The renowned biblical scholar, author of The Misunderstood Jew and general editor for The Jewish Annotated New Testament, interweaves history and spiritual analysis to explore Jesus' most popular teaching parables, exposing their misinterpretations and making them lively and relevant for modern readers. Jesus was a skilled storyteller and perceptive teacher who used parables from everyday life to effectively convey his message and meaning. Life in...

In this reworking of the Buddhist parable, Stillwater, a giant panda, teaches Addy that the grief she feels for the loss of her kitten, is part of life and is shared by everybody.

Punchinello's opinion of himself changes after talking to his creator.

"A hauntingly beautiful diptych of works inspired by Robert Macfarlane's travels with celebrated collaborators to two eerie corners of England. In Holloway, "a perfect miniature prose-poem" (William Dalrymple), Macfarlane, artist Stanley Donwood, and writer Dan Richards travel to Dorset, near the south coast of England, to explore a famed "hollowed way"-a path used by walkers and riders for so many centuries that it has become worn far down into the...

Mark Haddon's breathtaking novel begins with a harrowing plane crash: Maja, the pregnant wife of the unimaginably wealthy Philippe, is killed, but their daughter Angelica survives. Philippe's obsession with the girl's safety morphs into something sinister and grotesque as she grows into a beautiful teen. A young man named Darius, visiting Philippe with a business proposition, encounters Angelica and intuits their secret -- he decides to rescue her,...

Through parables of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son, the lost sheep and the beatitudes, Jesus taught his disciples the redeeming power of sacrificial love and showed mercy to everyone around him—especially the sick, the poor, and the downtrodden. In this inspirational and richly illustrated book, John Hendrix brings to life the wisdom of Jesus. Interweaving hand lettering with his signature, award-winning art style, Hendrix captures the...

""A graceful, lucid translation of the world's first, and one of its greatest, novels."--Alan Tansman, University of California, Berkeley. Murasaki Shikibu, born into the middle ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian Period (794-1185 CE), wrote The Tale of Genji--widely considered the world's first novel--during the early years of the eleventh century. Expansive, compelling, and sophisticated in its representation of ethical concerns and aesthetic...

Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's disturbing novella recounted by the itinerant captain Marlow sent to find and bring home the shadowy and inscrutable Captain Kurtz. Marlow and his men follow a river deep into a jungle, the "Heart of Darkness" of Africa looking for Kurtz, an unhinged leader of an isolated trading station. This highly symbolic psychological drama was the founding myth for Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 movie Apocalypse

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In a small town whose economy relies on goat milk, a young girl finds her goats covered with gappers, bright orange creatures that deplete a goat's supply of milk, and even though her neighbors have turned their backs on her, she is still willing to help them solve their own problems.