Film: The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise

DVD: In Japan, Civil War veteran Captain Nathan Algren trains the Emperor's troops to use modern weapons as they prepare to defeat the last of the country's samurais. But Algren's passion is swayed when he is captured by the samurai and learns about their traditions and code of honor.

Philosophy & Religion: Shia-Sunni the Story of the Split in Islam, Riddle of Influence, & Ecotherapy

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam (BOOK): by Lesley Hazleton

Narrative history at its most compelling, After the Prophet relates the dramatic tragic story at the heart of the ongoing rivalry between Shia and Sunni Islam.

Even as Muhammad lay dying, the battle over his successor had begun. Pitting the family of his favorite wife, the controversial Aisha, against supporters of his son-in-law, the philosopher-warrior Ali, the struggle would reach its breaking point fifty years later in Iraq, when soldiers of the first Sunni dynasty massacred seventy-two warriors led by Muhammad's grandson Hussein at Karbala. Hussein's agonizing ordeal at Karbala was soon to become the Passion story at the core of Shia Islam.

Hazleton's vivid, gripping prose provides extraordinary insight into the origins of the world's most volatile blend of politics and religion. Balancing past and present, she shows how these seventh-century events are as alive in Middle Eastern hearts and minds today as though they had just happened, shaping modern headlines from Iran's Islamic Revolution to the civil war in Iraq.

Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of Influence (BOOK): edited by Christine Daigle and Jacob Golomb

"This collection of essays is a remarkable achievement. It allows readers access to the exciting domain of existential philosophy, fiction, autobiography, and more." –Shannon M. Mussett, Utah Valley University

Bettelheim: Living and Dying (BOOK): by David James Fisher

"... A historical gold mine for research into the history of psychoanalysis. ... This collections of essays is valuable both for Fisher's interpretative insights and the publication of several primary documents in the history of European and North American psychoanalysis."–Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, Vol. 45 (s), Spring 2009

"An important and engaging book ... provides rich and intriguing perspectives on this extraordinary and complicated man, including personal accounts by the author who served as confidante to Bettelheim in the years just prior to Bettelheim's suicide. ... this fine books, overall, is a balanced portrait, written with care, style, and thoughtfulness, about a man whose contributions continue to await the widespread recognition they are due."–Clinical Social Work 37 (2009)

Conflict and Creativity at Work: Human Roots of Corporate Life (BOOK): by Albert Low

This book Contributes to the tide of activism that is calling for higher ethical standards and corporate social responsibility within the corporate world. It offers a new way to look at a company, work, a product and company organization. To compete in the West we must revise the present antiquated corporate philosophy that asserts that the interests of the stockholder are the only interests that the corporation can legally serve and adopt policies that promote corporate social responsibility.

Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (BOOK): edited by Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist foreword by David W. Orr

In the 14 years since Sierra Club Books published Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner’s groundbreaking anthology, Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, the editors of this new volume have often been asked: Where can I find out more about the psyche-world connection? How can I do hands-on work in this area? Ecotherapy was compiled to answer these and other urgent questions.

Ecotherapy, or applied ecopsychology, encompasses a broad range of nature-based methods of psychological healing, grounded in the crucial fact that people are inseparable from the rest of nature and nurtured by healthy interaction with the Earth. Leaders in the field, including Robert Greenway, and Mary Watkins, contribute essays that take into account the latest scientific understandings and the deepest indigenous wisdom. Other key thinkers, from Bill McKibben to Richard Louv to Joanna Macy, explore the links among ecotherapy, spiritual development, and restoring community.

As mental-health professionals find themselves challenged to provide hard evidence that their practices actually work, and as costs for traditional modes of psychotherapy rise rapidly out of sight, this book offers practitioners and interested lay readers alike a spectrum of safe, effective alternative approaches backed by a growing body of research.

Essentials of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment (BOOK): by Naomi L. Quenk

From the Author: This is the only book available (other than the 1998 MBTI Manual) that focuses exclusively on Form M, the new standard form of the MBTI. It is an excellent resource for people who want to increase their comfort and skill in using the MBTI with clients. It has detailed guidelines for introducing and explaining each dichotomy, including questions to ask that will help people identify their preferences. What is most distinctive about the book, however, is that it provides comprehensive descriptions of clients and therapists of different types and how type influences the counseling process. Included are: what brings different types to counseling, what approaches they prefer, and what they expect to achieve from therapy. Similar information is covered for counselors regarding their preferred therapy styles and the kinds of client with whom they most enjoy working. The assets and pitfalls that are likely to occur for different client-therapist combinations are also described.