Combining trenchant criticism with careful analysis, Luke Johnson calls for a radically new direction in New Testament studies, one that can change the way we view the entire phenomenon of early Christianity.

In three fascinating probes of early Christianity--examining baptism, speaking in tongues, and meals in common--Johnson illustrates how a more wholistic approach opens up the wolrd of healings and religious power, of ecstasy and spirit--in short, the religious experience of real persons. Early Christian texts, he finds, reflect lives caught up in and defined by a power not in their control but engenedered instead by the crucified and raised Messiah Jesus.

Twelve-year-old Luvvy is delighted that she is at last old enough to accompany her older half sisters to boarding school. A sequel to The Half Sisters.

Five girls. Five dreams. Five destinies.

Determined to climb the social ladder in Missoula, Montana, Hilary knows appearances are crucial to getting ahead—but she’s in for a rude awakening. With a rough home life, Doll seeks every chance she can to escape and hang out with one of the local bad boys, but her need to be noticed may land her in serious trouble. Janet hasn’t inherited the smarts of her doctor father, but she’s content to let life lead her rather than grab the steering wheel. Kathy’s the smartest of the group, but her know-it-all attitude can be a real turnoff. Amelia has her mother’s drop-dead gorgeous looks and blue-blood Montana roots, but with a handicapped sister and an absent father, her world is waiting to shatter.

As the leader of the group, Hilary doesn’t make any decisions without carefully calculating the potential outcome. She’s chosen the others to be her friends in order to help her achieve her goals, but each of these young women is about to discover there’s little they can control when it comes to what fate has in store.

.html by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez
Back for a fourth printing, Volume 4 of the Love & Rockets Collection contains all the essential elements of Los Bros. Starting off with Gilbert's epic "Errata Stigmata" title story, and continuing through many, many short stories by both Gilbert and Jaime, including "Penny On the Road Ag'in," the entire "Rocky" saga, "The Reticent Heart," plus a bonus six-page story by Gilbert done for this volume, "The Many Faces of 'Big' Danny Chesterfield," Love & Rockets Volume 4 can't miss. With nearly all the collected volumes back in print, it's now easier than ever to see why Time magazine called this cartooning pair one of the Top 100 Innovators of the Century MATURE READERS. SC, 136pg, b&w

There is no end to the sources of frustration, challenge, disaster--and humor!--in a woman's life, and there is no one more skilled at finding the merriment and wisdom in these everyday foibles and events than award-winning author and popular speaker Karen Linamen. In her newest humor-packed release, Linamen (author of Just Hand Over the Chocolate and No One Will Get Hurt) guides readers on a side-splitting, hopeful, and entertaining tour of a woman's life, and in true, tongue-in-cheek Linamen style, no topic is off limits! Welcome to the Funny Farm covers everything from baby showers to cell phones, chin hair to Hamburger Helper, defrosted turkeys to Barry Manilow, and dumb blonde jokes to well-woman exams. Linamen's collection of hilarious observations, originally posted online at www.women-of-faith.com as The Funny Farm columns, will inspire and entertain (though not necessarily in that order) and ultimately shed light on principles of spiritual wellness and Christian living that will enrich the life of every reader.

This inspiring and intimate guide through the complex emotions of menopause helps to create new ritual and meaning for this significant passage in a woman's life.

The original, seminal Love & Rockets comic book series, which ran for 50 issues from 1981 to 1996, singlehandedly defined the post-underground generation of comics that spawned Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and so many others. Now collected into 15 volumes, Love & Rockets is a body of work that The Nation has described as "one of the hidden treasures of our impoverished culture." Created by brothers Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez, three Southern California Mexican-Americans armed with a passion for pop culture and punk rock, Love & Rockets gave a voice to minorities and women for the first time in the medium's then 50-year history and remains one of the greatest achievements in comic book history.

The original, seminal Love & Rockets comic book series, which ran for 50 issues from 1981 to 1996, singlehandedly defined the post-underground generation of comics that spawned Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and so many others. Now collected into 15 volumes, Love & Rockets is a body of work that The Nation has described as "one of the hidden treasures of our impoverished culture." Created by brothers Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez, three Southern California Mexican-Americans armed with a passion for pop culture and punk rock, Love & Rockets gave a voice to minorities and women for the first time in the medium's then 50-year history and remains one of the greatest achievements in comic book history.

Luba: The Book of Ofelia begins with Luba, Ofelia and company trying to acclimate to life in America, where Luba still has yet to learn English. When Ofelia decides to chronicle her life with Luba in a tell-all book, she discovers inspiration in Luba's young children the one-armed Casimira, Socorro with the photographic memory, the loner Joselito and the silent Conchita. The children lead Ofelia to a seemingly haunted field where the disembodied voice of a baby crying opens the floodgates of memory, even memories Ofelia has spent a lifetime trying to forget. Meanwhile, Hernandez continues to explore the complex, sometimes violent, sexual dramas that are his trademark: Luba's daughter Guadalupe is now married to Gato, who is the ex-husband of Pipo, who happens to be the producer of the TV show starring Luba's other daughter Doralis. Pipo is dating a man named Igor, who once dated Guadalupe. As if that isn't enough, Luba's beautiful, lisping therapist sister Fritz, preoccupied with two different boyfriends famous soccer champion Sergio and gorgeous model Enrique somehow finds time for a third man, Hector, only to change her mind and hook him up with her sister, the bodybuilder Petra. As these characters lives intersect and even more characters come in to the sexually charged fray, things get even more complicated, ultimately with deadly results.

A stirring tale of adventure and tragedy

"They brought balls of spun cotton and parrots and javelins and other little things that it would be tiresome to write down, and they gave everything for anything that was given to them. I was attentive and labored to find out if there was any gold."

With these portentous words, Christopher Columbus described one of his first encounters with Native Americans on the island of Guanahani, which he had named San Salvador and claimed for Spain the day before. In  Columbus in the Americas,  bestselling author William Least Heat-Moon reveals that Columbus's subsequent dealings with the cultures he encountered not only did considerable immediate harm, but also set the pattern of behavior for those who followed him.

Based on the logbook of Columbus and numerous other firsthand accounts of his four voyages to the New World, this vividly detailed history also examines the strengths and weaknesses of Columbus as a navigator, explorer, and leader. It recounts dramatic events such as the destruction of Fortress Navidad, the very first European settlement in the New World; a pitched battle in northern Panama with the native Guaymi people; and an agonizing year Columbus and his men spent marooned on a narrow spit of land in southern Jamaica.

Filled with stories of triumph and tragedy, courage and villainy,  Columbus in the Americas  offers a balanced yet unflinching portrait of the most famous and controversial explorer in history.