Hell Heaven

A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection Pranab Chakraborty was a fellow Bengali from Calcutta who had washed up on the shores of Central Square. Soon he was one of the family. From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, a staggeringly beautiful and precise story about a Bengali family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the impossibilities of love, and the unanticipated pleasures and complications of life in America. “Hell-Heaven” is Jhumpa Lahiri’s ode to the intimate secrets of closest kin, from the acclaimed collection Unaccustomed Earth. An eBook short.

Over half of Americans believe in a literal heaven, in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. Ehrman shows that eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament, and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught. He recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers. Ehrman shows that competing views were intimately connected with the social, cultural, and historical worlds out of which they emerged. -- adapted from jacket

"One of the most inventive and prolific cartoonists working today."—Vulture In the past ten years, Michael DeForge has released eleven books. While his style and approach have evolved, he has never wavered from taut character studies and incisive social commentary with a focus on humor. He has deeply probed subjects like identity, gentrification, fame, and sexual desire. In “No Hell,” an angel’s tour of the five tiers of heaven reveals her obsession with a haunting infidelity. In “Raising,” a couple uses an app to see what their unborn child would look like. Of course, what begins as a simple face-melding experiment becomes a nightmare of too-much-information where the young couple is forced to confront their terrible choices. “Recommended for You” is an anxious retelling of our narrator’s favorite TV show—a Purge-like societal collapse drama—as a reflection of our desire for meaning in pop culture. Each of these stories shows the inner turmoil of an ordinary person coming to grips with a world vastly different than their initial perception of it. The humor is searing and the emotional weight lingers long after the story ends. Heaven No Hell collects DeForge’s best work yet. His ability to dig into a subject and break it down with beautiful drawings and sharp writing makes him one of the finest short story writers of the past decade, in comics or beyond. Heaven No Hell is always funny, sometimes sad, and continuously innovative in its deconstruction of society.

A riveting portrait of a rural Pennsylvania town at the center of the fracking controversy Shale gas extraction—commonly known as fracking—is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, fracking is personal. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet—whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet—is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public's consent. The United States is the only country in the world where property rights commonly extend "up to heaven and down to hell," which means that landowners have the exclusive right to lease their subsurface mineral estates to petroleum companies. Colin Jerolmack spent eight months living with rural communities outside of Williamsport as they confronted the tension between property rights and the commonwealth. In this deeply intimate book, he reveals how the decision to lease brings financial rewards but can also cause irreparable harm to neighbors, to communal resources like air and water, and even to oneself. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell casts America’s ideas about freedom and property rights in a troubling new light, revealing how your personal choices can undermine your neighbors’ liberty, and how the exercise of individual rights can bring unintended environmental consequences for us all.

Millions of people worldwide dream of making a "good" living, of attaining great wealth, and having an extraordinary and fortunate life. However, they haven’t yet found a way of attaining it, and they fear that they can only do so at the expense of others—perhaps by compromising their higher spiritual values and virtuous nature. Some people who outwardly acknowledge their desire for great wealth feel inwardly guilty about acquiring it, and their illusive conflict blocks or dissipates their potential fortunes. Other people say they just want to be comfortable and secure rather than vastly fortunate. These individuals also hold themselves back from breaking through to new levels of financial freedom, and actually living their most cherished and inspiring dreams. In addition to their conflicting spiritual and material natures, some people have an additional internal struggle between their desires to give and receive. How to Make One Hell of a Profit and Still Get to Heaven was written to help you (if you happen to be like most people) dissolve these apparent conflicts. It can assist you in making your financial dreams come true while shedding light on an entirely new way of looking at, understanding, and appreciating the true nature of Earthly profits and heavenly wealth. If you read and apply the principles and methodologies that are laid out in these pages, your relationship with, and ability to master, your spiritual wealth and material finances as well as other vital areas of your life will undergo an amazing transformation.

A Journey to Hell, Heaven, and Back In 1978, Ivan Tuttle was living a carefree life, going from one party to the next, from one high to anotherwhen his fun, free life was interrupted by a pain in his leg. Doctors told him he had a dangerous blood clot in his legbut Ivan didnt pay much attention to that. He was 26 and felt fine; blood clots were a problem for his grandfather, not him. Until the clock ran out. Ivan Tuttle suddenly found himself dragged down to hell for a horrifying lesson in the reality of eternity. He was spared and even saw Heaven before being sent back to earth with quite a story to tell.

It has forever been said that we are ruled by our emotions, but this today is truer than ever. Yet, the emotions are utterly neglected by our system of education, leading to millions of mis-lived lives. This book proposes to redress the balance, exploring over 30 emotions and drawing some powerful and astonishing conclusions along the way.

What's the Truth About Eternity? The afterlife seems like the great unknown. Human imagination and Hollywood have come up with many speculations about what lies beyond. How can we set aside the misconceptions and find the truth? What are the straightforward, biblical answers everyone needs to know about heaven, hell, and the afterlife? Mike Fabarez examines 10 faulty beliefs that are surprisingly widespread—and look to God's Word alone for the facts. You will find the truth about common misperceptions like When I die, I'll go to sleep until the resurrection On my way to heaven I'll have to put in some time in purgatory Heaven will be boring with very little to do You don't need to guess about the future—God's Word is ready to inform your mind and settle your heart. Let this book guide you toward a deeper joy, faith, and understanding of eternity.

DIVThe searing conclusion to the North and South Trilogy brings the battle between the Mains and Hazards—and Confederate and Union armies—to a brilliantly satisfying end /divDIV The last days of the Civil War bring no peace for the Main and Hazard families. As the Mains’ South smolders in the ruins of defeat, the Hazards’ North pushes blindly for relentless industrial progress. Both the nation and the families’ long-standing bond hover on the brink of destruction. In the series’ epic conclusion, Jakes expertly blends personal conflict with historical events, crafting a haunting page-turner about America’s constant change and unyielding hope. /divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection./div