On November 8, 1985, 18-year-old Tom Odle brutally murdered his parents and three siblings in the small southern Illinois town of Mount Vernon, sending shockwaves throughout the nation. The murder of the Odle family remains one of the most horrific family mass murders in U.S. history. Odle was sentenced to death and, after seventeen years on death row, expected a lethal injection to end his life. However, Illinois governor George Ryan’s moratorium on the death penalty in 2000, and later co...

Over the past two decades public accountability has become not only an icon in political, managerial, and administrative discourse but also the object of much scholarly analysis across a broad range of social and administrative sciences. This handbook provides a state of the art overview of recent scholarship on public accountability. It collects, consolidates, and integrates an upsurge of inquiry currently scattered across many disciplines and subdisciplines. It provides a one-stop-shop o...

What does teaching look like at its very best? How are great teachers able to ignite a love of learning and change students’ lives? In this book you’ll learn from seven remarkable teachers who stretch beyond the conventional foundations of good teaching to transform their classrooms into exciting, dynamic places where teachers and students cocreate the learning experience. Based on six years of extensive work, the book outlines a framework that identifies four dimensions of effective teach...

This holiday, we proudly presents to you this unique collection of the greatest Christmas classics: most beloved novels, tales, legends, poetry & carols - to warm up your heart and rekindle your holiday sparkle: Works by Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Willa Cather, Beatrix Potter, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Hans Christian Andersen, E.T.A. Hoffmann, O. Henry, Mark Twain and many more!

The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China is one of early modern Europe's most influential syntheses of Ming China, presenting its geography, government, laws, military, learning, religion, commerce, and customs with an admiration unusual for its age. Written in a lucid, compendious prose typical of Renaissance cosmography and missionary travel literature, it transforms reports, letters, and eyewitness testimonies into a coherent portrait of a sophisticated empire. Juan González...

A fascinating read for anyone seeking to understand the conflict between Christianity and LGBTQI individuals, this book is, as its editors proclaim, "a fearlessly wide vision of queer Christians finding a place within Christianity—and claiming their authentic experience and voice."Through essays by noted lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) religion scholars, this important compilation summarizes the history and current s...

This all-in-one commentary bundle on the book of Galatians features volumes from the NIV Application Commentary Series, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary Series, and Expositor's Bible Commentary Series. Each volume provides new and unique insights from leading biblical scholars Scot McKnight, Thomas Schreiner, and Robert Rapa. The unique features from each volume along with the diverse insights provided by the authors gives you all the tools you need to study and master the book of Galatians...

The first of this two-volume work brings to the fore marketing communication theories and concepts that are prominent in emerging economy contexts, and highlights the opportunities and challenges within these markets. Offering a distinctive meaning and importance to both the practice and the theory of marketing communications in emerging economies, this collection introduces the foundational issues of marketing communications as well as the broader marketing communication environment and h...

The Collected Plays of Anton Chekhov gathers the dramatic works that transformed modern theatre, including The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. Rejecting melodramatic plot in favor of atmosphere, subtext, and emotional indirection, Chekhov makes ordinary conversations disclose entire histories of disappointment, longing, class decline, and social transition. Written at the turn of the twentieth century, these plays stand at the threshold between realism and mode...

Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better to be immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Since Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions first appeared, David Benatar's distinctive anthology designed to introduce students to the key existential questions of philosophy has won a devoted following among users in a variety of upper-level and even introductory courses.

An author’s talents may seem obvious and indisputable as they move words and ideas into gathered phrases and stories.But where do these ideas and stories come from? A lonely thought that suddenly gathers form? An inspiration from a Muse? A suggestion from an everyday event?Perhaps in the case of their darker, more malevolent stories, other forces are at work. They help to nourish single words into sentences and paragraphs that ease themselves from the shadows and are sudden...

Timeless stories, unforgettable voices, and literary greatness across generations. In 50 Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die Vol. 1, a carefully curated anthology brings together some of the most influential and celebrated works in literary history. This collection features a wide range of classic masterpieces that span genres, styles, and eras—from powerful novels and thought-provoking short stories to unforgettable works of poetry and philosophy. Each selection represents a land...