Confessions Of A Tax Collector

Twelve years ago, Richard Yancey answered a blind ad in the newspaper offering a salary higher than what he’d made over the three previous years combined. It turned out that the job was for the Internal Revenue Service -- the most hated and feared organization in the federal government. So Yancey became the man who got in his car, drove to your house, knocked on your door, and made you pay. Never mind that his car was littered with candy wrappers, his palms were sweaty, and he couldn’t remember where he stashed his own tax records. He was there on the authority of the United States government. With "a rich mix of humor, horror, and angst [and] better than most novels on the bestseller lists" (Boston Sunday Globe), Confessions of a Tax Collector contains an astonishing cast of too-strange-for-fiction characters. But the most intriguing character of all is Yancey himself who -- in detailing how the job changed him and how he managed to pull himself back from the brink of moral, ethical, and spiritual bankruptcy -- reveals what really lies beneath those dark suits and mirrored sunglasses. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

In recent years, author Rick Yancey has taken his young adult fans, especially boys, on many heart-pounding, page-turning adventures. From his Monstrumologist series, in which a doctor and his young apprentice hunt horrifying monsters, to his novel The 5th Wave, in which Earth is torn apart by alien invasion, his gripping fiction is not for the fainthearted. This engaging biography traces Yancey's varied experiences and inspirations on the road to publishing success, including working as a theater critic, as a farmhand, and even as an IRS tax collector. A timeline, fact sheets, and critical reviews add further detail to the well-researched, lively text.

Few people can claim careers in two biblical professions: minister and tax collector. In his captivating memoir, Adventures of an Ordinary Man, William Lee Goff shares the triumphs and tragedies of his life as both a Presbyterian minister and an IRS Revenue Agent. Goff writes unpretentiously with deep humanity and subtle humor about his life's adventures: learning to play the cello from a freedom fighter; overcoming his fears to become an amateur stage actor; and traveling in South Africa, Israel, Russia and Denmark. Adventures of an Ordinary Man is a compelling and rewarding read. Although a native of St. Louis, Missouri, William Lee Goff spent his formative years in Los Angeles, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from UCLA and then went on to Fuller Theological Seminary where he completed a Doctor of Ministry degree. Goff has had dual careers, one as an ordained Presbyterian minister who served as pastor in churches in California, Colorado, and Idaho. His alter ego had a nearly 25-year career with the IRS. Goff lives with his wife, Tatyana, in Southern California.

This is the first book-length study of the relationship between early modern drama and sacramental ritual and theology. It examines dramatic forms, such as morality plays. Offering new insights into the religious practices on which early modern subjectivity is founded. Coleman offers radical new ways of reading canonical Renaissance plays.

Navigating what at she calls the " extravagantly rich world of nonfiction," renowned readers' advisor (RA) Wyatt builds readers' advisory bridges from fiction to compelling and increasingly popular nonfiction to encompass the library's entire collection. She focuses on eight popular categories: history, true crime, true adventure, science, memoir, food/cooking, travel, and sports. Within each, she explains the scope, popularity, style, major authors and works, and the subject's position in readers' advisory interviews. Wyatt addresses who is reading nonfiction and why, while providing RAs with the tools and language to incorporate nonfiction into discussions that point readers to what to read next. In easy-to-follow steps, Wyatt Explains the hows and whys of offering fiction and nonfiction suggestions together Illustrates ways to get up to speed fast in nonfiction Shows how to lead readers to a variety of books using her "read-around" and "reading map" strategies Provides tools to build nonfiction subject guides for the collection This hands-on guide includes nonfiction bibliography, key authors, benchmark books with annotations, and core collections. It is destined to become the nonfiction 'bible' for readers' advisory and collection development, helping librarians, library workers, and patrons select great reading from the entire library collection!

This book presents a philosophical rethinking of the meaning and nature of spiritual discipline. It offers a new way of describing and justifying practices like praying, meditating, fasting, and yoga, and it provides an innovative case for their contemporary importance. Spiritual discipline is especially effective at combatting Pascalian diversion, the pursuit of activities that occupy the mind just enough to avoid thinking about important things; and Nietzschean decadence, the proclivity for extirpating instinctive drives instead of satisfying or sublimating them. In addition to overcoming diversion and decadence in contemporary consumerist culture, VanNess recommends spiritual discipline as a means of political resistance to powerful institutions which seek to exercise social control in democratic societies by promulgating addictive patterns of consumption. Finally, he argues that regimens of spiritual discipline can serve healthful and liberating purposes, and generally promote fullness of life, only insofar as they are shaped by an ethos of intellectual criticism and aesthetic experimentation.

Søren Kierkegaard's 13 communion discourses constitute a distinct genre among the various forms of religious writing composed by Kierkegaard. Originally published at different times and places, Kierkegaard himself believed that these discourses served as a unifying element in his work and were crucial for understanding his religious thought and philosophy as a whole. Written in an intensely personal liturgical context, the communion discourses prepare the reader for participation in this rite by emphasizing the appropriate posture for forgiveness of sins and confession.