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As a collection of 66 books spanning thousands of years, the Bible can be daunting in size and scope. In The Heart of It All, the Canterbury Press Lent book for 2020, Samuel Wells simplifies the Bible's complexity and presents the entire sweep of its narrative in eighteen key themes.
John Ritter, a frustrated artist, demonstrates that self-destruction can be a form of protest--or maybe just the last resort for those who refuse to grow up. After years of adventure on the West Coast, he returns to Cincinnati to care for his grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and to protect her farmland from commercial development. Still in love with his ex-girlfriend and his youthful ideals, he lives in denial of the facts that she has moved on, that he is ill-equipped to serve as a caretaker, and that his life is in limbo. Unreliable, unstable, but hilarious and brutally honest, John's artistic sensibility and his job as a landscaper make his situation even more maddening. Wearing his wounded heart on his sleeve, he turns his life into a piece of performance art that involves late-night graffiti raids and car theft. He aims to illustrate how the forces of love, freedom and individuality can triumph over greed, conformity and corporatization. In the eyes of those around him his project is a failure, but for the reader it offers a dangerously veering joy ride.
"Deeply moving and beautifully written. I couldn't put it down." — Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing "For anyone who believes, as I do, that the best hope for our fractured country is local, not national, Christian Kiefer’s new novel The Heart of it All will provide a welcome balm for the spirit. Here are people worth spending time with, not because they’re perfect, but because they’re not. What’s wrong with them isn’t nearly as consequential as how hard they fight for a better life, and not just for themselves. You set the book down and think, ‘This is what we’re made of.’ Or should be."—Richard Russo, author of Somebody’s Fool A small, declining town in Ohio. A family bereaved by terrible loss. A searing narrative about how American lives touch each other across divides both real and imagined... Set in failing small town in central Ohio, The Heart of It All asks how one manages, in an America of increasing division, to find a sense of family and community. Focusing on the members of three families: the Baileys, a white family who have put down deep roots in the community; the Marwats, an immigrant family that owns the town’s largest employer; and the Shaws, especially young Anthony, an outsider whose very presence gently shakes the town’s understanding of itself. A gorgeous, stirring novel in the classic vein of Richard Ford, Marilynne Robinson, Richard Russo, and Kent Haruf, The Heart of It All asks the reader to consider an America both divided and bound by its differences.
New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge offers readers a breathtaking look into God’s promise for a new heaven and a new earth. This revolutionary book about our future is based on the simple idea that, according to the Bible, heaven is not our eternal home--the New Earth is. As Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew, the next chapter of our story begins with "the renewal of all things," by which he means the earth we love in all its beauty, our own selves, and the things that make for a rich life: music, art, food, laughter and all that we hold dear. Everything shall be renewed "when the world is made new." More than anything else, how you envision your future shapes your current experience. If you knew that God was going to restore your life and everything you love any day; if you believed a great and glorious goodness was coming to you--not in a vague heaven but right here on this earth--you would have a hope to see you through anything, an anchor for your soul, "an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God" (Hebrews 6:19). Most Christians (most people for that matter) fail to look forward to their future because their view of heaven is vague, religious, and frankly boring. Hope begins when we understand that for the believer nothing is lost. Heaven is not a life in the clouds; it is not endless harp-strumming or worship-singing. Rather, the life we long for, the paradise Adam and Eve knew, is precisely the life that is coming to us. And that life is coming soon.
As a collection of 66 books spanning thousands of years, the Bible can be daunting in size and scope. In The Heart of It All, the Canterbury Press Lent book for 2020, Samuel Wells simplifies the Bible's complexity and presents the entire sweep of its narrative in eighteen key themes. Although its contents range from history to poetry, law, narrative, letters and even apocalyptic literature, at the Bible's heart are relationships between God, creation, Jesus, the Church, the Spirit and the Kingdom. Samuel Wells argues that this provides a lens through which the whole Bible can be understood. Rooted in the best of contemporary biblical theology and scholarship, The Heart of It All will deepen understanding of the Bible and increase confidence in reading it. It includes questions for reflection, making this an ideal resource for Lent groups as well as for individual reading.
A series of loosely connected autobiographical stories, they describe the disturbing relationship between a mother and her adolescent son as she moves from lover to lover, dressing him as a girl and forcing him to shoplift. These are shocking stories of abusive love and dysfunctional sexuality, of heartbreak and of innocence lost. Once again, LeRoy's fantastical imagination and lyricism twists his haunted past into something utterly strange and magical.
He was born to adventure, following in the footsteps of a Russian grandfather on his father’s side and an Irish grandfather on his mother’s side. Being the first and only grandson for the first ten years of his life, he learned about adventure, war, and life, sitting at the feet of these two great men. He was a force from the beginning, and he knew exactly where he wanted to go, despite the desires and wishes of his family. This story is about many of his remarkable achievements, his love of his country, and his persistent sense of duty even until his last days.
This illustrated board book with die-cut pages is the perfect read to share with your little one! Share the love between a parent and child in With All My Heart. This beautifully illustrated board book showcases the lifelong love a parent has for their child. Each page features sweet text paired with shaped die-cuts for a unique reading experience. With All My Heart is the perfect book to cuddle up with and to express the endless love between a parent and child.
The Heart of It All is a tender story hidden in poetry, prose, and pictures. Lori Goff spells out the joys and sorrows of everyday living using the landscape of the natural world as a setting. From "The Changing Shore" (where all is tattered and shattered) to a place where new treasures await discovery, this book travels the path and morning is reborn-from London to Cologne to Appalachia through lyrical language, metaphor, and sensory engagement. The text is highlighted with her personal photographs. The book is divided into ten sections: Lessons of the Sea, Scenic Solitude, On Love, A Fairy Tale, Seasons of Change, Discovery, Remembering, The Heart of It All, Our Best Friends, Wrapping Up Loose Ends. Lori has included personal photographs of water scenes, flowers, mushrooms, an angel, an eagle, and the mountains.
