Books published by publisher Tantor Media Inc

We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions of people. This book is an antidote to pessimism by tech entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler. Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing -- fast. Diamandis and Kotler document how four forces are conspiring to solve our biggest problems. Abundance establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic road map for governments, industry, and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism.

Greek poet Homer established the standard for tales of epic quests and heroic journeys with the Odyssey. Crowded with characters, both human and nonhuman, and bursting with action, the Odyssey details the adventures of Ulysses, king of Ithaca and hero of the Trojan War, as he struggles to return to his home and his waiting, ever-faithful wife, Penelope. Along the way Ulysses encounters the seductive Circe, who changes men into swine; the gorgeous water-nymph Calypso, who keeps him a “prisoner of love” for seven years; the terrible, one-eyed, man-eating giant Cyclops; and a host of other ogres, wizards, sirens, and gods. But when he finally reaches Ithaca after ten years of travel, his trials have only begun. There he must battle the scheming noblemen who, thinking him dead, have demanded that Penelope choose one of them to be her new husband---and Ithaca's new king. Often called the “second work of Western literature” (the Iliad, also by Homer, being the first), the Odyssey is not only a rousing adventure drama but also a profound meditation on courage, loyalty, family, fate, and undying love. More than 3,000 years old, it was the first story to delineate carefully and exhaustively a single character arc---a narrative structure that serves as the foundation and heart of the modern novel.

A preeminent scientist -- and the world's most prominent atheist -- asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11. With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong but potentially deadly. It also offers exhilarating insight into the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universe's wonders than any faith could ever muster. Richard Dawkins taught zoology at the University of California at Berkeley and at Oxford University and is now the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position he has held since 1995. The New York Times Book Review has hailed him as a writer who “understands the issues so clearly that he forces his reader to understand them too. “ Among his previous books are The Ancestor's Tale, The Selfish Gene, and The Blind Watchmaker.

David Copperfield is the quintessential novel by England's most beloved novelist. Based in part on Dickens's own life, it is the story of a young man's journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among its gloriously vivid cast of characters, he encounters his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; the frivolous, enchanting Dora; and one of literature's great comic creations, the magnificently impecunious Mr. Micawber---a character resembling Dickens's own father. In David Copperfield---the novel he described as his “favorite child”---Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.

When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert of Green Gables send for a boy orphan to help them out at their farm, they mistakenly get Anne Shirley, a feisty, independent but warm-hearted 11-year-old girl. Fortunately her sunny nature and quirky imagination win the hearts of her reluctant foster parents and everyone in the community. But not a day goes by without some memorable adventure or prank in the tragicomedy of her life. Early on she accidentally dyes her “cursed” red hair green. Later, in an effort to impress a neighbor she bakes a cake, but with liniment instead of vanilla. Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote that Anne is an extension of herself and represents the independent, “new” woman of the emerging 20th century. Individualistic, resourceful, and of a great humanitarian heart, she remains a great role model for girls and women today.

“The months went by, binding stronger and stronger the covenant between dog and man. This was the ancient covenant that the first wolf that came in from the Wild entered into with man. And, like all succeeding wolves and wild dogs that had done likewise, White Fang worked the covenant out for himself. The terms were simple. For the possession of a flesh-and-blood god, he exchanged his own liberty. Food and fire, protection and companionship, were some of the things he received from the god. In return, he guarded the god's property, defended his body, worked for him, and obeyed him.” -- White Fang Part wolf, part dog, White Fang survives assaults by nature, circumstance, and men. Jack London's tale of adversity and perseverance in the northern wilderness continues to enthrall the young and old alike.

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her.” --Excerpt Northanger Abbey, written in 1798, was not published until after Austen's death when it was compiled with her final novel, Persuasion. It is a fierce parody of the late 18th century's Gothic-style fainting heroines and haunted medieval buildings. Northanger Abbey concerns a typical Austen heroine, young Catherine Morland, who is taken to the fashionable resort of Bath by her friends, the Allens. From there she travels to the epynomous medieval abbey, the seat of the Tilneys. The novel's central theme, common to Emma and Sense and Sensibility is the peril of confusing life and art.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when perfectly rational people ran the Republican Party. So how did the party of Lincoln become the party of lunatics? That is what this book aims to answer. Fear not, the Dems come in for their share of tough talk-they are zombies, a party of the living dead.Mike Lofgren came to Washington in the early eighties-those halcyon, post-Nixonian glory days-for what he imagined would be a short stint on Capitol Hill. He has witnessed quite a few low points in his twenty-eight years on the Hill-but none quite so pitiful as the antics of the current crop of legislators whom we appear to have elected.Based on the explosive article Lofgren wrote when he resigned in disgust after the debt ceiling crisis, The Party Is Over is a funny and impassioned exposé of everything that is wrong with Washington. Obama and his tired cohorts are no angels but they have nothing on the Republicans, whose wily strategists are bankrupting the country one craven vote at a time. Be prepared for some fireworks.

The American Revolution is over, but the violence continues in the Ohio Valley. Jonathan Zane and Lewis Wetzel are in constant action trying turn the tide. But just when the beautiful Betty Sheppard convinces Jonathan to give up his lonely war, she is captured, and taken into the unknown wilderness. Jonathan and Lewis set out on their last desperate journey to save her. The pair have to battle not only Indians and privation, but their own inner demons in this startling unexpected conclusion to the 'Ohio River Trilogy'.

In this sequel to The Princess and the Goblin, Curdie has returned to his life as a miner and has dismissed the supernatural happenings of the past, believing them to have been a dream. When Curdie callously wounds a pigeon, his conscience leads him to Princess Irene's mystical great-great-grandmother for help. She has him plunge his hands into a pile of rose petals that burns like fire. Extraordinarily, this grants him the power to see what kind of “animal” a person is at heart. She then sends him on a quest, accompanied by a peculiar dog-like creature named Lina, who was once a human. However, Curdie must resolve his own skepticism before he can use the powers granted to him to defeat the evil that is threatening the future of the kingdom.