A Crowning Mercy

One sunlit afternoon, a young girl — illicitly bathing in a stream — first fell in love with a passing stranger. Her parents call her Dorcas, but he called her Campion and that's what she longed to be, then and forever.
So when an unbearable suitor is forced on her, she flees to seek her lover, taking with her the one gift left to her by her unknown father — a pendant of gold.
There are four of these jewels, each key to a secret, each owned by a stranger. When one person has them all, the holder will have access to great wealth and power. This is Campion's inheritance, one of peril and enchantment.

You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You: The Believer Book of Advice

Comedians have a reputation for being dark, bitter and angry. And that’s exactly why their advice . . . is so entertaining to read. . . . Good advice? No. Fun reading material? Yes. A compendium of advice from the producers, writers, and actors of The Office, Saturday Night Live, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Knocked Up, Flight of the Conchords, The Daily Show, Arrested Development, Reno 911!, and The Hangover along with other people who should really never give advice.

Brain Building

"We only use something like 10 percent of our brain, anywhere between 5 and 15 percent—I don't know what the current estimates are," as vos Savant told the reference book Newsmakers. In her view, humans are capable of much more. But motivation is the key: "So how much of a role is motivation playing day-to-day, when we are talking about much smaller differences? And is it measuring, perhaps—this is just a wild, out-of-the-blue kind of a guess— does it measure one person using 17.7 percent of their brain versus some one person who uses 17.8 percent? Is that what I.Q. does?

What is a person? This fundamental question is a perennial concern of philosophers and theologians. But, Christian Smith here argues, it also lies at the center of the social scientist’s quest to interpret and explain social life. In this ambitious book, Smith presents a new model for social theory that does justice to the best of our humanistic visions of people, life, and society.

Letters to a Young Contrarian

A witty, wise, biting, and completely individual meditation on what it means to think, live, and be to the contrary.
In the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men, and dissidents. Who better to speak to that person who finds him or herself in a contrarian position than Hitchens, who has made a career of disagreeing in profound and entertaining ways.