Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship


Alan Hirsch - 2010
    Are we willing to critique and even challenge much we've been taught for the sake of the kingdom? For this is the radical nature of the discipleship to which Jesus calls us. He did not allow the outside culture to hold him captive; instead he established the kingdom of God and turned the world on its head. Jesus was untamed, and he calls his church to be the same.In this provocative and compelling book, internationally known missiologists Alan and Debra Hirsch overthrow culturized understandings of theology and culture, and cast a vision for a distinctly mission-shaped way of living the Christian life. Written for any Christian serious about issue of discipleship, Untamed covers such topics as church, humans as bearers of the image of God, family life, culture, and sexuality. Through it all they seek to answer the question, how are we to think and live day to day as followers of Jesus?Each chapter ends with suggested practices to help readers begin to live out the book's principles as well as questions for group discussion.

The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life


Robert Trivers - 2011
    So why does deception play such a prominent role in our everyday lives? In short, why do we deceive?In his bold new work, prominent biological theorist Robert Trivers unflinchingly argues that self-deception evolved in the service of deceit—the better to fool others. We do it for biological reasons—in order to help us survive and procreate. From viruses mimicking host behavior to humans misremembering (sometimes intentionally) the details of a quarrel, science has proven that the deceptive one can always outwit the masses. But we undertake this deception at our own peril.Trivers has written an ambitious investigation into the evolutionary logic of lying and the costs of leaving it unchecked.

Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts


Isaac Asimov - 1979
    president to be born in a hospital.

Invisible Romans


Robert Knapp - 2011
    Yet the privilege and decadence often associated with the Roman elite was underpinned by the toils and tribulations of the common citizens. Here, the eminent historian Robert Knapp brings those invisible inhabitants of Rome and its vast empire to light.He seeks out the ordinary folk laboring men, housewives, prostitutes, freedmen, slaves, soldiers, and gladiators who formed the backbone of the ancient Roman world, and the outlaws and pirates who lay beyond it. He finds their traces in the nooks and crannies of the histories, treatises, plays, and poetry created by the elite. Everyday people come alive through original sources as varied as graffiti, incantations, magical texts, proverbs, fables, astrological writings, and even the New Testament.Knapp offers a glimpse into a world far removed from our own, but one that resonates through history. "Invisible Romans" allows us to see how Romans sought on a daily basis to survive and thrive under the afflictions of disease, war, and violence, and to control their fates before powers that variously oppressed and ignored them.

Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Religions


Cami OstmanNikki Smith - 2013
    Covering a wide range of religious communities—including Evangelical, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, Calvinist, Moonie, and Jehovah’s Witness—and containing contributions from authors like Julia Scheeres (Jesus Land), the stories in Beyond Belief reveal how these women became involved, what their lives were like, and why they came to the decision to eventually abandon their faiths. The authors shed a bright light on the rigid expectations and misogyny so often built into religious orthodoxy, yet they also explain the lure—why so many women are attracted to these lifestyles, what they find that’s beautiful about living a religious life, and why leaving can be not only very difficult but also bittersweet.

Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth


Chris Stringer - 2011
    Stringer's new theory, based on archeological and genetic evidence, holds that distinct humans coexisted and competed across the African continent—exchanging genes, tools, and behavioral strategies.Stringer draws on analyses of old and new fossils from around the world, DNA studies of Neanderthals (using the full genome map) and other species, and recent archeological digs to unveil his new theory. He shows how the most sensational recent fossil findings fit with his model, and he questions previous concepts (including his own) of modernity and how it evolved.Lone Survivors will be the definitive account of who and what we were, and will change perceptions about our origins and about what it means to be human.

White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf


Aaron Bobrow-Strain - 2012
    As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion “good food” reflect dreams of a better society—even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies.   In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, “dirty” bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original “superfood” and even marketed as patriotic—while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America.   The history of America’s one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation’s decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for “unhealthy” eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.

Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China


Leta Hong Fincher - 2014
    Yet those gains are now being eroded in China's post-socialist era. Contrary to many claims made in the mainstream media, women in China have experienced a dramatic rollback of many rights and gains relative to men. "Leftover Women" debunks the popular myth that women have fared well as a result of post-socialist China's economic reforms and breakneck growth.

Essentials of Physical Anthropology [With Infotrac]


Robert Jurmain - 1995
    The text presents a balanced, thorough introduction to the field of physical anthropology that also reflects the current state of the field. The heredity and evolution chapters (Chapters 1-5) have been expanded and updated to reflect the tremendous advances of molecular biology in all phases of physical anthropology, and the hominid evolution chapters (Chapters 8-11) have been reorganized and reinterpreted to reflect current academic thought springing from recent major finds. To make the text more accessible, the Sixth Edition includes many new visuals that, together with the many charts, helpful tables, multimedia, and engaging writing style, will bring the study of physical anthropology to life for today's student.

The Essential Scratch Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whiskey Know-It-All: Know Your Booze Before You Choose


Richard Betts - 2015
    Every day, craft distilleries are popping up in remote counties and urban centers, offering a wealth of great choices to consumers—and just as many puzzlements. Does the introduction of a simple “e” to go from whisky to whiskey mean anything? What’s the difference between Scotch and Rye? What’s Canadian whisky anyway? And what about the whiskeys of Scotland, Japan, and Ireland? Where's a humble Joe to start?  In this witty kid-style book on an adult topic, Richard Betts boils down his know-how into twenty pages, cooling our “brown-sweat” anxieties and dividing whiskey into three simple categories: Grain, Wood, and Place. While most whiskey tomes are about as fun as a chemistry lesson, Betts makes the learning slide down easy, reassuring us that this exalted spirit is just distilled beer and, through a nasal romp, helping us figure out which kinds we love best. Humorous illustrations and scratch-and-sniff scents (vanilla, sandalwood, grass, and more) help would-be connoisseurs learn their personal preferences. Language label and Map to Your Desires included.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Decoded: The Full Text of Lewis Carroll's Novel with its Many Hidden Meanings Revealed


David Day - 2015
    But it turns out we have only scratched the surface. Scholar David Day has spent many years down the rabbit hole of this children's classic and has emerged with a revelatory new view of its contents. What we have here, he brilliantly and persuasively argues, is a complete classical education in coded form--Carroll's gift to his "wonder child" Alice Liddell.      In two continuous commentaries, woven around the complete text of the novel for ease of cross-reference on every page, David Day reveals the many layers of teaching, concealed by manipulation of language, that are carried so lightly in the beguiling form of a fairy tale. These layers relate directly to Carroll's interest in philosophy, history, mathematics, classics, poetry, spiritualism and even to his love of music--both sacred and profane. His novel is a memory palace, given to Alice as the great gift of an education. It was delivered in coded form because in that age, it was a gift no girl would be permitted to receive in any other way.     Day also shows how a large number of the characters in the book are based on real Victorians. Wonderland, he shows, is a veritable "Who's Who" of Oxford at the height of its power and influence in the Victorian Age.     There is so much to be found behind the imaginary characters and creatures that inhabit the pages of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. David Day's warm, witty and brilliantly insightful guide--beautifully designed and stunningly illustrated throughout in full colour--will make you marvel at the book as never before.From the Hardcover edition.

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo


Eric Hansen - 1988
    Completely cut off from the outside world for seven months, he traveled nearly 1,500 miles with small bands of nomadic hunters known as Penan. Beneath the rain forest canopy, they trekked through a hauntingly beautiful jungle where snakes and frogs fly, pigs climb trees, giant carnivorous plants eat mice, and mushrooms glow at night. At once a modern classic of travel literature and a gripping adventure story, Stranger in the Forest provides a rare and intimate look at the vanishing way of life of one of the last surviving groups of rain forest dwellers. Hansen's absorbing, and often chilling, account of his exploits is tempered with the humor and humanity that prompted the Penan to take him into their world and to share their secrets.

Henry Darger


Klaus Biesenbach - 2009
    Angel-like Blengins with butterfly wings, natural catastrophes, innocent girls, and murderous soldiers all appear in Darger's scenes, which are reproduced in this book in double-page and gatefold spreads. In the volume's introductory essay, Klaus Biesenbach examines the radical originality of Darger's art, including his use of collage, incorporation of religious themes and iconography, and frequent juxtaposition of innocence with violence. An essay by Brooke Davis Anderson illuminates Darger's source materials and techniques. Michael Bonesteel puts Darger's life in the context of his work and selects key texts to accompany the illustrations. The book also includes for the first time the text of Darger's History of My Life, A" the artist's autobiography. The only book of its kind, Henry Darger offers an authoritative, balanced, and insightful look at an American master

Uncle John's Fast-Acting Long-Lasting Bathroom Reader (Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, #18)


Bathroom Readers' Institute - 2005
    That’s right, folks, this is the book you’ve been waiting for! Number 18 in the Bathroom Reader series is flush with fun, new factoids, trivia, and all the usual useless (and occasionally useful!) information our fans have come to expect. Ever wonder what you can do with Preparation H besides the obvious? Want to learn more about celebrity jailbirds or whether dragons really exist? Then it’s time to take the plunge!

Seeing in the Dark: Myths and Stories to Reclaim the Buried, Knowing Woman


Clarissa Pinkola Estés - 2010
    Clarissa Pinkola Estés refers to as “the one who knows”—the instinctive, intuitive nature. This, she teaches, is the source of creativity and understanding that lies out of sight in darkness, often called the unconscious.On Seeing in the Dark, we join the esteemed Jungian psychoanalyst and bestselling author to learn how to perceive through the eyes of the soul as well as through the eyes of the ego. This dual way of seeing, being, and acting, Dr. Estés explains, is the most direct way to reclaim the gifts of the “healing apothecary” set into each soul at birth. On two CDs of empowering insights, special blessing prayers, and original stories—told here for the first time—Dr. Estés inspires us to find our one-of-a-kind voice and trust in our ability to “see beyond the obvious, to see beyond the cultural,” as she introduces: “The Fire Owl””—an all-new tale about reclaiming the fire of enthusiasm when others would try to steal it away• “The Corpse Bride””—an all-new story about the hope which cannot die and the power of redemption• “The Erl König,” “The Rebbe in Prison,” “The Man Who Sought Treasure Afar,” and more“We are weakly linked or else severed from the wild and wise self,” says Dr. Estés. “Yet, deep creative life is informed by the realm of mystery, dreams, sudden knowings; the shadow.” Seeing in the Dark is an inspiring call to “mine the raw gems of spirit, soul, and creative life”—again, or for the very first time. Note: Portions of this program excerpted from the full-length audio course Mother Night.