Root Science

Figures of the One Must Go is a book that dares you to listen to it. This modernist philosophical work adopts a playful attitude with the words within. Words evolve, multiply, surprise, and delight in this chronicle of the four different paths of life. Are you brave enough to walk down the philosophical path, the psychological path, the political path, and the lyrical path? Each one presents challenging ideas about the nature of life and the long history of the human race.

All Americans, liberal or conservative, religious or not, can agree that religious freedom, anchored in conscience rights, is foundational to the US democratic experiment. But what freedom of conscience means, what its scope and limits are, according to the Constitution - these are matters for heated debate.

If we are to correctly assess the root causes of terrorism and successfully address the threat, we must think more like economists do. This is the argument of Alan Krueger's What Makes a Terrorist, a book that explains why our tactics in the fight against terrorism must be based on more than anecdote, intuition, and speculation. Many popular ideas about terrorists and why they seek to harm us are fueled by falsehoods, misinformation, and fearmongering. Many believe that poverty and lack of education breed terrorism, despite the wealth of evidence showing that most terrorists come from middle-class, and often college-educated, backgrounds.

The first semester of sophomore year at the famous School of Roots and Vines has begun for life Elemental Sophie Briggs and her friends. Although Year Two brings a whirlwind of change, some things feel straight out of a not-so-ancient past. Sophie and Marcus become Combat Mentors, giving them more time together. Until Marcus's secret internship makes him miss more and more school. Something strange is happening, and things point directly at the ESCB—and Marcus.

A new girl comes to the school and it's not too long before the fabled tree of Thicket Hall is turning against Sophie and her friends and no longer trusts them. Someone new has stepped up, but who? Something's not right and Sophie and her friends are going to have to figure out what's going on or it just might be the end of the school and the old oak tree—permanently. Is the new girl behind this? Is she the new Marcus? Can Sophie figure out what's going on and get her friends to work together to stop it in time?

Sophia Briggs has passed the entrance exam and is a freshman at the famous School of Roots and Vines. The young magical is an Elemental with a twist. She can help everything that grows out of the ground—and then some. Her magic is a kind that hasn't been seen in generations. A secret even to her, but not for long. In the center of the boarding school stands an oversized oak tree that stretches across the campus and houses the classrooms—and is still alive. Even the tree holds a powerful secret that is being protected by a few.

When free-spirited Merisande flees into a cursed wood to avoid an unwanted marriage to Sir Avry, she finds herself in a hidden kingdom full of winged people who keep human slaves. Her betrothed follows her there, and they are both captured and enslaved.

Sophie Briggs has made it to her junior year at the School of Roots and Vines, but it isn't all fun and games for the Defenders. Change is coming. Some good and some . . . not so much. Friends are breaking up—will Sophie have to take sides? Sophie and Marcus are struggling, too. Marcus is pushing Sophie and the rest of the gang away, worried that being a Templeton will put them all at risk. He thinks he needs to do this by himself. Does he have to go it alone?

Bishop Steel is still missing, so AB’Gale must follow the map continuing the search for her papa. Her quest leads Abby down dangerous paths that threaten to get her captured by the System. Danger lurks at every turn of the road, on every doorstep and every train. Finding it difficult to know who to trust when she discovers she is now wanted for crimes against the System, Abby travels under the guise of a young boy. Conflicted with the desire to rid her world of the unjust or find her papa, Abby finds few friends amid hobos, air pirates, and entrepreneurs.

As Harry and the other residents of Orchard Close struggle to survive, a new crop of problems presents itself. Unstable electricity damages equipment, days are spent scavenging for ammo, weapons, food, glass bottles, and of all things, yarn. Elsewhere, gangs carve out their territory throughout the city. Residents pay for protection through coupons, bartering, or worse. Citizens fleeing the city gangs, violence, and lack of food flock to Orchard Close, but how many can they take in?

Everything is changing. It's the last semester of junior year for the Elemental, Sophie Briggs and her friends at The School of Roots and Vines. But will it be for better or worse? Classes take a priority for the teenagers but work and figuring out how to be a Defender is a close second. Both Marcus and Sophie's mysterious new tutor at the EBI have secrets to hide. Will Sophie harness a new curiosity in pursuit of the truth about them both?

If there's one thing Warlock Marcus Shifter hates, it's the Delwinn Council, the governing body of the magical community. Between the grudges many on the council harbor because he walked away from magic and his suspicions that someone is working to undermine a 20-year peace with the nonmagical Normals, they really don't get along. Marcus has spent months hunting the traitor, infiltrating the Council and helping with "menial tasks" like repairing unstable rifts in the fabric of reality.

Warlock Marcus Shifter has been sent on the most dangerous mission of his career: travel to the remote Minotaur nation and convince them not to abandon the tenuous peace agreement between the humans and the paranormals. But securing that peace requires his best friend, Steve the Minotaur, to help him find a way into the isolated homeland. A homeland Steve left behind long ago, intending to bury his complicated past.

The Earth’s magnetic poles have shifted, the electrical grid is down, and society has collapsed. Survivors struggle daily to cope, as pestilence and plague take their toll. Famine and strife run amuck in the burning cities. Hospitals are abandoned. A chance discovery made while scavenging in the old attic of an herbalist cache of books gives Zack the added herbal knowledge he needs to fight the rampant diseases occurring in his survivalist community. Forgotten medical knowledge from the Civil War era offers healing for a small group trying to reconstruct society.

Joe's world is turned upside down when he discovers a shattered compass among the brambles where the Crystal Palace once stood and travels through time back to 1888.

Joe's world is turned upside down when he discovers a shattered compass among the brambles where the Crystal Palace once stood and travels through time back to 1888.

A century ago, Europe's diplomats mismanaged the crisis triggered by the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the continent plunged into World War I, which killed millions, toppled dynasties, and destroyed empires. Today, as the 100th anniversary of the Great War prompts renewed debate about the war's causes, scholars and policy experts are also considering the parallels between the present international system and the world of 1914. Are China and the United States fated to follow in the footsteps of previous great power rivals?

Born in a boxcar on a train bound for Georgia. At least, that is what Papa Steel always told AB'Gale. But now, 15 years later, the man who adopted and raised her as his own is missing, and it's up to AB'Gale to find him. Aided only by a motley gang of friends, AB'Gale train hops her way across the United States in a desperate attempt to find her papa and put her life and family back the way it was.

In the second installment of The Daughters of Dark Root series, Maggie Maddock and her sisters are back, training under their coven-leading mother Miss Sasha Shantay to take over as the new leaders of The Council. But life isn’t as smooth as Maggie had hoped it would be. Harvest Home’s taxes have come due, and her mother’s illness has returned, stronger than ever. Desperate, Maggie and Eve devise a scheme to make money through witchcraft. And that’s when things go terribly wrong.

Scripture's abiding relevance can inspire great goodness, such as welcoming the stranger and extending compassion for the poor. But its authority has also been wielded to defend slavery, marginalize LGBTQ individuals, ignore science, and justify violence. Grounded in close readings of scripture and tradition in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, religious scholar Rachel Mikva shows us that the Abrahamic religions have always been aware of their tremendous power both to harm and to heal.