Featured Titles Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Here is a collection of titles recently added to the collection.

  An introduction to discourse analysis : theory and method /James Paul Gee.  Gee’s Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method (5th edition) provides a comprehensive guide to conducting discourse analysis. The book outlines Gee’s approach, which involves examining how language is used in context to construct meaning, identities, relationships, and social practices. The theoretical framework is built around seven building tasks” that language performs: significance, practices, identities, relationships, politics, connections, and sign systems and knowledge. Gee introduces six ‘tools of inquiry’ for analysing these tasks: situated meanings, social languages, figured worlds, intertextuality, Discourses, and Conversations. Methodologically, Gee emphasizes the importance of context and the reciprocal relationship between language and context. He discusses transcription, outlines the components of an ‘ideal’ discourse analysis, and addresses issues of validity. The book provides practical guidance on analysing different aspects of language, such as intonation units, stanzas, and the overall organization of oral and written texts. The updated edition includes a new chapter on multimodal discourse analysis, demonstrating how Gee’s approach can be applied to texts that combine language with other modes of communication like images or video. Overall, the book equips readers with a robust toolkit for systematically analysing discourse.

  Christianity as a world religion /Sebastian Kim and Kirsteen Kim.  A fully updated introductory textbook that examines Christianity as a global faith, locally rooted in varied communities across 2,000 years of history.

  Dazzling darkness : the lives and afterlives of the Christian mystics /James Harpur.  For 2,000 years, women and men of the Christian faith have experienced what some mystics call a ‘dazzling darkness’: the spiritual journey to the heart of ultimate reality, or God. These direct communions have ranged from mild illuminations to a union consuming the mystic’s will. This book traces such spiritual figures’ lives, times and teachings, from early Christendom to modern mystics like Simone Weil and Thomas Merton. It explores how the anchoress Julian of Norwich grew up while the Black Death was devastating Europe; how, when the beguine Marguerite Porete lived, the Church was particularly primed to burn ‘heretics’; and how Pierre Teilhard de Chardin developed his idea of spiritual evolution with Darwin’s theories in the air. Deeply researched and highly engaging, Dazzling Darkness tells the stories of towering figures like Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, and highlights many lesser-known mystics, including Mary of Egypt, Seraphim of Sarov and Charles de Foucauld, allowing their voices to sing out to future generations.

 Nursing practice and education : aspiring to excellence through seven pillars of learning /edited by Ann Gallagher, Kris Deering, and Enrico De Luca.  This accessible co-produced textbook presents essential knowledge, skills and values relevant to all undergraduate student nurses up to Masters’ level. The chapters include a range of features to help readers apply their learning, including the application of relevant international research and incorporating the voices of students, patients and nurse educators. It enables readers to gain confidence and competence in their practice and serves as an important introduction for student nurses.

**TWU Author**  The medium is still the message : Marshall McLuhan for our time /Grant N. Havers.  Examines the life and ideas of Marshall McLuhan and helps us to understand the effects of media on us, with reference to our current age.