An utterly wild, debauched, romantic, and violent ride inspired by the 18th-century Irish pirate Anne Bonny, reimagined here as Amethyst "Meeks" Connell, one of the most extraordinary outlaws of any age. For readers of George Saunders, Percival Everett, and Maggie O'Farrell.“This fiercely imaginative, blood-soaked, starry-eyed, and exuberant epic will capture the dreams and nightmares of any daring reader.” (Shelf Awareness

Optimization techniques are at the core of data science, including data analysis and machine learning. An understanding of basic optimization techniques and their fundamental properties provides important grounding for students, researchers, and practitioners in these areas. This text covers the fundamentals of optimization algorithms in a compact, self-contained way, focusing on the techniques most relevant to data science. An introductory chapter demonstrates that many standard problems ...

In a post-Christian modern world, skepticism and skeptics abound. Christian belief once depended upon faith alone, but skeptics require more, insisting upon proof before belief. If believers today are to evangelize these skeptics, Christians must marshal proof of the Christian concept. This book does that. Using overlooked history and well-known Scripture, the author sets about to convince the skeptic through novel, eye-opening proof.

This lively collection of interdisciplinary essays engages the theology of Craig Keen. Keen's work responds to the violence of metaphysics through a still and considered focus on divesting oneself of power. Acutely aware of the problems of modern theology, Keen does not set out to solve every puzzle, but instead responds to difficult questions with hope and prayer. For Keen, theology is never to be the acquisition of knowledge, but the giving of love. He writes in such a way as to create s...

In Shadows of the Past, Stephen Wright explores humanity's enduring fascination with hauntings, tracing their roots in culture, history, and folklore. From eerie urban legends to the evolution of ghost stories in literature, film, and modern media, Wright examines how hauntings reflect collective fears, unresolved traumas, and the desire to connect with the past.The book delves into the emotional impact of ghostly encounters, the role of paranormal investigations, and the ...

An utterly wild, debauched, romantic, and violent ride inspired by the 18th-century Irish pirate Anne Bonny, reimagined here as Amethyst "Meeks" Connell, one of the most extraordinary outlaws of any age. For readers of George Saunders, Percival Everett, and Maggie O'Farrell.Meeks is a poor Irish orphan whose energy, wit, and native sensitivity to the “main chance” take her to the unlikeliest of places. She marries into the aristocracy and follows her war-besotted h...

From an "astonishing" writer (Toni Morrison), the savagely funny story of a couple who unexpectedly come into some money in a wealth-obsessed America deranged by Mammon.A bag of money drops out of the sky, literally, into the path of a cash-starved citizen named Graveyard. He carries it home to his wife, Ambience, and they embark on the adventure of their lives, finally able to have everything they've always thought they deserved: cars, guns, games, jewels, clothes...

While it is widely acknowledged that Jesus told stories, there has not been much focus on why he did so and how these stories contributed to his ministry. Stephen Wright approaches this topic afresh to analyze how considering the parables as "stories" can help our understanding of Jesus and his mission. Wright begins by looking for insights in scholarship from recent decades on the parables and the historical Jesus. He goes on to imagine how these stories would have resonated with hearers ...

If you are thinking, "What another book on the parables?" then think again! Here's a single volume that judiciously surveys parables research, sketches the significance of Jesus' parables for each of the synoptic Gospels, analyzes the importance of the parables for understanding Jesus' ministry, and discusses how these parables would have been heard in their own contexts - all of this in readable prose that is fully conversant with scholarly discussion without bogging us down in that discu...

Modern Protestant theology has tended to shun metaphysics. The philosophical underpinnings of our theological traditions have cracked under the weight of modern scrutiny. Robert Jenson is a theologian who has embraced the critique of inherited metaphysics, but who then finds contained within the gospel itself the basis for further and more specific critiques: the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Jenson argues that the appropriate response of theology to the contemporary situation is not to reje...

In John Grisham’s book “The Rainmaker” he tells the story of a once moral attorney, and I paraphrase, who crosses the line into deception and that line soon disappears. This seemingly suggests that if you are introduced to an idea or concept long enough, it becomes normal. A norm that is now introduced as truth. The bigger picture is the serpent introduced an alternative view of the tree to Adam and Eve in the garden that has since become a norm. Sin is progressive. I heard this saying “Si...

One of the greatest Vietnam War novels ever written, by an award-winning writer who experienced it firsthand.Deployed to Vietnam with the U.S. Army's 1069 Intelligence Group, Spec. 4 James Griffin starts out clear-eyed and hardworking, believing he can glide through the war unharmed. But the kaleidoscope of horrors he experiences gets inside him relentlessly. He gradually collapses and ends up unstrung, in step with the exploding hell around him and waiting for the...