Love In The Last Days

A contemporary requiem--an earthy yet elegant reconsideration of the Tristan and Iseult story, from the former poet laureate of Brooklyn. In D. Nurkse's wood of Morois, the Forest of Love, there's a fine line between the real and the imaginary, the archaic and the actual, poetry and news. The poems feature the voices of the lovers and all parties around them, including the servant Brangien; Tristan's horse, Beau Joueur; even the living spring that flows through the tale ("in my breathing shadow / the lovers hear their voices / confused with mine / promising a slate roof, / a gate, a child . . . "). Nurkse brings us an Iseult who has more power than she wants over Tristan's imagination, and a Tristan who understands his fate early on: "That charm was so strong, no luck could free us." For these lovers, time closes like a book, but it remains open for us as we hear both new tones and familiar voices, eerily like our own, in this age-old story made new again.

Recalls how Jesus taught people to love, how he was crucified for his teachings, and how his resurrection brought hope to the world.

Many Christians grew up hearing that Jesus will come back any moment. We believed this strongly. I was one of those who felt strongly as a teenager that I would probably see Jesus coming in the clouds. I remember looking up in the sky several times when I was thirteen hoping to see it happen. I no longer believe that Jesus will physically show up in the clouds any minute, even though I deeply love all of my family and friends who still think that way. What changed my mind? It was taking seriously what our Lord actually told His First Century followers about His coming. He said it would happen in their lifetime, and I now believe that it truly did. It was a coming just like all of the Old Testament comings had been. They were all judgments upon persons living in specific places where God was about to end their way of life. First Century Jerusalem confronted the most significant battle in all of human history, and it was a covenantal battle. The Jewish nation found itself during the forty years following the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus having to decide between the claims of the rulers of the nation that Jesus was not Messiah, and the claims of the Apostles of Jesus that He was, in fact, the Promised Son of David, and Savior of the world. The end came to the people of the ancient Hebrew Prophet Daniel, just as God told Daniel centuries before it happened. The coming of the last days of the Jewish national covenant with Yahweh was tragic and painful and changed all of history! Today, many people are fascinated by novels about 666 and trying to figure out the modern beast and anti-christ. This might be entertaining, but it lessens our devotion to the King Who has kept His Word, and through Whom we all will eventually give an account. Leaving the last days behind will enable all of us who love God to focus better on the principles of His kingdom, loving our families and neighbors and the larger community of our neighbors better. We will become less enthralled with science fiction if we conclude that the Biblical last days both began AND ENDED more than 1900 years ago. It will help us see our role more clearly in living the kingdom hands on to solve the problems of our times, and to build the brightest goals for future generations of our peeps!

“A glorious treat awaits you at the literary table of Donia Bijan.” —Adriana Trigiani Set against the backdrop of Iran’s rich, turbulent history, this exquisite debut novel is a powerful story of food, family, and a bittersweet homecoming. When we first meet Noor, she is living in San Francisco, missing her beloved father, Zod, in Iran. Now, dragging her stubborn teenage daughter, Lily, with her, she returns to Tehran and to Café Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations. Iran may have changed, but Café Leila, still run by Zod, has stayed blessedly the same—it is a refuge of laughter and solace for its makeshift family of staff and regulars. As Noor revisits her Persian childhood, she must rethink who she is—a mother, a daughter, a woman estranged from her marriage and from her life in California. And together, she and Lily get swept up in the beauty and brutality of Tehran. Bijan’s vivid, layered story, at once tender and elegant, funny and sad, weaves together the complexities of history, domesticity, and loyalty and, best of all, transports readers to another culture, another time, and another emotional landscape.

Last Days (winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel of the Year) by Adam Nevill is a Blair Witch style novel in which a documentary film-maker undertakes the investigation of a dangerous cult—with creepy consequences When guerrilla documentary maker, Kyle Freeman, is asked to shoot a film on the notorious cult known as the Temple of the Last Days, it appears his prayers have been answered. The cult became a worldwide phenomenon in 1975 when there was a massacre including the death of its infamous leader, Sister Katherine. Kyle's brief is to explore the paranormal myths surrounding an organization that became a testament to paranoia, murderous rage, and occult rituals. The shoot's locations take him to the cult's first temple in London, an abandoned farm in France, and a derelict copper mine in the Arizonan desert where The Temple of the Last Days met its bloody end. But when he interviews those involved in the case, those who haven't broken silence in decades, a series of uncanny events plague the shoots. Troubling out-of-body experiences, nocturnal visitations, the sudden demise of their interviewees and the discovery of ghastly artifacts in their room make Kyle question what exactly it is the cult managed to awaken – and what is its interest in him?

"A beautiful and brilliant reexamination of love and its perils."—Barbara Fisher, Boston Globe Common wisdom has it that love is fragile, but leading psychoanalyst Stephen A. Mitchell argues that romance doesn't actually diminish in long-term relationships—it becomes increasingly dangerous. What we regard as the transience of love is really risk management. Mitchell shows that love can endure, if only we become aware of our self-destructive efforts to protect ourselves from its risks. "Those who read this book will love more wisely because of it."—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon "[A] work on romance that is rich and multi-layered."—Publishers Weekly "Cheerful, open, and humane—you'd definitely have wanted him as your analyst."—Judith Shulevitz, The New York Times Book Review "[T]houghtful, compassionate, and profoundly optimistic."—JoAnn Gutin, Salon.com

Biblical theology and doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses.