Discovery Class will be studying this book, and Dan Browning has been kind enough to provide the library with both a copy and synopsis of it.
The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus.
This book is a collection of lectures given by the Dalai Lama on various familiar Gospel passages. Noted author and scholar of world religions Huston Smith described this as "arguably the best book on interreligious dialogue published to date". According to the Publishers Weekly review:
It is refreshing to read the Dalai Lama's meditations on the New Testament selections, many of which he had never read before this seminar but which are among the most familiar for Christians. As His Holiness thinks about famous passages like the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-10) and Jesus' resurrection appearance to Mary (John 20:10-18), we see them from the entirely new perspective of Tibetan Buddhist spiritual knowledge and understanding. Consequently, familiar passages are renewed and opened to unexpected insights.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Announcing a new arrival in Adult Fiction: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
From the back cover, and quoting the Los Angeles Times Book Review: "Twenty-four years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage in America's heart. In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, Gilead reveals the human condition and 'manages to convey the miracle of existence itself.'"
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Adult Fiction call number: Robinson Gilead
Library catalog record
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Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
Announcing a new arrival in Adult Fiction: Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice.
From the book jacket: "Having completed the two cycles of legend to which she has devoted her career so far, Anne Rice gives us now her most ambitious, and courageous book, a novel about the early years of CHRIST THE LORD, based on the gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship. The book's power derives from the passion its author brings to the writing and the way in which she summons up the voice, the presence, the words of Jesus who tells the story."
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Adult Fiction call number: Rice Christ
Library catalog record
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House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker
Announcing a new arrival in Adult Fiction: House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker.
From the book jacket: "On a deserted back road in Alabama, Jack and Stephanie find themselves driving fast and running late. Their world suddenly changes when a strange accident leaves them stranded with no car, no cell phone coverage, and no help in sight. They have no choice except to continue on foot. As darkness approaches, they round a bend and see a small sign at the top of a long gravel driveway: THE WAYSIDE INN.
"The exhausted couple stands in front of an inviting house, complete with gated stone wall, ancient oak trees, and a note welcoming weary travelers. Inside they find another couple with an equally troubling story about a similar accident. It seems that backwoods pranksters have made their day miserable. Still they are safe... Or so they think.
"So begins a story that will keep you guessing and short of breath until the very last page. As the house slowly reveals its secrets, you'll come face-to-face with the sin that haunts us all and a game that can be won by very few. Think you can win? Go ahead, walk through the door, play the game."
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Adult Fiction call number: Peretti House
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The Messenger of Magnolia Street by River Jordan
Announcing a new arrival in Adult Fiction: The Messenger of Magnolia Street by River Jordan.
From the book jacket: "The Messenger of Magnolia Street tells the haunting story of three childhood friends who reunite to fight the unnamed presence that is slowly draining their beloved town of goodness and light. Nehemiah Trust fled his home town of Shibboleth twelve years ago, after the death of his mother. Now chief of staff for a powerful senator, Nehemiah has washed his hands of Shibboleth. But one night his older brother Billy and childhood friend Trice appear at his front door. Something is wrong, they tell him. Nehemiah is needed back home.
"This mesmerizing novel of love awakened, purpose abandoned, and legacy reclaimed begins as slow and easy as a southern Sunday, but as the town of Shibboleth begins to sense the approaching darkness, the three friends must race against time to save the lifeblood of the place they call home. The solution requires a willingness to sacrifice everything."
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Adult Fiction call number: Jordan Messenger
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The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Announcing a new arrival in Adult Fiction: The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
From the book jacket: "Sue Monk Kidd's stunning Debut, The Secret Life of Bees, became a bestselling phenomenon and a modern classic. Now, in her luminous new novel, Kidd has woven a transcendent tale that will thrill her ligion of fans and cement her reputation as one of the most remarkable writers at work today.
"Inside the church of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.
"When Jessie is summoned home to the island to cope with her eccentric mother's seemingly inexplicable act of violence, she is living a conventional life with her husband, Hugh, a life 'molded to the smallest space possible.' Jessie loves Hugh, but once there, she finds herself drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is soon to take his final vows. Amid a rich community of unforgettable island women and the exotic beauty of marshlands, tidal creeks, and majestic egrets, Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, with a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right and the immutable force of home and marriage.
"Is the power of the mermaid chair only a myth? Or will it alter the course of Jessie's life? What transpires will unlock the roots of her mother's tormented past, but most of all, it will allow Jessie to make a marriage unto herself.
"Few novels have explored, as this one does, the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists. Where does the yearning for soul-mated love come from? When it comes to love, what are the pulls inside a woman between the ordinary and the sublime? How does a woman find the place of self-belonging in herself?
"The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about mermaids and saints, about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body. It illuminates the awakening of a woman to her own deepest self with a brilliance and power that only a writer of Kidd's ability could conjure."
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Adult Fiction call number: Kidd Mermaid
Library catalog record
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A Common Life by Jan Karon
Announcing a new arrival in Adult Fiction: A Common Life: The Wedding Story by Jan Karon, the sixth novel in the beloved Mitford series.
From the back cover: "Mitford's Lord's Chapel seats barely two hundred souls, yet millions of Jan Karon's fans can attend the most joyous event in years: the wedding of Father Tim Kavanagh and Cynthia Coppersmith. Will Father Tim fall apart when he takes his vows? Will Cynthia make it to the church on time? Who'll arrange the flowers and bake the wedding cake? And will Uncle Billy's prayers for a great joke be answered in time for the reception? All the beloved Mitford characters will be in the pews: Dooley Barlowe, Mss Sadie and Louella, Emma Newland, the mayor; in short, everybody who's anybody in the little town with a big heart. So welcome—there's a special seat waiting, just for you."
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Adult Fiction call number: Karon Mitford 6
Library catalog record
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