Buddhaland Brooklyn


Book Description

The elderly Buddhist priest Seido Oda considers the life that brought him from an idyllic mountainside village in Japan to the bustling streets of Brooklyn, New York




Buddhaland Brooklyn


Book Description

From the author of The Hundred-Foot Journey comes a fish-out-of-water story of a Japanese monk who unexpectedly finds his community in bustling Brooklyn. Growing up in a quaint mountainside village in Japan, eleven-year-old Oda leaves his family to study with the monks at a nearby Buddhist temple. From that time, this quiet and peaceful refuge is the only home the monk has ever known until his fortieth birthday draws near and he is ordered by his superior to cross the ocean and open a temple in Brooklyn. Torn from the serene life of his homeland temple, New York proves a severe shock to Oda's system. More than that, he has to work with a motley crew of American Buddhists whose misguided practices lead to a host of hilarious cultural misunderstandings. It is only when the curmudgeonly Oda comes to appreciate this new and surprising flock, flaws and all, that he sees his own shortcomings and finally finds that sense of belonging he has always sought. Funny, rich and entertaining, this is a charming story about the meaning and rewards of true acceptance in the unlikeliest of places. '... a complex, beautiful book that lingers in the imagination long after the last line is read.' Robin Black, author of If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This




Brooklyn


Book Description

Winner of the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Colm Tóibín's internationally bestselling novel is a story of devastating emotional power. At the centre of Colm Tóibín's internationally celebrated novel is Eilis Lacey, one among many of her generation who has come of age in 1950s Ireland but cannot find work at home. When she receives a job offer in America, it is clear to everyone that she must go. Leaving her family and country behind, Eilis heads for unfamiliar Brooklyn, and to a crowded boarding house where the landlady's intense scrutiny and the small jealousies of her fellow residents only deepen her isolation. Slowly, however, the pain of parting and a longing for home are buried beneath the rhythms of her new life—until she begins to realize that she has found a sort of happiness. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, tragic news summons her back to Ireland, where she unexpectedly finds herself facing an impossible decision.




The Hundred-Foot Journey


Book Description

I have never experienced that most subtle of senses - smell - captured so well in print. The aroma of fine cooking just floats off the pages. Don't read this book if you're hungry. You might eat it.' - Simon Beaufoy, Oscar-Award-winning screenwriter, Slumdog Millionaire Abbas Haji is the proud owner of a modest family restaurant in Mumbai. But when tragedy strikes, Abbas propels his boisterous family into a picaresque journey across Europe, finally settling in the remote French village of Lumiere, where he establishes an Indian restaurant, Maison Mumbai. Much to the horror of their neighbour, a famous chef named Madame Mallory, the Indian establishment opposite her own begins to garner a following. Little does she know that the young Hassan, son of Abbas, has discovered French cuisine and has vowed to become a great French chef. Hassan is a natural whose talents far outweigh Mme. Mallory, but the tough old Frenchwoman will not brook defeat. Thus ensues an entertaining culinary war pitting Hassan's Mumbai-toughened father against the imperious Mme. Mallory, leading the young Hassan to greatness and his true destiny. This vivid, hilarious and charming novel - about how just a small distance of a hundred feet can represent the gulf between different cultures, different people, their tastes and their destinies - is simply bursting with eccentric characters, delicious flavours and high emotion. 'Outstanding! I wished it went on for another three hundred pages.' - Anthony Bourdain




The Man with No Borders


Book Description

It is a time of reckoning for José María Álvarez, an aristocratic Spanish banker living in a Swiss village with his American wife. Nearing the end of a long and tumultuous life, he's overcome by hallucinatory memories of the past. Among his most cherished memories are those of his boyhood in 1950s Franco-era Spain and the bucolic afternoons he spent salmon fishing on the Sella River with his father, uncle, and much-loved younger brother. But these fond reveries are soon eclipsed by something greater. José's regrets and dark family secrets are flooding back, as is the devastating tragedy that drove José into exile and makes him bear the burden of a soul-deep guilt.




Inner Revolution


Book Description

"Inner Revolution addresses both the history and the practical contemporary uses of Buddhism. With originality and enormous scholarship, Robert Thurman reveals the principles of the movement to celebrate individual happiness, which the Buddha initiated some 2,500 years ago, and shows how to continue it. He spreads the Buddha's message that everyone has the opportunity to become fully, completely happy and he finds hope and fascinating lessons in Tibetan Buddhism, as well as a viable way to change the world."




Attachments


Book Description

2022 16th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards Winner in Regional Fiction: Northeast 2022 16th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in New Fiction 2022 International Book Awards Finalist in Best New Fiction and Fiction: General A 2021 Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Book of the Year “[A] really clever plot….and Arch works it like a maestro. Fine writing, memorable characters, depth of feeling, and gripping drama—a real keeper.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED At a boarding school in Pennsylvania, a deathbed request from the school’s dean brings three former students back to campus, where secrets and betrayals from the past are brought out into the open—secrets that could have a catastrophic effect on the dean’s eighteen-year-old son. Told in alternating points of view and time frames, Attachments is the story of best friends Stewart (“Goody”) Goodman, Sandy (“Pick”) Piccolo, and Laura Appleby, the girl they both love. The friends meet in 1972 at a boarding school in coal-country Pennsylvania where they encounter Henry Griffin, the school dean, whose genuine fatherly interest and deep human bond with them is so strong that when he has a severe stroke almost twenty years later, he uses what could be his last words ever to call out their names. Attachments is a puzzle—and the only one who knows how all the pieces fit is in a coma. In the process, longtime secrets are unearthed, revelations come out into the open, and Young Chip Griffin is about to learn something he may or may not be able to handle.




The Wisdom of Forgiveness


Book Description

The extraordinary documentation of the evolving friendship between the Dalai Lama and the man who followed him across Ireland and Eastern Europe, on a pilgrimage to India's holy sites, and through the Dalai Lama's near fatal illness. On this remarkable journey Victor Chan was awarded an insight into His Holiness-his life, his fears, his faith, his compassion, his day-to-day practice-that no one has reported before. We've heard the public voice of His Holiness--now we are invited to listen in on his personal explorations, and to take instruction on the Tibetan art of living.




On Zen Practice


Book Description

This updated landmark volume makes available for the first time in decades the teachings that were formative to a whole generation of American Zen teachers and students. Conceived as an overarching primer on the practice of Zen, chapters in this volume address every aspect of practice: beginning practice, shikantaza, chanting, sesshin, working with Mu, and the nature of koans. In the intervening years since the publication of the earlier edition, countless books have appeared on Zen. Few, if any, have approached the strengths of On Zen Practice as a reference or teaching tool, and the book retains a lively, immediate quality that will appeal to today's readers.




If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This


Book Description

FINALIST FOR THE FRANK O’CONNOR SHORT STORY AWARD NOW WITH AN ADDITIONAL STORY. Heralding the arrival of a stunning new voice in American fiction, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This takes readers into the minds and hearts of people navigating the unsettling transitions that life presents to us all: A father struggles to forge an independent identity as his blind daughter prepares for college. A mother comes to terms with her adult daughter’s infidelity. An artist mourns the end of a romance while painting the portrait of a dying man. Brilliant, hopeful, and fearlessly honest, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This illuminates the truths of human relationships, truths we come to recognize in these characters and in ourselves. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Robin Black's Life Drawing. Look for the If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This discussion guide inside. Praise for If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This “I want to shout about how just when you thought no one could write a story with any tinge of freshness let alone originality about childhood. . . about marriage . . . about old age, Black has done it. . . . Black delivers real emotion, the kind that gives you pause. . . . Will Robin Black win [the Pen/Hemingway Prize] for this book? If I were a judge, she would.”—Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune “Pitch-perfect . . . so deft, so understated, and so compelling that you have to slow down to savor each vignette. . . . Fans of Mary Gaitskill, Amy Bloom, and Miranda July will feel like they’ve found gold in a river when they discover Robin Black. . . . [A] writer to watch.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Each story reads like a mini-novel . . . worlds are contained in a single page. And the writing . . . oh, the writing . . . There’s no narrative cohesion, no point. Rather, If I Loved You is a ‘Fantastic Voyage’ into the bloodstream of the human species. . . . Maybe it’s midlife maturity, maybe it’s raw talent, but If I Loved You leaves you longing for more."—San Francisco Chronicle “Incisive . . . peopled with characters so fully imagined you’ll feel they’re in the room.”—People "Exquisitely distilled tales of loss and reckoning . . . [Black] evokes a Sparkian blend of skepticism and grace."—Vogue