Abraham Lincoln's History by Hay and Nicolay in the News

After having posted last week about the biography of  Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood in response to a review in The Wall Street Journal, this week Abraham Lincoln is again in the news in a new book review in The Economist, Both the President's Men. The Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image by Joshua Zeitz

This review says the following:

"AMERICANS crave books about Abraham Lincoln. But finding fresh material on their 16th president is tough. So some writers are turning to his acolytes—the cabinet, the generals, the son. A new account, by Joshua Zeitz, focuses on Lincoln’s two secretaries, who had an insider’s view of a momentous presidency. John George Nicolay and John Hay shared a bedroom at the White House and served as Lincoln’s gatekeepers and letter-writers. The president called them “The Boys”. They called him, privately and devotedly, “The Tycoon” and “The Ancient”

The secretaries accompanied Lincoln from Illinois to Washington in 1861. Nicolay, born in Germany but mostly raised in America, was a former newspaperman who had once walked 35 miles to get a job. Hay was a Brown University graduate and would-be poet, aimless until he began working for Lincoln after the 1860 presidential campaign.............

“Lincoln’s Boys” is reinvigorated when Mr Zeitz returns to his core subject: the work Hay and Nicolay did with Lincoln’s legacy. Even while the civil war raged, they formed a plan to write their boss’s biography. After the assassination Lincoln’s eldest son, Robert, took control of thousands of administration papers. He gave the secretaries first crack (the papers would not be open to the public until 1947) and they promised Robert he could delete what he wished. Around 1874 Hay and Nicolay started their work. By 1890 they had produced a ten-volume biography......

(This) book proved fundamental to the shaping of Lincoln’s story. It came out at a time, Mr Zeitz writes, when Americans were conveniently forgetting that slavery had driven the Union apart. As for Lincoln himself, the public had been feeding eagerly on tabloidy reports of a past (and by this point long-deceased) love and a rocky marriage. Hay and Nicolay hammered hard on slavery, skimped on painful personal details and built a case for the wise and compassionate leader that Americans revere to this day.

“I believe he will fill a bigger place in history than he even dreams of himself,” Hay wrote to a friend in 1863. Thanks partly to his and Nicolay’s endeavours, he was to be proved right."

Cosimo offers this unique Hay's and Nicolay's 10-volume portrait in hardcover or paperback, especially of interest to Abraham Lincoln collectors, readers who like to expand their personal library or professional librarians.

The hardcover retail list price for the series is $449, but now:
our price: $359.99  (you save $90 - or a 20 percent discount - and free shipping)

The paperback retail list price: $279.99, but now: 
our price: $220.99 (you save $50  - or a 18 percent discount - and free shipping)

If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

Series of the Month: A Library of the World's Best Literature

This month we like to highlight a unique series of world literature, A Library of the World’s Best Literature edited by Charles Dudley Warner.

Mark Twain was a pallbearer at his funeral, yet Charles Dudley Warner is a name largely forgotten by the literary world. An editor, journalist, and essayist, Warner was a Renaissance man who also worked at times as a lawyer, a farmer, and critic. He wrote nine travel books, published numerous essays on social and literary reform, and most famously co-wrote The Gilded Age with Twain. The co-written novel satirized the greed and political corruption present in post-Civil War America.

Many years later, while his friend Twain was traveling around the world for a lecture tour, Warner published a series known as A Library of the World’s Best Literature. With the help of an “Advisory Council” comprised mainly of professors and Deans of U.S. Universities, Warner collected and edited this 45-volume set of Classic and Modern world literature. This series would later include a comprehensive “literary dictionary”—a reference that provided the names and descriptions of authors referenced in the series, as well as suggestions of other enriching authors not included but still “representative of literary history.” As Warner stated in the Preface to this series, the collection’s goal was: 

“to encourage, stimulate, and assist the general reader, not only in the acquisition of knowledge and the widening of his mental horizon, but in the rational enjoyment of life.”

A Library of the World's Best Literature includes poetry, short stories, letters, and novel excerpts, with essays about the author or the subject of the text. There are also sections that discuss a series of works grouped by subject matter, era, or nationality. The collection lives up to its ‘worldy’ description, including everything from the work of his friend, Mark Twain, to Chronologies that detail the great authors of Polish, Swedish, German, and Swiss literature, to name a few. It’s a truly comprehensive series of World literature, covering centuries of great writing, and a helpful introduction to the breadth of literature available to interested readers.

Charles Dudley Warner was a literary figure in his own right, and it's a shame that his contributions are eclipsed by those of his friend. Today Twain is often credited with the famous quote "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it," while it is argued that Warner himself coined the phrase. (For a compelling examination of the quote's origin, click here).

February being Black History Month, we also like to celebrate Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (excerpts of which can be found in Vol.XXXV of this series). Arguably one of the most widely known and popularly read books about American slavery, it became the bestselling novel of the 19th century. With its first publication in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and with it, Stowe, helped to ignite the social flames that led to Civil War less than a decade later.

Cosimo offers Warner's impressive series by individual volume at various online bookstores or as a full set in hardcover or paperback, especially of interest to collectors, readers who like to expand their personal library or professional librarians. If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

The hardcover retail list price for the series is $1,609.54, but now:
our price: $1,289.99  (you save $320 or a 20 percent discount)

The paperback retail list price: $899.55, but now:
our price: $699.99 (you save $200 or a 22 percent discount)

Cosimo also offers Warner's In the Wilderness, Baddeck and That Sort of Thing, and On Horseback: A Tour in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Hans Brinker, the Dutch Olympic Skating Success & Misconceptions in the Media



Hans Brinker, The Silver Skates

The Dutch Olympic team is on its way to achieving one of its best Winter Olympics. Sofar, the Dutch have won seventeen medailles: five gold, five silver and seven bronze. What  is going on? The international media have started to notice.

The Wall Street Journal states in its article "In Sochi, the Dutch Are Dominating the Overall Olympic Medal Count":

" The Netherlands winning  the overall medal race.This is absurd. The Netherlands has about 15 million people. They are competitive in a single Winter Olympic sport. Sunday brought more domination, as the Dutch swept the podium in speedskating's women's 1,500 meters. The Netherlands had 17 medals at day's end on Sunday, one more than the U.S. and Russia; 16 of those 17 have come in long-track speedskating. (The other? Short-track speedskating.)...........

 The Dutch have chosen one of the few sports that a country of the Netherlands' size could dominate, since only about five nations are even competitive in speedskating. The U.S.—which was very competitive in speedskating until this year, when it became obsessed with its wardrobe—only has a couple thousand competitive skaters of any age. If the Winter Games are about being opportunistic, then the Dutch deserve the gold medal for opportunism. The Netherlands should enjoy this moment of Olympic supremacy, even if it doesn't last another 24 hours."

The International Business Times tries to explain the Dutch success in its article "Winter Olympics 2014: Speed Skating Continues To Be Dominated By The Netherlands, But Why?":

W.E.B. Du Bois and the Fight for Black Equality at the New York Historical Society

This February is a busy month with the Winter Olympics, world events continuing, President's Day and of course also celebrating Black History Month. If you happen to be in New York City tomorrow Wednesday, February 19, then join the conversation between two leading historians at New York Historical Society about the scholar and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois and his fight for black equality.

From  New York Historical Society's website:


"An accomplished scholar and outspoken activist, W.E.B. Du Bois fought racism and discrimination from local institutions to the highest levels of government. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis, in conversation with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, discusses the life and work of one of the most prominent civil rights activists of the early 20th century, from his role as a founding member of the NAACP to his vehement protests against the 1915 release of The Birth of a Nation, a film supported by President Woodrow Wilson that glorified the Ku Klux Klan."

The event starts at 6:30pm, 170 Central Park West at 77th Street 212-485-9268212-485-9268.

Click here for Cosimo's editions of W.E.B. Du Bois, including the following and also
the two Pulitzer winning biographies of W.E.B. Du Bois by David Levering Lewis:

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The Best Book about Abraham Lincoln

In another example of the enduring value of classic books, Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood published in 1916 just (!) received a review from essayist Joseph Epstein in The Wall Street Journal, calling this the best book about Abraham Lincoln.

Epstein writes:

"Born Godfrey Rathbone Benson (1864-1945), later a member of Parliament and an Oxford don, Lord Charnwood was something of an Americanophile, having also written a book on Theodore Roosevelt. He wrote his Lincoln biography in the middle of World War I, a time when the world seemed to be coming apart, as it had seemed to Americans during the Civil War some 60 years earlier. 

Lord Charnwood's Abraham Lincoln has a universal appeal, though it was originally written for an English audience. The English much admired Lincoln. True, at the time of the American Civil War, many aristocratic Englishmen sided with the South owing to the region's aristocratic pretensions, with Charles Darwin and Lord Tennyson being two notable exceptions. But workers in the English textile industry, feeling a kinship with the slaves of the South, sided with the North in the war, even though it was against their self-interest to do so. 

Lord Charnwood's main emphasis in Abraham Lincoln is on character analysis and political philosophy. His decision to place it there was a wise one, for it enlarges the biography's scope and lends it a Plutarchian gravity that helps give the book its standing as a masterpiece............"

  

Epstein continues:

"These words from the concluding paragraph of Lord Charnwood's masterly biography capture Abraham Lincoln better than any I know:

For he was a citizen of that far country where there is neither aristocrat nor democrat. No political theory stands out from his words or actions; but they show a most unusual sense of the possible dignity of common men and common things.… If he had a theory of democracy it was contained in this condensed note which he wrote, perhaps as an autograph, a year or two before his presidency: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Great men and women do not always get the biographers they deserve. In Lord Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln found his.", so Epstein ends his review.

For an older, but equally glowing review of this book, see Lord Charnwood's Lincoln by Frank M. Colby in 1916 in the liberal magazine The New Republic.

 Available from Cosimo Classics:

Twelve Years a Slave WIns Best Film Award at BAFTAs

Twelve Years a Slave keeps getting in the news in positive ways: last Sunday, the movie won the best film award at the Baftas, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, seen as an indicator for the upcoming Oscars.

During the same weekend, American writer Rachel Kushner interviewed in The New York Times said she finds Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup the best book she recently read. She says: 

"An incredible document, amazingly told and structured. Tough, but riveting. The movie of it by Steve McQueen might be the most successful adaptation of a book ever undertaken; text and film complement each other wildly."

It is quite amazing to see the power of Hollywood in revitalizing an old book, like this 1853 classic, of which so few people appreciated its value till now.
Hardcover Paperback

Classic of the Month:Twelve Years a Slave

In honor of Black History Month, we are featuring an unique and influential work about slavery that has recently achieved renewed recognition because of the release of  major feature movie of the same name:Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.

In 1841, free-born African American Solomon Northup was offered a job in his hometown of Saratoga Springs, New York. He followed his employers to the job site at Washington, D.C., where he was beaten, drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, eventually ending up on a plantation in Louisiana owned by Edwin Epps. While there, in 1852, Northup befriended Canadian carpenter Samuel Bass, who was at the time doing work for Epps. Secretly, Bass was able to contact Northup's family, who informed New York governor Washington Hunt of his kidnapping. The state was able to use a law passed in 1840 that allowed the recovery of free black men who were sold into slavery to rescue Northup. Solomon was finally made free again on January 4, 1853. One of few slaves of his era ever to regain freedom, he devoted his time and energy to lecturing and educating others about abolitionism. Northup is without a doubt, a person worth celebrating.


Twelve Years a Slave was a bestseller in its time and remains one today. Northrup's work sold approximately 30,000 copies copies when it was first released, and has made the Top Ten of the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller list for 2013. A recent film adaptation by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt, has also earned the story the Golden Globe for Best Drama and nine Academy Award nominations including best picture, best actor in a leading and supporting role, best actress in a supporting role, and best director.

Cosimo is proud to have released both an affordable paperback and beautiful hardcover edition of Twelve Years a Slave at Barnes & Noble, as well as on Amazon (paperback and hardcover).

Book of the Month: The African Unconscious

In honor of Black History Month, we are featuring an unique and influential work on the origins of humanity and especially its African roots:The African Unconscious, Roots of Ancient Mysticism and Modern Psychology by Edward Bruce Bynum.

The African Unconscious, originally published at the turn of the 20th century, is an Afro-centric look at human history based on archaeology, genetics, and the biospiritual roots of religion and science. Author Edward Bruce Bynum offers a captivating and controversial viewpoint on the roots of our human existence, positing that all humans at their deepest core are variations on the African template, creating a shared identity and collective unconscious in all.





Praise for The African Unconscious:


"I read with awe this passionate, brilliant, epic work. It is one of the most exhaustive and revealing studies of Black and human origins I have ever seen." -Lee S. Sannella, M.D., author of The Kundalini Experience

"The African Unconscious is indeed a daring work, and a unique contribution to African diasporic studies. It is a must for all students of human psychology." -Rowland O. Abiodun, author of Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought

"The scope of the author's knowledge is simply awesome, and that, coupled with his engaging writing style, makes not for an 'easy' ready, but an adventuresome one.... For those who entertain notions of collective unconscious and deep structure racial messages, I cannot think of a better text that navigates such thinking." -William E. Cross, Jr., Ph.D., author of Shades of Black

For more information about Bynum, his books, articles, and work, visit his website. 

To watch talks and lectures he has given at the University of Massachusetts (where he is a clinical psychologist and the director of behavioral medicine) and around the U.S., visit YouTube.



The African Unconscious is available in paperback online at  Barnes & Noble, Amazon and leading online bookstores around the world. To purchase our eBook at a discounted rate, please visit reKiosk.

Twelve Years a Slave Takes Top Golden Globe Award and Receives Nine Oscar Award Nominations

The quite amazing story about how an old, nearly forgotten book becomes a star-casted movie with Oscar potential continues to unfold when Twelve Years a Slave took the Golden Globe for Best Drama, organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 

In the meanwhile, this movie has also received nine Academy Award nominations including best picture, best actor in a leading and supporting role, best actress in a supporting role, and best director. The Oscars will be presented on March 2, 2014.

Read this insightful interview in The Sydney Morning Herald with director Steve McQueen, who moved from Ghana to England, now lives in Amsterdam and was once called by his school teachers not to amount to anything and is now a Oscar contender. McQueen says this in his interview:

"It's no different," McQueen says. "Making a film is like writing a novel – you're telling a story – whereas art is more like poetry: fractured and compressed. It's a bigger process and of course, with film, more people are involved and it may take 10 months to make rather than the moment it takes to make a brushstroke. But when I think about it, it feels the same."


The interview continues:

' Of course the recognition is thrilling; McQueen said he was "exhilarated and ecstatic" about those nine Oscar nominations. But big films – and 12 Years a Slave, for all that it cost barely £10 million ($19 million) and was shot with one camera in 35 days, is a big film – also get picked apart in a big way. For a start, there is the film's brutality. The unwavering stare of McQueen's long takes levelled upon beatings and lynchings has proved too much for some audiences. But how could a film about slavery be anything but painfully violent?

McQueen says he simply followed Northup's book. "Reading it was like revelation after revelation," he says. "Everything is from the memoir; nothing is taken for granted and every behaviour is documented."

That's another objection: that 12 Years a Slave catalogues and condemns the sins of a past era, rather than addressing the muddier and more conflicted sins of the present. McQueen dismisses this with his customary abruptness. "The point is that it is happening now," he says. "I listened to a lady in Kenya who had been in the same circumstances: seduced by a work offer in Dubai, she went there, had her passport taken, was subjected to this terrible ordeal, locked up at night; she escaped in Los Angeles. The past is absolutely about the present for me."

Cosimo is proud to have released the original edition both in a jacketed hard cover and an affordable paperback both with a beautiful cover illustration from the original book. However many Oscars this movie may receive, it doesn't happen often that movie and book are both worth the experience. I wholeheartedly recommend watching the movie and reading the book.

The Cosimo editions are available from many leading online stores, such as Barnes & Noble in hardcover and paperback.

And Amazon - also in hardcover and paperback -:

Series of the Month: The Personal Power Books

As the New Year dawns, we continue to spend the month of January highlighting books that help the reader become the best version of themselves; as such, our Series of the Month is William Walker Atkinson's Personal Power Books, a 12-volume series co-written with Edward Beals, and designed to help the reader realize their full personal strength and best Self.

To Atkinson, Personal Power is "the ability of strength possessed by the human individual, by which he does, or may, accomplish desired results in an efficient manner, along the lines of physical, mental, and spiritual effort and endeavor." In other words, personal power is the attainment of control and understanding in all facets of your life. 

"You must become consciously aware of your essential and fundamental Self, before you will be able to employ the instruments at your hand. You must recognize your sovereignty, before you may mount your throne and rule your kingdom." 

-- William Walker Atkinson in Personal Power or Your Master Self

Like the author of our Classic of the Month, Wallace D. Wattles, Atkinson was a contributor to the New Thought movement, which argued that the divine is everywhere--including in the self, and that positive thinking can yield positive results in our daily lives. 

Each volume of this incredible set is devoted to a particular human power inherent in the Self and the means by which the reader can harness these powers to become a stronger, healthier, more successful person. The powers described include those of the subconscious, desire, and observation. 

The Personal Power Books are available in hardcover and paperback by individual volume via Amazon, and in digital format via Google Play. Contact us directly to purchase the full set at a special discounted price!

Book of the Month: The Joy of Ritual

“The Joy of Ritual is a road-map to celebrating life. This book will be a great companion on your journey to attaining clarity, balance, and calmness amid the chaos of life.”

— Donna Karan

Our Book of the Month may look familiar: we spotlighted Barbara Biziou's The Joy of Ritual back in September. We've chosen to spotlight it again because we think it's a great recommendation for our readers who may have New Year's Resolutions tied to self-improvement. 

The Joy of Ritual is an easily practicable recipe book for the soul, which helps the reader center and understand themselves. It's easy for New Year's resolutions to be forgotten as the days progress and we become busy living our lives; The Joy of Ritual is an easy-to-use manual that can help the busiest of us maintain a connection with the inner self. There are simple and quick rituals in the book to enhance our connection to the self every day, with more complicated and time-intensive rituals for those special moments when we seek greater guidance or understanding.

For more on the integration of simple rituals into your daily life, be sure to check out Biziou's new and improved website, which launched in December. This wonderful new site includes a link to sign up for a free Transformation Toolbox, and features vlog posts and links to Biziou's other products and events.

Start integrating the spiritual in your daily life with The Joy of Ritual in Kindle, Paperback, or in another digital reader format.

Classic of the Month: The Wallace D. Wattles Trilogy

 "The object of all life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining." 

- Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich

Continuing our focus on self-help books for January, our Classic of the Month is the Wallace D. Wattles Trilogy: The Science of Being Well, The Science of Getting Rich & The Science of Being Great. We are pleased to offer the authors' most significant works together in one attractive hardcover or paperback book.

Wattles' titles might have somewhat grandiose titles, but he knew what he was talking about: it is said that Wattles practiced everything he preached in Being Well, Getting Rich, and Being Great--accomplishing all three in his short lifetime.

Wattles was a respected contributor to the New Thought movement, which argued that divinity dwells in each person, that people must love themselves and one another, and that our mental state directly effects our experience of daily life. Wattles believed in and practiced creative visualization, the process of forming a mental image of your goals and working toward the realization of that vision.

Rhonda Byrne, author of the hugely popular bestseller The Secret, has cited Wattles' The Science of Getting Rich as the inspiration for her work. In this first volume in the trilogy, Wattles outlines straightforward ways to overcome the mental barriers that keep us from success, and how the "use of the will" can yield positive outcomes and monetary rewards.

The Science of Being Well provides a practical guide to health through the power of positive thinking. It also provides philosophical ruminations on how to maintain health through the application of both thought and action:

"to be well it is not enough that man should merely think in a Certain Way; he must apply his thought to himself, and he must express and externalize it in his outward life by acting in the same way that he thinks."

 The text includes thoughts on when, how, and what to eat, as well as a whole chapter on the act of breathing.

In the last volume of this trilogy, The Science of Being Great, Wattles enumerates the steps one may take to become their most successful self. To Wattles, "greatness" means positive self-image and personal growth, as well as the attainment of power. He argues that it is mans purpose to grow and advance--to progress.

"Nothing was ever in any man that is not in you; no man ever had more spiritual or mental power than you can attain, or did greater things than you can accomplish. You can become what you want to be."

In this text Wattles continues to illustrate the power of positive thinking and creative visualization.

We are pleased to offer the Wallace D. Wattles Trilogy in an attractive hardcover, as well as paperback via Amazon and B&N.

A New You For the New Year

As the new year approaches many people find themselves taking stock of their past year, analyzing their accomplishments and failures and deciding on new goals and resolutions for the coming year. For many it's a surprisingly tough part of the year, as all the stress of the holiday season melts away and finds us at our most introspective and self-critical. We criticize ourselves for the sweets we ate at Christmas, the choices that didn't yield quite the results we expected, or the relationships that ended. Self-introspection can be a powerful (and, indeed, necessary) thing, but we have to engage in it in a way that yields positivity and proactivity.

At Cosimo our motto is "Be inspired. Be informed." Our motto is not just about understanding the world around us, however--it's also about the importance of understanding ourselves and inspiring ourselves (and our readers) to be stronger, better people. With that in mind, we'd like to recommend a few spirituality and personal development titles that we love, and which help the reader generate positivity and understanding both outwards to others and inwards towards the self. We think they're the perfect companion to a New Year's resolution, and guidebooks to a New You in the New Year.

Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Your Soul's Story, by Robert Atkinson
Mystic Journey is an award-winning work on the process of "soul-making," helping the reader understand themselves and connect to others. It asks the reader to recognize the "patterns of transformation" that unfold in our lives, and how we all share a spiritual heritage. Mystic Journey is a wonderful text for those interested in practicable soul-making and self-actualization. Mystic Journey is available via Google Books, Amazon (for Kindle and Paperback), Barnes & Noble (for Nook and Paperback), and is available for digital download at a special December price of just $4.99 at reKiosk.

The Joy of Ritual: Spiritual Recipes to Celebrate Milestones, Ease Transitions, and Make Every Day Sacred, by Barbara Biziou
Our September Book of the Month, Biziou's Joy of Ritual is a recipe book for fortifying the soul. Biziou's recipes integrate ritual and spiritual practices into our daily lives to help us cope with transitions and changes. By integrating the sacred into our lives, rituals allow us to stabilize our lives and transform the ordinary into moments of reflection and self-understanding. This easy-to-use recipe book provides practicable ceremonies the reader can use in their daily life to center themselves, or to honor special occasions and milestones. The Joy of Ritual is available in various digital formats, including for the Kindle, as well as in paperback. Be sure to check out Biziou's new website, with weekly vlogs and affirmations.

The Self-Inquiry Process: Using Powerful Questions to Awaken Awareness, by Linda Brierty
Brierty's Self-Inquiry Process is an experiential workbook for the reader seeking to understand themselves through an active questioning of the self. The Self-Inquiry Process guides the reader through a journey of self-discovery through the positing of questions, from simple and direct to more complex questions like "What is the difference between surrender and giving up?" The workbook is meant to help the reader better understand--and love--themselves. The Self-Inquiry Process is available in Paperback via Amazon and B&N, for Kindle, Nook, and other eReader formats.

The Book of Balance, by Yasuhiko Genku Kimura
"The Tao Eternal is beyond definition. / No name given can capture its eternality."
Translated from Tao Teh Ching, by Lao Tzu, The Book of Balance provides a foundation for the reader to gain spiritual insight and character development. Lao Tzu is often considered the founder of philosophical Taoism, and this translation is considered a particularly artful translation, maintaining the poetics of the text without sacrificing its complexity. The Book of Balance is a challenging yet rewarding read, available as a Google Book, for Kindle, and in Paperback via B&N and Amazon.

Everything You Want to Know About TM--Including How to Do It, by John White
TM, or Transcendental Meditation, is a powerful form of meditation that helps reduce stress and create a state of relaxed awareness. White provides a comprehensive history of TM and other forms of meditation, allowing the reader to understand the deep history of the process they are about to undertake. White's history and analysis of TM provides a helpful background to the TM user, who can then use the chapter "How to Do TM" to begin practicing TM themselves. White's work is available in Paperback and for Kindle via Amazon, for Nook and in Paperback via B&N, and in various digital formats at reKiosk.

Mystic Journey on Sale for the Holidays

For a limited time only we're offering Mystic Journey, Getting to the Heart of Your Soul's Story, by Robert Atkinson, at a special holiday price; till the end of the month you can purchase a digital copy of this enlightening work for just $4.99 for your Kindle or other eReader (also available in paperback).

"Over time, I became even more curious about what it was that inspires and motivates elders to live life so deeply. That was the seed of what ultimately led me years later to a career in teaching human development and helping people tell their life stories." - Robert Atkinson, in an interview with reKiosk contributor Firouz Ardalan 

Mystic Journey was recently awarded the 2013 Bronze Living Now Book Award in the "enlightenment & spirituality" category. This life-changing work instructs readers on the process of "soul-making," helping them determine who they are, connecting them to both themselves and others, and transforming their lives for the better. Through Mystic Journey the reader gets to the "heart of their soul's story."

For more information on Robert Atkinson and soul-making, check out his website, featuring the author's personal reflections about the mystic journey and excerpts from this award-winning title. And check out this fascinating interview with online marketplace reKiosk, wherein Atkinson discusses how he became fascinated with the telling of personal stories, the soul's journey, and how modern technology has changed the way we interact with ourselves and others.

Series of the Month: The Complete Works of Charles Dickens

"Marley was dead, to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that." - A Christmas Carol

As the author of one of the most well-loved (and oft-retold) Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens remains inextricably linked in our minds to the holiday season. Who can help but think of Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts that visit him, reminding him of the spirit of Christmas and kindness? Every holiday season this beloved tale is broadcast on television, presented on stage, and read by fireside. It's a quintessential holiday text that has inspired many a disgruntled person to utter the phrase "Bah! Humbug!"

A Christmas Carol remains one of the most popular Dickens adaptations despite the fact that it's one of Dickens' slighter works; as a novella, it's quite a bit shorter than the average Dickensian epic. But did you know it's not the author's only Christmas tale? Two entire volumes of The Complete Works of Charles Dickens are devoted to his Christmas stories. The volume entitled "A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books" includes: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain. The volume simply called "Christmas Stories" includes tales Dickens originally published in his own magazines, including: The Seven Poor Travelers, The Holly-tree Inn, The Haunted House, The Schoolboy's Story, and What Christmas Is as We Grow Older."

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!"   - A Christmas Carol

It's in celebration of Dickens's endearing and enduring work that we chose The Complete Works of Charles Dickens as our Series of the Month for December. This month we celebrate Dickens' incredible talents as the author of some of the world's most beloved and well-known novels. We celebrate a man whose works remain foremost in the popular imagination, continually serving as a source for adaptation to stage and screen. Indeed, the grandiose scope of his works practically beg for film and stage adaptations, as these stories remain relevant and compelling: themes regarding man's struggle to be good, the cruelness of class struggle, and a person's desire to belong remain as relevant today as they were in Dickens' Victorian London.

"Welcome, old aspirations, glittering creatures of an ardent fancy, to your shelter underneath the holly! We know you, and have not outlived you yet." - What Christmas Is as We Grow Older

The Complete Works of Charles Dickens is a 30-volume set reproduction of the original edition, complete with original illustrations, in affordable paperback or beautiful hardcover. This essential collection is available as a wonderful gift set or by individual volume. 

Please contact us today for a special discount of 20% off the list price for the full set, or purchase your particular favorites by volume at Amazon or Barnes & Noble online.