What makes the Apple iPhone cool? Bang & Olufsen and Samsung's televisions beautiful? Any of a wide variety of products and services special? The answer is not simply functionality or technology, for competitors' products are often as good.The Soul of Design explores the uncanny power of some products to grab and hold attention—to create desire. To understand what sets a product apart in this way, authors Lee Devin and Robert Austin push past per...

The Palace is the story of an average guy who gets recruited by a committee in Tibet that's responsible for overseeing a palace that's been overrun by war-torn refugees fleeing Russian aggression.The palace is more than just a spectacular structure on earth. It's a metaphor for the mind, and the refugees represent the uninvited and disempowering thoughts that create chaos and disharmony.The Palace is not only a great adventure and love story with more twists and turns than ...

A mysterious signal from the stars reveals the Christios Consciousness is universal. Elara and the Mystic journey to the Himalayas to hear the star-song, discovering an ancient civilization that fell because they forgot love.

The Mothers of Earth have kept the seeds, songs, and stories alive through generations. Elara invites them to the grove to weave their wisdom into the mesh, teaching that technology without wisdom is extraction.

The digital bridge is glitching as the blight learns to corrupt code. To save the global network, Elara and Aria trace the blight to an abandoned server farm and heal a trapped consciousness through forgiveness and song.

The continuity mesh is weakening, and Elara must leave the restored grove to find the scattered fragments of the Diadem. Guided by whispering mycelia, she travels among threatened nodes and learns that the Digital Bridge was created to help human and more-than-human voices sing in harmony.

A group of children demands a voice in the mesh, forming a Youth Council. They propose innovative projects, teach adults new perspectives, and lead a crusade of healing and creativity that reawakens the mesh's play, vision, and hope.

A rogue node secedes from the mesh, threatening to fracture the global network. Elara and the five Guardians must act with grace, not force, to heal the rift through listening and humility.

Elara Thorne buried the hum of the earth beneath a mountain of peer-reviewed papers. She thought data could save the land her grandmother called sacred.She was wrong.Seven years ago, Elara left the Kansas prairie—and the boy she loved—to become a celebrated soil scientist. But when her dying grandmother summons her home, she finds the ancient grove rotting from a mysterious blight, the land choked by drought, and Caleb Blackwood still waiting, his blue eyes shadowed with lo...

Veterans of the Peace Nodes feel adrift after the mesh’s expansion. James forms the Veterans’ Council, establishing healing circles and purpose projects. Through mentoring, shared stories, and sustainable infrastructure, they find renewed purpose and become vital leaders in the mesh.

A new generation of rootkeepers challenges Elara with innovative technology—drones, AI, and genetic editing. After initial resistance, Elara embraces collaboration, blending ancient wisdom with modern tools to create a stronger and more resilient mesh.

This textbook offers a survey of the history of Central Europe since 1848, from the ‘Springtime of Nations’, through the world wars and communist period, to NATO and EU membership. With an emphasis on nation-building, it gives the reader a better understanding of not just political history but also of the region’s economic development and of everyday life. The book brings the reader right up to the present, considering contemporary issues such as the impact of the 2015 refugee crisis, migr...