Sons of Encouragement

Sons of Encouragement

Author: Francine Rivers

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 2011-04-18

Total Pages: 707

ISBN-13: 1414360401

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The complete biblical historical fiction compilation by the New York Times bestselling author of Redeeming Love and A Voice in the Wind. The Bible is filled with inspiring stories of unlikely candidates God chose to quietly change eternity. This bestselling compilation in one volume contains five novellas about such people—men who stood behind heroes of the faith. Aaron. Caleb. Jonathan. Amos. Silas. Each faithfully sought God in the shadows of His chosen leaders. They answered God’s call to serve without recognition or fame. And they gave everything, knowing their reward might not come until the next life. Be challenged by these faithful men whose stories we must never forget. Aaron—the priest who stood in Moses’ shadow but had the courage to cover his brother’s fears. Caleb—the warrior whose words stirred men’s hearts and brought God’s people to the Promised Land. Jonathan—the prince whose humility led him to befriend the man who would become king in his place. Amos—the prophet who heard when God called and spoke to a nation unwilling to listen. Silas—the scribe who surrendered his wealth to record God’s Word, even as those around him were silenced. Each novella includes an in-depth Bible study perfect for personal reflection or group discussion.


A Writer's Life

A Writer's Life

Author: Gay Talese

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2007-07-10

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0812977289

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The inner workings of a writer’s life, the interplay between experience and writing, are brilliantly recounted by a master of the art. Gay Talese now focuses on his own life—the zeal for the truth, the narrative edge, the sometimes startling precision, that won accolades for his journalism and best-sellerdom and acclaim for his revelatory books about The New York Times (The Kingdom and the Power), the Mafia (Honor Thy Father), the sex industry (Thy Neighbor’s Wife), and, focusing on his own family, the American immigrant experience (Unto the Sons). How has Talese found his subjects? What has stimulated, blocked, or inspired his writing? Here are his amateur beginnings on his college newspaper; his professional climb at The New York Times; his desire to write on a larger canvas, which led him to magazine writing at Esquire and then to books. We see his involvement with issues of race from his student days in the Deep South to a recent interracial wedding in Selma, Alabama, where he once covered the fierce struggle for civil rights. Here are his reflections on the changing American sexual mores he has written about over the last fifty years, and a striking look at the lives—and their meaning—of Lorena and John Bobbitt. He takes us behind the scenes of his legendary profile of Frank Sinatra, his writings about Joe DiMaggio and heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, and his interview with the head of a Mafia family.But he is at his most poignant in talking about the ordinary men and women whose stories led to his most memorable work. In remarkable fashion, he traces the history of a single restaurant location in New York, creating an ethnic mosaic of one restaurateur after the other whose dreams were dashed while a successor’s were born. And as he delves into the life of a young female Chinese soccer player, we see his consuming interest in the world in its latest manifestation.In these and other recollections and stories, Talese gives us a fascinating picture of both the serendipity and meticulousness involved in getting a story. He makes clear that every one of us represents a good one, if a writer has the curiosity to know it, the diligence to pursue it, and the desire to get it right.Candid, humorous, deeply impassioned—a dazzling book about the nature of writing in one man’s life, and of writing itself.


Sons of Zadok

Sons of Zadok

Author: Michael Vetter

Publisher: Michael Vetter

Published: 2022-08-31

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13:

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Sons of Zadok—The Prequel to the Remnant Rescue Series is the story of a fictional brotherhood of Israelites (male descendants of Kohath from the tribe of Levi) who have sworn to guard the sacred Ark of the Covenant with their lives. In 944 B.C., Zadok, the High Priest of Israel, commissions loyal followers to build an intricate mechanism deep under King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem to protect the Ark from harm. They fulfilled their sacred duty for over 400 years, during which time civil wars, ungodly kings, corrupt priests, national apostasy, and invasions from Syria, Assyria, and Egypt destroy the nation’s long history of faithfulness to their One True God. The Ark of the Covenant will remain hidden until Israel repents and turns back to the LORD. In 586 B.C., a massive Babylonian army is poised at Jerusalem’s gates intent on leveling the fortress-city and King Solomon’s Temple to their foundations. With no salvation in sight, the last Kohathites remove the Ark from its hiding place and carry it to a distant land for safekeeping. It will remain there until the Temple is rebuilt, Israelites regather from exile, and Messiah comes to establish His Kingdom. Sons of Zadok is the fictional background to Remnant Rescue—The Tapez Scroll in the Remnant Rescue series which is a modern-day thriller trilogy that takes place in a future seven-year period called the Tribulation, during which time God pours out His divine judgment on planet Earth and Satan wreaks havoc using the Antichrist whom the world knows as Constantine, Prince of Rome. The Antichrist demands that every human being on the planet worship him and his image in a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Anticipating the coming holocaust that the Bible calls the Great Tribulation, or the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, a brave group of Christians dare to risk their lives to rescue a remnant of Jews who look forward to their coming Messiah.


Unto the Daughters

Unto the Daughters

Author: Karen Tintori

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2008-07-08

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1429936002

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Karen Tintori thought she knew her family tree. Her grandmother Josie had emigrated from Sicily with her parents at the turn of the century. They settled in Detroit, and with Josie's nine siblings, worked to create a home for themselves away from the poverty and servitude of the old country. Their descendants were proud Italian-Americans. But Josie had a sister nobody spoke of. Her name was Frances, and at age sixteen she fell in love with a young barber. Her father wanted her to marry an older don in the neighborhood mafia---a marriage that would give his sons a leg up in the mob. But Frances eloped with her barber, and when she returned home a married woman, her fate was sealed. Even eighty years and two generations later, Frances was not spoken of, and her memory was suppressed. Unto the Daughters is a historical mystery and family story that unwraps the many layers of family, honor, memory, and fear to find an honor killing in turn-of-the-century Detroit. Tracing the history and insular world of Italian immigrants back to the old country, Karen Tintori shows what they came from, what they hoped for, and how the hopes and dreams of America fell far short for her great-aunt Frances. "Nearly every family has a skeleton in its closet, an ancestor who "sins" against custom and tradition and pays a double price -- ostracism or worse at the time, and obliteration from the memory of succeeding generations. Few of these transgressors paid a higher price than Frances Costa, who was brutally murdered by her own brothers in a 1919 Sicilian honor killing in Detroit. And fewer yet have had a more tenacious successor than Frances's great-niece, Karen Tintori, who refused to allow the truth to remain forgotten. This is a book for anyone who shares the convinction that all history, in the end, is family history." -Frank Viviano, author of Blood Washes Blood and Dispatches from the Pacific Century "Switching back and forth between rural Sicily and early 20th century Detroit, Unto the Daughters reads like a nonfiction version of the film Godfather II--if it had been told from the point of view of a female Corleone. In exploring her own family's secret history, Karen Tintori gives voice not just to her victimized aunt but to all Italian-American daughters and wives silenced by the power of omerta. Half gripping true-crime story, half moving family memoir, Unto the Daughters is both fascinating and frightening, packed with telling details and obscure folklore that help bring the suffocating world of a Mafia family to life." --Eleni N. Gage, author of North of Ithaka


Unto Us a Son Is Given

Unto Us a Son Is Given

Author: Donna Leon

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 0802146821

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The New York Times bestseller: “Venice shines through the pages of this novel. . . . Coupled with unexpected twists and turns [it] doesn’t disappoint” (Tulsa Book Review). A Los Angeles Times Bestseller • A Library Journal Mystery Bestseller • A Booklist Best Crime Novel of the Year • A Crime Reads Most Anticipated Book of the Year Guido Brunetti is urged by his father-in-law to investigate—and preferably intervene in—the seemingly innocent plan of the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejeda to adopt a much younger man as his son. Under Italian inheritance laws, this man would then be heir to Gonzalo’s entire fortune, a prospect Gonzalo’s friends find appalling. For his part, Brunetti wonders why the old man, a close family friend, can’t be allowed his pleasure in peace. And yet, what seems innocent on the Venetian surface can cause tsunamis below. Gonzalo unexpectedly drops dead on the street, and one of his friends—who just arrived in Venice for the memorial service—is strangled in her hotel room. Now with an urgent case to solve, Brunetti reluctantly untangles the long-hidden mystery in Gonzalo’s life that has ultimately led to murder . . . a resolution that brings him more pain than satisfaction. “Like Louise Penny, Leon has cultivated an utterly devoted audience, ever anxious to get to know more about her characters.” ―Booklist (starred review) “Redolent, as always, with the sights, smells, sounds, and mealtimes of the water-immersed city. . . . In Leon’s latest, a pleasantly deceptive lull . . . is dissolved with deadly force.” ―The Seattle Review of Books


Bringing Many Sons to Glory

Bringing Many Sons to Glory

Author: Stanley C Baldwin

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-07-16

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781546404514

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The title of this book, "Bringing Many Sons to Glory," is a direct quote from the Bible (Hebrews 2:10). The quote sums up what Jesus is all about-why he came, what he preached, why he died, and what he is up to now. Yet, churches and individual believers often hold tenaciously to two views at odds with that quote. First, they think God will bring few rather than many sons to glory. Second, they think most humans will end up in hell, a place of eternal shame and pain, not glory. What are we to do with these conflicting views? The gospel, which means "good news," fits with bringing many sons to glory, but the shame and pain message is an asterisk gospel: "Jesus saves . . . *but most people will still be lost." That is devastatingly bad news since it damns so many and damns them so horribly. It also makes God look mean rather than loving. Why do people cling to such bad news? One reason is that they think the Bible teaches it and therefore they must accept it by faith. "Bringing Many Sons to Glory" looks at Bible passages relevant to both sides of the question. Sometimes this involves observing a distinction between related but different words in Bible text, such as the Greek krisis, krima, and krino, all of which are translated judgment but usually relate respectively to a trial, a verdict, and a sentence. There is a great difference between being on trial, being convicted, and being sentenced for a crime, but in English each one may be called a judgment. "Bringing Many Sons to Glory" shows how this one biblical teaching (about judgment), resolves much of the conflict over man's final destiny. Other passages and teachings also shed light without turning the book into a difficult theological treatise or an intricate word study of the type produced by and intended for professionals. In just under 200 easy-to-read pages, the author brings the Bible and common sense together to defend God's goodness and offer realistic hope to all who seek it. An alphabetical index enables the reader to quickly access 136 related topics, from "age of accountability" and "annihilation" to "reconciliation" and "wrath of God." A second index lists 210 Bible references and indicates the page numbers where they are applied to the "many-sons-to-glory" concept. A unique feature of this book is its "Prospectus." On the page facing the Table of Contents, the prospectus lists eight questions related to human destiny and indicates pages where each is discussed. For example, Question 1 is "Will evil exist in some form eternally or will it disappear from the universe completely?" (See pages 44, 100-102, 106, 169-170, 174-176.) Baldwin, 20 years a pastor of evangelical churches and a prolific author, traces his own journey from a troubling asterisk gospel to what the Christmas angel called "good news of great joy that will be for all the people." In "Bringing Many Sons to Glory," Baldwin says that God, who is love, is also wise enough and powerful enough and good enough and big enough to ensure that glory becomes the final destination of many sons and daughters, including some we think least likely to be there.


Revelation

Revelation

Author:

Publisher: Canongate Books

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 0857861018

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The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.


Unto the Sons

Unto the Sons

Author: Gay Talese

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2014-11-12

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 0307765415

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"An Italian ROOTS." —The Washington Post Book World At long last, Gay Talese, one of America's greatest living authors, employs his prodigious storytelling gifts to tell the saga of his own family's emigration to America from Italy in the years preceding World War II. Ultimately it is the story of all immigrant families and the hope and sacrifice that took them from the familiarity of the old world into the mysteries and challenges of the new.