When Ellen Knuth, a recent college graduate, decided to take a teaching job that sent her to across the world to a remote part of Japan, her mother Jane first felt the palpitations of worry. The closest Christian church was two hours by bullet train, and Jane couldn’t be sure what kind of spiritual support her daughter would have available. Ellen, about to embark on a momentous experience, was more concerned about navigating cultural differences and handling her first classroom than the Ma...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • From the acclaimed author of Weather comes a slim, stunning portrait of a marriage—a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all.“A startling feat of storytelling . . . Each line a dazzling, perfectly chiseled arrowhead aimed at your heart.” —Vanity Fair...

Emiko Jean’s New York Times bestseller and Reese Book Club Pick Tokyo Ever After is the “refreshing, spot-on” (Booklist, starred review) story of an ordinary Japanese American girl who discovers that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan!Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, ...

Fulfillment, healing, peace & happiness should never come at the cost of losing our smarts, uniqueness, strength, integrity, sense of humor, or cool...Finally! Someone had the cajones to write it: A seriously funny & irreverent spiritual self-help book that bypasses all the conventional & cliched niceties & offers you – the reader & star of the show– dead-on, practical ways to change your life for good, forever.Spirituality for Bada...

IN THIS POIGNANT AND BREATHTAKING DEBUT, ONE MAN SEARCHES FOR MEANING IN THE WAKE OF INCOMPARABLE TRAGEDY…Karom Seth should have been in the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11, and on the Indian shores in 2004, when the tsunami swept his entire family into the ocean. Whether it's a curse or a blessing, Karom can't be sure, but his absence from these disasters has left him with crushing guilt–and a belief that fate has singled him out for invincibility.Karom's affliction con...

This masterfully crafted guide to ninjitsu or budo explores in depth the history, culture and philosophy of this fascinating and enduring Japanese martial art.Budo is one of the least understood forms of art in the world. Even more than skills or techniques, the teachings of budo require faith to learn and courage to understand. One of the fundamental teachings of budo is ninjutsu, the art of perseverance that forms the basis of the Japanese marti...

"Akari’s obsession is fatalistic and intense, and Usami’s prose (translated by Asa Yoneda) renders it and the hold it has on her tenuous life ably and affectingly. . . . it will especially resonate with readers familiar with real-life superfandoms such as One Direction’s at the height of its fame, down to details such as sought-after exclusive merch and hateful online comments sections. A short, engrossing novel that captures the essence of obsessive fandom.” -- Kirkus (st...

These popular prayers from Sister Donzes original In My Heart Room books are now available in an expanded edition. Her guided love prayers of the heart offer a beautifully simple method of teaching meditative prayer. Children will learn to pray by concentrating and meditating on such common objects as a pencil, a coin, and a flower.

During a year spent in Japan on a personal quest to deepen her appreciation for such Eastern ideals as commitment and devotion, documentary filmmaker Karin Muller discovered just how maddeningly complicated it is being Japanese. In this book Muller invites the reader along for a uniquely American odyssey into the ancient heart of modern Japan. Broad in scope and deftly observed by an author with a rich visual sense of people and place, Japanland is as beguiling as this colorful country of ...

In God Is No Laughing Matter, bestselling author Julia Cameron takes a witty, powerfully honest, and irreverent look at the culture of "spirituality" today and offers insight to enable readers to determine their personal spiritual path. The important thing to remember, she says, is that God is both more humorous and more humane than we've been taught.With her trademark "sparkling prose" (Publishers Weekly), anecdotes, and helpful techniques, Camero...

Write to Celebrate, Heal, and Free the Wild Woman WithinIn her years as a writing coach, Judy Reeves has found twin urges in women: they yearn to reclaim a true nature that resides below the surface of daily life and to give it voice. The longing to express this wild, authentic nature is what informs Reeves’s most popular workshop and now this workshop in a book. Here, you will explore the stages that make up your life, from wild child, daughter/sister/mother, and ...

Married to a Zen monk in training, an American woman in Japan chronicles her own year of growth and discoveryIn February 2004, when her American husband, a recently ordained Zen monk, leaves home to train for a year at a centuries-old Buddhist monastery, Tracy Franz embarks on her own year of Zen. An Alaskan alone—and lonely—in Japan, she begins to pay attention.My Year of Dirt and Water is a record of that journey. Allowed only occasional and form...