Scarred Hero

He doesn’t deserve love. She disagrees. I spent the last year of my life trying to get over my injuries and losing my friend. I knew I was destined to be alone and never even considered that I could have love in my future. And then I met Hope. She’s everything I’m not. She’s happy and sees the good everywhere. While I have seen the very worst in people and know what this world is capable of. I know she deserves more than me, a man scarred on the inside and out. But no matter how much I think I don’t deserve her, One kiss, one night has me wishing for more. The only question is can she look past my scars and see the man I am… the man I want to be? And will it be for one night… or forever?

Kaito’s quest for vengeance is no longer a solo affair—with Minnalis at his side, he can accomplish so much more. As their hatred burns bright, the two of them begin their training to fulfill their lust for revenge...

"[Analyzes specific ancient epics and Greek dramas in the light of Christian beliefs. Ancient poets and playwrights discussed: Hesiod, Homer, Virgil, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes.]"--Provided by publisher.

The Creature is an invitation to follow the mechanics between power and pain, which begets the creature. Creatures confront power in, and through, conjunctures of radical contingency. The casual use of power is an exercise in distraction. It is an abiding conundrum that those who endure affliction also exert it as a force over other living bodies in equal measure-not as acts of vengeance or bad faith, but through deeds of forgetful randomness. To ensure social indemnity and security, creatures exercise force over kindred embodiments through a process of collective mimicry. In the bargain, creatures begin to disfigure and distort each other. The line between mutual slaughter and mutual embrace begins to blur. Each transgresses its own soul. At other times, power is an opaque, magisterial and disdainful style of conveyance. It reveals itself out of nowhere. But the steadfast creature is as resilient as it is vulnerable. The more it endures, the greater its perdurance. Perduring creatures may sometimes gain a second sight, forged out of a sense of lyricality, love and abdication. But is abdication, or taking refuge in the wondrous, sufficient to release all creatures from the fatal loop of power and pain? Or will they have to slowly shed creaturely affliction by a rigorous process of decreation? Sifting through the writings of Giambattista Vico, Niccolò Machiavelli, Gabriel Tarde, Miguel de Unamuno, Jibanananda Das, Lev Shestov, Raymond Geuss, Jean Starobinski, Ernst Bloch, Simone Weil, Simon Critchley, Sarah Kane and others, this volume explores the creaturely predicament and its possibilities of freedom. The five chapters in Book I lay down fundamental questions for the creaturely condition: the question of mimicry, the relationship between taking initiative and being hounded, the bridge between senses and destitution, and the vehemence of radical contingency. Book II posits the question of skepticism, fideism and their connection to resilience and generosity in creatures. Book III is entirely devoted to various ways of conceiving the aesthetic: through the tragic, the epiphanic, the catastrophic and through militant material eruptions. Book II and III essentially delve into the sites of freedom that lurk within the condition of the creaturely. Book IV is constituted of a single chapter on the subject of decreation; it grapples with questions of attention, anonymity and abdication.

"Hackwith's poignant, imaginative series sends readers on an amazing journey, with profound prose that will capture hearts and minds."* To save the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, former librarian Claire and her allies may have to destroy it first. Claire, rakish Hero, angel Rami, and muse-turned-librarian Brevity have accomplished the impossible by discovering the true nature of unwritten books. But now that the secret is out, in its quest for power Hell will be coming for every wing of the Library. To protect the Unwritten Wing and stave off the insidious reach of Malphas, one of Hell’s most bloodthirsty generals, Claire and her friends will have to decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice to keep their vulnerable corner of the afterlife. Succeeding would mean rewriting the nature of the Library, but losing would mean obliteration. Their only chance at survival lies in outwitting Hell and writing a new chapter for the Library. Luckily, Claire and her friends know how the right story, told well, can start a revolution. *Library Journal (starred review)

Widely regarded as one of cinema's most accomplished directors, David Lean helmed such classics as Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist. He twice received the Academy Award for best director, and two of his films, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia won the Oscar for best picture. Both are featured on the American Film Institute's Top 100, with Lawrence of Arabia at number seven. Despite the awards and accolades for these motion pictures, many critics often look more favorably upon the smaller films that Lean produced earlier in his career, and in recent years his reputation as a director has diminished. In this study, Constantine Santas seeks to restore these now undervalued epics to the elevated esteem they once held. Without dismissing the earlier works or regarding them as irrelevant to Lean's evolution as an artist, this book shows that the epics, if analyzed from certain vantage points, are as worthy as any of Lean's previous films. In addition to Lean's Academy-Award-winning blockbusters, Santas also provides close analytical looks at Doctor Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter, and the director's final film, A Passage to India. Santas argues that the epics show a progression and refinement of Lean's work and that they are thematically broader and feature more complex characterization than his earlier films. In his analyses, Santas provides background material on the production of each epic; insights into structure, characters, techniques, and themes; and a look into the relationship between the films and their literary sources. Written in a clear and engaging manner, The Epic Films of David Lean will appeal not only to cinema students and scholars but also to the general fan of David Lean and his work.

A critical exploration of the effects and influence of America's wars upon the works of the Nobel Prize laureate