KING DAVID was a complicated, conflicted man of flesh. But too often he is viewed as an Americanized shepherd boy on a Sunday school felt board or a New Testament saint alongside the Virgin Mary. Not only does this neglect one of the Bible’s most complex stories of sin and redemption; it also bypasses the gritty life lessons inherent in the amazing true story of David. Mark Rutland shreds the felt-board character, breaks down the sculpted marble statue, and unearths the real David of the Bible. Both noble and wretched, neither a saint nor a monster, at times victorious and other times a failure, David was through it all a man after God’s own heart.

How much do you really know about the life of KING DAVID? He was a man of unwavering loyalty, great faith, and national vision. He was a Spirit-led poet with prophetic and Messianic insights who reached beyond the millennia. He was a musician whose lullabies could soothe a demon-haunted soul. He was a political leader strong enough to forge a single nation out of disparate tribes. But he was also an adulterer, a murderer, a mercenary raider, and a hated father. He caused suffering among his people with an act of hubris. He ordered the execution of his enemies on his deathbed. He enjoyed many wives and concubines. Most of all, he broke the laws of both God and man.

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER* “A lively adventure of the mind...The tone of the prose...is one of unqualified enthusiasm: energy, vigor, intellectual curiosity, and what might be called an ecstasy of imaginative journalism.” —The New York Times Book Review At the age of forty-eight, writer and film critic David Denby returned to Columbia University and re-enrolled in two core courses in Western civilization to confront the literary and philosophical masterpieces -- the "great books" -- that are now at the heart of the culture wars. In Great Books, he leads us on a glorious tour, a rediscovery and celebration of such authors as Homer and Boccaccio, Locke and Nietzsche. Conrad and Woolf. The resulting personal odyssey is an engaging blend of self-discovery, cultural commentary, reporting, criticism, and autobiography -- an inspiration for anyone in love with the written word.

A compact connoisseur's guide, with recipes, to today's cutting-edge array of chocolates and chocolate makers from former Chez Panisse pastry chef David Lebovitz. In this compact volume, David Lebovitz gives a succinct cacao botany lesson, explains the process of chocolate making, runs through chocolate terminology and types, presents information on health benefits, offers an evaluating and buying primer, profiles the world's top chocolate makers and chocolatiers (with a whole chapter dedicated to Paris alone!), and shares dozens of little-known factoids in sidebars throughout the book. The Great Book of Chocolate includes more than 50 location and food photographs, and features more than 30 of Lebovitz's favorite chocolate recipes‚ from Black-Bottom Cupcakes to Homemade Rocky Road Candy, Orange and Rum Chocolate Mousse Cake to Double Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies. His extensive resource section (with websites for international ordering) can bring the world's best chocolate to every door. A self-avowed chocoholic, Lebovitz nibbles chocolate every day‚ and with The Great Book of Chocolate in hand, he figures the rest of us will too.

"A masterpiece of contemporary Bible translation and commentary."—Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books of 1999 Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.

From his unique vantage point as a senior journalist with TIME magazine, David Aikman witnessed some of the most important world events and interviewed many of the prominent global power figures of his time. Aikman profiles six of these figures who embody specific virtues sorley needed today:Billy Graham (salvation),Nelson Mandela (forgiveness) ,Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (truth), Mother Treasa (compassion), Pope John Paul ll (human dignity), and Elie Wiesel (remembrance).

"David Fraser, himself a noted general and author of a bestselling biography of Erwin Rommel, places Frederick's life as a soldier at the center of this immaculately researched book, allowing us to understand Frederick's strengths and weaknesses in the field more completely than in any previous biography. Fraser not only brings to these pages the authentic smell of battle, but also offers a sweeping account of strategy and maneuver, of psychology, morale and the impact of victory and defeat on the victors and vanquished. He also knows how to view military action in the context of eighteenth-century European diplomacy and the ever-shifting political forces that would re-shape the map of Europe and touch off the American Revolution."--BOOK JACKET.