Fusing details long known to Muslim scholars but inaccessible to popular audiences, Mohamad Jebara brings to life the gripping personal story of Islam's founding prophet. I loved this book!" - Reza Aslan, author of No God but God and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of NazarethĪ six-year-old cries in his mother's arms as she draws her last breaths to urge him: "Muhammad, be a world-changer!" The boy, suddenly orphaned in a tribal society that fears any change, must overcome enormous obstacles to unleash his own potential and inspire others to do the same. "A beautifully written, immaculately researched meditation on the impact of the Prophet Muhammad on the modern world. Insightful, thoughtful and thought provoking! - Azar Nafisi, New York Times bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran New York Times Book Review A joyous read, presenting the Prophet Muhammad both as human and humane. An accessible biography of Muhammad, Islam's founding prophet, tracing his development from orphan to political leader and providing insights into his personal life and tastes.
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Some Ramblings on Borges, Calvino, and Barth.Truman Capote and David Frost Talk About Sex, Love.This novel, and the others like it, is aimed at reinforcing the faith and behavior of those who use religion as a positive personal and social force, while attempting to improve people the likes of which I’ve alluded to above. From an outsider’s perspective, it baffles me how a multi-billion dollar industry can spring from an individual who was crucified for throwing the money-changers out of the temple, or how members of a religion based on a document eschewing the existing dogma and preaching love and tolerance can use that same document as an attempt to claim automatic moral and legal superiority, while others use it to promote prejudice and justify any political action. Most of the novels I’ve read so far that deal heavily with Christianity have been attempts to rebuke a purely dogmatic or hypocritical approach to the religion. The novel heavily relies on not only knowledge of New Testament stories but a strong pre-existing emotional connection to Christianity. One problem I ran into reading this was that I’m clearly not part of the audience Douglas was writing to. Now we’re at a complete standstill on the steep road that leads to the top of the island. “First, we’re going to the morgue,” Theresa announces with a little skip. Who wants to face a convicted felon in your pajamas? “I’m having a devil of a time setting up extra circuits in the laundry.” Smallest kid of all my cousins, shortest kid in my kindergarten class and on my block too. The only guns on the island are up high in the towers or the catwalks, because one flick of the wrist and a gun carried by a guard is a gun carried by a criminal. This is the dock guard tower, a popcorn stand on stilts where somebody’s dad sits with enough firepower to blow us all to smithereens. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don’t want.Ī full moon cuts a white path across the bay while the wind blows, making something creak and a buoy clang in the distance. Other published work is BABY BOOM FINAL in which the artist reproduced his monochrome Manga images in neon colors. His representative comics, New Engineering, Travel, NIWA, Baby Boom, The Room of the World Map were translated into various languages and earned a high reputation in the world. Since 2000, Yokoyama shifted his practice to Manga as a medium that allowed him to “draw time.” Famously known as “Neo-Manga”, his works involve no specific story development, but rather, they depart from standard Manga and express a pure flow of time depicting multiple characters with unfriendly and obscure actions, movements and transformation of mysterious objects. Yuichi Yokoyama had produced Fine Art works in 1990’s after he finished his B.F.A at Musashino Art University with a major in oil painting. "I think you need to know about this!" Kate is often blunt in the most refreshing of ways.Ĭarolyn Finney? Carolyn Finney? Carolyn Finney? "Do you know this woman?" Kate wrote, "Is she related to you?" Kate asked again. The dedicated book scout was still on the case!The book was titled : Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney. Attached to her email was the announcement of a new book coming down the publishing pipeline from the University of North Carolina Press. Kate and I do more with pencil and pen than email. In December 2013, after living in South Carolina for only a few months, to my great surprise, Kate emailed me. Kate was my friend but she was also my "new book" scout in the world. Kate’s big mind was always flying through the world on the lookout for great new books and the iconic under-the-radar human beings proposing them. A Finney Woman Reimagining the Great Outdoorsīefore I moved away from Lexington, Kentucky, my dear friend, Kate Black, wise woman of the kitchen, gardener extraordinaire, and sincerest of human souls, had the lovely habit of leaving various and amazing magazine or newspaper articles in my mailbox or folded into the screen of my front door. Caught in the ultimate battle between good and evil, with time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to finally face the truths she's been hiding from all along. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and tries to find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the captivating pirate who promises to keep her safe. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through your fingers. Gwen discovers that this new world she inhabits is called Neverland, but it's nothing like the Neverland you've heard about in stories. And Gwen begins to realize that maybe her mother isn't so crazy after all. But shortly after their arrival, the girls are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and dragged to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey. Gwen's only saving grace is that her best friend, Olivia, is with her for the summer. Her mother believes they are being hunted by brutal monsters, and those delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home. From "talented wordsmith" ( Publishers Weekly ) Lisa Maxwell comes a lush, atmospheric fantasy novel filled with twists and turns about a girl who is kidnapped and brought to an island inhabited by fairies, a roguish ship captain, and bloodthirsty beasts. Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell - From talented wordsmith (Publishers Weekly) Lisa Maxwell comes a lush, atmospheric fantasy novel filled with twists and turns ab. The fifth is a collection of observations, sometimes a few pages long, about one person, pre-covid, that she’s observed and thought about in her daily life. The third essay touches upon this new problem of having too much time on one’s hands, but luckily she can write to fill this void, and the fourth essay identifies the various situations where one doesn’t have too much time, but the opposite, like working parents. The second essay deals with a phrase Donald Trump utters, which Smith slowly takes apart and refutes – not everyone wants things to go back to normal, because ‘normal’ was unfair, and exploitive for many Americans. The first essay titled “Peonies” is all about a single moment right before the lockdowns where Smith finds herself drawn to a little urban garden of peony flowers in downtown New York City where she lives. I thought to myself (in a particularly dark moment) is this the beginning of the end of normal literature? Will everything going forward be in reference to, or about, or in comparison to the pandemic? If it was a dire warning of things to come I could think of no better person than to lead us there gracefully, which is why I never shied away from reading Intimations, Six Essays by Zadie Smith. When I opened the package, I thought to myself how weird it was that the first book about Covid and its disruptions was finally being printed, and how surreal it felt to put it on my shelf. I distinctly remember the day this book arrived on my doorstep. Anyone familiar with these books knows that they have never rested comfortably on the shelves of academia. The archaeologist most closely linked with the “Goddess Movement” is indisputably Marija Gimbutas, whose prodigious publication record includes three major books on the Goddesses of Neolithic Europe and the Mediterranean: The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe (1974), tellingly renamed and reissued as The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (1982) The Language of the Goddess (1989) and The Civilization of the Goddess (1991). 1 A few minutes surfing the Net produces hundreds of “Goddess” entries ranging from scholarly articles, lectures, course syllabi, and videos, to Goddess aromatherapy, “spiritual stencils” for furniture, walls, and fabrics, and pilgrimages to Goddess sites. As millennium fever heats up, the Goddess is surfacing, perhaps predictably, with renewed vigor in every conceivable venue. Even the Internet is now protected by a deity - the Net Goddess’ Page - guarding against quakes, viruses, and stalled links, and granting continuous connections and fast-loading pages. Hardin's new stepbrother, Landon Gibson, proved to be a good friend and brother once Hardin let him into his life. In the meantime, he reconnected with his distant father, Ken Scott, who was desperate to form a relationship with Hardin. When Hardin's cold and uncaring past caught up to him, it tore his relationship with Tessa apart, as the bet he made to take her virginity was revealed.įor the first time in a while, Hardin felt remorse for his actions and wanted to make things right with the girl he had begun to love. Their relationship was fast-paced and vibrant, sweeping them and everyone around them up in a whirlwind of drama. He began to share his love for literature with her, but his sardonic and often abusive dialogue toward her did more harm than good. When he encountered the feisty freshman Tessa Young, his interest was peaked by her studious and reserved manner yet witty comebacks. Hardin's time in America was mostly spent with rowdy college students who abused alcohol and drugs, or with women who meant very little to him. Hardin Allen Scott is a fictional character from the After series written by Anna Todd.Ī tortured and damaged soul with a complex past, Hardin was sent to America by his mother to attend university in the hopes a change of scenery would rehabilitate him. Hardin's final line in " After Ever Happy" She moved to Atlanta in the US at the age of 9 in part to escape the escalating civil war in her home country. The Gilded Ones (Deathless #1) by Namina FornaĪuthor Namina Forna was born and raised in Sierra Leone. And also has a proper go at the patriarchy. Here’s a brand new YA series that draws from the ancient stories of Western Africa…. Now, however, thanks to the gradual increasing visibility of our age, from blockbusters like Black Panther and newly emerging YA voices, the inherent magic of the West African mythos is finding wider appreciation. For a long time, the fantasy genre has been dominated by explicitly European models. West Africa is so rich in cultures, mythologies, ethnicities and beliefs it’s a wonder that more fantasy novels do not take inspiration from its vivid variety. |