The Monastery
of the Heart
An Invitation to a Meaningful Life
Joan Chittister
This guide builds on the ancient Rule of Benedict to show us a new way to live a spiritual life in the very center of the world today, without withdrawing from it. This new way is centered in the ancient Rule, rooted in its values, but attempts to redefine it for seekers today.
“Chittister’s new work reflects the creation of a new kind of quasi-monastic spirituality suited for the age of liberalization—and technology...”
—Library Journal
“Each thought is a precious nugget not quickly mined...this book is a present day wisdom psalm, crafted in praise and thanksgiving...”
—Benedictines Magazine
Spirituality/Self-Help 240 pages
Cloth $19.95
9781933346342
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Queen Elizabeth
in the Garden
A Story of Love, Rivalry, and Spectacular Gardens
Trea Martyn
Queen Elizabeth I’s great love for gardens transformed her country and made gardeners of statesmen, courtiers, and soldiers. The two most powerful men in England during Elizabeth’s reign, Dudley and Cecil, led the way. Driven by their rivalry and devotion to their queen, they created ever more gorgeous gardens that amazed the world.
“...bewitching and original... Today...not a single authentic Elizabethan garden survives—all the more reason to welcome a book that uses a wealth of evocative detail to recreate this lost world of bright bowers and labyrinths... Martyn’s scrupulous research restores life to...a landscape so enchanting...[an] exquisite book...”
—The New York Times
Book Review
History/Gardening 336 pages
Cloth $22.95
9781933346366
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One Hundred
Great Jewish Books
Three Millennia of Jewish Conversation
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman
An introduction to one hundred great Jewish books, arranged as a concise and thought-provoking guide to the Jewish conversation across many centuries. Each of the entries features one work in its historical and cultural context, provides a summary of content and author, and reflects on its relevance for today’s readers.
“Rabbi Hoffman...has compiled a list of what he considers to be great Jewish books...Guaranteed to spark conversation and offer excellent selections for book clubs and adult education classes.”
—Booklist
Jewish Studies 368 pages
Paperback Original $16.95
9781933346311
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Catherine of Siena
A Passionate Life
Don Brophy
This biography of the great mystic and saint Catherine of Siena presents a moving, lucid portrait of the strong-minded and fiery young woman who campaigned for peace and struggled to reform the church during the turbulent 14th century, and became one of our most beloved spiritual figures.
“Brophy manages to round out Catherine’s life in a way no other biography has, preserving her spiritual magnificence even while placing her within the contexts of her fully lived earthly existence.”
—Publishers Weekly
“...both gripping and enlightening. Carefully researched and passionately told...”
—Library Journal
Biography/History 304 pages
Trade Paperback $14.95
9781933346373
(Cloth: 9781933346281)
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Winged Wonders
A Celebration of Birds
in Human History
Peter Watkins
& Jonathan Stockland
Winged Wonders celebrates the powerful presence of birds in art and language, in legends and myth, in the sacred books of the ancients and in spiritual symbolism, in proverbial sayings, in nursery rhymes and poetry, in visual imagery and heraldry, in music, dance, and folk customs around the world and throughout history.
“Leave it to the English to draw together, in one slim, delightful volume, nearly all that need be said about birds and humans and their long, complex relationship in history, folklore, and literature.”
—The Wall Street Journal
Nature/History 224 pages
Trade Paperback $12.95
9781933346298
(Cloth: 9781933346076)
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Revolutionary Spirits
The Enlightened Faith of
America’s Founding Fathers
Gary Kowalski
Revolutionary Spirits confronts many of the later myths about the religious views of America’s Founders, and brings to life their complex creeds and personalities. It offers clear and candid portraits of Franklin, Washington, Paine, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison as both religious reformers and political rebels, and reclaims their spiritual inheritance for today.
“Kowalski seeks to shatter what he regards as a myth, commonly exhorted by politicians and religious groups. His spiritual portraits... argue that the founding fathers were neither devout Christians nor secularists.”
—USA Today
History/Biography 224 pages
Trade Paperback $13.95
9781933346304
(Cloth: 9781933346090)
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Mr. Langshaw’s
Square Piano
The Story of the First Pianos and How They Caused a Cultural Revolution
Madeline Goold
A handwritten serial number inside a neglected Broadwood square piano built in 1807 leads Madeline Goold on a captivating quest to uncover the remarkable history of these now almost forgotten musical instruments.
“A wealth of fascinating stories and characters...One of the strengths of Ms. Goold’s fine book is showing us how the presence of pianos expanded and deepened the cultural life...Ms. Goold has herself produced an enchanting work.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“...a winning account of the world of which the square piano was the centre.”
—The Globe and Mail
History/Music 288 pages
Trade Paperback $14.95
9781933346380
(Cloth: 9781933346212)
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One Hundred
Great French Books
From the Middle Ages
to the Present
Lance Donaldson-Evans
Concise, provocative, and entertaining, One Hundred Great French Books features many of the famous classics of French literature across ten centuries, but also political and philosophical texts, detective novels and science fiction, and much more. Each entry provides a book’s historic and cultural context, author background, and key information about the author, and a summary of its content.
“Mr. Donaldson-Evans wisely presents his choices in chronological order, giving each book and author two pages of introduction and comment. By so doing he provides us with a lapidary history of France by way of the works that have helped to shape its culture...an enjoyably subjective trawl through different literary genres, from novels and poetry to plays and short stories—and a great deal more.”
—The Wall Street Journal
Literary Criticism 240 pages
Paperback Original $15.95
9781933346229
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The Great
Medieval Heretics
Five Centuries of Religious Dissent
Michael Frassetto
Replete with terror, passion, and hope, this gripping narrative history explores the intricate mysteries of medieval Europe through the lives of the great heretics whose beliefs and practices challenged the teachings of an all-powerful church. Five centuries of social and spiritual turmoil are covered through a vivid and telling mix of events, personalities, and ideas.
“Frassetto admirably demonstrates that many who were declared heretics have much to teach us and some may not have been as far from orthodoxy as originally thought.”
—Library Journal
History 256 pages
Trade Paperback $15.95
9781933346236
(Cloth: 9781933346120)
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The Last Divine Office
Henry VIII and the
Dissolution of the Monasteries
Geoffrey Moorhouse
Geoffrey Moorhouse explores the enormous upheaval caused by the English Reformation, drawing for his sources on material that has lain forgotten in one of the world’s great cathedrals. He recreates in vivid detail what life was like in a major monastery before the Dissolution began in 1536, and how that life was forever transformed on the orders of King Henry VIII.
“[An] elegant narrative.”
—The Boston Globe
“Geoffrey Moorhouse has written an absorbing, detailed and scrupulously fair account of this English revolution.”
—The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)
History 304 pages
Cloth $24.95
9781933346182
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The Frozen Ship
The Histories and Tales
of Polar Exploration
Sarah Moss
The Frozen Ship examines the most influential, popular, and intriguing accounts of journeys into the eternal ice—from Viking settlers and Renaissance conquerors to Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and from the tales of Parry, Franklin, Nansen, and Byrd to the forgotten stories of women at the poles.
“This remarkable book offers the most vivid account yet of polar exploration.”
—Booklist
“Moss...writes well on the hold the frozen wastelands have always had on the imagination.”
—The New York Review
of Books
History 256 pages
Trade Paperback $13.95
9781933346205
(Cloth: 9781933346038)
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The Angelic Way
Angels through the Ages
and Their Meaning for Us
Rami Shapiro
The Angelic Way illuminates the spiritual, philosophical, and psychological implications of angels. It offers an accessible history of angels in our varied religious and cultural traditions, an exploration of angelology through the ages, and a means to make sense of angels and the divine in today’s world.
“Shapiro’s The Angelic Way delves into the many ways that angels have captivated human thought and helped us find ways to express our understanding of the divine.”
—Los Angeles Times
Spirituality 240 pages
Paperback Original $15.95
9781933346199
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The Popes of Avignon
A Century in Exile
Edwin Mullins
This narrative history masterfully weaves together the sweeping events surrounding the so-called “Babylonian captivity” of the popes into the broader story of 14th-century Europe, a turbulent time of transition between Middle Ages and Renaissance when seven successive popes resided in Avignon in the south of France.
“Mullins...spans the intriguing 70 years of the Avignon papacy with this highly readable narrative...he draws readers into this fascinating period of the church’s ‘Babylonian captivity.’”
—Library Journal
History/Middle Ages 256 pages
Trade Paperback $14.95
9781933346328
(Cloth: 9781933346151)
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Cluny
In Search of God’s Lost Empire
Edwin Mullins
A monastery like no other, this is Cluny’s story from humble beginnings in the early Middle Ages, through centuries of immense wealth and sacred glory, to its decline, destroyed by the French Revolution. Much of Cluny’s enduring legacy lies in great cultural innovations sponsored by the abbey.
“Mullins’s affection and admiration for Cluny provide a glimpse into a mostly forgotten medieval abbey.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Only ruins remain of Cluny’s once glorious past. This book seeks to recapture that past, its architecture, its sculpture, its idealism.”
—The Dallas Morning News
History 256 pages
Trade Paperback $14.95
9781933346175
(Cloth: 9781933346007)
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The Search for Spirituality
Our Global Quest
for a Spiritual Life
Ursula King
Ursula King offers a comprehensive overview of the incredibly rich and diverse spiritual landscapes of our world, and explores the global search for a spiritual life at an individual and social level, inside and outside religious traditions, and in the secular world.
“King has written a remarkably wide-ranging book that touches briefly on many aspects of the spiritual life across the world...both our need for spirituality and how we have sought to address that need through nature, science, and the arts.”
—Library Journal
Spirituality 256 pages
Trade Paperback $13.95
9781933346274
(Cloth: 9781933346144)
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The Gift of Years
Growing Older Gracefully
Joan Chittister
The Gift of Years looks at the many dimensions of aging, the purposes and concerns, struggles and surprises, the potential and joys, and invites us to embrace older age as a natural part of life that is deeply rewarding.
“Chittister beautifully downplays regrets and accents the rewards of a mature life. While she acknowledges the pain of old age, she focuses on the new beginnings that life can offer at this stage and discusses the need to stay involved, to put one’s affairs in order, and to be open to new relationships.”
—Library Journal
Spirituality/Self-Help 240 pages
Trade Paperback $13.95
9781933346335
(Cloth: 9781933346106)
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Simple Ways
Towards the Sacred
Gunilla Norris
A lucid, poetic, and practical primer for prayer, meditation, and mindful living. Offers a wide range of accessible ways towards the Sacred in our daily lives: With Our Bodies, In Our Dwellings, With Our Everyday Things, and In Our Gratitude. No matter what our spiritual background, these ways are completely available to any of us.
“Norris points out that when we are alive to the wonder of the ordinary, we begin to see that everything around us is a gift, and even the simplest things can break us open to love, joy, and gratitude...This book is one to hold close to your heart. Its gift to us lies in its uncanny ability to help us see and appreciate the simple yet profound blessings on even the most ‘ordinary’ path.”
—Spirituality & Health Magazine
Spirituality/Self-Help 160 pages
Trade Paperback $12.95
9781933346359
(Cloth: 9781933346113)
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Horse
How the Horse
Has Shaped Civilizations
J. Edward Chamberlin
Drawing on archaeology, biology, art, literature, and ethnography, Horse illuminates the relationship between humans and horses throughout history. It shares stories of horses at work, at war, and at play, in paintings, books, and movies, and ponders the intelligence of horses, their skill and strength as well as their grace and beauty.
“...a truly grand subject...a philosophical history and a lyrical essay.”
—The Washington Post
“Both as a genuine labor of love and awe and as a treasure trove of equinalia, Horse is bound to find many delighted fans.”
—Los Angeles Times
Nature/History 288 pages
Trade Paperback $13.95
9781933346137
(Cloth: 9780974240596)
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The Door of No Return
The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade
William St Clair
Called one of the best books of the year by The Economist, the London Times, and Publishers Weekly, this is the gripping history of Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, the African headquarters of the British slave trade for nearly one hundred and fifty years—until the legal trade was abolished in 1807.
“A readable and detailed account of Britain’s role in the slave trade between West Africa and the United States, Brazil and the Caribbean...Surprisingly, the records of Cape Coast Castle had scarcely been touched before St Clair began delving into them, sifting through records and ledgers, letters and notes.”
—The New York Times
“St Clair shines a light at the heart of the shame.”
—The Economist
History 288 pages
Trade Paperback $15.95
9781933346168
(Cloth: 9781933346052)
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One Hundred
Great Catholic Books
From the Early Centuries
to the Present
Don Brophy
Don Brophy offers succinct, thoughtful, and entertaining introductions to one hundred classics of Catholic literature past and present, ranging from biography, spirituality, theology, and poetry to history, mystical writings, and fiction. Written for seekers of every faith tradition, this book offers an illuminating gateway to some of the great achievements of the human heart and mind.
“Don Brophy is eminently qualified...and carries it out beautifully...any person...who is passionate about books will find a kind of spiritual catechism.”
—Publishers Weekly
Spirituality/Literary Criticism
240 pages
Paperback Original $16.00
9781933346083
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Wise Choices
A Spiritual Guide to Making Life’s Decisions
Margaret Silf
Wise Choices takes the guesswork out of the decision-making process and offers a systematic and concise approach to making the right choices. Written in gentle, poetic prose full of compassion and insight, it encourages us to trust the processes of our own heart and mind as we make life’s many decisions.
“...peppered with practical advice...[Silf’s] commitment to decision making that is careful, forward looking and informed by a sense of responsibility to oneself and to the world.”
—Publishers Weekly
Self-Help/Spirituality 128 pages
Paperback Original $14.00
9781933346045
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Enough Room for Joy
The Early Days of
Jean Vanier’s L’Arche
Bill Clarke
Foreword by Jean Vanier
This firsthand account details the life of Jean Vanier and his L’Arche movement—a revolutionary experience of living in community that started in 1964. It came to be known as a diverse place of refuge that gave its inhabitants hope. Today, L’Arche is a worldwide movement with over 130 communities in 30 countries.
“L’Arche became for me the place where I really came home. There is nothing in me that desires to go anywhere else.”
—Henri Nouwen
Inspirational 144 pages
Paperback Original $14.95
9781933346069
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