Aflame

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Bully, Until You, Rival, and Falling Away comes the sizzling conclusion to the Fall Away series. The tables have turned. Now I have the power—and it’s his turn to beg… Everyone wants to be me. Maybe it’s the sway of my skirt or the way I flip my hair, but I don’t care. Even though their attention is the last thing I crave, I just can’t stop. I dominate the track, the speed rattles my bones, and the wind and the crowd screams my name. I’m her. The girl driver. The queen of the race. And I’m surviving—something he thought I’d never do. They all talk about him. Did you see Jared Trent on T.V? What did you think of his last race, Tate? When is he coming back to town, Tate? But I refuse to care too much. Because when Jared does come home, I won’t be here. Tatum Brandt is gone. I’m someone new.

Accustomed to the dark, dripping stands of Douglas–fir, spruce and hemlock that blanketed the Hudson's Bay Company outposts on the remote western coast of the "new World" the first Europeans were surely startled to see the wide–open landscapes of the Garry oak meadows they encountered on Southern Vancouver Island ––– landscapes that might have reminded any explorers who had ventured into the African savannahs of what they had seen there. Though slow in comprehending what they had stumbled upon, the Europeans immediately recognized the deep, rich deposits of black soil that extended many feet below the surface, and James Douglas chose the site as the ideal location for the HBC's new fort, and settlement. What the newcomers failed to appreciate is that these meadows were not the work of nature alone, but of the Coast Salish peoples who had been living in these parts for millennia. With the construction of the fort of Victoria began an encroachment on these Garry oak meadows, built up over centuries if not millennia, a process that continues today. In Gardens Aflame, Victoria writer and environmentalist Maleea Acker tells us about this unique and vanishing ecosystem, and the people who have made it their life's work to save the Garry oak and the environment ––– including the human environment ––– it depends on. Acker tells us about the Garry oak species and its unique habits and requirements, including its unusual summer dormancy period, when all the surrounding plants are coursing with life. We learn something about the scientists, arborists, and Garry oak–loving volunteers who have dedicated themselves to this tree; and about Theophrastus, Humboldt, and their other forebearers who are still reshaping our notions of nature and humans' place in it. And in the course of Acker's story, we see her fall under the spell of the strange beauty woven by these magnificent trees, and the ecosystems they tower over ––– until, in the final act, she decides to turn her own front yard into her own version of a Garry oak meadow, defying City Hall and the neighbours, and bringing to a head in 2011 all the issues raised 150 years ago when Europeans first saw the open meadows of Southern Vancouver Island. Gardens Aflame is number 21 in the Transmontanus series.

“Larry Hart’s Truth Aflame brings together charismatic renewal and classic evangelical faith better than anything I have read. An important contribution to the contemporary renaissance in systematic theology!” Timothy George Dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, Executive Editor of Christianity Today As the Pentecostal/charismatic movement continues to grow, so does the need for solid theological resources for its members. While there are many volumes of systematic theology available, very few are written from a distinctly charismatic perspective. Truth Aflame seeks to meet that need. While academically sound, Truth Aflame is written with a practical, pastoral flavor. Larry Hart defines systematic theology as the process of taking what the Bible teaches and relating it to contemporary questions and knowledge. His passion for the subject is evident: he is concerned that the reader both grasps the magnificence of the study of God and allows these great truths to be transformative. This Truth, then—liberating, enlivening, and transforming Truth—becomes central to the ongoing renewal of the church that we are seeing in our day. Dr. Hart treats each of the traditional categories—revelation, God, creation, humanity, sin, Christ, salvation, the church, and last things—from a Pentecostal/charismatic perspective. He addresses other theological viewpoints but does not get bogged down in analysis and rebuttal. Further, he seeks to build bridges of understanding to those evangelicals outside the charismatic tradition. Clear, succinct, and readable, this revised and updated edition of Truth Aflame is well-suited not only for students, but for anyone desiring a greater understanding of Pentecostal/charismatic theology.

In this spellbinding new history, David Goldfield offers the first major new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. Where past scholars have limned the war as a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere. As the Second GreatAwakening surged through America, political questions became matters of good and evil to be fought to the death. The price of that failure was horrific, but the carnage accomplished what statesmen could not: It made the United States one nation and eliminated slavery as a divisive force in the Union. The victorious North became synonymous with America as a land of innovation and industrialization, whose teeming cities offered squalor and opportunity in equal measure. Religion was supplanted by science and a gospel of progress, and the South was left behind. Goldfield's panoramic narrative, sweeping from the 1840s to the end of Reconstruction, is studded with memorable details and luminaries such as HarrietBeecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman. There are lesser known yet equally compelling characters, too, including Carl Schurz-a German immigrant, warhero, and postwar reformer-and Alexander Stephens, the urbane and intellectual vice president of the Confederacy. America Aflame is a vivid portrait of the "fiery trial"that transformed the country we live in.

Aflame begins in Soviet Moscow and ends with a Tibetan Buddhist monk's self-immolation; residing between them - improvisations after celebrated Japanese Haikus. Written in an intricate and polyphonic structure, Subhash Jaireth's rare and carefully crafted rhythms reveal the creeping melancholic joy of silence and life's elusive beauty.

With over 100 quotations drawn from ancient writers, "Aflame" brings to light a stream of Christian tradition that insists on the goodness of sexuality and the human body, the equal dignity of women, and the sacredness of marriage.

Ember and her sister Cori are finally reunited, but the shifter-hunting Orion League are gearing up to play their final hand and wipe out all supernaturals. Despite being held captive by the Mage Lords, Ember and Cori refuse to give up on their plans to find the other dragon shifters. But if the hunters get there first, it'll be an all-out bloodbath. Ember and her friends race the clock to find out the truth lost with their memories, but between the League's threat, a too-tempting ex-hunter, and the plight of her people, Ember must pick a side. If she chooses wrong, it may be the end of all supernaturals in this realm. Keywords: urban fantasy, magic, dragons, fantasy with magic, urban fantasy series, magical London, British fantasy, complete fantasy series, ghost mystery, female protagonist urban fantasy, ghosts, post-apocalyptic fantasy, contemporary fantasy, fae urban fantasy series, dragon shifters, urban fantasy mage, action urban fantasy, shifters, myths and legends, assassins