The Most Mighty Branch

Who is Shoghi Effendi? What is the Formative Age and what is the Administrative Order of the Bahá'í Faith? In a highly readable way, especially aimed at young people, The Servant at the Threshold answers these questions The Servant at the Threshold is the last of the four books by Hitjo Garst about the first 120 years of the Bahá'í Faith. This book is about Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Faith. His life is inextricably linked to the first forty years of the Formative Age and the building of the Administrative Order, which began in 1921. The Formative Age of the Faith was preceded by the Heroic Age, which began in 1844, in Iran, with the proclamation of the Báb, the Herald of Bahá'u'lláh. The life of the Báb and His heroic followers is described in the book, The Herald and His Heroes. The book, From Mountain to Mountain, contains forty stories about the life of Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith. The Most Mighty Branch, the third book in this series, is about the life and ministry of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh appointed His Son as the interpreter of His Writings. After Bahá'u'lláh's Ascension, the unity of His Faith was preserved through 'Abdu'l-Bahá, just as now and into the future, unity will be preserved through the Administrative Order.

The never-before-told story of the horned rabbit—the myths, the hoaxes, and the entirely real scientific breakthroughs it has inspired—and how it became a cultural touchstone of the American West. Just what is a jackalope? Purported to be part jackrabbit and part antelope, the jackalope began as a local joke concocted by two young brothers in a small Wyoming town during the Great Depression. Their creation quickly spread around the U.S., where it now regularly appears as innumerable forms of kitsch—wall mounts, postcards, keychains, coffee mugs, shot glasses, and so on. A vast body of folk narratives has carried the jackalope’s fame around the world to inspire art, music, film, even erotica! Although the jackalope is an invention of the imagination, it is nevertheless connected to actual horned rabbits, which exist in nature and have for centuries been collected and studied by naturalists. Around the time the two young boys were creating the first jackalope in Wyoming, Dr. Richard Shope was making his first breakthrough about the cause of the horns: a virus. When the virus that causes rabbits to grow “horns” (a keratinous carcinoma) was first genetically sequenced in 1984, oncologists were able to use that genetic information to make remarkable, field-changing advances in the development of anti-viral cancer therapies. The most important of these is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against cervical and other cancers. Today, jackalopes are literally helping us cure cancer. For fans of David Quammen’s The Song of the Dodo, Jon Mooallem’s Wild Ones, or Jeff Meldrum's Sasquatch, Michael P. Branch's remarkable On the Trail of the Jackalope is an entertaining and enlightening road trip through the heart of America.

Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), the Inaugurator of the most recent of the independent world religions, the Baha'i Faith, has been described by the Guardian of that Faith as 'One Whom posterity will acclaim, and Whom innumerable followers already recognize, . . . as the Establisher of the Most Great Peace . . . and the Inspirer and Founder of a world civilization'. Few there are in the West who have known even one person who saw Him or experienced the majesty and power, the compassion, humility and humour which characterized His earthly life. Baha'is of the East are more fortunate, many having known those, often their relatives, who were in His presence as companions or pilgrims. Yet, as the editor of this book remarks, 'only a few recorded their observations for posterity'. It was in 1975 that 'the thought of collecting personal accounts' occurred to the Hand of the Cause 'Ali-Akbar Furutan. Through correspondence and the examination of numerous memoirs, published and in manuscript, he selected the stories in this enthralling collection. 'The day is approaching when God will have raised up a people who will call to remembrance Our days, ' wrote Baha'u'llah. The 144 stories in these pages make such remembrance both effortless and delightful. They come to mind whether one is far away or visiting the scenes in which they occurred. They describe Baha'u'llah in Iran, Baghdad, Constantinople, Adrianople, 'Akka and Bahji, and linger in memory to uplift and gladden both heart and mind.

In Mighty Judgment Philip Slayton describes the important issues the Supreme Court decides for individual Canadians and for Canada as a nation, and the surprising and dramatic ways in which these decisions shape our future. In the Morgentaler case (1988), the court struck down laws restricting abortion, leaving Canada the only Western country without any abortion laws. In the Same-Sex Marriage Reference (2004), it decided that gays and lesbians could marry. In the Secession Reference (1998), it laid down the conditions under which Quebec could secede from Canada. In the Patrick case (2009), the court decided that the right of privacy does not stop the police from rifling through our garbage. More recently, the court administered a tongue-lashing to the federal government over its treatment of Canadian youth Omar Khadr, accused by the United States government of fighting with the Taliban. Mighty Judgment makes clear that the Supreme Court of Canada is a political institution, and that judges are politicians. But unlike other politicians, judges cannot be voted out of office. Slayton discusses reforms that will be needed, particularly in the way judges are chosen, once we recognize that the court decides policy and plays a pivotal role in governing Canada.