Best Selling Books by David Adams

Hercules, Zeus, Thor, Gilgamesh--these are the figures that leap to mind when we think of myth. But to David Leeming, myths are more than stories of deities and fantastic beings from non-Christian cultures. Myth is at once the most particular and the most universal feature of civilization, representing common concerns that each society voices in its own idiom. Whether an Egyptian story of creation or the big-bang theory of modern physics, myth is metaphor, mirroring our deepest sense of ourselves in relation to existence itself. Now, in The World of Myth, Leeming provides a sweeping anthology of myths, ranging from ancient Egypt and Greece to the Polynesian islands and modern science. We read stories of great floods from the ancient Babylonians, Hebrews, Chinese, and Mayans; tales of apocalypse from India, the Norse, Christianity, and modern science; myths of the mother goddess from Native American Hopi culture and James Lovelock''s Gaia. Leeming has culled myths from Aztec, Greek, African, Australian Aboriginal, Japanese, Moslem, Hittite, Celtic, Chinese, and Persian cultures, offering one of the most wide-ranging collections of what he calls the collective dreams of humanity. More important, he has organized these myths according to a number of themes, comparing and contrasting how various societies have addressed similar concerns, or have told similar stories. In the section on dying gods, for example, both Odin and Jesus sacrifice themselves to renew the world, each dying on a tree. Such traditions, he proposes, may have their roots in societies of the distant past, which would ritually sacrifice their kings to renew the tribe. In The World of Myth, David Leeming takes us on a journey "not through a maze of falsehood but through a marvellous world of metaphor," metaphor for "the story of the relationship between the known and the unknown, both around us and within us." Fantastic, tragic, bizarre, sometimes funny, the myths he presents speak of the most fundamental human experience, a part of what Joseph Campbell called "the wonderful song of the soul''s high adventure."

Leeming illustrates the various rites of passage of the mythic universal hero, from birth to childhood, through trial and quest, death, descent, rebirth, and ascension. The arrangement of texts by themes such as "The Descent to the Underworld" and "Resurrection and Rebirth" strip mythic characters of their national and cultural "masks" to reveal their archetypal aspects. Real figures, including Jesus and Mohammed, are also included to underline the theory that myths are real and can be applied to real life. This updated edition includes additional myths, as well as Navajo, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, and African tales.

Annotation - A fascinating account of Britain''s mythic traditions.

Works such as Joseph Conrad''s Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, Virginia Woolf''s The Voyage Out, E. M. Forster''s A Passage to India, and Evelyn Waugh''s A Handful of Dust explore the relationship between Britain and its colonies when the British Empire was at its height. David Adams observes that, because of their structure and specific literary allusions, they also demand to be read in relation to the epic tradition. The elegantly written and powerfully argued Colonial Odysseys focuses on narratives published in English between 1890 and 1940 in which protagonists journey from the familiar world of Europe to alien colonial worlds. The underlying concerns of these narratives, Adams discovers, are often less political or literary than metaphysical: in each of these fictions a major character dies as a result of the journey, inviting reflection on the negation of existence. Repeatedly, imaginative encounters with distant, uncanny colonies produce familiar, insular presentations of life as an odyssey, with death as the home port. Expanding postcolonial and Marxist theories by drawing on the philosophy of Hans Blumenberg, Adams finds in this preoccupation with mortality a symptom of the failure of secular culture to give meaning to death. This concern, in his view, shapes the ways modernist narratives reinforce or critique imperial culture—the authors project onto British imperial experience their anxieties about the individual''s relation to the absolute.

We have shown you the focus of PEACE, and through that we invite you to look at YOUR DIVINE PLAN, and to work with it through both your energy bodies and your physical bodies, by HARMONIZING the CONSCIOUSNESS and the MIND in a single purpose of PEACEFUL BEINGNESS !! The more you radiate the ESSENCE OF PEACE from within yourself, the greater the PEACE that will be achieved on the Planet itself. From a tiny acorn the oak Tree will grow! And from your INDIVIDUAL LIGHT OF PEACE, the greater Planetary PEACE will grow. This is the message I took to the BLUE PLANET eons of time ago. It is the message that I bring to YOU now. It is for YOU to determine if you run with it or ignore it, individually or collectively. I merely offer an alternative .. PEACE, LOVE AND HARMONY IN ALL HEARTS AND MINDS. From Sananda, January 21, 2001

David Leeming and Jake Page gather some seventy-five of the most potent and meaningful of these tales in an extraordinary rich and readable introduction of this divine figure as she has emerged from prehistory to the present.

Presents a variety of myths, tales, and legends. Includes Native American tales about creation, goddesses, trickster gods, the Indian and the white man, as well as Hispanic American, Asian American, Anglo American, and African American stories. Features patriotic heroes, American loners, frontiersman, and tall tales, Western outlaws, lawmen, and cowboys, slave rebels, and Blues legends, among other topics.

US Air Force Airman Amanda Turner is trapped underground. Locked in a massive underground vault. The world outside is toxic, the ground below them solid rock. There is no way out. No escape. There are three thousand, nine hundred, and ninety one men. And nine women. Nine. A novel in three acts, set in Hugh Howey''s world of Wool.

"A brilliant introduction to David Adams''s immediately likable characters and wonderful writing, New Fleece on Life is the perfect What-If story. Anyone fond of happier endings should give it a read; anyone eager to catch a star on the rise should follow David''s writing career closely." - Hugh Howey, author of Wool and the Silo series. One day, on Kboards, I started a Lacuna/Wool crossover as a joke. It was literally a few lines thrown together from the top of my head and a poorly photoshopped cover. It was one of many joke threads and I had no idea where it was going. The readers--including Hugh himself--wanted more, so I posted more. And they kept wanting more. So I posted more. And they asked for more. And here we are. Wool and the canonical tale of Holston is over, but this is what could have happened if everyone involved lost their minds. In the true tradition of terrible fanfiction shipping, New Fleece on Life is poorly written and poorly structured, everyone acts wildly out of character and, in the interests of the ''ship'', all previous emotional and romantic entanglements are disregarded so that all involved can throw themselves into a flimsily constructed, hasty and poorly thought out fling with little thought to the consequences. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed, in a sincere and genuine way, writing it.

This study of domestic homicide in America examines the lives and moitvation of men who kill their intimate partners.

In the first comprehensive narrative study of the mythology of the Middle East, David Leeming ranges from prehistoric figures such as the Mother Goddess of Çatal Hüyük to Mesopotamian gods such as Marduk and mythic heroes such as Gilgamesh, to the pantheon of Egyptian mythology, including the falcon-headed sky-sun god Horus and jackal-headed Anubis. The author also offers an illuminating exploration of the mythology of the three great monotheistic religions of the region: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

A major life of one of the most influential black writers of our time, James Baldwin (Go Tell It on the Mountain, The Fire Next Time). Leeming, Baldwin''s friend for 25 years, accessed all of Baldwin''s private papers to bring readers closer than ever to the complex man who struggled out of Harlem to become a legend of American literature. Photos.

Are the conspiracy theorists both right and wrong? Could it be that Roswell and Area 51 are just red herrings? That governments are hiding not past contacts but the prospect of a dangerous future contact? This is the story of two remarkable young women and their journey of discovery. Set against that background, without knowing why their work is supported by world governments, they will lead humans to the stars.

Covering thousands of years of intricate creation tales, this book is the first and most comprehensive work devoted to creation myths from cultures throughout the world.