Near the end of his long life, in 1904, he wrote yet another story of the Caucasus, an area he knew from his own military experiences there in his twenties (the 1850s), participating in incursions into the Caucasus area. The Russian long-term strategy in the Caucacus had developed into a continuing effort to unite Orthodox Christian Russia itself with the Christian nation of Georgia. The area in between, however, had long been settled by various ethnic groups of the Muslim faith, often at odds with each other, among which were the Chechens. This story, though told as fiction, is about a real...

The I Ching gives advice on how to face any life situation, requiring the seeker to cast yarrowsticks or coins to arrive at an "answer." This edition offers yet another "casting" option, the Button Oracle (online only, at www.bandannabooks.com/iching/button.php); and, if that answer's not enough, use the refresh button. Whether you are a believer or not, the I Ching, perhaps the world's oldest book, stands as a remarkable document of human psychology. However, one translation problem has plagued most Western editions, which typically speak of the "exceptional man" or "he" throughout. To...