Red Earth and Pouring Rain

Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Author: Vikram Chandra
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 664
Release: 2011-04-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0571267157

The gods of poetry and death descend on a house in India to vie for the soul of a wounded monkey. A bargain is struck: the monkey must tell a story, and if he can keep his audience entertained, he shall live. The result is Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Vikram Chandra's astonishing, vibrant novel. Interweaving tales of nineteenth-century India with modern America, it stands in the tradition of The Thousand and One Nights, a work of vivid imagination and a celebration of the power of storytelling itself. 'A dazzling first novel written with such originality and intensity as to be not merely drawing on myth but making it.' Sunday Times

Mahabharata

Mahabharata
Author:
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2000
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780520227040

William Buck's stirring retelling of a classic Indian epic--in its original Sanskrit, probably the largest epic ever composed.

American Migrant Fictions

American Migrant Fictions
Author: Sonia Weiner
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2018-07-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004364013

In American Migrant Fictions: Space, Narrative, Identity, Sonia Weiner focuses on novels of five American migrant writers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, who construct spatial paradigms within their narratives to explore questions of linguistic diversity, identities and be-longings. By weaving visual techniques within their narratives (photography, comics, cartography) authors Aleksandar Hemon, G.B. Tran, Junot Díaz, Boris Fishman and Vikram Chandra convey a surplus of perspectives and gesture towards alternative spaces, spatial in-between-ness and transnational space.

Reckoning

Reckoning
Author: S.J. Harper
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2014-10-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101599324

Join Agents Emma Monroe and Zack Armstrong. She’s sacrificed. He’s suffered. They’ve both been betrayed. Now it’s time for a reckoning. Special Agent Emma Monroe has a secret. She’s a Fallen Siren, cursed by the gods and banished to Earth for her failure to prevent the kidnapping of Persephone. As an FBI agent she saves the lives of others believing redemption could be one rescue away. Her partner Zack is a werewolf and former Black Ops sniper who once carried out a string of questionable assignments. Now he’s determined to atone for his past. Ironically, there’s a portion of his past Zack doesn’t remember—an affair with Emma. Giving into their attraction for one another almost led to their undoing. Now it’s back to business as usual. While trying to unravel the mystery behind a series of kidnappings in Southern California, Emma and Zack become entangled with political tensions in the vampire and Were worlds. Not to mention the struggles they face in their relationship with one another. With so much uncertainty, they come to realize the only thing they can really count on is one another…or can they?

Lives of the Companions

Lives of the Companions
Author: Maulana Yusuf Kandhelawi
Publisher: Islam Today Publishing
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2023-12-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

What did the Prophet look like and why did only a small handful of Sahaba describe his physical characteristics? Why did the Prophet enjoin us to express fealty to Muslim leaders even when they were corrupt? What happen to an umma that is deprived of leadership? What is bay’a, is it necessary and what does it mean for Muslims today? How do we call people to Allah and is da'wah work for everyone? Maulana Yusuf Kandhelawi answers all these questions and much more through the beautiful and enlightening stories of the Sahaba. Since Hayat al-Sahaba first came out, it has inspired millions to understand Islam beyond concept, theory and interpretations of religious text. It immerses us into the reality of how Islam can be lived and applied in any time, past, present and future and that we all can be shaded by the mercy of Allah despite our differences like the Sahaba who despite their different personalities and temperaments all achieved the pleasure of Allah. A thousand talks on taqwa and love for Allah and His Prophet could not help us understand what one anecdote of the taqwa of the Sahaba and their love for Allah and His Prophet can teach us about the values and meanings we hold dear to our hearts as believers in Allah and His final Prophet.

The Cloud Hunters

The Cloud Hunters
Author: Alex Shearer
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2012-11-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1471400204

A beautifully imagined adventure set in a world where islands float in the sky Hunting the skies is not for the faint-hearted. In a world where water is scarce and deadly jellyfish swim through the sky, mollycoddled teenager Christien dreams of excitement and danger. When he meets the exotic and alluring Jenine and her family of Cloud Hunters, he becomes determined to fulfil that dream... In a richly imaginative tale, perfect for both boys and girls as they launch themselves into the world of fiction as independent readers, Alex Shearer creates a Dahl-esque fantasy that roams through realms of magic, wonder and adventure.

Freedom All The Way Up

Freedom All The Way Up
Author: Christian J. Barrigar
Publisher: FriesenPress
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2017-05-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1460293843

Freedom All The Way Up proposes four intertwined elements that make up the meaning of life—self-worth, purpose, identity, and hope. Materialism (atheism) claim the universe has no meaning, so there is no larger purposeful story into which we can place ourselves—we are left on our own to construct meaning for our lives. Barrigar argues, though, that the universe possess God’s meaning and purpose—to provide the space and conditions by which to bring about the existence of agape-capable beings in agape-loving relationships with God and with others. In effect, the universe is a great ‘freedom system’ designed by God with freedom built in ‘all the way up’, from the Big Bang to the emergence of big brains and free will. Barrigar describes the emergence of this system through his novel agape/probability account of God’s design for the universe, which integrates such disciplines as quantum physics, statistical mechanics, probability theory, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and game theory. This system sets up the conditions for a fundamental choice between autonomous freedom, which focuses principally on self, and agapic freedom, which focuses principally on God and on others. Materialism chooses autonomous freedom, but thereby introduces nihilism into each of the elements of meaning. In turns out that nihilism is a much greater problem for Materialism than suffering is for Theism. In contrast, agapic freedom infuses self-worth, purpose, identity, and hope with God’s agape-love, dispelling Materialism’s inherent nihilism. Freedom All The Way Up provides a dramatic new proposal for God and the meaning of life in our scientific and humanist age.

The Viper Within

The Viper Within
Author: Sam Mills
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2008-06-10
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0375849491

DISILLUSIONED WITH HIS childhood faith, Jon longs to restore that sense of belonging to something greater than himself. Enter Jeremiah, magnetic and mysterious founder of the Brotherhood of the Hebetheus. In Jon, Jeremiah finds a willing disciple for his “new” religion, and an eager participant in the Brotherhood’s daring plan: they will kidnap a classmate who Jeremiah believes is part of a terrorist cell. By foiling her plot to blow up their school, the boys of the Hebetheus will command the world’s attention, show a righteous religion as the only real tool to thwart terrorism, and become avenging heroes. But fate and faith have a twist in store for Jon as the captive girl they call Snake causes him to confront the reflection of what he's become in her eyes. Will the appeal of a blind faith be enough to sustain Jon’s allegiance? Or will he be unable to deny the viper glimpsed within himself?