New Titles Tuesday, October 30

Here is a selection of the 23 print books added to the collection in the past week. Click on a title for more information or to place a hold on these items.

 Building materials for life: radical common sense, the power of right thinking, relevant religion, plowing new ground, persistence, and 35 other essays on how to enhance your life /Millard Fuller. A collection of 40 inspiring essays,

Counterfeit gods: the empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters /Timothy Keller. Keller exposes the error of making good things “ultimate” in this book, and shows readers a new path toward a hope that lasts.

 Down-to-earth spirituality: encountering God in the ordinary, boring stuff of life /R. Paul Stevens. Taking his cue from the biblical story of Jacob, Stevens explores the Genesis narrative and uncovers how ordinary moments are made extraordinary, transformed by the presence of God in the midst of the mundane.

 The dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the speech that inspired a nation /Drew D. Hansen. The Dream delves into the fascinating and little-known history of King’s speech. Hansen explores King’s compositional strategies and techniques, and proceeds to a brilliant analysis of the “I Have a Dream” speech itself, examining it on various levels: as a political treatise, a work of poetry, and as a masterfully delivered and improvised sermon bursting with biblical language and imagery.

 From Jerusalem to Timbuktu: a world tour of the spread of Christianity /Brian C. Stiller.  Stiller identifies five key factors that have shaped the church, from a renewed openness to the move of the Holy Spirit to the empowerment of indigenous leadership.

  Insanity of God: a true story of faith resurrected /Nik Ripken ; with Gregg Lewis ; [foreword by David Platt]. The Insanity of God is the personal and lifelong journey of an ordinary couple from rural Kentucky who thought they were going on just your ordinary missionary pilgrimage, but discovered it would be anything but. After spending over six hard years doing relief work in Somalia, and experiencing life where it looked like God had turned away completely and He was clueless about the tragedies of life, the couple had a crisis of faith and left Africa asking  God, “Does the gospel work anywhere when it is really a hard place?

The last girl: my story of captivity, and my fight against the Islamic State /Nadia Murad with Jenna Krajeski ; [foreword by Amal Clooney].In this intimate memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State ( and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Winner) tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story.  Nadia’s story–as a witness to the Islamic State’s brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi–has forced the world to pay attention to the ongoing genocide in Iraq. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.

 Liar’s poker: rising through the wreckage on Wall Street /Michael Lewis. The fascinating insider’s account of what really happens on Wall Street. This irreverent and hilarious birds-eye view of Wall Street’s heyday will appeal to anyone intrigued by the allure of million dollar deals.

 Little sister: searching for the shadow world of Chinese women : a memoir /Julie Checkoway.

Low city, high city: Tokyo from Edo to the earthquake /Edward Seidensticker. This book looks at the metamorphosis of Japan from a country with little contact with the outside world to one brimming with Western ideas and technologies. Seidensticker focuses on Tokyo in the years between the Meiji Restoration and the earthquake of 1923 to illustrate this change. He shows how Tokyo, which was called Edo until 1867, emerged from being the shogun’s capital and the biggest city in a country which had been closed to the outside world for two and a half centuries, to a modern city, open to Western ideas.

A man of faith: the spiritual journey of George W. Bush /David Aikman. Aikman, skilled journalist and former senior correspondent for TIME magazine, pens this dramatic and gripping account of Bush’s journey to faith.

Masterpieces from the National Gallery /Erika Langmuir. This handsomely designed and illustrated book presents thirty-six masterpieces from the National Gallery’s remarkable and unparalleled collection, introducing major artists through their most renowned works.

 Meditations on the parables of Jesus /by Thomas Keating. Keating continues to stir the Christian imagination with insightful commentary on the parables of the Bible. This collection of corresponding meditations renews the voice and vigor of each parable’s deeper meaning.

 One nation, underprivileged: why American poverty affects us all /Mark Robert Rank. Rank vividly shows that the fundamental causes of poverty are to be found in our economic structure and political policy failures, rather than individual shortcomings or attitudes. He establishes for the first time that a significant percentage of Americans will experience poverty during their adult lifetimes, and firmly demonstrates that poverty is an issue of vital national concern. Ultimately, Rank provides us with a new paradigm for understanding poverty, and outlines an innovative set of strategies that will reduce American poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged represents a profound starting point for rekindling a national focus upon America’s most vexing social and economic problem.

Plato’s Symposium /a translation by Seth Benardete ; with commentaries by Allan Bloom and Seth Benardete. This new edition brings together the English translation of the renowned Plato scholar and translator,  Benardete. In the Symposium, Plato recounts a drinking party following an evening meal, where the guests include the poet Aristophanes, the drunken Alcibiades, and, of course, the wise Socrates. The revelers give their views on the timeless topics of love and desire, all the while addressing many of the major themes of Platonic philosophy: the relationship of philosophy and poetry, the good, and the beautiful.

 The promise of winter: quickening the spirit on ordinary days and in fallow seasons /Martin Marty and Micah Marty. Rather than looking ahead to spring, The Promise of Winter explores the signs of promise and presence found in the winter of the soul. For the disappointed and dispirited, this volume holds up the presence and promise of God.

 Saint Silouan, the Athonite /Archimandrite Sofrony ; translated from Russian by Rosemary Edmonds. Part I is a remarkable account of St Silouan’s life, personality and teaching. Part II consists of St Silouan’s writings, which he had laboriously penciled on odd scraps of paper, expressing an authentic personal experience of Christianity identical with that of the early Desert Fathers.

 The working poor: invisible in America /David K. Shipler.  Shipler makes clear in this powerful, humane study, the invisible poor are engaged in the activity most respected in American ideology–hard, honest work. But their version of the American Dream is a nightmare: low-paying, dead-end jobs; the profound failure of government to improve upon decaying housing, health care, and education; the failure of families to break the patterns of child abuse and substance abuse. Shipler exposes the interlocking problems by taking us into the sorrowful, infuriating, courageous lives of the poor–white and black, Asian and Latino, citizens and immigrants. We encounter them every day, for they do jobs essential to the American economy. This impassioned book not only dissects the problems, but makes pointed, informed recommendations for change. It is a book that stands to make a difference.

 Wonder and critical reflection: an invitation to philosophy /Tom Christenson. For anyone who wants to engage in philosophical thinking–to experience first hand the wonder, the temptations, the critical tools, and the pleasure of it. Each chapter contains a brief summary of major themes, an introductory student-voiced dialogue, a clarifying discussion, and questions for further reflection.