. Now, from each side of the border, humans and jotnar eye each other with hatred and suspicion. When his wife, the estranged daughter of one of Midgard’s most powerful chieftains, is mysteriously kidnapped, a retired warrior takes up the hatchet and sets out to rescue her. But he risks unleashing the wild demon buried deep within him and losing his soul in the process. His journey will bring him into conflict with terrible forces as a cynical plot is revealed and the dark mythological past of the North begins to awaken once more.

Author: Yussouf Shaheen
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1448629675
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
For the first time, "mythology - gods and goddesses" have been brought together into the fold of "history." It is entirely a new academic research work, inviting universities and colleges worldwide to read the book. The book "Rise and Fall of gods" revolves around all the major gods and goddesses, then worshipped by our forefathers. One need not ignore the fact that the people since times immemorial have been worshipping their gods and goddesses in just the same way as we do ours. It had been the conviction of our forefathers that they were on the right path, as we consider ourselves to be now. They provided authoritative accounts of their faith, as well as of their gods and goddesses. Neither they had any proof to fully support their claims, nor do we really have such proof now. The religions of the past had a vital role in our history. We can find the roots of our cultures, laws and the traditions in these expired religions.

Author: Trip Lee
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 0529121093
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Society says youth is a time for carefree self-expression, but Trip Lee says God has called everyone to RISE from slumber, above low expectations, and to live for the risen King. The world tells us that our early years are to be irresponsibly enjoyed rather than devoted to meaningful pursuits. We’re told that responsibility and commitment are burdens to be put off as long as possible. And so, most of us spend our youth in a sad state of slumber—sleeping in on life until we’re forced to get up. The problem is that life has already begun. It’s happening right now. And God has called you to live it. In this powerful book, Trip Lee argues it’s time to wake up and RISE, to live the way we were created to live. Young or old, we’ve been called to live for Him. Right now. Young believers face the same problems as older Christians, but they feel them in unique ways. RISE addresses those core problems in an engaging, profound, and life-changing way. Don't just sit there: RISE!

Author: Stephen Greenblatt
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448182611
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Book Description
Selected as a book of the year 2017 by The Times and Sunday Times What is it about Adam and Eve’s story that fascinates us? What does it tell us about how our species lives, dies, works or has sex? The mythic tale of Adam and Eve has shaped conceptions of human origins and destiny for centuries. Stemming from a few verses in an ancient book, it became not just the foundation of three major world faiths, but has evolved through art, philosophy and science to serve as the mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole, long history of our fears and desires. In a quest that begins at the dawn of time, Stephen Greenblatt takes us from ancient Babylonia to the forests of east Africa. We meet evolutionary biologists and fossilised ancestors; we grapple with morality and marriage in Milton’s Paradise Lost; and we decide if the Fall is the unvarnished truth or fictional allegory.

Author: Dyrk Ashton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780997173789
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Book 1 of the completed Paternus Trilogy Even myths have legends. Described as American Gods meets The Avengers and Supernatural meets The Lord of the Rings, Paternus combines myths from around the world in a modern story of action and intrigue that is "urban fantasy on the surface, but so much more at its core!" "Terrific! Paternus is intelligent, intricate, suspenseful, and epic." -Nicholas Eames, Gemmell Award winning author of Kings of the Wyld and Bloody Rose "Ashton's story is a crucible in which myths are melted and remade to thrilling effect." -M. R. (Mike) Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts and the Felix Castor series And not all legends are myth. When a local hospital is attacked by strange and frightening men, Fiona Patterson and Zeke Prisco save a catatonic old man named Peter-and find themselves running for their lives with creatures beyond imagination hounding their every step. With nowhere else to turn, they seek out Fi's enigmatic Uncle Edgar. But the more their questions are answered, the more they discover that nothing is what it seems-not Peter, not Edgar, perhaps not even themselves. The gods and monsters, heroes and villains of lore-they're real. And now they've come out of hiding to hunt their own. In order to survive, Fi and Zeke must join up with powerful allies against an ancient evil that's been known by many names and feared by all. The final battle of the world's oldest war has begun. ***** Genre: Contemporary Fantasy / Urban Fantasy / Mythic Fiction. Market: Adult to New Adult (as opposed to Teen or YA, though savvy 16 or 17 year olds might survive without permanent damage).

Author: Toby Wilkinson
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0553384902
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Magisterial . . . [A] rich portrait of ancient Egypt’s complex evolution over the course of three millenniums.”—Los Angeles Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Publishers Weekly In this landmark volume, one of the world’s most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its absorption into the Roman Empire. Drawing upon forty years of archaeological research, award-winning scholar Toby Wilkinson takes us inside a tribal society with a pre-monetary economy and decadent, divine kings who ruled with all-too-recognizable human emotions. Here are the legendary leaders: Akhenaten, the “heretic king,” who with his wife Nefertiti brought about a revolution with a bold new religion; Tutankhamun, whose dazzling tomb would remain hidden for three millennia; and eleven pharaohs called Ramesses, the last of whom presided over the militarism, lawlessness, and corruption that caused a political and societal decline. Filled with new information and unique interpretations, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt is a riveting and revelatory work of wild drama, bold spectacle, unforgettable characters, and sweeping history. “With a literary flair and a sense for a story well told, Mr. Wilkinson offers a highly readable, factually up-to-date account.”—The Wall Street Journal “[Wilkinson] writes with considerable verve. . . . [He] is nimble at conveying the sumptuous pageantry and cultural sophistication of pharaonic Egypt.”—The New York Times

Author: Poul Anderson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
ISBN: 0312870671
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The story of the great King Hadding is one of the darkest and most violent to come down to us from the old North. Hadding was raised by giants far from his rightful throng, as his father, a Danish King, was slain shortly after Hadding's birth. But the times comes when Hadding feels he must reclaim his legitimate place in the land of the old North. He must endure ferocious battles, the charms of voluptuous Valkyries, and a War of the Gods to rival Armageddon.