He thought of his wife and son. At this hour, they would be asleep, blissfully unaware of the ghastly events that were playing out on the Aegean. "We only have a small window of opportunity to get this job done before the night fishermen return to Mykonos and the morning fishermen go out. If they see us, they may become curious and ask what we are doing or worse still, inform the coast guard." Michael, an accounts executive from New York City, is devastated by the untimely death of his wife. His doctor recommends he takes a vacation. Michael travels to Greece, the ideal location to translate a nineteenth-century diary written by a French archaeologist, bought a few years prior at a book market in Paris. Unbeknown to him, the Aegean islands have recently experienced a horrific crime. During the theft of five ancient statues from the sacred island of Delos, fourteen archaeologists were murdered. With the help of Althea, a beautiful Greek lady from the island of Mykonos, Michael begins to translate the diary, but there are others who also have an interest in it. As a consortium of international agents carries out their investigation into the stolen statues, Michael finds himself an innocent participant, not only in their enthralling investigation but also in a kidnapping. It is a world that is foreign to him; a world fraught with intrigue and deception. "'In 1930 I was the Head Archaeologist on the sacred island of Delos'". Fabien stopped reading and looked at the Host. "I'm afraid this was where my grandfather started crying and rambling but I wrote down what he said as best I could. Shall I continue reading?" "Yes, do go on." "'We hid the treasure. Looking back, I know that what we did was wrong. Please tell the Greek authorities about the treasure and ask her citizens to forgive a greedy and dying old man.'"

Thoughts from a Damaged Mind is a poetic collection that narrates existentialism through the eyes of a unique and personal experience. With a familiar and relatable language, the poet describes a deep feeling of isolation and estrangement towards the societal norms through which people are bound to be considered sane, whole, and normal. As the poet interrogates himself on many questions - how should we live our lives? What is the meaning of happiness? - an inner dark and unwelcomed guest seems to take over every positive emotion. The unwelcomed guest is depression, an illness that is too often stigmatized and misunderstood to the point of being compared to lack of determination rather than accepted as a problem afflicting one's mental health. The poet accepts it and comes to terms with his condition, and thanks to family, friends, and doctors he can begin to demolish the walls of loneliness that surround him and start a path towards recovery.

A newly-formed Friulian Committee is firmly convinced that Shakespeare drew inspiration from the Trevisan marquises, da Camino, in the Middle Ages, to write one of his most famous tragedies, Hamlet. An apparent research supports this approach. That is why Guglielmo, a middle-aged Italian teacher, is called out to speak in person with Mr Brough, the medievalist author of the thesis, to meet his confirmation. He will be involved in a one-day, intricate mission down the narrow alleyways and glittering palaces of a midsummer London. Will Guglielmo succeed in his quest for the truth?

This is an account of a father's attempts to discover what has happened to his son, who disappeared in the Darien Gap Jungle in Panama, in Central America. Just how do you go about finding out what has happened to someone six thousand miles away in a Spanish-speaking country? At the start the father did not know for definite where how his son had disappeared, if he had had a companion or who that companion was, or if he had had a guide. The significant thing is that the search became a family affair (without divorce!), but then other people became involved - some complete strangers very generous and helpful, a genuine crook, and two largely incompetent detective agencies. After 9 months, it was resolved, free of any ransom demand, probably by direct contact with the guerrilla group, FARC, itself. When the two adventurers were released, the parents, Brian and Anne Winder, heard of ransom demands of $2.000,000 each which never reached them, and many situations where the two adventurers could easily have died, and their fate never be known.

Among the unsolved mysteries on Earth, there is the building of the Great Pyramid. Decoding its role and context has always been a big debate among scholars of different disciplines. Such an elaborate monument, according to tradition, was built by simple people. Nonetheless, with no other means but copper chisels and hammers, these simple people were able to quarry millions of blocks of rock, up to 70 tons in weight, and transport them for hundred of kilometers to be lifted for the desired design, with a maximum degree of accuracy. That's where the debate starts. The method of building the pyramid of Khufu remained unrecorded. Similarly, many other ancient cultures left behind works which prove to have been realized by making use of advanced technology. What happened to that technology is a big question. The author develops a deep analysis based upon measurements and mathematics, giving us the possibility to recollect modern data, comparing current knowledge to something that seems to be very accurate and more scientifical than official archaeology has lead us to believe.

Nature every day offers us gifts that we often do not know how to appreciate as we should, while half the planet was suspended this year nature gave us the opportunity to admire one of the most beautiful springs ever and this period of stop has given the full demonstration that man, after all, is not indispensable to nature, is simply a guest but it remains unthinkable to imagine the Earth without the human being.

A young Syrian refugee feels the urge to enter a church in Germany, overwhelmed by the notes of Handel's Messiah. An elderly German woman and her neighbour whom she barely knows, an Arab mother of four, hug each other when they discover they have more in common than they thought. A retired teacher reflects on her roots when she meets a Spanish student in the Bavarian countryside. A tour guide recalls the civil war that tore her beloved Ireland apart only a few decades earlier. What do these stories have in common? They are stories of everyday people who, for one reason or another, feel displaced, outsiders, strangers to their surroundings. But sometimes a chance encounter, a shared experience, or maybe the notes of a song, are all it takes to feel at home again, and then, the other does not seem so different from us anymore. With her delicate writing, Sheila Gutknecht explores the concepts of identity, belonging, and otherness.

A middle-aged man believes he is suffering from a mental health condition. Gilbert Martin can "see" things that others don't and predict the future with disturbing dreams and visions. Whilst on a school holiday to France during his teens, he meets a girl called Margaux on Chatelaillon-Plage. Somehow, she manages to leave the beach with him and since then, she has inhabited his life: he talks to her, he chats with her and she answers back. Seeking a resolution, one way or the other, he decides to write a book about his experiences and uses the interest in his novel to garner the sympathy of the public and to make it easy for him to travel to France where it all began. Will he able to resolve the mystery and to discover if Margaux is real and who is she? A suspense-mystery novel of love, courage and perseverance that will make the reader dwell on how, no matter how extreme the situation someone is going through, life can be a surprising journey.

The world is changing. The world we live in has always changed. Changes can be dynamic or smooth. Immersed in our daily lives, we rarely think about the reasons why the world is changing. If we still have time to think, it will not be difficult to realize that we are these reasons. If we are able to realize this, we are not far from the logic that we can control change. Not individually, but as a conscious society. The changes we have registered so far are summarized as the history of mankind. [...] Everyone wants a better life. This is only possible if we make the world we live in better. And we are constantly trying to do just that. [...] Although provided in different ways according to the respective society and the respective epoch, the teaching has always been the same in its essence. This teaching is so universal that it cannot be changed. Change can only exist in the way we realize it. In order to be properly aware, we only need to update the way we pass on the teachings to the generations to come. Mankind today, as a whole, has realized that unification is needed to continue our proper development. At the same time, there is a division by different criteria and to different degrees. One of these divisions is faith in God. Most of those who deny it believe that we were created by chance by nature. This is also an interesting version, but it does not help much for proper upbringing. Very often people interpret this option as follows. Man is the greatest creation of nature. So great that it is greater than its creator. And little by little, without realizing it, people begin to boast. Once we succumb to selfishness, the worst of all human vices, we take the wrong path that can inevitably lead all of humanity to self-destruction. The second group in this division are people who believe in God. If the faith of those who claim to have it is true, they follow the teachings on which the claim of God, creator of the world and men, is based. If these teachings are the same, it would lead to the unification of humanity. If the result is the opposite, then we have not fulfilled the basic testament of the doctrine. This means that we have changed it and passed it on in the wrong way to the next generations. There is a third group in the same division. These are the people who realize that God and nature is one and the same thing. These people are trying to modernize the teaching and make it understandable to everyone. This would help people realize the need for unification as a prerequisite for achieving change in the world for the better. In personal aspect, if everyone tries to become a better person then the world will simply become better. If one believes the world can be better, there is no difference from believe in God. It's just a different manifest of faith. Without faith, we can easily 'sell our souls'. The book "Who is God and why did they lie us" is an attempt to explain this in a simple way.

This book addresses the misinformation and the cover up that has ruled man for ages. It reveals the deception and the lies the society has told us, the influence, effect and damage these lies have done to the human race. A mental/emotional revolution and a new order described in this book is necessary to bring man to the realization of the truth to become awaken to who they are created to be. This book shows how the world leadership is driven by the ego, which is proven to be dangerous to man by its expression and the reason for the overwhelming confusion engulfing the world. The ego has been the mirror for the changes in the society, fashion, politics, technology and ideas that have swept the world from time immemorial.

The author offers a detailed and realistic, sometimes enchanted, description of the current world situation. An eclectic tormented world full of problems, inequalities, injustices, degradation... What the author tries to do through his intricately crafted words is not only to identify the problems that afflict all the people of the world but to try to offer solutions to challenges that we face every day globally. His words are harsh but at the same time true, objective testimony, of a world that seems to have forgotten harmony, peace, and equality. He successfully stirs the reader to reflect upon the world we live in.

Sometimes you need a little help, even if you don't want to ask for it. Will is...enduring. With a sick sister at home and university to get through, he still spends most of his time smiling as if everything is fine. Until he meets 'the others'. Suddenly, everything Will knows is thrown out of the window, and he has to start all over. But maybe that leaves room for some hope. Rules don't apply to Will's new friends. Does that mean they can save his little sister? If she can be helped, maybe Will can be helped too.

The exact origin of Sacred is difficult to trace because life and its myriad of lessons mould one from within in the subtlest of ways, unbeknownst even to the individual himself. The creative impulse presented itself at a juncture in the poet's life in the form of a deep loss, which is the reason for this contemplative and spiritual journey, a reason that continues to inspire and connect the poet's mind with the essence that is present in each individual. These poems aim to encourage the reader towards an inner journey, a path leading to something that resides within every soul. Whether we call that, God, Source, and Universe are, according to the poet's vision, hinting towards the same entity. The language in Sacred is simple yet imaginative and presented as a series of poetic expressions that are contemplative in nature and strike an instant connection with the divine in the form of questions, debates, pleas and supplications. Sacred offers a sense of open-mindedness in its expressions and allows each reader to contemplate and connect with each poem on a personal level, to create an inner dialogue to acknowledge and explore the sacredness that lies within each one of us.