The sea, sunshine, and sleuthing have given Bria Bartolucci a new lease on life since her husband’s passing, and her southern Italian B and B is running as smoothly as her love life. But, just like the Amalfi Coast, some relationships can be rocky—and some can be downright deadly . . .After solving a couple of murders, Bria is now known in the village as the “Italian Miss Marple,” which could cause problems in her budding romance with the local police chief. But fo...

Accurate and strategic evidence that the decline of the mainline, progressive church can be slowed and even reversed, despite the challenges it is facing.

Transitional ministry can be tremendously helpful for congregations in times of change, and yet, to be successful today transitional ministers and churches need to take into account the major changes in the religious landscape. From the decline of mainline churches to the rise of those who don’t identify with any religious tradition, the religious scene has changed dramatically since transitional ministry began three decades ago, and to remain vital today, the practice of transitional mini...

This book comprises essays honoring the life and work of Yiu Sing Lúcás Chan, S.J., who died unexpectedly on May 19, 2015, at the end of his first year as a member of the faculty in the Department of Theology at Marquette University. The editors intend to commemorate Chan’s brief but productive career by furthering the critical conversations he started. The essays included thus touch on aspects of the brilliant young Jesuit’s wide-ranging work in the fields of scriptural research, moral th...

From the day Lorenzo Snow stepped out of a carriage onto Italian soil in 1850 to the day that Thomas S. Monson turned a shovel of Italian soil to break ground for a temple in 2010, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made evangelizing a high priority in Italy. Mormon missionary work unfolded against a backdrop of historical forces—political upheaval, world wars, social change, and internal Church dynamics—that presented both obstacles and opportunities for growth. Over the ...

After solving a couple of murders, Bria is now known in the village as the "Italian Miss Marple," which could cause problems in her budding romance with the local police chief. But for now, all of Positano is abuzz with the homecoming of a star now that Carlotta Incantaro, a famous opera diva, is coming out of retirement to make one last public appearance.Not all the locals are happy about Carlotta's return and Bria soon begins to hear stories about the singer's petty past. She des...

On her centennial, a contemporary of Flannery O’Connor and Harper Lee joins the Library of America with a volume that restores to print her searing novel about the late Jim Crow SouthElizabeth Spencer (1921-2019) was a major figure of the Southern Renaissance, though today her many books and stories are scattered or out of print. This Library of America volume brings together the very best of her writing--three novels and nineteen stories--from a career spanning mo...

Written in seclusion following the intense negative public reaction to the publication of his novel Pierre, The Piazza Tales is Melville's accessible and entertaining collection of short stories concerning love, labor and loss. The collection includes the author's three most important achievements in the genre of short fiction, Bartleby, the Scrivener, Benito Cereno, and The Encantadas, his sketches of the Galapagos Islands. Melville had originally intended to entitle the volume Benito Cer...

Though the five poems of Lamentations undoubtedly refer to the Babylonian siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE, the multiple voices that narrate unspeakable suffering and labor to make sense of the surrounding horror do so at women's expense. In the opening chapters, a prevailing metaphor of Jerusalem as a woman (Woman Zion) portrays a weeping widow, abandoned and alone, who soon becomes the target of blame for the downfall of the city and its inhabitants. Vague sexual improprieti...