The letters of a person . . . form the only full and genuine journal of his life, noted Thomas Jefferson, who wrote nearly 20,000 letters in his own lifetime. Andrew Burstein invites readers to rediscover Jefferson through an exploration of his most enduring public and private writings. Among the public documents examined are two of Jefferson's best-known contributions to American history, the Declaration of Independence and his first inaugural address. On a more personal level, we read the written dialogue between Jefferson and his dying wife, Martha, as well as tender letters written to his daughters and grandson. Also included are thought-provoking letters written to friends and fellow thinkers, highlighted by extracts from the famous correspondence between the aging Jefferson and John Adams. Burstein's lively analysis confirms Jefferson as a writer of both style and substance. In his letters, we see a writer whose words at once convey the eighteenth-century world in which he lived and yet still speak to the modern world with powerful relevance and wisdom.

The award-winning New York Times bestseller about the extraordinary things that can happen when we harness the power of both the brain and the heart Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. But back then his life was at a dead end until at twelve he wandered into a magic shop looking for a plastic thumb. Instead he met Ruth, a woman who taught him a series of exercises to ease his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. Her final mandate was that he keep his heart open and teach these techniques to others. She gave him his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart. Doty would go on to put Ruth’s practices to work with extraordinary results—power and wealth that he could only imagine as a twelve-year-old, riding his orange Sting-Ray bike. But he neglects Ruth’s most important lesson, to keep his heart open, with disastrous results—until he has the opportunity to make a spectacular charitable contribution that will virtually ruin him. Part memoir, part science, part inspiration, and part practical instruction, Into the Magic Shop shows us how we can fundamentally change our lives by first changing our brains and our hearts.

“The world is broken. I am broken. And my need is dire.” This stark revelation is the path to divine surrender. Our courage has a chance to flourish when we reach a point where we have no control and nothing to lose. In a series of letters, Rebecca Reynolds uses imagery to breathe truth to the lonely, the weary, the restless, and afraid. If you feel the ache of brokenness, you will be refreshed by the source of all courage illuminated in these pages. God is available and wants to join you, in the midst of any mess. You can take heart. As Aslan of Narnia whispered (and only Lucy heard), Courage, dear heart.

The death of one's spirit should come with a great deal of noise: weeping and wailing, if not thunder or the roar of a fire. Elizabeth could not have imagined a spirit forced into darkness by something so mundane as the scratch of pen on paper. Elizabeth Bennet has been certain of many things in her life; her place in society, the love of her family, her ability to choose her own future, and her ability to accurately judge the character of those she meets. Three days after the Netherfield Ball, a near tragedy shakes that foundation and in the weeks that follow, Elizabeth learns that nothing is certain. Compelled by circumstance and her mother's will, Elizabeth is condemned to marry her father's heir, Mr William Collins. Isolated from everyone she knows and loves, Elizabeth is faced with a dark and difficult future. Unaware of the changes that have occurred in his absence, Fitzwilliam Darcy returns to Hertfordshire determined to right his wrongs and prove himself worthy of Elizabeth's love. When he learns he is too late to secure his happiness, Darcy determines he will express his love for Elizabeth the only way he can - by protecting her younger sisters as well as he would his own. Old bonds are strengthened, family ties are severed, and unlikely allies emerge as each of them struggles to make sense of the changes they face. Can happiness be found when it seems all hope is lost?

An ambitious, perceptive portrayal of a complex man, this bestselling biography breaks new ground in its exploration of Jefferson's inner life. "Brodie has humanized Jefferson without in the least diminishing him".--Wallace Stegner. Photos.

A National Book Award nominee in 1988, Jack McLaughlin's biography tells the life of Thomas Jefferson as seen through the prism of his love affair with Monticello. For over half a century, it was his consuming passion, his most serious amusement. With a sure command of sources and skilled intuitive understanding of Jefferson, McLaughlin crafts and uncommon portrait of builder and building alike. En route he tells us much about life in Virginia; about Monticello's craftsmen and how they worked their materials; about slavery, class, and family; and, above all, about the multiplicity of domestic concerns that preoccupied this complex man. It is an engaging and incisive look at the eighteenth-century mind: systematic, rational, and curious, but also playful, comfort-loving, and amusing. Ultimately, it provides readers with great insight into daily life in Colonial and Federal America.

Presents over 40 letters that reveal Thomas Jefferson during his role as America's new minister to France when he wrote these letters to his lover, an obscure Anglo-Italian artist, Maria Cosway, in the midst of pre-Revolutionary France. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR