As I go on in this life, a verse from Psalm 16 is my story: "You will show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy." That path has taken me on adventures wanted and unwanted, and led to dreams that came true and dreams that died along the way. That is my story so far. I've come to know that each of us is a story and how we tell our story makes a difference as we walk through this world. We all have broken pieces of ourselves that we've left along the path, but we can decide whether to pick them up and put them together in a new way and go on, or we can go on with the broken pieces hurting us with every step. That's our choice, and with the help of God and companions along the way, the grace and fullness of healing and joy can come.

As I go on in this life, a verse from Psalm 16 is my story: You will show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. That path has taken me on adventures wanted and unwanted, and led to dreams that came true and dreams that died along the way. That is my story so far. Ive come to know that each of us is a story and how we tell our story makes a difference as we walk through this world. We all have broken pieces of ourselves that weve left along the path, but we can decide whether to pick them up and put them together in a new way and go on, or we can go on with the broken pieces hurting us with every step. Thats our choice, and with the help of God and companions along the way, the grace and fullness of healing and joy can come.

"[This] magnificent critical survey, with its inherent respect for both the 'Westt's mainstream high culture' and the 'radically changing world' of the 1990s, offers a new breakthrough for lay and scholarly readers alike....Allows readers to grasp the big picture of Western culture for the first time." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Here are the great minds of Western civilization and their pivotal ideas, from Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud. Richard Tarnas performs the near-miracle of describing profound philosophical concepts simply but without simplifying them. Ten years in the making and already hailed as a classic, THE PASSION OF THE WESERN MIND is truly a complete liberal education in a single volume.

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

One day Sophie comes home from school to find two questions in her mail: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" Before she knows it she is enrolled in a correspondence course with a mysterious philosopher. Thus begins Jostein Gaarder's unique novel, which is not only a mystery, but also a complete and entertaining history of philosophy.