An "entertaining" history and illustrated guide to seventy-six kinds of sparrows: "You will not find more complete or better written accounts of these birds." — Minneapolis Star TribuneWhat, exactly, is a sparrow? All birders (and many non-birders) have essentially the same mental image of a pelican, a duck, or a flamingo, and a guide dedicated to waxwings or kingfishers would need nothing more than a sketch and a single sentence to satisfactorily identify...

When talking about the Enlightenment, ornithology is seldom the first topic of conversation. Still, Enlightenment and ornithology converge in one important respect, that of abundance. In our time, new-wave ornithologists have renewed their faith in eighteenth-century expectations for the discovery of a gigantic number of bird species. It is at this intersection between abundant modern science and ambitious Enlightenment ideology that this remarkable collection of five essays on Alexander W...

For anyone hungry to find greater meaning in life, Demolishing Doubt is more than an apologetics book--it's an invitation to wrestle with your doubts, find the answers your soul seeks, and discover or rediscover the God who loves you.What if the questions that feel like the end of your faith journey are actually the beginning of an authentic relationship with God? As the host and founder of Give Me an Answer, Cliffe Knechtle has decades of experience answe...

In an unprecedented interreligious conference in November 2014, Pope Francis and four hundred religious leaders and scholars from around the world met in Rome to explore what their diverse faiths teach about marriage and “the complementarity of man and woman.”This book contains the most representative presentations at that closely followed event, Humanum: An International Interreligious Colloquium, which included Catholic, Evangelical, Ang...

Celebrating the Living Witness of People and Places of the Christian FaithSaints and sanctuaries are critical parts of the Christian experience. We learn from those who have gone before or walk alongside us. When the mission becomes exhausting, we search for havens where we can recover and find the encouragement we need to continue. This issue seeks to celebrate the Christian journey; it considers many people who have traveled in ways we can learn from and the plac...

NEW YORK TIMES **BESTSELLER • OVER 1.5 MILLION COPIES SOLD1 out of 25 Americans has had a near-death experience. Do they reveal the Heaven of the Bible?**All of us long to know what life after death will be like. Bestselling author John Burke is no exception. In Imagine Heaven, he compares more than one hundred gripping stories of near-death experiences to what Scripture says about our questions of Heaven: Will I see friends and loved ...

One of our favourite chroniclers of all things Canadian presents a rollicking, personal, photo-filled history of the relationship between a country and its canoes.From the earliest explorers on the Columbia River in BC or the Mattawa in Ontario to a doomed expedition of voyageurs up the Nile to rescue Khartoum; from the author's family roots deep in the Algonquin wilderness to modern families who have canoed across the country (kids and dogs included): Canoe Co...

***2015 National Jewish Book Award Winner***In this powerful and timely book, one of the most admired and authoritative religious leaders of our time tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit—that is, my religion is the only right path to God, therefore your re...

Former SNL writer and The New Yorker staffer Patty Marx employs the weapon she wields best--not that weapon; Patty believes in gun control. Instead, she uses her sharp-edged humor to tackle the most difficult facet of aging: the mind's decline. From forgetting her brother-in-law's name while he was wearing a nametag to hanging up the phone to look for her phone, Marx confesses to her failures, and not only to make you feel better about yourself.In Let...

In this New York Times bestseller, Janice Kaplan spends a year living gratefully and transforms her marriage, family life, work, and health.On New Year’s Eve, journalist and former Parade editor in chief Janice Kaplan makes a promise to be grateful and look on the bright side of whatever happens. She realizes that how she feels over the next year will have less to do with the events that occur than her own attitude and perspective. Getting advice ...

In Speaking Christian, acclaimed Bible scholar Marcus Borg, author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, argues that the very language Christians use has become dangerously distilled, distorted, and disconnected from the beliefs which once underpinned it.Stating a case that will resonate with readers of N. T. Wright’s Simply Christian, Borg calls for a radical change to the language we use to invoke our beliefs—the only remedy that will allow the Church's words to once again r...

**“Christakis . . . expertly weaves academic research, personal experience and anecdotal evidence into her book . . . a bracing and convincing case that early education has reached a point of crisis . . . her book is a rare thing: a serious work of research that also happens to be well-written and personal . . . engaging and important.”--Washington Post"What kids need from grown-ups (but aren't getting)...an impassioned plea for educators and parents to put down the...