Perle Besserman's adventures in a Japanese Zen monastery provide the groundwork for this lively, heartwarming narrative of a woman's life in Zen. Engaging in cross-cultural dialogues with nuns and laywomen in India, China, Japan, and more, Besserman dispels the notion that women had nothing to do with the founding and sustaining of Zen. She shows how women continue to transform traditional Zen in new and creative ways, integrating the practice of meditation into their lives. Both informati...

A woman's search for meaning takes her across continents and through the complexities of love and faith.Fay Watkins, a spirited Texan, embarks on a journey of self-discovery that leads her from Mexico's revolutionary fervor to New York's intellectual circles, and beyond. Her quest for enlightenment is fueled by a naive idealism, resulting in impulsive decisions and a series of transformative relationships.As Fay navigates love, loss, and spiritual awakening...

Sharon Berg, a middle-aged divorcee with two children has gainful employment working overtime for the mysterious Rabbi Joachim, spiritual director of the Center for Mystical Judaism. Set in Coney Island, Sharon’s efforts at making a life for herself and her children take readers on a journey though Hasidism as it exists today including its schools for children and the fundamentalist characters that run them. When the Rabbi travels to Israel on a mission, and fails to return, Sharon must co...

The red bracelet: it graces the wrists of numerous celebrities - from Madonna to Britney Spears - who have converted to the spiritual practice of Kabbalah. But what is Kabbalah and how can women apply it to their own lives?In A New Kabbalah for Women, bestselling author and teacher of Jewish mysticism and meditation, Perle Besserman, shares a feminine approach to spirituality. Since the time of Moses, Jewish mysticism has been barred to women, and Shekhinah, the feminine si...

Jewish mystics from biblical times to the present have explored the hidden secrets of the Torah in quest of a single goal: to lose the self in the Infinite "No-thingness" (Ein Sof) and be at one with God. In language accessible to the layperson, this Shambhala Guide provides a detailed introduction to the complex world of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. With an extensive background in meditation practice, Perle Besserman emphasizes Kabbalah's spiritual disciplines, grounded in righteous liv...

Grassroots Zen envisions a socially engaged Buddhism where zazen is integrated each day with work, family, and social obligations.Though both authors have practiced traditional Zen for decades here they eschew the militaristic, patriarchal tendencies of Zen in favor of "an egalitarian community of socially mobile members who place less emphasis upon transmission and hierarchy than on individual responsibility."

New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts serves up a sizzling novel of explosive suspense and sensual romance as the search for a murderer ignites passion between a beautiful psychiatrist and the sexy, brooding detective determined to crack the case.In the unbearable heat of another sultry Washington, D.C., summer, a serial killer is on the loose. Dr. Tess Court, one of the capital’s most successful psychiatrists, wants nothing to do with the case—un...

From the author of Saturn’s Return to New York comes this dark psychological thriller."‘What we think is impos-sible happens all the time.’ So claims the beguiling narrator of Come Closer, and after reading this spare and menacing tale, the reader has to agree. Sara Gran has created a sly, satisfying (fast!) novel of one young woman possessed not only by a demon but also by her own secret desires."—Stewart O’NanFrom the Hardcover edition.

New York Times BestsellerAward-winning and New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippmans Tess Monaghan-first introduced in the classic *Baltimore Blues-*must track down a missing wife and unravel the secrets in her marriage that led her to flee.A hair raising ride.-Boston GlobeMark Rubin's family is missing-and the police won't get involved because all the evidence indicates that his...

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEARNew York Times Book Review • The New Yorker • Entertainment Weekly • Time • Washington Post • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Christian Science Monitor • Slate • St. Louise Post-Dispatch • Cleveland Plain Dealer • Seattle Times • NBCC Award FinalistMary Karr’s unforgettable sequel to her be...

Discover a more lighthearted side of the funeral industry in this collection of real-life stories from the authors of Mortuary Confidential.Not knowing what to do, I sat on the church steps and waited. As the gravity of my failure began to well up in me, I began to cry . . . I Had Lost The Hearse!Funerals and the all the things that accompany them are traditionally somber, contemplative events in which the bereaved look to their undertaker...

A father; a husband; a lover; a friend; a rabbi. This is the story about the making of a modern rabbi, his coming of age, and how he finds his place in in a confused and confusing world.Michael Kind is raised in the Jewish cauldron of 1920s New York, familiar with the stresses and materialism of metropolitan life. Turning to the ancient set of ethics of his Orthodox grandfather, with a modern twist, he becomes a Reform rabbi. As insecure and sexually needy...