Portia Sebring was born into a family that’s considered royalty in the intelligence community, and the fact that she’s a woman doesn’t preclude her from joining the “family business.” A linguistic genius, she’s recruited by her older brother to decipher Russian codes for the Venona Project. While at Arlington Hall, she meets Nigel Mann, a CIA officer known as Mr. Freeze, who’s been vetted to the NSA. Unbeknownst to Portia, her father is behind the meeting. Rumor has it that Portia, called the ice princess, is also a lesbian, and at this time in America -- the late ’50s -- it could negate any veracity to the codes she deciphers. A match with an equally cold man who won’t distract her from her work seems the ideal solution in her father’s eyes. Things don’t go quite according to plan, as both Portia and Nigel develop strong feelings for each other. They marry and eventually start a family. However, the lifetime together they anticipate is cut short when Nigel’s jet crashes on New Year’s Day, 1978. Devastated, but with a thirteen-year-old son depending on her, Portia has no choice but to go on after Nigel’s death. When Quinton, her son, is approached to join the US Equestrian Team for the 1980 Summer Olympics, she’s pleased and proud, but those plans are dashed due to the government’s boycott of the Games. To distract him, Portia takes him to France on a wine-buying trip, and it’s there that Quinton first feels an attraction for someone of his own sex. Portia, a wise mother, is aware, but since she herself had a same-sex affair in her early twenties, she’s very accepting of this. Along with Gregor, her trusted bodyguard and devoted family friend, she watches as Quinton follows in his father's and her footsteps in the "family business," and finally finds a partner worthy of him, WBIS agent Mark Vincent. She’s happy for them, but sure that she won’t love again, since Sebrings have their “one” and she's lost hers, but is she right?

When Sarah Lawsons father is rescued from the claws of death by David Saye, a notorious rebel commander, she believes it is simply a miraculous coincidence. It isnt long, however, before Sarah realises that behind this extraordinary intervention is Davids wish to lure her into his arms. He is handsome, educated, and generousall qualities that ignite the fires of her heart. But they are from very different worlds. Sarah is the daughter of a respectable middle-class family, while David has been accused of gruesome atrocities. As the heat of the Liberian civil war casts waves over them all, Sarah faces a three-front battle of her own. Despite her feelings, she must contain Davids advances, preserve her familys integrity, and prevent her heart from betraying her. When the Heart Decides is a story of the triumph of love over adversity and of the strength of the heart that seeks love even in the midst of one of the worlds bloodiest civil wars. A classic African epic that recounts the realities of war with a dash of romance and Christianity. Belynda A. Akello, President of the African Students Association and Vice President of the Postgraduate and Research Students Association of the Australian National University.

A down on her luck pregnant teen finds herself living in a shopping center in this Oprah's Book Club selection that inspired the film starring Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman. Talk about unlucky sevens. An hour ago, seventeen-year-old, seven months pregnant Novalee Nation was heading for California with her boyfriend. Now she finds herself stranded at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, with just $7.77 in change. But Novalee is about to discover hidden treasures in this small Southwest town–a group of down-to-earth, deeply caring people willing to help a homeless, jobless girl. From Bible-thumping blue-haired Sister Thelma Husband to eccentric librarian Forney Hull, they are about to take her–and you, too–on a moving, funny, and unforgettable journey.

Self-serving lacky, self-deceiving puppet, Swiss Protestant partisan, or sensible Erasmian humanist: which, if any, was Thomas Cranmer? For centuries historians have offered often bitterly contradictory answers. Although Cranmer was a key participant in the changes to English life brought about by the Reformation, his reticent nature and lack of extensive personal writings have left a vacuum that in the past has too often been filled by scholarly prejudice or presumption. For the first time, however, this book examines in-depth little used manuscript sources to reconstruct Cranmer's theological development on the crucial Protestant doctrine of justification. The author explores Cranmer's cultural heritage, why he would have been attracted to Luther's thought, and then provides convincing evidence for the Reformed Protestant Augustinianism which Cranmer enshrined in the formularies of the Church of England. For Cranmer the glory of God was his love for the unworthy; the heart of theology was proclaiming this truth through word and sacrament. Hence, the focus of both was on the life of on-going repentance, remembering God's gracious love inspired grateful human love.

God tells us to love our enemies. But what about loving and honoring a husband who chooses to walk away from his family, setting up residence in a prison of addiction? Seldom is there a faith with the tenacity that the author displayed during her twenty-two years of praying, enduring tremendous trials and sorrow. “I will honor my vow, no matter what,” were words spoken by this young bride, believing in the promise of new life and vows spoken. The “no matter what” took this family on such a seemingly discouraging journey that even Christian family and friends believed restoration was impossible. Joy learned to place her complete hope in Christ alone, believing that God’s mercy and grace is sufficient to reach even the darkest and most hardened heart – including her own. A beautiful, transparent portrait of redemption as marriage is viewed as a living, breathing example of Christ and His bride. Readers will be encouraged and equipped to persevere through deep marital waters.

This historic collection of all of Sri Chinmoy’s university lectures in eBook form has been released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy’s arrival in the West on 13 April 1964. Sri Chinmoy’s very first university lecture was given at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, on 10 January 1968. It was entitled “Spirituality: What It Is and What It Is Not.” This inaugurated a whole era of talks which saw Sri Chinmoy travelling ceaselessly across the length and breadth of America and around the world to address the youth of each country. He would spend countless hours travelling by car or train to reach far- flung universities, sometimes visiting two or even three in the course of a single day. After many of these sublimely inspiring discourses, he would answer questions from the audience or spend time instructing sincere seekers in the age-old practices of concentration, meditation and contemplation. By the mid-seventies, Sri Chinmoy had spoken volumes and he began to include longer and longer periods of silent meditation in his lectures. Then, in 1984, in a significant departure from the spoken word, he introduced the theme of Peace Concerts. At these concerts, Sri Chinmoy would play his own soulful and devotional compositions on a variety of instruments of both Eastern and Western origin, meditating between each instrument and sometimes giving aphorisms on peace and related themes. In 2003 yet another form of Sri Chinmoy’s self-offering unfolded when he travelled to a number of universities to honour distinguished professors for their significant contributions to the betterment of humanity by physically lifting them overhead. This remarkable endeavour was part of his “Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart” award programme. Thus, through words, silence, music and a combination of physical and spiritual upliftment, Sri Chinmoy has shared his profound spiritual message with the aspiring Truth- seekers and God-lovers of the university-world for four decades. Sri Chinmoy’s words are mantras for the modern age, reverberating in our hearts with their timeless and truly life-transforming wisdom. In his exquisite prose, which is suffused with the very breath and cadence of poetry, Sri Chinmoy has revealed all the many stages of the seeker’s journey towards the Golden Shores of the ever-transcending Beyond. For generations to come these three volumes will awaken the inner mounting cry of seekers everywhere to achieve the highest Goal of Yoga—union with God—in this life.