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This book of poetry deals with the conflict where science is dominant in working its wonders, and the religious has become questionable regarding its relevance. It results in our culture's tendency to view science as our major source of defining and controlling reality. This is suggested in Arthur C. Clarks novel, Childhood's End, as well as in the classic Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The point being that we are no longer children dependent upon a father, but are on our own, alone. Science utilises information of the external world, ie. collection of data and statistics, but is weak in its ability to cross the boundary into the internal world of the individual. In fact, it frequently disparages claims of noetic witnessing as fancy, hysteria, illusion, or outright psychosis. The poems are a mixture of fantasy and reality, leaving the reader to determine their personal view. The two convictions noted have consequences. Our culture's present absolute trust of science in all knowledge leaves a sense of control, but results in a terrifying feeling of alienation in a cold universe. The religious view, having a quality of support, offers comfort of hope, but at the price of having to submit to a power greater than ourselves. Speculation is that our world of common experience, with its mix of good and evil within us, as well as without, is in fact an odyssey of repetition and judgement. It is our home, it is Purgatory.

A collection of poems that explores the most ancient of questions: is there a reason for my existence, or am I just an artefact of nature? The animal of us is very clear, but our consciousness appears to be an enigma: a Darwinian survival tool par excellence, but its sense of self leads to feelings of despair and countless fears. We appear to possess a religious sense that leads us to reach for ideals such as communes, or communism, with frequent violent fervour, as well as religious cults, and organized religion per se - raising the question, why? The poems explore these questions. Science has been miraculous in its rapid growth and influence in our present culture, to the point of it becoming like religion itself, answering questions of cosmology and affecting human identity and longevity. This raises questions of morality, which underscores the importance of our recognizing our underlying animal nature and never underestimating its influence in even the best of us. The poems address this.

The key to getting the body of one's dream is knowing the right muscles to work. This book highlights the exact muscles being toned, strengthened and stretched in a range of workouts with step-by-step photos combined with anatomically correct muscle diagrams showing what's being flexed, stretched and worked.

A Dictionary of Anglo-American Proverbs & Proverbial Phrases Found in Literary Sources of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries is a unique collection of proverbial language found in literary contexts. It includes proverbial materials from a multitude of plays, (auto)biographies of well-known actors like Britain’s Laurence Olivier, songs by William S. Gilbert or Lorenz Hart, and American crime stories by Leslie Charteris. Other authors represented in the dictionary are Horatio Alger, Margery Allingham, Samuel Beckett, Lewis Carroll, Raymond Chandler, Benjamin Disraeli, Edward Eggleston, Hamlin Garland, Graham Greene, Thomas C. Haliburton, Bret Harte, Aldous Huxley, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, George Orwell, Eden Phillpotts, John B. Priestley, Carl Sandburg, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jesse Stuart, Oscar Wilde, and more. Many lesser-known dramatists, songwriters, and novelists are included as well, making the contextualized texts to a considerable degree representative of the proverbial language of the past two centuries. While the collection contains a proverbial treasure trove for paremiographers and paremiologists alike, it also presents general readers interested in folkloric, linguistic, cultural, and historical phenomena with an accessible and enjoyable selection of proverbs and proverbial phrases.

Charles Dickens was not only a major literary figure of the nineteenth century, he was also a highly skilled user of folk speech in his numerous novels, letters, and other writings. Proverbs, proverbial expressions, proverbial comparisons, twin formulas, and wellerisms play a significant role in his portrayal of social and cultural aspects of his time and environment. There is hardly a page that does not contain a traditional or manipulated proverbial phrase in the lively dialogues or skillfully crafted prose.This book begins with an introductory essay that demonstrates the importance of proverbial language in Dickens' complete works. The bulk of the volume is a key-word index to the occurrence of proverbs in his writings, with the proverbs arranged according to the most significant word in the text. Each entry also provides references to major proverb dictionaries, which readers may consult to learn more about the history of a particular proverbial statement. The interpretative essay together with the index show that Charles Dickens employed proverbial speech effectively to add folk wisdom and linguistic realism to his colorful prose.