Kody Haywood is a freshman at Bannerville High School who struggles to maintain focus. Every day he finds himself getting lost in his thoughts, the hallways at school, or even in conversation. Having a mind that wanders makes him an easy target for the school bully (and all-star athlete), Brett Walker.But as his birthday approaches, Kody discovers a genetic change in his body renders him indestructible. When a mysterious letter from his deceased father arrives on his doorstep, it p...

Found in the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible, this parable of a righteous man tested for his faith answers the question of why bad things happen to good people. Perhaps no other biblical tale penetrates so deeply into the everyday travails of the common person as The Book of Job. A well-to-do, God-fearing man, Job leads a content life of piety. But Job's faith is put to the test by God when he allows Satan to inflict pain on the devout man. The story of a righteous man beset by torment ...

In 81 brief chapters, Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, provides advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit, and teaches us how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao—the basic principle of the universe.Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture.

This brilliant new treatment of the oldest epic in the world is a literary event. Esteemed translator and best-selling author Stephen Mitchell breathes life into a 3,700-year-old classic, delivering a lithe and muscular rendering that shows how startlingly alive Gilgamesh is, how filled with intelligence and beauty. It is the story of literature's first hero, an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, and his journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can b...

Rainer Maria Rilke has been called the most significant and compelling poet of spiritual experience of the 20th century. His exploration of the struggle between life and art and the supremacy of divine love over personal love has touched the hearts of men and women everywhere. The poems in this reading are from the selected poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell.

Let the heavens and the earth rejoice: A new adaptation of the psalms from the author of The Gospel According to Jesus.When the ancient rabbis named the anthology that we know as the Book of Psalms, they called it sefer tehillim—the Book of Praises. That is the dominant theme of the greatest of the Psalms: a rapturous praise, a deep, exuberant gratitude for being here.In this volume, leading biblical scholar and award-winning translator Step...

The Bhagavad Gita is universally acknowledged as one of the world's literary and spiritual masterpieces. It is the core text of the Hindu tradition, one that has been translated into more than two hundred English editions. Stephen Mitchell—the acclaimed translator of Pablo Neruda, Rainer Maria Rilke, and the Tao Te Ching—has produced a definitive version of The Bhagavad Gita for our time. Mitchell's translation sings with the clarity, the vigor, and the intensity...

Discover one of the masterpieces of world literature with this acclaimed edition that allows us to see how beautiful, intelligent, and alive it is.Acclaimed translator Stephen Mitchell’s lithe, muscular rendering of Gilgamesh allows us to enter an ancient masterpiece as if for the first time. His insightful introduction provides a historical, spiritual, and cultural context for this ancient epic, showing that this epic is more potent and fascinating than e...

The bestselling, widely acclaimed translation from Stephen Mitchell"Mitchell’s rendition of the Tao Te Ching comes as close to being definitive for our time as any I can imagine. It embodies the virtues its translator credits to the Chinese original: a gemlike lucidity that is radiant with humor, grace, largeheartedness, and deep wisdom." — Huston Smith, author of The Religions of ManIn eighty-one brief chapters, this classic of ancient Chinese wisdom, Lao...

"If Mr. Mitchell gives an eloquent account of the effects of Job's poetry in his introduction, in the translation itself he does even better: he makes those effects come alive. Writing with three insistent beats to the line, and hammering home a succession of boldly defined images, he achieves a rare degree of vehemence and concentration." — John Cross, New York TimesA timeless work of wisdom literature, Book of Job, The pulses with moral energy, outrage, and spiritual ins...

Stephen Mitchell's marvelously clear and vivid rendering recreates the robust masculine music of the original. It both hews closely to the Old English and captures its wild energy and vitality, not just as a deep "work of literature" but also as a rousing entertainment that can still stir our feelings and rivet our attention today, after more than a thousand years. This new translation - spare, sinuous, vigorous in its narration, and translucent in its poetry - makes a masterpiece accessib...

The classic guide for Zen students pursuing the true way."Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha-statue, blows smoke in its face and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do?" This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn was fond of posing to his American students who attended his Zen centers.Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a delightful, irreverent, and often hilariously funny livi...