In Istanbul, Mustafa sells carpets. But he is also connected with a scientist who has a new strain of opium poppy seeds to sell. Lady Jennifer Norrington and her compatriots are pitted against ruthless drug-runners, with murder, state violence and a seemingly impenetrable ‘respectable’ front pitted against them. And then ... a horrible climax.

Is This the Best God Could Do? (nonfiction, approximately 115.000 words) was born of a crisis of faith of the most cruel kind, the loss of my mother who lingered on the brink death for five weeks, and that is where the book begins. I was living the American dream, a happy wife and mother, and by most measures, charmed, and then she died, suffering terribly in the process in spite of my ardent prayers. Like many in this position, I felt that God had let me down, but once my grief passed, I realized that the God of traditional Christianity keeps us in thrall by fear and guilt, by insisting we are small when we are really quite "big" beings. When the World Trade Center collapsed, I also realized that the end of the world might well be upon us because it is a self-fulfilling prophecy brought about by the zealot believers in the Abrahamic religions, fear carried to an illogical extreme. This epiphany made me angry. Is This the Best God Could Do? is also the result of that anger.However, although the topic is obviously deadly serious, I debunk the warped monotheism of the "Big Three" with humor and wit as well as reasonable, albeit edgy, argument. What follows the section in which I recount the loss of my mother (and the realization that the Abrahamic version of God has been messing with us for a couple thousand years) is part dialogue with that big guy (picture Groucho Marx as interlocutor: "Hi, God of Christianity, Sarah here. I can appreciate your dilemma, I really can. But the next time one of your angels gets out of hand, please try to take care of the problem instead of making it one of ours..."), part personal history, and part reasoned deconstruction.But the conclusion I reach about religion does not amount to an advocacy of atheism. Although the monotheistic God is discounted as a manmade thing, one used to control us, I also argue against the godless scientism of Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation), and Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great). In fact, I argue against this limited perception of human being as a random function of extraneous forces in favor of a more profound participation of humans in reality leading to a profound spiritual transformation on the part of individuals and eventually all of humanity.I also argue for a kind of pandemic version of the dramatic "wake up" effect (Eckart Tolle's concept from A New Earth) I experienced when my mother died. The human race, indeed the very planet, is going through extraordinary changes - all cause for great alarm among the monotheists as the beginning of the end. I insist in Is This the Best God Could Do? that, on the contrary, our situation is karmically inevitable and the dire straits in which we find ourselves an invitation to spiritual growth and thereby a renewal of civilization. I also call for those born to relative wealth, the American populace in general but also most of the Western world, to accept responsibility for charting the way forward because it is easier to evolve beyond the traditional notions of religion when one's belly is full and one is warm and dry.But Is This the Best God Could Do? is not just a polemic about the medieval grip of fundamentalism that holds humans back from the self awareness necessary to find a way forward through the difficulties of history to an enlightened way of life - the book also charts the path. I offer guidance to the reader for achieving the kind of awareness that allows them to hear "God's voice" and to participate in the world as an active agent instead of being just a passive believer, to understand the "magnitude of our spiritual reality." Although my book is utterly unique in its mixture of elements (the strident debunking of monotheism, the hopeful recognition of the "bigness" of humans as spiritual beings to stand in opposition to the "smallness" of fear and guilt, a hope-filled recipe for saving us from ourselves, and memoir...

In today's high-speed culture, there's a prevailing sense that we are busier than ever before and that the pace of life is too rushed. Most of us can relate to the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time for the people and things we value most. We feel fragmented, overwhelmed by busyness and the tyranny of gadgets. Veteran pastor and teacher Arthur Boers offers a critical look at the isolating effects of modern life that have eroded the centralizing, focusing activities that people used to do together. He suggests ways to make our lives healthier and more rewarding by presenting specific individual and communal practices that help us focus on what really matters. These practices--such as shared meals, gardening, hospitality, walking, prayer, and reading aloud--bring our lives into focus and build community. The book includes questions for discernment and application and a foreword by Eugene H. Peterson.

Maria Toorpakai hails from Pakistan's violently oppressive northwest tribal region, where the idea of women playing sports is considered haram-un-Islamic--forbidden--and girls rarely leave their homes. But she did, passing as a boy in order to play the sports she loved, thus becoming a lightning rod of freedom in her country's fierce battle over women's rights. "Maria Toorpakai is a true inspiration, a pioneer for millions of other women struggling to pave their own paths to autonomy, fulfillment, and genuine personhood." --Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed A Different Kind of Daughter tells of Maria's harrowing journey to play the sport she knew was her destiny, first living as a boy and roaming the violent back alleys of the frontier city of Peshawar, rising to become the number one female squash player in Pakistan. For Maria, squash was more than liberation-it was salvation. But it was also a death sentence, thrusting her into the national spotlight and the crosshairs of the Taliban, who wanted Maria and her family dead. Maria knew her only chance of survival was to flee the country. Enter Jonathon Power, the first North American to earn the title of top squash player in the world, and the only person to heed Maria's plea for help. Recognizing her determination and talent, Jonathon invited Maria to train and compete internationally in Canada. After years of living on the run from the Taliban, Maria packed up and left the only place she had ever known to move halfway across the globe and pursue her dream. Now Maria is well on the way to becoming a world champion as she continues to be a voice for oppressed women everywhere.

“A tender and emotionally-charged…story of life, survival and, ultimately, of love that transcends all.”—Karen White, New York Times bestselling author What could be worse than losing your child? Having to pretend he’s still alive… Bestselling author Will Shepard is caught in the twilight of grief, after his young son dies in a car accident. But when his father’s aging mind erases the memory, Will rewrites the truth. The story he spins brings unexpected relief…until he’s forced to return to rural North Carolina, trapping himself in a lie. Holistic veterinarian Hannah Linden is a healer who opens her heart to strays but can only watch, powerless, as her grown son struggles with inner demons. When she rents her guest cottage to Will and his dad, she finds solace in trying to mend their broken world, even while her own shatters. As their lives connect and collide, Will and Hannah become each other’s only hope—if they can find their way into a new story, one that begins with love. “White’s beautifully crafted novel demonstrates how two broken souls can find peace for themselves and their loved ones.”—Booklist