Temples Of Books

In 2016, the world's oldest existing library reopened in Fes, Morocco. It opened for the first time in the 9th Century. These shrines to the written word date back even further, and continue to be built today. They're a place where some of the oldest written texts are preserved and some of the newest technology connects visitors with vast amounts of knowledge. Libraries are changing, but, as places that are fundamentally free and open to all, they're also staying the same. Libraries of the World explores the most stunning examples, but it also explores how varied the idea of a library can be. It can be a grand Baroque hall with leather-bound tomes or a mid-century masterpiece, but it can just as easily be a few shelves in a repurposed phone booth.

Jem McCrail is a fantastical godsend to the timid young Alice Pilling. "Like a dropped acorn,†? she appears halfway through the week, halfway through the term, and halfway through Miss Aldridge's Silent Reading Hour. Through the doorway she barely clears, wearing clothes like the urchin she encountered in her favorite P. G. Wodehouse story, Jem leads the stammering Alice into a world of culture, truancy, and bizarrerie-a world far beyond the dull lessons of school. The girls cultivate a steadfast bond based on a wicked and encircling sense of humor, an impish joy in indelicate literature, and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Then, as abruptly as she came, Jem disappears. The years and schools that follow, as well as the lovers, do not dim the image of the wondrous Jem. The disheartened Alice is almost ready to settle into an ordinary life when an accident and the intervention of a latter-day fallen angel impel her to go on one more wild and extravagant journey. Like the opera it echoes, the result is pure enchantment. "Why did it take me so long to discover the singular joys of Barbara Trapido's novels? Why, for so many years, had I missed these witty, soulful, heartbreaking, expansive, brilliant tales? I have become a literary evangelist on her behalf. On account of my badgering, all my friends now love her, too.I won't rest until everyone in America has read (and fallen in love with) this fabulous author.†? -Elizabeth Gilbert

Discusses the construction and purposes of Latter-day Saint temples.

Organized by continent, Amazing Temples of the World offers the reader an intimate portrait of some spectacular and unusual places of worship dating from the fourth millennium BCE to the present. Ornate or spartan, immense or intimate, from the Middle East to California, this book features such impressive places of worship as the Mahabhodi Temple, India, built in the location where Buddha is thought to have achieved enlightenment; the fifth-century BCE Temple of Confucius in Qufu, China, the largest Confucian temple in the world; Abu Simbel, in southern Egypt, the great carved monument to the Pharaoh Ramses II; the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, the spiritual home of the world's 25 million Sikhs; and the Shri Swaminarayan Temple in Neasden, London, the biggest Hindu temple outside India. Illustrated with 180 photographs, Amazing Temples of the World includes more than 150 places of worship, from Ancient Greece and Rome, through traditional synagogues to modern Buddhist, Taoist, and Sikh temples.

This book explores the visual and material cultures of presidential commemoration--memorials and monuments, libraries and archives--and the problematic ways in which presidents themselves have largely taken over their own commemoration. The author sees these various commemorative sites as playing a key role in the construction of our collective political and cultural self-images and as another sign of our preoccupation with celebrity culture. Ultimately, he contends, these presidential temples reflect not only our civil religion but also the extraordinary expansion of executive authority--and presidential self-commemoration--since FDR.

Looking for answers, guidance, protection? Help can come as a nudge, a dream, a vision, or a quiet voice within you. This book offers new ways to connect with the ever-present guidance of ECK, the Holy Spirit. Start today! Discover how to —Listen to the Voice of God —Attune to your true self —Work with an inner guide —Benefit from dreams, waking dreams, and Golden-tongued Wisdom —Ignite your creativity to solve problems Each story, technique, and spiritual exercise is a doorway to greater confidence and love for life. Open your heart and let God's voice speak to you!

Sylvia Browne once again brings you new and fascinating information that can help you in life. This time she explores the many temples and halls that exist on the Other Side and how their functions can truly change your life. Using meditative techniques, Sylvia shows you how you can access these beautiful edifices, each of which has a particular purpose. From the Hall of Healing to the Temple of Azna (the Mother God), Sylvia explains the role of each of these wonderful places and gives you the opportunity to experience the beauty and wonder of your real home. With the help of her spirit guide Francine, Sylvia uses her ability of trance mediumship to give you a vast amount of new information on all of the temples, halls and other important sites on the Other Side that can be used to aid and embellish your life on Earth. She includes wonderful meditations to not only reach these special places but to also give you insight on how to use their attributes to enrich your life. This is another fascinating and inspirational journey that only Sylvia Browne can take you on!