Kobun was a Zen Buddhist priest who emigrated to the U.S. from Japan in the early 1970s. He was an innovator, lacked appreciation for rules and was passionate about art and design. Kobun was to Buddhism as Jobs was to the computer business: a renegade and maverick. It wasn’t long before the two became friends–a relationship that was not built to last.

This graphic book is a reimagining of that friendship. The story moves back and forward in time, from the 1970s to 2011, but centers on the period after Jobs’ exile from Apple in 1985 when he took up intensive study with Kobun. Their time together was integral to the big leaps that Apple took later on with its product design and business strategy.

Told using stripped down dialogue and bold calligraphic panels, The Zen of Steve Jobs explores how Jobs might have honed his design aesthetic via Eastern religion before choosing to identify only what he needs and leave the rest behind.

Eleanor McBride’s outgrown her dreams of romance—but not her wishes for motherhood. Wedding Sergeant Adam Martin will give her a daughter to cherish. Yet it’s not just shy, sweet Hannah who’s captured her affections. And Eleanor’s arrival in Dry Creek could be the start of a journey to true love.…

From the Inside Flap
“Please, have a seat.” Ms. Harrington gestured to a pair of black leather chairs across from her desk. “I’ll cut to the chase because I’m sure your time is as valuable as mine.”
Lena wasn’t so sure, but she nodded then sat down, folding her hands in her lap.
“Cassidy seems to think that you’ve been sent here by angels or God or maybe even Santa Claus.”
Lena blinked. “What?”
“She thinks you’d be perfect to play Mrs. Santa.”
“Mrs. Santa?”
“I suppose it’s that coat.” Ms. Harrington frowned. “And the curly hair. And I guess you have the right sort of face too.” Now she laughed. “But I’m also guessing that is not the sort of work you’re looking for.”
Lena was too dumbfounded to respond.

Into this mix comes a mysterious little man named Nicholas, who intrigues, yet scares, Sarah and Jared. Against incredible doubt and cynicism, Nicholas tries to guide the two youths away from their anger and the suffering that will follow, only to realize he can not move them. Finally, he whisks them to another time and place where a Christmas long ago teaches them the true meaning of life in a way they never imagined.

“MARY’S SON” is a modern tale of the fears and passions of youth overcome by the wonder of the real Christmas story.

Ten years ago, in his best-selling Ethics for a New Millennium, His Holiness the Dalai Lama first proposed an approach to ethics based on universal rather than religious principles. Now, in Beyond Religion, the Dalai Lama, at his most compassionate and outspoken, elaborates and deepens his vision for the nonreligious way. Transcending the mere “religion wars,” he outlines a system of secular ethics that gives tolerant respect to religion—those that ground ethics in a belief in God and an afterlife, and those that understand good actions as leading to better states of existence in future lives. And yet, with the highest level of spiritual and intellectual authority, the Dalai Lama makes a claim for what he calls a third way. This is a system of secular ethics that transcends religion as a way to recognize our common humanity and so contributes to a global human community based on understanding and mutual respect.

Beyond Religion is an essential statement from the Dalai Lama, a blueprint for all those who yearn for a life of spiritual fulfillment as they work for a better world.

Introduces readers to key theological issues such as God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, faith, creation, salvation, atonement, religious history, and heaven
Thoroughly updated, with the addition of a new chapter on the Holy Spirit
Now includes images and more pedagogical features to engage the reader
Each chapter offers an overview of an important theme, presents relevant biblical passages, and summarizes the contribution of a major theologian
Expands the range of theological positions discussed within the book, especially those of contemporary and feminist theologians
Maintains the user-friendly structure of the previous edition, with the Apostle’s Creed as a framework
Concludes with suggestions on how readers can take their study further
Can be used alongside the new edition of Theology: The Basic Readings for a complete overview of the field

An award-winning investigative journalist and poet, Eliza Griswold has spent the past seven years traveling between the equator and the tenth parallel: in Nigeria, the Sudan, and Somalia, and in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The stories she tells in The Tenth Parallel show us that religious conflicts are also conflicts about land, water, oil, and other natural resources, and that local and tribal issues are often shaped by religious ideas. Above all, she makes clear that, for the people she writes about, one’s sense of God is shaped by one’s place on earth; along the tenth parallel, faith is geographic and demographic.

An urgent examination of the relationship between faith and worldly power, The Tenth Parallel is an essential work about the conflicts over religion, nationhood and natural resources that will remake the world in the years to come.