Here is a selection of titles added to the collection in the past week

 3000 quotations from the writings of George MacDonald /Harry Verploegh, compiler.

 A Christian’s guide through the gender revolution: gender, cisgender, transgender, and intersex /Vincent E. Gil ; foreword by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt. In this meticulously researched, well-written, and illuminating guide, Gil unpacks elements involved in gender-identity conflicts and intersexuality. He explores gender and identity, issues of conflict, and of reconciliation. He distinguishes biological and psychological elements from social issues, and addresses the current movement of gender individuation, its language idioms, and its influences on gender ideology and theology. He also provides an engaging theological discourse, filling gaps in our understanding of procreation to better inform our theology of being.

Alec Forbes of Howglen /by George MacDonald. A novel primarily concerned with Scottish country life, ‘Howglen’ is probably a reference to the author’s childhood home in Huntly, Scotland.

 All my road before me: the diary of C.S. Lewis, 1922-1927 /edited by Walter Hooper ; foreword by Owen Barfield. This most intimate of Lewis’ writing begins when he is twenty-three, an undergraduate at Oxford, and an atheist. It records his diligent studies, burgeoning friendships, and excursions in the surrounding countryside, but it is of primary interest for its day-to-day account of life with a woman twenty-six years his senior.

 Annals of a quiet neighbourhood /by George MacDonald. A Victorian-English novel written in the first person about the annals of a Vicar in the town of Marshmallows, recounting his experiences mingled with mystery and romance.

 Asian families in Canada and the United States: implications for mental health and well-being /Susan S. Chuang, Roy Moodley, Uwe P. Gielen, Saadia Akram, editors. The volume examines the experiences of families whose ancestry can be traced to East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. Asian Families in Canada and the United States is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, graduate students as well as clinicians, professionals, and policymakers in the fields of developmental, social, and cross-cultural psychology, parenting and family studies, social work, and all interrelated disciplines.

At the back of the North Wind /George MacDonald. Tells of the boy Diamond, the son of a poor coachman, and of his fascinating friendship with the North Wind, who appears in the story in many different guises.

C.S. Lewis /Roger Lancelyn Green. Here this fascinating man’s entire life-story is told by those who knew him personally. After Lewis’s death in 1963 Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper were approached by several of Lewis’s friends, to write the biography. Warren Lewis, brother to Jack, contributed a great deal to the writing. The authors had at their disposal a vast collection of letters and diaries, as well as the recollections of many surviving family members and friends.

 Canada’s public diplomacy /Nicholas J. Cull, Michael K. Hawes, editors. This book is a timely resource for the debate around “revitalizing” Canada’s public diplomacy, bringing together some of the top scholars of Canadian public diplomacy and practitioners past and present to build a one-stop shop for thinking on the past, present, and future of Canadian engagement with foreign publics. The volume builds on Justin Trudeau’s media profile and the success of Canada’s image in 2016. Offering a comprehensive discussion of a major non-US case in contemporary public diplomacy and soft power, contributors also explore new angles of public diplomacy, including city, gift, art, and archaeological diplomacy as well as digital diplomacy.

 Christian Shakespeare: question mark : a collection of essays on Shakespeare in his Christian context /edited by Michael Scott, Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, Michael Collins, Georgetown University. Christian Shakespeare? The question was put to each contributor to this collection of essays. All the essays recognize, to some degree or another, that the tension in Shakespeare’s world between old and new, medieval and early modern, Catholic and Protestant, brought uncertainty (and in some cases anxiety) to the minds and hearts of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. But what Shakespeare himself believed, how he responded in his work to the religious turmoil of his time remains uncertain.  Together the essays reflect the varied ways in which the question of Shakespeare’s Christianity might be answered.

 Chronicle of Ladysmith and district /compiled by Viola Johnson-Cull ; with editorial assistance by E. Norcross. To the people of Wellington, Extension, Nanaimo, and Cumberland and all coal mining towns on the Island–but mostly Ladysmith–this is your story. This book tells the story of two distinct communities, Cedar District and the City of Ladysmith is devoted to the stories of pioneer families.

 Crossing wires: making sense of technology, transhumanism, and Christian identity /Joel Oesch. Crossing Wires navigates the complex terrain of digital and robotic technologies with refreshing approachability. The book opens the door for discussions on technology’s influence on human identity while laying out a case for embodied, empathetic communities of grace that can serve as a necessary antidote to a society that seems to love and trust devices above all else.

 Data action: using data for public good /Sarah Williams. Data Action will offer a model for reading, collecting, visualizing, and putting data to work on civic change. Using arresting graphics and influential case studies, as well as incorporating cultural and historical context, Data Action presents a helpful corrective to standard practice. The tools outlined in this book will help anyone, not just government officials, but data scientists, civic activists and hackers, as well as all citizens reaching for more effective civic debates and policy reforms, to shape our environment, economy, public health, and quality of life, with greater transparency and democratic participation.

David Elginbrod /George Macdonald. Hugh Sutherland, working as a classical and mathematic tutor for a Scottish laird’s family, in turn learns love, life and a right relationship with God from David Elginbrod, a humble cottar and his family, who also work for the laird.

 Galatians /N.T. Wright. This commentary from Wright offers a theological interpretation of Galatians that never loses sight of the political concerns of its historical context. With these two elements of the letter in dialogue with each other, readers can understand both what Paul originally meant and how his writing might be faithfully used to respond to present questions. Each section of verse-by-verse commentary in this volume is followed by Wright’s reflections on what the text says about Christian formation today, making this an excellent resource for individual readers and those preparing to teach or preach on Galatians.

 Go do some great thing: the Black pioneers of British Columbia /Crawford Kilian ; with a foreword by Adam Rudder. Since its original publication in 1978, Go Do Some Great Thing has remained foundational reading on the history of Black pioneers in BC. Updated and with a new foreword by Adam Rudder, the third edition of this under-told story describes the hardships and triumphs of BC’s first Black citizens and their legacy in the province today.

 Intended for good: the providence of God /Melvin Tinker ; foreword by D.A. Carson. The Puritans used to say that ‘providence is the last refuge of the saints’. Melvin Tinker’s personal experience and work as a pastor have led him to believe that the doctrine of God’s providence should be amongst the first refuges for the Christian seeking strength and comfort.

 Interpreting Paul /Luke Timothy Johnson. Johnson probes each of the thirteen biblical letters traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul in a way that balances respect for historical integrity with attention to present-day realities. Far from being a definitive theology of Paul, or an oversimplified synthesis, Interpreting Paul provides glimpses into various moments of Paul’s thinking and teaching that we find in Scripture, modeling how one might read his letters closely for fresh, creative interpretations now and into the future.

 Intersectional tech: black users in digital gaming /Kishonna L. Gray ; foreword by Anita Sarkeesian. Gray interrogates blackness in gaming at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. Situating her argument within the context of the concurrent, seemingly unrelated events of Gamergate and the Black Lives Matter movement, Gray highlights the inescapable chains that bind marginalized populations to stereotypical frames and limited narratives in video games.

 Jesus in Jerusalem: the last days /Eckhard J. Schnabel. This is the first book to describe and analyze, sequentially and in detail, all the persons, places, times, and events mentioned in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s last week in Jerusalem. Part reference guide, part theological exploration, Schnabel’s Jesus in Jerusalem uses the biblical text and recent archaeological evidence to find meaning in Jesus’s final days on earth.

 Jonah: introduction and commentary /Amy Erickson. The dominant reading of the book of Jonah — that the hapless prophet Jonah is a lesson in not trying to run away from God — oversimplifies a profoundly literary biblical text, argues Amy Erickson This Illuminations commentary delves into Jonah’s reception history in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic contexts while also exploring its representations in visual arts, music, literature, and pop culture. After this thorough contextualization, Erickson provides a fresh translation and exegesis, paving the way for pastors and scholars to read and utilize the book of Jonah as the provocative, richly allusive, and theologically robust text that it is.

Let’s learn Chinese, 1 = Da jia lai xue Hanyu, 1 /by Billie L.C. Ng.

 Lifesavers and body snatchers: medical care and the struggle for survival in the Great War /Tim Cook. Life Savers and Body Snatchers will be the definitive medical history of the Canadian forces in the Great War, and a broader look into the medical advances that came from the carnage.

 Magic moments in BC sports: a century in photos /Kate Bird. A striking collection of two hundred iconic sports photographs–from local heroes to international icons, pickup games to sold-out stadiums. From the growth of community sports around the province to the successful hosting of large-scale sporting events, and the impressive development of world-class athletes.

Maria Cross: imaginative patterns in a group of modern Catholic writers /by Conor Cruise O’Brien.  O’Brien set himself to a study of ‘the patterns of several exceptionally vivid imaginations which are permeated by Catholicism’ – from Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh to Francois Mauriac and Paul Claudel – and to analyse ‘what those patterns might share’.

 Minguo shi qi fei Jidu jiao yun dong zhong yao wen xian hui bian /Tang Xiaofeng, Wang Shuai bian.

 Mohawk interruptus: political life across the borders of settler states /Audra Simpson. Mohawk Interruptus is a bold challenge to dominant thinking in the fields of Native studies and anthropology. Combining political theory with ethnographic research among the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke, a reserve community in what is now southwestern Quebec, Audra Simpson examines their struggles to articulate and maintain political sovereignty through centuries of settler colonialism. Simpson argues that one sovereign political order can exist nested within a sovereign state, albeit with enormous tension around issues of jurisdiction and legitimacy. Mohawk Interruptus calls for and demonstrates more robust and evenhanded forms of inquiry into indigenous politics in the teeth of settler governance.

 Nanaimo retrospective: the first century /E. Blanche Norcross, co-ordinating editor. It was at the halfway mark of the nineteenth century that a few courageous young people came out to Vancouver Island from the United Kingdom. The group included pioneer wives with their coal miner husbands and small children. Together they founded a community at Nanaimo. Other ethnic groups followed, all contributing to a unique chapter in British Columbia’s story.

 Owen Barfield on C.S. Lewis /by Owen Barfield ; G.B. Tennyson, editor. A collection of essays and lectures about the author, theologian, and literary scholar, C. S. Lewis. Barfield and Lewis were close friends for 44 years, from their Oxford days after WWI to Lewis’s death in 1963. Barfield’s reflections on their relationship ended only with his own passing, in his hundredth year.

Peter in early Christianity /edited by Helen K. Bond and Larry W. Hurtado. A fresh scholarly look at the apostle Peter and his significance in the early church and beyond . Building on that resurgence of interest, nineteen internationally prominent scholars of early Christian history examine and reassess his impact.

 Poetic diction: a study in meaning /by Owen Barfield. Poetic Diction, first published in 1928, begins by asking why we call a given grouping of words “poetry” and why these arouse “aesthetic imagination” and produce pleasure in a receptive reader. Returning always to this personal experience of poetry, Barfield at the same time seeks objective standards of criticism and a theory of poetic diction in broader philosophical considerations on the relation of world and thought. His profound musings explore concerns fundamental to the understanding and appreciation of poetry, including the nature of metaphor, poetic effect, the difference between verse and prose, and the essence of meaning.

 Religious trauma: queer stories in estrangement and return /Brooke N. Petersen. Through the rich stories of eight participants, the author explores the psychological, spiritual, and ritual dimensions of religious trauma among queer people and offers key recommendations for congregations and pastoral caregivers that seek to welcome those who have experienced religious trauma.

 Romans: a theological and pastoral commentary /Michael J. Gorman. This commentary engages the letter to the Romans as Christian scripture and highlights the Pauline themes for which Gorman is best known – participation and transformation; cruciformity and new life;  peace and justice; community and mission.

Saving the appearances: a study in idolatry /by Owen Barfield. Barfield draws on sources from mythology, philosophy, history, literature, theology, and science to chronicle the evolution of human thought from Moses and Aristotle to Galileo and Keats.

Soap and water & common sense: the definitive guide to viruses, bacteria, parasites, and disease /Dr. Bonnie Henry. Henry, a leading epidemiologist and public health doctor, offers three simple rules to live by: clean your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, and stay home when you have a fever. Henry takes us on a tour through the halls of Microbes Inc., providing up-to-date and accurate information on everything we eat and drink the bugs in our backyard, and beyond.

 The Book of Jeremiah /John Goldingay. After a thorough introduction that explores matters of background, composition, and theology, Goldingay provides an original translation and verse-by-verse commentary of all fifty-two chapters, making this an authoritative and indispensable reference for scholars and pastors as they engage with Jeremiah from a contemporary Christian standpoint.

 The book of Lamentations /John Goldingay. A commentary for scholars and pastors on the biblical book of Lamentations, with an emphasis on reading it as authoritative Christian Scripture.

 The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah /Hannah K. Harrington. Harrington begins her commentary with an evocative description of these books as the story of a new Israel forged out of the old and the text of a people clinging to their genealogical past and attempting to preserve their heritage while walking forward into uncharted territory. Throughout this commentary, Harrington combines analytical research on the language and culture behind the books of Ezra and Nehemiah with challenging thoughts for the Christian church today, bringing to bear a unique perspective on these books not as the end of Old Testament history but as some of the earliest Jewish books written during the Second Temple period..

 The books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah /Thomas Renz. In this commentary, Renz reads Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah as three carefully crafted writings of enduring relevance, each of which makes a vital contribution to the biblical canon. The author’s careful translation of the text comes with detailed textual notes, illuminating some of the Bible’s most outstanding poetry (Nahum) and one of the biblical chapters that is among the most difficult to translate (Habakkuk 3). The thorough verse-by-verse commentary is followed by stimulating theological reflection, opening up avenues for teaching and preaching from these prophetic writings.

 The everlasting man /G.K. Chesterton. This classic exploration of human history vis-a-vis its link to Christianity ponders the question: What makes human beings uniquely human? In this thoughtful response to the rampant social Darwinism of the early twentieth century, G.K. Chesterton explains how religion, a blend of philosophy and mythology, satisfies both the human intellect and the spirit and sets man starkly apart from any other living creature.

 The historian’s toolbox: a student’s guide to the theory and craft of history /Robert C Williams. The Historian’s Toolbox introduces students to the theory, craft, and methods of history and equips them with a series of tools to research and understand the past. These include materials on the Kennedy assassination, the litigation of Van Gogh’s Night Café, local town histories, contemporary history, Twitter, and the contemplation of the end of history as well as the Sixth Extinction in a new epilogue.

 The market as god /Harvey Cox. The Market has deified itself, according to  Cox’s brilliant exegesis. And all of the world’s problems –  widening inequality, a rapidly warming planet, the injustices of global poverty – are consequently harder to solve. Only by tracing how the Market reached its “divine” status can we hope to restore it to its proper place.

 The perilous trade: publishing Canada’s writers /Roy MacSkimming. This book tells the story of Canadian English-language book publishing from the Second World War to the present.

 The portent: a story of the inner vision of the Highlanders commonly called the second sight /George MacDonald ; frontispiece by Maurice Sendak. This story tells of a young Duncan Campbell’s seemingly hopeless love for the mysterious Lady Alice Hamilton and of the portent itself–the fateful sound of the ghostly horse–which brings to a fast-paced climax this story of revenge, jealousy, and an ordinary world transformed by the supernatural.

 Weavers, scribes, and kings: a new history of the Ancient Near East /Amanda H. Podany. A sweeping history of the ancient Near East from 3500 to 323 BCE, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings is built around the life stories of many ancient men and women. Their habits of daily life, beliefs, triumphs, and crises, and the changes that they faced over time are explored through their own written words and the buildings, cities, and empires in which they lived.