Faith: 40 insights into Hinduism


Devdutt Pattanaik - 2019
    For many a curious reader, Faith: Understanding Hinduism will prove to be a delightful and eye-opening introduction to the intricacies of one of the world’s most practiced religions.

Master Your Mind: The More You Think, The Easier It Gets


D.E. Boyer - 2016
    D.E. Boyer takes us on a fascinating journey from the depths of despair to an amazing quantum world where anything is possible. First, we will learn how to defend ourselves against the chaos in our minds, then we will learn how to rekindle the magic in our hearts. Along the way, the wisdom of Socrates and the myth of Narcissus will transform the way we think and feel. Boyer then shows us how the military teaches their Navy Seal recruits how to handle their thoughts and feelings when someone is trying to kill them, so we can better handle our bosses, spouses, and children when it feels like they are trying to kill us. We will also get a glimpse of death through the eyes of someone who sees people die every day, giving us a much greater appreciation for life. With extremely amusing stories from her own life that touch on her dysfunctional upbringing and traumatizing career as an intensive care nurse, Boyer teaches us how to control our anxiety, boost our fragile self-esteem, and get into a state of flow so that we can spend most of our time loving life, rather than dreading it. She also gives us crucial health and nutrition tips so that we can live longer with our newfound peace and joy, and she shows us how to be more successful at life by being a better friend, spouse, and parent. With every step we take on this path, we'll find ourselves flirting with the hidden power of the mind, a power that often lies just beyond most people's reach. Only by mastering the basics of thinking and feeling can we gain access to this power. Once the door is unlocked, we will enter another dimension, a quantum world where time is irrelevant and the magic of our mind is waiting to be found.

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush. An anthology of Poems and Conversations (From Outside).


Tim Key - 2021
    This new book takes place in Lockdown Three. This time Key can make Government-sanctioned expeditions out onto the streets of London (remember?). And it is there that the inaction takes place. Phone calls to his mother, promenades with his loyal friend, bubble-negotiations, sitting his fat arse down on benches, drinking mocha. Another three months of mind-freezing inertia. This time on the move. Conversations interspersed with poetry.

Grounded Spirituality


Jeff Brown - 2018
    In Part One, we join him on an engaging, often hilarious, and compelling personal journey.... through decades of tasting from a banquet of spiritual approaches. Through his direct experience, fierce exploration, and scintillating discernment, Brown exposes the fragmented, ungrounded and dissociative notions of spirituality that have imprisoned our consciousness and obstructed our awakening since time immemorial. In his cuttingly straight style, he reveals that much of what we have been calling "spirituality" is actually a patriarchal, emotionally bereft construct that perpetuates our self-avoidance. He then proves to us--point by brilliant point--that true spirituality is a whole-being awakening, one that wonderfully embraces our entire human experience. In many spiritual practices, emotional healing processes (blockage clearing, issue resolution, the working through of the shadow) have been bypassed and trivialized, as though the 'real' spiritual realm exists independent of our feelings. Brown makes no distinction between these realms, revealing that emotional maturity and spiritual maturity are synonymous, and that any spirituality that desacralizes our selfhood is not enlightenment at all. It is a bypass of that which is fundamentally human: our feelings, our stories, our bodies, our relationships with each other and the earth that houses us. In his words, "Detachment is a tool- not a life. If you can't find your transformation in the village, you haven't found a thing." In Part Two, Brown engages in a riveting dialogue with an ungrounded seeker named "Michael." Their dialogues unfurl in warmth, humor, playfulness, personal story, threaded with challenging confrontation and cutting truth. Hands-on exercises are dispersed throughout--providing readers with a direct experience of a new, inclusive model. Here the author lays down the tracks for a more balanced, heartfelt and relational spirituality- one that leaves us "enrealed," integrated, and purposeful. Not awakened, but awakening. Not escaping our humanness, but finding our meaning and spirituality deep within it. Out of the ashes of old ways of being, a bright new paradigm comes into view. An inclusive, self-honoring, and healing spiritual perspective that will be a welcomed relief for any seeker.In the author's words, "It's one thing to briefly detach from story in the hopes of gaining a different perspective--it's quite another to deny our storied roots altogether. What will we stand in, then? At a time when our personal stories have been shamed and shunned in the spiritual community, it is all the more imperative to revive them and makes luminous their sacred, transformative properties. The past is not an illusion, as many would suggest. It is the ground of our being, the karmic field for our soul's transformation- the mystery that threads right through our history. Story is where we come from. Story is what roots us in the present. Story is how we arrive at the next place intact. A spirituality without story is like a body without breath. Dead to the world." What we need now are models that lead us back into our hearts, into relatedness, into a deep and reverential regard for the self's journey through time. In this magnificent book, Brown endeavors to hearticulate one such path, reminding us that heaven on earth begins and ends deep within the recesses of our enlivened humanness. At long last, we can lay down our weary heads, burdened by the impossibility of transcending our human experience. Back to our roots, back into our bodies, back into all that makes us marvelously human. Home at last.

Drowned by Corn (Kindle Single)


Erika Hayasaki - 2014
    But something went terribly wrong. By day's end, some would be alive. Others would not. A close-knit community would be devastated, forced to endure. This gripping true story centers on what happened to one courageous and flawed young man who survived, and how his life quickly spiraled out of control in the next two years. It is a story about love, unbreakable friendship, and "king" corn. “There are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them now contain corn,” writes Michael Pollan in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. But as international dependence on the highly subsidized crop for cattle feed, corn syrup and ethanol has surged—so have deaths by corn. Based on three years of reporting and interviews with the people involved and thousands of pages of court documents, transcripts, police reports, journalist Erika Hayasaki brings to life (in narrative nonfiction-style) this world of people who risk and sometimes lose their lives for this powerful commodity. Hayasaki, a former national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, is the author of The Death Class: A True Story About Life (Simon & Schuster 2014), as well as the Kindle Single, Dead or Alive (2012). She is an assistant professor in the Literary Journalism Program at the University of California, Irvine, and a regular contributor to Newsweek and The Atlantic. *Cover design by Kristen RadtkePraise for DROWNED BY CORN:THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: "The descriptions of the accident are chilling: a blow-by-blow account of the grain pulling the young men under and the dramatic rescue of Will, who survived after being buried past his chest. The piece follows Will as his grief sends him into a downward spiral. "Drowned by Corn" is a gripping narrative of tenderness and horror, friendship and loss." — Megan KirbySAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: "Erika Hayasaki’s suspenseful account of the deaths of Paco and Wyatt and the harrowing rescue of Will is the stuff of nightmares. But what elevates this fine work of investigative journalism is her portrayal of Will in the aftermath: his survival guilt, his struggle with alcohol and drugs, his strained relationships and his eventual discovery of a way to endure his and his town’s unspeakable losses." — Porter Shreve

Big Girls Don't Whine: Getting On With the Great Life God Intends


Jan Silvious - 2003
    God never intended for us to act like "little girls," says Jan Silvious. His goal is for each of us to live as "big girls"-mature Christian women-who are capable of enjoying the richness of life He has planned.In Big Girls Don't Whine, Jan helps women:Move beyond the past and on to healthy relationships, Choose to be proactive rather than let life just "happen,"Discover their full potential,And become everything He made them to be.So how can we tell if we're living life as an immature 'little girl" or a confident "big girl?"A little girl…Is insecureBecomes the victim of circumstancesSays "I can't"ManipulatesA big girl…Is secureRests in God's sovereigntySays, "I can"CommunicatesIn Big Girls Don't Whine, Jan Silvious calls us to be real women in a real world, free to experience a life of full of potential and vision. This book is the how-to manual for making it happen.

Awakening Through a Course in Miracles


David Hoffmeister - 2009
    Through it's inspired voice, it: * Clarifies the essential wisdom of A Course In Miracles * Progresses from the simple to the most advanced teachings * Brings true peace and joy * Focuses on practical application Love, David Do you desire clarification of the Course metaphors and want to go past common blocks? Are you tired of being a seeker and ready to be a finder? Then this book is for you! Written in a warm, engaging question-and-answer style that sparkles with laughter, this book will show you how to: * Forgive all your relationships * Experience unshakable inner peace * Overcome pain, loneliness and death * Find the strength and love of God * Awaken Now!

Dating (The Love Series)


The School of Life - 2019
    Dating sits on top of some of the largest themes of love: how to know whether or not someone is right for us; how soon to settle and how long to search; how to be at once honest and seductive; how to politely extricate oneself without causing offence. This indispensable guide teaches us about the history of dating, the reason why our dating days can be so anxious, how to optimise our attempts at dating and how to digest and overcome so-called ‘bad’ dates. The book is at once heartfelt and perceptive, and never minimises the agony, joys and confusions of our dating days and nights. It provides us with a roadmap to the varied, sometimes delightful, sometimes daunting realities of dating.

Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places


Jonathan Sacks - 2000
    Happiness isn't somewhere else, it's where we are. It isn't something we don't have, we do. It isn't fantasy, it's reality experienced in a certain way. Happiness is a close relative of faith'Following the painful loss of his father, Chief Rabbi Sacks began to learn how to celebrate life in a new way. He discovered where happiness lives, often in unexpected places, through family, community, friendship and responsibilities. He also found it through a renewed relationship with God who spoke to his deepest needs.Based, in part, on his columns in the UK's Times newspaper, Celebrating Life is for people of all faiths and none. It shows us how to be human and, in becoming so, how we can touch the divine.

Optimistic Nihilism: A Psychologist's Personal Story & (Biased) Professional Appraisal of Shedding Religion


David Landers - 2016
    But much more than autobiography, his story is woven with provocative psychological and philosophical commentary, including input from the likes of Lucretius, Freud, and the metal band Napalm Death. A rare style of intellectual but conversational and poignant but humorous makes for a highly accessible and enjoyable read. As the spiritual account winds down, the book transitions into a more rational exploration of the problems associated with religion—and even with spirituality in general. Everyone from outspoken atheists to moderate believers will be engaged, as David is able to critically evaluate spirituality without the hostility so common among modern atheist writers. At the book’s climax, David develops the popular atheist conversation a little deeper by courageously exploring the implications of nihilism: If our deepest fears about the nature of reality were to be true, could we go on? By the end of Optimistic Nihilism, we begin to suspect that we could—and even wonder if a relatively nihilistic perspective paradoxically makes life more precious than any other scheme. A critical must-read for all students of spirituality, psychology, and humanity.

Gita Wisdom: Krishna’s Teachings on the Yoga of Love


Joshua M. Greene - 2009
    In Gita Wisdom, Joshua Greene retells this timeless text in a completely new way, revealing that it is, in essence, a heart-to-heart talk between two friends about the meaning of life. As Krishna and his friend Arjuna reminisce on a battlefield known as Kurukshetra, readers learn that the two played together as children, were close as young men, and became family when Arjuna married Krishna’s sister. In later life the men shared extraordinary adventures, including a journey to places outside the known universe. Like all great literature, the Gita explores the human condition: who we are, where we came from, and why we’re here. With a helpful glossary that lists names, terms, and places, this accessible, enlightening retelling is the perfect introduction to the Gita’s venerable wisdom.

Be Nobody


Lama Marut - 2014
    No one wants to be a loser, a small fry, a big zero.But maybe we've got it all wrong.With his edgy tone and radical perspective, Lama Marut follows up A Spiritual Renegade's Guide to the Good Life by calling for the biggest revolution of all: the overthrow of our obsessive quest to be somebody. It is this quest to distinguish ourselves that is the true cause of our dissatisfaction, leaving us feeling isolated and alone.Drawing from the spiritual truism that only by losing the self can we discover our real potential, Be Nobody provides action steps and simple meditations that lay down the heavy burden of trying to be somebody. Without the need to seclude oneself in a monastery or retire to a cave in the Himalayas, Marut gives readers the freedom to find true fulfillmentSo stop narrating your life and start living it. Be nobody.

A Season to Remember


Carson Tinker - 2014
    But on April 27, 2011 everything changed. An EF4 tornado ripped through the small college town and changed it forever. Carson Tinker, the starting long snapper for the 2011 and 2012 National Champion Crimson Tide, was among those forever changed by the events of April 27. Tinker lost his girlfriend Ashley Harrison to the storm, but not his faith. In the midst of unfathomable destruction, Tinker saw love, companionship, perseverance, and triumph in a community torn apart by a natural disaster. Where everyone else saw tragedy, Carson Tinker saw blessing. Following the storm, the Crimson Tide suited up to face their most challenging season to date. Tinker’s personal story guides readers through what cannot be described any other way than a season to remember.

Breathing Eden: Conversations with God on Light, Fresh Air, and New Things


Jennifer J. Camp - 2016
    We need to know how he sees us. Come on, girl, he says. Let my light shine in. Breathing Eden is forty raw, honest, heartbreaking and encouraging conversations between women and God. These prayers are like our own: full of pain, celebration, anxiety, and joy. Each one helps the reader hear God whisper love and hope into their lives. And after each story, Jennifer offers readers a guided invitation to listen for what God is saying to them. In these pages, readers will find hope and fresh perspectives. It's an invitation to come. Breathe Eden.

Destined to Reign Devotional: Daily Reflections for Effortless Success, Wholeness, and Victorious Living


Joseph Prince - 2008
    Come to know the tender heart of the Father towards you as well as the perfection of Jesus' finished work. Each devotional inspires faith while dealing with practical issues such as wisdom, healing, provision and protection.Expect to experience the amazing love and grace of God as you feed on His Word through these devotionals, and begin to see yourself enjoying wholeness and victorious living!