Out From Darkness

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book "This is East Texas, and there's lines. Lines you cross, lines you don't cross. That clear?" New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive. Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion—the worst school disaster in American history—as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people. "[This] layered tale of color lines, love and struggle in an East Texas oil town is a pit-in-the-stomach family drama that goes down like it should, with pain and fascination, like a mix of sugary medicine and artisanal moonshine."—The New York Times Book Review "Pérez deftly weaves [an] unflinchingly intense narrative....A powerful, layered tale of forbidden love in times of unrelenting racism."―starred, Kirkus Reviews "This book presents a range of human nature, from kindness and love to acts of racial and sexual violence. The work resonates with fear, hope, love, and the importance of memory....Set against the backdrop of an actual historical event, Pérez...gives voice to many long-omitted facets of U.S. history."―starred, School Library Journal

It was the case that shocked the nation. On the evening of 20 April 2011, Tina Nash's life changed forever. After suffering months of beatings and domestic abuse at the hands of boyfriend Shane Jenkin, she was subjected to a barbaric and prolonged attack during which Jenkin beat her unconscious and gouged out both her eyes. When he was jailed in May 2012, people struggled to comprehend the scale of the violence endured by this attractive mother of two at her home in Cornwall. In Out of the Darkness, Tina tells her full story - of what life with a violent partner is really like and how she survived 12 hours of sustained and unimaginable violence in her own home. Learning to adjust to life without her sight, Tina speaks bravely about how her children have given her the courage to keep going, and how - step by careful step - she is learning to live again. With statistics on domestic violence rising, Tina's incredible memoir of survival makes for essential reading.

An introduction to the major themes and passages of the holy book of Islam, this book invites readers of any religion -- or none -- to meditate on verses of the Quran as support for spiritual practices and growth. It guides the reader through the rich tapestry of the Quran, weaving through a number of themes, including the mystery of God, surrender to the divine will, and provisions for the spiritual journey. Quranic verses are supplemented by sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, the words of Rumi and other Sufi poets, and relevant quotations and insights from Jewish and Christian sources. The book also offers practical suggestions for expanding and strengthening one's spiritual sinews.

Come, learn, and be inspired. Sonny came to Jesus during David Wilkersons early The cross and the Switchblade days in the dangerous ghettos of new York. Today, Sonny proves nobody is unredeemable. In his churches, former hit-men, drug pushers, prostitutes, street urchins, and good religious people have been disciple, trained and sent forth to proclaim that joyous lifestyle of Jesus Christ. Their Jesus Lives! These churches are bursting at the seams. They are changing their world! Your congregation can too! HERES HOW!

A powerful, moving, and revelatory novel set in nineteenth-century Africa--the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried the body of explorer and missionary David Livingstone from Zambia to Zanzibar so that his remains could be returned home to England. Dawn, 1 May 1873, on the outskirts of Chitambo's village, near Lake Bangweulu in modern-day Zambia. The Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone has died. He had been heading south in the African interior on an increasingly maniacal mission to penetrate the greatest secret of Victorian exploration. He wanted to find the source of the world's longest river, the Nile. Instead, on an isolated and swampy floodplain, Dr. Livingstone found his death. How Livingstone is to be buried will be decided by his African companions, a group of sixty-nine men, women, and children. They decide that come what may, Livingstone, his papers and maps, must all be carried to England. They bury his heart and other organs under a tree and dry his flesh like jerky in the sun. Over nine months, battling severe illness and hunger, hostile chiefs and unknown terrain, all while taking a tortuous route of more than 1,000 miles to the coast to avoid marauding slave traders, they march with Livingstone's body and the evidence of his explorations. Their journey has been called "the most extraordinary story in African exploration." In this novel, their story is retold anew in the distinct, indelible voices of Livingstone's sharp-tongued female cook, Halima; a repressed, formerly enslaved African missionary named Jacob Wainwright; and the collective voice of the retainers. The result is a profound and tragic journey--an epic like no other--that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and colonization while celebrating resilience, loyalty, and love. In Out of Darkness, Shining Light, Petina Gappah has created an ambitious and artful masterpiece.

In Out of the Darkness, bestselling author Steve Taylor tells the stories of more than 30 people who have undergone permanent spiritual awakening after intense trauma and turmoil in their lives. Read about the young woman who was reborn after suffering terrible injuries in the 7/7 bombings in London, the man who found enlightenment after becoming paralysed in a fall, the man who underwent transformation after attempting suicide, and the recovering alcoholic who shifted to a permanent state of enlightenment after hitting 'rock bottom' and losing everything.Steve has also interviewed several spiritual teachers whose awakening occurred after intense psychological turmoil, including Eckhart Tolle. In addition to telling these people's stories, Out of the Darkness explains why turmoil has this transformational effect and illustrates the almost infinite capacity of human beings to overcome suffering. It shows how close - and how natural - spiritual awakening is to all of us.

The first memoir from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Interview with a Vampire—a "very affecting story of a well-known prodigal’s return ... [a] vivid, engaging tale of the journey of a soul into light” (Chicago Sun-Times). Anne Rice was raised in New Orleans as the devout child in a deeply religious Irish Catholic family. Here, she describes how, as she grew up, she lost her belief in God, but not her desire for a meaningful life. She used her novels—beginning with Interview with a Vampire—to wrestle with otherworldly themes while in her own life, she experienced both loss (the death of her daughter and, later, her beloved husband, Stan Rice) and joys (the birth of her son, Christopher). And she writes about how, finally, after years of questioning, she experienced the intense conversion and re-embracing of her faith that lie behind her most recent novels about the life of Christ.

"I have a burning desire to tell people who are hurting that there is a way out of their pain. There is hope for their lives." Stormie Omartian tells her compelling story of a childhood marred by physical and emotional abuse that eventually led her into the occult, drugs, and tragic relationships. Finding herself overwhelmed by fear and on the verge of suicide, she shares the turning point that changed her life and reveals the healing process that brought freedom and wholeness beyond what she ever imagined. In this poignant drama, there is help and hope for anyone who has been scarred by the past or feels imprisoned by deep emotional needs. It is a glorious story of how God can bring life out of death, life out of darkness.

In this radically new interpretation by David Wolfers, the Book of Job emerges as one of the most important religious documents of all time. Wolfers's literal translation, uncompromisingly based on the Masoretic text, has uncovered a coherent allegory in which Job and his travails represent the people of Judah at the time of the Assyrian conquests and the exile of the ten lost tribes. The Book of Job tackles the most perplexing religious issue of its time - and of all time: Why do good people suffer? Who, asks the author of Job, broke the sacred Covenant - God or his people? These questions and their answers make the Book of Job as momentous as the Ten Commandments, containing innovations so far in advance of their time that neither Judaism nor Christianity has yet been willing to fully absorb them.